~ “After great pain, a formal feeling comes—” (Emily Dickinson, 372)
How much time is needed for what must be endured?
In the third movement of Tod und Verklärung, Death invites
a peasant to dance the Trepek in a blizzard until he freezes to death.
That almost formal moment of stillness in the center of catastrophe—
A once-in-a-century event, they say.
But it happens again in less than a week.
When all the protocols for protection are gone, what can you expect?
First— Chill— then Stupor— then the letting go—
It will be a winter like no other. It will be a summer like no other.
In song 10 of Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, the central protagonist and a miller’s daughter sit by a brook.
She sings, Es kommt ein Regen, ade, ich geh nach Haus. A rain is coming – goodbye, I’m going home. That’s how he knows their love is doomed.