To my father, Roy Christiansen, who introduced Beethoven into my life and cultivated my everlasting relationship with him through profound love. If I have any earsense at all, I owe it, among so many other things, to my father who was in my thoughts, feelings and commitment to Heart of the Matter from beginning, to end, and back to the beginning yet again. Thank you dad for opening perhaps the most beautiful door.

---

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of the earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always-
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less then everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

T. S. Elliot
Little Gidding
The Four Quartets