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2023 Back to school!
One of the first things Harvey did with his newly-bequeathed violin was to go ‘back to school’. He asked a local professional violinist if she would give him monthly lessons, so that he could begin to relearn his technical abilities after all these past years of neglect.
His teacher was interested to hear that Harvey had owned a Thomas Kennedy for nearly fifty years. She immediately removed her own Kennedy fiddle from her case! What a wonderful connection for Harvey, and how emotional for me, too – and what is more, she had even known Harvey’s old teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, Clarence Myerscough!
At their first lesson, Harvey took along his old score of Mozart’s G major Violin Concerto, and explained that this had been the set-piece for his disastrous LRAM exam, 58 years ago – the exam we had failed twice in 1965!
Harvey’s teacher immediately exclaimed – ‘You know you have nothing to prove now, and there is no need for any more exams! For goodness sake, play just for the sheer joy and love of it! This is such beautiful music!
PLAY FOR THE JOY OF MAKING MUSIC!
This was a moment of great freedom and revelation for Harvey, I know. Almost a new birth!
As I ponder this, I have to ask: Does it take failure, rejection, abandonment and sale, becoming as ‘never more’, before a new beautiful and joyful moment can be experienced?
And did Harvey need to sell me and live without me for 8 long years before joy and beauty could again enter into his being, even in the shape of another body, my cousin from Czechia?
I think I have answered my own question from the last Diary Entry, for I can now begin to recount a multitude, a polyphony, of new and exciting insights and resonances which have begun to emerge as Harvey and ‘Czechia’ got to know each other…………..next time……….
One final comment for today – perhaps the church, in these post-Covid days, might benefit from ‘going back to school’ and rediscovering some beauty and joy! Stop being anxious about getting everything right, trying too hard to survive, or even passing ‘exams’!
3 responses to “2023 Back to school!”
Dear Harvey
Yes yes yes to beauty and joy! I am reminded of course of Jung’s ‘learn your theories well but set them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul’. Perhaps in order to ‘touch the miracle of the living soul’, the full life in music, the rules indeed need to be set aside?
I read your diary entry shortly after reading about a pilgrim’s experience of playing his ‘fiddle’ in Spain in recent days and the following was ‘drawn’ –When the power is out
communication is not mediated
via phone, messages, emails.
When power is out
eyes raise from hand, lap, table
see sky, trees, the other.
Power is out
alongside coding, teach the children
notes, chords, instruments, sound.
Power out
raise the bow, settle the chin,
draw music from the violin:
Power restoredThis is a great article with a lot of useful
and relevant information. The site is clean, well-organized,
and full of helpful resources.Many thanks, Jan. Another inspired poem.
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