music: the soul of a landscape...

it seemed like any other day for us as we piled into the small classroom -- books in hand and papers written... the professor hadn't shown up yet, but we knew in due time he'd take his traditional place at the front of the room to begin the day's discussions... however, what we weren't prepared for was a performance...

having just finished alistair macleod's collection of short stories, titled the lost salt gift of blood, i had thoughts of its musical metaphors scattered across my brain... if you haven't read macleod before, he references violin/fiddle music a great deal in his works as representations of life, hope, death, environment and self-reflection...

to our complete surprise, my professor showed up to class today with his own vintage fiddle... as he opened its case, we were all struck by the actuality of the instrument sitting in a vivid green bed of velour... but the lasting impression had yet to occur... right there on the third floor of dunton tower -- 11:30 in the mid-morning -- he began to play... his piece of choice: "never more shall i return", better known as the "maccrimmons lament"... it was a haunting orchestration that varied between quick and slow flowing movements of his wrist... the whole room fell silent as we watched him slide the bow across the tender strings, creating and evoking in our minds a sense of the vast landscapes of cape breton...

university has been filled with moments to be remembered, but none as intimate and revealing as this... as he played the final drawn out note, the room was engulfed by the most endearing silence i have ever been surrounded by...