29 January 2008

29 January 2008
Mark Twain
United States of America

Dear Mark,

I hate traveling…actually, let me rephrase that: I hate traveling with large amounts of baggage. I think that the only thing that causes me any kind of performance related stress is getting there-after that, it’s easy. As you know, I have relocated to Moscow for a couple of weeks and am writing you now from a hotel lobby. Packing for the journey was easy-I’m very efficient with packing-remembering all of my music was also fine. Getting to Moscow was another story…
So…I have my suitcase, my computer, and instruments. I decided, purely for ease, to only take my saxophone and flute. One reason was the weight and encumberance issue on my person. The other is the fact that Russian air carriers have cut the weight limit for carryon baggage in half: from 10K to 5K. Now, I traveled to Moscow by train, but I now have to prepare for this issue for later concerts by slightly adapting both my pieces and performance programs for only one or two instruments; possible, but annoying. Regardless, traveling anywhere with instruments is getting more and more difficult. The next time I tour, I’m taking a flute and a laptop…that’s it!…I’ll create a case for both that is light and small and not worry.

Anyways, I had to carry my suitcase, computer, and instruments from the apartment to the metro; then, had to get all of this on the metro, then out of the metro, then the walk in the cold and snow to the train station looking, and moving, like a pack mule…

The train ride was typical-over night coupe with 4 to a room-nobody smiled, nobody spoke-typical. Even if you try and make conversation or just even try and be friendly, you soon realize that it’s a losing endeavor.

If Saintpetersburgians are grim, Muscovites are downright rude and obnoxious. We, coming again from the train into and out of the metro with our belongings, were either almost run over by human traffic or at the very least snarled at-we were also refused when we asked directions-multiple times!-this is also a typical Muscovite reaction-if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s your own damn fault.

We arrived at the hotel to find out that our names were left off of the reservation list; we are staying here for a couple of nights because Margaret has a Fulbright seminar. Of course, it was OUR fault, even though we were in close contact with the powers that be. So, they begrudgingly got us a room, which was completely covered in beer and filth-at least they didn’t blame us entirely for this-so they reluctantly moved us again into a foam green cubicle which is their ‘standard’ room-mind you, this would make a Motel 6 look like the 4 Seasons, and this is supposedly a 3 star hotel…more like 3 strikes! The only cafes/dining for miles was in the hotel complex, and they (all 6!) were closed for cigarette breaks for 2-½ hours…so we waited to have coffee…it was after noon at this point and I was not as of yet happily caffeinated…

Speaking of which, the food here is absolutely atrocious…breakfast has been instant coffee, white bread with butter and a piece of processed ham, and…a choco-pie, which has been the highlight…lunch was a small improvement, it only took about 3 or 4 bites to know that what I was eating was fish, and that was purely because of the bones…

Well…it got a little better…Margaret has been at enjoying her Fulbright seminars while I have been locked up in the foam green cubicle writing a film score and finishing my email interview with Saxophone Journal-this has been fun-I am sent questions every day or so and answer in essay form. Give me leeway and I’ll pontificate for pages…really about anything, whether I know the answer or not…

A word about the Russian post…wow…it’s amazing what was sent to us and what actually has arrived…I was sent a film from Greece-it was supposed to be here in 10 days and was sent registered mail…it got here in 3-½ weeks…I took the slip that was left to the post office to pick it up, and…they couldn’t find it…REGISTERED MAIL, mind you…’leave the slip, we’ll call when we find it’, they said. Of course, the slip was my only documentation that I received anything, but they didn’t care…I knew that I would never hear from them again…but, in a few days, they found it…I went to the wrong window to ask for it in the first place, so of course they didn‘t have it…again, MY FAULT…

Anyways, thus begins my next couple of weeks in Moscow…it could get better…it could also get a lot worse…

Part of the adventure…

Until next time,

Demetrius

20 January 2008

20 January 2008
Mark Twain
United States of America

Dear Mark,

Ah, Rome…we just returned from a wonderful week in the Eternal City. No writing, no playing, no business…just lots of eating…

It’s really quite an amazing place for so many reasons; you really can get perspectives on so many things in modern society just by being surrounded by this city. Probably the most immediate is the sense of overall love of life, which I think is a characteristic of all of the Mediterranean countries, at least those in Southern Europe. This is in incredible contrast to the North-people in the North tend to be, well, grim. This is not only true of Russians, where grimness is abound, but also in Northern Europe and even in the Northern US. I think that this more serious perspective comes from the quality of life: in the North, you have a very short growing season and very harsh weather conditions-survival can be difficult. Granted, in many ways, this has made the North more industrious. But, lets be honest here: there is very little need for grimness when in the middle of January you can wake up to warm sunshine and go pick an orange for breakfast.

Rome, in all honesty, was the final stage of evolution, and the pinnacle, of the Greco-Roman ethos begun in Ancient Greece (the ‘Greek Miracle’, as it‘s known) with the flowering of democracy and Western Civilization. Greece itself was not a ruling nation, or at least not a good one. It was, however, a cultural, scientific, and philosophical juggernaut whose influence not only spread through 3 continents in ancient times, but can still be seen as the basis for thought and understanding throughout most of the modern world. It, however, took a young man from Macedonia to bring these squabbling city-states under one ruler and to expand the Hellenistic world all the way to India. Luckily, Alexander, although coming from a related ‘half-Greek, half-Barbarian’ country, was educated personally by Aristotle. Greek thought and culture had a champion with a mission to conquer the known world…at least Eastwards. Alexander’s mistake was that he didn’t look West…just a few hundred kilometers behind…

After the Fall of Alexander’s empire (or, at least it’s partitioning into squabbling mini-empires; these are Greeks, remember), Rome easily swept in and assimilated the Hellenistic culture into their own. It must be remembered that Rome’s original Etruscan rulers and much of Italy were influenced by Greek culture-in fact, much of Italy, including all of Sicily, were at one point Greek colonies. Depending on whom you believe, Rome may have been founded by Aeneas (read Virgil) from the remnants of Troy. What we do know is that Rome took the concepts and philosophies of Ancient Greece which were spread through the known world by Alexander and both incorporated and built upon it. So, we have the pinnacle of philosophy and society in Rome, before it all went to Hell after Constantine, but we’ll get to that…

Speaking of incorporating and building upon, Rome built upon itself constantly. This really amazed me-they constantly recycled old buildings and used the foundations to build new ones. You may have a first century Imperial building, under a 3rd century pagan temple, under a 5th century Christian church that has been built on itself 6 times into the 19th century. It’s amazing to see ancient ruins as part of the foundations for modern apartment buildings-brilliant, really. They did the same with Greek culture-took it and built upon it; it became the foundation for their expanding thought. The same is true with the advent of Christianity (under Constantine). You can really see how not only the early but the current portrayals of Christian scenes and characters came directly from the pagan. Powerful, god-like beings in frescos, statues, and oil paintings that if it weren’t for the scene and setting would be mistaken for the Olympians. To be honest, it made sense…coming from the Eastern Christian Churches, where we don’t do this, most especially no statues, I was always disturbed by this imagery. Now, seeing it in Rome and understanding Ancient Roman culture and it’s ability to incorporate and build upon ideas, of course they did this-it helped the transition from a pagan empire to a Christian one by giving the populace imagery that they understood-again, brilliant.

And…the Popes consecrated every pagan/ancient site. By doing this they preserved the Roman heritage by allowing these structures to survive in the center of Christendom. The Pantheon is a church! For a third time, brilliant!

After Christianity became Emperor Constantine’s religion, he split the Empire and moved his seat of power to Byzantium, later called Constantinople, and now called Istanbul. The Western Empire collapsed quickly as all of the power and wealth went East. Rome was…sacked…both literally and figuratively. The rest of the Western Empire fell into the Dark Ages while the Eastern Empire, still powerful and Christian, lasted another 1,000 years. But…even though the Byzantine Empire (as it was known) was based in Constantinople and they were Greek-speaking, they considered themselves Romans.

Rome reinvented itself and became the true center again of Western Christianity; it became both the main city of pilgrimage and a powerful political force behind the Papal authority. Charlemagne in 800AD was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope to relate himself to the Ancient Glory and to justify his kingship. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Eastern Churches had a new leader in Christianized Russia, where the Emperors took the name Tsar, Russian for Caesar, and declared Moscow the ‘Third Rome’. In the reemerging West, the Renaissance evolved in Italy and Rome was their inspiration. During the Enlightenment, again Greco-Roman thought and culture became the focus; another product of the Enlightenment, the beginnings of democracy in the US, is directly linked to the Greco-Roman ethos. A newly created unified Italy in 1870 made Rome their capital. It has always been the center for art and culture and the study of such ideas. Out of all it’s contemporaries: Athens, Carthage, Babylon, Persepolis, Memphis…none have survived as Rome. Athens comes the closest purely for the fact that it still exists, but is a shell of it’s former self. I have a feeling that if many years from now New York, Paris, Moscow, London all no longer existed, Rome would still be there in one form or another-it is truly the Eternal City.

I have to mention here my personal favorite places visited-all were surprises. Everything was incredible, but the three for me were the Palantine Hill, the Trevi Fountain, and San Clemente. We stumbled upon the Fountain purely by accident. We knew that it was in the area-we heard it’s ‘roar’. This is something that pictures just don’t do justice to at all-it’s a multi-media experience-the sound, the Baroque architecture of Bernini coming alive, and the fact that the entire façade of the building looks like it’s emerging from the fountain. Palantine Hill is the supposed first Roman settlement-not only is the setting beautiful, but there is this incredible energy there. The Ancients knew where they were building-it wasn’t random. This is a powerful place…as is San Clemente, which is one of those multi-layered structures that I mentioned. A modern church (built on many times) over a 4th century church (one of the first) over a 2nd century Mithraic temple (a ‘legal’ religion) and school, over a home, over an Imperial building. We were able to descend into the archeological site, which was incredible-not only the scope and the many layers underground, but also again the energy-incredible feeling. One of the most powerful energy experiences I have ever felt was when we came upon the tomb of St. Cyril, the Greek missionary who converted the Slavs in the 10th century and adapted the Greek alphabet for them (the Cyrillic)-his relics were kept upstairs at a special alter, but the experience at the tomb itself was something that I can’t even begin to explain, so I won’t even try.

I have to say something here about the Italian language…ah, Italian…what a great language! After a week I think that I’m better in Italian then after studying Russian for 6 months…and Margaret after a week is practically fluent! Italian is easy-real easy-and this is because it is an evolved language. It evolved from Latin which was the dominant language of the West-it became the language of the ‘people’, it ‘streamlined’ itself (as did Spanish, another Latin evolved language which is very similar to Italian) to be more useful to the masses of people across the region speaking it. The more evolved and far-reaching a culture, the easier the language. The Greek spoken in Byzantine times was a much easier version then what was spoken during Ancient Greece-it streamlined for the masses; Latin/Italian is much, much more so. Russian is a very young language, which is why it is so difficult…or, at least, that’s my excuse…English is an evolved Germanic language, also getting easier by the generation.

So, there is my Roman Holiday-a little change from my usual letters, but hopefully, a nice change.

Until next time,

Demetrius

6 January 2008

6 January 2008
Mark Twain
United States of America

Dear Mark,

Here it is, my first letter of the New Year. And what a year it has already been! It’s been quite an incredible week.

Firstly, I have to talk about the Russians and their New Years’ celebrating…they’re STILL celebrating…fireworks going off very night at all hours. My apartment overlooks a park, so I get the full effect of this-it’s one thing to watch fireworks at a distance, but quite another when they explode at face level only a few meters away…

New Years’ Eve was quite an event. It seemed that the vast majority of Saintpetersburgians, or whatever they wish to be called, packed into Palace Square to see in the new year. The massive amounts of personal fireworks was only dwarfed by the more massive amounts of alcohol…it’s somewhat frightening when 10s of thousands of people are packed into one place, as a drunken mass, and setting off fireworks, sometimes at each other…the alcohol fumes alone would be enough to ignite and engulf the Bay of Finland in flames…

There was a huge screen set up in the Square. At a few moments before midnight, a broadcast started of Mr. Putin addressing the new year as one for the glory for Russia. Then, at midnight, do you think they played Auld Lang Sine? Nope…the Russian National Anthem…it was somewhat surreal…

Well, later on that week I was invited to the home of sculptor Vladimir Tsivin by my friend and colleague Dmitri Mikalevski. Dmitri is the producer and mastermind behind the Greco-Russian Symposium and Festivals at which both my dance work “APXE” and my film (score, that is) “Longing for the Sun” will be presented over the next year in Athens and Thessaloniki, respectively. The meeting was to create a dialogue to interest Mr. Tsivin in the project and to commission him to create the scenery for the dance work. The good news is that he is very keen on the idea and interested in seeing how the project evolves. If you don’t know his work, it’s more than worth it to look him up-he’s created some stunning pieces, and if you know my music, you’d see why we are a perfect match for this project. We’re both interested in both Ancient and Modern forms and concepts. We have come to agree that our work is complementary.

I had a lovely trip to Novgorod to visit the old city and icon museum. Along with me and Margaret was composer Marcus Heathcock, and Marcus’ vicar Terry and his wife Ruth. The old city is quite lovely, dating from around the 10th century. There has been some very good restoration taking place and the city in preparation for it’s 1, 150 year anniversary. It’s funny, there is a modern town surrounding the Medieval one, but the old definitely dominates the new in the landscape. You have to wonder how people who live in such a city feel about their own history and dealing with tourists. I mean, many great cities have historical areas, Athens immediately comes to mind, but it’s also a national capital and a large modern city. Novgorod is more like Olympia: you’ve got a lot of ruins, museums, people selling stuff, and that’s about it…the actual modern town is completely eclipsed.

In other news, I’m going to Kyrgyzstan! I just received an invitation to spend a week performing and lecturing at both the State Conservatory and State College of Music-this was made possible by the US Embassy. I will be traveling there immediately after my second trip to Uzbekistan, which was also made possible through the US Embassy. I have to say that the Embassy system over here is really interested in connecting with their communities, which is great. I’m happy that they see cultural connections as important and I am honored that I have been asked to be both a ‘cultural representative’ and a catalyst for intercultural dialogue. Kyrgyzstan has been in the news as of late because a team of (I believe) Swedish scientists determined that the mountains of Kyrgyzstan would be the optimal location for Santa Claus to start and finish his Christmas Eve journey, due to both the wind currents and curvature of the Earth…I kid you not, people actually get government funding for these things…needless to say, the Kyrgyzstan government has jumped on this boost tourism…

I can say that this great creative stream that I have been in continues. Since the New Year, I have finished both the clarinet and piano piece (“Gymnopaedia”) for myself and Susanne Kessel to premier in Bonn in April, and also the score to Justin Heim’s film “Define Intervention”, a great work, which will be premiered at DOM Art Space in Moscow in February. It was good to get the first film of the year done…now, I still wait for three others to arrive…deadlines, deadlines…

So, that’s the story from the Arctic Circle, or at least near it…it’s getting progressively lighter, as much as 5 good hours of sunlight a day now, but it’s still cold, like -27 degrees cold…the sun is just not warm here, and it actually can be colder during the day then at night-it’s all dependant upon the wind.

But…I’ll be in Rome next week at this time…it’s the coldest month there, but it will be like late Spring here…I’ll actually wake up in Rome on my birthday, which will be great, what a way to celebrate! 39...hmmm…an interesting age…I have always believed that at 40 one gains wisdom, so at least I’m almost there…of course, the fact that I occasionally act like I’m 14 is another story…

I’ll let you know when I get there…

Until next time,

Demetrius