Good literature is distinguished by the complexity of its moral situations: it breaks down our natural urges to divide ourselves from our opponents and hold ourselves superior to them.
—Robert Heilman (1906-2004)
✏️ Enroute
Part of moving on is letting go of things that don’t serve you anymore. It is a difficult process — the shedding of memories, of habits, of ways of thinking, of the good times and the bad — it is a process of self-immolation.
I struggle with letting go. My memories in particular make it difficult to leave it behind. It doesn’t take much for me to find comfort in the past, in those old and wrinkly practices that kept me safely in chains for so long. Pursuing the future relentlessly and optimistically has shown me what lies ahead, at the end of the straight and narrow. But the worldly wise men tempt me with an easier path, one that can lessen my burden without the toil, tears, and tribulation. Every bite of the apple is bitter. I have never once been happy to return to this old town. I immediately seek repentance, filled with new conviction and resolve. But time passes, the days try me, and my memories come knocking once more. I wonder if everyone feels this same weight.
The plants take care of me more than I them. They provide a reminder of the duality of life, that isn’t so bad after all. My body gets used to the burden after a while. Forgiveness sinks in, and the memories fade with time, as they always do. But never do they disappear.
Each day contains within it all of life.
I inhale —
its not so much different —
and look at the éshoppes and the clouds.
I certainly can’t do it alone.
Grace and perhaps a bit of chance is called for.
The stars agree.
Facilis descensus averno.
💡 Food for Thought
While there is life, there is hope.
🧬 Paper of the Week — The Piano Writing & Formal Structure in the Piano Concertos of John Field (1782 – 1837), and their subsequent Influences
A Dissertation By Philip Robert Buttall
PURPOSE: To assess John Field’s influence on contemporary, and subsequent composers in terms of Piano Writing and use of Formal Structure, through investigation of his seven Piano Concertos.
METHODOLOGY: A detailed analysis of each concerto provides the research material for an in-depth investigation of a number of specific topics, outlined below. Textual evidence will be augmented by musical examples, whenever appropriate:
1) FIELD’S PIANO WRITING: Technical Considerations, Fingering, Use of Cantilena and Pedalling
2) FORMAL & STRUCTURAL DEVICES: Use and expansion of Classical Concerto FirstMovement Form, Slow Movements and Finales
3) FIELD’S ACHIEVEMENT & INFLUENCE: This will draw together and consider Field’s achievement, and place this within the context of the work of other contemporary composers, and point to its subsequent impact on future developments. Furthermore this will seek to reappraise the status of Field’s Piano Concertos, both within his output, and in relation to the repertoire as a whole.
There will also be a short biographical introduction, bibliography, selected discography and index.
In order to keep within the confines of the prescribed word-limit, Field’s use of the Orchestra will not form part of this present investigation. Whilst the composer showed considerable skill in this area, when compared, for example, with Chopin, Field’s use is essentially still more evolutionary than revolutionary and, as such, would seem the most suitable candidate for necessary omission on this occasion.
Science is a perpetual creative process.
—Unknown (to me…Carnoy I think)
Go again,
AT