FROM THE PRESIDENT
Now I walk in beauty Beauty is before me Beauty is behind me
Above me and below me Around me and within me.
(Traditional Navajo prayer) Y
OU HAVE probably sung this—in church, in high school, or in college. The melody, often performed in four-part canon, is haunting and beautiful. This traditional Navajo prayer rang in my head as my
husband and I spent time in Utah and northern Arizona on our vacation this summer. The vast expanses without any population (human or animal) and vistas far in the dis- tance whose colors and shapes gradually come into focus as one gets closer—well, nothing could be more different from the population-dense, traffic-clogged world in which I live and work. I do love living in the Washington, D.C., area, but getting away is energizing, as new places and spaces and paces are an important part of what a vacation is about. Vividly colored rock, steep cliffs and deep canyons, soaring arches and spires—all are the work of
water, wind, and time. As a child, I had visited many of the high-profile parks, like Bryce and Zion National Parks, and the Grand Canyon. This trip focused on other intoxicatingly beautiful areas, in- cluding Canyonlands National Park with its mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic colors. And it was great to enjoy them in virtual solitude: We would drive miles and miles and neither pass nor be passed by any other vehicles.We drove in quiet beauty. In the Needles section of Canyonlands, our jaws dropped at every hairpin turn in the road as we
gaped at the spires created over the millennia. While the road was challenging, it was nothing like the 17 miles of bouncing and bumping as we attempted to avoid huge potholes and jutting rocks in the dirt and sand road that penetrates Monument Valley. “Where the earth meets the sky” is one de- scription of this awe-inspiring expanse of mesas, buttes, and spires spread over 90,000 acres. They also call this land the Navajo’s “canvas to the great circle of life.” They lived in beauty then, as we do today. A visit to Petra in Jordan years ago somewhat prepared me for the Antelope Slot Canyon. The mag-
nificence of the canyon’s yellow, gold, rust, and gray colors melting into each other—how many differ- ent shades there are!—were captured in the swirls created by the sand from openings high above. The sand swirled down on our heads as we absorbed the beauty that the winds had created so long ago. Archaeology has long been an avocational interest of mine, and I have loved visiting some of the
rock-art sites in South Africa. One park there is called “the world’s largest outdoor art museum”— with good reason. While the rock art in the American Southwest isn’t quite as concentrated, it is abundant. We visited two places of particular interest, both called “Newspaper Rock,” because peo- ple passing through 2,000 years ago carved beautiful symbols for others who would follow them. These petroglyphs depict people, sheep, lizards, snakes, antelopes, hunting scenes, the sun and moon. In Navajo, the rock is called “Tse’ Hone,” meaning “a rock that tells a story.” While we don’t have a full grasp of the meaning, we can say for certain that they told their stories in beauty. As musicians, we too live lives focused on beauty. We create beauty as we artfully choose music
for the particular place in the service or in the recital to create the effect the moment requires. We perform beautifully, to the best of our ability, selecting registration and technique that are appropri- ate for the music we’re playing. We often play instruments that are as beautiful to look at as they are to hear. We often make this music in beautiful architectural spaces with soaring arches and colorful windows that may well mirror the colors of the world outside. And we conduct choirs of beautiful voices singing music old and new, beautiful music. How lucky we are to have as our work the task of bringing awe and beauty to people’s lives, as we
not only walk in beauty but also sing in beauty, play in beauty, and allow our hearts, souls, and minds to be suffused with beauty.
AUGUST 2013
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