May's Tippet Rise Podcast: Music of Sounds and Reflection
May 8, 2020
Our hope this spring has been to offer beauty, hope, and comfort to listeners of the Tippet Rise Podcast. May’s podcast episode, produced by our Music Programs and Podcast Coordinator, Zachary Patten, features recordings of six extraordinarily moving concerts from past seasons at the art center. They include performances by Stephen Hough, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Soundbox Percussion, playing works by Bach, Haydn, the contemporary American composer, John Luther Adams, and others.
“The Greeks of antiquity believed that music possessed the power to influence its hearer’s emotions, behavior, and morals,” Zack says in his introduction to the episode. “An ancient myth tells us that the seductively singing Sirens were outmatched by Orpheus through the musicality and beauty of his lyre and song. With music, he saved his fellow mariners from drowning. And when he ventured into the dark underworld to beg for the return of his love who had perished, it was with his song that he opened the dark lord’s eyes to empathy…”
The episode concludes with a thirty-minute soundscape recorded this spring at Xylem, Francis Kéré’s pavilion at Tippet Rise, featuring the soothing murmur of South Grove Creek and other sounds of nature.
“Music and sound can allow us to imagine from a higher point of vantage,” Zack says near the episode’s conclusion. He, and all of us at Tippet Rise, hope you find solace and inspiration in the listening.
To listen to Music and Sounds of Reflection, click on “More info” below.
Pasque flowers at Tippet Rise photographed by Erik Petersen