POETICS:
You are hearing a keyboard work by
Wm. Byrd, a contemporary of Shakespeare and the leading composer of Elizabethan England. The performance is by
John Sankey, internationally noted
Canadian harpsichordist, for whose gracious permission to play all of his works on Eaglesweb.com I am most grateful.
I share with him the philosophy that a large amount of culture -- in his case music, in my case poetry -- should be shared with the world with no profit motive in mind. We owe it
particularly to those who are coming of age in these troubled times, to pass on the sounds of eternal
greatness. A musical score (or a printed poem) is the "finger pointing to the moon;
it is not the moon itself" [Zen saying]. The moon is the sounded
song, the uttered word, a "miracle
of rare device [Coleridge]"
which we would not have were it not for the printed record. For myself,
the sounds themselves will be my only artistic legacy to the world, and this will occupy me,
in pride and in humility, in pain and in ecstasy, until I die. God and Western civilization
permitting, there
will be a trust foundation to continue this work, upon that eventuality, or,
failing that, some other poet can take up the mantle. He or she doesn't
even need to wait: Take Andrew Marvell's
advice: "At my back I
always hear / Time's winged chariot hurrying near / And yonder all before us lie
/ Deserts of vast eternity." Walter Rufus Eagles, May 19, 2004. I append Mr. Sankey's statement of operations
and philosophy, as follows:
"All materials presented on my site are
Copyright © John Sankey, 1939-2004, under
the Berne convention in order to protect the right of all to continue to use
them freely. Anyone may copy, link to, or distribute any of them as they are as
much as they wish, as long as this notice of copyright and permission
to further copy is distributed with all copies. That's the only restriction I
put on them - that they remain absolutely free to all. No one may restrict their
further use in any way, by collection copyright, physical copy prevention, or
any other means. The courtesy of a site reference or credit is always
appreciated." -- John
Sankey
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