Turning around the corner

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend a dinner in honour of Arthur Erickson to celebrate his work and his life... my friend Michael is writing an article about him for Vancouver Magazine, and he asked me to attend the event... So, I put on my best silk pocket square and off I went. I can honestly tell you now that I had no idea who Arthur Erickson really was, other than the fact that he was an architect.... Sometimes I feel like in my pursuit of music, I can become a bit myopic. Needless to say, I am always glad for wakeup calls.. in whatever form they may come in.. First we went to a talk he gave at the Vancouver Art Gallery... here are my impressions...they are kind of rambling and unfinished... like the long threads of overworked dough... messy....

There was a genius in the room. There was a man who thinks before he speaks, and more importantly, has much to say. (But does a genius need to think before he speaks?) Arthur Erickson is an architect who minimizes the importance of buildings so that natural landscapes can speak. This to me seems like an act of great humility. He envisions architecture as the expression of human aspirations that must be made still, but yet always look as though they would spring to life.... Like a sprinter at the gate.

I think that Gertrude Stein said that when she met a genius, bells went off in her head. I have a feeling, knowing what I know of Gertrude Stein, that she must have heard bells when she met herself. Well, I am not so fortunate as Ms. Stein (may she pontificate in the salons of heaven forever), but I definitely felt something.... As I did yesterday I watched a video of Rostropovich's triumphant return to Moscow, after his citizenship was stripped from him, after he suffered so much for defending Solzenytsyn and Sakharov. He lived for music, and for freedom of expression. So did Beethoven... Today I listened to the Leonore Overture number 3 (overture to Fidelio)...Beethoven triumphing over his demons and calling us all to fight for our own voice, and in doing so, for our freedom, and for the freedom of others. And Arthur Erickson, like Beethoven, and Rostropovich, and Gertrude Stein, were against the status quo. Beethoven and Arthur Erickson said as much: Ericksoapproacheses his medium as an artist rather than a craftsman, and in doing so creates a unique vision for each building he designs. Similarly, Beethoven did not call himself a composer in the traditional sense, rather he called himself a Tondichter (literally a "sound poet") rather than a Tonkunstler (sound artist), which was the usual word for a musician. In doing so he revealed himself to be a musician of the Romantic age -- a poet concerned with feelings, expression and abstract ideals.

Today I listened to David Suzuki say that we must realize that when we hurt the environment, we are hurting ourselves. All of these things are of a piece. For there is architecture in music, and music is movement, and music and movement in words.. and great buildings punctuate space like music does. But it is not about the music, or the building...it is the in between, and the before, and how the music and the building forever change what comes after. It is the moment before the overture starts, the moment before you turn around the corner and see the Louvre, or the El Asqa Mosque, or Angkor Wat... the feeling that you are going to come across something that will alter you profoundly. But how selfish a thought this is, for none of it matters in the slightest if we stay the path and destroy the world, and thus ourselves.

And I am grateful that I live in a time and a place where there is freedom. And I pray that I will not remember this time as the moment before the curtain fell, before the world became dark. Oh, how I hope. I hope that the world will continue to have room for people who dare to be unfashionable... who venture to craft time and space out of the depths of the earth and the depths of their being into something organic and timeless. And then I remember the words of Florestan,the imprisoned political prisoner in Fidelio who said

"Wahrheit vagt' ich kühn zu sagen, und die Ketten sind mein Lohn -- Boldy I dared to speak the truth, and chains are my reward."

People were not ready for Beethoven's music. They were not ready for Gertrude Stein, just as they were not ready for many of Erickson's buildings, like the Canadian Embassy in Washington.

But we are always turning around the corner....