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Chagall's Dream

 
uploaded: Sun, Nov 15, 2015 @ 4:08 AM
byessesq
FeaturingDysfunction_AL (destinazione_altrove)
length3:37
BPMunknown
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For this Secret Mixter I drew Dysfunction AL or the artist previously known as destinazione altrove.

This round was tough, reason being that the music was so good I couldn’t decide what piece to use. I started with a shortlist of 4, went down to 3, actively worked on 2 and settled on this one. The next challenge came in finding words that were good enough to warrant speaking over such powerful and evocative music. Honestly, mixter community, I ask you to please do yourself a favor and go and listen to the source track on its own; it is film in musical form, so beautiful and evocative.

What you have here is a poetic expression of the work of painter Marc Chagall. In particular, I had in mind the painting I and The Village, which fittingly in light of painfully recent events, was the first painting Chagall painted upon arriving in Paris, where he lived for several years and upon which he left quite a mark artistically. I settled on Chagall for two reasons: first was the viola in the musical piece which spoke to my Jewish musical heritage, and second was the third movement, if you like, of the piece which to me suggested flying. Even before I settled on Chagall as a theme, I had written about soaring over mountains. Chagall often contained flying figures in his paintings as they were part of the dreamlike aspects of his work. Chagall was Jewish and often contained Jewish images and symbolism in his work, but what is interesting is that often the same works had Christian symbolism and images as well. I And the Village has an Orthodox church and a figure wearing a cross, but also a hand with a ring with the Star of David on it as well as the image of the Tree of Life which is the Jewish symbol for the Torah, and actually all of Jewish learning. I am quite certain that had he been aware of other religious traditions, Chagall would have included their symbols as well as he was very inclusive in his imagery.

I ask you to look beyond the technical shortcomings of this bit of work and please seek its intent :-). This is for everyone living in this falsely divided world we live in. May our dreams fly high though our work keeps our feet on the ground.

Chagall’s Dream

Brightly colored houses of the village…

Farmer, musician, lover, wife
Husband, acrobat, scenes of life,
Milking, threshing, steeped in prayer,
None forgotten, all are there.

Animals complete the scene,
A multicolored goat gazes on a human face of green.
Cows are milked, horses neigh,
Chickens wander, donkeys bray.

Figures…
Take flight…
Soaring above the scene below.
Lovers embrace…
Carried on warm breezes flow.

Work is for the ground,
Hope lives in the skies
Music the only sound
Of dreams sustained that never die.

Memories fade as time rushes on…
Old yields to new.
Differences soften into similarity…
And I … begin… to look more… like…you.

essesq November 14, 2015
 

"Chagall's Dream"
by essesq

2015 - Licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)



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