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diff --git a/23091.txt b/23091.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7da05a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/23091.txt @@ -0,0 +1,571 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Troubadour, by Robert Augustine Ward Lowndes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Troubadour + +Author: Robert Augustine Ward Lowndes + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23091] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TROUBADOUR *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Troubadour + +By Peter Michael Sherman + + + There was something odd about + the guest attraction, Mr. + Fayliss, and something + odder still about + his songs. + + +So far as parties go, Jocelyn's were no duller than any others. I went +to this one mainly to listen to Paul Kutrov and Frank Alva bait each +other, which is usually more entertaining than most double features. +Kutrov adheres to the "onward and upward" school of linear progress, +while Alva is more or less of a Spenglerian. More when he goes along by +himself; less when you try to pin him down to it. And since the subject +of tonight's revelations would be the pre-Mohammed Arabian Culture, I'd +find Alva inclined toward my side of the debate, which is strictly +morphological and without any pious theories of "progress". + +I'd completely forgotten that Jocelyn had mentioned something about +having a special attraction: a "Mr. Fayliss", who, she insisted, was a +troubadour. I didn't comment, not wanting to spend a day with Jocelyn on +the phone, exploring the Provence. + +The night wasn't too warm for August, and there were occasional gusts of +air seeping through the layers of tobacco smoke that hovered over the +assemblage. As usual, it was a heterogeneous crowd, which rapidly formed +numerous islands of discourse. The trade winds carried salient gems of +intelligence throughout the entire archipelago at times, and Jocelyn +walked upon the water, scurrying from one body to another, sopping up +the overflow of "culture". She visited our atoll, where Kutrov's +passionate exposition had already raised the mean temperature some +degrees, but didn't stay long. Such debates didn't suggest any course of +social or political action, and couldn't be trued in to any of her +causes. + +My attention was wandering from the Kutrov-Alva variations, for Bill had +only been speaking for ten minutes, and could not be expected to arrive +at any point whatsoever for at least another fifteen. From the east of +us came apocalyptic figures of nuclear physics; from the west, I heard +the strains of Mondrian interwoven with Picasso; south of us, a post +mortem on the latest "betrayal" of this or that aspiration of "the +people", and to the north, we heard the mysteries of atonality. It was +while I was looking around, and letting these things roll over me, that +I saw the stranger enter. Jocelyn immediately bounced up from a couch, +leaving the crucial problem of atmosphere-poisoning via fission and/or +fusion bombs suspended, and made effusive noises. + +This, then, was the "troubadour"--Mr. Fayliss. The Main Attraction was +decidedly prepossessing. Tall, peculiarly graceful both in appearance +and manner, dressed with an immaculateness that seemed excessive in this +post-Bohemian circle. There was a decided musical quality to his speech, +as he made polite comments upon being introduced to each of us, and an +exactness in sentence-structure, word-choices and enunciation that +bespoke the foreigner. Jocelyn took him around with the air of +conducting a quick tour through a museum, then settled him momentarily +with the music group, now in darkest Schoenberg, only partially +illuminated by "Wozzek". I watched Fayliss long enough to solidify an +impression that he was at ease here--but not merely in this particular +discussion. It was a case of his being simply at ease, period. + +Kutrov was watching him, too, and I saw now that there would be a +most-likely permanent digression. Too bad--I'd had a feeling that when +he came to his point, it would have been a strong one. "Hungarian, do +you suppose?" he asked. + +Alva examined the evidence. Fayliss had high cheekbones, longish eyes, +with large pupils. He was lean, without giving an impression of +thinness. He had not taken off his gloves, and I wondered if he would +come forth with a monocle; if he had, it would not have seemed an +affectation. + +"I wouldn't say Slavic," Alva said. He started off on ethnology, and we +toured the Near East again. I jumped into the break when Kutrov was +swallowing beer and Alva lighting a cigaret to observe that Fayliss +reminded me of some Egyptian portraits--although I couldn't set the +period. "If those eyes of his don't shine in the dark," I added, "they +ought to." + + * * * * * + +A brief pause for appreciation, then Jocelyn was calling for all men's +attention. She managed to get it in reasonably short order, took a deep +breath, then dived into announcing that our "special guest, Mr. Fayliss" +was going to deliver a song-cycle. + +Fayliss arose, bowed slightly, then nodded to Mark Loring, who brought +forth his oboe. "These songs were not conceived or composed in the form +I am presenting them," he said. "But I believe that the arrangement I +use is an effective one. + +"I call this, 'Song of the Last Men'." He nodded again to Loring, and +the performance began. His voice was affecting, and his artistry +unmistakable. And there were overtones in his voice that gave an added +eeriness to the weird music itself. + +The songs told of the feelings, the memories, and despair of a +nearly-extinct people--one which had achieved a great culture and a +world-wide civilization. The singer knows that the civilization has been +destroyed; that the people created by this culture and civilization are +gone, the few survivors being pitiful fellaheen, unable to rebuild or +bring forth a culture of their own. There is despair at the loss of the +comforts the civilization they knew brought them, sorrow at their +inability to share in its greatness--even in memory; and a resigned +certainty that they are the last of the race--they will soon be gone, +and no others shall arise after them. + +There was silence when Fayliss finished, then discreet but firm +applause, as if the audience felt that giving full reign to their +approval would make an impious racket. Fayliss seemed to sense this +feeling, and smiled as he bowed. + +"These are not songs of your people, are they?" asked Jocelyn. + +Fayliss shook his head. "Oh no--they are far removed from us. I am +merely an explorer of past cultures and civilizations, and I enjoy +adapting such masterpieces of the past as I can find. This arrangement +was made for you; I shall make a different one for my own people, so +that the sonic values of the music and the words agree with each other." + +Kutrov blinked, then asked him--"Well, can you tell us something more +about the people who created this cycle? It has a familiar ring to it, +yet I cannot tie it in with any past culture I have heard of." + +Jocelyn cut in with the regretful announcement that Mr. Fayliss had +another appointment, and called for a note of thanks to him for coming. +More applause--this time unrestrained. Fayliss smiled again and swept +his eyes around us, as if filled with some amusing secret. Then he said +to Kutrov, "You would find them quite understandable." + +I wandered over to the window, in search of air, and noted that someone +had indiscreetly left a comfortable chair vacant. I was near the door, +so that I could hear Jocelyn say to Fayliss: "It was--very moving. Why, +I could almost feel that you were singing about us." + +Fayliss smiled again. "That is as it should be." + +"Of course," chimed in Loring, who'd come up to ask Fayliss if he could +have a copy of the score, "that's the test of expert performance." + +The lights were dimmed again by the fog of tobacco smoke, and I could +see the street quite clearly by moonlight. I decided I would watch +Fayliss, and see if his eyes did glow in the dark. I saw him go down the +sidewalk, with that graceful stride of his, his hands in his pockets. +But I couldn't see his eyes at all. + +Then a gust of wind tugged his hat, and, for an instant I thought he'd +have to go scrambling after it. But, quick as a rapier thrust, a tail +darted out from beneath his dress coat, caught the hat, and set it back +upon his head. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Future combined with Science Fiction + Stories_ September 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any + evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without + note. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Troubadour, by Robert Augustine Ward Lowndes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TROUBADOUR *** + +***** This file should be named 23091.txt or 23091.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/9/23091/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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