Friday, May 23, 2008

A Little Night Music... with Chopin

By chance I heard Chopin's Prelude in C Minor last night on the radio on my way back from a class I'm teaching in Indy. I'd suggest they play this piece at my funeral, except that my death would hardly warrant it.

I found it on the web this morning and have enjoyed listening to it in a fairly dim lit office to the gentle patter of rain outside. I could be in Durham again :-)

I feel like the business of knowledge sometimes is so much game playing. Last night I thought of Goethe's Faust and the Romantics, who after exhausting traditional study looked to feeling and the arts for something that transcended their all too human thoughts. Every once and a while in an all too mundane and mediocre life, I'm thankful for those God has graciously gifted with a genius that, for a brief moment, I can lose myself in, become swallowed up by greatness despite my nothingness.

Thanks Chopin for this last night.

Chopin's Prelude in C Minor

P.S. The piano player is Ivan Ilic, who has more downloads here.

1 comment:

Angie Van De Merwe said...

Thanks, Ken. I used to say "a tree is a tree, is a tree", but have found that in the past year, I have really come to rejoice in creation, it's beauty and diversity. I guess when you can't find God anywhere else, "the rocks will cry out, and the trees will clap their hands"....