{"id":4291,"date":"2011-03-05T23:44:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T07:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/?p=4291"},"modified":"2011-03-05T23:44:29","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T07:44:29","slug":"arcadia-variations-on-a-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/2011\/03\/05\/arcadia-variations-on-a-theme\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcadia, variations on a theme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight I had the great good pleasure of experiencing The Art and Ecstasy of the Chaconne: From the streets of Spain to the mind of Bach<\/a>, a concert by Sinfonia New York<\/a> (brought to Victoria by the Early Music Society of the Islands<\/a>). It was fantastic, I was literally at the edge of my seat for much of it. “Transcendent” is a word that came to mind – in the sense that Charlie Mingus or John Coltrane would have felt in sync playing with, say, Christine Gummere (cello) or Claire Jolivet (violin). Or vice versa.<\/p>\n

The first piece was for solo violin, played by Judson Griffin: Passacaglia in g minor<\/em> by Heinrich Biber<\/a> (1644-1704). The music – and Griffin’s interpretation – reminded me, at a stroke, of Nicolas Poussin<\/a>‘s great painting, Et in Arcadia ego<\/a> (the version now in the Louvre Museum). In Poussin’s painting, we see three men and a single woman in a beautiful, Italianate landscape. The men are traditionally interpreted as shepherds; the woman’s role is more difficult to determine. In the foreground of this serene, classical landscape is a large block of stone: a tomb. Poussin shows us the four figures after they have come upon this tomb, which bears the inscription Et in Arcadia ego<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A lot of ink has been spilled interpreting the painting. Essentially, the scene is read as a meditation on death. “Arcadia” is “Eden,” but even in Paradise (Arcadia), there is Death. You can get all metaphysical and possibly Derridian or Lacanian (that is, ur-Freudian) here and go spare over the sole female figure (woman as life …and Death<\/em>), but basically you’re left with the Latin, Et in Arcadia ego<\/em>, on a tomb<\/strong> (which is where dead people lie). Death is even there<\/em>, in the middle of bliss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So why did I think of Poussin’s Et in Arcadia ego<\/em> tonight? There was something so beautiful about the music (as written, and also as played and interpreted by the musicians) that all I could think was that I, too, want to live among people who could say Et in Arcadia ego<\/em>. That is, it’s not at all about death, it’s about “getting” what it’s like to know<\/em> Arcadia – a place no one actually lives in anymore (we’re all postlapsarian), but which can be known through various means (including art, particular kinds of work, certain deeds, etc.). It’s a place and a state that does not need to be entombed or announced via an inscription, but one that can embodied and experienced (as per the shepherds and their enigmatic muse). It’s a place that’s defined by its absence – the fact that it’s no longer directly accessible – but which is represented by something else (art, for example), and thereby known and experienced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How a sublime concert by the Sinfonia New York put me in mind of Nicolas Poussin’s great painting, Et in Arcadia ego. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1823],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-4291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-canada","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4291"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4297,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}