My way

Waltz For Debby (Bill Evans)-- Monita Tahalea & Gerald Situmorang

A short, scintillating piece which evokes nostalgia, naiveté, and timelessness. It is, surprisingly, hard to maintain the pseudo-perdendosi rhythm that is the signature of the piece, in my opinion. 

The title is taken (for the few that have not yet seen the film) from Alexander Pope's (or, for the many that have seen the film, Pope Alexander's) 'Eloisa to Abelard', the Ovidian heroic epistle published in the early 18th century (1717). 

The film borrows line 209 for its title:

'How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd'

However, the poem is brimming with wonderful lines. I have taken the liberty to highlight some of the ones I think are particularly interesting below;

'Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!)'

'Enter, each mild, each amicable guest;
Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest!'

'No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;
Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.'

'But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves,
Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves,
Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws
A death-like silence, and a dread repose:
Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene,
Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,
Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
And breathes a browner horror on the woods.'

The poem is thought to be inspired by the 12th century story of Héloïse's illicit love for (and secret marriage to) her teacher Pierre Abélard (one of the most illustrious teachers and philosophers of Paris at the time). 

The story tells of the unfathomable vengeance exacted by Héloïse's family, who castrate Abélard after the lovers had married. Abélard goes to a monastery and bids Héloïse to do the same, even after their child is born. Héloïse is tortured by the separation, and unwillingly vows of silence. Time passes, and they are not reunited. A letter that Abélard writes to a friend, entitled 'Historia Calamitatum', or 'History of my Misfortunes', falls into Héloïse's hands, and her passion for him is rekindled. They exchange a series of letters, in an attempt to come to grips with their intertwined tragedy. The incompatibility of their masculine and feminine viewpoints is, finally, the concept which prevents them from doing so. 

In Pope's poem, Eloisa anguishes over the feelings she has, still, for Abélard. She suffers when thinking that Abélard, now a eunuch, couldn't ever return to his feelings even if he would want to. It is both a reprieve that liberates him from the 'contagion of carnal impurity,' and a perpetual set of shackles. 

Eloisa begs, then, for forgetfulness, not forgiveness. 

illustration: Monet, 'In the Rowing Boat', 1887, private collection

My way

since2020