Here is a bit of a memory from my Biology class, my junior year. Mr Simmons, was my biology teacher. Following the prerequisite dissecting of fish and frogs, Mr Simmons gave us the assignment of a term paper. I was trying to figure out something that would be a little more creative than the normal term paper. The topic I ended up doing, with Mr Simmon’s approval, was “The Effect of the Bubonic Plague on World Literature”.
The Bubonic Plague, aka “The Black Plague”, which cut a horrific swathe through Middle Ages Europe influenced a lot of art, music, and literature. The Bubonic Plague was not new to Europe. It had inflicted great death upon European populations prior to the Middle Ages, however, not at quite the toll of death as it had in the Middle Ages (it is estimated to have killed 2 million to 4 million people over a period of four years). In ancient Greece, a war between Athens and Sparta ended because of the Bubonic Plague. Sparta was laying siege to Athens. The plague was decimating the Athenian population as greatly as the Spartans. However, some genius among the Athenians decided that misery loves company, and the Athenians started to catapult the dead bodies of those deceased Athenians who died from the plague into the ranks of the Spartans who surrounded the city. When the plague started to spread among the Spartan Army, the Spartans beat a hasty retreat back to Sparta. I learned this by reading the Greek Athenian General Thucydides account of this in his book, The History of the Peloponnesian War.
Of all the literature about which I wrote, the other book I really enjoyed was Boccaccio’s The Decameron (literally 100 tales). Boccaccio wrote about 7 young noblewomen and 3 young noblemen from Florence, who escaped from the Black Death to a secluded villa. Over a period of two weeks, each person was required to tell one story each night. Some of these stories had noble subjects, however, over the period of the two weeks, the stories got more raunchy and downright pornographic (for that time). I remember distinctly the story of one young hermit working out his libido on a young hermitess by putting the “devil into hell.” Needless to say, I enjoyed The Decameron far more than I had the rather dry account of Thucydides account of the Peloponnesian War. Not having quite mastered the 100 words a minute in Mrs Lewis’ typing class yet, my mother got to type the term paper. I think I saw her eyebrows raise a bit as I was describing some of the stories from The Decameron.
For whatever it was worth, I believe I got an A from Mr Simmons on the term paper.
I was thinking of this over the past year as we have been enduring the various surges of our current pandemic. As many of you, I have known quite a few people who have been infected, and sadly, known a number of people of various ages, who have also died because of this pandemic. While Ruthie and I have been sheltering in place throughout most of this year, I decided to spend the months of July and August of 2020 writing and composing music. The subject of the music and poems can be summed up in the title of the music, “Musical Reflections On A Pandemic”.
As grim as the title may sound, neither the music nor the poems are grim, well, some of them are a little grim. Granted I did a prelude and fugue in two parts, relating a story from my nephew who lives in Chicago who recounted that as my grand nephew was being born in a Chicago hospital last April, two stories about the maternity ward, people were dying in droves from Covid 19. However, at the same time, I was musing as to how the pandemic was affecting the love life of adolescents, wondering do teenagers still park and make out these days, or don’t they? Below is the music and the poem that accompanies that musing, entitle “An Estampie For Would Be Lovers” (an estampie was a common dance during the Middle Ages).
AN ESTAMPIE FOR WOULD BE LOVERS
Ah, those isolated places where once
cars and bodies huddled together,
the “lovers’ lanes”, in which
submarine races were observed
with no winners posted,
“to score”, an abashed innuendo
of conquest and shame.
These secluded spots.
grass trampled down by
blankets and cars,
where sexuality was explored,
car windows fogged over
by the breath of its occupants,
shaky adolescent hands
fumbling with buttons and catches,
a stroke here, a grope there,
an indignant slap leaving its mark
across the cheek of the offending,
and the hickey, the mark of Cain,
adorning the neck of the willing.
Only overgrown grasses now
huddle together with overgrown weeds,
hiding from sight these lots
these lots vacant of humanity
and near occasions of sin.
A pandemic plucks the blossoms
off of young adolescent love.
Social distancing causing
near occasions of sin,
minor and major,
literally out of reach.
The facial mask, the chastity
belt for the lips, thwarting
even the most chaste of kisses.
The buildup of hormones threaten
to burst adolescents asunder.
Confessionals as empty as
hospital maternity wards,
I fear for the propagation
Of the human race.
(c) 2020, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
Music and Poem from Musical Reflections on a Pandemic include the following:
Juxtaposition 1: A Prelude for a Dying Love One; a Fugue for a Newborn Infant
An Estampie for Would Be Lovers
Song for the Unknown Dead
A Frolic for Children and Puppies
Juxtaposition 2: A Berceuse for a Deceased Love One; A Waltz for a Newly Married Couple
Sheltering in Love, A Rhapsody for Ruth
The Feast of Fools, A Pandemic Danse Macabre
March of a Solitary Sentry
A Nocturne for Our Medical Heroes
Hymn to Our God of Many Faces
If you are interested in the other music from this song cycle, you can find it for free on You Tube or stream it on Spotify and other streaming services. You will also find it on iTunes and Amazon, under the name Robert Charles Wagner (I know that sounds pretentious but it is the rule of those composing “classical” music to compose under their full names e.g. Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart etc).
