Daniel Mergler

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

I have devoted my life to teaching the piano. Music has helped me transcend the trivialities and complexities of daily life and to be lifted by its magnificence and passion beyond daily strife. Music is God's greatest gift. It has taught me to sing the song of my soul, to discover my true self and to write poetry about music. It prevents the routine of life from dulling my sensibilities and is an antidote to the mystery of boredom. The great composers speak, with certainty, of infinite beauty of life and how great it is to be alive.

The Song of the Soul

If I could trace a melody of Mozart to its source,
I'm sure that I would find my own soul.
Of what Utopia does Mozart speak?
He turns me into a dreamer of golden dreams
That reach out to the very universe itself,
Joining my heart with the very stars,
Bringing ecstasy to my senses,
Blinding my eyes to the manifold tragedy of life.
For what is the darker side of life
Compared to the song of Mozart's soul?
Vital, like the very breath of life itself,
He triumphs over sadness and despair.
Mozart helps me see a future
Touched by beauty and perfection,
Unlimited in pure potential,
The dream of music that tears, however bitter,
Can never wash away . . .
I listen to Mozart's melody as I never listened before,
And I feel my own soul sing
As it never has sung before.

Chopin's Nocturne

And when the Chopin Nocturne ends
And the last note says: "Goodbye" . . .
Where does the golden beauty go?
Does it really ever die?

And when the pianist lifts his hands
And the music is no more,
Do others hear the afterglow
Of what was heard before?

If the soul thirsts after beauty
And beauty flies away,
There must be someone, somewhere,
Who hears the music play.

Can such beauty disappear,
Leave nothing in its wake,
Except the golden meaning
In the heart it must forsake?

It must be there, among the stars,
In some distant galaxy,
Where beauty such as Chopin's
Lives on, forever free . . .