{"id":1144,"date":"2012-09-11T19:59:33","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T00:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2012-09-12T09:00:48","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T14:00:48","slug":"waves-and-the-morgan-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=1144","title":{"rendered":"Waves – and the Morgan Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you keep a wave upon the sand?\u201d\u00a0<\/em> Call me corny, but I love this line from The Sound of Music<\/em>.\u00a0 I think it so encapsulates the feeling of helplessness in the face of constant and inevitable change, the ebb and flow, that is the nature of our world – especially in these days of lightening-fast technology which changes the way we operate and interact.\u00a0 I freely admit to being as tethered to my iPhone as anyone else, but that doesn\u2019t stop me from mourning putting pen to paper every now and then, or spending some quiet time in an actual library.<\/p>\n

\"\"Then I had a chance to visit one of my favorite libraries ever when Dave, Andreas and I were in New York a couple weeks ago.\u00a0 A friend had recently reminded me of the Morgan Library<\/a>, a place I had visited before while living in New York.\u00a0 With my friend\u2019s reminder, I couldn\u2019t wait to visit again.\u00a0 The room that was J. P. Morgan\u2019s library is my idea of the perfect room for reveling in words and ideas and all of the wonderful things that humans create.\u00a0 There are books from floor to ceiling, three bookcases high, and some of the world\u2019s most treasured manuscripts – illuminated texts, a Gutenberg Bible, pages from Thoreau\u2019s journal while at Walden Pond, original scores of Brahms and Debussy – all open and displayed, ready to give my eyes and soul some much needed nourishment and delight.\u00a0 The Library\u2019s (capital L<\/em>) collection extends far beyond what is in this one room.\u00a0 There are also etchings by Rembrandt, manuscripts and letters of many British writers, and the world\u2019s largest gathering of Mahler manuscripts – among many other treasures!<\/p>\n

With my need to get back to Andreas, I only had a very short time to spend there, but a quick visit would be better than no visit.\u00a0 I headed to the Winston Churchill exhibit first – The Power of Words.\u00a0 On display was his secretary\u2019s typewriter, which Churchill required to be silent because a clickety-clack<\/em> would disturb his train of thought as he dictated.\u00a0 I saw letters he sent to his mother which were embellished with his own hand-drawn illustrations.\u00a0 There were letters to other foreign dignitaries;\u00a0 there was, rather hilariously, a New York doctor\u2019s prescription for a certain amount of alcohol to be daily consumed by Churchill (this was during Prohibition, of course!).\u00a0 There were also letters, awards, and gifts as well as recordings and footage of some of his most important speeches.<\/p>\n

Then I walked through the rest of the collection, ending in the library to soak up what I could of that beautiful room and its contents.<\/p>\n

Why is it so thrilling to spend time with words and notes put on paper long ago? I think for the same reason it is thrilling for me to be a musician. \u00a0 I\u2019m reminded that, despite the inevitable changes that always surround us, the human spirit remains curious, constantly striving, constantly expressive. \u00a0 It is amazing to me to observe the ways in which we build upon and bounce off of one another\u2019s ideas and creations.\u00a0 Sometimes banding together, sometimes pushing apart in opposition.\u00a0 No matter what, it seems we humans are always responding, tweaking, tinkering, always trying to find a way.<\/p>\n

I love to see how the great minds represented at the Morgan respond to the environment and issues of their day and how they go about contributing their own voices and perspectives.\u00a0 It is this process of \u201cworking through\u201d that is often highlighted in Morgan\u2019s collection.\u00a0 We get to see the cow chewing its cud, so to speak.\u00a0 Though plenty of finished products are housed there, (autographed scores, drawings, first editions, etc.) I love the sketches, journals, letters, and fragments.<\/p>\n

What becomes clear is that the process is not always an easy one. Those works of genius that seem rattled off with ease, so coherent, so full of power and clarity, were works that, very often, took serious time and tenacity to work through — and a certain conviction to put it out there despite the criticism and opposition that would no doubt come their way.<\/p>\n

As the classical music world goes through major changes in its structure and status, I am so curious to see what our striving natures will drive us to do.\u00a0 How will we<\/em> react to the environment of today?\u00a0 What will be our legacy?\u00a0 Will we have cared for the art form and added to it?\u00a0 What \u201cmanuscripts\u201d from our era will someone look at in the year 2212 and be able to see vision, imagination, courage and passion?\u00a0 What will remain as our beautiful acts of creativity?<\/p>\n

I have to admit, there are days when I wonder if the collective legacy of our time regarding classical music will be one of disregard.\u00a0 But I do remain hopeful that we are on the way to somewhere better – just getting there in a roundabout and painful way.<\/p>\n

One piece from the Churchill exhibit that I particularly loved was a gift from Franklin D. Roosevelt on the occasion of Churchill\u2019s 70th birthday.\u00a0 It was a quote from Abraham Lincoln.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but think that the sentiment voiced by Lincoln (and taken to heart by FDR and, presumably, Churchill) is an attitude worth taking while the inevitable waves of change ebb and flow, and in those times when we are finding our way forward, creating and putting ourselves and our work out there.\u00a0 Lincoln says:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were trying to read, much less answer all the attacks made on me, this shop might well be closed for any other business.\u00a0 I do the best I know how, the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing it to the end.\u00a0 If the end brings me out alright, what is said against me will not amount to anything.\u00a0 If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, as musicians, we are not usually making decisions that alter the course of world history, but do have a certain output each day, whether through teaching or performing and, increasingly, as we become entrepreneurs of some stripe or other.<\/p>\n

I think that every experiment carried out in our attempt to and express and share what we value is important.\u00a0 If we keep moving, looking for avenues that link our rich past to a future we envision, tweaking along the way, we just might surprise ourselves in the end by what is created.<\/p>\n

P.S. By the way, check out the Morgan’s online music manuscripts<\/a>! \u00a0It’s fascinating, and a great resource.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you keep a wave upon the sand?\u201d\u00a0 Call me corny, but I love this line from The Sound of Music.\u00a0 I think it so encapsulates the feeling of helplessness in the face of constant and inevitable change, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}