Outline, Free, Bright

Scene in Cools

The Desert, the Cross and Easter

Screen capture: Desert Sonoran Easter, ground zero
Pascal daybreak: Lepus sits tamed at Orion hunter's feet
evoking the kairos past when
Noah's God hung his weapon bow
high in the sky, surrendering disarmed
Divine capitulation to creation
for earth to claim covenant
Desert dawn's eastered hues quietly course throughout creation
equal desert's constant colors
Friday's cross seemed desolate
but from mortality's tree
on Sunday's morn bursts forth the Tree of Life:
earth all-living breathes again!

© Leah Chang

Check out this related blog from Good Friday, 2005.

Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Lately I've been working on the Beethoven cycle again, and since online storage is so useful I've decided to keep track of the sonatas and discrete movements I've learned and gradually add commentary to each sonata. The sonatas I can play are bold indigo; if you're wondering at what level I play the Indigo Sonatas, they're either at public performance level or will be there as soon as I have them scheduled for a live gig.

[update] As it turned out, I've indigoed only the sonata number and opus number rather than going through and indigoing all the separate movements; for most of the sonatas I play all the movements, anyway.


No. 1 in F minor, Opus 2 no 1 | 1796
Dedicated to Joseph Haydn
1.Allegro
2.Adagio
3.Menuetto & Trio : Allegretto
4.Prestissimo

No. 2 in A major, Opus 2 no 2 | 1796
Dedicated to Joseph Haydn
1.Allegro vivace
2.Largo appassionato
3.Scherzo & Trio : Allegretto
4.Rondo : Grazioso

No. 3 in C major, Opus 2 no 3 | 1796
Dedicated to Joseph Haydn
1.Allegro con brio
2.Adagio
3.Scherzo & Trio : Allegro
4.Allegro assai

No. 4 in E flat major, Opus 7 | 1797
Dedicated to Countess Babette von Keglevics
1.Allegro molto e con brio
2.Largo, con gran espressione
3.Allegro
4.Rondo : Poco allegretto e grazioso

No. 5 in C minor, Opus 10 no 1
Dedicated to Countess Anne Margarete von Browne
1.Molto allegro e con brio
2.Adagio molto
3.Finale : Prestissimo

No. 6 in F major, Opus 10 no 2
Dedicated to Countess Anne Margarete von Browne
1.Allegro
2.Allegretto
3.Presto

No. 7 in D major, Opus 10 no 3
Dedicated to Countess Anne Margarete von Browne
1.Presto
2.Largo e mesto
3.Menuetto & Trio : Allegro
4.Rondo : Allegro

No. 8 in C minor, Opus 13 | 1799 "Pathétique"
Dedicated to Prince Carl von Lichnowsky
1.Grave - Allegro di molto con brio
2.Adagio cantabile
3.Rondo : Allegro

No. 9 in E major, Opus 14 no 1
Dedicated to Baroness Josefine von Braun
1.Allegro
2.Allegretto
3.Rondo : Allegro commodo

No. 10 in G major, Opus 14 no 2
Dedicated to Baroness Josefine von Braun
1.Allegro
2.Andante
3.Scherzo : Allegro assai

No. 11 in B flat major, Opus 22 | 1800
Dedicated to Count Johann Georg von Browne
1.Allegro con brio
2.Adagio con molto espressione
3.Menuetto
4.Rondo : Allegretto

No. 12 in A flat major, Opus 26
Dedicated to Prince Carl von Lichnowsky
1.Andante con variazioni
2.Scherzo & Trio : Allegro molto
3.Marcia funebra sulla morte d'un eroe
4.Allegro

No. 13 in E flat major, Opus 27 no 1
Dedicated to Princess Josephine von Liechenstein
1.Andante - Allegro
2.Allegro molto e vivace
3.Adagio con espressione
4.Allegro vivace - Presto

No. 14 in C sharp minor, Opus 27 no 2 | 1801 "Moonlight"
Dedicated to Countess Giuletta Giucciardi
1.Adagio sostenuto
2.Allegretto & Trio
3.Presto agitato

No. 15 in D major, Opus 28 "Pastorale"
Dedicated to Joseph Edlen von Sonnenfels
1.Allegro
2.Andante
3.Scherzo & Trio : Allegro vivace
4.Rondo : Allegro ma non troppo

No. 16 in G major, Opus 31 no 1 | 1802
1.Allegro vivace
2.Adagio grazioso
3.Rondo : Allegretto

No. 17 in D minor, Opus 31 no 2 | 1802 "Tempest"
1.Largo - Allegro
2.Adagio
3.Allegretto

No. 18 in E flat major, Opus 31 no 3 | 1802
1.Allegro
2.Scherzo : Allegretto vivace
3.Menuetto & Trio : Moderato e grazioso
4.Presto con fuoco

No. 19 in G minor, Opus 49 no 1 | 1792?
1.Andante
2.Rondo : Allegro

No. 20 in G major, Opus 49 no 2 | 1792?
1.Allegro ma non troppo
2.Tempo di menuetto

No. 21 in C major, Opus 53 | 1803 "Waldstein"
1.Allegro con brio
2.Introduzione : Molto Adagio
3.Rondo : Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo

No. 22 in F major, Opus 54 | 1804
1.In tempo d'un menuetto
2.Allegretto

No. 23 in F minor, Opus 57 | 1805 "Appassionata"
1.Allegro assai
2.Andante con moto
3.Allegro ma non troppo

No. 24 in F sharp major, Opus 78 | 1809
1.Adagio cantabile - Allegro ma non troppo
2.Allegro vivace

No. 25 in G major, Opus 79 | 1809
1.Presto alla tedesca
2.Andante
3.Vivace

No. 26 in E flat major, Opus 81a | 1809 "Les Adieux"
1.Adagio - Allegro
2.Andante espressivo
3.Vivacissimamente

No. 27 in E minor, Opus 90 | 1814
1.Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck
2.Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorzutragen

No. 28 in A major, Opus 101 | 1816
1.Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung
2.Lebhaft. Marschmaessig
3.Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll - Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit

No. 29 in B flat major, Opus 106 | 1818 "Hammerklavier"
1.Allegro
2.Scherzo : Assai vivace
3.Adagio sostenuto, appassionato e con molto sentimento
4.Largo - Allegro risoluto

No. 30 in E major, Opus 109
1.Vivace, ma non troppo - Adagio espressivo
2.Prestissimo
3.Andante, molto cantabile ed espressivo

No. 31 in A flat major, Opus 110
1.Moderato cantabile, molto espressivo
2.Allegro molto
3.Adagio, ma non troppo - Fuga : Allegro, ma non troppo

No. 32 in C minor, Opus 111
1.Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato
2.Arietta : Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile

The River Is Here!

1. Down the mountain the river flows
And it brings refreshing wherever it goes
Through the valleys and over the fields
The river is rushing and the river is here.

Chorus:

The river of God sets our feet a-dancing
The river of God fills our hearts with cheer
The river of God fills our mouths with laughter
And we rejoice for the river is here!

2. The river of God is teeming with life
And all who touch it can be revived
And those who linger on this river’s shore
Will come back thirsting for more of the Lord.

3. Up to the mountain we have to go
To find the presence of the Lord
Along the banks of the river we run
We dance with laughter giving praise to the Son!

Chorus

4. Down the mountain the river flows
And it brings refreshing wherever it goes
Through the valleys and over the fields
The river is rushing and the river is here.

Chorus

Tag

And we rejoice for the river is here!

love after love

From my fall 2002 management class, this poem - by the 1992 Nobel Laureate in Literature - says it all!

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes;
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

~~Derek Walcott

Song of Church Unity

Here's a favorite from long ago:

1. All living creatures with the same bread you sustain
        And to your Spirit's well nobody comes in vain.
   Give that we understand the language of your call,
        Uphold us by your hand; write your name on us all!



2. To You, Word in the flesh, we shall allegiance give:
        Because you suffered death, we will forever live.
   Show all who long for life the way to where you dwell,
        Oh Son, whose sacrifice broke down the gates of hell!



3. O Spirit, pioneer, keeper of humankind,
        We are a scattered rear, rebelliously behind.
   Abide with us and slay the powers that disunite,
        Oh Truth and Life and Way, Oh everlasting Light!

C. Michael De Vries

Christmas in the Desert 2004

Friday, Christmas Eve, as I flew into Tucson and into another southwestern sunset, the desert displayed to me its breathtakingly barren, apparently bleak magnificence for what felt like the thousandth time. Despite the Nativity-tides I've spent in the snowy climates of New England and the Intermountain West and notwithstanding representations of snowy if not actually snowbound states of nature generally being considered most illustrative of Christmas, for me the fullness of the reality of God's incarnation as a human alive in human history becomes most poignant among the palms, sands, rocks, cliffs, cacti, aloes and agaves (Partial list of local plants: barrel cacti, chollas, desert broom, Joshua trees, mesquite, ocotillo, palo verde, prickly pear cactus, saguaro...), the reality of God-among-us all the time no matter what, remains most self-evident in the fire of a desert sunset, in the budding dawn and incipient day the desert sunrise promises. [why? I’ll leave my readers thinking and guessing, though my essential theology gives you a major clue] And somehow remembering Jesus' birth in the Arizona desert is very different from recalling Jesus' Birth in the coastal desert of San Diego, where I've been spent more than a few wintertimes.

At Patti and Floyd's place way outside the Tucson city limits, our dinner for the big yearly gala was amazing! The buffet included chips and dips, a plethora of flavorsome and savory Mexican menu items (tacos, tostadas, flautas—or were they taquitos?—tamales, red chile, green chile, guacamole, refritos, arroz…as well as several sweet flavorfuls: giant cookies, chocolate layer cake, vanilla ice cream and homemade flan). Now Christmas Day evening has arrived; sundown's here again and we're ready to enjoy traditional turkey while the 7 (seven!) Husky, almost-Husky and Husky-look-alikes (Blues, Copper Queen, Denali, Easter Angel, Nanook, Nikki and Spirit of 2004) lounge around enjoying and protecting their gift toys and treats. Meanwhile, the evening news just announced it snowed today in Corpus Christi, TX, for the first time in over a century!

A most blessed Feast of the Nativity to all my readers and to God's entire beloved creation, reborn and redeemed in Christ Jesus!

All Who Love and Serve Your City

1. All who love and serve your city,
all who bear its daily stress,
all who cry for peace and justice,
all who curse and all who bless,

2. In your day of loss and sorrow,
in your day of helpless strife,
honor, peace, and love retreating,
seek the Lord, who is your life.

3. In your day of wrath and plenty,
wasted work and wasted play,
call to mind the word of Jesus,
"I must work while it is day."

4. For all days are days of judgment,
and the Lord is waiting still,
drawing near a world that spurns him,
offering peace from Calvary's hill.

5. Risen Lord! shall yet the city
be the city of despair?
Come today, our Judge, our Glory;
be its name, "The Lord is there!"


* Words: Erik Routley
* © 1969 by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (admin. by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188).
* All rights reserved.

* Music: Birabus by Peter Cutts
* ©' 1969 by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (admin. by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188).
* All rights reserved.

* Other tunes: Charlestown, Dominion-Chalmers, Marching, Omni die
* Meter: 87 87

so worth the long wait!

RED SOX NATION!!!!!

official site

ekistic units

anthropos – 1
room – 2
house – 5
housegroup – 40
small neighborhood - 250
neighborhood – 1,500
small polis – 10,000
polis – 75,000
small metropolis – 500,000
metropolis – 4,000,000
small megalopolis – 25,000,000
megalopolis – 150,000,000
small eperopolis – 1,000 million [1,000,000,000]
eperopolis – 7,500 million [7,500,000,000]
ecumenopolis – 50,000 million [50,000,000,000]

California!!!!!

From The Road to Daybreak by Henri J. M. Nouwen:

[California] is a land to which people go to be free from tradition, constraints, and an oppressive history. But the price for this freedom is high: individualism, competition, rootlessness, and frequently loneliness and a sense of being lost. –Page 198

still-current lists from the past

Here's one I made for some class somewhere (at UMassBoston, probably):

City, cities:

• Cash economy—as opposed to barter economy
• Class, ethnic, economic, linguistic and cultural diversity
• Communications!
• Concentrated housing—esp vertical concentration
• Education on all levels, particularly university and technical
• Home of the middleclass!
• Home of the middleperson—the broker
• Major arts events; major sports events
• Medical centers
• Multiculturalism; transculturalism
• Habitual, deliberate, intentional and purposeful [how many more adjectives would you like to describe this activity?] contact with entities outside of itself

---

Ghetto of any kind and every type (my apologies for writing this down without a source):

"Nothing much goes in or out of it that wasn't there the day before."

---

Another list, from the same time, same place:

Body Image, where:

• body,
• mind,
• psyche,
• spirit and
• culture

converge. Its impact reverberates in all areas of life:

• mental,
• physical,
• emotional and
• spiritual.

From AT&T (1970s?) ads

• At least talk to each other!


• Divisions evolve from the barriers we construct


• Evol/Love (in addition to the print ad, I saw this one in a video at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago)


• Meet somebody halfway


• Out of a sense of self, a sense of the other


• Reach out for someone


• Understanding begins with communication


• There's something you can do about it...
  ...meet somebody halfway...
  ...to communicate is the beginning of understanding!

...did someone say "speech is the language of covenant?" I read that somewhere and I completely agree! For my theology site I'm working on some ideas about prayer.