June 28, 2023 • 22 mins
Journalist Emma Clark travels to Switzerland in order to continue her investigation into her boyfriend's old flatmate Clara Torres, an art student who mysteriously vanished. Before her disappearance, Clara had become obsessed with a 20th century avant-garde painter, Ursula Blum. Why did Clara disappear? How could Ursula Blum be connected?
Blum is an audio drama produced by El Extraordinario, created, written, and directed by Carmen Pacheco and Manuel Bartual.
This episode stars Charlotte Vega, Joe Manjón, Jason Fernández, Rocío León, Isabelle Stoffel y Marcus H.
Sound design by Ignacio Cantisano and Andreu Quesada.
Original music by Van Delay.
Production by Marina Alonso-Carriazo and Marcus H.
Executive production by Marcus H and Marina Alonso-Carriazo.
For more information, visit:
http://MySwitzerland.com/BLUM
Blum is an audio drama produced by El Extraordinario, created, written, and directed by Carmen Pacheco and Manuel Bartual.
This episode stars Charlotte Vega, Joe Manjón, Jason Fernández, Rocío León, Isabelle Stoffel y Marcus H.
Sound design by Ignacio Cantisano and Andreu Quesada.
Original music by Van Delay.
Production by Marina Alonso-Carriazo and Marcus H.
Executive production by Marcus H and Marina Alonso-Carriazo.
For more information, visit:
http://MySwitzerland.com/BLUM
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Elistrau. The bell you're hearing iscalled Mukai Gane, which means welcoming bell
in Japanese. Every year, onAugust seventh, hundreds of pilgrims line up
(00:25):
to ring it at the Rokudo chinoJi Temple in Kyoto. This ritual marks
the beginning of the Oban Festival,the Japanese version of All Souls Day.
The bell is hungover a well,and legend says that its sound can be
heard in the great beyond. Thatway, the spirits of the dead know
that it's time to reunite with theirrelatives. This is Seema, a Turkish
(00:56):
Sufi ceremony. You've probably seen dervishesbefore, those dancers that whirl around with
their white skirts billowing like bells.They spin faster and faster like orbiting planets,
using dance and music to go intoa trance. Their right hands rise
towards the sky and their left handspoint toward the earth. In that state
(01:18):
of mystic ecstasy, they become asymbol of the connection between the human and
the divine. Dervish is a Persianword that literally means seeker of doors.
(01:40):
The idea that sound and music canconnect the world of the living with a
higher dimension is not unique to anyspecific culture, and can be found in
myths and religions around the world.For instance, in the twelfth century German
Saint Hildegard vom Bingen wrote in aletter, the soul is symphonic and the
song of the human soul is anecho of the celestial harmony. To understand
(02:02):
what Hildegard is talking about when shesays celestial harmony, we have to go
back a further fifteen hundred years toPythagoras and his theory of the music of
the spheres. Broadly speaking, thetheory puts forward the idea that the mathematics
(02:23):
that govern the laws of the universecan be translated into music, just as
all music can be translated into numbers. If the motion of each celestial body
produces a sound, then together theycan create a grand celestial harmony. But
if the universe produces sound, whycan't we hear its music? Pythagoraeans say
(02:44):
is because we are born and immersedin it. It's like a background noise
that our brain blocks out because it'salways been there. This theory survived from
many centuries all the way through tothe Renaissance. The ominous music here now
was written in sixteen nineteen by astronomerJohann Kepler in his work Harmonices Mundi.
(03:07):
According to his calculations, this iswhat Mars would sound like. Over time,
different philosophers added their own ideas tothe theory to adapt it to their
religious beliefs. At some point itexpanded beyond just celestial bodies to include the
(03:30):
entire cosmos, from the tiniest tothe largest elements. Let's go back to
Abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Apart frombeing a saint, she was also a
writer, philosophers, scientist, andcomposer. Hildegard said heavenly music can be
(03:53):
found in all things, but humanslost the ability to hear it when they
were cast out of Eden. Theway to recover for that ability is through
song, since, according to thesaint, singing is a form of remembering.
It allows us to reconnect with adivine and to add our voice to
the celestial harmony. In her mysticalact Disease, Hildegard her music, which
(04:17):
she then transcribed. Although she hadno classical training, she composed seventy eight
songs that she compiled under the titleSymphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations.
(04:38):
This music was composed by a Swisswoman born seventh centuries later, in eighteen
seventy seven, less than two hundredmiles from where the abbess once lived.
Here's something she wrote. This ancientland has a heart made of mountains,
rivers and lakes, and we haveour cities on top of them and filled
(05:01):
them with our noise. We aredeaf, But when light hits the water,
and when birds fly across the skyto greet me, these times stand
still and I can hear something.I can hear music, I can hear
the Earth's heart beat. Ursula Bloomwrote those words at the dawn of the
(05:24):
twentieth century. She was a painterand composer, and like Hildegarde, she
may also have thought that she wasn'tcomposing music, she was simply hearing it.
But here I am talking away andI haven't even introduced myself or told
you what this is all about.My name is Emma Clark. I'm a
(05:46):
journalist, and for the last fewmonths I've been obsessing over Ursula Bloom and
the few facts I've been able tofind out about her life. But Before
we move on to Arsla's life,let me tell you about how I discovered
her, because that's a whole otherobsession. Hi David, UM, I'm
so sorry for springing this on you, but um, I'm not coming back.
(06:09):
I know it sucks, but I'vepaid my part of the rent and
I'm sure you'll find someone to movein next month. Right, you can
get rid of the stuff that I'veleft behind in my room. I mean,
whatever you want to do with it, it's fine. I don't care.
I hope you don't take this personality, but please don't text me or
(06:29):
call me again. I'm going toDISCONNECTU number. Well bye. I that's
that's no way to start. Let'sput the voice recorded here here. That's
David, my boyfriend. He's goingto be editing the sound for this podcast.
(06:50):
We've been living together for a coupleof years, and we're actually in
our living room right now. Iwant David to walk us through a few
things. When did you receive thevoice mess which we just heard. Is
that your journalist voice? You didsay you're going to help me? Right?
Okay, Okay, I forgot sorry. Clara sent the message on April
(07:12):
fourth, twenty eighteen, and who'sClara? Well, I used to share
this house with Clara and another guycalled Alex. Your office used to be
her room. I think she livedhere for about two years. Yeah,
that sounds about right. Whose houseis this then? Tell us a little
bit about that. Well, thehouse is mine now because I inherited it.
(07:35):
Back then, it was my grandma'swho rented it out to me.
I lived here when I was atuniversity and shared it with other students.
Clara, Alex and I shared theplace for about two years. Paul moved
in when Clara left. I metyou around that time, and then my
(07:55):
grand died and left me the house. Alex and Paul moved out. I
renovated it and we live here now. That's about it, Okay, So
what happened after Clara messaged you?I called her the minute I heard her
message, but her phone was alreadyswitched off. Alex also called her over
and over again that month. Herphone was always off until one day a
(08:18):
voice message informed us that the phonehad been disconnected. She lived with you,
guys for two years, and younever heard from her again after that,
not a word ever. She didn'teven come back for a thing.
She just vanished into thinny. Whatabout her friends? Did they know what
was going on? Well, Alexonly knew one of Clara's friends, a
(08:39):
classmate from UNI. He managed tocontact her, but she didn't have a
clue either. We never met anyof her relatives in those two years.
We just knew that she was fromMadrid and that she was studying in London.
Were you worried? Sure? Imean, it was strange, even
why Clara's standards. It was weirdof her to disappear like that. We
(09:01):
even thought about going to the police, but what could we say. In
her message, she made it clearthat she was leaving the house. You
said it was strange, even byClara standards. What do you mean?
Well, come on, I'm notbeing mean, you know me? Yeah,
I like strange, Yeah, yeah, I get it. Well,
(09:22):
Clara was beyond weird. She alwayskept to herself, and she'd been acting
even stranger for the last couple ofmonths before she left. What do you
mean? She was working on herPhD. She'd finished her history degree and
was research and a Swiss painter Bloomexactly, Yeasa Bloom. Two or three
weeks before she called, she'd goneto Switzerland. We think that's where she
(09:45):
called us from, but there's noway to know for sure. What do
you mean she was acting weird orweirder than usual those months? It was
her music. We were all losingour minds because of her fucking music.
Sparkling water for me, Please,I already knew all this stuff you just
heard about Clara. David ended uptelling me about her, just not when
(10:07):
we first met. Back then hewas living with Paul and Alex and they
never mentioned Clara. I only happenedto find out about her recently by accident.
Actually, this is the first timeI've asked Alex about her. Well,
I get why David didn't tell youabout Clara. We're all in shock
at first, and when that woreoff, well, you know, we're
pretty annoyed, especially David. Lateron, when Paul moved in, we
(10:31):
just kind of forgot about the wholesituation. I mean, there wasn't that
much to say about it anyway.David says you were closer to Car than
he was. Definitely, I wouldn'tsay they didn't get along. They just
didn't click. They won't completely differentwavelengths just co exist in the same space
and that's not my thing, asyou will know. Yeah, I certainly
(10:52):
do. I sometimes cook a mealand we'd get together for dinner. I
like doing that every so often.Too great a sense of camera. Ye,
and David's grandma hard a cleaner,so we didn't need to handle the
daily chores and all that. Yeah, I definitely can't pickture you just sharing
a space with someone and nothing else. Well, I mean to tell you
the truth. She didn't pay muchattention to me and we weren't exactly friends.
(11:16):
She always kept herself hidden away inher room when she did need to
talk to someone, but she wouldcome to me, and that's why I
was upset when she sent the messageto David and not to me, although
I suppose it would have been evenworse if she sent me that message out
of the blue, like it wasour landlady's grandson. After it is the
sparkling water for you, Yeah,thanks the beards for me. Alex is
(11:37):
one of the nicest and most sociablepeople. I know. It's not hard
to be friends with him. Soif Clara avoided him, I guess David
isn't exaggerating. She must have beena super private person. But I asked
Alex about the music. Well,she'd been with us for a little over
a year and I've never heard musiccoming from her room before. She might
have had the radio on occasionally,or maybe she wore headphones. Nomise isn't
(12:01):
really an issue for me. Shestarts working on her PhD, and all
of a sudden, she's blasting thisclassical music and I'm like, have you
heard of headphones? And she goes, well, I have to listen to
it like this, And on topof that, it's the same music over
and over again. And get this. About a month later, she went
out and bought herself a keyboard andstarted playing the melody herself. But it
(12:24):
just didn't sound right. What doyou mean it didn't sound right, like
well, it sounded like she wasplaying it in a different key. You
know, I don't really have aclue about music. But did you say
something to her? Of course wedid. We asked her to turn it
down several times. We've got herto agree to that at least, which
(12:45):
made it slightly more bearable. Itwasn't so much the volume as the fact
that she was playing the same musicobsessively. And do you remember the music?
Do I ever, like I swear, I hear that music and my
dreams sometime I can see do youright now if you want to dun dun
dun d d dun dun dun dundunn d Clara Taurus, I wonder if
(13:22):
you'll I will listen to this podcast. I know you haven't published your PhD
on our sol Bloom yet because I'vesearched for it and nothing comes up.
There's almost no information about you online, and that's quite an achievement in this
day and age. I hope whatI'm about to tell you doesn't bother you
too much. I've seen your oldInstagram account, although it's private, and
your last post appears just before youdisappeared. Alex let me have a look
(13:45):
at it, and I took screenshotsof the few photos you posted when you
were in Switzerland. I also haveall of your things full disclosure. That's
how I found out about you.David never got round to throwing them out.
He didn't. No, I didn'tsee that one coming. I was
so pissed off at Clara for havingleft us in the lurch like that,
(14:05):
I said we should keep them justin case she came back. But we
wanted to chuck them out. Ayear or so after she left, we
sold and got rid of the biggeritems like the bookcases and the keyboard,
But the clothes she didn't pack forthe trip and the rest of her stuff
it all fit in a big oldsuitcase that we left lying around the house.
(14:26):
I mean, she didn't have much. It was really beer like like
a nun's room. She did havea set of books that she was using
for her research, but that's prettymuch it. I can't believe the suitcase
survived the renovation. I know,right when I was getting the house ready,
I thought this has to go.I mean, I got rid of
so many things and some stuff thatused to belong to my grant, But
(14:46):
I couldn't bring myself to get ridof that suitcase. How come I don't
know, I mean, I guessI thought it was like the only evidence
that Alex and I have that Claraexisted. Otherwise, it feels like,
you know, David's right. IfI hadn't found that suitcase when I was
going through the closet in the hall, I would never have found out about
(15:07):
Klara. And even if David andAlex had told me about her, she
would have been nothing but a distantblure of a person, a memory of
a memory. But being able togo through her things makes Clara feel like
a real person. She really didn'thave much stuff, especially compared to what
I would have accumulated if I'd livedin that room for two years, just
(15:28):
some summer clothes, a pair ofsandals, some necklaces on a couple of
books. If I didn't know shewas doing her PhD on an avant garde
female painter, I'd say she's ina Greek and Roman art. There's a
Greek and a Latin dictionary, andit looks like she only wore neutral colors.
There's not a single print in sight. The things Klara left behind say
(15:50):
a lot about her, but I'mnot interested in her style or even her
personality. I want to know abouther obsessions. It's not uncommon to gather
hundreds of papers and photo copies ona certain subject when you're working on your
PhD. But the notes in themargins and the underlining are compulsive. There
are four Latin words that appear severaltimes. I've looked them up. Mortua
(16:14):
means dead, VIXI means lived,TAKUI means I'm silent or I've got a
secret, and dulcekano, which Ithink is actually two words, and that
means to sing sweetly. But thosearen't the only words that appear frequently.
This one, for instance, isa printed document about women and medieval music
that mentions Hildegarde vom Bingen. Claraused a red pen to write voss day
(16:40):
on it, which means the voicesof God in Latin, but she didn't
write it just once. It's writtenin the margin nine times in a row.
There are a lot of notes onthe history of music and the sear
of the harmony of the spheres.Did Rsala Bloom think that was the music
she heard? I'm not sure.There's barely any information about her online,
(17:03):
just a handful of art blogs,but they all seemed to repeat the same
facts about her. Maybe Clara discovereda ton of other things, but if
so, that information must have beenon the computer she took with her to
Switzerland. She left behind photocopies ofher art books and a short summary of
Ursula Bloom's life. This is allI've been able to find out about her
(17:25):
so far. Bloom was born ineighteen seventy seven. In Saint Gallen,
a small city in Switzerland. Shewas the only daughter of a wealthy family
who owned a textile company. Shewent to a Catholic boarding school that was
run by nuns, and from avery young age she showed a flair for
music and painting. In eighteen ninetyeight, she moved to Munich to study
(17:48):
art. That's where she supposedly metanother Swiss painter who was also studying there
at the time and became friends withhim. His name was Paul Clay.
In nineteen eleven, Clay introduced herto a group of painters from Munich that
called themselves the Blue Rider, ledby vasili Kandinsky. Bloom style matches the
groups. Her paintings depict Swiss landscapesusing violent brushstrokes and intense colors. They
(18:14):
could also be classed as fauvest giventhe bold use of color. When World
War One broke out in nineteen fourteen, Ursula Bloom was in Switzerland, and
even though her country was neutral,she enlisted as a nurse to help soldiers
from both sides who crossed the border. Here's something weird about that period.
Several biographic notes mentioned that Ersla useda sort of music therapy with the soldiers
(18:37):
to help treat their PTSD. Let'stake a break here music therapy in a
field hospital during World War One.It's hard to imagine from here on.
There's a gap in her story.We have no information on Hersla blooms slide
from the end of World War Oneuntil nineteen twenty. That year, Ursula
(18:59):
had a severe of his breakdown andwas committed to a psychiatric hospital in Geneva,
and she never left. In nineteentwenty three, she threw herself out
of the window of her room anddied. She was only forty six.
Maybe I should have warned you thatUrsula Bloom's story was tragic, not only
because of her demise, but becauseof how little we know about her.
(19:21):
Like so many female artists from theearly twentieth century, she did not go
down in history. Her art hasbeen neglected, overshadowed by the renowned male
artist of the time. It's justso unfair, considering how special her paintings
are. And what about her music, you might ask. The biographical notes
say she was a composer, butI can't find any recordings online. The
(19:42):
music you hear in this podcast isDavid's rendition of a score written by Ursula,
which Clara left behind when she disappeared. He'd asked me to play this
song when Clara was living, yetI would have literally cut my hands off.
(20:03):
Come on, it's a nice melody. It might be the first hundred
times you hear right. Yeah.We haven't been able to find the recording
the Clara listen to our repeat.David says it was on a vinyl.
They did find a small record playerin her room, which they sold along
with the keyboard, but there wereno records. I think she only bought
it to play that record. ButI'm sure i'd remember if we found it.
(20:27):
I mean, we probably would havethrown it out the window. Oh
maybe not the best choice of words. Uh oh right, yeah, sorry,
you know what I mean. Though, We'll have to cut David some
slack because he's going to have tolisten to this song a lot while he
edits the podcast. He didn't playit by heart, although he says he
(20:47):
could have. Several of Clara's papershave little thumbtack holes in them. David
says she had a corkboard above herdesk. Among the papers she's pinned up,
there are some scanned and printed imagesof an old score handwritten by Ursula.
It's the melody that Clara listened toover and over again. Another of
the papers with tach marks is aprinted photo of an old notebook. That's
(21:08):
where I got the quote in Germanthat I read earlier. It's not signed,
but I'm sure it's hers because thenotes on the score are written in
the same handwriting. Where did Claraget those two things? Is there an
entire notebook that could provide us withmore information on hersel's life in her own
words? The hospital in Geneva whereshe spent the last years of her life
(21:29):
is now a state owned building thathosts cultural events. I checked the website
and there's a small permanent exhibition dedicatedto her. I wonder if that's where
Clara found the score in the notebook. Did she take those photos when she
visited, or did someone send themto her. I've called an email the
center, but I haven't her back, and the only alternative I can think
of is to go there myself,because I want no I need to know
(21:56):
who's Ursula Bloom, What other musicdid she compose? Why did she disappear
after she used music? Therapy onthe soldiers. And what made Clara,
the woman who lived in the roomwhere I'm according these words, become so
obsessed with her. I don't knowif I'll find an answer to all these
(22:18):
questions, but if you've made itthis far, I hope you'll come along
for the ride.
Elistrau. The bell you're hearing iscalled Mukai Gane, which means welcoming bell
in Japanese. Every year, onAugust seventh, hundreds of pilgrims line up
(00:25):
to ring it at the Rokudo chinoJi Temple in Kyoto. This ritual marks
the beginning of the Oban Festival,the Japanese version of All Souls Day.
The bell is hungover a well,and legend says that its sound can be
heard in the great beyond. Thatway, the spirits of the dead know
that it's time to reunite with theirrelatives. This is Seema, a Turkish
(00:56):
Sufi ceremony. You've probably seen dervishesbefore, those dancers that whirl around with
their white skirts billowing like bells.They spin faster and faster like orbiting planets,
using dance and music to go intoa trance. Their right hands rise
towards the sky and their left handspoint toward the earth. In that state
(01:18):
of mystic ecstasy, they become asymbol of the connection between the human and
the divine. Dervish is a Persianword that literally means seeker of doors.
(01:40):
The idea that sound and music canconnect the world of the living with a
higher dimension is not unique to anyspecific culture, and can be found in
myths and religions around the world.For instance, in the twelfth century German
Saint Hildegard vom Bingen wrote in aletter, the soul is symphonic and the
song of the human soul is anecho of the celestial harmony. To understand
(02:02):
what Hildegard is talking about when shesays celestial harmony, we have to go
back a further fifteen hundred years toPythagoras and his theory of the music of
the spheres. Broadly speaking, thetheory puts forward the idea that the mathematics
(02:23):
that govern the laws of the universecan be translated into music, just as
all music can be translated into numbers. If the motion of each celestial body
produces a sound, then together theycan create a grand celestial harmony. But
if the universe produces sound, whycan't we hear its music? Pythagoraeans say
(02:44):
is because we are born and immersedin it. It's like a background noise
that our brain blocks out because it'salways been there. This theory survived from
many centuries all the way through tothe Renaissance. The ominous music here now
was written in sixteen nineteen by astronomerJohann Kepler in his work Harmonices Mundi.
(03:07):
According to his calculations, this iswhat Mars would sound like. Over time,
different philosophers added their own ideas tothe theory to adapt it to their
religious beliefs. At some point itexpanded beyond just celestial bodies to include the
(03:30):
entire cosmos, from the tiniest tothe largest elements. Let's go back to
Abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Apart frombeing a saint, she was also a
writer, philosophers, scientist, andcomposer. Hildegard said heavenly music can be
(03:53):
found in all things, but humanslost the ability to hear it when they
were cast out of Eden. Theway to recover for that ability is through
song, since, according to thesaint, singing is a form of remembering.
It allows us to reconnect with adivine and to add our voice to
the celestial harmony. In her mysticalact Disease, Hildegard her music, which
(04:17):
she then transcribed. Although she hadno classical training, she composed seventy eight
songs that she compiled under the titleSymphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations.
(04:38):
This music was composed by a Swisswoman born seventh centuries later, in eighteen
seventy seven, less than two hundredmiles from where the abbess once lived.
Here's something she wrote. This ancientland has a heart made of mountains,
rivers and lakes, and we haveour cities on top of them and filled
(05:01):
them with our noise. We aredeaf, But when light hits the water,
and when birds fly across the skyto greet me, these times stand
still and I can hear something.I can hear music, I can hear
the Earth's heart beat. Ursula Bloomwrote those words at the dawn of the
(05:24):
twentieth century. She was a painterand composer, and like Hildegarde, she
may also have thought that she wasn'tcomposing music, she was simply hearing it.
But here I am talking away andI haven't even introduced myself or told
you what this is all about.My name is Emma Clark. I'm a
(05:46):
journalist, and for the last fewmonths I've been obsessing over Ursula Bloom and
the few facts I've been able tofind out about her life. But Before
we move on to Arsla's life,let me tell you about how I discovered
her, because that's a whole otherobsession. Hi David, UM, I'm
so sorry for springing this on you, but um, I'm not coming back.
(06:09):
I know it sucks, but I'vepaid my part of the rent and
I'm sure you'll find someone to movein next month. Right, you can
get rid of the stuff that I'veleft behind in my room. I mean,
whatever you want to do with it, it's fine. I don't care.
I hope you don't take this personality, but please don't text me or
(06:29):
call me again. I'm going toDISCONNECTU number. Well bye. I that's
that's no way to start. Let'sput the voice recorded here here. That's
David, my boyfriend. He's goingto be editing the sound for this podcast.
(06:50):
We've been living together for a coupleof years, and we're actually in
our living room right now. Iwant David to walk us through a few
things. When did you receive thevoice mess which we just heard. Is
that your journalist voice? You didsay you're going to help me? Right?
Okay, Okay, I forgot sorry. Clara sent the message on April
(07:12):
fourth, twenty eighteen, and who'sClara? Well, I used to share
this house with Clara and another guycalled Alex. Your office used to be
her room. I think she livedhere for about two years. Yeah,
that sounds about right. Whose houseis this then? Tell us a little
bit about that. Well, thehouse is mine now because I inherited it.
(07:35):
Back then, it was my grandma'swho rented it out to me.
I lived here when I was atuniversity and shared it with other students.
Clara, Alex and I shared theplace for about two years. Paul moved
in when Clara left. I metyou around that time, and then my
(07:55):
grand died and left me the house. Alex and Paul moved out. I
renovated it and we live here now. That's about it, Okay, So
what happened after Clara messaged you?I called her the minute I heard her
message, but her phone was alreadyswitched off. Alex also called her over
and over again that month. Herphone was always off until one day a
(08:18):
voice message informed us that the phonehad been disconnected. She lived with you,
guys for two years, and younever heard from her again after that,
not a word ever. She didn'teven come back for a thing.
She just vanished into thinny. Whatabout her friends? Did they know what
was going on? Well, Alexonly knew one of Clara's friends, a
(08:39):
classmate from UNI. He managed tocontact her, but she didn't have a
clue either. We never met anyof her relatives in those two years.
We just knew that she was fromMadrid and that she was studying in London.
Were you worried? Sure? Imean, it was strange, even
why Clara's standards. It was weirdof her to disappear like that. We
(09:01):
even thought about going to the police, but what could we say. In
her message, she made it clearthat she was leaving the house. You
said it was strange, even byClara standards. What do you mean?
Well, come on, I'm notbeing mean, you know me? Yeah,
I like strange, Yeah, yeah, I get it. Well,
(09:22):
Clara was beyond weird. She alwayskept to herself, and she'd been acting
even stranger for the last couple ofmonths before she left. What do you
mean? She was working on herPhD. She'd finished her history degree and
was research and a Swiss painter Bloomexactly, Yeasa Bloom. Two or three
weeks before she called, she'd goneto Switzerland. We think that's where she
(09:45):
called us from, but there's noway to know for sure. What do
you mean she was acting weird orweirder than usual those months? It was
her music. We were all losingour minds because of her fucking music.
Sparkling water for me, Please,I already knew all this stuff you just
heard about Clara. David ended uptelling me about her, just not when
(10:07):
we first met. Back then hewas living with Paul and Alex and they
never mentioned Clara. I only happenedto find out about her recently by accident.
Actually, this is the first timeI've asked Alex about her. Well,
I get why David didn't tell youabout Clara. We're all in shock
at first, and when that woreoff, well, you know, we're
pretty annoyed, especially David. Lateron, when Paul moved in, we
(10:31):
just kind of forgot about the wholesituation. I mean, there wasn't that
much to say about it anyway.David says you were closer to Car than
he was. Definitely, I wouldn'tsay they didn't get along. They just
didn't click. They won't completely differentwavelengths just co exist in the same space
and that's not my thing, asyou will know. Yeah, I certainly
(10:52):
do. I sometimes cook a mealand we'd get together for dinner. I
like doing that every so often.Too great a sense of camera. Ye,
and David's grandma hard a cleaner,so we didn't need to handle the
daily chores and all that. Yeah, I definitely can't pickture you just sharing
a space with someone and nothing else. Well, I mean to tell you
the truth. She didn't pay muchattention to me and we weren't exactly friends.
(11:16):
She always kept herself hidden away inher room when she did need to
talk to someone, but she wouldcome to me, and that's why I
was upset when she sent the messageto David and not to me, although
I suppose it would have been evenworse if she sent me that message out
of the blue, like it wasour landlady's grandson. After it is the
sparkling water for you, Yeah,thanks the beards for me. Alex is
(11:37):
one of the nicest and most sociablepeople. I know. It's not hard
to be friends with him. Soif Clara avoided him, I guess David
isn't exaggerating. She must have beena super private person. But I asked
Alex about the music. Well,she'd been with us for a little over
a year and I've never heard musiccoming from her room before. She might
have had the radio on occasionally,or maybe she wore headphones. Nomise isn't
(12:01):
really an issue for me. Shestarts working on her PhD, and all
of a sudden, she's blasting thisclassical music and I'm like, have you
heard of headphones? And she goes, well, I have to listen to
it like this, And on topof that, it's the same music over
and over again. And get this. About a month later, she went
out and bought herself a keyboard andstarted playing the melody herself. But it
(12:24):
just didn't sound right. What doyou mean it didn't sound right, like
well, it sounded like she wasplaying it in a different key. You
know, I don't really have aclue about music. But did you say
something to her? Of course wedid. We asked her to turn it
down several times. We've got herto agree to that at least, which
(12:45):
made it slightly more bearable. Itwasn't so much the volume as the fact
that she was playing the same musicobsessively. And do you remember the music?
Do I ever, like I swear, I hear that music and my
dreams sometime I can see do youright now if you want to dun dun
dun d d dun dun dun dundunn d Clara Taurus, I wonder if
(13:22):
you'll I will listen to this podcast. I know you haven't published your PhD
on our sol Bloom yet because I'vesearched for it and nothing comes up.
There's almost no information about you online, and that's quite an achievement in this
day and age. I hope whatI'm about to tell you doesn't bother you
too much. I've seen your oldInstagram account, although it's private, and
your last post appears just before youdisappeared. Alex let me have a look
(13:45):
at it, and I took screenshotsof the few photos you posted when you
were in Switzerland. I also haveall of your things full disclosure. That's
how I found out about you.David never got round to throwing them out.
He didn't. No, I didn'tsee that one coming. I was
so pissed off at Clara for havingleft us in the lurch like that,
(14:05):
I said we should keep them justin case she came back. But we
wanted to chuck them out. Ayear or so after she left, we
sold and got rid of the biggeritems like the bookcases and the keyboard,
But the clothes she didn't pack forthe trip and the rest of her stuff
it all fit in a big oldsuitcase that we left lying around the house.
(14:26):
I mean, she didn't have much. It was really beer like like
a nun's room. She did havea set of books that she was using
for her research, but that's prettymuch it. I can't believe the suitcase
survived the renovation. I know,right when I was getting the house ready,
I thought this has to go.I mean, I got rid of
so many things and some stuff thatused to belong to my grant, But
(14:46):
I couldn't bring myself to get ridof that suitcase. How come I don't
know, I mean, I guessI thought it was like the only evidence
that Alex and I have that Claraexisted. Otherwise, it feels like,
you know, David's right. IfI hadn't found that suitcase when I was
going through the closet in the hall, I would never have found out about
(15:07):
Klara. And even if David andAlex had told me about her, she
would have been nothing but a distantblure of a person, a memory of
a memory. But being able togo through her things makes Clara feel like
a real person. She really didn'thave much stuff, especially compared to what
I would have accumulated if I'd livedin that room for two years, just
(15:28):
some summer clothes, a pair ofsandals, some necklaces on a couple of
books. If I didn't know shewas doing her PhD on an avant garde
female painter, I'd say she's ina Greek and Roman art. There's a
Greek and a Latin dictionary, andit looks like she only wore neutral colors.
There's not a single print in sight. The things Klara left behind say
(15:50):
a lot about her, but I'mnot interested in her style or even her
personality. I want to know abouther obsessions. It's not uncommon to gather
hundreds of papers and photo copies ona certain subject when you're working on your
PhD. But the notes in themargins and the underlining are compulsive. There
are four Latin words that appear severaltimes. I've looked them up. Mortua
(16:14):
means dead, VIXI means lived,TAKUI means I'm silent or I've got a
secret, and dulcekano, which Ithink is actually two words, and that
means to sing sweetly. But thosearen't the only words that appear frequently.
This one, for instance, isa printed document about women and medieval music
that mentions Hildegarde vom Bingen. Claraused a red pen to write voss day
(16:40):
on it, which means the voicesof God in Latin, but she didn't
write it just once. It's writtenin the margin nine times in a row.
There are a lot of notes onthe history of music and the sear
of the harmony of the spheres.Did Rsala Bloom think that was the music
she heard? I'm not sure.There's barely any information about her online,
(17:03):
just a handful of art blogs,but they all seemed to repeat the same
facts about her. Maybe Clara discovereda ton of other things, but if
so, that information must have beenon the computer she took with her to
Switzerland. She left behind photocopies ofher art books and a short summary of
Ursula Bloom's life. This is allI've been able to find out about her
(17:25):
so far. Bloom was born ineighteen seventy seven. In Saint Gallen,
a small city in Switzerland. Shewas the only daughter of a wealthy family
who owned a textile company. Shewent to a Catholic boarding school that was
run by nuns, and from avery young age she showed a flair for
music and painting. In eighteen ninetyeight, she moved to Munich to study
(17:48):
art. That's where she supposedly metanother Swiss painter who was also studying there
at the time and became friends withhim. His name was Paul Clay.
In nineteen eleven, Clay introduced herto a group of painters from Munich that
called themselves the Blue Rider, ledby vasili Kandinsky. Bloom style matches the
groups. Her paintings depict Swiss landscapesusing violent brushstrokes and intense colors. They
(18:14):
could also be classed as fauvest giventhe bold use of color. When World
War One broke out in nineteen fourteen, Ursula Bloom was in Switzerland, and
even though her country was neutral,she enlisted as a nurse to help soldiers
from both sides who crossed the border. Here's something weird about that period.
Several biographic notes mentioned that Ersla useda sort of music therapy with the soldiers
(18:37):
to help treat their PTSD. Let'stake a break here music therapy in a
field hospital during World War One.It's hard to imagine from here on.
There's a gap in her story.We have no information on Hersla blooms slide
from the end of World War Oneuntil nineteen twenty. That year, Ursula
(18:59):
had a severe of his breakdown andwas committed to a psychiatric hospital in Geneva,
and she never left. In nineteentwenty three, she threw herself out
of the window of her room anddied. She was only forty six.
Maybe I should have warned you thatUrsula Bloom's story was tragic, not only
because of her demise, but becauseof how little we know about her.
(19:21):
Like so many female artists from theearly twentieth century, she did not go
down in history. Her art hasbeen neglected, overshadowed by the renowned male
artist of the time. It's justso unfair, considering how special her paintings
are. And what about her music, you might ask. The biographical notes
say she was a composer, butI can't find any recordings online. The
(19:42):
music you hear in this podcast isDavid's rendition of a score written by Ursula,
which Clara left behind when she disappeared. He'd asked me to play this
song when Clara was living, yetI would have literally cut my hands off.
(20:03):
Come on, it's a nice melody. It might be the first hundred
times you hear right. Yeah.We haven't been able to find the recording
the Clara listen to our repeat.David says it was on a vinyl.
They did find a small record playerin her room, which they sold along
with the keyboard, but there wereno records. I think she only bought
it to play that record. ButI'm sure i'd remember if we found it.
(20:27):
I mean, we probably would havethrown it out the window. Oh
maybe not the best choice of words. Uh oh right, yeah, sorry,
you know what I mean. Though, We'll have to cut David some
slack because he's going to have tolisten to this song a lot while he
edits the podcast. He didn't playit by heart, although he says he
(20:47):
could have. Several of Clara's papershave little thumbtack holes in them. David
says she had a corkboard above herdesk. Among the papers she's pinned up,
there are some scanned and printed imagesof an old score handwritten by Ursula.
It's the melody that Clara listened toover and over again. Another of
the papers with tach marks is aprinted photo of an old notebook. That's
(21:08):
where I got the quote in Germanthat I read earlier. It's not signed,
but I'm sure it's hers because thenotes on the score are written in
the same handwriting. Where did Claraget those two things? Is there an
entire notebook that could provide us withmore information on hersel's life in her own
words? The hospital in Geneva whereshe spent the last years of her life
(21:29):
is now a state owned building thathosts cultural events. I checked the website
and there's a small permanent exhibition dedicatedto her. I wonder if that's where
Clara found the score in the notebook. Did she take those photos when she
visited, or did someone send themto her. I've called an email the
center, but I haven't her back, and the only alternative I can think
of is to go there myself,because I want no I need to know
(21:56):
who's Ursula Bloom, What other musicdid she compose? Why did she disappear
after she used music? Therapy onthe soldiers. And what made Clara,
the woman who lived in the roomwhere I'm according these words, become so
obsessed with her. I don't knowif I'll find an answer to all these
(22:18):
questions, but if you've made itthis far, I hope you'll come along
for the ride.
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