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American Morning

Former Rock Violinist Changes Tune

Aired December 25, 2001 - 07:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have heard that music is the universal language. Now CNN's Bill Delaney introduces us to a composer whose music spans time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN NEWS, BOSTON: In oculis Dei -- Latin for "in the eyes of God."

(MUSIC)

DELANEY: Sound with silence somehow in it, too -- intense serenity.

A Patricia Van Ness, a former rock'n'roll violinist who, from music quintessentially of our time, her briefly hot '70's hair band, Private Lightning, moved on to music that can seem not of our time at all.

PATRICIA VAN NESS, MUSICIAN: It's passionate in a way, but it's very held back. So there's a certain restraint in the passion, if you know what I mean. It's just not all over the place.

(MUSIC)

DELANEY: Medieval choral forms, though, with a tone of yearning, questioning -- not all that out of place after the turbulence of the past few months.

VAN NESS: I leave openness in the sound. And that requires the use of the imagination. And I've always felt that the imagination is a component of spirituality that leads to God.

My response to evil has not been to write, describing the evil. We are definitely, are surrounded by evil. But we're also surrounded by each other -- love, beauty.

You have to have a music stand, because you have to ...

DELANEY: Twelve years ago, now, cancer changed Van Ness.

(MUSIC)

VAN NESS: But I wanted to write music and text about what this meant. It's like pealing an onion. You go deeper and deeper and deeper.

And I've certainly come to the belief, because I do believe in God, that we are beloved regardless of what happens to us, that we are surrounded and we are embraced.

DELANEY: As her music surrounds and embraces.

VAN NESS: I'm so glad I'm old -- older -- than I was when I was in the rock band, or whatever. I feel like it -- I have done nothing but learn.

(MUSIC)

DELANEY: In the spaciousness of Patricia Van Ness' music, what can be learned, perhaps, that quiet place in all of us, a glimpse through the eyes of God.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Beautiful music and beautiful thoughts on this Christmas morning.

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