The new piano trio music I ordered arrived in time for our rehearsal yesterday. We began with reading the Tchaikovsky.
One of my goals was to find music that would interest us and not be too big a project to learn or even play through.
The Tchaikovsky turned out to be a bit bigger work that I was expecting. But I think the three of us found it reward to read through even at about half tempo. The violinist especially seemed taken with it.
We played through about half of the first movement before we found a place to stop. We said we would bite off that much of it to rehearse.
Then we read through the Frank Bridge Miniatures which were much more sightreadable. Unfortunately they also seemed very dated. Early 20th century English salon music.
That’s as far as got. I divided up the parts for the rest of the pieces I purchased so that we could have them. I also asked the players to check out the Bernstein when they had time.
It looks a bit harder but still I’m very interested in it myself.
I confessed to my co-players that I didn’t come naturally to romantic music. I began more interested in baroque and contemporary.
They also were surprised when I confessed that I have had only two years of real piano training.
I told them the story of working at First Pres in downtown Detroit. It was an older church with wonderful facilities that were aging. At this church there was a large room where musical performances were given. In the room, was a nine foot Steinway. I gave piano recitals on it in which I began to perform some Brahms. It was the reassurance of the Christian Ed director at this church (who herself was a trained organist) that my Brahms performance was credible that led me to explore the romantics more.
Weirdly enough this year I have been looking at Tchaikovsky a bit anyway. So I guess I’m pretty enthusiastic about learning the piano trio.
Paul Fussell, Literary Scholar and Critic, Is Dead at 88 – NYTimes.com
I was reading this obit as I treadmilled and listened to nostalgic rock and roll (INX, Robert Palmer, Men at Work, The Cars, The B-52s, Dee-lite). Quote:
Paul Fussell had “a gift for readable prose, a willingness to offend and, as many critics noted, a whiff of snobbery to subjects like class, clothing, the dumbing down of American culture and the literature of travel.
When I read this about Paul Fussell I decided I wanted to look at his writing.
His memoir was sitting on the shelf at the library. I’m on page 76 enjoying his irony and erudition and of course his anti-war stuff.
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‘I Was There’: On Kurt Vonnegut | The Nation
Review of Vonnegut’s opus by William Deresiewicz.
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I like to get my information from a wide array of sources with differing points of view. These are two sites that I stumbled across recently that seem to be different voices for the same point of view, definitely anti-liberal. I have them bookmarked to check.
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Painting of Zuma Draws Attacks in South Africa – NYTimes.com
South Africa seems to be having a problem with freedom of speech lately. Art in the news.
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Judges Dismiss Challenge to a Deal With Native Americans – NYTimes.com
The whole native american deally is so deeply disturbing and depressing to me.
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Eugene Polley, Inventor of the Wireless TV Remote, Dies at 96 – NYTimes.com
The clicker guy died.
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Father Doesn’t Know Best – NYTimes.com
I think Maureen Dowd is getting more factual and reportorial. I found the Gallup morality stuff very interesting.
Gallup tested the morality of 18 issues, and birth control came out on top as the most acceptable, beating divorce, which garnered 67 percent approval, and “buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur,” which got a 60 percent thumbs-up (more from Republicans, naturally, than Democrats).
Polygamy, cloning humans and having an affair took the most morally offensive spots on the list.
“Gay or lesbian relations” tied “having a baby outside of marriage,” with 54 percent approving. That’s in the middle of the list, above a 38 percent score for abortion and below a 59 percent score for “sex between an unmarried man and woman.”
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