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Spring Intermezzo

Exhilaration is the Breeze
That lifts us from the Ground
And leaves us in another place
Whose statement is not found --

Returns us not, but after time
We soberly descend
A little newer for the term we spent
Upon

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The Peace of Wild Things

Nature is what we know --
Yet have no art to say --
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

When I read these words of Emily Dickinson, I can't help but recall Wendell Berry's reflection on nature and…

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The Bliss of Solitude

I wrote my piano piece "Daffodils" in response to William Wordsworth's poem of the same name. Written in 1804, the poem was inspired by the poet's wandering and discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake. The vision was…

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Random thoughts on Stephen Sondheim

When faced with a creative block, I often ask myself, "What would Sondheim do?"  This in no way is an attempt to position myself on a level even close to Sondheim.  I'm not in his talent or skill set ballpark…

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Heaven...Harmony...Simplicity

Having recently completed a road trip replete with the sights and sounds of the great outdoors, nature in all its resplendent beauty, mysterious, healing, and intoxicating, I am reminded of Emily Dickinson's poem and that I, too, do not have…

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Immersed in the sound

More than 60 years after leaving Russia, Vladimir Horowitz marked his return in 1986 with a concert at the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.  One can stream videos on YouTube and other platforms of this legendary concert…

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In an Unpredictable World...

In Music and the Mind, psychiatrist Anthony Storr explores the power of music to stimulate the mind, captivate the heart, and nurture the soul.  He writes, "Music exalts life, enhances life, and gives it meaning...For those who love it, it…

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Quartet for the End of Time

A global pandemic, protests that one hopes will galvanize systemic changes and encourage conversations so long overdue, a world in flux...It may seem like the end of time as we know it.

In 1940 in a Nazi prison camp in…

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One Step Backward Taken

In the midst of this global pandemic, we are being asked to...pause, to simply...stop (not so simple to do), or, as Robert Frost so eloquently expresses in his poem, step backward.  

Not only sands and gravels
Were once more on…

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A single string stirring neutron dance

I have always liked that phrase from Michael Shorb's poem "Geese."  I often reflect on it when observing flocks of birds soaring as one during migrations. There is a rhythm and harmony to this "dance" that is musical.  In hindsight…

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Mont Blanc Soundscape

My daughter and I celebrated milestone birthdays recently with a grand adventure: the "Tour du Mont Blanc," a long-distance hike that circles the Mont Blanc massif and passes through France, Italy, and Switzerland.  The daily hikes were challenging and exhilarating…

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The Rapture of Music

I am compelled to post this verse from the The Radiance Sutras.
It speaks for itself and for all of us who have been privileged to experience, if only momentarily, James Joyce's "aesthetic arrest" when carried away and lost…

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