August 5th, 2016 – Charlie’s Bulgar
A Bulgar is a type of dance, commonly appearing in some Eastern European ethnic music styles, such as Klezmer. Though a Bulgar is typically danced in a circle, the music is often spiralled in a manner in which musical recurrences build on each other, instead of merely repeating themselves.
Charlie Ireton was a volunteer and staff at my former place of work. Due to the intersection of our roles, Charlie and I often found ourselves intervening together to address distresses that residents of our workplace may have experienced. Charlie’s life experiences, temperament, and mere presence was a calming and nourishing asset to so many of the lives that he touched. Unfortunately, Charlie’s presence in the physical world was cut short.
Vivid in my memory is Charlie’s easy and soothing smile and laugh. Magical was Charlie’s wide life experiences, deep empathy, and his skills at conveying his insightful help through his light and balanced joyfulness. It is particularly his unique joie-de-vivre which Charlie left in my memory, which I attempted to convey through the music of “Charlie’s Bulgar”. Like the Bulgar’s spiralling of music material, Charlie spent his life growing, not through repetitious or foreign experiences, but rather through revisiting and building on his experiences. I can still hear in my memory Charlie’s soothing laugh.
May Charlie’s legacy continue to be a blessing to those on earth, as it is in heaven!
Itamar Danziger
