CHAPTER 4: The DEMOCRATIC (R)EVOLUTION We are better than we realize we are. For the first time, we can now create institutions of governance that elicit our best. Copyright 2026 by Paul L. LaClair
Value for Wednesday of Week 39 in the season of Fulfillment
Relying
A way of expressing Faith in action, reliance is the child of the two parents, trust and confidence. We are more likely to rely on someone, or something, we think and believe is likely to bring about a desired result.
- Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. [Thomas Jefferson]
- Faith is the complete reliance on the power and goodness of Spirit and the firm belief that you are always connected to this goodness. Always affirm your faith and not your doubt. [Wayne Dyer]
Children rely on their parents, on their teachers, and on their peers. People generally rely on doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and goods- and service-providers from various walks of life, who in turn rely on their clients and customers for their livelihoods. Employers and employees rely on each other, as do spouses. Each of these kinds of relationships implies a kind of Faith that suits the relationship.
Doctors rely on their medical training, and also on intuition, as do practitioners in practically every field. Great jazz musicians know and rely on music theory, yet they improvise in real time. This illustrates that reliance is far-reaching.
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Seeing Valjean’s honor and wisdom, people came to rely on him, not only to provide employment but also to resolve disputes.
Little by little, and in the course of time, all this opposition subsided. There had at first been exercised against M. Madeleine, in virtue of a sort of law which all those who rise must submit to, blackening and calumnies; then they grew to be nothing more than ill-nature, then merely malicious remarks, then even this entirely disappeared; respect became complete, unanimous, cordial, and towards 1821 the moment arrived when the word "Monsieur le Maire" was pronounced at M. sur M. with almost the same accent as "Monseigneur the Bishop" had been pronounced in D---- in 1815. People came from a distance of ten leagues around to consult M. Madeleine. He put an end to differences, he prevented lawsuits, he reconciled enemies. Every one took him for the judge, and with good reason. It seemed as though he had for a soul the book of the natural law. It was like an epidemic of veneration, which in the course of six or seven years gradually took possession of the whole district. [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume I – Fantine; Book Fifth – The Descent Begins, Chapter V, “Vague Flashes on the Horizon”.]
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
The cello sonata form places two instruments of fundamentally different character in a relationship of complete mutual dependence, where neither can realize its full expressive potential without the active presence and response of the other. Unlike orchestral or solo forms, the cello sonata demands continuous listening and yielding — each instrument trusting the other to complete what it cannot finish alone. This is relying not as passivity but as active, reciprocal fidelity: two voices that remain distinct yet become whole only in each other's presence. The post-Bach works — by Beethoven, Brahms, and others — deepen this quality, bringing a seriousness of purpose that places reliance not merely in the form's structure but in its emotional and moral center.
- Franz Schubert, Sonata for Arpeggione in A minor, D. 821 (1824) (approx. 24-29’) (transcribed for cello) (list of recorded performances)
- Frédéric Chopin, Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65 (1847) (approx. 26-34’) (list of recorded performances)
- Edvard Grieg, Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 36 (1882) (approx. 27-30’) (list of recorded performances)
- Felix Mendelssohn, Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 45 (1838) (approx. 24-25’) (list of recorded performances)
- Mendelssohn, Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 (1843) (approx. 24-28’) (list of recorded performances)
- Dmitri Shostakovich, Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40 (1934) (approx. 25-29’) (list of recorded performances) (list of recorded performances)
- Richard Strauss, Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 6, TrV 115 (1883) (approx. 25-26’) (list of recorded performances)
- Claude Debussy, Cello Sonata in D minor, L. 135 (1915) (approx. 11-12’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sergei Rachmaninoff, Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19 (1901) (approx. 34-42’) (list of recorded performances)
- Charles-Marie Widor, Cello Sonata in A Major, Op. 80 (1907) (approx. 26-30’) (list of recorded performances).
Ludwig van Beethoven, Cello Sonatas (1-5) (list of recorded performances): Beethoven's five cello sonatas span nearly two decades of his creative life, from the early Op. 5 sonatas of 1796 to the searching Op. 102 pair of 1815, and together they trace the full arc of his development as a composer. In the early sonatas, the reliance between instruments is already more equal than convention demanded — Beethoven refused to let the piano merely accompany. By the late Op. 102 sonatas, that reliance has become something deeper and stranger: two voices thinking together through difficult territory, neither able to arrive at the destination alone. Top recordings of all five are by Rostropovich & Richter in 1963, du Pré & Barenboim in 1970, Maisky & Argerich in 1991, Wispelwey & Giacometti in 2005, Isserlis & Levin in 2014, and Watkina & Bax in 2026.
- Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5, No. 1 (1796) (approx. 23-26’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 (1796) (approx. 22-26’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 (1808) (approx. 26-28’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102, No. 1 (1815) (approx. 15’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2 (1815) (approx. 19-20’) (list of recorded performances)
Johannes Brahms, Cello Sonatas:
- Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38 (1862-1865) (approx. 27-30’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99 (1886) (approx. 29’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 (1917) (approx. 17-18’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117 (1921) (approx. 18-21’) (list of recorded performances)
Bohuslav Martinů, three Cello Sonatas (list of recorded performances):
- Cello Sonata No. 1, H 277 (1939) (approx. 18-20’) (list of recorded performances)
- Cello Sonata No. 2, H 286 (1941) (approx. 18-21’) (list of recorded performances)
- Cello Sonata No. 3, H 340 (1952) (approx. 18-21’) (list of recorded performances)
Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello Sonatas:
- Cello Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 32 (1872) (approx. 20-22’) (list of recorded performances)
- Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 123 (1905) (approx. 29-32’) (list of recorded performances)
Georges Onslow, Cello Sonatas, Op. 16 (1819):
- Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major (approx. 21-22’)
- Cello Sonata No. 2 in C minor (approx. 26’)
- Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major (approx. 18’)
Nicolai Myaskovsky, cello sonatas:
- Cello Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12 (1911, rev. 1935) (approx. 20’) (list of recorded performances)
- Cello Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Op. 81 (1950) (approx. 21-23’) (list of recorded performances)
Heinrich von Herzogenberg, cello sonatas: “The Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) has sometimes been attacked as nothing more than a pale imitation of Brahms, of whom he was a great admirer. There is no denying that his music often shows the influence of Brahms, however, listeners and players alike have discovered that it is original and fresh, notwithstanding the influence of Brahms.”
- Cello Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 52 (1886) (approx. 25-27’)
- Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 64 (1890) (approx. 15’)
- Cello Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 94 (1897) (approx. 25’)
Stand-alone cello sonatas and a canzona:
- Charles-Valentin Alkan, Cello Sonata in E major, Op. 47 (1856) (approx. 33-34’) (list of recorded performances)
- Samuel Barber, Cello Sonata, Op. 6, H 65 (1932) (approx. 17-20’) (list of recorded performances)
- Frank Bridge, Cello Sonata in D minor, H 125 (1917) (approx. 21-24’) (list of recorded performances)
- Benjamin Britten, Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 65 (1961) (approx. 21-27’) (list of recorded performances)
- Ernst von Dohnányi, Cello Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 8 (1899) (approx. 25-29’) (list of recorded performances)
- Michele Esposito, Cello Sonata, Op. 43 (1899) (approx. 19’)
- Miloslav Kabeláč, Cello Sonata, Op. 9 (approx. 23-24’)
- Zoltan Kodály, Cello Sonata, Op. 4 (1910) (approx. 17-19’) (list of recorded performances)
- Albéric Magnard, Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 20 (1909) (approx. 27-28’) (list of recorded performances)
- Francis Poulenc, Sonata for cello and piano, FP 143 (1948) (approx. 20-24’) (list of recorded performances)
- Sergei Prokofiev, Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119 (1949) (approx. 21-25’) (list of recorded performances)
- Hendrik Andriessen, Canzona for Cello & Orchestra (1965) (approx. 11-12’): the orchestra introduces and the cello consummates.
Albums:
- Kenny Barron, “Other Places” (1992) (67’) and “Wanton Spirit” (1995) (63’), both in ensemble
Music: songs and other short pieces
- The Beatles, “With a Little Help from My Friends” (lyrics)
- Dan Fogelberg, “Longer” (lyrics)
