‘And now have I put in here, as thou seest, with ship and crew, while sailing over the wine-dark sea… ‘
(Homer, Odyssey, Book 1, line 178)
I had fun with this composition. I was needing inspiration and Naomi Janzen said “ …just do some tapping (EFT) and ask even though I currently have no idea for a composition etc…” and of course instantly the enigmatic phrase from Homer jumped into my head “ the wine dark sea”. Ok, I thought, that’s pretty random, I can certainly work with that!
‘The Wine Dark Sea’ is enigmatic because so many commentators over the years have pondered what the heck Homer was getting at .Was the sea really a dark red wine colour ? I remember a history teacher at art school saying that what Homer really revealed was the ancient Greeks didn’t see the colour blue ! – that the rods and cones in their eyes were still evolving and all they saw was a burgundy sea and a claret sky! Of course he failed to mention that the ancient Egyptians were throwing about lapis lazuli in the bucket loads.
Of course if you get the chance to cross the Mediterranean the first thing that is so stunning is the deep blue colour of the water. It has a particular impact and saturation that is best described as ultramarine. Pure, squeezed out of the paint-tube, knock your socks off ULTRA-blue.
Now the latest “thing” to hit the trend-zone is blue wine. Its touted as a new invention and a “revolution” and although it sounds like its probably a little sweet for many palettes it looks absolutely beautiful – like you’ve accidentally washed your blue watercolour brush into your chardonnay ! With a little extra research one finds that blue wine has been around for ever and its all got to do with specific grapes and their blue skins used to make the ultramarine colour…
So just to be clear this month composer’s choice is not about about drinking wine ! It’s my attempt to capture the ultramarine wonderland I once experienced snorkelling at Palinuro, a small Italian town on the south western coast of Italy. Palinuro was Aeneas’s helmsman (the founder of Rome who escaped the siege of Troy) and the place was most likely named by ancient Greek sailors. And so we return to Homer and his wine dark sea and the music it inspires with all its cool chromatic colours…
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys of One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE