Got up this morning and looked at the thermometer and I swear the darn thing is stuck below freezing. It was 5°F (that’s -15° C to most of you) this morning as I was making coffee. No matter what unit you use, it translates into all the sleet that didn’t melt on the warm weekend days now making a stab at being miniature glaciers scattered throughout the yard wherever there are shadows during the day.
When the first round of melting began, the rain chain made a very interesting sculpture out back as the sun went down. The water melting off the roof was still warm enough to flow through the hole in the gutters and start flowing down the cups, but the metal and air were cold enough to freeze the splash in mid air.
As I mentioned previously, I travelled to Asheville, N.C. this weekend in order to attend a concert of music written by my friend Kathryn. The trip could not have been smoother. I travelled with only a carry on since I was only staying two nights. It really helps to not really care about makeup or hairdo stuff. When your regime consists of washing your face, putting on first aid salve, brushing your hair and then braiding it, it doesn’t take that long to get ready and requires very little in the way of equipment.
Going through security was a breeze. On the trip out I checked in on the computer at home. Kathryn’s computer was lacking toner, so I had to check in at the self-service kiosk at the Charlotte International Airport on the way home, a process that took all of about ten seconds. Both my flights were spot on time and each one had about two empty seats. There was no meal service, and no beverage service unless you wanted to buy some carbonated water laced with high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and artificial flavors or something alcoholic. Because very few people felt compelled to avail themselves of this “service”, the aisle was remarkably free of obstructions and it was a lot easier to get up and move about the cabin. Both my drives from home to St. Louis and back were without incident, and the road from Charlotte to Asheville was only moderately busy each time I travelled it.
The whole experience was completely exhausting, though, since I started out the process sleep deprived. Saturday afternoon, after I had a nap, I was treated to walk on the sunny side of Beaver Dam Lake. It was gorgeous, and the still cold evening provided me with a beautiful reflection.
Kathryn has a wonderful cat named Franz Ozark. In addition to being very photogenic, Franz is the official greeter for Kathryn’s oboe studio, and absolutely loves to be picked up and petted. He will sit there and accept your adulation and purr loudly in repayment. I wanted him to come home and give Smokey some lessons. Franz is the antithesis of the curmudgeon cat.
In addition to being treated to a concert filled with ethereal and meditative music, I got to witness Kathryn as she went through the creative process, since she was in the throes of completing an orchestral tone poem for a competition she had been invited to participate in. I got to see the score as it was being birthed, and it was a real privilege to be a witness to this astonishing alchemy.
It just amazes me to think that a person can have music playing in their head, and somehow they can translate it into marks on paper that performers can then liberate into the atmosphere in the form of sound waves so that the rest of us can share the music that the composer walks around with all the time.
Making out with the Muse:
This next photo has to be my favorite image from my visit. She was doing a big revision because she realized that she was using the wrong instrumentation to get the effect she wanted, and so there was a lot of writing of parts to do; she was working on putting down the marimba and other percussion parts. When I got to Asheville on Saturday, she was in the process of erasing the mistake. Then she stayed up until one in the morning working on what was to fill in that big hole. The day of the concert, she spent the morning writing, and she had just taken a little break, stretching her fingers and straightening her back.
“I only have one page left to write, and it’ll be easy, it’s just a simple retrograde inversion. So saying, she turned to the last page in the manuscript, looked down, and said, “Oh! Now I remember! I wrote this in last night. It’s done!”
The music premiered at the concert was quite wonderful. It made me desperately want to hear the tone poem performed. I asked her who would play it if she won, and she said the Conservatory Orchestra would play it at the April 25th concert in San Francisco. Now, that gave me chills, because Jim and I had already decided to be in the Bay Area at the end of April so Jim can go sailing with his sister and I can visit my good friend Kris.
Wouldn’t it be cool if I could hear Kathryn’s piece performed and have a short visit with her in San Francisco at the same time?
We have some fascinating ice shapes in the grass outside our living room window. Evidently the icicles and snow on the roof are melting, and the drips have formed a little area of ice mushrooms!
I have no idea how composers can hear a multi-instrument work in their heads. It’s always astounded me.
That would be wonderful – almost as though fate wanted you involved with the tone poem piece from inception to performance
Glad you had such a lovely time.
Oh, Truce! Maybe that thought will be the one that is powerful enough to move the fates in the desired direction.
I hope you get to see the work performed in April, too. That would be neat.
It would be even more neat for Kathryn, because it would mean that she won the competition!
oh lucky lucky you! i LOVE Asheville. Have a cousin there. When to Christine Kane’s retreat there (my first and only time in Asheville). Love that place!
And that picture of the water splashes frozen in air is awesome. I think we could have matched you this morning. It is coooooollllld here too. Wasn’t it nice that my tenant moved out and left the heat off in my cottage? My agent caught it. No burst pipes. Whew. But spring must be on its way because we are being invaded by flocks of robins who come through this time of year to eat all the remaiing berries off the wild hollies. So much activity!
Your photos are, as always, lovely. I hope your friend wins! And when you come to San Francisco, if you have time, I’d love it if you dropped by. I work across the street from the Asian Art Museum, which is a wonderful place for tea, for lunch, for meeting up.
that frozen splash is amazing
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