“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree…”

Sounds good to me! As I sit here like Sardanapalus luxuriating amidst my musical treasures, I contemplate the short life and creative promise of Charles Tomlinson Griffes.

Griffes’ was a unique voice in American music. At the beginning of his life, our native composers mostly emulated Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms; by the end, they were starting to gravitate toward jazz. By contrast, Griffes, like the painter Mary Cassatt, was attracted to French Impressionism, yet the weird incense of Scriabin also permeates his work.

He is best known for dreamy meditations like “The White Peacock” and “The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan,” after Coleridge.

Griffes was born in Elmira, NY, on this date in 1884. He died of influenza in 1920, aged only 35 years.

Elmira was Mark Twain’s home from 1870. I’ve sometimes wondered if the two ever met. It has been documented that Griffes saw Twain there when moving about the streets. They certainly adhered to very different aesthetics.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-03-14-elmira-new-york-mark-twain_N.htm

Take some time today to enjoy an opiate dream at the Pleasure-Dome:

PHOTO: It’s good to be the king