This was one of the first photographs that Steve showed me for inclusion in our calendar project “Then, gently, the world began anew”. I wrote two stories for it. The scale of nature, the vastness of sea and threat of sky, emphasized the fragility and flimsiness of a little fishing boat. A valedictory sensation was strong; the boat was leaving something behind.
We settled on the present six-word story “I promised her everything. But no.” ; still I would have been equally happy with the other one I wrote: “Swallowed by sea and sky. Adieu.” In composing the music, it was this story I called on for a certain recognition, that cloud and sea are the same thing. They’re both water. The music’s main property is texture, not melody – the music is without melody, in fact. It’s the undulating of waves and the knotting of clouds.
I believe the moon is somewhere behind the storm clouds, because a motif from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata has crept in; it is heavily obscured underneath the rippling but every now and then, a wave washes a cloud cleanly away and you can hear it.
So a man sails away, and the further away he sails, the more he makes peace with the feeling of her ‘no’ sinking in. He makes peace with the feeling and the storm.
