Strings

So I had been afraid that, unlike in TX, here I wouldn't be able to get around to any good music concerts. Especially now being only on foot. Thus I wistfully unpacked my CD collection yesterday, including one I hadn't seen for a long time, "Il Gardellino" (The Goldfinch) by Vivaldi, which I used to play, also a very long time ago. The flute part is composed to sound like the bird, very simple and beautiful. 


Today though I decided that the benefits of going to university full time for once, and to my dream program, outweighed any possible disadvantages, and that if I stayed in my room unpacking any longer I would turn into a hermit in a cave; so I went to ramble around town and discover it, and check if the ManU match was being shown anywhere. Unfortunately ("if it were on we'd be watching it, we've manic ManU fans here") it wasn't. After finding my way to and wandering around the 'Heroes Memorial Garden' (?) which was full of touching monuments and dedications to the citizens who died in WWI and II and lovely herb and rose gardens, I meandered around in the most beautiful park near the river, with boats and willow trees and swans. Then on the path near its gate, just outside the ancient town church, I almost walked into a sign saying, "Music Festival Oct 2-9. Starts today, Oct 2." 


After staring at it for a while and trying to figure out why they had put the sign out early, I realized that today was indeed October and the 2nd. Usually I'm alerted to this upcoming date every year by the "Gandhi Jayanthi" (birthday) announcements in the newspaper, since it's a national holiday in India. Funnily, just as I put two and two together (pun unintended) an extended Indian family strolled by looking at their map, which coincidence made my eyes bug out even more. 


Further witnessing this bugging was the girl in charge of selling concert tickets, who walked by right then and waved program brochures under my nose, confirmed that today was indeed October 2nd, and promised to save me a student ticket, with apologies that it wasn't in the front row. You mean...I get to live in this beautiful town, that has memorials, willow trees, a park, a river, swans, historic buildings, manic ManU fans, extended Indian tourist families, and a music festival around the corner, which starts today, AND to which I get an affordable, reserved, ticket? And guess what was listed on tonight's program? "Il Gardellino". 


Once it got dark, the audience filed into the church, candles were lit in the arched stone window alcoves all around us, and the musicians took their places. The concert started, the strings soared in the vault, and I sat in the back pew of that candlelit, unfamiliar church, and cried like a fool.