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Value for Sunday of Week 12 in the season of Sowing
Renewal and Renewing
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In nature, spring brings renewal. There are also times of renewal in life.
- We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome. [attributed to Isabel Allende]
- Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death. [R. D. Laing]
- Change and renewal are themes in life, aren’t they? We keep growing throughout life. [attributed to Susan Minot]
The vernal equinox reminds us of life’s continual cycle of change: renewal and death. It reminds us that we are renewed at various times in our lives too. We do well to be mindful of it and to use it to its best cathartic effect.
“Renewal is an inner process, a choice each of us can make to replenish our run down mental and physical stores.” It is an adjunct to recovery and resilience. “. . . renewal activities can invoke a psycho-physiological response that enhances personal sustainability.” “One of the most important things we can do for ourselves is create a daily habit of self-renewal. This habit will give us the ability to face each new day with excitement and vibrant energy.”
“Self-renewal is a possible response to pain and struggle, and one that can be facilitated and encouraged.” “The person intent on self-renewal will have to deal with ghosts of the past-the memory of earlier failures, the remnants of childhood dramas and rebellions, and the accumulated grievances and resentments that have long outlived their cause.”
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
After dark vapors have oppress'd our plains / For a long dreary season, comes a day / Born of the gentle South, and clears away / From the sick heavens all unseemly stains. / The anxious month, relieved of its pains, / Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May; / The eyelids with the passing coolness play / Like rose leaves with the drip of Summer rains. / The calmest thoughts came round us; as of leaves / Budding -- fruit ripening in stillness -- Autumn suns / Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves – / Sweet Sappho's cheek -- a smiling infant's breath – / The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs – / A woodland rivulet -- a Poet's death.
[John Keats, Sonnet: “After Dark Vapors Have Oppress’d Our Plains” (1817).]
March days return with their covert light, / and huge fish swim through the sky, / vague earthly vapours progress in secret, / things slip to silence one by one. / Through fortuity, at this crisis of errant skies, / you reunite the lives of the sea to that of fire, / grey lurchings of the ship of winter
to the form that love carved in the guitar. / O love, O rose soaked by mermaids and spume, / dancing flame that climbs the invisible stairway, / to waken the blood in insomnia’s labyrinth, / so that the waves can complete themselves in the sky, / the sea forget its cargoes and rages, / and the world fall into darkness’s nets.
[Pablo Neruda, “March days return with their covert light” (1955).]
So winter closed its fist / And got it stuck in the pump. / The plunger froze up a lump
In its throat, ice founding itself / Upon iron. The handle / Paralysed at an angle.
Then the twisting of wheat straw / into ropes, lapping them tight / Round stem and snout, then a light
That sent the pump up in a flame / It cooled, we lifted her latch, / Her entrance was wet, and she came.
[Seamus Heaney, “Rite of Spring” (1969).]
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38, “Spring” (1841) (approx. 27-32’) (list of recorded performances): “It’s hard to imagine a piece more infused with the spirit of spring than Robert Schumann’s First Symphony. Schumann had just married Clara, a renowned pianist and composer in her own right, and it was she who urged him to write for orchestra.” “The bold rhythmic statement by the trumpets and trombones that opens the first movement of the symphony echoes the call in the poetry: 'O turn, o change your course—In the valley spring begins to bloom.'” “The Symphony, sketched in a four day burst and completed within a month, originally bore movement titles: ‘The Beginning of Spring,’ ‘Evening,’ ‘Merry Playmates,’ and ‘Spring in Full Bloom.’ The titles were deleted before publication, but are still perfect epigrammatic invitations to this music.” Top recorded performances are conducted by Coppola in 1946, Furtwängler in 1951, Szell in 1958 ***, Bernstein in 1960, Kubelik in 1979, Levine in 1981, Bernstein in 1984, Dohnányi in 1998, and Ticciati in 2014.
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring (1944) (approx. 24-27’) (list of recorded performances), “tells the story of a young frontier couple on their wedding day. Created as the war in Europe was drawing to end, the ballet captured the imagination of Americans who were beginning to believe in a more prosperous future, a future in which men and women would be united again.” “In surely one of the great ironies in music, a reserved, openly gay Jewish leftist from Brooklyn produced the sound we all instantly identify with the conservative values, vast landscapes and bold pioneer spirit of the rugged American settlers.” Copland revealed: “I was really putting Martha Graham to music. I had seen her dancing so many times, and I had a sense of her personality as a creative office. I had--really in front of my mind I wasn't thinking about the Appalachians or even spring. So that I had no title for it. I was a ballet for Martha, was actually the subtitle that I had.” Notwithstanding that, the music sounds like a fresh spring morning, as flowers are coming into bloom. Performances of the ballet are by Martha Graham in 1958, and Constella Ballet & Orchestra in 2014. Best recorded performances of the suite are conducted by Rodzinski in 1945, Copland in 1959, Bernstein in 1961, Doráti in 1961, Copland in 1970, Kunzel in 1996, Tilson Thomas in 2000.
Other compositions:
- Raga Bahar, a Hindustani classical raag for late evening or any time during spring, is about the beauty of spring. (“Bahar” means “spring” in Hindu.) Performances are by Budhaditya Mukherjee, Amjad Ali Khan, Bismillah Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Vilayat Khan.
- Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony for soloists, mixed choir, children's choir and orchestra, Op. 44 (1949) (approx. 43’) (list of recorded performances)
- Arnold Bax, Spring Fire (1913) (approx. 30-32’) (list of recorded performances)
- Frederick Delius, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912) (approx. 5-7’) (list of recorded performances)
- Ned Rorem, Spring Music, for violin, cello & piano (1990) (approx. 25-26’)
- Ernest Bloch, Hiver-Printemps (Winter-Spring) for orchestra (1905) (approx. 12-14’)
- John Knowles Paine, Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 34, "In Spring" (1879) (approx. 48-51’) (list of recorded performances)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K. 387, "Spring" (1782) (approx. 28-34’) (list of recorded performances)
- Ernest John Moeran, Songs of Springtime, for mixed chorus (1934) (approx. 13’) (list of recorded performances)
- Niels Gade, Frühlings-Phantasie (Spring Fantasy), Op. 23 (1852) (approx. 19’)
- Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Die Geburt Christi (The Birth of Christ), op. 90 (1894) (approx. 119’): set to this music, the Christian nativity story is a metaphor for renewal.
- César Franck, Les Éolides (The Breezes), M43 (1876) (approx. 11-12’) (list of recorded performances)
- Rued Langgaard, Symphony No. 2, “Vãrbrud” (Awakening of Spring), BVN 53 (1912-1914) (approx. 37-38’) (list of recorded performances)
- Karl Goldmark, Overture: Im Frühling (In the Spring), Op. 36 (approx. 10-12’)
- Guillermo Klein, “Solar Return Suite” (2006) (approx. 28-30’)
- Robert Saxton, String Quartet No. 4 (2023) (approx. 29’) “is a meditation on creation and renewal, mapping an ascent through seven movements, each tied to a symbolic pitch cycle. From the opening Wavebreak, evoking the birth of sound and motion, to the final movement, Daybreak, which resonates with echoes of all that preceded it, the quartet embodies a vast temporal and harmonic journey. Its centerpiece, ‘… the dancing will never be done…,’ is an urgent and restless dance, framed by introspective movements that contemplate the passage of time and human experience.”
Albums:
- George Winston, “Winter into Spring” (1981) (49’)
- David Kikoski, “Phoenix Rising” (2019) (59’)
- Le Vent du Nord, “20 Printemps” (2022) (53’)
- Armen Donelian, “Fresh Start” (2022) (64’): “Healing and stimulating, it’s music that both soothes the soul and sparks the imagination . . .”
- Jeremy Rose, Zela Margossian, Hilary Geddes & Bobby Singh, “Visions of Nar | Daughter of the Seas” (2023) (70’): “A kaleidoscopic ride through folk tunes, jazz and fresh compositions with a nod to the fiery Armenian goddess of water, sea and rain, Nar; this musical journey sends a message of hope and celebration of new beginnings.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- The Beatles, “”Here Comes the Sun” (lyrics)
- Peter Kater & Nawang Khechog, “”A Fresh Wind’
- Johann Strauss II (composer), “Frühlingsstimmen” (Voices of Spring), Op. 410 (1882) (lyrics)
- Josef Suk (composer), “Jaro” (Spring), Op. 22a
- Hugo Alfvén, “Roslagsvår” (Spring in Roslag)
- Leroy Anderson (composer), “The First Day of Spring”
- Ottorino Respighi (composer), “Spring” (La Primavera), from Three Botticelli Pictures P136 (1922)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “An den Frühling” (In the Spring), D. 245
- Franz Schubert (composer), “An den Frühling” (In the Spring), D. 283 (1815) (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “An den Frühling” (In the Spring), D. 587 (1817) (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Frühlingslied” (Spring Song), D. 398 (1816) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Georgia O’Keeffe, Calla Lilies on Pink (1928)
- Pavel Filonov, Formula of Spring (1927-29)
- Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Tulip (1926)
- David Burliuk, Spring in Countryside (1917)
- John William Waterhouse, A Song of Springtime (1913)
- Mikalojus Ciurlionas, Allegro (Sonata of the Spring) (1907)
- Isaac Levitan, Early Spring (1898)
- Arkhip Kuindzhi, Early Spring (1895)
- Paul Gauguin, Winter's End (1885)
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Spring (The Four Seasons) (1879)
- Konstantin Korovin, Early Spring (c. 1870)
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Spring (1563)
- Sandro Botticelli, Primavera (1478)
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