Symphonic Stradivarius

Polyrhythmic textures and polytonal resonance initially reflect the overlapping macrocosm and microcosm of sounds one hears when immersed in nature. In peaceful contemplation, the senses open and one’s ability to hear increases: from sounds of the larger world down to the smallest of sounds from the immediate environment, everything enters one’s field of awareness. Crickets in the grass, frogs in the valley below, air sounds, rustling, birds and animals — many aural elements phased in and out of my consciousness as I climbed to the summit. The solo violin — although not written as a “walking” theme — is in a sense the inner voice of the walker, reflecting in gesture and shaping the internal response to the environment and events.

After having been steeped in the evening’s warmth, the relief of a cool breeze at the lookout, and all the shifting sounds as the evening deepened, I started to make my way down again. After getting about halfway, my animal sense of danger was triggered as I all of a sudden sensed that I was being watched. I stopped: something stopped. I moved again: something unseen moved.

Although cougars don’t live in this area, they do pass through, and I knew in that moment that I needed to leave. Taking the steep and rocky shorter path down, I slipped and slid as I kept my pace. What had until then been an evening of diffuse and open attention had now shifted to a moment of single-minded purpose and intense action. Upon reaching the bottom of the hill (and leaving the forested area which could conceal a stalking animal), relief came, although my senses remained heightened after the intensity of the experience. In this finely-tuned state, I kept walking. It was now later in the evening, the night sounds were fewer and the wondrous and special sense of night-time stillness and calm had descended. I was safely homeward bound in the warm, sweet air.

— Liova Bueno