Tag Archives: Parma

Mosaic, the art of right image

Is image void of substance? Image communicates, even when it deceives you, when it does not correspond to reality. There is an essence of things which lies beyond words, and that arises visual thinking: we are into the full vortex of a new way to communicate. We are shrewd, we know how to read. Though something escapes….

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We know written language, and this has certainly been a conquest for humanity which made it possible to realize abstract thiking. We are also knowing the age of visual thinking, and this is creating the next mindset revolution in humanity. Yet, we still have not known the power of “intelligent thinking” through sound.

The written word communicates concepts, and reflects on reality, ordering it into a logical sequence of thought.

Image communicates direct essence through perception, it evokes the dimensions and the subtleties of reality, and it can be crude and powerful: when I see the image of a wood, I feel its color green, the coolness, the smell of lichens, the songs of birds  and the sounds of Nature. It took me quite a few words to communicate that which one single image can evoke.

Then, what is sound?  Is it the ultimate root of a word, something onomatopoeic which arises from the experience to describe it? Is it a catching of feelings to express them or manipulate them? Is it the image of a reality which cannot be expressed otherwise?

I think sound is solid reality. Then, the reality of which I speak is a mosaic of elements.

I am a mosaic of elements, words, images and sounds. But I am not that which represents me or that trough which I portray myself. Though, all this expresses me, and it communicates that which can be known about me. The sensory dimension of my person communicates as well.

So here is the art of Mosaic: the right image is an art with which I can construct a world, while I express in some way my life’s experience, and my imaginary world as well, together with one’s tendency to have a desire to express will and being.

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– A post by Maria Caruso, musician, writer and mediatic Muse of Silentia Lunae, the Early Music consort of Parma, Italy.

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Tomato and Tomatillo

One of the most unusual requests for research in the Early Music field I have received, was when I was asked to find repertoire dedicated to tomato and tomatillo in Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Since their arrival in Spain with Columbus, tomato has made a great deal of progress as a symbol of good cuisine, health, happiness and roundness, gaining a cultural relevance worthy of respect.

As a matter of fact, tomato could even be considered sort of a modern archetype of juicy roundness, with its pure geometrical  shape (especially in varieties which are perfectly round, with no ribs).

But truth is that in its beginnings, tomato and its less popular cousin tomatillo had a hard time being accepted as foods: they were relegated to being purely ornamental, and the fact that the stem and leaves of the plant are even poisonous, so to speak, gave way to a few prejudices towards them.

Therefore it was impossible to me, at this point and on such short notice, to find any music expressly written to exalt the virtues of tomato, or which mentions tomato explicitly in its text. But there are mentions of vegetables and food in two Spanish Romanceiros which were sent to me very kindly by Professor Pepe Rey, to whom I am very grateful. I will have to read them carefully, and I hope to finally find something relevant to the research.

In the meantime, as a music group who prefers to innovate and build on the basis of the past, rather than being crystalized in  a perception of performance practices which is stale and keep audiences distantly bored, we dedicated to the “Quest of the Mighty Tomato” one of our music videos, recently published on Youtube.

We arranged a Jacara of Anonymous, circa 1600. We performed it at the inauguration of the new Tomato Museum of Parma, not because it was connected to tomato history in any way, but simply to give an idea of the lively spirit of cultural life in Spain of that period.

Anyway, I hope that the images of the Tomatina of Valencia, and the music we recorded at one of our concerts will brighten your day and help start this new Year on the right foot, with lots of energy to face any battle coming at us!

Enjoy…