Vernacular Landscape

An idea for 4/17 based on diary entries--most likely to be atmospheric in its production. Essentially, Music For Places.

4/17/1998

Book: Vernacular Landscape by John B. Jackson. Book of essays drawn from lectures about the application of various disciplines to the development of environments.

4/17/2010

6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Papua New Guinea.

Interesting: Even though Stravinsky spent most of his life outside Russia, he always considered himself deeply rooted in his homeland. The music sounds like the product of cultural deracination, but is nostalgic at its core. He said, "I have spoken Russian all my life. I think in Russian, my way of expressing myself is Russian. Perhaps this is not immediately apparent in my music, but it is latent there, a part of its hidden nature." (Childhood is not necessarily the ground your life is built upon, but rather the pedestal on which the statue of your life sits.) 

The distilled lyric:

Verse 1 

The statue of a life
On a pedestal
Cultural deracination
Nostalgic at its core

A vernacular landscape
A lexical landscape

Verse 2

The power of the word
To define us
Rooted in a homeland
Returning to the shore

A vernacular landscape
A lexical landscape


Verse 3

Extending things beyond
Their completeness
A part of a hidden nature
Is a childhood at the core
 

A vernacular landscape
A lexical landscape

 

String Arrangement 

 

Vernacular Landscape (Strings) by meta4s