So when Sunday came, with it came full knowledge that most members of
the congregation were to hear Kenyon Adams' new composition, which had
been rather widely advertised by his friends; and Rev. John Dexter,
feeling himself a fifth wheel, discarded his sermon and in humility and
contrition submitted some extemporaneous remarks on the passion for
humanity of "Christ and him crucified."
A little boy was Kenyon Adams--a slim, great-eyed, serious faced, little
boy in an Eton jacket and knickerbockers--not so much larger than his
violin that he carried under his arm. His little hand shook, but Grant
caught his gaze and with a tender, earnest reassurance put sinews into
the small arms, and stilled an unsteady jaw. The organ was playing the
prelude, when the little hand with the bow went out in a wide, sure,
strong curve, and when the bow touched the strings, they sang from a
soul depth that no child's experience could know.
It was the first public rendering of the now famous Adagio in C minor,
known sometimes as "The Prairie Wind," or perhaps better as the
Intermezzo between the second and third acts of the opera that made
Kenyon Adams' fame in Europe before he was twenty. It has been changed
but little since that first hearing there in John Dexter's church with
the Sands Memorial organ, built in the early eighties for Elizabeth Page
Sands, mother of Anne of that tribe. The composition is simplicity
itself--save for the mystical questioning that runs through it in the
sustained sevenths--a theme which Captain Morton said always reminded
him of a meadow lark's evening song, but which repeats itself over and
over plaintively and sadly as the stately music swells to its crescendo
and dies with that unanswered cry of heartbreak echoing in the last
faint notes of the closing bar.
When it was finished, those who had ears heard and understood and those
who had not said, "Well," and waited for public opinion, unless they
were fools, in which case they said they would have preferred something
to whistle. But because the thing impressed itself upon hundreds of
hearts that hour, many in the congregation came forward to greet the
child.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account