Value for Thursday of Week 13 in the season of Sowing

Keeping Eyes On the Prize

We further empower ourselves by identifying our goals clearly, and focusing on them.

People may have goals but if they are scattered in their intention, those goals will be harder to realize. Keeping one’s eye on the prize refers to focusing on one’s dreams, or goals.

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

[from Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”]

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Frederic Rzewski’s magnum opus for solo piano, 36 Variations on “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (1975) (approx. 57-64’), could easily be placed under “Unity” or “Strength,” because its pervasive attitude, expressed, through the solo voice, conveys the idea of strength through unity. It could also be placed under democracy, or human rights. I have chosen this work to represent the virtue of remaining vigilant and focused on a cherished goal or ideal. The work is a set of variations on a simple, hummable theme. “Rzewski was a strong advocate for the Chilean people during the oppressed times of the 1960's. Rzewski wrote this piano collection as a revolutionary anthem in response to Allende coming into power in 1969. Though Rzewski was a prominent figure in the avant-garde movement, this composition allowed him to step outside of the complexities of modernism and write accessible music for a specific purpose.” “In the aftermath of the military coup that deposed Allende, the song became a call to action for the resistance in Chile, and soon spread around the world. It has been recorded, paraphrased, and sampled in many forms and languages, by artists ranging from jazz bassist Charlie Haden to Thievery Corporation and Big Sean in the U.S. alone; still current, it was sung in Cantonese by the protesters in Hong Kong . . .” “. . . the real power . . . is not the song, arresting ear-worm that it contains, but its logic. A listener knowing neither the song nor its context is faced with a classic series of variations on a theme, realized through an abstract classical construction.” Because the theme remains prominent and so easily identifiable throughout the work, this composition best represents the virtue of keeping eyes on the prize. Top recorded performances are by Ursula Oppens in 1976, Yuji Takahashi in 1978, Frederic Rzewski in 1986, Frederic Rzewski in 1991, Ralph van Raat in 2008, Kai Schumacher in 2009, Ole Kiilerich in 2012, Corey Hamm in 2014, Igor Levit in 2015, Stephen Drury in 2017, Nuss in 2022, and Vadym Kholodenko in 2022.

Brahms wrote to his friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg, 'I have a singular affection for the variation form, and I believe that this form still compels our talent and ability.'

In any work of theme and variations, the idée fixe (fixed idea) is the core.

In three compositions, Max Reger added a twist, with a fugue (wandering).

Other compositions:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

On the shadow side:

latest from

The Work on the Meditations