Writings – Judith Aller

Judith Aller in Print:

ELEGY

“The fairy-tale is a lie, but it does contain a clue… (As they sing in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel)”

JUDITH ALLER’S third published short non-fiction essay leads the Spring 2023 Santa Monica Review. A moving story of her mentor Jascha Heifetz titled Elegy.

“ELEGY is beautiful / like a haiku

I shall read it over and over”. – Tom Nolan, author of Ross Macdonald: A Biography and Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw.

“Elegy– is beautiful, exquisitely written. What a moment to witness.”
– Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Dog of the North and The Portable Veblen

MEMORY-MYSTERY-MEMORY

From “Memory—Mystery—Memory (A Fragment)” by Judith Aller, CQR #29:

“The Caravelle jet landed in Oulu in early morning…”

“an evocative memoir by violinist Judith Aller about growing up in Los Angeles among the celebrated musicians of the Aller-Slatkin family ….”

– Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The Washington Post and the author of several books about books, including On Conan Doyle, which received a 2012 Edgar Award.

In the Chicago Quarterly Review 25th Anniversary Edition

Now available on Amazon

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS: THE UNSEEN MAN IN HOLLYWOOD
In the Chicago Quarterly Review, Vol 12
Open the PDF

Writings for Judith Aller:

The Sound of Heaven
(for Judith)

Verse
Built with ancient spruce and maple
For generations of music people
The Stradivarius
Will lift and carry us
To heights unknown to mortal man
Where angels play their pipes of pan

The treasured violin
Held in place beneath her chin
The instrument and she are one
A marriage of the two begun
Something sacred deep within
And, at once, the piece begins

Chorus
The sound of heaven fills the air
When music leads the sacred prayer
So gracefully that all can share
The sound of heaven everywhere

Verse
She holds the bow with timeless grace
And reverie adorns her face
Playing notes I’ll never hear
Blame it on a tone deaf ear
The subtleties are lost on me
I follow just the melody

But I can still appreciate
The fortitude and strength it takes
How many hours she must have spent
To find composers’ true intent
I’ve never been the jealous kind
But you’ve been kissed by lips Devine

Chorus
The sound of heaven fills the air
When music leads the sacred prayer
So gracefully that all can share
The sound of heaven everywhere

“touched my being”

it was an evening I have never forgotten
as he paused with daughter to play
for
me
a Schumann Sonata
and, then,
the fete of her treat,
at last
I dared dream Debussy…
“The Girl With the Flaxex Hair”
wove her tender tresses around my soul
how rare a gift I since have come to know
father and daughter together in virtuosity
for me

wonders since I have seen
and been to peaked drops
but that evening’s serenade
has ever touched my being
well beyond my seeing