11/27/2025
Happy Thanksgiving
I am thankful for my students, who inspire me everyday.
I am thankful for all of the bounty in my life.
I am thankful for my musical gifts, which – I hope – enhance the lives of those around me.
From these three thanksgivings, came the following music video:
I was inspired by one of my students in particular, who was working on Bach's famous Prelude in C. As she played it for me, I saw a sunrise in my mind's eye, and that became the catalyst for this entire music video to begin with.
All of the scenes were shot in Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, North Carolina. The “sunrise” concept seemed like a nice message of hope for an area so hard hit by natural disaster. Also, my parents recently purchased a cottage in the region, which they will be renovating, so there are some “before” shots included in the video. I'm hoping to include “after” shots in a companion music video, which will act as a bookend and feature a sunset.
To add a bit of an educational element, I colored the shots to reflect the changing harmonies of Bach's composition. The color coding was loosely based on Messiaen's descriptions of the colors that he saw with respect to specified chords. Although I am not a synesthetic listener myself, I tried to really listen carefully as I watched the video in playback, and many of the colors really seem to fit!
Admittedly, the recording and really all of the ex*****on on this project could be so much better, but I just didn't want to labor too much over it, because these things can easily become an endless pursuit of perfection. So, here's to “good enough”:
