Friday 27 May 2011

SpringSongs from SomeAre Solstice

The rich green of luxurious spring growth and the serenity, inspiration, and delight of spring is only enhanced by the chorus of songbirds, fragrant forest, budding flowers, and lightening days...in the Peace Country, this time of year is Paradise on Earth!

Thursday 26 May 2011

Sharing Time

Today was another of those stellar occasions when music shared between friends ignites and inspires ideas and melodies!  Andrew brought his keyboard and Pia brought her recorders to share with our school today!  What a beautiful collaboration!  Some of the songs they played were over 300 years old!  WOW! We all enjoyed the music so much and the time passed all too quickly.  I just know that there'll be some flute collaborations in there too! 

Peaceful Night Flute Circle welcomed the two with a few flute songs...and although Andrew brought his flute along as well, the time went by too quickly for him to play flute with the students!  We look forward to sharing flute songs with him in the near future!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Woodwinds and Winds of the Woods

Everything happens for a reason...and everything seems to be connected!  When I was asked to offer a flute workshop for music teachers last August, I was thrilled and humbled!  I am on this path of learning myself, and I hoped that I had something to offer that would be of benefit to these band teachers, elementary music teachers, and other colleagues!  At any rate, it would be fun and would be a day of music!!!

The workshop class was a small group and we spent most of the day exploring the sounds and legacy of the Native American Flutes...even making ABS plastic flutes in the key of Aminor.  Everyone seemed very happy with their day... 

Two amazing collaborations came out of the event!  One fellow was inspired to develop an online virtual education course for our school district.  He worked with technicians and myself to gather materials, links, resources, and videos from which our distance education students could benefit.  Songs of the Peace came to be, and as a pilot project for this year, has proven most successful.

The second collaboration takes place tomorrow!  Banding Together! Yes, the high school band wind ensemble from a high school in our district, will be touring out to visit our little school!  The band teacher found the flutes to be inspiring and beautiful and quite different from the instruments with which his students were familiar.  He delivers the music program to some 30 members of the wind ensemble and together his students and my students will number in the realm of 65 musicians playing for each other and with each other!  Neither group is familiar with the instruments or style of the other group, and yet, at the end of the show, the two groups will play together on some popular tunes! 

It shall be so much fun!  The rest of the school and indeed, the surrounding community, is invited to come and share the music!

Tuesday 10 May 2011


Sometimes "the road less travelled by" makes all the difference!

Windflowers

Here are the Windflowers (Bear Mountain Wind Park) of which we sing and play when the 35 member Peaceful Night Flute Circle performs with the 30 member Sexsmith Secondary School Wind Ensemble on Thursday!  It will be fun to perform this original song as we "band together" in concert!
Flower-Rapture
                              J. Carlstad
Such beauty and joy
found
within
the spectacular quality
of each petal
each leaf
Celebration...
the fragrance
emanating
from vibrance, life and love
prevailing -the essence
of these times
Excerpt from my newest song...
Does He Know (How It Feels)?by J. Carlstad
As the sun’s rays break
Above thundering storms
And the spring finds renewal once more
As the mists of the dawn
Rise above rippling waters
May forgiveness open the door
For the love that was lost
And the love that is born
And the loves we forever hold dear
claiming our space in life’s race
Where the memories we keep are so near...



Monday 9 May 2011

Songsters of the Woodlands

Purple Finches are one of the birds I wait for every spring!  I begin watching my feeders in mid-April, and joy is mine at the first sighting each year!  The forest around me fills with song when these wee folk return! I rescued a couple of them last summer as well, and feel overjoyed when these songsters are near!
Some days are like this...like the Pouce River in peak run off!  Days come that are full, rushing torrents of muddy water, renewal, and sustaining life!  My mind is like this river...and is busy just trying to keep up with all that heart, body, soul, and life have to offer!  Is this what it means when "we're up the creek without a paddle"?


Saturday 7 May 2011

My Eyes Mist
By J. M. Carlstad 2011

Cracklin’ flames
Morning’s first fire
Boiling fresh coffee
The day’s second desire
Whilst out on the lake
The call of the loon
Cuts through the mist
Like the paddle that slides
Through the blue

The mighty pines sway
And their sigh bears the scent
Of old forest and life
As they bow and they bend
The wind ruffles
My hair
Dancing through embers
While the dog sniffs…
And my body remembers . . .
The call of the loon
Cuts through the mist
Like his paddle
That slides through the blue

An osprey hovers
Oe’r rippling waters
A fish jumps over there
Mallards leave a trailing V
in waters swampy black
Whilst the call of the loon
Cuts through the mist
Like the paddle that slides
Through the blue

My trembling hand
Wipes over eyes that mist
As I sense him approaching
Through the blue
Whilst the call of the loon
Cuts through the mist
Like his canoe that glides

So true.
Bringing him to me
As he steps quietly now
Never rippling waters
nor making a sound

sliding his hands
through my hair
he holds me with care
whilst the call of the loon
cuts through the mist
surrounding us
‘midst morning’s dew

and only
the trees with
their soft
fragrant breeze
will have
witnessed
the tenderness there
for my eye
missed no more
what I’d long waited for

The kingfisher dove,
The heron stood nearby
Grasses waved softly
And the trees did sigh
Whilst out on the lake
The call of the loons
Cut through the mist
somewhere there
Until suddenly
A light fell upon the wild pair
The skies cleared blue
With the sun fiery bright
Warming forever
The two.
As always, I am so grateful for my collaborations with amazing people along this journey of life... I learn along the way, from each and every one of them... and my guitarist, John, is no exception!  When we work up these songs...we play and play...and it is SO good, because it helps me learn my scales and find out where the notes can mix and match! 

Here's an excerpt from one of the projects upon which we're working!  And, it's interesting, because as John is working with timing and chords, I'm playing my music, thinking entirely in images of the desert!  When we realized we're coming at this music from such different strategies, we decided to write words to our melody so that we knew where to hinge the melody and improve our timing in working together...

Desert Showers
Janina Carlstad/John Fletcher - 2011

Listen to the sounds of the desert as it soaks up the brand new rain
You can feel the flowers bloom as the sun comes out again
Desert showers come rarely, from up on cloudy skies
But they freshen up the desert air like your smile lights up my eyes

Come walk with me in the desert shower, hear th’ music ev’rywhere
As it floats out on the desert breeze and the life that we find there
Come walk with me in the desert shower, hear th’ music ev’rywhere
As it floats out on the desert breeze and the life that we find there...


What If It Rains?
By J. M. Carlstad

We looked at the sky
To the glimmering dark
Watching the stars
Curiosity to spark

But what if it rains?
asked his worried wee voice
And his blue eyes
Were filled with concern

Look up in the sky
My wee one so fair
And tell me oh tell me
What do you see there?

I see the sky
Do you see any clouds?
Well, no, there’s just stars
Then there’s no rain just now

We walked on a path
All of nature to see
As the green of the spring
Gathered upon the trees

But what if it rains?
Asked his worried wee voice
And his blue eyes
Were filled with concern

Look all around you
Tell me, what do you see?
I see mosses and flowers
Grasses, birds, ‘n tall trees

If it rains out
My wee one so fair
It’s Mother Nature watering
The Earth with her care

Some days are more special
As days come and go
excitement waxes ‘n wanes
Just like the moon’s glow

But what if it rains
Asked his worried wee voice
And his blue eyes
Were filled up with concern

What if it rains
My wee one so fair?
Now listen carefully
To this message I share

What if it rains?
Well that’s how life goes
We can bask in the sun
Or wait for the snow
we can ride on the moment
Of life’s melodies
Or drown in the rains
From a mind chilling breeze
Or watch for life’s moments
When the rain brings
The rainbow
Sparkling over the trees

The rains raise the waters
that flow to the seas
And wash the dirt from our Earth
And humanities’ deeds

What if it rains
My wee one so fair?
His blue eyes sparkled
'Well I guess I’ll be happy!
Now, let’s go over there!'

Tuesday 3 May 2011

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.


I thank a good friend for putting up this post today on her Facebook...as events have transpired over the past few days, I have been trying to think of ways to say this ...Martin Luther King Jr sums it up! :)

Sunday 1 May 2011

I Could Play Forever

**Last week, at a songwriters' workshop with Saskia O, Darrell De La Ronde, and Gary Fjellgaard, we were taught to listen for key phrases that could develop into a song or poem... so last night, after a particularly poignant performance of poetry and musical fusion, this comment lead to this poem... I hope you enjoy it!

I Could Play Forever...
by Janina M. Carlstad

He played
fingers rippling across the keys
like sunlight rays upon
brightest spring leaves
His notes were the sounds
of sun-sparkling waters,
racing clouds up in the sky
rushing rivers, shining peaks
nature's wonders
bound to meet the eye

She spoke quietly, reverently
of spirit and soul
of the forest and nature all 'round
his music, her words
a mutual goal
poetry fusing with sound
...then the flute began
with wheedling tones
of chickadee, songbird
Celebration alone
rising and falling with
his melody
the cadence, the rhythm
branching out like the trees

Cathedral ceiling reached up
suddenly ceasing to be
as the melody lifted
setting souls free
Stronger, Louder, and Long
enveloping one and all
in universal song...
As wonderment in the magic
of music grew
joyous smiles were exchanged
between the two...
The audience also ceased to be
as the celebration and wonder
between them burst free
each note magically matching
in rhythm and tone
exploring
Unison,
Fusion
of a song all their own...
As the last notes
in unity faded softly away
they smiled with the rapture
of playing music this way

At the end, he stood up
around the piano he strode
took her hand softly and long,,,
With a gentle smile that reached
to his eyes
he said,
"I could have played FOREVER
in this way,
with this song..."

They shared a look
each one
understood
murmuring thanks
as they would
for the melody shared
creativity there
before returning
inspired
to the Earth and
their chairs.