another veil

Program Notes

Early on a foggy morning, a disheveled custodian stumbles into the Notre-Dame, his shoes scuffing the stone floor as he rushes to clock in. His sullen eyes, unmoving in the adorned vastness of the cathedral. With a heavy sigh, he pushed his cart through the sacred hall's back chambers, the squeak of each wheel swallowed by thick shadow. He lifted his duster and set to work, glossing over gilded relics with each steady, anemic motion. His gaze unfocused, the sharp edges of grand pedestals, no more than shapes to guide his hand. Across the room, enclosed in a thick glass case, lay the manuscript, Nymphes des Bois. Josquin's autograph score, its ink faded, and its paper softened by the centuries. A testimony locked away. As the custodian worked, his elbow brushed a small, slender stand holding a gray and unassuming artifact, save the inscription "Johannes Ockeghem" winding around its base. The faintest tilt of the pedestal, turned to a wobble, sending the urn crashing atop the glass case of Josquin's manuscript. Time slowed, as the glass shattered, ashes scattered, and the parchment disintegrated. In a breathless moment, sacred dust is suspended in the air, glimmering in a silver cloud. Each speck humming, echoing an ancient song as it drifts the hall. The custodian froze, his eyes finally widening as his breath caught the cloud hallowed soot. His fingers trembling, he reaches into the pocket of his coat and grabs a needle. He began to sew, each stitch careful and slow, pulling together the inked lines of music. Though without a formal musical education, it proved quite difficult to discern between remnants of the score and that of poor Ockeghem himself. The needle pierced through ash and dust alike, weaving together a fragile, strange communion, not altogether new. As the last stitch is completed the custodian places the manuscript atop its shattered case, the pages now both whole and incomplete. With a steady hand he sweeps up the remaining dust into the urn and places it back upon its pedestal.