sunday morning nerd talk

 

I listened to this music as I blogged this morning. I think it’s amazing.

 

My ring finger on my right hand locked up yesterday in my second rehearsal session at the organ. I say rehearsal, but I did a lot of playing, that is, not rehearsing pieces but playing through them for the fun of it. This morning it seems okay. I had hoped that if I lived through my old age, my hands would allow me to continue to play keyboard. This is often the case with keyboard players as opposed to instruments where need your mouth and teeth for embouchures like trumpet (which I played for a while).

I am watching my hands age. But yesterday was the first time I felt as though I was impeded from playing. Bummer.

I do a lot of playing in the course of a day. Often at the organ my work is directed at upcoming performances at church. But it is such fun to play through pieces on the Pasi. Yesterday I returned to the Bach organ trio sonatas. I have been falling out of love with them even as I learned them. I have learned and performed many of them. They are basic organ literature. But on a crappy organ they seemed to me to be a bit esoteric and not as attractive as much of Bach’s other organ pieces.

But yesterday the E flat came to life on the Pasi. What fun! I can see how what I call “organistas” come to being. I find myself drawn to music that I suspect might have limited appeal to the average listener. This “average listener” is important to me, because that’s also how I see myself. But at the same time I am drawn into nerdy music stuff like history, musicology, historical interpretation.

It’s ironic that I have been thinking so much about French classical music. It doesn’t have the surface profundity of German Baroque. In fact, it is often playful especially in the harpsichord stuff. But at the same time, to perform it requires special attention to historical understandings of how it was played when it was composed.

Bach and his German contemporaries were highly interested and influenced in what was happening musically in other countries. Bach owned copies of music by many French composers. But interestingly we don’t know how he performed them. Neither are we sure how to interpret Bach’s own music when it shows obvious French influences.

I go back and forth about interpreting some of Bach’s music the way I understand where to buy valium in thailand French Baroque to be played. This is mostly about playing the straight rhythms differently than written. My teacher, Ray Ferguson, taught me many French Classical pieces on harpsichord and organ. It helps to return, as I did yesterday, to some of these pieces. Ray had a tendency to mark my music. So I see in his handwriting his suggestions about unequal playing of straight notes, fingers, added ornaments and slides. It is delightful.

Yesterday I spent some time with an Offertoire from Couperin’s Mass for the Parishes. It is a long piece. Too long for church. But Ray and worked over it thoroughly. I’m not sure if I performed it in an undergrad recital. But I’m sure I played it for class. I do like the music. And it sounds cool on the Pasi.

I actually started listening to Kyung-Wha Chung’s Decca recording of the Bach on vinyl this morning, but it started skipping so I looked up the piece on YouTube. After listening to Hilary Hahn’s version, I found Chung’s on YouTube. Here’s the first movement, which I think she plays marvelously.

At the G-20, Beethoven is played and the world listened (maybe) – LA Times

Wow. I missed spending time with Beethoven’s piano sonatas recently on vacation. Since coming home I find myself sitting down and playing through movements. It seems that the only one who convinced the author of this piece they were interested in the music was Macron from France who happens to be a classical pianists.

A Sicilian Photographer of the Mafia and Her ‘Archive of Blood’ – The New York Times

This is a great read. I picture a demonstrative older woman who is a character, but also has a lot to say both in her words and her pictures. I like it that she says she didn’t think of what she did as “art,” and at the same time cites one of my favorites, Diane Arbus, as an influence.

Letizia Battaglia, una delle fotografe italiane più famose nel mondo ...

Why this Ohio sheriff refuses to let his deputies carry Narcan to reverse overdoses – Chicago Tribune

 This epidemic is madness. This is not the first article I have read about ER people routinely reviving people from opioid over dose.

 DuckDuckGo

You probably know about this search engine. At the cabin I chatted with Tony (Ben’s husband) about security and cyber geek stuff. He is a programmer and it’s interesting to hear him talk. I also put Reddit on my tablet. Tony uses it a lot. I seem to use it a bit after I see him.

2 thoughts on “sunday morning nerd talk

  1. I saw the article about the authorities not carrying the overdose counter active. Ignorance is apparently blissful for some and an ego feeder for others. The top cop in that article seems to think he knows everything about addiction because his officers see it on a daily basis….from a police/authority standpoint. Maybe he should access local professionals or scholars educated and experienced in the issue so he can best serve the public. Or maybe I should mind my own business considering it’s (their state/local political/addiction issue) not in my immediate environment. =^)

    Thanks for the DVD (I almost typed video!)

    David J

    1. Thanks for commenting. Like I said in my blog, I have read about other epidemic situations, but in the other case I read about, the health care workers were more resigned to reviving people. This article does mention fatigue (burnout) on an ongoing mess. It certainly is a mess.

      I’m glad you got the DVD. I love you!

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