Monday, January 17, 1994

OVERTURE: COLLAGE NOCTURNES


                                    from Elemental Portraits: Nocturnes for Two Pianos,
                                    composed by Kirk Whipple

The beginning and the end of night—
from sunset to sunrise—
is a concentration of songlines to whet the palate:
jazz notes defining the quality of the forest,
a velvet refugee dressed in marimba patterns,
escaped blue notes outside the key.
Not technical études, but the theater
of neon rain in concentric ripples.

Where does night's vagary begin and end?
We seek the piano score for modern landscapes,
not a dreamy ideal of romantic music.
As if out of oscuridad, a sacred text
finds the first phrases of the moon.

The vibration of human existence resonates
in the music walking us out of ourselves,
the thighbones reminding us
of the steps taken: syllables of the air.

The melody lingers deep inside
long after the overture of the dream ends.
The nocturnal eye of the nightingale
waits for further instructions
from the coda:
                        an endless stranger
                        inside the depths of night.



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