Musical Monday: Perfuming The Posy - Lincolnshire That Is (Mvt. 3: Rufford Park Poachers)

*Current Fragrance: The Smell of Weather Turning by LUSH
*Currently Listening: Lincolnshire Posy (Mvt. 3) by Percy Grainger
(Just couldn't write about them, without being enveloped by both of them.)

I'm back from "Spring Break"! About the most exciting thing that happened (and if you're a part of my life life, facebook life or twitter life you'll know this...) was my cutting off about 5 inches of my hair and henna-ing it red. I LOVE it! (I'll post a picture at the end.)

I love the smell of impending rain. It's both unsettling and exciting from the same standpoint. I love the look of rainclouds across the horizon; both impending doom of a storm, coupled with the earth nourishing water that we so often desperately need...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had full intentions of writing about something completely different for today's Musical Monday...something much more cheery and upbeat (I think I'll save that for next Monday); I was mulling it over in my brain on the way home & when I stepped off the train and took a deep breath in.... "Ah! I smells like rain." That deep, ozone-y smell that by the time it hit the very innermost depths of your ability to take it in....turns to mint. I LOVE that that smell! By the time I opened the door to our house, I was being spat upon by the rain. Done deal! Third movement of the Posy it was; and I already had a the perfect fragrance to go with it! Take a listen...

I've always thought that "Rufford Park Poachers" sounded like a storm that approaches slowly, slowly sprinkles, starts to rain more and more steadily, thunder cracks, the rain pelts down, tapers off, and then the sun slowly comes out, but you can tell that it has just rained. It's so obvious to my ears. This has been the story in my head since the first time I heard the movement. It's the watering can to Grainger's bunch of "musical wildflowers."

Given that description, picking a scent called The Smell of Weather Turning was kind of an obvious choice, but I would have selected it even it were called something like "Mint and Hay in a Bottle" or "Ike" or "No. 304856"...you get my point. I picked it because it really DOES smell like a storm approaching, storming, and then leaving.

I'm a SUCKER for mint. SUCKER!!!!! So with mint as a top note, you've got me! The mint in The Smell of Weather Turning is both bracing and comforting. It wakes you up, soothes you and invites you on a journey; much like the opening chord of "Rufford Park Poachers." A smokey note starts to mingle with the mint and it takes on the hauntingly beautiful incense quality, as if the storm is rolling over an abandoned stone church. The building is past its prime, but much more beautiful in its state of decay than one would have originally realized.

The oakwood and hay dance together in hint of sweetness/earthy swirl as the "rain storm" (if you will), continues. It settles sweet, yet earthy. I can smell the beeswax, reminding me that the rain has come and gone, the flowers will bloom again; thus hearkening the bees to them. Wow...now I want honey!

The Smell of Weather Turning is comforting in a soul affirming way. Storms come and go and there is beauty in the process; just as in music, music making and in life.

Oh yeah...new hair! :o)

*Currently Listening: Perpetual Dawn by The Orb
**Photo Credits: 1) wunderground.com 2) lushusa.com 3) opacity.us & 4) my own

Perfuming the Posy: Lincolnshire That Is (Mvt 1 - Lisbon)

*Current Fragrance: Jade by Olivier Durbano
*Currently Listening: Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys

Happy Musical Monday, all! Just for a little scorecard keeping on "Perfuming the Posy: Lincolnshire That Is", we've now scented movement 4, The Brisk Young Sailor and movement 3, Rufford Park Poachers. Today we're going to broach the first movement of the work: Lisbon. Take a listen...

Lisbon has often been described as a sailor's song with plenty of "lilt". I guess I've been in an aquatic-mood as of late, so this one has been fun! Lisbon isn't just some straight forward sea-chantey. It's got plenty of spunk and character and takes advantage of a rather large spectrum of "color" that is available to wind bands. I wanted to find a fragrance with a large aquatic punch, that had some...well...cheekier aspects to it; I found it, with Bond No. 9's Coney Island.

 

The Bond No. 9's website copy for Coney Island lists notes of Margarita mix, melon guava, cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, musk, vanilla, cedarwood, sandalwood. I have to say that I was incredibly curious to try Coney Island, as I was afraid it was going to be a hot mess...which is what also put me off from it for quite sometime.

Upon sniffing it, it opens will a BIG dose of OCEAN, almost bordering on POOL. After the initial super-aquatic hit dies down you get the margarita mix and guava. I thought it was going to be a good deal more saccharin than it was...you know with the margarita mix, chocolate and caramel.... The cinnamon and the musk (clean and white) does a really good job of tamping that down. The cinnamon tickles my nose a little. I like cedarwood, it's sea-spray soaked...like a boardwalk. The sandalwood is deep, yet unobtrusive.

I imagine our sailor as the protagonist in Lisbon. He's got some time of from the navy and he's strolling down a rather colorful waterfront boardwalk whistling to himself. I don't think it is the all-out carnival land of Coney Island, but it surely has its share of "flavorful" delights (be it sight, smell or sonic). I can hear it in the abrupt and unexpected (since it is at the VERY beginning of the work) changes in voicing and timbre hearken, in my mind, for a fragrance that is more than just sea and shore. I think Coney Island totally fits the agenda.

*Currently Listening: Set Fire To The Rain by Adele

**Photo Credits: bondno9.com

Perfuming The Posy (Lincolnshire That Is): Mvt. 2 - Harkstow Grange

First and foremost, this post is a love letter.

I can assure you that this is written through gobs and gobs of tears. Tears that I just can't help but cry at how remarkably beautiful and special this music and this perfume is.

Some things in this world (people, places, pieces or music, paintings, fragrances) just get their hooks into you from the get-go. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not a BAD thing; far from it - it's actually good. You didn't really choose to love it, you just DO!

I have been avoiding writing this post for I think at least a month now. I knew it was going to be very bittersweet. 

It is very easy for me to remember where I was...not just the place, but the room and exactly where I was IN the room. I was 15, and it's had its grip on my ever sense. Speaking of grip, that's what this movement is like to me. It's an amazing sonic hug or handhold. The sound is continuous, yet ever changing (which, is true of all emotions worth their salt) up to the final grace note...which is an aural squeeze of sorts, like what you do just before you left go.

There's this melancholic yearning to Harkstow Grange. It's the most beautiful kind of heart breaking sadness - sadness isn't even the right word for it - it's far too dynamic to be sad. There's just a sort of unexplainable beauty there. If you haven't listened to it before, please take the time now.

Finding a perfume to stand up to my unabashed love of Harkstow Grange wasn't exactly an easy task, but I settled on Edmond Roudnitska's creation Le Parfum de Thérèse. A scent of this movement alluded me for a very long time, until it just suddenly hit me what it should be. There's beauty, there's a bit of melancholia and just by sniffing LPdT, you get the sense that it is a deeply personal creation, which it is!

I've talked about LPdT before, and  don't really want to COMPLETELY reinvent the wheel, so perhaps just some very appropriate quoting! :o)

"I can say with absolute certainty that I have found "My Malle" in Le Parfum de Thérèse. I love Lipstick Rose, Carnal Flower and Geranium pour Monsieur, but they just weren't making the emotional connection that I wanted. Every time until today that I tried Le Parfum de Thérèse, I loved it, but felt a subdued melancholic elegance, mixed with a twinge on nostalgia...for what, I wasn't quite sure....

...The retro yet ahead of its time vibe coupled with the fact that it was made for the perfumers wife and was worn exclusively by her for so many years, it all made sense to me. A close familiarity with something, wanting to hold on to it while still looking ahead. This is a sentiment that I hold very dear. So there you have it, now I have "My Malle". Now, anyone want to lend me that cash to buy a proper bottle? ;-)"

But Kathleen, does DOES LPdT smell? It's REALLY hard for me to describe, because I'm just so emotionally wrapped up in it. The best way I can describe it is this: take a Classic (your favorites of the perfume days gone by), something you know you love, and wrap it in something unexpected (in this case, it's a watery melon). It's the familiar swaddled in the unexpected. You know you love it, you know you're going to love it; yet every time you get a whiff - it simultaneously breaks and overjoys your heart. THAT is why I scented Harkstow Grange with Le Parfum de Thérèse!

I've really, REALLY enjoyed this "Perfuming The Posy" series! I can't wait to tackle Strauss' "Four Last Songs"! I hope to get more in depth breaking things apart and not just giving one movement a fragrance, but giving all the different components a fragrance - kinda of like analyzing the piece, but with scents, not symbols.

In case you missed any of the "Perfuming The Posy" posts, here they are...in order!
1) Lisbon = Bond No. 9's Coney Island
2) Harkstow Grange = Le Parfum de Thérèse
3) Rufford Park Poachers = Gorilla Perfume's The Smell of Weather Turning
4) The Brisk Young Sailor = Jo Malone's White Jasmine & Mint
5) Lord Melbourne = Serge Lutens' Muscs Kublai Khan
6) The Lost Lady Found = Diptyque's L'Ombre dans l'Eau