『Triptych Conversations』のカバーアート

Triptych Conversations

Triptych Conversations

著者： Mark Meynell Joel Bain Sophie Killingley
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概要
 3 friends (@quaerentia @perishandfade @joel.a.bain) + 3 unrelated artistic masterpieces = insights for modern life (hopefully!)All content © Mark Meynell. アート キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 社会科学 聖職・福音主義
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  • Triptych Ep 2:8 | Schubert’s Erlkönig, Kel Miller’s Augustown, Schiele’s 4 Trees

    Triptych Ep 2:8 | Schubert’s Erlkönig, Kel Miller’s Augustown, Schiele’s 4 Trees
    2026/10/26
    The Masterpieces 1. Franz Schubert's ERLKÖNIG (1815) We begin with a song, but one that is over 200 years old and in German. Franz Schubert (1787-1828, above right, painted by Wilhelm August Rieder in 1875) blazed bright but far too briefly. He died at only 31 and yet left an extraordinary body of work. This song, Erlkönig, was a setting of a poem by Goethe (1749-1832, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1828, above left) which Schubert composed at only 18. (That really is not fair, is it?) The poem reflects the great obsessions of the burgeoning movements of Romanticism, with its resistance to reductionistic materialism, a love for the sublime and the grandeur of the natural world, fascination with human passions, as well as the threshold with the metaphysical. This is all captured in this short poem, with the drama’s different characters reflecting different perspectives. That is the key to Schubert’s setting. The song is propelled by its constant rhythmic foundation on the piano, and the beautiful melody weaves its way through the poem’s eight verses. But the huge challenge for both pianist and singer (in under 3-4 minutes) is to differentiate between the Father, the boy, the wraithlike, demonic Erl-king, and narrator (a scene painted by many artists including this detail above of a mural by Peschel in Dresden). Not only that, but the tensions are ratcheted up by Schubert’s device of going up a semitone in each new verse. This brilliant musical miniature is a remarkable achievement: dramatic, chilling, shocking. It perfectly illustrates how something created on the smallest scale can transport one into vast emotional landscapes. 2. Kei Miller's AUGUSTOWN (2016) To Joel’s home country of Jamaica now, and a prize-winning novel by Kei Miller, an old friend of his (as it happens). Augustown is a district of the capital, Kingston, and in Miller’s deft handling, it becomes a microcosm of both Jamaica’s life and complex history. The story traces the devastating but unintended consequences of authoritarian action: firstly with the real-life treatment in the 1920s of the revivalist preacher Alexander Bedward by the colonial government after he claimed to his many followers that he could fly.then in the 1980s, the cruel, unsanctioned haircut of a Rastafarian boy by his officious school-teacher. Never didactic or simplistic, Miller is always sensitive to the complexities of the situation and the tragedies that follow. He gives one such a sense of place, so that even if one has never visited this district, let alone the Caribbean, the book feels totally alive, with scores of compelling characters that seem to have both agency and inevitability. The book is truly a fine achievement and deserves wide readership. Oh a yes, Rastamouse was a thing (thanks Sophie). British cartoon with (believe it or not) 104 episodes!! They even did a set at Glastonbury in 2011. 3. Egon Schiele's FOUR TREES (1917) Back to Vienna again, but a century later. In fact, we only just noticed after completing the recording the lovely symmetry of masterpiece dates: 1815, 2016, 1917!! It really is by chance. If ever we needed to illustrate the fact that extraordinary things can be made by difficult, even despicable, people, then this is it. Egon Schiele (1890-1918, photo taken in 1914 and self-portrait painted 1912) was a profoundly disturbed artist who was contemporary with Gustav Klimt and strongly influenced by him (among others). But the dysfunctions of his upbringing, plus the darkness (and at times illegalities) of his proclivities, make him a very difficult subject. But there’s no doubting his artistic genius. As Sophie pointed out, for those who only know his visceral and shocking portraits, this landscape comes as a welcome surprise and relief. His FOUR TREES has an autumnal melancholy to it (it was painted only a year before he and his wife would die three days apart of the Spanish Flu) contains multitudes, as is so often the case in artistic evocations of the four seasons. It’s not straightforwardly figurative but conveys some unease. Why are they such different shapes, and isolated all in a row, and why has the second already lost most of its leaves? And yet, for all its weirdness, it is utterly compelling. It’s hard to tear one’s eyes away once you start looking closely. Other Mentions Triptych highlights after two series: Sophie: Joel likening Nick Cave’s Ghosteen to William Shatner’s ‘singing’ on his Christmas album… (1:5).Joel: Sophie describing her childhood being reared by R S Thomas and Lionel Ritchie in the Welsh valleys (1:1).Mark: Sophie’s subsequent childhood memory of avoiding the juvenile games of fellow school kids through her immersion in the work of Lord Byron.
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    1 時間 6 分
  • Triptych Ep 2:7 | Berry’s Do Not Be Ashamed, Alexander’s Stay, Mendes’ 1917

    Triptych Ep 2:7 | Berry’s Do Not Be Ashamed, Alexander’s Stay, Mendes’ 1917
    2026/09/27
    The Masterpieces 1. Wendell Berry's DO NOT BE ASHAMED (1967) We had to rerecord this episode for several reasons (without changing the masterpieces), but this gave it added poignancy. The great farmer-poet Wendell Berry died in the intervening weeks (31st Aug 2026) at the age of 92 and so it was all the more special to focus on this poem, DO NOT BE ASHAMED. It’s one of the hundreds that he published over his long, intentionally non-transient life. But the fact of his total commitment to living in one place throughout (Port Royal, Kentucky) gives this remarkable poem even greater force since in many ways it articulates the worst sides of small-town life. It gives permission, if not a mandate, to break free from the psychological bonds that high-control communities exploit to keep their subjects in step. 2. Alexander Abraham's STAY (2019) The backstory to this song is fascinating. Alexander Abraham was born to Nigerian parents in Athens, Greece, but the whole family moved to the USA when he was just 11. But he faced more significant setbacks in the States. His mother was killed in a car crash resulting in his being fostered, and then as a talented football (ie proper, NOT American football) player, a serious injury ended his career. But during his convalescence, he started teaching himself guitar. Which is, of course, not necessarily going to result in much at all. But in Alexander’s case, it led to him starting a career in music. Who knows what might happen if injury ever prevents him from playing music? We had some discussion as to exactly what he’s wrestling with in the song Stay. Why the sense of guilt (in the first stanza), where do the loyalties lie? But it does seem (though you can make up your own mind) that he’s wrestling between the roots he’s put down in Texas and the fun and excitement of London’s music scene. It’s a beautifully measured performance, and Joel particularly loves the guitar solo by Gary Clark Jr in this clip below. 3. 1917 (dir. by Sam Mendes, 2019) Sam Mendes has a pretty impressive cinematic (let alone theatrical) track record. But 1917 may well go down as his masterpiece (unless his Beatles quartet is incredible…). Inspired by the stories told by his Trinidadian grandfather Alfred Mendes (who had fought in the First World War), the entire war is distilled into a 24 hour period in which we experience the constant jeopardy, futility and horror of the frontline. Two British Lance-corporals (Schofield and Blake) are ordered to undertake a do-or-die mission to warn the 2nd Battalion Devonshires that if they proceed with the planned dawn attack on the next morning, they will walk into a trap and be massacred (because the Germans have only made a tactical retreat). It is the ultimate Quest story, and it certainly packs a punch. The cinematography is spectacular, the cast top-notch, and the cinematic immersion complete. It is an astonishing achievement. I became quite obsessed with the film when it first came out, and ended up writing it up for The Rabbit Room here. It was the cyclical nature of the narrative that really got under my skin, so much so that I tried to map it out here. Other Mentions Screen Adaptations we have loved Sophie: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (the BBC / Colin Firth one)Joel: Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (the modern one with Cumberbatch and Freeman)Mark: Mick Herron’s Slow Horses novels (Apple TV with Gary Oldman etc)
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    57 分
  • Triptych Ep 2:6 | Midnight Mass, James Turrell’s Skyspace, Brooke Fraser’s Who are we fooling?

    Triptych Ep 2:6 | Midnight Mass, James Turrell’s Skyspace, Brooke Fraser’s Who are we fooling?
    2026/08/23
    The Masterpieces 1. Midnight Mass (Mike Flannagan, 2021) Midnight Mass is a 7-part Netflix series that came out in 2021, created by horror aficionado Mike Flanagan. Which, for many of us is not exactly the greatest selling point. But bear with this, since there was method in Sophie’s madness for suggesting we watch this. For the purposes of the episode, we focused just on the first two episodes: Genesis & Psalms (click image right for full list of intriguing episode titles).A remote island, cut off by weather and failed ferries to the mainland, is the setting, a small community that revolves (for better or worse) around the island’s Catholic Church. This has beeb led by the elderly priest, Monsignor Pruitt, for years, but he is away on sick leave. The compelling but somewhat mysterious Father Paul stands in his place.This is a beautifully depicted community. But the most striking thing about the whole conception, as we discussed in the pod, is that none of it feels clichéd. 2. Green Mountain Falls Skyspace (James Turrell, 2022) James Turrell (1943– , USA) is a brilliant American artist who works with light. Green Mountain Falls is a remote town in Colorado and Turrell’s SKYSPACE was installed there in 2022 as part of a local arts project.The principle is very simple. A windowless cube of a room, with seating up against each of the four walls up in the mountains. But in the roof, there is a retractable door. Beyond that, only sky. Within the cube, sophisticated lighting can transform the atmosphere at the touch of a programmable button.Find out more here. 3. Who Are We Fooling (Brooke Fraser with Aqualung, 2010) Brooke Fraser (1983- ) is a singer from New Zealand and, for years, was associated with Hillsong Worship. But she has built a successful global career in her own right. The song Who Are We Fooling? is taken from her Flags album from 2010 and was written with the British singer Aqualung (aka Matt Hales).As Joel notes in our conversation, the song is unusual in being a genuine duet, rather than just a tune sung together. This is a musical dialogue that cuts right to the heart in the most affecting way.Here is a live version with a different singer, TEEKS, and the Auckland Philharmonia from 2024. Other Mentions Opening Gambit: Fave Pop Culture Moments Sophie: John Travolta’s Adele DazeemJoel: Jamaica wins 1st, and 2nd equal (Gold and 2 Silvers) at Beijing OlympicsMark: Boaty McBoatface
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    1 時間 1 分
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