ForrestWorks

Still waiting on the In Remembrance CD- will post when it’s available.

Meanwhile, composing has somewhat taken a back seat to so many other things- teaching, work around the house, and various other busy-nesses. I hope to really get back at it, soon…I seem to write in spurts right now, and I miss the days when I wrote more consistently.

I’ve had some good communications recently on a few different fronts- more details as they become official or become public.

Tonight, we went to the St Olaf’s Choir concert in Greenville. It was just fabulous. (And afterward, I went home and called Brian Bondari, who sang in the St Olaf Choir for a year, during his undergrad days!) They exemplified what Alice Parker talks about when she discusses the effect of “the first note released into the air- does it compel the listener or turn him/her away?” For St Olaf’s to sing a 2.5 hour program with not a PAGE of music, and have every vowel matched, every consonant so perfectly together, every line shaped wonderfully, every little nuance and subtlety so effectively and musically done, is just astounding. And the singers truly cherish and nurture every note they sing- you can see it, hear it, and FEEL it. They literally hold hands as a choir, as they sing, which I think is FABULOUS. No other type of ensemble can do that, but a choir can literally physically join up, and FEEL the music together as they create it. In some mysterious way, I think there’s really something about community and energy that is going on during their music-making. The hand-holding may be symbolic or actually a means to an end- I have a hunch that it’s BOTH- and I think it’s wonderful.

Unfortunately, we often spend our lives merely aspiring to truly make music, and listening to others merely aspiring to make music. Tonight, I heard Music Made. And I loved it. And frankly, I don’t want to hear anything else for a while.