Rose Lights and Songs

Music! What glorious music I have been immersed in since I arrived in Illinois. I was privileged to sit in on a master class in choral conducting run by the former head of Westminster Choir College working with the conducting students of the university - promising talents all, and some more than others. I saw the same Mr. Flummerfelt conduct the church choir in the church where I used to conduct - a treat to hear Mendelssohn so well sung. I spent time in the music library scouring through musty old octavo files, hunting beautiful haunting lullabies for PrayerSong to learn. I heard students in practice rooms playing the tar out of repertoire. How satisfying to be so surrounded by such excellence.



But none so excellent as the concert tonight. My dear friend, a stellar pianist with more sensitivity and passion than anyone else I have ever heard, delivered a sensational concert replete with romantic repertoire par excellence (including Chopin, Brahms AND Rachmaninoff) as well as humorous if not exceedingly demanding new music written by a composition student at the university, a clever little piece called Cockroaches.



For me, the most intriguing pieces were transcriptions of songs by Mahler, by Shostakovich - dealing with difficult things in life - the death of a child, tragic circumstances. Listening to the vocal original was touching, moving despite the language barrier. The piano version was so much easier to grasp because the words didn't get in the way. Sort of like being able to eat tender delicate fish without having to stop for the bones.



There was one moment, during a Brahms intermezzo late in the program, after we had survived the angst, the passion, the weighty, the melancholic, the tragic, the incredulous, the beautific, the storms, the sweeping torrents of the soul. There was a forlorn and quiet beauty shimmering on the air and I looked up full gaze on the Rose Light window, lit for the concert occasion. The incredible blues of the stained glass, touched by just a whisper of red and yellow caught my eye at the same time the harmonic purity of the music brushed ever so slightly with unexpected harmonic color touched my heart. My ears were hearing what my eyes were seeing!



It was as if, for one brief moment, the very air was electric, reaching deep into my heart and fluttering across sleepy caverns where deep emotions lay buried, stirring them just enough to make you realize what lies beneath the surface. The pianist, unaware, caught up in the making of the music, the audience, oblivious, enthralled with the sounds, the unfortunate beyond hope of hearing. I dared not move, longing to hang on to this moment of awe, afraid to breathe for fear it would disappear. Light intertwined with sound. Aural and optical vibration intermingled. Awesome. Lingering just a moment beyond the fading of the final piano sound, leaving behind a carress for the soul.