Aretha and Longfellow on voice and soul
"How wonderful is the human voice! it is indeed the organ of the soul! The intellect of man sits enthroned visibly upon the forehead and in his eye; and the heart of man is writtten upon his countenance. But the soul reveals itself in the voice only, as God revealed himself to the prophet of old, in "the still, small voice," and in a voice from the burning bush. The soul of man is audible, not visible. A sound alone betrays the flowing of the eternal fountain, invisible to man!" Henry David Longfellow
"Well, I think soul is certainly a feeling that is transmitted in one way or another. There is a transmitter and there is a receiver. sometimes the transmitter is the artist, and the receiver is the audience, and sometimes it's vice versa. In those moments of spontaneity, the audience is the transmiter and the artist is the receiver. It's something that's very empathetic -- and it's deep. Soul is deep." Aretha Franklin from The Soul Aflame a modern book of hours
Phil Cousineau, ed.
Conari Press
Berkeley CA
2000
