Regards

pas,sa.ca.glia: a musical composition in moderately slow triple time.

For years I have emailed authors and musicians that I like. What I have found is that if I'm persistent, I can eventually find the address. I have also found that since the artists make their contact information (somewhat) available, they not only don't mind the contact but many times  will write back.

Most of the time when an author or a composer returns my mail, it is a brief one or two sentence response thanking me for my kind words. I've learned  that the artist is not interested in starting a dialogue.  I've learned to leave it at that one exchange.  I have made a recent exception to that in a conversation with an author of a book on human emotions that really rang my chimes. She has been kind enough to reply three times, but has not replied to my last inquiry. Fun while it lasted.

I just received the best reply yet a few days ago.  I was introduced to the music of the Grammy Award winning composer Morten Lauridsen about fifteen years ago with his award-winning composition O Magnum Mysterium (o mahnyoom meestehreoom). I was moved so deeply by the music that I became an immediate devoted disciple of his works, especially those for choir and orchestra. Several years ago I was privileged to direct a talented high school band in the instrumental arrangement of this piece. That moment was a highlight of my music career.

Spotify has changed my musical life. I cannot imagine ,my life without the ability to search for and listen to thousands of songs and compositions, and to find that music instantaneously. Spotify rewards my investment of time by not only finding the music I'm looking for, but by introducing me to a wealth of new artists, bands, composers, songs and entire symphonies. A couple of weeks ago while enjoying some Lauridsen I was very familiar with, I scrolled down to see  if there was something  I had missed. There I saw a song called, "Where Have the Actors Gone."  This was a very odd title for a composer who writes much of his music from Latin texts. So I clicked on it to listen...

The music spoke to a place inside of me that understands beauty and meaning on a level much deeper than my consciousness can comprehend it.  It is simply a  female soloist with a piano accompaniment. No choir. No orchestra. Just a voice and a piano.  And it is simply remarkable. It took some  doing, but I eventually found Lauridsen's email address. And I wrote him.  I told him in a few sentences how much this song meant to me and how much all of his choral music has meant to me over the years.

A couple of days later I received his reply.  I opened the mail to find not just a sentence or two of "thanks for writing", but a generous and thought-provoking five paragraph response.  In that response he told me the circumstances in his life that inspired the text and the music. I had bragged on the soloist, Sunny Wilkinson, and he told me the random way he met her and how that led to the recording I was listening to. He explained too how he found Shelly Berg, the accompanist. Furthermore he explained some technical aspects of the song, "It is cast musically as a passacaglia over a modulating sequence." And he ended the letter with "Regards, Morten."

So there you have it. I'm now on a first name basis with one of the most highly regarded and decorated composers of our time.

If I ever get around to writing that book and I become rich and famous, write to me and I'll write back. But don't expect me to carry on a conversation.