Helvellyn

I climbed the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, 
Lakes and mountains beneath me gleamed misty and wide

—Sir Walter Scott

Well, we were all sick in my house the last ten days or so. And we were also snowed in. 2024 coming out swinging. Regardless, I’m grateful that I’ve had a warm place to recover, and I appreciate you being here to listen, as always.

Whenever I’m under the weather one of the things I long for most is going for a long walk. So, this month I thought we could explore a bit of England’s Lake District, one of the most beautiful places I’ve had the good fortune to wander. (We last visited the Lake District in Vol. II’s Gathering Light, which, coincidentally, comes out this Friday on the UK-based label Bigo & Twigetti.)

🎵 This month’s piece is in C Dorian.¹

I was reading a book recently where the author wrote very disparagingly of the Dorian mode, arguing that it’s too sad to ever sound good. I couldn’t disagree more. To me, this month’s piece feels like movement, like change, like a cloud breaking over a valley.² What do you hear?

📷 This month’s photos were taken in the Lake District National Park in England.³

When you climb to the top of any one of the Lake District’s many hills, the views are breathtaking. It’s easy to see why Wordsworth considered it “the loveliest spot that man hath found.”

I invite you to sit with this month’s song, photos, and poem and make them a small part of your day, whether that’s your morning ritual, afternoon break, or your evening wind-down.

As always, if you feel like it, let me know what you think in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you again for being here.

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The World Is Too Much With Us

by William Wordsworth⁴

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

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Listening to

• I Built You by WOOM (Listen)

  • 🎧 I put all the songs shared in the newsletter into this Spotify playlist

Reading

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Fog Chaser Bookshop)⁵

• The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart (Powell’s / Fog Chaser Bookshop)⁶

Sharing

• As I mentioned above, my song Gathering Light (featuring

  Niamh Fahy
  on viola) releases on 1/26 on one of my favorite labels, Bigo & Twigetti.⁷

1. Helvellyn in C Dorian, for twelve instruments / Written, performed, and produced by Fog Chaser

2. Theory notes: Modes are just types of musical scales that have a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. C Dorian is the second mode of the Bb major scale. It contains exactly the same notes (including an E-flat and B-flat), but starts on C, which becomes the new tonal center. As a minor-sounding mode, the scale feels most related to the C minor scales, differing by just a single note (the B-flat).

3. Shots from the Lake District, UK, mostly around Thrilmere and St. John’s in the Vale, near Keswick.

4. Sticking with the very British theme of this post. (Had to go with Wordsworth for a Lake District post).

5. …continuing this love letter to the UK.

6. The Fog Chaser Bookshop is hosted on Bookshop.org, where 10% of all sales are distributed to independent bookstores. As an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

7. 🇬🇧