Today was one of those biting March days where you maybe aren't wearing quite enough because the sky is bright and there are signs of warm weather everywhere like pansies in the pots along Manhattan streets. But the pansies are shivering and so are you because even though you can smell the warms days of April ahead the snap of winter still blasts through your coat.
Maybe more like "in like a lamb, out like a lion."
As I headed to a meeting at Washington Square this morning I passed a man on the shuttle platform playing Bach cello suites in a tuxedo. I think it was one of the later suites maybe 5 in c minor, which has a mournful quality - even the usually joyful prelude. I smiled at him for his gracious formality presented to a mostly uninterested crowd of commuters and gave him some money. He played beautifully and reminded me of the luxury of having my own son play the cello suites for years in our home so I could listen and be calmed by their classic and predictable rhythms.
Everyone loves Bach and these suites because they provide a music that mimics the rhythm of our own biology. All weekend we talked about the pendulation between alertness and relaxation which makes for a healthy biorhythm. We also talked about what disturbs that rhythm - trauma, stress, neglect, confusion, abandonment - causing humans beings to be over vigilant or aggressive to save themselves or to become hidden, scared or silent out of fear. Such is the legacy of man's inhumanity to man. But Bach was a natural healer. It makes sense since he was writing church music which would be inherently spiritual. Beyond that is a reassuring mathematical, geometry to his music which follows patterns of upward and downward (pendulating) scales and arpeggios, with many interesting "accidentals" thrown in to create texture. I love playing my scales. My violin teacher plays them daily for hours and calls it - "keeping us honest." There is nothing more reassuring to me than the predictable up and down of a scale and its arpeggios. A great thing to do before going to sleep. Much better than listening to the news!
Maybe more like "in like a lamb, out like a lion."
As I headed to a meeting at Washington Square this morning I passed a man on the shuttle platform playing Bach cello suites in a tuxedo. I think it was one of the later suites maybe 5 in c minor, which has a mournful quality - even the usually joyful prelude. I smiled at him for his gracious formality presented to a mostly uninterested crowd of commuters and gave him some money. He played beautifully and reminded me of the luxury of having my own son play the cello suites for years in our home so I could listen and be calmed by their classic and predictable rhythms.
Everyone loves Bach and these suites because they provide a music that mimics the rhythm of our own biology. All weekend we talked about the pendulation between alertness and relaxation which makes for a healthy biorhythm. We also talked about what disturbs that rhythm - trauma, stress, neglect, confusion, abandonment - causing humans beings to be over vigilant or aggressive to save themselves or to become hidden, scared or silent out of fear. Such is the legacy of man's inhumanity to man. But Bach was a natural healer. It makes sense since he was writing church music which would be inherently spiritual. Beyond that is a reassuring mathematical, geometry to his music which follows patterns of upward and downward (pendulating) scales and arpeggios, with many interesting "accidentals" thrown in to create texture. I love playing my scales. My violin teacher plays them daily for hours and calls it - "keeping us honest." There is nothing more reassuring to me than the predictable up and down of a scale and its arpeggios. A great thing to do before going to sleep. Much better than listening to the news!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please tell me what good thing you encountered today.