Breast, not Beast

Not sure why I stopped listening to music in my kitchen, but it has been ages since I did.  During Covid, music became unbearable.  Perhaps the stream of Covid adverts, rendering it inescapable, even for half-an-hour.  I suppose I was listening to audiobooks instead.  Most probably needed absolute silence. 

Anyway, to “bend the knotted oak”, bought a new CD, ‘Anna Bhán’.  First one since ‘Dance Fever’.  Was that two years ago already?  

One moment, cozy in the kitchen, stirring apple compote, scent of sweet spices conjuring memories of my grandmother, mixing her clootie dumpling.  The next, transported by art. 

Reading the musicians’ inspiration beguiles, like a shapeshifting spell.  An ode to their great-great-grandmother’s resistance in ‘The Clearances’.  Including a track of traditional music, which Anna Bhán herself, may once have heard.  Sweet sounds from the 1850s, connecting them over time. 

This too is in the world.

This soothing binding-spell of family, love, hutzpah, history and art.

A 200-year-old piece of sheet music, thought to be by Chopin, was discovered in a New York library. Initial thought was the loss of some magic in the world; probably AI.  In 200 years in a museum archive, no-one has found this sheet of music before?  How hard they were working to convince that it sounds “98%” like a Chopin waltz.  98%, so it’s not too perfect?  Chopin on an off-day perhaps?  A day he couldn’t bear music either?

AI can take Shackleton’s voice, his written diaries and re-create him reading, in an AI voice, so like his own, that nobody alive today would know what was original soundtrack, and what was AI.

What’s next, NikolAI Gogol? 

Who can believe any ‘newly discovered’ work is authentic now?

In emulating human creativity, AI comes nowhere close. 

Fervently hope it continues to matter that it doesn’t.

Credit: “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak.”  William Congreve. ‘The Mourning Bride’. 1697.

Credit: ‘Dance Fever’ CD.  Florence and the Machine.  2022.

Credit: Rachel Newton & Mairearad Green. 'Anna Bahn' CD. 2024. https://annabhan.bandcamp.com/album/anna-bh-n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clootie_dumpling

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mlr8yl40do