Orchestration

Shona McQuilken

Presto
The wind in A.  Reverberations build 
in the trumpet bell.  
A twisted helix of harmony amassed from all around.  
Volume and vector – pinna and concha – lento, but building.

Movement
Compressions and rarefactions.  A delicate minuet  
across the acoustic meatus.  
Symphonic timbre. Parasites lost.
Fingerboard skimming – barrel bore flanking – outer slide stretching.  

Percussion
The space turns solid.  A tympanic groove begins
fluctuating the myringa.
Pulsating snare and bass.  Syncopated rhythm. 
Umbo – tensa - flacida.  Drum lug - top hoop - tension rod.

Legato
The rhythm is shared.  A concert of bone 
straining against sinew.  
Vibrations amplify.  Muscle fighting forte as quavers pass,
Malleus - incus - stapes.  Bass - tenor – alto.

Segue
Impedance matched.  Chords wave 
through an oblong window.
Operatic oscillations of the oval, and all is underwater
Balance,  synchrony,  equilibrium.

Glissando 
Submerged sounds shake, cochlear ripples travel
along the basilar membrane.
A labyrinth of strings in the inner podium.
Pitch unpicked, distributed, and detected.

Pizzicato 
Nudging the baseline.  Cilia dance 
into binary pulses.
Chemicals flood, reaching a crescendo.
Baton - player - organ.  Dendrite - soma - axon.

Finale
A race along number VIII.  And dissonance is resolved
in the primary auditory cortex.
A temporal gyration above.
Sound expounded.  Coda decoded.  Physiological euphony.

The Science

If a tree falls in the woods, or if an orchestra plays in a concert hall, the sound is brought to our consciousness through an impressive set of machinery in the outer, middle and inner ear.  The simple vibration of particles caused by a musical instrument is amplified and altered by components of the ear, until their eventual transformation into electrical impulses that our brains perceive as sound. The conduction of sound by the ear has a surprising number of similarities to the production of sound by an orchestra.  Each stanza describes a new step in the journey of music to our minds.

The Poet

Shona lives in Glasgow with her husband and too many children. The children and her work as a lecturer in physiology don't give her as much time to write as she'd like, but she has completed two children's novels, some shorter pieces of work, and some academic writing. She has a number of ongoing projects that she'd love to see in print.

Next poem: Picture the World Unbroken by Miles Hitchcock