on this day so filled with memories and associations
particularly for my american friends,
i'd like to share with you the music of robert fripp.
this piece of music is entitled "refraction" and was part of a soundscapes performance
at the world financial center on december 1, 2000.
robert was musician-in-residence at that time.
an astonishing feature of the soundscapes
is that 'of being true to the moment in which they are performed,
to act in accordance with time, place and person.' (rf).
robert has also observed that soundscaping
"has the aim of finding ways in which intelligence and music,
definition and discovery,
courtesy and reciprocation
may enter into the act of music for both musician and audience".
(please note that it is the artist's wish for this particular piece to be shared,
free of commerce, with those who want to listen and reflect.)
(click on this link to access the music)
~ refraction ~
if the music intrigues you, then this note which accompanies its posting at ars divina
might help you place it or locate it somewhere in your understanding.
then again it might leave you even more baffled.
robert's music can be purchased at dgm.
love, peace, and - above all - hope to my american friends.
steven
14 comments:
A lovely tribute to those departed, Steven.
The music was so fitting; I closed my eyes; listening to it right through. I can't tell you here what I heard because it was so raw, recalling that horrific day but I also felt peace for those souls and great compassion for those who lost, enormously.
hello alaine, it's an event that my students remind me of as it approaches as it occured within their lifetimes - they were very young, but it seems to have had something of a similar impact on their lives as the cuban missile crisis did to mine at a similarly early age. i was aware of the fear. thanks for your kind comment and have a peaceful evening on the other side of the world. steven
What a respectful, comforting post Steven. Fripp's piece is extraordinary.
Your comments to Wanda, remind me how horrifying 9/11 was for young ones who had no idea there could be such evil in the world. It really shakes up their young, hopeful, sturdy world-view.
I felt the same way about the Cuban missile crisis when I was young. How could the whole world be in jeopardy - my mind had trouble accepting the reality at the time - and introduced a deep foreboding for the future.
Always something to learn and savour here. Thank you.
Thank you for this lovely tribute, Steven. I was a horrifying day and one I will never forget.
Thanks for visiting my Pick a Peck of Pixels blog and for commenting there about fountain pens.
It is amazing. Really stunning. I sat and watch 9/11 unfold before my very eyes. Transfixed by the events. Wondering if this was "it," the third world war: Muslim style, or Arab style, or if it was a group of maniacal frenzied men bent on meeting virgins in Paradise that I had just read about. I will never forget it.
I will not forget our eagerness to go to war to "bomb them to kingdom come," one of our friends said in an email. She, a devoutly religious lady in her middle 80s; was determined that they would be bombed. I wrote back and said, "Bomb who?" And she replied, "Don't we know who?" I said, "I don't think so."
But George W. Bush said he knew, the neo-con from the far-right in the Republican Party and swore on a stage he would get bin Laden but went to war in Iraq instead of in Afghanistan where Osama big Laden was at the time.
So, from day one, our response was all about some political agenda and had nothing to do with those who killed thousands of people in the Twin Towers. Many of whom were not Americans but from other nations around the world. We are quick to forget that I think.
And, what is worse, we are still mired down in Iraq and now in Afghanistan. People are getting killed. Trillions of dollars are borrowed from the Chinese to finance this war, making this nation indebted to China for generations to come. Give us a thousand years and we might be able to repay China. Or go to war...
Your post had a remarkable affect on me. I don't know why. Maybe soundscapes...
beautiful thoughts, beautiful music sent our way - thanks, Steven
What a hauntingly beautiful piece! It encompasses all the fear, horror and yet beautiful harmony of Americans pulling together on that day.
It reminded me of the words of a Native American construction worker who had helped build the towers and returned to help clean up the aftermath. He said although they knew the risks of working in "the dust", as a Native American he saw that not as dust, but as the essence of those who died. In very reverential tones, he said that breathing in that essence gave those people life again. I remember thinking what a lovely tribute....even if it grossed out the reporter he was speaking to.
What a thoughtful man you are... thank you!
hi bonnie - even as an adult prone to rationalizing events as crazy as this one i was reduced to fear in thinking that the scale of misery and the world that was described in this choice was beyond my comprehension and imagining. my students are worldly wise in ways i wasn't at their age or even as an older person. but they retain their innocent trsut that this world is meant to be good and kind and clean. i work from that assumption!!! steven
hi willow - my wish is to remember the event and to make available the innocence that pervades the world i know exists depite events such as this. steven
hi abe - if an essential goodness and rightness evolves from knowing that a single man can create something of beauty then this has all been worthwhile. steven
pauline - you're welcome of course. steven
hello hope, the story you share here of the native worker is a perfect addition to the intent with which i shared this music. thankyou so much. i couldn;t have asked for anything better !!!!! steven
Hi Steven~ I really loved Refraction--a single note resonating deeper and deeper and then other notes: it seemed to move me beyond this crazy, convulted world to a cleaner, simpler, more rarefied place. I loved Robert Fripp's donation of the proceeds of this music dedicated to the victims of 9/11. Thank you for this tribute, Steven.
hi margaret, thankyou for your keen ear and kind expression of understanding. it's possible to define this world by states of presence that move beyond the craziness and convolution without ignoring their reality. steven
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