It is with deep sadness that we mark the recent passing, a week before Christmas, of an extraordinary figure in the field of music.
John Sweeney left behind a rich legacy that commenced with a promising career as a concert pianist who performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London. He was a soloist on many occasions with the Detroit Symphony and with the Chicago Symphony as well as many other groups. When polio cut short his performing career, he turned to other paths in pursuit of his consuming passion for music and eventually became a conductor for orchestras in Detroit. During the 1964-65 season, he was the conductor of the National Ballet in Washington, D.C.
His later years were spent as a music reviewer for area newspapers and his enormous skill in writing luminous critiques was accompanied by a profound knowledge of his field. John had the discerning eye and acute sensitivity to capture those brief moments when musical notes seemed to rise off the actual score and transport us into regions of delight where reality and design, content and form fuse into timeless beauty.
John will be remembered always by his friends and colleagues as a gentle, compassionate man who took particular pleasure in championing area composers as well as aspiring vocal groups, such as our own Musica Plenti. We will be indebted forever to him for his glowing reviews of our concerts which helped significantly in bringing us to the attention of a public hungry to experience fine music.
During the last decade of his life, John developed a passion for modern poetry, especially the great Spanish and Latin American poets of the 20th century. He spent many pleasurable hours sifting through the literature to find what he called those exquisite jewels of poetry which he would then read aloud – first in Spanish then in English - to his friends.
His own endeavors in writing poetry revealed yet another side of his artistic nature. His vision in capturing and savoring the deep essence in fleeting moments of music was equally at work in crafting enigmatic, yet haunting lines of verse that speak directly to the listener’s heart.
In his poem, “Images”, John gave us a startling, and perhaps unintentional, glimpse into the workings of his mind:
“Across the dreaming pond,
unruffled by the wind’s mischievous pranks,
the images pass in silent procession.
They are the reverse of what vision
tells us is reality,
The fundamental truths of the world
In all its irrefutable wisdom.
They are daytime ghosts
defying established laws of space and time,
raising questions and doubts when least expected,
And always turning things upside down.” |
John Sweeney has left a priceless heritage in which we see, through his eyes, that all music is intrinsically woven into life itself. As Yo Yo Ma expressed in a recent interview about the meaning of his own life as a musician, “we’re stronger for acknowledging that we’re interdependent. By sharing what you know with me, you’re not less. You’re more…. Being self-centered goes against the flow of natural human activity which is trying to understand the larger world.” [PARADE magazine, January 30, 2005, p.6] John was “more” than all of us because he freely shared his spirit with everyone who cared to listen.
John Sweeney has left this earth that he so loved, but he lives on, dancing to a different measure.
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