You Are Never Alone
Sebastian Modarelli - Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s music often reminds us of a people, as you can find in his Serenade for Strings in E, Op. 22, linked below. The aroma of pentatonic modes, bouncing rhythms, clear melodic themes, defined formal structure, marked string strokes, unveil the existence of a living community. A community with its joys, struggles, limitations, but mostly with a jolt of hope that reminds each other that life is a beautiful thing.
It is not a surprise then that, when Dvořák came to New York to work at the conservatory, he missed his homeland deeply. He used to spend his summers around a Bohemian community in Iowa, not far from my home. This shows that there was something deeper in his need for companionship, something that his stay in New York only exacerbated.
However, his music reminds us of a deeper companionship. The jolting hope that springs from the simplicity of his music, as if it was written with brush strokes, evokes in us another companionship that precedes our loneliness. That thirst that makes us travel from New York to Iowa, or to our homeland, is the thirst for that companionship that is within us when we write a piece of music, or when we listen to it. No beauty would come from us if it wasn’t given to us. And Dvořák’s Catholic spirit would have certainly recognized this.
But let’s imagine, for a minute, that we became fully aware of this inner companionship, to the point that we would never feel far from home again. Here is where the community comes back, not as a substitute of that invisible companionship, but as its manifestation, because this Infinite made flesh has conquered the awareness of these companions in the journey. A place where your most intimate “I”, which is made of your dialog with that Infinite that we all thirst for, is the most precious thing. Nothing compares to that treasure. What a grace to find a companionship like this! Thank you, Antonín Dvořák, for helping us to perceive this presence within us.