February 10, 2008
My left brain went on a picnic
…listen
…about the musicMissing something…..
The photo above was taken two stormy days ago at San Juan County Park. The waves were larger than you can tell, but the Canadian islands seen across the Haro Strait still beckoned like Sirens. My half-sister journeyed here for a wonderful three day visit, and I had a blast taking her all over this island, to every favorite spot and then some new ones we discovered together.
Our father used to refer to us as “his only two and his two onlies.” Lisa and I never lived together, yet thanks to the mysteries of DNA we’re remarkably similar in many ways and have always loved each other’s company. Lisa’s life is nearly polar opposite to mine: the mother of two terrific college-aged sons, she’s a very, very high ranking career Diplomat and economist with the State Department and has lived all over the world. This summer she moves to Brazil, where she becomes Deputy Chief of Mission for our three consulates there. Wow. Before that, it was the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Peru. It’s always a treat to see Lisa.
My apologies for being off the blog radar for a few days. Especially to Glenn, who as readers can see from his recent comments, was forced to find hidden poetry from my old posts (keeping this blog going in my absence, thus becoming a defacto Kelp blogger himself). Thanks, Glenn. I would give you a salary and put you on staff, were I able.
Yes, I went underground. Or I should admit, the left hemisphere of my brain did. Lisa’s visit was Good Reason #2; given our physical distances, I don’t see her more than once or twice a year, sometimes less, so when I do she’s got my full attention. Good Reason #1 prior to her visit involves the limitations of my cerebral cortex. There comes a point when in the final throes of certain pieces (not all), I just can’t cope well with non-music things, language and administrative tasks being among them. Yes, of course, urgent items get done, because they must. But most things are not urgent, even if they masquerade as such, glaring at me in my ever-fattening Inbox. The older I get, the more I realize that the earth will indeed continue to spin on its axis if I don’t participate in external activities for a moment. So much of what I do is external: daily communications with people around the world, writing, public speaking, filling orders, etc. Yet my internal life keeps me even busier.
Case in point: I finished the band piece. Hooray! Now the abilities of my left brain are called upon as I finalize the printed score. The music in one’s head and the music on the page are examples of the two cerebral hemispheres, and they really are entirely different animals. The first is the True Inspiration and the latter is how the True Inspiration can be translated into something musicians can actually play and people can actually hear. Left brain, right brain. Maybe they’ll take a picnic together sometime.
Joy Franks said,
February 10, 2008 @ 7:17 pm
Whew, I was getting worried. I was ready to send out the bloodhounds and look for you. Little did I know you were down the road from my house! Glad to hear you had a great visit with your sister. I can’t wait to show this place off to friends when they come up to visit. I’m sure you both had a blast.
Glenn Buttkus said,
February 11, 2008 @ 7:13 am
Somehow I knew that you were there, just otherwise occupied, and I conjectured it was your Music that was holding you in a strong grip; not permitting you to procrastinate, or to blog, or to wander. Being married to a composer must be interesting, like being married to any artist I suspect; a man who loves you enough to leave you alone for extended periods of creativity, or not.
Lisa sounds like a very special lady, Wow, what accomplishments; all that and a mother too. I am the stepfather of three daughters, all grown now, and it amazed me how my wife, Melva, used to work full time and still never miss a beat in the mother dance.
“Haro Strait still beckoned like Sirens” is a nice piece of wordsmithing. It sounds like the first line of some poem or other. I would certainly be my honor to be the first, or possibly the next, unsalaried employee for Shaprio Industries. As I reflected and re-read some of my comments in your last posting, I think there was a poem missing; one that “disappeared” rather than show up as a comment. Maybe you will bump into it, or run across it one of these days. Of course, it did not occur to me that perhaps my poetic ardor as response to your music and your guided tours has made your cheeks a bit red; that perhaps by tooting your horn for you, so loudly and so often, has begun to make you a tiny bit uncomfortable. If so, it was not my intent. Your postings give me an excuse to exercise my poetic muscles, something that I had not been doing much of lately.
Actually it seems that each time you transcribe or write down the music playing in your left brain, and present it to us, to the masses, the left brain and right brain already have a picnic, as the sythesis occurs, as the composition ascends, descends, finds its own volition, flies, soars, runs, trots, strolls, crawls, and scampers.
Listening to your musical piece, and thinking about your comment has put me in yet another mood to wax poetus:
Without You
Piano speaks,
sax responds;
fingers dance
on divers
keys,
talking
in tongues and sign,
as the drummer finds
the heartbeat,
keeping the body
on its feet;
As dark waves crest,
high, harsh, and proud,
pushed
by brother wind,
kissed
by sister gray
skies;
there
near your home,
at it, within it, around it,
all of it
touching the sea
in every parameter;
creativity
that starts in trees
and stops in sand;
like a hundred miles
of beach belt,
holding up, bracing
the island;
keeping it
from sliding back
into the slippery salt
from whence
it came.
But certainly you know,
probably you understand,
that without you
we cannot find
the other shoe;
without you
we don’t know
what to do;
without you
the sky was never
blue,
not even once.
So
welcome back,
song lady.
For we missed your
guidance,
and counsel,
and your
eyes,
and your
heart.
Glenn Buttkus 2008
Glenn Buttkus said,
February 11, 2008 @ 7:43 am
Yes, I was correct amundo. A piece of hidden Shapiro poetry, found nestling in her dynamic prose was in absentia from the list of comments posted in her brief hiatus. The piece is a good one too. It follows, for those of you clamoring for her soul dance, glued to her icons, showering in her music. It goes something like this:
Without Borders
I am back
from a few days
of work and play
in Los Angeles.
It was a wonderful trip,
filled
with terrific friends
and experiences,
but still
I was relieved
to be home
on the Salish Sea;
the historical common name
for the watery
geologically gem-laden
environment
spawning the archipelago
that drizzles itself
across the U.S.
and lower B.C.
I am beginning
to wonder
if any stray parts
of me
might have lived
here
in a previous existence.
What was I?
Human?
Bald eagle?
Sea slug?
From the very day
I moved here,
it has felt oddly
as though this has been
home
to me
for many years.
As close to
Los Angeles
as I had become
in twenty-four
action-packed years—
not a pang
held my heart
for even a moment
upon my return
to that city.
And yet each time
my ferry
or light plane
lands
on San Juan Island—
the pang arrives
in the form
or joy
and comfort.
Two days before
I left for California,
I had ferried
to and from British Columbia’s
Salt Spring Island;
a neighbor
to the northwest
just across the border—
and the reason
I ended up living on
San Juan Island.
The day was cool
and foggy,
and presented
a fresh planet of visuals
to me
as I crossed
from one side
of the boundary waters
to the other.
Obscured
by a haunting marine layer
and coyly lit
by flecks of sunlight,
the islands
and the sea
were simultaneously
new and familiar;
just like
my life here.
Staring out
across a random border,
I wondered whether
this lone sailor
might have had similar
thoughts
as his vessel passed
effortlessly between
two worlds.
Alex Shapiro July 2007
Doug Palmer said,
February 13, 2008 @ 11:47 am
I see no discontinuity between your “right brain/left brain” philosophy and Soho’s
rebuttal. Our art requires both hemispheres and more to create a sum so much more greater than the parts as to leave the parts a mere skeleton.
Holistic composition, what a concept.
Dave Sartor said,
February 20, 2008 @ 6:52 am
“Band Piece?”
Tell us more!
Alex Shapiro said,
February 20, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Yup– a concert wind band piece, for the U.S. Army. New musical territory for me! And of all things, the Commander and conductor found me on…
MySpace.
Hilarious!
The piece premieres in Newport News, VA on March 30, and I’ve been asked to write a couple of articles about it for Sounding Board and NewMusicBox, so stay tuned….
Dave Sartor said,
February 22, 2008 @ 10:56 am
Cool! I’m always amazed at the various ways composers get “found.” I look forward to some sound clips from a Shapiro work for large ensemble.