Der König in Thule (The King in Thule) is a German poem about love and loss by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, written in 1774. Hector Berlioz used it in his opera, The Damnation of Faust which was presented on December 6, 1846, at the Opéra-Comique, in Paris with a French translation.
One night, a year or so after I met Tom, I played the opera, with Joan Sutherland singing the role of Marguerite, for him; when he heard the aria, The King in Thule, he was riveted and moved to tears. He was mystified that, as had happened so many times to him before, although he didn't understand the language he could be so emotionally moved. I remember telling him about the concept of ethos: the power of music to influence emotions, behaviors, and even morals with no verbal cues. Although he had a great knowledge of music history, this began my introducing him to the intangible power of music to influence a person even with no musical background references. How certain chords, modulations and progressions inherently have a resonance that triggers an emotion or reaction of some kind.
He in turn began to teach me ways of viewing art that had no basis in having knowledge about it which lead him to introduce me to The Ways of Seeing by John Berger, a book that criticizes traditional Western aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images; he also introduced me to Jacques Lacan and many other personages which gave me new perspectives on viewing art. I taught him how to hear and he taught me how to see. We enjoyed a marvelous symbiosis.
Well, back to Berlioz all those years ago, when the opera was finished, he said that when he died, if there was a memorial for him, he wanted The King in Thule to be used. He only mentioned it that one evening but on many occasions when he came to my studio he would ask me to play it for him.
Last December when he died, some fifty years later, I remembered what he had said and I created a video for him (link below) with The King in Thule as the soundtrack and photos of our fifty year relationship accompanying it. The video fills me with a mixture of joy, nostalgia and an ache in my heart every time I watch it.
His second wish was that his ashes would be taken to Menorca, an island off the coast of Barcelona in Spain. That is the second promise to him I will keep in a couple of weeks.
Hector Berlioz ~
Tom White Celebration of Life - July 11, 2026 The Conversation ~ How John Berger changed our way of seeing art
The Guardian ~
Independent ~ Through the looking-glass: Berger's groundbreaking book
Internet Archive ~ All the rage : the story of gay visibility in America
Learn Lacan ~ Logic of Fantasy
Frederica von Stade ~ The King of Thule
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