THE MONK AND THE SAMURAI NOTES
lyrics (c) 1995 Nancy Ellen Abrams
(music by Ludwig van Beethoven)

I learned to play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata as a child taking piano lessons. I have never stopped playing it. Despite its familiarity, it always remained mysterious. It seemed to be telling a story I could sense but not grasp. One day by chance I heard on the radio this 13th century Zen story and instantly knew I had to sing it. I wrote it into the form of a poem in about 15 minutes. But what possible music would be worthy of such a story? And then it came to me that the arc of the story felt like the Moonlight Sonata. I sat down at the piano and sang the song almost exactly as it is today. It’s odd that products of such different eras and cultures should fit together, but I feel that the story and the music deserve each other.