tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14430080.post1324910259941732794..comments2024-03-12T17:52:46.356-04:00Comments on INFODAD.COM: Family-Focused Reviews: (+++) INTRIGUING MIXTURESThe Infodad Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05488937304837145011noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14430080.post-49783222265161389872014-10-10T15:22:21.968-04:002014-10-10T15:22:21.968-04:00Since the reviewer of my piece, "Leaves falli...Since the reviewer of my piece, "Leaves falling from the Holy Tree", obviously was not taken with it and dismissed it with one fell sentence (Infodad.com; September 25, 2014; Intriguing Mixtures; Music for Strings and Orchestra…), I would like to offer more background information about the piece, which should provide the reviewer and the reviewer’s readers with some broader and deeper insights into its nature. <br /><br />Leaves falling from the Holy Tree was composed in 2001 in memoriam Nicholas Black Elk, holy man of the Oglala Sioux. As a teenager, I first read the book, Black Elk Speaks, an autobiography in which Black Elk recounts his spiritual journey from young boy to old man. This man’s life story had an enduring effect on my own spiritual quest and awareness of the world. The power and force of his great vision; the thrust and travels of his life; the melancholy that seemed to invade his later years, when as an old man he felt he had failed his people as a spiritual leader––all of these aspects are interwoven into the various textures, musical imagery, and emotions of this orchestral piece. Following is an excerpt from Black Elk’s account of his great vision.<br /><br />“When we came to the end of the first ascent we camped in the sacred circle as before, and in the center stood the holy tree, and still the land about us was all green. Then we started on the second ascent, marching as before, and still the land was green, but it was getting steeper. And as I looked ahead, the people changed into elks and bison and all four-footed beings and even into fowls, all walking in a sacred manner on the good red road together. And I myself was a spotted eagle soaring over them. But just before we stopped to camp at the end of that ascent, all the marching animals grew restless and afraid that they were not what they had been, and began sending forth voices of trouble, calling to their chiefs. And when they camped at the end of that ascent, I looked down and saw that leaves were falling from the holy tree.”<br /> Black Elk Speaks (Ch. 3, The Great Vision)<br />From Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux / Nicholas Black Elk, as told through John G. Neihardt. Published by the University of Nebraska Press.<br /><br />Please keep in mind, that my piece, was humbly written with much love and respect for an American Indian holy man and American Indian cultures. Creating the piece involved much reading, research, and many years of listening to both traditional and modern American Indian music, as well as attending powwows where traditional dance and music can be observed firsthand and up-close. The piece is very specifically my reaction to, and impressions of, the mystical experiences and life of Nicholas Black Elk. If I had chosen to compose a work based on the mystical experiences of Wovoka, or Crazy Horse, or Saint Paul, or Saint Theresa, or Rumi, or Paramahansa Yogananda, the resulting composition would have been quite different and specific to my impressions of that individual’s mystical experiences. In the review the reviewer wrote, that my piece “does not seem especially evocative of anything more than a general mystical experience.” Pace, dear reviewer, I feel that you have done a great disservice to "Leaves falling from the Holy Tree".<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11562127381215401612noreply@blogger.com