More Beethoven and new
piano music at Music for Meditation on March 4
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| Beethoven painted in 1815 by Joseph Willibrord
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Over the last few weeks I've continued
to indulge my obsession with playing Beethoven, and engaging the help
of my friends in pursuing this practice. At Music for Meditation on
Sunday, March 4 at 5 PM at Christ Church in North Conway, listeners
can enjoy the results of this playing. Chris Nourse and I will
play Beethoven's sonata for violin and piano number 10. Amy Berrier
and Chris will play a set of duets written by
Beethoven for bassoon and oboe, but beautifully rendered on violin
and viola. Amy and Ingrid Albee will share some lovely music by Peter
Schickele—from his more serious frame of mind.
I'll also be sharing a fragment of a
new piano piece I'm composing. Lately, it's been my practice to
devote some of my music-making time each day to “asking the
universe” for whatever comes next in the piece of music I'm
composing. I find this to be a powerful way to tune in to the
creative force that sends me music. I know that sounds pretty far
out, but it is the clearest description I have for where
the music comes from. I do not experience it as coming from me—I
experience discovering it.
Historically, I've been fascinated with
the structure of music and the structure of other things—like
sunflowers and broccoli florets. Since I was introduced to it in
college by Casey Carter, I've loved thinking about the fibonacci
series. This series was dreamt up by a 12th century mathematician named Leonardo Pissano who wrote about it in his book
liber abbacci. In case you want to know more, you can study this
diagram or listen to this entertaining TED talk by Arthur Benjamin.
I've tried using the fibonacci series
to structure compositions before. I've often been disappointed with
the results as too intellectual to be comprehensible to the ear on a
first hearing. Recently, though, I found myself writing something
using lots of repeated patterns. I decided to try using the fibonacci
numbers as a structural device again. This time, I'm enjoying the
results. I'll be playing part of this new composition for solo piano
called Differentiation. This piece is structured using the fibonacci
series. However, there are elements of melody that break out of that
mathematical structure and become more organic. These melodic
elements might be thought of as designs that connect the rectangles
with immediately comprehensible phrases.
I've long found that immersing myself
in nature is a source of inspiration for me. But lately I've been
unable to take my customary walks in the woods. I have found plenty
of inspiration in this mathematical pattern. Perhaps looking into the
mathematical realities that surround us works in the same way as
going out to observe the lichen on the bark of trees, or the form of
snowflakes. I hope my listeners will receive some of the same beauty
that's evident to me when I'm lost in my process of discovery.
