Two Songs from the Precipice
The Precipice ©2019 Tom Kenyon All Rights Reserved
Note: Links to the audio files are at the bottom of this page.
The Backstory
My wife, Judi, and I found ourselves stranded in southern California when the Covid-19 Stay in Place Order was put into effect for both California and our home state of Washington. As the fates would have it, the small condo we were renting had a 1928 Steinway Concert Baby Grand Piano. Although it was sorely in need of extensive refurbishing, I started playing it as a form of personal music therapy to deal with the horrible waves of news regarding the pandemic.
I wound up writing two songs that expressed some of my personal feelings about the pandemic and recorded them on the last day of our stay as I was packing.
Normally I would not release these songs in their current form since the sounds of the piano’s mechanism (i.e., its pedals as well as some of the hammers) can be clearly heard. And I had to play around a few notes that were either sharp or flat, which made the recordings (that were done on-the run) less than perfect from a musical standpoint.
However, upon reflection, I have decided to release them in the Listening Section for three primary reasons. Number one, this piano—despite its poor mechanical state—had a distinct tone I have never experienced with any other piano. And although I might find the time and space to record these songs on a new piano, I doubt that the magic of this particular instrument could be recaptured.
Number two, I think that its dilapidated condition somehow mirrored the less than optimal state of our world as it wrestled to deal with a pandemic of this magnitude. And so in some strange way, recording these songs with a 1928 Steinway that had seen better days somehow captured the moment in time when I composed and recorded them.
Number three, they are for me a kind of personal psycho-spiritual bookmark. The songs themselves express some of the deeper feelings and conflicts I was experiencing—and continue to experience—as we collectively come to terms with this world pandemic.
It was here in my own personal foundry of the soul that I was confronted with two seemingly opposite forces and realizations.
On one hand, from the higher dimensions of consciousness, all was truly well. The personal and collective suffering around the world seemed oddly dream-like. Feelings of deep compassion and unbounded love flowed (and continues to flow) from the spiritual worlds to the physical sensory world where we all live our lives. When I rested in this state of being, all was calm, and I could clearly sense a “peace that passeth all understanding” as well as a grace that knew no bounds.
But at the same time, the dances of Maya and Samsara were in a fast rhumba and what many of us felt to be solid and reliable was suddenly revealed to be fragile and transitory beyond our normal day-to-day experiences of life. Adding to the mix of tragedy was the heroic efforts of health care providers and others who reached out to help their fellow human beings even at times when they did not know them.
All of these feelings, and more, came crashing in on me like an emotional tsunami. And I was caught between two powerful currents. One was from the Great Mystery where love transcends and transforms all things. The other was sheer chaos and anguish.
I wish I could say that I found a way to remain always within the calm and grace of the Great Mystery. But then I would not be truth-speaking.
My truth is that I was tossed from one current to the other until some type of resolution came from speaking with friends and loved ones and finally through the art form of music.
Art can touch us deeply, both as the artist and the ones who are able to perceive the deep aesthetic that the artist was striving to convey.
I hope these songs bring you some type of resolution as they have for me. And I hope that they open for you the wellspring of healing and comfort that is always present.
Rip Van Winkle and Me
The story of Rip Van Winkle was written by the American author Washington Irving and first published in 1819. In the story, Rip Van Winkle fell asleep in the Catskill Mountains for twenty years and slept through the Revolutionary War.
This song is an odd mix of classical notation and spacing joined with a more contemporary sound when the vocals begin. In conversations with friends, the topic of maybe taking a nap and sleeping through the pandemic came up a few times as a possible means for dealing with the crisis—albeit it not a very resourceful one.
The song expresses both the world of human volatile emotions and the calming grace of what is referred to as The Mystery.
Rip Van Winkle and Me
©2020 Tom Kenyon All Rights Reserved
Note: If you wish to share this song with others, please send them this link: Two Songs From The Precipice
It will take them directly to this page. If you prefer, you can direct them to the Listening section of the website, but the link above will give them direct access to the song without having to go through the Listening Agreement. Please do not post this song in any media without written permission from me as the composition is copyrighted intellectual property. Thank you for your consideration.
Click here to listen to and/or download Rip Van Winkle and Me
The Bardo Sea
The word “Bardo” refers to a state of being that exists after death. In Tibetan Buddhism, the term Bardo sometimes has a wider view—referring to all of life as a dream with various stages. Thus there is the Bardo of Waking, the Bardo of Sleeping and Dreaming, and the classic Bardo after death where one can attain liberation and/or the possibility (or inevitability) of taking rebirth through the Bardo of Becoming.
While the style of this song is akin to what is now called Americana, the topic is pure Tibetan Buddhism with a nautical twist. The central idea is that in the classic Bardo state, our vision is less impaired than when we are experiencing the world through our physical senses. The realizations of the narrator and the arising of compassion within him are natural expressions of his innate wisdom—a quality that is present in all sentient beings.
The Bardo Sea
©2020 Tom Kenyon All Rights Reserved
Note: If you wish to share this song with others, please send them this link: Two Songs From The Precipice
It will take them directly to this page. If you prefer, you can direct them to the Listening section of the website, but the link above will give them direct access to the song without having to go through the Listening Agreement. Please do not post this song in any media without written permission from me as the composition is copyrighted intellectual property. Thank you for your consideration.
Click here to listen to and/or download The Bardo Sea