The Horse Whisperer

Etude, Tulou

The only concern - as I was welcomed onto the movie set during a lunch break - was whether the horses might get unsettled by the sound of the flute. As I set up to play using a pile of hay bales as a music stand, my host kept an eye on them (the horses, that is, not the hay bales!) to make sure they didn’t get spooked.

I had visions of scenes from Black Beauty as I began to play, stalls being broken down, wide-eyed stallions rearing up and escaping to freedom, etc; but one observation that was noted as everyone marvelled at the fine acoustics: “I think the horses were even calmer with the sound of the flute!”

The acoustics were rich and full, offering a wonderful harmonic reverberation to any of the music I selected, from Celtic hunting tunes to lilting Bach. The fleeting sounds of the flute serve as tribute to the relative permanence of this exquisite architectural space - it has been said that Architecture is like Music Frozen in Time, and this is a perfect example.

If you ever have a chance to tour Casa Loma, be sure to take the tunnel north under Spadina Road to explore this hidden treasure. And don’t forget to pack your penny whistle - maybe one that is pitched on the low side so as to put any horses you find there at ease!

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This encounter with horses, and some of the images from this short recording session reminded me of a familiar album cover, and I finally put it together: Bruce Cockburn used an Alex Coleville image for Night Vision, one of his best-selling recordings…the following is excerpted from Cockburn’s/Hamilton Art Gallery’s websites.

NOTE: For those in the Toronto area, this painting appears to be part of the permanent collection of the Hamilton Art Gallery, so if you have a free Sunday afternoon…!

Thus abandoned and solitary in the world, human beings are forced to confront their own freedom, a freedom to choose that is both demanding and deadly serious. One of Colville’s best-known works, Horse and Train, goes straight to the heart of this source of human anxiety and raises an essential question: can destiny be altered? A helpless witness to imminent disaster, the viewer of this painting can never know the outcome. Clearly, the train cannot deviate from its track, but the horse has a choice - we think. Is it mesmerized by the light? Is it challenging a foe? Is it aware of the terrible danger? If not, can the engineer stop the train in time? The animal may be driven by instinct, but the human faces an ethical dilemma: Is it worth stopping? How much does the death of a horse matter? Which is more dangerous - to brake and cause a possible derailment, or to keep going and risk a deadly collision? Can we halt time - the little that remains?

The picture was inspired by a poem published in 1949 by the South African writer Roy Campbell. Words by Wilfred Owen serve as the poem’s epigraph: “None will break ranks.” The poem itself includes the lines: “Against a regiment I oppose a brain / And a dark horse against an armoured train.” During his military career, Colville had exhibited an independence of mind that was not always appreciated by his superiors; it is a characteristic he subsequently cultivated, like his opposition to the various forms of 20th-century abstraction. In Horse and Train, the artist seems to be emphasizing the unavoidable need to make choices: despite the apparently hopeless situation and the magnetic power of the train’s light over the animal, we are witnessing a confrontation between two freedoms. The horse is free to change direction, the engineer to engage the brakes.