About me

I am an active composer, music teacher, and organizer of music events. I share an occasional Music as Meditation concert with listeners and fellow musicians and I organize several concerts of new music each year. I use this blog to tell people about my musical endeavors and as a home for my virtual busking basket. If you want to support my musical efforts financially, please look for the donate button on the right-hand side of this page. You can find pages about The Davis Hill Studio on this blog. Look for the orange links on the right-hand side of the page.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Indra's Net Revisited

Indra's Net

"Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring."

This quote comes from a well-documented Wikipedia articles on Indra's Net. It is cited as coming from this book: Cook, Francis H. (1977) Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra, Penn State Press, ISBN 0-271-02190-X. 

I'm inspired to post here my musical reflection on this scripture. I chose to write a fugue on this text a few years ago. Here is a recording made by my friends--each of whom is a pearl of great price who reflects the light of all, to be sure. In case you have a group of friends who sing and you want the sheet music, here is the SSAB version and here is the SATB version of the piece. 

A fugue seemed appropriate since each voice reflects the other voices--like the jewels in the net. This conception of the universe as filled with being capable of reflrecting and re-reflecting light from the source is a comfort to me. If I am one of the jewels all I have to do is faithfully let the light that comes from others, and from the pervasive and unnameable source shine through me. It is a beautiful vision. 




Tuesday, November 6, 2018

The students of 

Davis Hill Studio
present



       Eaton Village will be the scene for a program of autumn-oriented piano music On Friday, November 9th at The Little White Church. Students from the Davis Hill Studio will play a recital of piano music on the beautiful Steinway piano at the Little White Church. The venue's high windows, old-fashioned lights, and picturesque setting will be perfect for listening to autumnal pieces. The selections range from the creepy to the transcendent. The program includes music about a haunted house, music by Dmitri Kabelevsky, a march by Dmitri Shostakovich, Edvard Grieg's “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” and the slow movement from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. Some of the students are as young as 7 and some have been playing piano for more than 50 years.
       The concert takes place at 6:30 PM. The recital is presented by Ellen Schwindt, teacher at the Davis Hill Studio. Call 603-447-2898 for more information or e-mail ellenmschwindt@gmail.com