This polyptych consists of six separate carved panels in a salvaged window. Overall size is approximately 36 by 20 inches. The panels are as always chip-carved in basswood, and the window frame painted with an acrylic furniture paint.

The carving celebrates spring, of course. But it also represents the Annunciation, celebrated nine months before Christmas on March 25, when the angel Gabriel announced the Incarnation to Mary: that she would become the mother of Christ.

The music is from Bach's Cantata No. 1, “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern,” composed for the Annunciation in 1725. The text (“How brightly shines the morning star”) is now more associated with Christmas. But the hymn from which it came, written in 1599 by Philipp Nicolai, pointed listeners to the eternal joys of heaven in a time of plague, and as the “morning star” was a metaphor for the Messiah, it became associated with the Annunciation. Falling as it does in Lent, the Annunciation was the only festival in a span of six weeks for which Bach composed music, and the cantata bursts forth out of that silence the way spring bursts forth from an icy winter.

The portion I excerpted for the carving begins just as the sopranos begin singing the opening line, slowly, and continues as the other parts repeat it in interweaving lines underneath. The original score used variably placed C clefs for the three higher voice parts, to keep the notes as much as possible on the staff, and I followed that practice for the same reason. The snippet of music suspended from the garlands of bell flowers comes from the first violin part, and is sung by the finch hanging from the staff. Try whistling it and you may wonder, as I did, if Bach actually had birdsong in mind. (Look carefully and you'll see that the finch is a little too excited and comes in a beat early.) Five of the other six birds appear to be singing the choral parts—the cardinal at upper left seems determined to sing soprano while the robin at lower right tentatively croaks out the bass.

The seventh bird, landing in the upper left corner, carries a spray of lilies. In the later Italian Renaissance it became common to portray Gabriel approaching Mary with a bouquet of Madonna lilies, and so this little bluebird is playing the part of the angel. The other flowers are also modeled on flowers that have been associated with Mary: marigold, iris, rose (here a climbing wild version), bell flowers, columbine, and even the lowly dandelion.

So these six panels represent the Annunciation. But it's not merely an accident of the calendar that the Annunciation is celebrated at the Equinox, and so they also celebrate spring, when the light returns and flowers bloom and birds sing more brightly. Blessings on the new year.