The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Blaðsíða 28

26
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING 1974
So Vic started writing music and I
started changing lyrics and we have
worked together for almost two years
now, producing what is virtually an
opera. That is .there is no spoken di-
allogue (well, about six lines). It is all
music. In all, we find we have written
thirty-seven separate songs. Although
some of them are in a rock medium,
the piece is far richer and more varied
than mere rock. Vic is a trained com-
poser with a degree from Indiana
University, home of musicians and
swimmers, and he brings a wide range
of knowledge and love to his music.
One other thing about his music: it is
hummable. Very satisfying.
Our Beowulf is about to become a
recording. Shortly after this magazine
goes to press we will begin recording
in Toronto and Winnipeg to produce
a triple-record album slated to be re-
leased in the fall under the Daffodil
label in Canada. After that, we hope
to help it to a theatre production but
that will take more money than we
now have. First things first. Know any
Norse angels?
The basic themes of Beowulf are
Norse themes: better to struggle and
die than never to have tried; a man’s
deeds shall live after him therefore
let him live and die honourably.
Though the ethic is uncompromising,
there is a certain joy in the struggle,
and pleasure in the virtuosic exercise
of youth and strength. I think ,ve
have captured not only the statement
but the feeling of this in our Beowulf.
The character of Beowulf himself is
a little like a Scandinavian Li’l Abner
intent on doing his duty as he sees it.
This man does know his own strength,
and uses it well. He is, as a character
sings about him, too good to be true,
in short, an epic hero. But as I said,
I’d never want to marry him. Heroes
don’t make good husbands. Look at
James Bond.
I have a theory about Canadian ar'
and literature. It is simply that we are
a northern people. That sounds too
simple but it is a telling answer to
those who claim that our culture
no different from that found in the
United States. We use the same brand
of toothpaste and floor cleaner but J
mean something different. W. L. Mor-
ton in his book The Canadian Identity
puts it like this:
“What is meant is the existence in
Canadian art and literature of dis-
stinctive qualities engendered by the
experience of northern life. These are
a tendency to the heroic and the epic,
to the art which deals with violence . .
. . . That is the art of the hinterland
. . . To the heroic and the lyric, the
satiric is to be added. For northern
life is moral or puritanical, being so
harsh that life can allow little laxity
in convention. But the moral affords
the substance and creates the disposi-
tion for satire ... In all these qualities,
Canadian literature has of course af-
finities with both Scottish and Iceland-
ic literature. They give promise of a
literature, and an art, as idiomatic as
it is significant universally.”
Does that sound like anyone you
know?