Music, School of
Randall Snyder Compositions
Document Type
Manuscript
Date of this Version
1973
Citation
Manuscript, 1973
Abstract
Noumenon: Synopsis
The work, which perhaps could best be described as a “metaphysical comedy”, consists of three levels:
1) the biography of the unnamed dilettante artist-philosopher “__”
2) personal interpolations by the biographer, Russel Stanford
3) editor’s commentary by Randall Snyder
Stanford, in spite of a lack of enthusiasm for the subject, agrees to write the biography. During this period his health degenerates and he increasingly imposes his own irrelevant opinions into the biography (his remarks are all indented, using the Palatino font, and further identified by the use of the small case “i”. The “biography” uses the New York font. All footnotes were supplied by the editor for “publication” after the death of Stanford). The subjective extravagant nature of Stanford's remarks (who considered himself an unjustly neglected poet) intensifies during the course of the work.
The following is a brief summary of the biographical level
Preface: Actually “written” by Stanford last, it is virtually indecipherable.
Part One Threshold Polarity: traces the childhood of___.
Part Two Disciplina Universalis: describes __’s school years when he dabbles in musical composition and poetry ending with __’s disgusting valedictory performance.
Part Three Gigyana: after a sabbatical year of travel, __ begins teaching philosophy at a small college and becomes a part-time musician, playing zither in a “society band.”
Part Four Lux: After ten years of quiet teaching, during a lecture on the music of Schubert, __undergoes an epiphanic experience, realizing laughter as the ultimate good, transcending art and philosophy. He starts his own ashram and begins developing a cult following with various degrees of laughter as the center of the liturgy.
(at this point Stanford’s illness has a marked effect of the comphrehensibility of the narrative)
Part Five Idle Fino: with deeper and deeper forays into his subconscious through advanced meditation techniques, __begins to lose his following. Then during one meditation he has an out-of-body experience and reaches the edge of the universe.
Comments
Copyright 1973, Randall Snyder. Used by permission