Leonardo and the Tyger in the Looking Glass
A Diversion and Another Side of Jeffrey
EdWeek published results of a fresh survey this morning regarding teachers’ plans to use ChatGPT during the new school year. Four in 10 intend to make some use of the bot, but most of the applications will be to assist the teacher with planning and assigning tasks. The biggest finding in my mind is this: They self-report not knowing how to make it work with students. Maybe next year. I’ve not seen any reports of whole-of-district responses, but not seeing reports doesn’t mean nothing is happening. I’ve been thinking of scheduling some interviews with folks I know here in California in county offices. If you have a name and contact information for someone positioned in a district office who would give me fifteen minutes, please send along the info.
The Chronicle of Education sent around an email this morning drumming up paid subscriptions at half price with the lure of a special collection of essays from writers who have experienced the bot and have ideas. Notably, a scattered group of higher educators dove in last Fall semester in November when OpenAI made the bot available in the 3.5 training version. So there is expertise from classroom experience in the Spring that is likely to circulate and seed productive classroom experimentation.
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Now for a diversion.
Leonardo and the Tyger meet in the mirror. As a four year old, Leonardo lived in a hovel, a bastard child housed on his wealthy father’s farm. As the story of the song opens, Leonardo is lying on his stomach on a dirt floor, his face pushed into a mirror, dazzled by the play of light beams, nose to nose with William Blake’s Tyger, battling it out for control of the light and the shadow in a metaphysical realm. Tyger tyger burning bright inside the mirror is defending his existence as the destructive element against an immortal cast in fearful symmetry. The third character is the Spider on the border of the glass, the watcher, Charlotte.
This is roughly the story of my song (click to hear—you may have to wait for a brief advertisement) “Leonardo and the Tyger in the Looking Glass.” I wrote the lyrics shortly after finishing Walter Isaacson’s biography of da Vinci, which had rekindled my interest in Mona Lisa sparked during an art appreciation course I took in community college fifty years ago, and I recorded the instrument tracks over a couple of weeks. My vision was to oscillate between Leonardo and the Tyger, airy and soaring during Leonardo’s surges in the battle, menacing, driving, distorted during the Tyger’s rise, the lightness and the dark in the dance of photons.
We recorded it what, four years ago, Jeffrey? Jeff Brodd is singing. His legato as the spider is spied spying on the twinning twining gladiators, the precocious child and the beast, lutes your ears and eyes outside the glass while his more forceful staccato reediness during the verses of the battle pull you into the imaginary domain where Leonardo as a child is learning about the light and the dark, where somebody lives and somebody dies.
I recorded the drum track just before I started to spend my regular morning practice time to the diatonic harmonica and Little Walter. A year previously I got a Roland electronic drum kit and practiced an hour a day for several months to develop the chops you hear on this master. I had not played the drum set for well over thirty years, but I played a lot during middle, high school, and my undergraduate years. I liked hanging out with music majors. It came back like riding a bike. It’s been several years since this drum track was recorded after structured practice. I couldn’t play it today without a month or so of prep, but it’s nice to know I haven’t lost something that was once vital to me.
The guitar tracks on this song also came about after several months of dedicated imitation. For a few months I zeroed in using a looper on leads played by Carlos Santana and Mark Knopfler. Needless to say, my guitar work isn’t quite at that level, but it reaches toward it, a valiant effort, on this recording. The last few years I’ve been focused on vocals, vocal harmony, and covers that folks of my generation appreciate at farmer’s markets and backyard parties. So my chops for lead guitar have degenerated a bit.
Jeff and I have maybe ten of my originals on SoundCloud.com from this era. I personally like “Leonardo and the Tyger” and “An American Dream” best. Jeffrey probably has other favorites, but I know he likes these tracks, too.
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https://on.soundcloud.com/TvfnELiNbdvBWrZ99