In many religious and contemplative traditions, age has been considered a symbol for wisdom and transcendence.
Its doom-laden atmosphere does not preclude contemplative passages, but the implacability of its gradual build-up into a massive climax is memorably disquieting.
Those who are truly contemplative and have renounced the world are supported by the worldly.
Interlacing solos shape the fabric of this serene, contemplative slow movement, weaving a fragile, kaleidoscopic skein of gossamer beauty.
In fact all three movements end in a fading pianissimo, lending the work an elegiac, contemplative character.
Visitors arriving at the picnic area may sit on the grass collectively or enter the contemplative rooms individually, departing the way they came.
If the contemplative themselves have to reconcile the active and the contemplative lives within, this process is mirrored, as it were, externally.
It begins with alternating strands of quiet contemplative and lively dance-like music and then, after a fluttering settling section, closes with serene slow music.
