Walking through the park I know it is soon to be the end of greenery. I know it because the wind bites my cheeks even though the sun is shining. I know it because, when you look closely, the edges of the leaves are turning orange.
Autumn is coming and still, in a short while, its summer for me. When you move to Spain (as I will do) you have the privilege of skipping a season, or three. No need to see the trees seemingly whither and die and the air turn grey and cold. No need for that endless wait for spring, where life comes again.
Spain is summer followed by summer, sun always, eternal life. But, even there spring makes a difference. What sets here and there apart is just the amount of death, or winter, needed before life comes again. Nature takes a rest really.
The Latin word for rest is requiés, but most of us will have seen it in another shape. Stemming from this word of peace is Requiem, a hymn of death. Verdi (amongst others) composed one… I heard it… and yes, it is a hymn alright:
Libera me, Dómine, de morte aetérna; Save me, Lord from the eternal death. They sing it out, 300 voices strong. We all wish for it, secretly, both those who sing and those of us who listen; to be immortal, to never see winter. And so, when hearing Verdi’s requiem, it is clear, that what he really did was to create life for himself.
I know Verdi is dead as of more than 100 years; still his name and his music have been current through the times. Although the end of greenery, the eternal death, probably frightened him, as it does most of us, he took things into his on hands, writing operas, symphonies and requiems with the width and breadth of his being.
A requiem, in the end, can really just inspire to accept winter, celebrate rest…and perhaps use it as a time of composition. To do like Verdi did; he created his own spring and rebirth, by composing his way to immortality. In the end what he really wrote; was a requiem for life.
Autumn is coming and still, in a short while, its summer for me. When you move to Spain (as I will do) you have the privilege of skipping a season, or three. No need to see the trees seemingly whither and die and the air turn grey and cold. No need for that endless wait for spring, where life comes again.
Spain is summer followed by summer, sun always, eternal life. But, even there spring makes a difference. What sets here and there apart is just the amount of death, or winter, needed before life comes again. Nature takes a rest really.
The Latin word for rest is requiés, but most of us will have seen it in another shape. Stemming from this word of peace is Requiem, a hymn of death. Verdi (amongst others) composed one… I heard it… and yes, it is a hymn alright:
Libera me, Dómine, de morte aetérna; Save me, Lord from the eternal death. They sing it out, 300 voices strong. We all wish for it, secretly, both those who sing and those of us who listen; to be immortal, to never see winter. And so, when hearing Verdi’s requiem, it is clear, that what he really did was to create life for himself.
I know Verdi is dead as of more than 100 years; still his name and his music have been current through the times. Although the end of greenery, the eternal death, probably frightened him, as it does most of us, he took things into his on hands, writing operas, symphonies and requiems with the width and breadth of his being.
A requiem, in the end, can really just inspire to accept winter, celebrate rest…and perhaps use it as a time of composition. To do like Verdi did; he created his own spring and rebirth, by composing his way to immortality. In the end what he really wrote; was a requiem for life.
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