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| that music always round me | |
| Date Completed: | June 18, 2013 |
| Duration: | about 2 and a half minutes |
| Instrumentation: | viola |
| First Performance: | Tanya Maggi gave the first performance of that music always round me on February 21, 2016 In the concert Waltzing for Dreamers Classic SMAC Matinee at 2 pm at the Stone Mountain Arts Center, Brownfield, Maine |
| Program Notes: | That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long untaught I did not hear, But now the chorus I hear and am elated, . . . I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings, I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion; I do not think the performers know themselves - but now I think I begin to know them. Walt Whitman Farley Hutchins was among the first to reveal to me just how vast the ocean, how wide the world, and how deep the reach of time music and musicians live in. I seem to remember Bernart de Ventadorn, Guillaume de Machaut, Johannes Ockeghem, Jacob Obrecht and Josquin des Prez, - and later Dieterich Buxtehude and J. S. Bach - gathering around Farley Hutchins in their Hawaiian shirts and smoking their pipes as he introduced these old friends to us and played examples of their work. His performances of the Goldberg Variations over the midnight hours, and many other works for harpsichord, organ and piano spanning centuries revealed unsuspected realms of mystery, and his unstinting generosity as a teacher, composer, collaborative musician and music critic were essential in helping me find my own way. He remains a light by which I am able to see (and hear) to this day. In this little piece I have tried to craft something clear and direct that might have amused him. RZ performance by Roger Zahab, violin August 20, 2022 |