The Moon over Chesapeake Bay

Yes, this has been a very feeble week for blogging, but hey, I'm on vacation. I will be back to my usual efforts next week with posts on Sofia Gubaidulina, composition, maybe something on the basics of music and perhaps even something funny. You never know. In the meantime, a couple of photos. There is a lovely old hotel here in Virginia Beach that was just restored to its former glory. In the 1920s it was quite a sight and is so again. This is the Cavalier Hotel where we had lunch the other day. Excellent wine list, by the way, with some fine California pinot noirs by the glass.

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The entrance:

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This morning I got up to the sight of a full moon in the pre-dawn sky, low on the horizon. The moon always looks so huge when it is low in the sky, even though it is no larger in reality. This is an optical illusion coming just from its proximity to the horizon. Whereas it appears a bit like this:

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In reality, this is what the camera sees:

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I am always astounded at the difference! The full moon seems to loom so large, but only seems. As artists we often want to create illusions like this, but we are always humbled by nature.

Let's listen to some excellent scene-painting by Claude Debussy who died in 1918, making this the hundredth anniversary. This is his work for orchestra, La Mer with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Orchestre de Paris: