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Clutter or Treasure?

Yesterday, I got a frantic text message from my sister.

“Do you have my copy of “He Shall Feed His Flock?” Jim and I are singing Sunday!

I didn’t think I had it, but I don’t like to disappoint my sister. I also know that my music files are in need of reorganization, weeding out excess, and general clean up. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to do…so, I put other things aside and started to dig in.

Two hours later, my floor was covered with piles of choir music, Easter music, Christmas music, children’s choir, piano, organ, and popular tunes. I was deep in the “messy middle” and flooded with memories of my mother, my teachers, musicians I’ve accompanied, students, and music I love. I found music I’d forgotten about, music I still want to learn, and some I was ready to let go to recycling or donation.

Another text message incoming!

“Jim found it!”

My heart sank a little looking at the incomplete task all around me. I gave myselt permission to take a break and continue the purge later.

Later was this morning. Among the treasures I found were these two drawings from a young Korean piano student I taught about twenty years ago. It made me happy to remember how cute he was when learning a little piece in “blues” style.

Many areas of my home are needing this kind of attention. The drive to clean out, simplify, and create space is real at this stage of my life. The challenge is to break it down into manageable chunks. My music chunk is done for now. That feels good even if it took a frantic text message to get me moving.

Thank you to all who make this writing space
a place of safety, support, and beauty.

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Emotional Experience at Rachmaninoff Festival

I know from the get-go that I won’t be able to adequately describe the experience I had on Saturday evening. My sisters, my niece, and I gathered to attend the Rachmaninoff Festival at the The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, MD. I knew it was going to be an evening of huge emotion since all the music would be by Sergei Rachmaninoff, but I couldn’t have imagined the experience I was about to have. Three major works were performed by three different pianists with a relatively new symphony orchestra–The National Philharmonic. First, “Variations on a Theme of Paganini,” followed by the 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos. All are much loved, enormous pieces of music, but again something fresh and new happened. An unexpected delight.

It was during the opening bars of the 2nd Piano Concerto that I knew I was about to hear something special. Each chord followed by a single low-bass note was alive and grew organically through those first few measures driving me deep into the sound. The pianist was previously unknown to me, but since Saturday, I have listened to many of his recordings. His name is Inon Barnatan. He was so skilled not only technically (Rachmaninoff is HARD to play!), but artistically so nuanced. For some musicians, performance becomes a showcase of ability, but his performance was so much more than ability–it felt more like a love-letter, a poem, or a familiar story.

The magic happened in the 2nd movement. Whenever the piano was paired with a single instrument such as the flute, oboe, or violin, Mr. Barnatan made eye contact with that member of the orchestra. He held that connection while we were privileged to listen as he played (without looking at the keys!) in conversation with the other musician. I’ve never witnessed anything so intimate, so beautiful, and so memorable as the feeling of oneness created through this performance. I imagined that the woman playing the flute especially had “a moment” perhaps unlike any other–the kind of moment which musicians and artists dream of creating. I know I had “a moment” which felt whole and pure, even spiritual, as tears freely rolled down my cheeks.

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A Lesson from Chopin

On Saturday evening, I attended an all-Chopin recital at George Mason University performed by Brian Ganz. Mr. Ganz has set a lifetime goal of performing every work composed by Chopin. He considers Chopin to be one of the great storytellers in music and gave background and commentary on the pieces he played. It was an amazing evening. Afterward, I wondered how his arms didn’t fall off with how technically difficult the program was. Ganz called Chopin the “Romantic Revolutionary.” Much of the program was familiar to me and I enjoyed the fresh interpretation of those pieces. New to me, were the Mazurkas which have their roots in the folk music of Eastern Europe. I didn’t know that Chopin wrote more Mazurkas that any other form (He wrote 60 of them!) I especially loved the Ballade No. 1 which you can listen to here and learned that it was also Chopin’s favorite of the pieces he composed.

Chopin left his beloved Poland as a young man and was, unfortunately, never able to return. He felt deep sadness, longing, and yearning for his homeland. His music reflects the love he had for his country, both in patriotic ways and in culturally responsive ways. The pain and grief he felt was transformed into his artistic expression. He was able to create beauty from his broken heart. I loved Chopin before, but after this program, I love him even more.

Mr. Ganz made a comment that has stuck with me. I am paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect that Chopin got it right when he chose music, his art, rather than violence to express his hurt and sadness. His beloved Poland was at war with Russia and there was much unrest throughout Europe. He channeled these feelings into creating some of the most beautiful music ever written.

I worry about the problem of guns, unrest, and division in our country and wonder if we could take a lesson from Chopin and instead of violence, choose beauty. I have to hope we can.

Thank you to all who make this writing space
a place of safety, support, and beauty.

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Car Games

Recently I participated in Laura Shovan’s 12th Annual February Poem Project. The theme this year was “Games.” During the month, we explored so many facets of games–playground games, relationship games, imaginary games, board games, word games, and more.

The day got away from me when the prompt was for car games, but a memory has stayed with me and made me smile. This memory is from about 60 years ago when car windows rolled with a crank and cars didn’t have seat belts or air-conditioning. At least I don’t remember having air-conditioning until the 1970s.

We were on a cross-country road trip from Washington, DC headed to Yellowstone National Park and later to see relatives in Utah. Back then, this meant four long, hot days in the car. With the windows down it was hard to hear each other, but we passed the time singing, coloring, snacking, and sleeping.

On the 3rd day of this trip we were probably in Nebraska with its flat roads, cornfields, cows, and bugs. The goal was probably to make it to Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was hot. My sister and I had probably been too rowdy in the back seat, singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” or the 59th rendition of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Hence, my dad’s admonition, “Now, hush, you girls.”

What could we do quietly? I don’t remember who had the idea first, but we decided to play a variation of “Name that Tune” by silently shaking the other person’s arm in a rhythm of a familiar song. You surrendered your arm to your sister who would then shake the rhythm. First, it made us laugh just to see the other’s arm flopping around (the more relaxed, the more we laughed).

Our library of possible song choices was pretty huge – all the hymns we knew from church, all the songs we sang in school, all the songs we knew from the radio and our few favorite LPs. “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” was particularly fun. There was one song, however, which became the signature song of this game. Even now, we will laugh if one of us begins the rhythm.

It was from our favorite album of Peter, Paul, and Mary (Album 1700) and was called “The Song is Love.” This was mid-1960s music and we loved it. “The Song is Love” begins with a distinctive beat–Dum-de-DUM, Dum-de-DUM. Try that with a limp noodle arm. You can listen to the song here. Picture two hot pre-teens in the back seat of a car rolling down the highway. One girl has the other’s arm in her hands and begins Dum-de-DUM, Dum-de-DUM. And then they are singing again:

I’ve found a song, let me sing it with you
Let me say it now, while the meaning is new
But wouldn’t it be good if we could say it together?

Don’t be afraid to sing me your mind
Sing about the joy that I know we can find
Wind them around, and see what they sound like together

The song is love, the song is love

Lyrics by Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers

Our poor parents probably wondered, “Are we there yet?”

Thank you to all who make this writing space
a place of safety, support, and beauty.