scope 2009-FINAL.qxd_scope06Final.qxd - SIU School of Medicine

Sonata no. 8 in C minor
6 SCOPE 2009
It’s the kind of thing
you might not notice
when the music plays
and hands at the piano
release Beethoven from the page,
one note after another
in the slow movement
of Pathétique.
I’m thinking
about the very first time
I heard it on the radio, how
Karl Haas adopted it
as his motto theme on NPR.
And everywhere it makes
me stop and listen
to something new
and something heard before.
But now
it’s not a sonata anymore;
it’s turned concerto
with bleeping monitors,