Music has always been a big part of my life, particularly playing the piano. The photo above is me at my childhood piano at age 10. Playing the piano has always been an emotional release for me, so launching this new symbol is especially poignant.
Music is known as the universal language of humanity and the Bird's Eye Pause, or fermata, is a musical symbol cueing the reader to hold or stop.
And if that sign is on top of a “rest of silence”…
Then the performer needs to hold that silence for a beat longer than instinct. The exact length of time is determined by the person, not dictated by the music, so you can develop your own individual, syncopated rhythm. Inserting silence, allows us to live in this moment and we begin to feel something. That something is our internal compass, our inner knowing.
Sometimes you need to pause, to reflect, and to look inward...
Pause. Reflect. Live. Savor. Today.
I chose to introduce this symbol with an interpretation of Beethoven’s Sonata no. 14. The original title page of the first edition of the score titled it “Sonata quasi una Fantasia” which means “almost a fantasy”. It came to be more commonly called “Moonlight Sonata” because the opening bars, played soft and slow, were described as sounding nocturnal, like a Moon rising over the water. It is a free-flowing fantasy, soft and slow, like shimmering moonlight.
We move so fast, busy ourselves with doing, that we forget the power of a pause. A pause to make time for yourself, to feed your soul. A pause to break patterns. Stop living on automatic. Don’t let life “happen” to you. A pause to just live in the moment. A pause to celebrate; every sunrise, every small accomplishment. A pause to sit in gratitude. Because tomorrow is not promised.
Pause. Reflect. Live. Savor. Today.