Glass Wave
Encyclopedia
Glass Wave is a Bay Area
cerebral rock band formed in 2008 by Robert Pogue Harrison
and Dan Edelstein, both professors of literature at Stanford University
. The band was conceived originally as a literary musical collaboration for their team-taught Introduction to the Humanities course entitled Epic Journeys, sponsored by the university's Department of French and Italian. At the end of the academic quarter in winter 2008, Harrison and Edelstein staged a surprise live musical performance for approximately 100 freshmen in their course. The performance consisted of classic rock adaptations of great epic works of the western canon including The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Divine Comedy
, and The Odyssey. Their initial name for the group was Arma Virumque, the first line of Virgil
’s Aeneid
, which reads “Arma virumque cano” (“I sing of arms and of a man”).
Harrison and Edelstein decided to expand the project by composing original music and lyrics inspired by great works from the western literary canon. They formed a band called Glass Wave, whose name derives from a quote in Ezra Pound
's Cantos:
In this episode, which Pound borrowed from Homer
's Odyssey
, Poseidon
disguises himself as a river and ravishes Tyro
, who was in love with the river god Enipeus.
Their first album was recorded and mixed in 2010 at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) by sound engineer Jay Kadis. The mastering was done by well-known San Francisco sound engineer Paul Stubblebine, who has mastered recordings by artists such as Jerry Garcia
.
, professor of Italian literature at Stanford University, plays lead guitar for Glass Wave. He and his brother Thomas played together in the progressive rock band Sleepy Hollow, which played at several important venues in Rome, Italy in the 1970s. Their commitment to progressive rock is apparent in many songs from Glass Wave's first album. Robert Harrison composed the music and lyrics for seven songs on the band's first album (Balena, Echo, Creature, Mrs. Bennet, Freud, Annabel Lee, and Moby Dick). Professor Harrison has the reputation for challenging the conventions of intellectual life on his radio program Entitled Opinions
Dan Edelstein, guitarist, keyboardist, and backup vocalist for Glass Wave, is professor of French literature at Stanford and specialist in 18th-century France and the Enlightenment
. He has published two books, The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution and the forthcoming The Enlightenment: A Genealogy. Edelstein was principally trained as a classical pianist, and his original keyboard compositions can be heard in the band’s songs Nausicaa and Ophelia. He composed music and lyrics for four songs on Glass Wave’s debut album (Helen, Nausicaa, Ophelia, and Lolita).
Christy Wampole, a Ph.D candidate in French and Italian at Stanford, worked primarily with French musicians before joining Glass Wave as lead vocalist. She began to perform French cabaret
and chanson
in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as a duet act called The French Jazz Project with saxophonist, keyboardist, and vocalist Pascal Valcasara. She continued to perform this style of music in the San Francisco Bay Area with guitarist and drummer Jérôme Mollard from Lyon in a duet called Cabaret Atomique. Although she has no formal vocal training, Harrison and Edelstein found that her haunting and unpolished voice suited the spirit of their compositions perfectly.
Thomas Harrison, bass player and professor of Italian literature and rock music at UCLA, has published several books, including 1910: The Emancipation of Dissonance and Essayism: Conrad, Musil and Pirandello. He has been much influenced by progressive rock, including bands such as Gentle Giant
, King Crimson
, and Soft Machine
. He taught a course on Pink Floyd
during the winter 2010 quarter at UCLA. Harrison is a more melodic than rhythmic bass player, a style that is characteristic of bass players such as Paul McCartney
and the early bassist for Supertramp
Roger Hodgson
.
The band’s drummer Colin Camarillo, the youngest member, is a Bay Area native. He specializes in jazz percussion. Camarillo studies film and is a professional videographer.
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
cerebral rock band formed in 2008 by Robert Pogue Harrison
Robert Pogue Harrison
Robert Pogue Harrison is Professor of Italian and Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature at Stanford University. His interests include the Italian lyric, Dante Alighieri, Vico, Phenomenology, and Literary Theory. He is the author of multiple books, including The Dominion of the Dead, and...
and Dan Edelstein, both professors of literature at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. The band was conceived originally as a literary musical collaboration for their team-taught Introduction to the Humanities course entitled Epic Journeys, sponsored by the university's Department of French and Italian. At the end of the academic quarter in winter 2008, Harrison and Edelstein staged a surprise live musical performance for approximately 100 freshmen in their course. The performance consisted of classic rock adaptations of great epic works of the western canon including The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
, and The Odyssey. Their initial name for the group was Arma Virumque, the first line of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
’s Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
, which reads “Arma virumque cano” (“I sing of arms and of a man”).
Harrison and Edelstein decided to expand the project by composing original music and lyrics inspired by great works from the western literary canon. They formed a band called Glass Wave, whose name derives from a quote in Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
's Cantos:
- Lithe turning of water,
- Sinews of Poseidon,
- Black azure and hyaline,
- Glass wave over Tyro...
In this episode, which Pound borrowed from Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
disguises himself as a river and ravishes Tyro
Tyro
In Greek mythology, Tyro was the daughter of Salmoneus and married Cretheus, but loved Enipeus. She gave birth to Pelias and Neleus, the twin sons of Poseidon. With Cretheus she had Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon....
, who was in love with the river god Enipeus.
Their first album was recorded and mixed in 2010 at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) by sound engineer Jay Kadis. The mastering was done by well-known San Francisco sound engineer Paul Stubblebine, who has mastered recordings by artists such as Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
.
Band members
Robert Pogue HarrisonRobert Pogue Harrison
Robert Pogue Harrison is Professor of Italian and Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature at Stanford University. His interests include the Italian lyric, Dante Alighieri, Vico, Phenomenology, and Literary Theory. He is the author of multiple books, including The Dominion of the Dead, and...
, professor of Italian literature at Stanford University, plays lead guitar for Glass Wave. He and his brother Thomas played together in the progressive rock band Sleepy Hollow, which played at several important venues in Rome, Italy in the 1970s. Their commitment to progressive rock is apparent in many songs from Glass Wave's first album. Robert Harrison composed the music and lyrics for seven songs on the band's first album (Balena, Echo, Creature, Mrs. Bennet, Freud, Annabel Lee, and Moby Dick). Professor Harrison has the reputation for challenging the conventions of intellectual life on his radio program Entitled Opinions
Entitled Opinions
Entitled Opinions is a literary talk show hosted by Robert P. Harrison, a professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast. Topics range broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience...
Dan Edelstein, guitarist, keyboardist, and backup vocalist for Glass Wave, is professor of French literature at Stanford and specialist in 18th-century France and the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. He has published two books, The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution and the forthcoming The Enlightenment: A Genealogy. Edelstein was principally trained as a classical pianist, and his original keyboard compositions can be heard in the band’s songs Nausicaa and Ophelia. He composed music and lyrics for four songs on Glass Wave’s debut album (Helen, Nausicaa, Ophelia, and Lolita).
Christy Wampole, a Ph.D candidate in French and Italian at Stanford, worked primarily with French musicians before joining Glass Wave as lead vocalist. She began to perform French cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as a duet act called The French Jazz Project with saxophonist, keyboardist, and vocalist Pascal Valcasara. She continued to perform this style of music in the San Francisco Bay Area with guitarist and drummer Jérôme Mollard from Lyon in a duet called Cabaret Atomique. Although she has no formal vocal training, Harrison and Edelstein found that her haunting and unpolished voice suited the spirit of their compositions perfectly.
Thomas Harrison, bass player and professor of Italian literature and rock music at UCLA, has published several books, including 1910: The Emancipation of Dissonance and Essayism: Conrad, Musil and Pirandello. He has been much influenced by progressive rock, including bands such as Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...
, King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, and Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
. He taught a course on Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
during the winter 2010 quarter at UCLA. Harrison is a more melodic than rhythmic bass player, a style that is characteristic of bass players such as Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and the early bassist for Supertramp
Supertramp
Supertramp are a British rock band formed in 1969 under the name Daddy before renaming to Supertramp in early 1970. Though their music was initially categorised as progressive rock, they have since incorporated a combination of traditional rock and art rock into their music...
Roger Hodgson
Roger Hodgson
Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is a British musician and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman, and founding member, of progressive rock band Supertramp....
.
The band’s drummer Colin Camarillo, the youngest member, is a Bay Area native. He specializes in jazz percussion. Camarillo studies film and is a professional videographer.
Literary references
The songs on Glass Wave's first album retell well-known stories from western literature.- Track 1: Balena. The first track, an instrumental ("Balena" is Italian for whale), includes humpback whalesong recorded by the renowned environmentalist Roger PayneRoger PayneRoger Searle Payne is a biologist and environmentalist famous for the 1967 discovery of Whale song among Humpback whales. Payne later became an important figure in the worldwide campaign to end commercial whaling.Payne studied at Harvard University and Cornell...
in the late 1960s. The viola part is played by music historian and Stanford professor Stephen Hinton. The first and last songs of the album share the theme of the whale.
- Track 2: Echo. This song retells OvidOvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's myth of Echo and NarcissusEcho and NarcissusEcho and Narcissus is an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Latin mythological epic from the Augustan period. The introduction of the myth of the mountain nymph Echo into the story of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who rejected sexuality and falls in love with his own reflection, appears to have...
from the point of view of the nymph EchoEcho (mythology)In Greek mythology, Ekho , "echo", itself from ἦχος , "sound") was an Oread who loved her own voice. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and visited them on Earth often. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mt...
.
- Track 3: Creature. The creature refers to Doctor Frankenstein's creation in Mary ShelleyMary ShelleyMary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
's FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
, or the Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818.
- Track 4: Lolita. The song's narrative voice is that of the nymphet Dolores Haze from Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's 1955 novel LolitaLolitaLolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
who expresses disgust about her new life with her middle-aged lover Humbert Humbert.
- Track 5: Nausicaa. NausicaaNausicaaNausicaa is a character in Homer's Odyssey . She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name, in Greek, means "burner of ships".-Role in the Odyssey:...
is a Phaeacian maiden from HomerHomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's OdysseyOdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
. She meets OdysseusOdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
, but a relationship between the two never materializes.
- Track 6: Helen. This song recounts the Greek mythological figure Helen of Troy's remembrances of her life before the Trojan WarTrojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
.
- Track 7: Ophelia. OpheliaOpheliaOphelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet.-Plot:...
, a character from Shakespeare's HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, narrates her own descent into madness. She sings about Hamlet's murder of her father PoloniusPoloniusPolonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet...
and Hamlet's apparent instability.
- Track 8: Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet, the mother of Elizabeth BennetElizabeth BennetElizabeth Bennet, later Elizabeth Darcy, is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family...
from Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's Pride and PrejudicePride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
, enumerates her successes in finding spouses for her five daughters.
- Track 9: Freud. Told in the voice of Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, who has had a significant impact on literary studies, this song explores the human subconscious. The song includes a thinly veiled reference to Twin PeaksTwin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
, David LynchDavid LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's television series from the early 1990s.
- Track 10: Annabel Lee. This song illustrates the form of the elegyElegyIn literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
. The poem "Annabel LeeAnnabel Lee"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He...
", published in 1849, was Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's last complete poem.
- Track 11: Moby Dick. Based on Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's epic novel Moby Dick, or The Whale (1851). This final song echoes the whale theme of the album's first song Balena. Apart from the initial chorus of mariners, the lyrics are sung in the voice of the great white whale after the shipwreck.