*The Picardy third is the cadential appearance of a tonic major chord in a minor key, normally at the end of a piece or major section. Trust me, you’ve heard it before although you may not have known what you heard. Its essentially tying up the end of a blue song with a red bow. But I believe this not limited to music. It is often heard from platforms both literal and digital, from God’s all-stars in their refusal or inability to allow pieces of our lives to remain dissonant, minor, unresolved. In the attempt to make things pretty they miss the beautiful, compelled to bring harmony to spirit they only multiply tomfoolery of the flesh. Hope must ache, or it is not hope at all.
Please, please don’t make it resolve this time. I loved her so much I would have given her my very eyes if she’d asked,plucked them from their sockets and said here, take them, Imemorized you long ago. But that would have distorted the moment; she needed vision. So I played the Bach piece she’d long loved, filling the neutral cadence with minor, with bittersweet, with no picardy third.As I lifted my fingers from the keys her tears lanced the silence.She kissed me a final time and said remember, the only way through the world is slow.That was two years ago now, twenty-four months after she fellbeneath the surface of time, seven-hundred-thirty daysafter the aggressions of chance pulled her by the ankles intothe black well. I sold the baby grand and so shuffle these days in wise blindness.
Came back this morning to sit in this ache a bit longer and wondered why until I remembered the baby grand that sat in my living room my entire childhood… 10 children… probably no money (or time?) for lessons… and no one learned to play. I have always grieved that deeply. I appreciate your knowledge of music and could almost hear that Bach piece. How poignant… and yet she’s right. The only way through the world is slow.
Came across a quote last week of Teilhard de Chardin… “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”
It has become the working title of my work with monarch butterflies. Wise blindness, yes. No ear has heard… what a glorious sound it will be when all resolves. It makes me want to cry.
Oh my. So true. Thanks for this evocative piece…I think it will sit with me all day long.
Thank you for stopping by, Diana…
Came back this morning to sit in this ache a bit longer and wondered why until I remembered the baby grand that sat in my living room my entire childhood… 10 children… probably no money (or time?) for lessons… and no one learned to play. I have always grieved that deeply. I appreciate your knowledge of music and could almost hear that Bach piece. How poignant… and yet she’s right. The only way through the world is slow.
Came across a quote last week of Teilhard de Chardin… “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”
It has become the working title of my work with monarch butterflies. Wise blindness, yes. No ear has heard… what a glorious sound it will be when all resolves. It makes me want to cry.
Patricia, I love that Chardin quote – thank you!