Music as Meditation
An Evening in the Country
Crickets begin
to sing louder in late August. The sound is lovely, if ever-present
in the open-windowed house. It signals the inexorable march of the
calendar toward the time when nights will turn cool and the daylight
will be in short supply. Though the season turns relentlessly to the
cool and dark time of year, it is filled with sweetness. The
abundance of garden, field, and forest surrounds us and we bask in
the sunshine even as we plan for winter. September's Music as
Meditation shares these ideas. The concert takes place at Christ
Episcopal Church at 5 PM on Sunday, September 2.
Béla
Bartȯk captured the feel
of one of those long country evenings filled with the songs of
crickets in a piano piece he composed for his album called Ten Easy
Pieces. There is a languid melody punctuated by firefly dances--at least that's what I always picture. Bach's counterpoint captures inevitable change filled with beauty;
I will play a fugue found in the music notebook J.S. Bach gave
to his wife Anna Magdalena Bach. This fugue might be called the appogiatura fugue for its use of that expressive figure so like sighing.
My friend Chris Nourse, violinist, joins
me to play some pieces from a film version of A Secret Garden composed by Rolf
Lovland. These pieces are exceedingly sweet and have something in common with the recently-completed second movement
of my second piano Sonata. I'll share this piece on Sunday; the strains of which are sweet enough to
make the listener appreciate silence at the end.
