COMPREHENSIVE (THINGS AND TIME)

I warn you this book is going to be something of an agglomeration. I want to trace my social trajectory (and my uncle's) as the main line of my story, but as this is my first novel and almost certainly my last, I want to get in, too, all sorts of things that struck me, things that amused me and impressions I got—even although they don't minister directly to my narrative at all. I want to set out my own queer love experiences too, such as they are, for they troubled and distressed and swayed me hugely, and they still seem to me to contain all sorts of irrational and debatable elements that I shall be the clearer-headed for getting on paper. And possibly I may even flow into descriptions of people who are really no more than people seen in transit, just because it amuses me to recall what they said and did to us, and more particularly how they behaved in the brief but splendid glare of Tono-Bungay and its still more glaring offspring. It lit some of them up, I can assure you! Indeed, I want to get in all sorts of things. My ideas of a novel all through are comprehensive rather than austere....  

Wailing Souls: Things and Time (Link)

Text:  H.G. Wells, Tono-Bungay (1909)

PERFECTLY CLEAR

But now I have said that of all the good deeds a person does whilst under mortal sin not a single one remains, neither deeds nor time, and that is true in the meaning which I have just explained. I want to make it perfectly clear to you, even though it is contrary to every authority alive.

Meister Eckhart, The Sermons (“The fruits of good deeds live on”), trans. Raymond B. Blackney, 1941

Upper:  Andrea Mantegna, The Descent Into Limbo, painting, 1470-75

Lower:  Rudi Feld, The Dangers of Bolshevism, lithograph, 1919

Wailing Souls: Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall (Link)

Wailing Souls: Things and Time (Link)

 

Choir Singers 'Synchronise Their Heartbeats' (BBC Science News)

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service, July 10, 2013 


   Choir singers not only harmonise their voices, they also synchronise their heartbeats, a study suggests.

   Researchers in Sweden monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works.

   They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate.

    Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (link), the scientists believe the synchrony occurs because the singers coordinate their breathing. 

   Dr Bjorn Vickhoff, from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden, said: "The pulse goes down when you exhale and when you inhale it goes up.

  "So when you are singing, you are singing on the air when you are exhaling so the heart rate would go down. And between the phrases you have to inhale and the pulse will go up. 

  "If this is so then heart rate would follow the structure of the song or the phrases, and this is what we measured and this is what we confirmed."

Sing from the heart

   The scientists studied 15 choir members as they performed different types of songs.

   They found that the more structured the work, the more the singers' heart rates increased or decreased together.

   Slow chants, for example, produced the most synchrony. 

   The researchers also found that choral singing had the overall effect of slowing the heart rate.

   This, they said, was another effect of the controlled breathing.

   Dr Vickhoff explained: "When you exhale you activate the vagus nerve, we think, that goes from the brain stem to the heart. And when that is activated the heart beats slower." 

   The researchers now want to investigate whether singing could have an impact on our health.

   "There have been studies on yoga breathing, which is very close to this, and also on guided breathing and they have seen long-terms effects on blood pressure... and they have seen that you can bring down your blood pressure. 

   "We speculate that it is possible singing could also be beneficial."

Note:  Lovely, this, and logical, I think.  It reminds me of the way reggae, with its multitude of harmony trios (and occasional quartets – see Wailing Souls below), mini-choirs, really, is often referred to as “heartbeat music.”  I couldn’t help but include the really nice portrait of Peter Tosh above, member of one of the greatest of that assemblage, The Wailers.  Caroline worked closely with Peter for several years and we were lucky enough to get to know him.  He was all about music all the time.

The Congos: Fisherman (Link)


Wailing Souls: Fire House Rock (Link)