Difference between revisions of "Every crowd has its several tones"

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==Commentary==
 
==Commentary==
 
This phrase appears in an allusion to music:
 
This phrase appears in an allusion to music:
 
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<blockquote>
 
"every crowd has its several tones and every trade has its clever mechanics and each harmonical has a point of its own, Olaf's on the rise and Ivor's on the lift and Sitric's place's between them"
 
"every crowd has its several tones and every trade has its clever mechanics and each harmonical has a point of its own, Olaf's on the rise and Ivor's on the lift and Sitric's place's between them"
 
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</blockquote>
 
The triad ("trade") is the rudiment of western harmony: three notes forming a chord, consisting of a first, a third (flat or natural, i.e. major or minor), and a fifth (natural/perfect, augmented, or diminished).
 
The triad ("trade") is the rudiment of western harmony: three notes forming a chord, consisting of a first, a third (flat or natural, i.e. major or minor), and a fifth (natural/perfect, augmented, or diminished).
  

Latest revision as of 06:55, 3 October 2006

  • every crowd has... → ECH = HCE
  • every cloud has a silver lining: (proverbial)
  • crwth: a Welsh fiddle, continuing the musical foliation in this paragraph
  • crowd: an alternative name for the Welsh crwth
  • chord: (music) a harmonic combination of two or more tones, continuing the musical foliation in this paragraph
  • As I Was Going to St Ives: (nursery rhyme) “As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives, and every wife had seven ....”
  • tone: a musical note, continuing the musical foliation in this paragraph


Commentary

This phrase appears in an allusion to music:

"every crowd has its several tones and every trade has its clever mechanics and each harmonical has a point of its own, Olaf's on the rise and Ivor's on the lift and Sitric's place's between them"

The triad ("trade") is the rudiment of western harmony: three notes forming a chord, consisting of a first, a third (flat or natural, i.e. major or minor), and a fifth (natural/perfect, augmented, or diminished).

Apparently, Ivor = the first, Sitric (a name containing "tri") = the third, and Olaf = the fifth: first-third-fifth on a keyboard is, visually, left ("on the lift") middle ("place is between them") and right ("on the rise").

Intriguingly, placed in that order, Ivor-Sitric-Olaf creates the acronym "ISO."

ISO my refer to Isolde. The myth of Tristan and Isolde is frequently referred to in Wake (e.g., page one: Tristram). And . . .

Perhaps the most famous chord in music, at least in Joyce's time, was the so-called "Tristan chord" – the first chord in Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.

Perhaps in response to the "Tristan chord", Joyce here creates an "ISOlde" chord.