I’ve closed a circle.
Back in October 2010, when Steve Robb first broached this calendar project with me, I immediately started writing harp miniatures – without any specific photographs or stories in mind, without knowing if they’d be used.
I wrote one piece while on a retreat organized by Amir Zoghi in beautiful Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. I mostly worked on it in the early mornings, before the daily forenoon hike to a waterfall. The retreat was full of unforgettable experiences — including a golf lesson with Kris Barkway of The Magician’s Way fame in which my golf swing told him everything about how I approached life, enabling him to coach me, and not just in golf. Within minutes, Kris declared that I’m comfortable being myself; he also said I could achieve what I achieve with less effort. Both statements were so true.
Interestingly, the piece I composed during the retreat is full of the effortless power that Kris correctly observed was somewhat manqué in my life. Maybe it was brought out by my being in the presence of a community focused on living in presence. Not only is there a muscular beauty to the music, but the way it smoothly metamorphoses from Bach prelude-arpeggios into George Winston New Age ‘pianism’ still makes me smile. To have both seamlessly intertwined inside a 40-second piece is a greater power showing off. Before I knew it, the piece had written itself.
I knew this piece was going to form an installment in “Then, gently, the world began anew” but I didn’t know which one – until about July this year when, looking ahead at the forthcoming months’ photographs, it dawned on me that September’s music was already composed. The photograph of rising vapor as the early morning sun rays hit makes me think of my favorite line of German poetry, dieser Sonnenatmenden Erde – “this sun-breathing earth,” from John Mackay’s Morgen!. The picture reminds me of those waterfall walks in the mountains, so beautiful that I held my breath along with the birds.
