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Re: Best wishes to all Americans



Hello to all my F_Minor friends in the stunned world.
 
I think Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony is the most beautiful and moving music of mourning and commemoration. Hold out for the version with Dawn Upshaw.
 
(One F_Minor professional musician -- string guy, I think -- once wrote me that musicians who have to rehearse this piece often don't share my love and admiration for it.)
 
And Barber's "Adagio for Strings," which became famous as the music played over and over on the radio during the funeral of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
 
I went to college in New York City and have had some of the best times of my life there. In many ways -- certainly musical high, high among them -- it has evolved into one of the most thrilling and spirit-enriching cities the world in our times has ever known. For all its faults, people who love the most wonderful things of life have always spontaneously wanted to visit and live there.
 
So far all my NYC friends have checked in safe and sound, but some have reported close calls, near misses, and harrowing office window views of the ghastly disaster.
 
My particular prayers go out to children everywhere who must make sense of all this, and to the adults who must try to tell them that there is still hope, safety and love for them and for all of us in this world.
 
I love to ride trains, and I know so well the view of the Towers from New Jersey Mary Jo mentions. It is unimaginable that the next time I look at the city, they will not be there. And why they will not be there. Unimaginable. Entirely outside of all my experience.
 
Mary Jo, thanks for reminding us that music has a role to play in the terrible recuperation and recovery the souls of all survivors must endure in the year to come. After a harrowing broadcasting day, Peter Jennings finally started to cry when Congress assembled and began to sing "God Bless America."
 
Bob
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 1:49 AM
Subject: Re: Best wishes to all Americans

>Hello to everyone-- so many of you I have known through the internet and
>in fortunate real life meetings for many years.
>
>Rutgers University where I work (and the org that hosts f_minor) is 33
>miles from mid-town Manhattan-- roughly 28 miles from where the twin
>towers used to stand. Essentially, I live in an urban suburb of NYC. I
>always knew to get my bags together on the train the minute we'd come
>around the bend on the Northeast Corridor line because there the towers
>would be.  I can't explain what the city looks like without them-- the
>pictures at night on the news-- our whole world has changed! So many
>people are having such different reactions.  I think for most of the
>people I know it hasn't sunk in. The amount of human lives that have been
>lost in New York, D.C., Pennsylvania tonight...is incomprehensible.
>Reports from friends who made it home from the towers have left me, in my
>relative comfort just a few miles away, so concerned for them and the
>massive trauma they have endured and stunned at what lies ahead for the
>loved-ones of those who are missing. But I think most Americans will tell
>you-- no matter what our political inclinations-- we won't be terrorized
>and I want to thank everyone for their well wishes in this difficult,
>stunning time.
>
>I think I'll put on Verdi's Requiem-- my own personal music of mourning.
>Does anyone have any suggestions for good 'dark night of the soul'
>music? Perhaps Brahms?
>
>Best,
>
>Mary Jo Watts,
>listowner, f_minor