- A ‘thank you’ and birthday tale
By Yinka Fabowale
The irony here is that these so-called trendy music and popular songs literarily sprung from the roots and trunk of this particular authentic but ‘despised’ music, but have become corrupted and diseased, having branched off and denied themselves the sap and nutrients from the mother plant and the soil. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that they yield only sour and poisonous fruits, but which in men’s undiscerning and greedy palates taste sweet!
Seeing that mankind love them for their cheap albeit lethal produce, these wild offshoots flourished as creepers casting a shade to conceal and choke their estranged source for fear that men would sooner reject and abandon them, if they were able to gain access to the pure source with its vital and restorative essences.
How much this conspiracy has denied the world and its inhabitants the enjoyment of a perfect blend of tones and notes that either throws the one listening into solemn rapture or the midst of a spectacular fair of dances!
After fruitless wanderings and search for a suitable subject for dissertation which took me across barren plains, deserts, hard crags, hills and valleys, I had chanced upon the knowledge of this tree preserved in a sacred scroll by a Great Sage who once lived and taught Love’s music on a remote mountain about a century ago.
With His transcendental knowledge and sagacity, a distinctive trait and seal of His personality and affinity with the Fountain of Love in the loftiest of the Heights from where He also has His origin and received the mandate for His mission, this Wise Teacher quietly came to the earth in fulfilment of His sacred task and handed humanity the greatest musical composition by Love ever, one of which anyone able to master and flawlessly render the notes and tones has found heaven!
What fortune! I screamed “Eureka!” and hastened with eager joy to reveal my great find. The panacea for all that ails humanity, an elixir for transforming our crisis -ridden planet into an earthly Paradise and for enriching life! A masterpiece straight from the Hearth (Will) of Love’s abode! An inexhaustible mine of primordial wisdom with no possibility of being trumped by any human intellectual theories and postulations- past, present or expected in the future embracing and transcending all these in a comprehensive view that spans eternity!
But only few saw what I saw and shared my perception of this incredible reality! The tutors and mates merely mocked my excitement and assertions. Some even sought to fight me, even when I left them undisturbed, gleefully proclaiming the Truth, away from their haughty estates.You now probably understand my misgivings lest I falter in the approaching last phase of my stage act!
Yes, it’s indeed true these people are not the ultimate examiner. However, by the peculiarity of the discipline, I require their collaboration and contributions to pass the practical! With them I must practise my understanding of the musical piece, having each in different roles as vocalist, guitarist, violinist, trumpeter, drummer, pianist to accompany my performance!
But, pray, how do you succeed with people uninterested in you and your song? How do you perfect the music with a motley crowd of negligibly few good team players and vile characters, when even among the favourites with whom I retreated to the hills at seasons for special jamming sessions essentially to sharpen our arts and skills, there’s often no agreement on the order of the music! When some mischievously and intermittently disrupt the flow and force the band to the starting block? When some vindictively or for no reason needle others to get them quit the band or callously offer those awake sedatives. And the unimaginable!
Some would quarrel with the already perfect song and try to add few more stanzas and percussion in order to ‘funkify’ and suitable for the dance hall, yes, like the arrogant and cantankerous trumpeter who always insist on ending the stream of notes from his gold-gilded horn with a blast or flourish!
One certainly must be Ulysses to navigate this labyrinth and Hercules to vanquish the cyclops. So, who blames me for the trepidation I feel at this juncture?
To be concluded
- Fabowale is the Editorial Board Chairman of The Radiance
