When I was studying Music History in my undergrad, I always dreaded the Baroque period.  I wasn't sure exactly why but something about the music didn't correspond with my young aesthetic sensibilities.  I enjoyed the listening assignments most of the time and found them fascinating, but they never moved me like my favorite pieces do.  Perhaps my outsider perspective made the intricacies present in species counterpoint seem unattainable and pretentious...or maybe because, like the weather in public schools, I was forced to study this material ad naseum throughout my musical education.  Whatever the reason, J.S. Bach wasn't even in the top twenty of my favorite composers.  That all changed however after hearing one piece for the first time.

The balance is exquisite. The original theme is unbelievably beautiful on its own but when paired with its sibling lines, the dissonance and resolution are some of the most incredible I have ever heard.  This piece, a 3 Part Invention which was no doubt written for his students, turned out to be my key into Baroque music.  It inspired me to study the process and all of Bach's music with new eyes!  I do however, still have one more dirty little secret to reveal.  When this piece is played on the instrument it is written for, I love it but not nearly as much as I love this version.

This version nearly brings me to tears, every single time I hear it!  As does this version! Sinfonia XI starts at 21:05 but listen to them all if you get a chance!

The piano is one of my all time favorite instruments, which is a big statement coming from someone who loves all of them (except for the Erhu...Gross. More on that later probably.), so why do I find the String Trio more moving, and the human voice more moving than that?  Maybe its the human voice that connects me on a spiritual level to the genius of the piece and the inherent expressiveness that all strings have over other instruments due to the complete control over pitch, volume and sustenance.  I'm still not entirely sure but I hope like me, this piece in one of its 3 presented forms, moves you like it moves me.  This wonder in G minor is a pick me up and a constant source of inspiration.  If I feel stuck, it somehow always provides a new view and always reminds me how truly amazing the art form that I first loved is. 

I hope you have a chance to listen to this as well as others from Bach's Oeuvre of amazing work.  This is the first post of many regarding music that I find incredible and inspiring.  I'm not going to lie, if I wanted to cover all of it, it would be several lifetimes worth of material, but I hope at least a few will move you too.

A Love Song for Amanda Fehring
By Cameron Michael Fehring

The Sun's bright yellow light
Upon my face,
The oceans never ending blue,
The sky at night
When the stars take flight
The atromentous imbued height,
Just to name a few.

But life is relative to
those who know
A day can take a month, a year.
Suddenly a discovery
An epiphany, dawned on me.

My darling
I'm curious it's true
I've done the problems
Read the books and
Didn't have a clue
'Cause I never
Understood forever
Until I started loving you

Days fly by
Years rush through
When I think forever
I only think of you
And how if God would
allow us that,
It's still to short a time.

My darling
It's silly but it's true
For me there's no
Eternity without
Loving you.
'Cause I never
Understood forever
Until I saw your eyes of blue.

No I never
Understood forever
Until I started loving you.

I distinctly remember one of my first days all those years ago, a coworker of mine was being verbally accosted by a customer and I asked another who was watching from a distance what had caused such an outburst? The details were so ridiculous, I couldn't believe it.  The customer was berating my fellow associate because we didn't have a CD player that it turned we had never even carried. The customer had convinced themselves they purchased their treasured antique at our particular store and we had never even had access to the brand.  My associate had done everything right and was still bearing the weight of someones misguided anger.  It was at that exact moment that the warnings I had heard my very first day started to make sense. "This place will break you." "You will eventually hate it here." My coworker explained that more often than not this happens because certain people have evolved a bias against people who work on the other side of the counter.  We are either the enemy out to screw them, are beneath them or both.  We are expected to absorb the anger and negativity with a smile, make sure the customer gets what they want, and then make sure they come back to see us in the future no matter what the circumstances.  This sort of environment takes its tole and sooner than a person would believe.

What a moment to sing about!

The melody and first few lines of this song came to me on the 6 Train platform. I had just completed a double, one shift of retail and one of theater.  Unfortunately that day the customers at the store and patrons at the theater were worshiping an earnestness devoid of basic human decency and I was spent. Exhausted even! Retail work is rarely more than semi-rewarding and even then, it's only when people communicate effectively and collectively obey the rules society has evolved over thousands of years to not murder each other.  I was instantly reminded of that first negative experience and the song started to flow from me.

The rhyme scheme presented itself to me as the first verse evolved and like the problem addressed in the song, it got increasingly more complicated and required a great deal of thought and work to get through.

When you spend
Each day
Absorbing this kind of force
You pay
Of course
stress always has to play
Upon the source
It’s true
We pretend it's okay cause there's nothing we can say or do
But absorb the force
From anger that has nothing to do with you

I've constructed the show around themes that are stated in the Prologue. I have conceived that specific points of view will be represented by different keys and sections within. The A Capella hymn section below is a section the managers sing together.  It is roughly based on a Gregorian Kyrie Chant and serves the same philosophical purpose: It takes a lot of faith to hold an organization like this together.  Every number that is related to this faith and "all in" philosophy includes a portion of this hymn. (The Bracketed section in the Soprano Line is the main theme.) In this song I tried to use the figures to induce familiarity as well as irony.  It is based on the 5th and 6th figures (in the box).

Check out the song with these new insights and let me know what you think!

This is Cameron Michael Fehring signing off.