keeper of forgotten songs - design concept // april MOTM // sfw

thanks again to ariana dawnhawk for suggesting the MOTM design prompt "keeper of forgotten songs"!

wikipedia defines "song" as "a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice." however, i wanted to widen the scope, so this character is themed on all kinds of music -- lyrical, instrumental, and theatrical.

part of his outfit draws on costumes worn in musical theatre -- more specifically, older types of plays that involve music and song. the hair is based on the long wigs seen in kabuki performances such as the dance renjishi. the two flags on his back are from chinese opera, where they would be part of the costumes of military characters. the shoulder pieces include a pair of quintessential greek theatre masks, because ancient greek dramas usually included a chorus that would sing parts of the play.

as for musical animals, songbirds immediately come to mind. the pauldrons look like the yellow wings of orioles; the red cloth that hang from his belt mimic the wings of cardinals; and the colour scheme of his body is based on robins, with a red chest against an otherwise grey and brown palette. one could also say that the howling of wolves is a type of song, hence the mask. though admittedly, it looks a bit more like a non-descript canine than a wolf, and it's aesthetically is a bit inspired by the fox masks one might see in kyogen plays like tsurigitsune.

the most overt visual representation of music is probably the instruments he carries. the birch trumpet on his back (and seen on the sketch) is a thousand year old instrument from northern europe, historically used to call back cattle from pasture, send messages, and scare off predators as well as dangerous supernatural beings. a flute made from bone hangs form his waist, as a nod to the world's oldest preserved instruments. examples include the hohle fels and geissenklösterle flutes, which are between 35 000 to 43 000 years old. there's also a kantele, which is a type of zither, included here as a reference to the finnish epos kalevala. the story features a kantele made from the jawbone of a pike (crafted by the mage väinämöinen) and the songs themselves may be performed to kantele music.

other details mimic instruments (or parts thereof). over his heart there's a round opening like that of a guitar, with literal heart strings strung across his chest. from his sleeve and belt hang strips of white and black fabric that look like piano keys. guitar picks have been made into necklaces, ear rings, and a belt adornment. and i was originally going to include more metallic jewellery that seemed to be made from brass instruments like trumpets and saxophones, but ultimately left them out of the final painting. however, his claws and the strips that hold together his mask has a brass sheen.

the sheets of musical notation scattered all over the background of the painting speak for themselves (and his limbs are plastered with talismans cut from such sheets; are they sealing something...?). but the clay tablets that dangle from his belt are also a form of musical notation. they are a reference to the world's oldest preserved melody: the hymn to nikkal, from around 1400 BCE. it survives on a cuneiform tablet, along with other hurrian songs. (youtube has several reconstructions of what it might have sounded like!)

his tattered coat would have been fashionable at the 18th century royal courts where european opera flourished. i love the play/movie amadeus, about salieri's disdain for the more talented mozart; perhaps this coat once belonged to another composer who have long since faded out of anyone's memory.

on that note, this character is the keeper of forgotten songs, specifically. to illustrate this aspect, i wanted his outfit and belongings to seem old, withered, and weathered, as if nobody had thought to care for them in decades. the fabric of his clothing is tattered and worn; yellowed and faded like old photographs. the wooden mask is cracked, its paint flaking off. cracks also emanate from the open hollow where his heart should be, and sprawl across the faces of comedy and tragedy. and i couldn't include any overt allusions to well-known songs, since they are the opposite of forgotten.

while adagio & allegro were inspired by folklore, this design is more theatrical. it transcends time and space, as it contains references to different kinds of music from many different parts of the world and eras (ranging from modern guitar picks to a paleolithic bone flute). i imagine this character as a wandering collector of songs and melodies, who remembers that which others have forgotten. one step can carry him back and forth through the centuries, or from one end of the earth to the other.

we can't know that the songs of the earliest humans sounded like, tens of thousands of years ago, but we know that they must have sung. the hurrian hymns were preserved, but countless other clay tablets recording other melodies have long since crumbled to dust. nobody will ever hear them again, despite someone's effort to write them down. we still perform timeless classics that are hundreds of years old -- but what of the plays, songs, and operas that, at some point, faded into obscurity? some tunes were only ever heard once, when a musician was leisurely improvising. others were never heard at all, such as the strumming of a shy musician who never found the courage to play their guitar when others could hear, too embarrassed to sing lyrics they wrote in secret. but still, at some point, those songs existed. music is impermanent, but has always meant so much to people. and he remembers.

// art + character © me.