The rhubarb on the surface

“Hubble bubble….why all the trouble?”

                                  II

The rhubarb on the surface, seems to these tainted eyes, an astounding revelation neighbor: that Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (8th) lay dormant, undiscovered until Robert Schuman  of Germany and husband of Clara, (a   Hastings on the Hudson, USA  lady musicologist, a virtuoso in her own right), gave the “Unfinished” to Felix Mendelssohn.

And thus lies the paradox..a work of genius lay dormant until the divine moment. But it bears repeating…..

Robert Schuman beheld its majesty, the fabric of triumphantoctaves, resounding into sonority that was deemed lost,overwhelmed Schuman, whose own 4th Symphony had the magic touch of his Northern neighbor from Hamburg, Johannes Brahms.

                                    III

Thus contemporary strains of musical notation that purports a trance on the listener, himself or herself carried away , gives  a metaphorical gestation to a birthright music wise, that recognizes the rhythms and harmonies of Sutter’s Gold, a dimension close to a spell in another realm.   

Franz Schubert’s Unfinished.

                                 IV

A timeless gem in “ Moments of personal discovery” that a marketable cosmos as “Wily Loman’s soul searching, ”Death of a Salesmam,  Archie Bunker back pedaling his prejudices( creator Norman Lear’s own father) and biases, nine years running on Bill Paley’s CBS network…..

                                   V

What then is the moral of Schubert’s Unfinished  .  Monteverdi Vespers’ not akin to the excitement about Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’  Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’.…..

Franz Schubert’s in disguise?

.                                           VI

Did the feminine intuition  play a part in the discovery? The role of Fanny, Felix’s sister. The 

role of Clara, Schuman’s wife…two quality virtuosos, playing out their own identities in the 

Viennese cosmos of Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Bizet, Beethoven (10th), Elgar, Franz Liszt, Meyerbeer.. (Mozart, Haydn earlier)

                                             VIKI

Another woman, Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ soprano, played out a big role with Mendelssohn, although the passionate letters by the nicknamed Felix were never published, he seemed to seek a relationship with the ‘Swedish  Nightingale,” (ala a 20th century“Anita Eckberg”)she in turn established a memorial in his name at the Leipzig conservatoryhe helped discover..

                                 VIII

The synthesis however is Schubert’s dynamic. ‘ UnfinishedSymphony’.

INDEED!

August 10, 2015. The City that never sleeps.        

“Did you ever see a blind man who didn’t smile”?

“Did you ever see a blind man who didn’t smile”? asked Joe the Pro, thinking back to his roots at the University of Chicago, amist Helen Keller. Born deaf blind and mute, the story of her teacher and companion Annie Sullivan(“The Miracle Worker” by William Gibson) is divinity inspirational, the fabric of  what frailties of birth, can be overcome, metamorphosed and transcended into what  can be.

                                           III

A renaissance woman, a human being beyond any Eleanor Roosevelt’s own dynamics, the powers to be, selecting afeminine role model for the ten dollar bill, usurping Alexander Hamilton.

After all those years when his profile glorified the ten spot.

                                          III

What hath a soul, born with a handicap? A blind pianist like Alec Templeton? A blind violinist playing Mozart’s stringsonata in Harvard Square. Enraptured audiences identifying with the timeless early Mozart, enraptured by such God likereckoning, wouldn’t you say?

                                        III 

Joe the Pro reached for his wallet and took out a note like ‘Ace of Spades’, long before cyber space dialectics.. 

‘To remember Helen Keller. How she overcame physical frailties, identifying with her teacher Annie Sullivan, the two becoming kindred souls, the alter ego Miss Sullivan losing her ego to discover Helen Keller. And in doing…  find herself!

In the ensuing moment, discovering her own raison de etre….

Letting asunder any shallows and insignificant significantmiseries to waste.

Hallelujah neighbor!

                                        IV

New York Presbyterian  “Amazing things are happening here”. That selfless claim, rivals Helen Keller’s own rebirth.

Annie Sullivan’s own reinvention … through  osmosis: model student patient and finally a complete partnership. . .

                                       V

Joe the Pro, the former partner of Adlai Stevenson, put the “amazing things are happening here” ‘Ace of Spades’ back in his wallet. 

“FDR’s wife and widow, Eleanor Roosevelt, deserve s her image on the Alexander Hamilton ten spot. But for me, Helen Keller suspends judgment.

Overcoming her impossible frailties. Mrs. Roosevelt born intothe aristocracy… she could have become a snob, writing her column “My day”. 

Yet identifying with the immigrant masses during the depression.. No documentary could do her justice, identifying with the huddled masses.

“Do as you do, not as you say.”

“Right neighbor?”

“Right!”

August 6, 2015  The City that never sleeps.

Where art thou?

Where art thou? The Radio City Music Hall  usher  Gregory Peck in “To kill a mocking  bird”. Spencer Tracy’s Clarence Darrow  “Inherit  the wind”, Hitchcock’s “Darrow for the Defense” Sears Roebuck heir, Leopold Loeb trial…

                                       II

The system is bereft of ideals yet our young people are amidst to aspirations and quality humans but when they get caught up with the marketplace realities, they sack their humanity and dreams,their mentors and parents espoused for them..

                                       III

Where are their role models? To define Cecil the captive lion, in Africa’s Zimbabwe protected haven? To scream out “Mercy mercy, have you no scruples, no conscience? “

To exploit in the mane of “sport”? to cannibalize? become a predator?

A once ferocious “King of the Jungle’s” vulnerability?

Unbelievable! The most precious value of all life(four legged?two legged?) is life itself, isn’t it? What more can humansidentify? endorse for his generation, no less those to follow?

                                    IV

Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller walking his wall to his safari built home in Zimbabwe , pulling the drapes aside , turning to his wife “It’s a jungle out there, Jan e”

Conscious of Sigmund Freud’s “Beyond the pleasure principle” playing out.!                                  Corrupting and emasculatinginnocence for the sake of sport? 

                                       V                                                     

What a mirror to hold up to? 

“I wake up screaming”….’Brother, can you pare dime’ or two? 

Cecil’s double? Sabu’s elephant boy’s ivory….a rhino’s tusk?

August 4, 2015 The City that never sleeps