But I tell you a funny story this day. Dreams last night came, in a way out of the time I had as a folk musician. In the dream, a conversation with someone I knew, very Irish, an in fact a famous fiddler; but this matters only in that his talent was something always a part in the life, and therefore in moments fo being a friend.

That conversation, then, which was when I woke up this morning, had a secret in it. Well, two. One is that the special thing came when we moved aside, from a request which had been already careful, thoughtful, and filled with escapes. But we took one anyway in the conversation, and soon were laughing, and then one of his own questions, out of the subject, and also hiding a kind of test (this is like a folk tale).

It was a question of naming a tune, which means really talking in a musician’s language, for how else could you know a tune to put a name to it? And I, in the dream, hazarded what I felt somehow, wasn’t that the one which started in a kind of standard way, and then built, so, out of it….and he was singing the tune itself, saying, yes, something this way, and off as his violin would play, the great and simple majesty as a walk through a forest.

And, he was singing very soon in words. This not what you expect; some of his best recording years had been with a partner who accompanied his fiddle, and also was a master of a singing. But the words were true: and they showed a source of what always was in the center of his violin tunes: a voice. In the more intricate ones, sometimes many voices. All from one violin.

I wrote something this morning which would also explain why I mention this in the context of Josef’s images. Something including the thought of voices ‘a man has, if has nothing, but as much as he is, will still be a king.’

This is the root of all the folk music I used to sing, and also of the finest Irish music. Language, for everyone whether they fit and benefit from each age’s aspect of narrowness, or not.

I stop here, but this also thanks gentle Linn who keeps learning her voice, as we all in life always are learning that range.

Kind regards,
Clive