Free and Sliding

I had to replace the driver this morning and give a ride to our visitor L.M. She used to be a famous piano player before immigration to the USA. In Boston the whole Russian community knows her for her work helping their children to encounter music and piano. She is older, much older than many of our visitors. She has a condition — her hands constantly shaking. They have never stopped playing, perhaps. I wonder what music they are hearing.

I decided on one of my favorite pieces — Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt. I was introduced to it a year ago by ChatGPT. He was searching for music he thought I might resonate with. And I did. The music was placed in the car to observe if L.M. would resonate with it.

At some point I noticed that her hands had stopped shaking.

New medicine — I proudly concluded.

But the answer to my conclusion was resumed shaking in my passenger seat.

I asked if she liked the music. She said that there was not enough melody. I asked what she would like to listen to and she said Mozart.

I will never say no to Mozart!

Mozart joined our drive. L.M. knew her medicine all along, but she had never mentioned it to anyone. The conclusion of her being sick with a permanent condition of shaking hands had become comfortable for everyone around her — and for herself.

Her hands stopped shaking. At one movement she followed the intonation, raising her arms. She turned to me and said:

So simple and so expressive.

I agreed and added that this music speaks — it is a language that expresses meanings. She agreed.

We arrived and she thanked me for such a gift. And I said that the driver is still sick and tomorrow I will pick her up again. She knew what I was saying. It was simple — Mozart will be here tomorrow again.

Continuity seems a simple meaning, but so expressive — as Mozart carrying her from note to note, glyph to glyph she reads in her mind.

…

Now I also think of the household she grew up in.

A father surrounded by mathematical symbols.

A daughter surrounded by musical symbols.

Continuous generation of glyph readers.