Yesterday I received in the mail the most recent edition of The Blair Quarter Note, the magazine of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I started receiving this publication after sending a donation to the school in memory of a dulcimer genius, David Schnaufer, who died three years ago. Two quick citations caught my eye; the first was in the cover article about The Blakemore Trio which is preparing to perform a new work, Gates of Silence, by composer Susan Botti. Here is the text which interested me:
In composing Gates of Silence, Botti was inspired by Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, and the rhythms of loss, renewal, hope and continuation that she feels resonate powerfully today. “I was reading the description of the fall of Troy, and then I’d pick up the newspaper and read about the destruction of a storm—this experience of your home and community being devastated through war or natural disaster, the emotion of that, and the question of how people continue on, “ Botti says. “I read about the people in Greensburg, Kansas. It’s been two years since the terrible tornados that devastated the town. And they’re rebuilding—it’s going to be this incredible green city. It’s remarkable, people’s sense of hope. So the line of the piece is inspired by that in a way—that no matter what we lose, there’s a sense of hope and the ability to look forward. I find it very inspiring and beautiful.” (p. 4-5)
The second bit of Latin that caught my eye was in the Undergraduate news column on p. 14, where I learned that there is a Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology called…Nota Bene (Note Well). I love this stuff!
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