Kate-echism XXIV.9.xx

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Kate-echism XXIV.9.xx

 >she's talking about Steve Biko but the word Biko in the song is masked
 >by the music.
 >    Well that should give IED something to mull over...
 >
 >-- Graham Bardsley

    It does! But IED doesn't think there's any reference to Biko in the song,
Graham. IED thinks she's just saying "We go". Also, the first lines
are (as IED hears them): "Can't move my arms/Can't move my legs". She's
pronouncing them very unclearly, though, and IED admits he may be quite wrong.


 >PS3.  Since IED attempted a deconstruction of |>oug based partly on the
 >latter's inability to spell "John Stuart Mill", I'm going to point out that
 >IED misspelled "VaughAn Williams"

Your correction well taken, of course. On the other hand, IED has never claimed
--nor would he ever--any expertise in V-W's music. He only wanted to share his
observation that there seemed to be a strong likeness of the solo violin part
in _TLA_ to that in _X4_. Also, IED didn't "base" any part of his criticism of
of !>oug's boastful and flawed remarks about ethics and Mill on his
misspelling. He merely brought attention to the revealing nature of the
error--as you have rightly done in IED's case.
     As for Dawn Upshaw's new recording, ditto from IED, whose only
complaint is that she should have dumped the rest of the program on that
CD, kept only _Knoxville_, and instead added some of Barber's songs,
(which IED recommends in the only extant recording, a CD with Roberta
Alexander), or perhaps his _Andromache's_Farewell_, which has still never
been recorded (!), or excerpts from _Vanessa_ (which is still not on
CD!). IED agrees with you that Upshaw is a first class singer--the new
_Knoxville_ is far better than the original Leontyne Price version.
     Speaking of Barber's vocal music, three more of his most beautiful
pieces, all for voice(s) and orchestra, have likewise still never been
released on CD by anyone ever. In fact they're all very hard to find
in any form now, since all recordings are well out of print. Neverthe-
less well worth seeking out, they are: _Dover_Beach_, especially in
Barber's own recording (he was an absolutely top-notch baritone
himself); _A_Hand_of_Bridge_, which is a very brief one-act opera,
extremely moving, at least to IED; and _A_Stopwatch_and_an_Ordinance_
Map_. Jeez, wouldn't it be great if the president of Hyperion or
Bis or some small but excellent label like that were a regular reader
of Love-Hounds?
     Still more Barber _never_recorded_at_all_: an unpublished violin
sonata (originally Op. 4); 2 Intermezzi for piano (the other Op. 4);
the 2 Songs, for a cappella voices, Op. 8; the other 2 Songs, for a
cappella voices, Op. 42; _The_Lovers_, for baritone, chorus and orch.,
Op. 43; the Mutations from Bach, for brass and tympani (no op. no.);
and the last thing Barber ever finished, the Canzonetta for oboe and
orchestra, Op. 48. And still not on CD: all the piano pieces except for
the Sonata (which is finally out as a CD re-issue of the second John
Browning recording); the String Quartet, Op. 11 (this is the original
three-movement chamber piece from which the great but over-exposed
Adagio for Strings was drawn); the Reincarnations, for chorus, Op. 16;
the Melodies passageres (5 songs from Rilke texts), Op. 27; the
Prayers of Kierkegaard, for chorus, Op. 30 (though this is at last
due for release); the beautiful piece for solo organ, called "Wond'rous
Love": Variations on a Shapenote Theme, Op. 34; the Toccata Festiva,
for organ and orchestra, Op. 36 (known only through an old
E. Power Biggs recording); the Christmas chorale "Die Natali", Op. 37;
and the Commando March (written for the U.S. Army during WWII, along
with the 2nd Symphony, which is now thankfully available on a great
new Stradivari CD). And then there are at least four or five other
unpublished but reputedly marvellous pieces, none of which, of course,
has any programmer yet had the brains to dig up and record.
     Meanwhile Neville Marriner has released his _8th_ recording of
Handel's Water Music, for chrissake. Civilization is going to hell
in a big way, and it's got IED pretty depressed. _The_Sensual_World_
has come not a second too soon.

  >Doug Alan writes:
  >>Mr. Marvick is again being completely ridiculous.  The image of
  >>running through water to avoid hounds is so completely ingrained into
  >>American and British culture that Kate would have to be brain-dead or
  >>a complete hermit to refer to walking through water in a song about
  >>being chased by hounds, and not be refering to trying to shake their
  >>trail.  Since we know that Kate is neither brain-dead, nor a complete
  >>hermit, she *must* be (in part) refering to avoiding the hounds.
  >>However, contrary to Mr. Marvick's myopic interpretation, shaking off
  >>the hounds does not necessarily mean that Kate has forsaken love.  It
  >>may very well refer to her shaking off the fear of love (the hounds),
  >>without shaking off love itself.
  >
  >   I've always thought that _Hounds of Love_ was a song about the
  >conflicting emotions of a young woman who has never experienced
  >love: she fears the experience and yet still wants to try it.
  >In that context, "two steps on the water" could mean both an
  >attempt to evade the experience, and a positive advance towards it.
  >The conflict of meaning would be very Katian.
  >     In other words, I think you're both right. :-)
  >
  >-- Jim

     IED would love to agree with you, Jim, since in general you're quite
right that such double meanings are very Katian. In this particular case,
however, we have _Kate's_own_words_ to the contrary--and they were elicited
by !>oug himself! This whole ridiculous controversy is simply another
instance of !>oug's and IED's fundamental difference of opinion on the larger
question of whether Kate's own explanations carry more or less weight than
her fans' interpretations. IED is consistent here in choosing to take Kate's
word for it that the steps-in-water image in _Hounds_of_Love_ is a symbol
for the heroine's decision to _face_ the hounds, _not_ to _escape_ them. Doug
as usual prefers to believe his own _discredited_ interpretation, gathering
about him the puny support that "everyone knows" that's what it means!
     Admittedly, James, it is possible that she meant the image to mean one
thing and its exact opposite simultaneously. But that line comes at the
climax, more or less, of the song, and as such it seems more likely to
IED that the meaning Kate intended was what she said it was and no more,
since that would be the only way for the song to be consistent with the
straightforward resolution as depicted in Kate's own self-directed video.

     Tracy Roberts reminds us all that it is time to plan our
 >ALBUM RELEASE KATE BASH.  it sounds like targeted cities so far are
 >boston and seattle, with a california site still to be determined.
 >i ofcourse, offer my humble abode for kate hysteria, but ied
 >mentioned something about hosting it in l.a. (any thoughts, andrew?).
 >carpools anyone?

     IED will happily host a party for all interested Kate fans. He
thought November would be a good time. However, IED wonders whether
enough people will want to trek all the way to his house in Los
Angeles, where there are surprisingly few inter-connected fans. If
he receives an indication of sufficient interest in Love-Hounds, however,
he will suggest a date and time, give directions, etc.
    Also, a very interesting point you drew attention to, Tracy,
regarding the child/eyes image. IED notes several other related uses
of "eye" in Kate's songs: there's _Frightened_Eyes_, which is about the
unspoiled heart in each of us; John Carder Bush's "Time in her eyes is
spawning past light," from _T9thW_, which uses the eyes as a vehicle for
a youth/age metaphor; the remark by the little boy in _In_Search_of_PP_,
that "My eyes are full/But my face is empty"; the tragic child-heroine's
remark in the original _TKI_, about her "Welling eyes from identifying
with Lizzie Wan's story"; the image of the "plank in me eye" from _Sus-
pended_in_Gaffa_, which also contains much traveling back in time to
the heroine's youth; and, perhaps closest of all, there's the line
from _Kite_, which IED has always thought of as an evocation of
childlike imagination (much like _The_Big_Sky_): "There's a hole in
the sky with a big eyeball/Calling me..."
    And thanks for calling IED a saint, too! But IED prefers to
think of himself as an aKolyTe.

-- Andrew Marvick