Margaret Felice

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Media
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Performances
    • Upcoming Speaking Events
  • Speaking
  • Publications
  • Performance
    • Biography
    • Repertoire
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

The blessedness of place

August 29, 2017 · Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged With: music, New England, travel

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place…

– T.S. Eliot, from Ash Wednesday

I spent last weekend in the Berkshires, a region of western Massachusetts near the northern end of the Appalachian trail. Since 2005 I have spent one or more weekends there during the summer with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, preparing music and performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It’s 2 hours from where I live, and 1.5 from where I grew up, and it is lovely.

In this year’s final concert of the season, which always features Beethoven’s majestic Ninth Symphony, the orchestra played Ives’ brief tone poem “The Housatonic at Stockbridge”. Stockbridge is a neighboring town to Lenox, where the BSO’s summer home of Tanglewood since the 1930s, and the Housatonic River runs just a few miles away. It’s the definition of a “local favorite.”

The loveliness of this area reminds me of the blessedness of place. We cherish the places we return to year after year, where we share memories with family and those who have become like family. We love the aural reminders of how special a river or village can be. It’s a thrill that a composer more than a century ago bothered to write down what he heard. Sitting on the risers waiting for the choral entrance that would draw us to our feet, I heard the sounds of familiarity in the orchestra, and felt that I was in just the right place.

New England is provincial and beautiful and home. Time is always time, and place is always and only place. Though we may seem bound by those limits, from time to time we are transported by the very rootedness that ties us to the land.

The view of the Stockbridge Bowl from the Tanglewood Lawn
The Housatonic River near the center of Lee.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Related

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More about Margaret

Subscribe to Blog

Sign up to get my posts delivered to your inbox.
How often would you like to receive updates?

Recent Posts

  • What I read, 2022
  • Finding Lady’s Wells
  • A place for grief to go
  • Post-op
  • Eating a tomato sandwich in October

Topics I’ve Written About:

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
  • Home
  • About
  • Biography
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Media
  • Performance
  • Publications
  • Repertoire
  • Speaking

Search

© 2023 Margaret Felice · Headshots by Earl Christie · Website by Little Leaf Design