I always love finding the gems amongst the archives of Maria Popova’s The Marginalian. This article about cellist Pablo Casals rang true with me on so many levels.
“…like many exceptional people, he cultivated his character through an early brush with suffering. In his late teenage years, already a celebrated prodigy, he underwent an anguishing spiritual crisis of the kind Tolstoy faced in his later years and came close to suicide. But with the loving support of his mother, he regained his center and went on to become a man of great talent, great accomplishment, and great vitality.”
This paragraph rang true with me, for as a child from aged 2 to 8 I suffered three life-threatening accidents. However, I was no prodigy academically or artistically. I was what you might call a ‘late bloomer’, who at the age of 30, left his home town in the north-east of England with his wife and his 20 month old son to attend Bristol Polytechnic to study Art History. It is here through the encouragement of my Tutor, that I learned I could write.
This was in 1987, and a few years previous, at the LA Olympics that I performed as a singer-songwriter at various locations in the city - including the USC stage. But…this was not to be where I was headed artistically. There was a different call that I needed to attend to and that was writing.
… in his own memorable meditation on the secret of remaining forever young, Casals writes of his daily practice:
“It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day is something new, fantastic, unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle!”
What is your daily practice as a musician? What that helps you remain ‘forever young’? What for you is ageless, timeless or stirs that creative flow in you?
Read on and enjoy the many words of wisdom from Pablo Casals…
https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/12/03/pablo-casals-work-age/
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John Williams is always impressive. Good choice, Greg.
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Well, hello Stephen....lovely to see you in this lounge! It usually depends on my mood and what music/composer that I feel like listening to. I have a lot of different favourites, but I always have ti...
Expand commentWell, hello Stephen....lovely to see you in this lounge! It usually depends on my mood and what music/composer that I feel like listening to. I have a lot of different favourites, but I always have time for Alexandre Desplat - any of his scores. They are magic. Currently scoring a horror film....nothing I can share right now, though.
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Arhynn Descy - hope you been well! :) We'll have to catch up soon. Wonderful composer - thanks for sharing. Best wishes with the horror film!
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Stephen Folker thank you and yes, let's catch up soon.
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Vangelis and John Williams. Vangelis because he was able to get the perfect intimate feeling of movies, and John Williams for his epic and wonderful themes that will survive for generations.