Elaine says:
Teamwork! This track would not exist without Jack @humblecomposer, who provided some guitars and the bansuri flutes, Rick @rickatfulcrum, who gave it these drums, and Robbie (not a FAWMer, she's RobbieLV on Soundcloud and Bandlab) on bass and also some guitars. Another shout-out to Jack, he is the one who has been coaching me how to tackle a string section for a recording like this, and to dare try it in 15 days for a FAWM demo.
Story: Peter Abelard and Héloïse D'Argenteuil were lovers in 12th century Paris. Abelard, his career as Philosopher on a meteoric rise, encountered Héloïse - whose guardian and uncle, Canon Fulbert, had supported her education to the extent that she was probably one of the most academically accomplished women of her time. Abelard's oeuvre took an abrupt turn from letters of philosophy to love ballads, and their affair was the talk of all Paris. This was brought to a violent end by Fulbert's henchmen, sent to castrate Abelard and forever separate the lovers. Thereafter, Héloïse in her convent and Abelard in seminary exchanged some letters, which survived to tell the story.
Why was Fulbert so vengeful? It was a calamitous misunderstanding; but there was much to misunderstand. Why did Abelard want to marry Héloïse only in secret, and live apart from her and from their son? Fulbert could not have understood that it was Héloïse who insisted on this, driven by a kind of feminism before its time, also by hero-worship for her lover who was also her teacher. I wanted to tell this story from Fulbert's point of view. To me, Fulbert represents the part of our mind that strives to protect us from every kind of danger it knows about. Tragic mistakes and much harm can result.
I wouldn't usually write a long ballad. As a songwriter I strive to illuminate the emotion of a brief moment. Here, I am placing Fulbert at the precise moment he has lost all patience. The song continues in a prophetic future tense. I think it works here.
The research: I reacquainted by reading the Abelard page on Wikipedia, and the extant letters collected at https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/aah/index.htm.
In my browsing I came upon an odd little piece of scholarship that more than gave me pause, and I'll end with this:
'The Héloïse complex, named for Héloïse D'Argenteuil, is defined as "a woman establish[ing] herself as a philosopher's loving admirer; the situation is profitable to him and fatal to her. She sees the master's philosophy as complete in itself and does not therefore feel condemned to invent or to think something that has never been thought of before". Given Héloïse's erudition and scholarship, her knowledge of languages and scripture, the classical allusions contained within her letters, her work as abbess of the Paraclete, and her defence of her philosophy of love, can we truly say that Héloïse had an Héloïse complex? We leave that for the reader to decide.'
you are a daughter of God, Héloïse
I ever will pray your heart finds peace
Héloïse, joy of my heart,
I provided your schooling, with pride, that you’d learn what you may
but would you had not
met one Scholar who’d accomplish your knowledge of men in this way
the better to teach within reach of you
his own room and board he did pay
I know that Peter never loved you, Héloïse
I ever will pray your heart finds peace
those bold lessons discovered,
he brought bribes for our servants, rope ladders for our garden wall
and next, took you away
you bore him a son I scant knew, for he had you in thrall
when, returning, he asked for your hand, but in secret,
I forgave him, and I granted it all
But I feared that Peter did not love you, Héloïse
I ever will pray your heart finds peace
now married, you two lived apart,
biding under my roof, were you happy? I’m chary to say
when I brought word of it out,
your anger, reprisals, and sadness I heard with dismay
your husband made haste to remove you
at Argenteuil convent, discarded and locked you away
I knew then that Peter never loved you, Héloïse
I ever will pray your heart finds peace
all my patience expended,
my band of rough men will attend to this scholar and find him
before he can wake,
they’ll come to his rooms in the dark, they will take him and bind him
on account of the one he maligned, then,
they will cut, cut away those parts which in manhood defined him!
Scholar Peter Abelard has brought you to sorrow
he shall stand and deliver come the morrow
years hence, as you bide in your cloister,
one letter penned in Abelard’s hand, it will find you
in these, his words to another,
all wounds will reopen, and bleed, in such wise that remind you
you’ll cry, it’s the person you love, not the man,
Héloïse, my child, thus maimed, he can not understand
Peter will tell you not to love him, Héloïse
he’ll bid that in God you seek your peace
you are a daughter of God, Héloïse
I ever will pray we two find peace
@ambroise Mar 2022
Beautyful banturi flute. And so mysterious ! It leads us away from middle age. But it does suggest a mystical haze uppon all the story.
A pretty bold move to take the Chanoine Fulbert's point of view.
@n1742 Mar 2022
lilting shuffle rhythm combines so well with the excellent string arrangement. great storytelling. inspires me to write more proper ballads (in the sense of telling stories). works so well to have subtle changes in the find peace line. excellent. worth listening to many many times.
@yarimurray Mar 2022
Bravo! Ambitious and confidently presented. The strings are masterful and the whole production is fantastic. Well done all!
@audrey Mar 2022
(I'm posting this again here so that all collaborators will see it.) This is a beautiful and touching melody and the music and production is incredible. And the lyrics - oh my! Enthralling storytelling with some impressive rhyming. I love it all! I had to listen twice. Kudos to all collaborators. What a fabulous song!
@timfatchen Mar 2022
Never did get the full story before...very 12thC but while wincing, can't say I can blame Fulbert for his actions. Okay the strigs section runs really well, not easy to do. It's a trap doing such things at a piano first, so much has to flensed off. This sounds like you did it properly ie from the start, and if you cheated too, well it's not evident. Very ballad overall and the about-to-be future tense is a clever choice. All up, can see why you waved this. Well done all!
@tseaver Feb 2022
Great take on the "villain" of the piece: I've always enjoyed thinking about the two of them, but never gave the Canon much thought. The strings darken and drive the story wonderfully.
@rickatfulcrum Feb 2022
That string part is everything I hoped it would turn out to be when I cut those drums.
@toms Feb 2022
This is transcendently good.
@datsch Feb 2022
Those strings! The roughshod cellos in the rough men verse, soaring melodic violas and violins, then the instrumental break is simply fabuloso with its renaissance feel, underpinned by Rick's drumming (I always love his drumming). The chorus is short and snappy but catchy and more than does the job of refrain, which is what a ballad calls for, I guess. Even better on the second listen!
@jeff9 Feb 2022
Stunningly ambitious and completely successful. I wasn't sure I was ready to take the time to wade through the length and complexity of this story in order to get taste of your work. First, I was drawn in by the purity of your vocal, its nimbleness at tracking the top line melody and the deft phrasing you used to manage these lengthy lines. But I was completely seduced by music and the story, especially as I read the liner notes. The sonic build was intoxicating. The whole project is simply genius and truly is the work of some fine artists. Much applause!
@pumpkinhead Feb 2022
Bombastic and beautiful. I love it when you get a little bit of anger in your voice and I almost think you will turn into a punk singer.
Crazy cool arrangement as well I gotta say and I can hear you worked hard with it. Congratulations.
Peace
@billwhite51 Feb 2022
ambitious and amazing. you have outdone such classical-rock combos such as the works of van dyke parks, david ack;les, and earh opera's the red sox are winning.