Lax-inspired art, music, writing – Page 3

Choral Work Based on Robert Lax Writings Misses Out on Grammy But Inspires Italian Magazine Spread

I mentioned in a previous post that The Crossing’s recording of Kile Smith’s “The Arc in the Sky,” a choral composition based on Lax’s poems and other writings, was up for a Grammy this year. Unfortunately, it didn’t win. But the Italian online magazine Vengodalmare has a piece on Lax inspired by Smith’s composition. The piece is in Italian, but it includes several Lax poems in English: “Jerusalem” and “so bird, so spirit…” along with selections from “sea & sky.”

If you scroll down below the “sea & sky” excerpt, you’ll find a short video of a Los Angeles group performing part of Smith’s work.

Painter Abbey Ryan Talks about Her Series of Meditations on Lax’s “the light, the shade”

kohlakoura beach, lipsi, greece (the light / the shade), oil on linen on panel, 5×4 inches, 2017, painting by Abbey Ryan, from her website

Painter Abbey Ryan has spent a half-dozen years creating postcard-size oil paintings inspired by Robert Lax’s book-length poem “the light, the shade.” She painted many of the images in the series in 2017 while living on the Greek island of Patmos, near where Lax spent the last years of his life.

In this video, Ryan talks about how Lax’s attention to simplicity and presence has inspired her in her painting and approach to life. The video also shows a beautifully designed display of her Lax-inspired work at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania.

published by Pendo-Verlag, 1989, currently unavailable

Grammy Nomination for Choral Recording Based on Lax Writings

I just learned from composer Kile Smith that The Crossing’s performance of his composition “The Arc in the Sky,” a choral arrangement based on Lax’s poetry and other writings is a finalist for a 2020 Grammy Award!

Here’s what Smith wrote about the news on his website this morning:

“When The Arc in the Sky was thrown into the Grammy hat a couple of months ago, I thought the chances were slim of its advancing, just because of how large the pool is at that stage. And since The Crossing won Grammys the last two years in a row, those chances, to me, felt even slimmer. But now The Arc is one of the finalists, it’s up against all worthies, including great friends of mine, and so here we go. See you January 26th!”

January 26 is the date the Grammy Awards will take place and the winners will be announced.

Here’s a full list of the finalists in Best Choral Performance:

Boyle: Voyages, Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)
Durufle: Complete Chroral Works, Robert Simpson, conductor (Ken Cowan; Houston Chamber Choir)
The Hope of Loving, Craig Hella Johnson, conductor (Conspirare)
Sander: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Peter Jermihov, conductor (Evan Bravos, Vadim Gan, Kevin Keys, Glenn Miller & Daniel Shirley; PaTRAM Institute Singers)
Smith, K.: The Arc in the Sky, Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)

You can read all about Smith’s composition and The Crossing’s recording of it (under the direction of conductor Donald Nally) here.

You can buy the recording here.

You can see the complete score at MusicSpoke here.

And here it is at Navona Records, and on Spotify.

Congratulations to Kile Smith, Donald Nally, and the entire ensemble of The Crossing!

Listen to Robert Lax Poem “Jerusalem” Set to Music

Last June, a group called The Crossing performed composer Kile Smith’s “The Arc in the Sky,” a choral composition of Lax poems set to music by Smith. (See my write-up about the performance here.) The concert was widely praised by critics and a CD of the full performance is set to be released soon.

In advance of its release, Smith has posted one of the tracks, “Jerusalem,” in which Lax writes of “lovely, ruined Jerusalem.” You can listen to the choir’s haunting rendition here.

I’ll post details when the CD is available. For now, enjoy this taste of the combined talents of Lax’s words, Smith’s music, and these excellent choral voices. (I’ve included the poem below so you can follow along as you listen.)

Jerusalem by Robert Lax

reading of lovely Jerusalem,
lovely, ruined Jerusalem.

we are brought to the port
where the boats in line are
and the high tower on the hill
and the prows starting again
into the mist.

for we must seek
by going down,
down into the city
for our song.
deep into the city
for our peace.
for it is there
that peace lies
folded
like a pool.

there we shall seek:
it is from there
she’ll flower.
for lovely, ruined Jerusalem
lovely sad Jerusalem
lies furled
under cities of light.

for we are only
going down,
only descending
by this song
to where the cities
gleam in the darkness,
or curled like roots
sit waiting
at the undiscovered
pool.

what pressure
thrusts us up
as we descend?

pressure
of the city’s singing

pressure of
the song
she hath witheld.

hath long witheld.

for none
would hear
her.

–Robert Lax (1915-2000). Used with the permission of the Robert Lax Literary Trust and the Robert Lax Archives at St. Bonaventure University.

Recently Opened: An Exhibition of Paintings Inspired By Lax’s Poetry

Painter Abbey Ryan, whose parents were friends of Lax, traveled to Patmos in 2017 to visit his former home and complete a series of paintings loosely based on his poem “the light / the shade.” Now, 14 landscapes and still lifes from that series are on display in the Quick Center at St. Bonaventure University in Lax’s hometown, Olean, NY. The show runs March 25-June 2, 2019. Abbey will be on campus Thursday, April 11 for a 3 p.m. gallery talk.

You’ll find full information about the exhibit here–and more about Abbey and her Lax project here. If you like what you see and read, check out Abbey’s website, where you can view (and purchase!) more of her magnificent works.

Abbey’s work has been featured in a number of publications, including Oprah Magazine, Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, BoingBoing, Artists & Illustrators, Making It In the Art World, New Markets For Artists, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her art is in more than 1,300 private and museum collections on six continents.

Artist Abbey Ryan’s “the light / the shade” Series, Inspired by Robert Lax

Painter Abbey Ryan has long been inspired by the writings of Robert Lax, who was a friend of her father. Last year, she traveled to Patmos, the island Lax lived on, as well as Lipsi, a smaller island he loved, and painted scenes in both places. This past spring, her “the light / the shade” series, which takes its name from a Lax poem, was featured in a solo exhibition at the Harrison Gallery at Arcadia University. To see some of her paintings from Greece and her lovely still lifes based on the Lax-inspired theme, go to her website.

To read about Abbey’s “the light / the shade” series and how Lax inspired it, click here.

Here’s Abbey’s bio, from her website:

“Inspired by the ‘A Painting a Day’ movement, I started making daily paintings for my blog on 9/23/07.

“Ten years later, my blog has had over a million visitors from over 100 countries. My paintings have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine‘s “Live Your Best Life—Women Who Make Beautiful Things,” Seth Godin’s bestseller, Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, and FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, among many others. I was recently named #5 on the list of 49 Creative Geniuses by Boost Blog Traffic.

“More importantly, painting has become my meditative time and the best part of my day. Attempting to paint every day speaks to my interest in ritual, practice, classical still life and trompe l’oeil painting. In sharing my work on my blog, I explore the nuances and complexities of ever-changing internet globalization. My paintings are usually sold by eBay auctions, and are in over eight hundred private and public collections around the globe.”

The Circus of Creation: Composer Gwyneth Walker’s Tribute to Robert Lax’s Circus of the Sun

Marcia Kelly, Robert Lax’s niece and literary executor, told me an interesting story recently. A few years ago, she and her husband Jack (who live in NY) received a message from a composer named Gwyneth Walker, telling them the composition she had written based on Lax’s Circus of the Sun would be performed in Sarasota, FL, in five days. She had forgotten to let them know…but they happened to be in Florida and had plans to be in Sarasota that weekend already. When they went to the concert, who should walk in but several members of the Cristiani family who lived nearby! (Sarasota has long been the winter home for many circus people.)

The concert was fabulous, Marcia says, with a local celebrity dressed as a master of ceremonies reading the spoken parts and a sold-out crowd.

For more about the concert, including a review, Walker’s thoughts on her composition (called “The Circus of Creation”) and PDFs of both the orchestration and the spoken parts, go to Walker’s website.

Reviewer Calls Concert with Lax’s Words and Music by Composer Kile Smith a “Masterpiece”

A few months ago, I poste about a then-upcoming concert in Philadelphia called “The Arc in the Sky,” with music by composer Kile Smith and words (chosen by Smith) by Robert Lax. By all accounts, the concert was a huge success, with standing ovations and people in tears (really!). You can read the reviews and a full description of the program, including complete text of the Lax works used, on Smith’s website.

One reviewer called the concert “a masterpiece of emotional expressivity and spiritual revelation” while another called the final section “a bright-as-sunshine shout of ecstasy that looks to the horizon and suggests a broad spiritual quest.”

Happily, a CD is in production. I’ll be sure to announce how to obtain a copy when it is available.

Patmos Poet–a poem by Chris McDonnell

The following poem came in the mail the other day. According to its author, Chris McDonnell, a retired headteacher in the UK, a slightly different version of it was published in the Merton Journal in the UK shortly after Robert Lax’s death in 2000. It’s language and rhythms capture the feeling of the “anti-letters” Lax and Merton sent to each other over several decades. (Chauncey was one of the playful names they used to address each other.)

Patmos Poet

O Chauncey

Its sorrows

Now

for everyone

My letters

from islands

chased

your letters

from pine

tree bottoms

paper voices

through whole

dark

night

here

or there

The sorrows

is now

done plenty

these other

letters

tells

the story

friends, faces

we knew

or just

peoples

who read

the books

is just

words

to them

but us

was

to us

much more

than that.

A Photograph of the Portrait of Lax Painted by Harry Jackson is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum

In 1961, artist Harry Jackson, who would become known as one of the major sculptors of the American West, painted the life-size painting of Lax shown here. As mentioned on page 238 of my book Pure Act, the painting, titled “Portrait of the Poet Robert Lax,” appeared in an exhibition called The Continuing Tradition of Realism in American Art. I don’t know what became of the painting but this photograph of it is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was taken by the wonderful photographer Walter Rosenblum, a sampling of whose work appears here.

For more about Harry Jackson and his work in bronze, go to the home page for the Harry Jackson Studios. Here’s one of his bronze sculptures from the Smithsonian’s collection–Trail Boss, cast in 1958: