The Music
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Although it was once believed that her original scores would likely never be heard by the public, their quality and quantity could not be dismissed--as per Dickinson's poetry upon her death, or Mozart's greatest symphonies (Nos. 40 and 41) which were never performed in his lifetime. When combined with her attempts at poetry, Carmen's music makes her perhaps one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known--a fusion of both Mozartian and Dickinsonian creativity.
"There were times when I was awakened by a Coletti sonata," a friend writes, "and could not convince myself that I was truly awake, as her playing and her music could be haunting and hypnotic, as if inspired by a ghost or a spirit..." Whether or not the world can ever embrace her as the greatest composer who ever lived is left to time and history. But those who knew her are still burdened by her memory, and by a heavy calling to make the world aware of her life and death.
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There were those who believed that from childhood, the spirit spoke to her "with unequaled ingression" more frequently than any composer in history, producing music in every style from baroque to modern. One woman, a musicologist and lifelong friend, was often disturbed over the quality of this music, even to concerns of whether or not its discovery was meant to be, describing it as "exploding with power...and melodic beauty such as was never imagined." Despite many requests for her music before her death, the composer was content to remain in obscurity forever. Only posthumously has the world been introduced to her body of work, latter day history still recovering from the apocalyptic shock caused by the quality of her music.
Oh, what difficulties arise, to describe the color of God's sky to the blind! What do the wild arm wavings of a conductor mean to the deaf! What can endless praising of her music really mean to a disinterested public, who are blind and deaf to the sights and sounds they make! What can Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven and the like--what can these sounds do, but provide only a frustrated glimpse into her grieving mind and spirit!
Mozart - Adagio for Glass
Harmonica, K. 617a
"The Death of Melody" for
piano, arr. Coletti