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ore than 2 1 2 years and i planned to take february through august off from working in churches and concentrate on writing a book that i thought might be in me i also had two other part time jobs i was going to be taking a choir to sing at st david s cathedral in wales and had some concerts planned with my duo partners i did not need a pandemic to shut down the entire country in order to find the necessary discipline to work on a book thank you but it wasn t necessary to be forced to stay home and have all of my freelance work dry up we can go back to normal now really my light heartedness is really only a cover for all the sadness that i feel for those in our world who are suffering so much loss of health loved ones income seeing family travel plans confidence in our government optimism for the future all those celebrations of life and death that need us to gather in person there is such heaviness in feeling loss all around us and in the face of loss we have to look for cracks where the light can come through there is no choice except to find joy where we can i did indeed work on a book it is a memoir something of a hybrid that combines memory reflection and observation i have sent my manuscript out to readers who have helped me further shape my thoughts and its currently out in search of an agent that seems crazy but we ll see what happens meanwhile i also got caught up with the music of a composer from early 20th century france her name is mel bonis and i was really taken with some of her piano music which has been gathered under the title femmes de legende i ended up writing very short stories to go with these seven pieces and putting together an audiobook which is supposed to come out on audible one of these days in order to do that i also needed to create an actual book which is essentially my script for the audiobook i intended to wait until it was available on audible before sharing it with anyone but that process is taking longer than i have patience for so here is the first chapter and a link to the book let me know what you think if nothing else i learned a lot and had a great time working on this difficult women legends revised book chapter 1 audio we have no choice except to find joy where we can and we also have no choice except to be creative in these strange times what i see are people cooking more than ever gardening more bountifully staying in touch with friends and family more lovingly talking to their neighbors more often and finding new hobbies in my neighborhood families are out walking together all the time the sidewalk chalk art is more prolific and the birds seem to be singing more beautifully too maybe that last one is just my imagination but i m paying attention to things i hadn t before and i m finding all kinds of light coming through the cracks i hope you are too have you voted yet speaking of cracks and much needed light sonya share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading author sonya categories books posted on october 9 2020 8 comments death and taxes and procrastination a podcast i listened to recently considered the ways that procrastination benefited creative thought i might have called it marinating instead but the process is the same flickering ideas come and go never quite landing but somehow manage to grow in scope during these periods of procrastination as i said procrastination works well for creative problem solving not a good idea for your taxes unless you plan to get creative with those and impossible with death of course one of the things i had procrastinated on was writing a post about planning your funeral following the death of my well loved 95 year old father in law that seemed like a great idea but it never jelled you should go ahead and plan it anyway though i ve enjoyed the discipline of writing for a blog nearly every week for the past 12 years but am feeling a need to step away for a while not from writing just from this format people in different parts of my life keep telling me to write a book and while a book might not emerge i have most definitely procrastinated taking this idea seriously and am hereby committing to write with more intention if perhaps less purpose the other night i awoke from a dream that was telling me something important and for the first time i took the leap of writing down an idea that was percolating up from deep within during the middle of the night my beautiful blue suede covered journal stays nearer to me these days and what looks like nonsense on the page at the moment just might be transfigured we ll see what comes of it but i m giving myself six months to explore things that might have been marinating for years now here are some of the things that have been feeding my imagination these days upcoming concerts sunday march 1 at 2 30 a program with furia flamenco very fun saturday march 7 at 7 00 a house concert with karin kelleher playing sonatas for piano and violin by grieg and beethoven raising money for manna food bank contact me if you are interested in attending and another one on april 18 tuesday march 24 at 12 10 bassoonist cindy gady and i are putting together a program of meditative music to accompany walking the labyrinth at church of the epiphany read more not a concert but a chance to make music with a wonderful group of singers in residence at st david s cathedral in wales during august and books so many great books are part of my life at the moment i have three books in rotation a second reading of the overstory by richard powers listening to on earth we re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong and then this week i had to add philip kennicott s new memoir counterpoint after hearing him speak about it his book explores family playing the piano bach and the goldberg variations except for the abusive mother part it s the book i would have so wished i could write there is much that is ugly about our world right now and while that has probably always been true the ugliness seems more pervasive more oppressive than i can remember what vuong manages to do in his extended letter to his mother which reads more as a poem is to see beauty in between and around all the pain he experiences i don t know if being able to describe the sordid heartbreaking parts of life with such glorious waves of prose worthy of someone named ocean works to deny what should be harrowing to read but the books and music and people i turn to again and again are not an escape into beauty but rather have clarifying and redemptive powers for me as i wade through all those thoughts that i ve procrastinated writing about after i get our taxes done and before i die check in with me in six months and we ll see if creativity does indeed emerge from procrastination until then peace my friends share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading author sonya categories books music and poetry piano posted on february 27 2020 february 26 2020 4 comments seven i am preparing a choral piece new to me and to the choir i m working with for a few months and as so often happens my free associating mind began with a question that led me to a host of unexpected places jonathan dove s 1995 work seek him that maketh the seven stars is as mysterious and gorgeous as the night sky the music alone is enough for me but i had to ponder the text seven stars the question asked and i was abruptly dropping down alice s rabbit hole going past all kinds of strange sights associated with the number seven it began innocently enough with a quick search of the pleiades the seven stars that represent messengers of god in the second chapter of the bible s book of revelations and the inspiration for part of dove s text suddenly my brain was careening past joseph s seven years of famine and seven years of plenty the seven joys of mary and the seven last words of jesus baseball s seventh inning stretch marriage s seven year itch and the seven colors of the rainbow remember roy g biv seven days of creation and seven musical pitches in western music do re mi fa sol la ti but wait there are also seven pitches in the scales of indian classical music sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa seven chakras in hinduism s vedic texts to guide our bodies spiritual physical and emotional health seven years to regenerate every cell in the human body seven deadly sins seven gifts of the spirit i was feeling quite dizzy at this point alice s rabbit hole seemed to end and i found myself where i had begun the seven stars known as pleiades or seven sisters and dove s beautiful piece but then i slipped just a bit further remembering that the one group of stars nearly everyone can identify is the big dipper outlined do i need to say it by seven stars including polaris the north star follow the drinking gourd a spiritual which gave coded directions to escaping slaves pointed the way north with its advice to follow that dipper gourd to freedom that is the power of seven apparently my trip down this rabbit hole wasn t quite finished yet i came upon an a cappella group that is new to me called naturally 7 and they too demonstrate the power of seven with their voices creating an orchestra of sounds and a message in this particular song that still needs to be heard about tearing down walls and finding another kind of freedom seven a prime number which represents the unity of 1 and the diversity of 7 indivisible by anything else seven lamps on the menorah our weeks made complete by seven sunrises and sunsets seven stars to guide us on our way if you re interested the choir of bradley hills presbyterian church in bethesda maryland will be singing dove s piece during their 10 30 am service on february 2 share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading author sonya categories music and poetry posted on january 30 2020 january 29 2020 leave a comment it was terribly cold that s the title of one movement from david lang s 2008 pulitzer prize winning musical work the little match girl passion which will be performed next tuesday by the bridge ensemble on church of the epiphany s noontime concert series all are welcome and it s free but don t expect to leave emotionally unspent the lower case letters are the composer s and in fact a 2017 new york times article asked in its title where have classical music s uppercase letters gone my favorite line by the way is the first sentence of the second paragraph but composers who channel their inner e e cummings very funny lang explains that he began using lowercase titles as a student too full of self doubt and too sure that classical music is about nobility about things with capital letters that are big marble busts on pedestals he didn t feel worthy of writing in capital letters that was for beethoven in his mind but he also saw an intimacy and an invitation to experience his music from the inside by using lowercase titles lang does more than break stylistic rules for the written word he breaks through the christian narrative of suffering taking jesus out of the story and putting in a character from hans christian anderson s story the little match girl passion not only invites us in but breaks our hearts too that s what happens when you allow yourself to witness suffering from the inside it was terribly cold outside and the girl s cruel father sends her out to sell matches her futile efforts lead her to seek refuge under a christmas tree and she lights her matches and sees vision of her grandmother the only person who was ever kind to her as in christianity s passion narrative she is derided by strangers and left to die the composer summed up the story s message and his work s appeal across sacred secular lines the message is pretty simple you need to pay attention to the suffering of people around you the music is at once archaic and universal the story juxtaposes the horror of her reality and the beauty of her hopeful visions you are invited in to witness these things in the performance and to contribute as you re able to the welcome table ministry of feeding the homeless which is sponsored by church of the epiphany it is perhaps one small way to pay attention to the suffering of those right around us tuesday january 28 at 12 10 pm church of the epiphany 1317 g street nw metro center share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading author sonya categories music and poetry posted on january 23 2020 january 23 2020 leave a comment the dark past this is the weekend to revisit with greater understanding and appreciation one of our country s finest and darkest moments the civil rights movement shaped most of the mid 20 th century and has more recently expanded in scope to include differences of sexuality physical abilities and ethnicities standing up to injustice by sitting down at lunch counters naming systemic inequalities by making those on the winning side of the imbalances uncomfortable choosing love over hate when does the work of seeing what is wrong in order to make it right end in recognition of the powerful work of reconciliation effected by dr martin luther king that great hymn lift every voice and sing will undoubtedly be sung by millions of voices around the country this weekend it was first performed in 1900 as a poem read during a celebration of lincoln s birthday in a program at a segregated school in jacksonville florida an event at which booker t washington was the honored guest that day imagine the power of these words on the ears and hearts of people just 35 years from slavery lift every voice and sing til earth and heaven ring ring with the harmonies of liberty let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies let it resound loud as the rolling sea sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us facing the rising sun of our new day begun let us march on til victory is won stony the road we trod bitter the chast ning rod felt in the days when hope unborn had died yet with a steady beat have not our weary feet c ome to the place for which our fathers sighed we have come over a way that with tears has been watered we have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered out from the gloomy past til now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast god of our weary years god of our silent tears thou who has brought us thus far on the way thou who has by thy might led us into the light keep us forever in the path we pray lest our feet stray f...