Nature And Music

CARRE (1959-60) by Karlheinz Stockhausen The tension in this music tightened my nerves, raised waiting to an act of will, then a long exhale released feelings bottled up too long. As feelings rushed out of me, they left behind an opened space, and purest thoughts occupied its emptiness, made it pregnant with a new self fashioning an identity with shreds and patches, of soil and fallen leaves, of seeds nourished by rainwater, all these things natural and beautiful: an expanding mesh of meanings, threading together disparate things, making a whole cloth available whenever it is needed, during a long afternoon, or a brief morning, or a never forgotten night, or anytime of glittering possibilities. Was I not promised as much as my birthright? Was this existence not given to me even before earth replaced the womb? All that was required of me was that first gulp of air upon being delivered. Multiply such experiences a hundredfold and the truth will be no truer: we live in Nature and through Music, body and soul animated by Nature, made trancendent by Music.