Died of Concert

I'm writing a paper about Mary Lou Williams. She was a jazz pianist. She was performing in the 1930's, through her death in the 70's. She had a fascinating life. She performed from the time she was a very young girl, and toured around with Vaudeville troupes, not realizing the danger she was in, a young black girl in a white man's world (or a black man's, for that matter). She became a very well respected pianist, composer, and arranger. I'm just learning about her; I wish I had started on this paper sooner.

Anyway, one of my methods in doing research is just to open up my book and type everything that looks meaningful, and then I can cut and paste whatever is useful to me later as I'm going along, so I read as I type. I was reading about the end of her life. I guess she died of cancer. I'm typing along, and find my fingers saying, "she died of concert." Talk about a Freudian slip. I hope I don't die of concert. Or cancer, for that matter. LOL.

Haydn

My Haydn sonata movement is MEMORIZED! Sort of. I still have to glance up once in awhile. I feel like I've accomplished a lot in a little time, though. Even though the health care bill passed (and wouldn't you know it, but TODAY I got a notice from one of my providers that their acceptance level of our plan has changed), at least I still have Haydn's "Great E Flat Sonata." Can you hear the Gershwin tune, "Oh, no, they can't take that away from me"?

Health Care

I've been trying to decide what emergency procedures I could have performed before the health care vote tomorrow.

Feeling Restless

Today I have the late winter blues. It was a lovely sunny day, but I feel restless. I always get feeling a bit like I've lost my mind in March. I have had it with the winter, and am looking forward to summer. And to the semester ending. And nice weather. I'm exhausted. I had no school and no lessons today, and I still feel crazy out of my mind for no reason. It's the spring crazies. I get them every year.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The good news is, El Pelele is memorized, and I've learned the Presto movement of Haydn's "Great" E Flat sonata. The bad news is, I bruised my thumb practicing incorrectly. Have you ever bruised your fingers practicing? I've never heard of this. It crossed my mind that maybe I have diabetes and my thumb is going to fall off. I don't think that's the case, though. I think what happened was that last week I was practicing on the piano in my teacher's studio, which is a fairly new Steinway, so it's beautiful, but a little bit stiff and dull, so I was working extra hard to make it ring. I think I was pounding, because now I have a bruise on the side of the knuckle of my thumb. How embarrassing. Apparently I don't know how to play the piano. I spend all this time telling my students to play on the tips of 1 & 5, and saying, "Up, up, up!" to my students, but apparently I'm playing "down, down, down". I need to learn how to go "up, up, up"! I don't think I can just quit practicing while my thumb heals, so I've been practicing really carefully today, up on the tip of my thumb. Duh.

After I get the Presto movement memorized, I think I'll work on learning all my other recital music, and wait on memorizing anything new till I can play it all.

Graduate Recital Program

I've been struggling over what to play on my graduate recital since the first week of my first semester, and I have finally made some decisions! Here it is, folks:

Bach: Toccata in G minor

Haydn: Sonata No. 62 in E flat, Hob. XVI/52
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Presto

Intermission

Rave:" Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Granados: Goyescas
Quejas o lamaja y el ruisenor (The Maiden and the Nightingale)
El pelele (Straw Man)

Chopin: Ballade No. 4

Encore:
Lu Wen-Cheng: Ping hu qiu yue (Autumn Moon on a Calm Lake)

Each one of these pieces has a specific purpose in my repertoire, and I really like each one. I have listened to hundreds of hours of music, trying to select the very best examples of each composer's writing, and I feel really good about this program, collectively as well as individually. What a relief to have all the pieces selected! Now I just have to learn it all! So far, I have learned the Chopin Ballade and Granados' El pelele. I have my work cut out for me!

Kimberlee sent me a message last week, letting me know that the Goyescas were premiered on 3/11/1911. The hundredth anniversary of their premier will be on 3/11/2011. Doesn't that sound like an ideal date to hold my recital? Save that date! Be there or be square!

You Are Enough!

Events of today have left me feeling sad for my friends who are brooding musicians. I don't think that I am quite like that in personality. I think I am much more egotistical than these people who get depressed over music. I usually feel pretty good about things. But I have friends who don't. I have friends who look at their lives and feel like they haven't done enough. They don't play well enough, they haven't made enough recordings, they don't give enough performances, they will never "make it", etc. To which I must ask, WHEN ARE YOU EVER ENOUGH? Most of us will get a good 80 years to achieve what we want to achieve. We pretty much get to do whatever we want in our 80 years. If you didn't make enough recordings or sign with Naxos, then there must have been something else you wanted more than that, because you did something else instead. I understand that our circumstances are not all equal, our opportunities are varied, but still, priorities, people! If you're not happy where you are today, what are you doing to get yourself to where you want to be? And if you have done all you can do, sit back and realize, "I am enough!" I hope I can continue to act with purpose, achieving my goals. I hope I can be sympathetic to those friends of mine who will never be enough. I hope at some point they will realize that they are enough.

I'm Channeling Glenn Gould

Today I was in the library looking for books about female jazz pianists, and who should I find staring at me out of the stacks but Glenn Gould himself! There is a coffee-table-style book called "Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures" put out by Doubleday Canada. And GUESS WHAT??? It has endpapers with copies of his scores, and he has written ALL OVER THEM!!! I love you, Glenn Gould. I wish you had a happier more well-adjusted psyche, but I'm very grateful for the legacy you left to us listeners. Of course, Scott is the perfect man for me, and I'm the luckiest girl in the whole wide world to be his wife, but I wish I could have had a couple of dates with Glenn, back in the day, when he played in Russia.