THE LAMENT OF AN ELDERLY MUSICIAN/MOUNTAINEER

Meaningful Relationships

I live in a series of concentric circles.

The first is a tiny very private circle
composed of my wife/lover/dearest friend/confidant.
Although the smallest circle,
it is the greatest and most self-defining and compelling.

Beyond that, surrounding us, is a well-defined circle of loved ones
and very close friends. Those who at moments in life may be confidants,
admissible to the most private of heartaches or longings.
These are the people for whom I would sacrifice many things.

Beyond that there is a larger circle of those whom I do not know well,
who are not confidant but trusted acquaintances. More than that,
they are liked and admired, people whose values/morals are similar to mine.

And finally, there is that huge circle of all nations and all people,
who are a part of me regardless of nationality, language,
race, creed, colour, gender or class.
Regardless of whether they are the shopkeeper I see twice a week,
a plumber I see only once in my life,
an unknown doctor, teacher or peasant farmer I have never met.
Partly they are real and partly they are shadows- imagined configurations -
but none the less I care about their fate.
And because I care, I cannot recognize what should be a joyous world.

It is into the second circle that some 15 years ago or more,
my truly dear friend, composer, conductor, mountain climber and humanist,
now in his nineties, entered.
He is a source of humour, knowledge, wisdom,
and of beautifully composed music, who enriches my life.

The text below is a shortened version of a letter he sent to me just a few days ago.
I don’t believe I need to say more about why I asked him if I could share it.

Graham Treacher working on one of his compositions. photo: Robert Golden

ONE KIND OF LIVING
The lament of an elderly musician/mountaineer

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“Until I die there will be sounds.
And they will continue following my death.
One need not fear about the future of music.”

John Cage: Silence

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I do not fear about the future of music following my own death, were it not
for the ever-present fear for the future of the planet.
This island (of Britain) is indeed presently full of noises. (2019)
This planet is full of the sound of people crying out for freedom and justice
amidst cultural and physical destruction and oppression.

The sea is receiving ever deepening melt water from shrinking glaciers and ice fields. A small, insignificant and unmapped glacier in the Tromma region of North Lyngen
in Arctic Norway, previously unvisited before I found it, will by now have disappeared.

On the roof of the world, Tibetan glaciers are receding fast, blamed by the indigenous population on the activities of human foreign adventurers and Chinese exploiters.

During the years of my grandchildren’s old age, it is likely that most of these glorious ice sheets will have almost or totally melted with devastating effect; the world sea levels will have risen eliminating low level island communities, forcing continental devastating migrations northwards, dwarfing the migrations happening at present (2023).

It is not hard to predict that all this will lead to increasing conflict between nations and communities as the fight for inhabitable land becomes ever greater.

John Cage’s positive belief in the future of music is thus under doubt. His personal silence, along with my own, will become universal.

Of more fundamental inevitability will be the eventual passing of Planet Earth out of existence, one more example of what has been the experience of trillions of similar planets and universes spinning around the limitless cosmos.

The ultimate flames of the Dies Irae (a Latin hymn in a Mass for the dead), the global day of total destruction dramatically told in the poetry of the Catholic Mass to frighten and subdue the sinning populace will lead to the nothingness of `Nirvana’. Reality as we know it will cease to exist. Quite a thought I shall keep from my great-grandchildren.

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who is Graham Treacher?

A musician and mountaineer who has had a long career in both fields.
As a conductor he worked with the BBC Scottish Orchestra for three years,
and for two years at Royal Opera House Covent Garden at the invitation of Sir George Solti, to train the chorus for the first performance in the UK of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. Compositions include Darwin’s Dream, a multi-media work for children, soloists and professional chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to celebrate the 200 hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.

 Graham has climbed in the Alps, Ecuador, Tian Shan ,and the Himalayas, with first ascents in Arctic Norway.

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see THIS GOOD EARTH, my film about climate change, now available worldwide.

Listen to a podcast interview with Robert about THIS GOOD EARTH and about life.

Here is a crowd funder film made for Graham several years ago, which led to the piece being played in public to a wholesome reception.