Full Moon Past

Perfumes of the Night

Tableau vivants are literally "living pictures".  A couple centuries ago they were the rage; a stage filled with folks, perhaps in costume, animals and buildings, all frozen in something of a downstage Creche - the perfect example of one by the way. Camels enter stage right.

Music was composed specially for these scenes and what better way to heighten the effect of some exotic scene.  I suppose it is a mood thing; melancholy, sentimental etc., but it is an honest thought.  When your mind's eye captures something, what do you stick in your brain to go along with it. Smell?  A feeling on your skin?  The sound it makes?  What?

Sunday night's moon was a real treat.  Not to get maudlin about it, but the combination of that moon and the reflection on the water, some pretty nice stars out and planets whirling, a brisk wind and fresh air....well it was a setting fit for kings. I figured there were similar nights like that, looking back these many years. Times and settings so similar that they lock in one's brain like a photograph, our tableau vivants, but with the use of senses other than the eyes.

The question is, what music to play while viewing this magnificently staged tableau?  What fits?  I got mine. What is yours? (and if you think this is an easy choice - well, your turn.)


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