The Greeks said everything, and then the Romans
repeated the same for better retention. All that is left for the
following generations is to explore the sophisticated constructions of
mythological castles, fashion new keys or utilize picklocks. The
music also becomes a key. After all, myth has primarily bitter taste
for there are very few merry plots with happy endings. Only the harmony
of music and poetry makes the myth acceptable for perception. But
in order to achieve this, one needs to look at the face of the Gorgon Medusa
of communism or fascism, for example, and then escape with one’s life like
composer Dmitry Shostakovich. An excellent example! The music
which itself was born by mythical past saved T. S. Eliot, Anna Akhmatova,
Søren Kierkegaard, and all those for whom creative work was inseparable
from music.
Someone can claim that modern, full-fledged
reality leaves no place for myths, tales and legends. Indeed, it
becomes more and more difficult every year to clean the Augean stables
of stupidity and arrogance. While some poets succeeded in this (Joseph
Brodsky, for example), others perished in the incessantly growing dunghills
of public opinion. After all, Vladimir Mayakovsky at first tried
to imitate Heracles only to finish with an ordinary melodrama (“The love
boat has crashed against everyday routine…”). But myth is occasionally
rewarding. Then poetry and music obtain the apples from the inaccessible
garden of the Hesperides. Then the poets not only participate in
myths but often create their own or become myths themselves. And
this happens not only in the mythical past but also today; not only listening
to the thrumming strings of Apollo’s lyre but also to the Louis Armstrong’s
cornet.
In the end, anything, both great and small,
can become a myth which will require the right key for its understanding.
Let us hope that the current issue of our journal will provide its readers
with the whole bunch of keys.
A. D.
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© 2003-2005 Ars Interpres Publications.
