Do you know (in response to a couple of posits last post on the titular notion above), my firsts thoughts about the monsters is that musically they are largely quiet. They sing softly to themselves, to Providence, in sympathy with the cosmos, in sorrow; perhaps some of the more feral might gather together to spontaneously hoot and jabber at Phoebe, while others might chortle off some rhyme or ditty they heard once when secretly watching children at play or people at a dance or stalking some unwary band of happy, vigil-day picnickers.
Monsters' own music will be impromptu, vocal, rolling, raw yet often oddly complex, wild and disconcertingly alien unless informed by everyman tunes previously encountered.
My sense of it is that the making of structured musics is the domain of everymen, based on the notion - the historied order of things - that monsters make life, everymen make things.
IMHO.
18 comments:
cool, it would be interesting to find out about how monster approach other forms of art. or how monster art has influenced human art.
I always thought that man makes music for the same reasons that birds do. First, it is an emotional release. Then it is used to lure a mate, to define territory (or self), and to call like thinking minds together.
Another thing I feel. Music doesn't just spring from the creator, but from the environment it was created in. It is not coincidental that Blue Grass comes from the hills of Appalachia and that rap comes from hard inner cities. Or that so much jazz began at the swirling, pungent Mississippi delta.
With that in mind, I agree that there should be an earthy, rural quality to monster music. But the purposes might also be more obvious that the musics of men. A mating song would be something to behold.
i agree with sam. I think monsters wouldnt neccesarily make "music," but im sure they would have mating songs and such, like birds.
I find it very hard to imagine monsters sitting at drums, and singing XD.
really i find it hard to imagine them making any noises other than growls, and the occasional english sentence... lol
but im sure any sounds produced by monsters would be amazing to hear...
You are of course assuming H-c monsters actually mate...
For certain the "inteligence" (if I may call it that) of a monster would very much determine the complexity and musicality of their song. And it is singing that I think would be their forte - just like the birds, as you say Mr Hranac - rather than some "tribal" drumming thing.
I have in my head some happy ditty that might be hummed by say the Misbegotten Schrewd (poor fellow) as he is eating (or pooing or anything else that brings him joy). It is a much more basic music to the lilting, wandering, deeply meaningful singing of such an anciently powerful creature as say, the Duke of Sparrows (or the Duke of Crows - I am thinking some kind of cross between currawongs and butcher birds here [a clue for those from the eastern parts of Oz])
Either way, indeed "amazing to hear" :)
Thanks. Now I can't get the Misbegotten Schrewd's "Poo Ditty" out of my head. The simple tunes are the most catchy.
Can't say I like the idea of knowing about the "poo ditty" myself, but I guess we do have to accept that the H-c is a VERY detailed world - nothing left un-thunk by it's author, so to speak.
Thanks for the brief description of the Duke of Crows: these are the local touches that I enjoy (1600h, by the way). I have always wondered about butcher birds...they're one of the few birds that really look at you, and you can see that there's a bit more going on upstairs than, say, with emus (if there's a Duchess of Emus, I'll happily eat my hat). Currawongs are very similar in the thinking aspect, too - I used to have a one-legged specimin (I called him Boris) that spent time on my balcony, watching me watch TV/read/cook through the window. Somewhat eerie & comforting at the same time.
/end babble
And beautiful "babble" it was - I love that there is perceptable Australian-ness in the H-c; I love that you get into it with me.
Your comment - in email, I believe - about clerks not all being bad still sits in my soul; as to a Duchess of Emus - well, I have been coming up with H-c names for Australian animals recently but had ommitted the (not so) humble emu. This will now be corrected... Might even be subject of next post.
As to the deleted comment... always so eerie, like some posting ghost... OOOooooo....
i heard someone [I don't recall who] once say that one of their greatst reasons for believing in God was music. this i agree with. twould be hard to reconcile something as enormously complicated and yet universally understandable as music [of any kind, human or monstrous]with pure chance.
sorry. i've been singing w/people every night for a week now + I can't help my thoughts
I did not know that there was a Duke of Crows. perhaps i have not been paying enough attention.
P-poo ditty? I find that thought... highly amusing.
Hey!
Me and my uncle (Zakk, author of the 'half-breed' comment) are outraged at the fact that we still don't see his face in book 2! Anyway whens book 3 come out. What about Freckle?
Potato Octopus23
I know this is totally off-topic and most likely irrelevant, but I've been wondering where the various organs for gastrines, lazhars, et cetera come from. I haven't thoroughly read the explicariums, so the information may be in there but I would still like to know. Have monster organs ever been used for lazhars? Or are animal organs used for...say, fulgars? Electric eel glands, mayhaps? Please don't laugh as this one is rather by no means learned where Half Continent is concerned. Another question that may be answered already: Why have the majority of the teratologists thus far been female and all the leers male? Could we have a female leer at some point, if only for a bit?
-Ben.
Yeah Ben -
Who knows where the organs come from - it doesn't say in the explicarum but it does say that they are from exotic animals and specifically grown for that purpose.
Zakk
Hey you know how numps says 'sparrow man' is that the nuglung Rossamund saw in the bushes in MBT1?
Okay forget my last comment, i read the next 10 pages and found out it was. When does book 3 come out!!!
No - Not Europe and Sebastipole, Europe and Fouracres! A serdoner and a teratorologist! How interesting would that be?
Currawongs are cannibalistic, apparently...
So I have heard - I certainly know they eat big brown rats, saw one carrying such a beast in its great beak as it scaled the pencil pine outside my window.
Hi,
I was wondering if when Numps is by himself he sings this monster music. Does he?
Thanks
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