(PIANO)
It's a summer day and you're sitting on a park bench by a river eating your lunch. (BIRDS) A barge goes by. (HORN) There are cars in the distance. (SFX) A plane flies over. You crunch your celery. (SFX) A tall man in plaid shorts walks past with an old brown dog. (FOOTSTEPS, DOG COLLAR, PANTING) The man sits down on a bench a little way away. He has a radio and it's playing Miles Davis. (LIGHT TRUMPET, PERC, BASS, JAZZ) The dog sits listening to it. (JINGLE OF DOG COLLAR, MUSIC) And you eat your lunch which includes a piece of excellent strawberry rhubarb pie.
You sit there, at peace on a summer day, and you feel a sense of harmony.
(TCHAIKOVSKY SERENADE CHORDS)
Harmony: the adaptation of several parts to each other to form a sympathetic entirety. Not uniformity, but a union in which the whole is more interesting than the individual parts ----- You maybe have to be older to appreciate harmony. When you're young, you need to find out about rhythm (HIPHOP) and about speed (POWERFUL CAR RACING, CORNERING, SHIFTING UP) and about danger------ (SS: Hi. Got a cigarette? Come here often? I like your pants.) ---- and then you need to find out about remorse (TR: Oh God----- why? Why? How could I have been so STUPID? (CRY OF REGRET) and about rehabilitation----- (SS: We're going to do a brain scan right now, Mr. Dibble? TR: Okay. SS: You lie very quietly and the machine is going to try to locate your brain. Okay? TR: Okay. SS: Don't move, Mr. Dibble. TR: I won't. SS: Be very quiet now. TR: Okay. (MACHINE, SONAR, HUM, PASSING OVER) TR: Did you find anything? SS: Not yet. (MACHINE, SONAR, HUM) ----- and after a period of remorse and rehabilitation and maybe a little ping-pong (TABLE TENNIS) and an hour in your handicraft class learning to weave (LOOM) ----- you walk out on the hospital grounds and there is the river (HORN) and the dog (SFX) and the guy with the radio (TRUMPET, BASS, PERC) and the pie is perfect (SFX) ----- and suddenly all the pieces come together. Everything fits.
(TCHAI SERENADE CHORDS)
And you feel at peace. You feel as if you and the creation are friends. You feel happy. It doesn't take much to make a person happy. Sometimes Saturday can make you happy. (FN SINGS DOOWOP: Saturday......with my baby......BASS RUN, THEN FALSETTO.) A little fresh fruit and yoghurt whipped up in a blender. (BLENDER) The departure of unpleasant guests.
(ODDLY UNPLEASANT VOICES)
TR: THANKS SO MUCH FOR HAVING US!
SS: BOY, THOSE THREE WEEKS WENT BY SO FAST!.
TR: OKAY, WELL, I GUESS WE BETTER GO.
SS: BYEBYE! SS HIDEOUS LAUGH. CAR DOOR SHUT, CAR PULLS AWAY)
Peace. Harmony. A sense of proportion.
People look for it in church and they don't always find it there. (JANIS SINGS, SHARP: All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things dumb and dutiful, the Lord God made them all.) People look for it in yoga and it isn't necessarily there either.
SS (BREATHY): Now I'd like you all to make a circle with your arms and then bend down and step into that circle and bring it all the way up and over your head and then take your left knee and put it into your ear, okay? Just follow your breathing, people----- follow the breath-----
You can find it in music though.
JANIS & GK: If you cannot pray like Peter
If you cannot preach like Paul
You can sing in two-part harmony
A simple interval
Dissonance is necessary and good (JAZZ PIANO RIFFS) as a stimulant and one does not want to spend a whole life in the key of C major ----- one wants to try B MINOR---------- C SHARP------- G FLAT ------- try the MIXOLYDIAN MODE--------- Ionian! Phrygian!--------- play the bagpipes (SFX) ---- experiment with underwater sounds (WHALES) ------ experiment with avant-garde music (SHRIEKING) ---- vacuum cleaners (LOUD VACUUM) experiment with high explosives (SFX)------ and then go through remorse (TR REMORSE) and rehab (SS: We're going to put you in this church basement with a cup of very bad coffee, Mr. Smithers. TR: Okay. SS: Just sit here and cry and we'll be back for you in a couple hours. TR: Okay.)
And then one afternoon by the river-------you find it------ It could be in Rome------ (BIG CHURCH BELLS) could be in Paris (FRENCH SIREN) ----- in New York City ("Watcher back! Comin through") ----- or Minnesota (MOOS) ----- but suddenly all the pieces seem to fit----- (FOOTSTEPS, DOG. RADIO. WOOFS) ------the summer day, the dog, the music, the piece of pie, the beautiful harmonic moment.
(SERENADE CHORDS)