Voyage 7: Playful Moorea Whales

8 weeks ago by @timfatchenMod

Liner Notes

Whales and elephants. They're both huge. Elephants are ponderous even when they're moving fast, the shuffle which despite being faster than a person can run, nevertheless stays heavy, ponderous, momentum bound. But a whale now, there's nothing ponderous. Rather, sleek, swift, moving with sinuous consummate ease. And in the case of the humpback tribe in Moorea Island's lagoon when the cruise-ship entered, every bit intent on fun and games as a porpoise.

From the cruise ship, one could tell where the whale group was by watching the couple of small whale-watching boats with tourists from elsewhere aboard. Inside the reef. Out on to the bouncy ocean through the ship passage. And back inside. To and fro. But when the cruise ship started lightering its hordes for their island gadabouts, in the lifeboats which regrettably resembled a half-submerged Sesame Street schoolbus with rounded corners, the Moorea whales joined in the fun.

Whales have right of way. Which can be exercised (for a whale) by forcing boats to detour. And detour more. And detour again. And when making cruiseship passengers' waterbuses go round in circles palls, well, one can always put on a burst of speed across the bows and force an emergency boat stop in mid lagoon.

Mere coincidence? Not at all. The whales did their in-and-out feeding and romping with the normal whale watching craft most of the time, but put on the dodgem-boat act when the lightering traffic stepped up for the morning and afternoon rush hours.
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This bit of 9/8 #jiggerypokery didn't turn out as planned. I wanted a 4/4 whale left hand against a 9/8 sightseeing boat right hand, but found that while I can still visualize, and write, and hear, and play the two rhythms running against each other, damned if I can still #improvise/create and do it. So I gave up and came back later, and ran a #duopiano effort and forgot about the intended time difference.

Lyrics

Music by & Copyright © 2024 TJ Fatchen All Rights Reserved APRA-AMCOS
Samples courtesy Garritan Personal Orchestra

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