Knowing the Score The lecturer began by playing Excerpts from the string quartet I loved But always at the very point My lungs began to grin He cut them off To map out harmonies And chord by chord Connect the signatures of key Philosophers to justify The music’s magnitude or height or Depth – I now forget Because it seemed like ancient Greek to me With foreign battlefields Laid waste by bullet points and arrows In an annotated new Peloponnesian War That night the actual performance of the work Restored me to my peace I must confess: As far as music is concerned I much prefer to listen than To know the score ________________________________________________________________________ Emanuel E. García, Wandering Bark, 2013 |