Here Comes the Cadenza

The music has echoed through the hall for what feels like the good kind of eternity. You forgot how uncomfortable your seat was way back in the second movement. Everything else melts away as you breathe (or forget to breathe) in unison with hundreds of strangers. First your ears and then your whole being fill up with the music that streams like a waterfall over the edge of the stage and sends waves rolling over the rows of seats and up into the balconies. The melody is coming to a point. The orchestra swells into a crescendo, and you can feel it when they pause...here comes the cadenza.

The soloist takes a breath as the conductor’s arms hover over the stand, the baton poised in the air with a hundred pairs of eyes trained on its tip. The silent moment has almost settled when the soloist fills the room with sound again, decorating the melodies of the past half hour or more with the loveliest ornaments that her skilled imagination can find. Near-impossible feats of sound dance around the room. You dare not shift your gaze for fear the spell will break. Then she slows into a long trill with an almost imperceptible nod to the conductor. Up goes the baton, and as it falls, the full force of the orchestra strikes for one last sprint to the finish line. The final fall of bows from strings is countered by the standing ovation as the listeners and performers bask in a shared moment of celebration.

If you’ve never had the gift of hearing a good symphony orchestra in person, I hope you get to soon. There’s nothing like it and no way to really describe it. But, to help you understand the name of this website, I did my best.

A cadenza usually comes at the end of a piece of music where the soloist improvises or writes a section of their own. I think the best ones tack the performer’s musical opinion onto the statement of the original composer. It’s a chance for the soloist to contribute, not just an interpretation, but also a creative element to the music itself. They can show you their favorite things about what was already there and add a little something of their own. These sections are usually full of embellishments that show off the most impressive skills of the soloist; it’s like the grand finale at the end of a fireworks show!

I crave that opportunity to comment on beauty that already exists in the world. This is a place to point out all the fascinating things about this life and riff on them for a while.

In other words, what I publish here is my cadenza on the music of the world—a chance to point out what is beautiful or interesting and say, Did you notice this?! Here’s how it makes me feel?

As you read, I hope you you resonate with some things and are challenged by others. That’s the power of making art in community with other humans, and I’m excited to hear your cadenzas too!