Dear Friends,
Archibald MacLeish writes,
A poem should not mean
But be.
In third person experience, our thoughts about what is, we can distinguish being and meaning — can imagine a thing waiting on a shelf, waiting to be given meaning; can imagine a poem as a pipe through which meaning is delivered.
But in direct contact with what is, we find no such separation; meaning and being are not two, but one.
Another way of putting this would be to say that, in facing reality directly, we find it is music. The experience of music is a key with which all of life may be unlocked.
As a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, and later at Mannes College, I did not have words for this. When my classmates and I spoke of what we found in music, we spoke, not of the spirit, but of sex and mental illness. But nonetheless, wisdom was available; in many of our teachers, the Central European tradition was still alive, a tradition which does not reject the things of earth, but looks for their meaning.
This connection, I found especially in Heinrich Schenker’s approach to music theory — a romantic, Platonist approach which deeply marked the teaching at both schools. It was here the seed was planted which blossoms in Castalia.
For its centennial, Curtis commissioned pieces from its composition alumni; I’m happy to offer mine below — a Sonata for Piano in four short movements, “like a fairy tale”.
Sonata for Piano (come una favola): my performance on video at the Curtis website
Thank you so much.
With every good wish,
Ishmael
I offer tutoring online in music theory — for a taste, please see my website: