My routine every morning is checking my email as I drink a cup of coffee before starting my day. One of the emails I receive daily is from NPR. I usually just skim over the title of the articles, however on this particular one at the very bottom was a story highlighting the new album Women by violinist Esther Abrami. Intrigued I opened the article to read her interview. When Esther graduated, she realized that all the 100's of pieces of music she played were composed by men. She went on to research women composers and created a very moving album titled Women.
The one composer that struck me was Ilse Weber, she was a Jew living in Czechoslovakia when the Nazis occupied the country and sent her and family to a prison camp. When her husband was sent to Auschwitz, she and her son went with him to keep the family together. She sang songs to the children and elderly in the camp. It is said that Ilse sang to her son and many other children as she accompanied them voluntarily into the gas chambers.
The lullaby Wiegala by Ilse has been transformed by Esther in this moving violin piece which brought me to tears.
The article included snippets of music in the NPR live interview listen here
Needless to say, I purchased the album and played it this morning. As the music played the fish in the tank perked up and all three of my cats gathered in the living room as if they were genuinely interested in listing to the music with their ears twitching.
On another note:
I have this thing that happens in my brain. When I listen to music, REALLY listen to it, I can see colors bouncing and busting around to the notes of the music in my mind. Something else happens when I listen to music played by an orchestra or on strings, as the notes are played, I can see a colorful, choreographed ballet unfold as the song goes on. The graceful hand and arm movements as the ballerinas glide across on pointe, jumping and turning and legs kicking in the air. in their beautiful tutus. I become emersed not only to music but to the faceless, colorful dancers in my head. With this album, Women, I was brought to tears, and I was also moved by the ballet in my head. I wish I could actually see this ballet on stage, to be choregraphed by a woman, with all the music from the album Women by Esther Abrami. Can you just imagine this as a ballet?
