Musician Rosalyn Tureck (piano, harpsichord, clavichord, organ) explains the value of books and nature to her art:
As you can see from the collection of books I’ve amassed over the years, the subject matter covers philosophy, literature, art, science, etc. The collection includes almost any subject you can think of. They all deepen my perspective of life in some way. Next, my great love is nature, especially the sky. I walk in the countryside whenever I can because I can see the sky so much more clearly there. Much as I would like to have enjoyed sports, I never indulged in any except on occasional moments because of possible injury to the hands. The only exception to this is swimming, although I’m certainly not the world’s greatest. Snorkeling, for me, is a fantastic activity because I see such variety of life under the sea. I have done snorkeling in the Mediterranean, in the south of France. It’s another world, and it gives me a great sense of the immensity and the individuality of nature. When I first saw underwater life, I thought, “My God, what music a composer could have written had he seen this!”
There are artists as we usually think of them – painters, poets, musicians, dancers, writers, . . . And there are artists as we seldom think of them – universal artists who create works in all fields outside of art – entrepreneurs, administrators, scientists, engineers, foresters, librarians, teachers, nurses, . . . . And here and there are artists in the arts of daily living. Quite conceivably, they and their creative works would be increased if they made a regular practice of experiencing the “great sense of the immensity and the individuality of nature.”
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For a brief biography of Rosalyn Tureck, click here.
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