Stories
The story of
the Stevenson family
I have always had a special appeciation and love of music. It goes back to my childhood when we would fall asleep listening to my mother playing the piano, and when we enjoyed the classical record collection that my parents used to play, especially on Sunday afternoons.
Unlike my brother Jim, I did not study the piano, but instead I took singing lessons and I was told that I had a pleasant solo voice when I used to sing at the church on Sundays, both in Neosho and during the summers at the old Congregational Church in South Dennis on Cape Cod (it had the oldest functioning church organ in the country at the time). I especially enjoyed singing the German lieder of Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert taught me by the singing coach in Neosho.
Later I would sing in choral groups, in the Columbia Glee Club, St Paul's Chapel Choir and Riverside Church in New York, and the Yale Russian Chorus later in Connecticut. Each had its high moments. The Columbia Glee Club, and even more so, the Yale Russian Chorus, had the great effect of an "a capella" group where everyone memorized the music so that we were all "in the hands" of the conductor who could produce wonderful effects from pianissimo to fortissimo, from lentemente to allegro. St Paul's Chapel was a pleasure to sing for a great musician, Searle Wright. And Riverside was the pleasure of singing a repertoire that included the greatest choral works, masses of Bach and Brahms and requiems of Verdi and Bruckner in a chorus that included many professionals, including opera singers.
A special pleasure in my New York years was my love affair with Kay Winkler who was a student of piano and then of operatic singing at the Julliard School of Music. She had a beautiful voice and abundant, long, flowing red hair and used to give personal concerts for me, a most appreciative audience (!) in her apartment.
Also from my mother I inherited the habit of whistling melodies. With this, I was inspired to write musical themes and variations. Walking home from Riverside Choir to 103rd St in New York, I would whistle original melodies all the way without repetition.
Here is one of the songs, based on music in my first novel, Master of the House:
Here are the words, since they are not very legible in the reproduction:
These are the signs of hope for our people,
these are the signs that our times of fear and pain will soon be past.
No one live can go alone into the world of the night.
No one alone can go beyond the stars that look over us.
These, the stars, are a sign to us, these bright jewels of the sky.
This, the sky, is a pledge of trust.
The stars in the sky are a promise to our time
that our people and our world shall endure.
Everyone, everywhere, looks at the sky we see.
Everyond, everywhere, knows that the stars are signs that endure.
No one anywhere need fear
for the stars in the sky are the skigns that ensure
that our people and our world shall prevail.
Go forth in strength, my friends in faith
under the flag of the sky.
Ring out the song of justice on the way
and the way is sure.
Beat your swords in the flame of truth
into the ploughshares of peace.
Forget a union across the earth,
Fired by the stars and the heroes of our time
so that peace in all the world shall be ours.
Everyone, everywhere, has a place in the dream we wage.
Everyone, everywhere, has a voice in the song
that's played across the sky.
No one anywhere is lost
for the way has been found and the promise of the stars
for our people and our world shall be won.
The time of fear has passed.
There's a dream to be done
And here are two songs, written about the same time to my girlfriend, Susan: Song-for-Susan-1 and Song-for-Susan-2.
When living in Paris in the 90's I went often to classical music concerts with my friends Christine von Furstenberg or Perel Wilgowicz, whose brother was a musical conductor of some renown.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme