The Paiste Cymbal arrives! And joy ensues….
The cymbal arrived from Paiste/ Yamaha Canada. It is, in a word, gorgeous. I do not know too much about cymbals (though I am now much inspired to research and learn more), but I must say that this one is so lovely. The craftmanship, the work that goes into making such a thing. This one has a small crack – which is why its life as a musical instrument has ended, and its new life of being sawn to bits and pieces looms before it.
But before I get my saw out, I wanted to be inspired by this piece in its wholeness. So I played around with banging it quite a bit to hear its sound, and I spent a while exploring its texture with my fingers, and examining it with my eyes. And the weight and thickness of it was much greater than I expected, and a wonderful surprise… And then I took it for a walk.
???
Yes, I know. It sounds a bit crazy. Mostly I took it for a walk because the hay field is a lovely backdrop, and I wanted to photograph the cymbal for the sake of posterity. I also took it out to see it in a different light. There is nothing like taking an object and putting it in a situation vastly unlike its usual context to jump start the imagination. You do not generally see cymbals out for walks in hayfields, so I figured it might start something…
Mostly it was fun. Molly ma Gog (the black lab) running joyously around whilst I balanced the cymbal on this or that, scaled rusty old farm machinery and scaled decrepit falling down farm buildings. Not only did I start to look at the cymbal differently, but also at the hayfield differently – noticing colours, textures, and settings that I ordinarily overlook as just part of the field.
I returned from the walk, clunkily heavy cymbal in hand, full of energy, joy, and the swelling of ideas.
Here are some of the photos. I will post the whole series later in my gallery.
The nice fellow from Paiste/Yamaha Canada also packed a few Paiste t-shirts in the box for me, on which I think I can make out the visage of Miss. Meg White – one of my favourite musicians, which I thought was very nice of him. I think they will end up as jammies though, as they are an XL and a M (and I am an XS, lol). But pretty cool all around. I have been very impressed with how supportive they have been of this little project…I never would have imagined, and am thankful. It has made the whole thing even more fun.