Poetry is an abstraction of lyrical rhythm and concise thought so that I...
Scumbag Obama
More from the well-tempered Clavier. I may have taken the prelude a little quickly, but I suppose it’s all up to interpretation.
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 549
I wanted to post this to bandcamp, but the upload function hasn’t been working. I may just have to make an album just for the well-tempered clavier. I spent a good time analyzing all of them in 2004-2005, so much so it’s actually kind of difficult to read the music on the page now.
The picture is from the Auckland war memorial museum, New Zealand
Whenever I play Beethoven, I’m reminded of a dialog from Pick of Destiny:
L: That was amazing, you guys changed people’s lives tonight.
K: I know, we were so awesome!
J: Yeah it was awesome, compared to BULLSHIT! But compared to the Greats? To Zeppelin? to the Beatles? To fucking BEETHOVEN?
Reminds me of how I usually feel when I compare my classical tastes to my “popular” tastes.
“Oh yeah, this is a great band. But I mean come on, compared to Beethoven?”
I know, it’s not fair. And now I sound woefully elitist.
This is just the first movement, I know I should probably record all FOUR movements first before sharing.. but I feel like one movement is an accomplishment. This is Beethoven’s 11th piano sonata after all, and what I would mark as the end of Beethoven’s “early period” where you still hear a good deal of Haydn’s influence . He also wrote it at the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th. Which is at least psychologically substantial.
Beethoven is quite remarkable not just in the musical way, but that his style organically morphed with the spirit of his times. To listen to Beethoven’s work chronologically is to listen to the cultural shift of Europe itself, ultimately piercing the pristine high Classical exterior of the 18th century to reveal the emotional restlessness we find in the 19th century.
This is a recording for Dacio, a Peruvian-born artist in the US whom I’ve had the good fortune to correspond with. Turns out we’re both fans of Isaac Albeniz. He’s created several large oil paintings based on his love for science and astronomy and I’ve took it upon myself to contribute to his work, while getting a full size reproduction of one of his paintings.
His website is (here)
I’m also a fan of science and astronomy, yet never had a mind to wrap around the detail of these subjects. I’m also a fan of paintings, yet never had a particular flair for visual arts, so I’m glad I can support both in my own way.
I remember it surprised me when I found out the Asturias AKA Prelude AKA Leyenda was originally a piano piece, not a guitar piece. I heard dozens of guitarists pluck this one when I was an undergraduate music major in Virginia. I personally still like the guitar version more I think, but that’s just me.
Follow along with the music (here) (a bit of self-criticism for me, I know I probably should’ve paid closer to attention to the dynamic markings, I kinda deviated;-)
It is widely understood that the composer’s name is spelled “Tchaikovsky” in roman characters. They assert implicitly that this is the correct way to romanize such a name. This is incorrect. The Cyrillic is spelled Чайковский, beginning with the affricate “Che” or “Cha”. (more here). In the more German romanization there is a T, but there is also an S. So “Tschai” is a little much. 5 consonants in a row. Honestly, let’s be reasonable.
To avoid the issue entirely, I suppose we could transcribe it as Čajkovskij, making no one happy because most of us don’t have Č on our keyboards.
I thought this would be a good selection as my christmas piece and the last piece of my very piano-centered November (even though it’s now December). I’ll be leaving my piano for a while to concentrate on other pursuits.
follow along with the sheet music here
This is one of my favorites. Incidentally, this was in a movie I’ve mentioned before called Sneakers. Except it was a child prodigy playing it, being taught by Mary McDonnell.
Anyway, I think this piece sounds particularly misleading. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Well. It’s difficult enough, but it’s not super difficult.
And it’s short. That’s one thing I love a lot of Chopin’s work for: Brevity.
You can also see Evgeny Kissin perform this here. A notable difference between his performance and mine is that in his return to the A section at the end, he speeds up and blows away the runs with such ease. That and he’s way more graceful, even when he speeds up. Incredible technique really.
