Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. As we traverse through life we rarely take the time to understand how much music actually deepens our humanity.
Music is all around us and yet its full impact is only experienced when we listen to something that resonates and digs deep enough inside us to reveal our sometimes hidden and feared emotions.
As a young child I often listened to my mother’s Hollywood Musical Soundtracks as well as Italian folks songs from my father’s community, which were mainly sung by jovian Italian men who had drunk too much red wine.
It is from this rich heritage of eclectic music that I found an expression - that enabled a shy little boy to speak to many, display colours and move mountainous emotional barriers, all with a few musical notes.
My debut album ‘Human Frailty’ is a deep dive into my soul where hidden secrets are revealed and emotions are laid bare for all to examine. Franz Schubert said of his music - “When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love” - I found that through my music I have the ability to send light into the darkness of hearts - and really, ‘such is the duty of the artist’, said Robert Schumann.
The emotionally charged ‘A Matter of the Soul’ captures everything I wanted to say with a solo violin. Pain, beauty and words that cannot be spoken can be heard in every note so skilfully played by violinist Vaughan Jones. ‘In Love Again’ - sings of the colours of love, its dramatic ups and downs so easily expressed in music reveals the pain and delight of love’s journey. Time and time again love puts us through a mountain range of emotions and yet we wouldn’t have it any other way really.
A Sentire L’amore - To Feel Love. I make no apologies for this track being extremely romantic and there is no better way to express love’s passion than to have its title in Italian.
Piano was my first love and still remains the one instrument that virtually plays itself whenever my fingers are placed on the keys and that is exactly how I happened upon this track.
Snow - This piece has these incredibly beautiful snippets of hope made possible by the talented Vaughan Jones (Violins, Viola) and Miriam Lowbury (Cello), with the occasional glimmer of possibility and peace; the contrast between peace and the more intense moments of sadness or even fear is captivating. Snow is both cold and harsh yet beautiful and pure as is the way with life.
Some months ago as I finished a conversation with my Father and put the phone down my heart sank as I realised that the man I grew up with was becoming only a shell of faded memories. Dementia had taken hold of him and our conversations were becoming few words with long pauses. The sadness I felt could not be spoken out aloud, it had to be poured out in ‘Not Me Anymore’.
“I was laying on the grass looking up at the sky, listening to your music and when your track Breathe started playing, it was like the music was falling down around me” said my friend. Some people listen to music and some people really listen, that’s when the music speaks volumes to them. ‘To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.’ Igor Stravinsky.
Nothing weeps beautifully like a solo ‘Cello’ telling its story of yearning and heartache. Christof Unterberger’s (Solo Cello) expressive performance tells this story superbly. There is indeed pain here and the story could have been told in a thousand different ways but this is what was needed.
This album was not hard to compose, it involved simply listening and then reacting and then it was done!. For every composer there must be musicians who can narrate the stories. I would like to thank Vaughan Jones, Miriam Lowbury and Christof Unterberger for telling my stories beautifully.
Human Frailty is an album that toys with your emotions and your perspective again and again. At times it feels like the beginning – a new day, a fresh start. At other times it feels unbearably like the end.
Such is Human Frailty; the album, the idea, life as we know it!.
LINKS
WEBSITE: www.petercavallo.com
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