Change of Seasons
Musica Sacra's Sounds of Winter
Marc Sanchez
JANUARY 12, 2008
- Lifting Voices
- (Carol Lundeen)
- View the Slideshow
Web Resources
Related Stories
- Change of Seasons: Poetry and Curling
- Those Summer Song 'Ear Worms'
- Pushing the Ice Cream Envelope
- Kid Poems for Summer Days
More From Marc Sanchez
Mary Beekman: I'm the director of Musica Sacra in Boston, Mass. And this Saturday we are presenting a program called, "Blow, Thou Winter Wind," comprised of choral works that are written in celebration and contemplation of winter.
Of course, I have a bias, I don't like winter. The interesting thing is to see how someone who loved winter might hear the music that sets the words, "dying sun."
The harmonic desperation calls to mind the fragmented patterns of frost on a cold day when you look out your window, and the vapor from your house is escaping to the outside.
There is also another aspect that winter generates, and that is one of contemplation. It's the way you might feel when you look out on a gray, winter morning and see a red cardinal sitting on a bare branch in the midst of the snow. It might cause you to be in that very moment in a way that the hustle and bustle of the other seasons do not allow you to do.
I would hope that the listener would leave with a wonderful sense of exhilaration for all of the gifts of a season that some of us just try to get through and hope will be as short lived as possible. That in fact, winter has unique aspects relative to the other times of the year, which provide a great wealth and a great enrichment to the human experience.
More stories from our Change of Seasons series
Comments
Comment | Refresh
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Weekend America reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.