The art of writing by hand

Last week, I talked a little bit about Bach and how much I loved the Cello Suites. This week, looking for something completely different, I found this -

The face page of Bach's manuscript for the Cello Suites by his second wife, Anna Magdalena, fascinates me. First, because it was written somewhere around 1720 - so this piece of paper is almost 300 years old. How did something so fragile survive this long?

But even more than that, it's a direct connection to Bach and I've fallen in love with it. I'm going to print this out, put it in a frame, and keep it on my desk to remind me how precious things - both this page and the music - manage to survive.

It reminds me that no matter how crazy life gets, there are miracles everywhere. And this is one of them.

Kate

The art of connections - Kate Braid and Glenn Gould

Just recently, I met with one of my favorite poets - Kate Braid. I've enjoyed her work for many years, ever since I discovered her first book, Covering Rough Ground, about her time as a journeywoman carpenter. We grew up in the same neighborhood, had similar experiences as young woman, and she's a terrific poet. I was hooked.

This week, I was looking for something else on my poetry shelves, got distracted, and instead of what I was looking for, pulled down my copy of A Well-Mannered Storm, The Glenn Gould Poems.



I'm a huge fan of Glenn Gould, often playing his version of the Goldberg variations when I'm writing. Like much of Bach, I find these variations both stimulating and relaxing, the perfect combination for me to write to. So once I'd picked up the book, I then took out my CD of Gould playing the Goldberg Variations and read the poems (for the second or third time) and listened to the CD (for maybe the thousandth time?) and have now found a perfect connection.

I'm not sure why I didn't do this earlier - put these two works of art together, but now that I have? I'll do it always.

Kate