#518 La Victoire (2)

Winning opens a
door; & shows that

nothing at all has
changed. The same

sand, the same sea.
A fresh cloud, per-

haps. But that will
blow away shortly.

#517: Le Leçon des Ténèbres

i. Between Light & Darkness

"Within the liturgy of the Catholic Church there is a long tradition of singing the Lamentations of Jeremiah during Holy Week, based on a parallel being drawn between the text’s description of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the death of Christ. By the time of Couperin and de Lalande, a practice had been established in which the text was divided into nine ‘lessons’ sung over three days, with one candle of a special candelabra being extinguished after each lesson, until ‘tenebrae’ or darkness was achieved on Good Friday.

"Some of the finest examples of the genre are the three Leçons by François Couperin, composed for the royal monastery of Longchamp c. 1714. (Couperin at one time referred to a full set of nine lessons, but only the three for Holy Wednesday are known today.)" ¹

ii. The Encounter

Bare. No diacritics. In a report of the precedings of a 2013 estate tax challenge between the Estate Of James A. Elkins, Jr., Deceased, & the Commisioner Of Internal Revenue it is noted that the Deceased owned undivided fractional interests in 64 works of contemporary art. Within that list, sandwiched between Pierre Soulages & Joseph Albers, is item 13, with an assessed value of $550,000, "Magritte, Rene, La lecon des tenebres, 1964 (Gouache on paper, 13-1/2" x 21-1/2")." ²

iii. The Lessons of Darkness

As soon as fruit is taken
from the tree, it loses life

& light. The further from
its place of origin, the

greater the degradation. In
a stone cellar it petrifies,

darkens to become one
with its surroundings.

Outside the light remains.
Here endeth the first lesson.



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¹ From the catalogue of BIS Records.
² From CourtListener, a project of Free Law Project.