Our house was filled for Father’s Day. Our son Peter was home from California, and our other son Paul came with the lovely Ms. Marian and daughter Laura with her husband and the fabulous grandchildren Jack and Katie so the day started out spectacularly for Kent and ended even better.
Peter was also home to attend some concerts by a favorite band, Phish. Actually he and Paul were aficionados during college and they both met many wonderful people and formed long lasting friendships with other fans. Paul housed the son of some dear friends who is now an attorney and we were lucky enough to have beds for a newly wed couple and a very special father—away from his own 2 little boys, Andrew Duckles.
Andrew is one of the preeminent viola players in America. Because he was flying directly to a recording session when he left on Monday he brought along his instrument. Hearing him describe his relationship to this special viola was like hearing a sweetheart describe his true love. Any why not? His instrument was built in 1585! It is a piece of art and a piece of history. 
In small town Kenosha we were impressed when he casually spoke of his work in movies like Wall-E, Angels and Demons, Pirates of the Caribbean and his role in The Soloist. Jack and Katie were wide eyed when they heard this but even more so when he told them he had been part of the soundtrack of the movie UP and about his work with John Williams.
He picked up the viola and played 2 pieces from Bach that were like hearing the angels. Kent is the classic music lover in our family but there was not a person in the room who wasn’t moved to the core to hear the beautiful notes coming from this incredible instrument and played by such a talented musician.
During lunch Andrew said something very interesting about music: He recalled seeing the art works of Da Vinci and being struck by the genius of the artist. He then went on to point out something I had never thought of—that a composer writes a piece of music that creation can be brought to life over and over when it is played by musicians over the ages, but that the sculptures or paintings of a genius like Da Vinci are what they are—able to be enjoyed but not recreated.
The next morning I was trying to clean off my desk and take a peek at some of the magazines piled up and there in the Interweave Knits Summer 2009 edition I
opened up to a pattern by Annie Modesitt called Luminarie Skirt.
Since I know and think so much of Annie the obvious comparison to what Andrew had said jumped out at me. Designers of the patterns we knitters use are like those composers—they give us a framework but each time the pattern is used the stamp of the knitter is put on and the variations can be endless. Hope you had a good Father’s Day!
August 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm
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September 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
The story of listening to your young friend playing Bach on his viola gave me goosebumps — it must have been thrilling to hear!