La Cathedrale Engloutie


Claude Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral” is based on a myth involving, well, a sunken cathedral off the coast of Brittany. The beautiful princess of a prosperous coastal town named Ys had an affair either with Satan or one of his many lieutenants on earth (as beautiful princesses tend to do). As punishment, the town was destroyed by sinking into the sea along with most inhabitants. Local legend held that on certain days you could hear the bells of the cathedral of Ys ringing from below. On other days, it was believed to rise briefly to the surface. Debussy begins by representing both waves and the ringing of the cathedral bells. As the cathedral rises, chanting monks and priests emerge, culminating with the great organ at 2:25: a brief emergence of a grand, underwater zombie Mass of the damned. Then it all sinks again until we just hear the bells. Near the end, the great organ melody makes a muted reappearance from the murky depths.

Beautifully creepy stuff here, with the obsessively perfect Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli looking like he’s playing this from deep within his castle in Transylvania. (He actually never lived in a castle in Transylvania, but for a while he did live in one near Brescia).

Eurovision 2021

I know I don’t need to tell anyone here that Måneskin’s Zitti E Buoni won Eurovision 2021. But as the blargh’s junior Eurovision correspondent, I feel obliged to include excerpts from all the performances.

Thanks, Renfield!

I’m currently obsessed with 1968, the album from which this song originates. Never would have heard of France Gall if not for you, Renfield. Thanks!

It’s you whom I want
Already I can’t take my eyes
off you anymore
And I could make you
a happy man
and since it’s you whom I want

I left my green years for my warm years
like a rose under the rain
I opened myself today to life
but already the brass bands and bugles there
shout to me not to see you anymore
and they point their fingers at me

But there will come a day when we have to separate
I feel so good in your arms
It’s you whom I want
Already I can’t take my eyes
off you anymore
And I could make you
a happy man
and since it’s me whom you want

I tell you, stay faithful to me
As long as you find
that I give you a bit of paradise
that I am beautiful as long as you love me
But I hear the brass bands that come back again
to tell me that sooner or later
our love will be dead

But there will come a day when we have to separate
I feel so good in your arms
It’s you whom I want
Already I can’t take my eyes
off you anymore
And I could make you
a happy man
and since it’s me whom you want

They tell me
that I am too young for eternal love
that in your arms every night
I am in hell when I believe I’m in heaven
But I hear the brass bands that come back
and they watch us to see
the end of our love

If there really must come a day when we have to separate
That day is not today
because neither the bugles nor the brass bands
will ever change my life
It’s you whom I want
And I can no longer
take my eyes off you