Remembering

Every year on September 11th, I take about 20 minutes out of my day to listen to a piece of music. It's not the prettiest piece of music ever written-in fact, many people might find it rather cacophonous. That being said, it is a very powerful work.

The piece is titled "On the Transmigration of Souls," by John Adams. If you're interested in hearing a bit of background about the piece, check out this link:
http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/features/adams_pulitzer.html

As I have recently found out (from the above link, in fact), Adams' "libretto" for the work was taken from posters, notes, etc posted around the Twin Towers site.

The work is very eerie and, for me, evokes strong feelings and vivid memories of the events of that day. Waking up to my roommate mumbling something about a plane crashing into a building in NYC; sitting in the crowded Hill-Kit (my dorm at the time) tv room watching the events unfold; not going to class the rest of the day...

I think the second most compelling work of art that I have seen/heard is Picasso's Guernica (which I had the privilege of seeing in person last summer).
http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarArt/Picasso/Guernica/Guernica.JPG

I would recommend checking them both out; you can probably download the Adams piece on iTunes.


-N

(this is a duplicate entry from my Facebook page)