Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Support! Support! Support!

Yesterday I received the smartest bit of fund-raising in the mail: An invitation to commit to a yearly gift of $25 to my alma mater, in recognition of which pledge the Trustees will contribute $500 to the school. 

What could be simpler?  What could be more indicative of my gratitude that a place existed where I could be exposed to genuine inquiry and concern, where I would form lifelong friendships?

Why not do it for this blog?  Tonal Refraction is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, an arts services organization; contributions to Fractured Atlas designated for Tonal Refraction are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.  If you have ever found yourself thinking twice about one of these posts I invite you to go to tonalrefraction.com and match your response to my commitment to music, to learning, to my audience, you.

Martha Graham Illuminates the Ups and Downs

Actually Martha Graham illuminated the agonizing tension between forward and back, analogous in many ways to the musical rise and fall.  She had a characteristic gesture of the arms and face yearning to move forward while the solar plexus pulled in the opposite direction, making a graphic body image of the soul torn between outward and inward movement.

I think of this often, as one needs to know absolutely nothing about dance or movement or the body to grasp the power of the gesture.

The 19th century seemed to recognize only one direction, up.  Onward and upward was the battle cry.  Progress!  Valhalla!  Arrival!  Manifest Destiny!

Have we recovered yet?