The Well-Tempered Life
There was a time, before the eighteenth century, when most composers wrote their music to be played on only a few keys. In those days, one scale of the keyboard was tuned to perfection, while the others remained in various stages of dissonance. For this reason, composers preferred to write only for those few keys that were bearable.
Then came Johannes Sebastian Bach, that composer of sublime music. He popularized a method of tuning that would allow him to compose in all keys. A single key was perfectly tuned, and the other keys were adjusted with small compromises. “These compromises,” writes Ellen Sandbeck,” meant that all the scales were equally imperfect and minutely out of tune; none were perfect, but all were useable.” To celebrate the potential and beauty of this tuning technique, called “circular temperament,” Bach wrote a series of preludes and fugues he called Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, or The Well-Tempered Clavier. It was not the first example of pantonal music, but it was the most influential. Tuning has never been the same since, nor has musical composition.
“I can’t give all of myself to every thing,” is a confession I have often had to make to myself and to my family. Living a well-tempered life is like playing a well-tempered instrument; neither is possible without compromise. One aspect of life may perhaps be tuned to perfection of a sort (for is perfection ever a thing of isolation?), but the others will jar an unpleasant note. Tune the scales against each other, and none will be perfect, but they will allow a greater scope of harmony and beauty.
In her book The Pace of a Hen, Josephine Moffett Benton writes about the struggle a housewife experiences as she attempts to reconcile the many demands upon her time, energy, and interest. “Instead of worrying about her diverse interests, she can learn to give thanks for the richness of her existence, for the wholeness she may attain as she weaves together the varying selves of her feminine nature.”
†”Men and Women in Search of Common Ground,” The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays.
There is a certain amount of tension that is necessary, just as the strings of a violin must be taut in order to produce beautiful music. If the strings remain lax, they will be dumb; if the strings are wound too tightly, they will snap; if they are carefully adjusted, they will sing. May my life be a living hymn to the glory of God.
Remember to include in the circle of my day....
communion with God Jehovah
grace-filled interaction with family and friends
the patient and motivated instruction of my youngest brother
some advancement, however small it may need to be, in my personal studies
a little play for the soul, whether in reading, writing, dancing, or dreaming
Mrs. Benton concludes the first chapter of her book: “A woman at last discovers that love is the gold thread running through the pattern, binding all her seemingly disparate activities together. If she willingly accepts the slow pace and the seeming scatteredness of her years, her life will be blessed and give blessing.”
Friday, December 3, 2010