FOREST FREELOADERS

FOREST FREELOADERS
Some time back, Alberta O’Brien sent me an interesting story about a neighbor in the great Northwest. It appears that her neighbor was a fine concert pianist who spent hours a day practicing. That goes without saying. He had discovered that his most productive hours were late into the evening. Living next to one of the many wooded areas of the Northwest, he had erected a studio with a large window looking into the woods. It was there that he placed his piano and spent many hours of contemplative practice looking into the woods and recreating some of the monuments of musical literature. Given that he had no neighbors on that side of the house, he often left the window open in good weather or at least uncovered with curtains. One evening as he was practicing well into the night he became aware of the fact that someone was listening to his pianistic musings from just outside the window. It was unnerving to him, and he walked to the window to see who was there. In doing so he frightened the interloper away. After a few consecutive nights when he was sure someone was out there listening, he determined to capture them on film by placing a camera at the window with a tripping device for the shutter at the piano keyboard. When he was certain the interloper was there, he tripped the shutter and captured the attached photo. ??? Racoons peering into the studio to hear his practice session. What were they listening to? Were they also attracted to the music of DWEMS (Dead Western European Males)? Had they developed a love for classical and romantic piano composers of the 18th and 19th century? I think not. Perhaps it was the unsurpassed order of the music. Perhaps it was the organization of harmonics and pitches relating to those of nature. Or perhaps it was that “spirit” again to which Mindy referred. Whatever it was, I am convinced that the creatures of the deep, the eagles that soar on mighty pinions and the fury creatures of the forest all respond to something out there. Is it nature? Is it supreme energy? Is it God? Man’s eternal quest through Art is to answer that question. We see the attempts in painting, architecture, dance, sculpture. We hear it is song and in symphony. It is man’s desire to explain the unexplainable.