New Piano Pieces, One Month In

The first month of learning new pieces is like cutting through a jungle with a dull machete.  In this case, the jungle is the formidable array of unfamiliar notes staring at me from the page.  The dull machete is, of course, my brain.  Going from a pianist that can actually play a full program reasonably well to a stumbling and bumbling beginner is always a humbling experience.  Since I limit myself to two hours a day of practice, time is always in critical shortage at the beginning.  Take my first hour: 7 short pieces that have only 50 minutes total time (5 minutes of each hour is used for technical warmup).  Divided evenly that is 7 minutes per piece. Not bad, you say.  Try it some time.  With 14 pages to learn, that's now down to 31/2 minutes per page.

 

Surprisingly, after one month, things begin to slowly fall together.  It will be another 6-8 weeks before I can really play any of them well and then begin to memorize them (another entire basket of troubles).  My program will open with two Scarlatti sonatas, one of which I have learned a very long time ago.  Neither piece is difficult, but they are oh so fine!  I love Scarlatti and have been ignoring his music of late.  Next come five pieces by Couperin, all new to me.

 

My second half is still not fully settled.  Currently I am working on three preludes Op 11 by Scriabin, all new to me.  Then I am reviving a favourite set by Bartok, his 6 Roumanian Folk Dances.  The last two are difficult and must be played at a furious tempo, but having learned them many years ago will help with the muscle memory motions.  Currently those 9 pieces take up my entire second hour of practice.  I'm hoping there will soon be room to add in another Philip Glass Etude, as well as a previously learned Debussy Prelude (to be determined).  We will see where I am in another month.

 

In further piano news, Deb has been painstakingly attempting to rescue all my previous recordings.  From 1994 to about 1999 I routinely recorded all my programs, and had them copied to cassettes at Aldon Studio in Windsor.  Those tapes are seriously degrading, and Deb is using software to try and save at least some of the pieces.  If she is able to do that I will try and post them somewhere on line, perhaps here on a separate music blog.

 

In film watching news we managed to last through ten episodes of a 2019 Japanese TV show called The Real Thing.  Due to the weakness and uncertainty of the two main characters the show can be very frustrating to watch most of the time.  A young man saves a young woman's life at a train crossing, and from then on their lives keep crossing and causing interference.  Though things more or less work out okay in the end, so many bad decisions by the characters are being made throughout the series that one wonders just how the writers figured that a happy ending could actually work.  It's difficult for Westerners to deal with Japanese ways of thinking, and this series highlights this fact.  If you enjoy watching a series that frustrates you, I can recommend this one.

 

The series leaves Mubi May 31st. 

 

 

Mifune is a Danish/Swedish film from 1999.  Here is the capsule from Criterion:

 

Directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen • 1999 • Denmark, Sweden

Starring Iben Hjejle, Anders W. Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt

The third film made in accordance with the Dogme 95 movement’s so-called “vows of chastity” is an offbeat, darkly comic romance in which Kresten (Anders W. Berthelsen), a successful, newly married businessman in Copenhagen, finds his life turned upside down after his father dies and he must return to his rural hometown to help care for his childlike, UFO-obsessed brother (Jesper Asholt). As he struggles to adjust to the not-so-simple-life in the country, a budding relationship with his new housekeeper (Iben Hjejle), who is actually a call girl on the run, forces Kresten to reexamine everything. 

The film is a brilliant look at a city boy returning home to the farm where he grew up.  When he was young he found his mother hanging from a tree.  Since then, and as his father aged and cared for his simple-minded brother, the farm and house gradually fell apart.  He wants to keep his family a secret from his wife.  The scene of their wedding night together is one of the funniest sex episodes I have ever seen on film.  From there on the marriage quickly runs downhill.  When the wife pays a surprise visit to the farm, she stays about 30 seconds before deciding to get a divorce.  The highlight of the film is the simple-minded brother, brilliantly acted by Jesper Asholt.  He steals virtually every scene he is in.  A lot of screwball material is inserted at times, but the picture is best in its quieter moments.  It won a Silver Bear in Berlin.

 

Leaving Criterion May 31st. 

 

Lastly comes Witches, a 2024 documentary by Elizabeth Sankey.  Using interviews with women who had suffered from post-partum mental health issues, as well as relating her own harrowing experiences after giving birth to her son, the film offers a new take on the burning and hanging of witches over the past 5 centuries.  With its generous use of clips from Hollywood and other films showing women with mental health issues, a strong case is made for exploring an issue which most women never talk about, to their detriment.  Broken into five chapters, the film has hair raising moments when the women reveal their actual feelings at the time.  They tell their stories through tears, some of them expressing feelings on camera that they have never shared before with anyone.  This is a film that should be required viewing for all family and ER doctors, not to mention pregnant women.  Harrowing and fascinating, and at times almost unbelievable, the film should create a lot of discussion and hopefully some healing.  Required viewing.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

May reading summary coming this weekend!  

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Piano Pieces--Week 9

I am starting to get the hang of some of my pieces for piano solo.  It has been a long time since I have learned a Bach Prelude and Fugue, and I did not choose a particularly easy one.  Still, it's nice being at a level where I can literally choose any of the 48 I want, and then learn it.  The G Minor pair from Book One is a serious work, especially the 4-part fugue, being very sombre.  It seems to fit well with our dark, dreary, and wet spring.  We have had only one warm day so far, in the 80s.  Not complaining about that, but certainly it could dry out enough for the farmers to plant.  Soon they will be one month overdue.  Anyhoo, I can play the prelude at a somewhat satisfactory level, and the fugue is nearly there,

Many of the pieces I have selected are either in G Minor or Bb Major, a key signature with two flats.  I will open the program with Couperin's "Mysterious Barricades," which is Bb.  Next comes the darker prelude and fugue.  After that comes yet another major work, Haydn Sonata L2 in Bb major.  The first movement of this great piece is so optimistic and and happy, a feature of Haydn that I always find irresistible.  You cannot play this piece in a grumpy mood--it just doesn't work.  It is a fairly long 1st movement, with a number of charming and rhythmically challenging themes.  However, the 2nd movement (in G Minor) takes one into a totally different world of sadness and a much darker beauty.  I can now play the first two movements, sort of.  I just started work on the third movement, a minuet and trio.  The minuet is in Bb major, but the trio is written in the very far flung key of Bb Minor.  It is rhythmically very tricky, and very catchy, too.  I should be able to play it (sort of) in a week or two, as it is the easiest of the 3 movements.

After intermission comes the Schubert Impromptu in C Minor, with three flats.  It is an endless variation on a theme, and a piece not easily forgotten once heard.  It was one of the earliest piano pieces I fell in love with, and it has been on my bucket list for most of my life.  It is one of two very difficult pieces on my program, and will take up the largest block of my practice time.  I am currently all the way through it, and parts of it are sounding not too bad.  After the Schubert comes another piece that has been on my bucket list nearly forever.  The Allegro Barbaro by Bela Bartok is more like an avalanche than a piece of music.  It is the closest I will ever get to undertaking a ride along with Attila and his Huns, as they tear across the country ravaging villages.  Despite its extreme difficulties, it is short, and I can (sort of) play it at a reduced tempo.  Getting it up to proper speed is the main challenge, in addition to not making oneself deaf from practicing it.

Lastly comes a gentle, rhythmic Brahms waltz, back in the key of Bb major.  It is badly needed after hearing the Bartok.  I can play it, but still very slowly.

I am almost ready to begin memorizing some of the pieces, including the Bach prelude and Haydn 1st movement.  The Bartok needs to be memorized, too, as I really need to look at my hands for this one, and not the musical page. 

Turning now back to cinema and the Criterion Channel, my choice for this week was another Bulldog Drummond film.  B. D. Escapes is from 1937, and the movie was based on a play written by Sapper.  This time it is Ray Milland who gives his first and last appearance as the inimitable Captain Drummond.

The Drummond films are short, but a lot happens in them!  This one is filled with foggy nights, marshes, and creaky old houses.  Milland is pretty good as the hero, grinning a lot and not taking things too seriously.  Phyllis, played by Heather Angel, is not your typical 30s heroine.  She is strong, smart, and indomitable.  No wonder Drummond falls for her--they are two of a kind!  In later films a lot of humour is built upon their wedding, which never gets to happen because of new cases breaking out right at the crucial moment, sometimes when they are actually at the altar.  In this film, Drummond's cohort, Algie, is about to become a father.  However, Drummond will not let him stay at the hospital and worry in peace.  He drags him into the adventure, providing some of the humour.  A third companion is the butler, who also provides a lot of the humour.

It's Deb's choice next, and then she is in charge of this weekend's film festival.  Once every four weeks we watch a related series of films.  Last month I chose the Medici epic by Rossellini.  As Deb's surgery is on Friday, our festival may not happen till Sunday.  Probably some light comedy is in store.

Mapman Mike

April Showers

Despite all the rain we have had lately, I have had two clear nights since Friday!  I managed to log just over 35 galaxies in that time, a pretty amazing feat.  Many were grouped, with a group of seven and a group of six helping to speed things up.  It certainly gives on a unique perspective on life, the universe, and everything.

This is a triple medical appointment week for Deb.  Today she saw Dr. McCaffrey again, following up on last week's MRI.  She is booked for surgery on May 31st, with recovery expected to take 6 months.  Ouch!  No travelling for us for awhile.  Tomorrow she sees her brand new family doctor, just to get things rolling with him.  And on Thursday is her RA infusion.  A busy week without doing very much.

The grass got cut yesterday, but it was driving the tractor through a rice paddy.  Water is everywhere, and the fields are swamped.  And we have not put away our winter jackets yet, either.  When I left the observatory last night around midnight, it was 39 F.  Just as cold this morning, too.  It rained today, and will continue to do so until at least Thursday.  Pretty insane.

Deb's 2nd film selection from the Criterion Channel (and our 4th so far) was from 1947, a fully restored technicolour extravaganza directed by Alexander Korda.  Based on "An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde, it was difficult to concentrate on the words, as the visuals simply swept us away!  Fully remastered, this seemed as much an LSD trip than a movie.  Stunning costumes in even more stunning colours, outrageous and over sized hats, ballrooms, bedrooms, outdoor promenades--this is a film to see, if not to hear.  Of course the script is wonderful and filled with quotable quotes by the dozen, and Michael Wilding steals every scene he is in with his good grace and winning smile (and fabulous wardrobe).  Great stuff!

I have been slogging away at my new pieces for just over a month now.  I can barely play the Bach Prelude; I can't manage the 4-part fugue at all yet.  I am working only on the the first movement of the Haydn Sonata in Bb, leaving the other two parts until I can play the first well enough.  The Schubert Impromtu is 11 pages long, and I am slowly getting my hands around the first 9 pages.   The Bartok Allegro Barbaro is a piece like no other, and I have always wanted to learn it.  Really really fun!  It is as close as I will ever get to riding with a conquering barbarian horde!   After that loud and very energetic piece, I will finish things off with a lovely waltz by Brahms.

Tomorrow night is Beltane, and we will enjoy our final wood fire of the season.  We will also undertake to watch my next film choice, a movie I saw only once maybe 35 years ago or more in Detroit, and have always wanted to see again.  What is it?  Tune in to my next blog entry and you will find out.  When time permits, I will continue with my DIA art theme, too.  For now, I still have a lot of astronomy notes to write up.

Mapman Mike

Half-Listening to Bartok's Music: The One-Ear Approach

Friday evening was our second concert of the new season.  Held at Wayne State University, it was an all-Bartok program that went a long way to cleaning out my head of music rooted in the traditional tonic-dominant relationship.  The concert opened with a short talk on Bartok's music, and then was followed by the brief but very intense 3-movement Sonata for Piano.  This is a wickedly difficult piece to perform, with big chords, large leaps, and rhythms that almost defy human ability to interpret from the printed score and play in time.  Of course just as the music was about to start, my hearing aid battery died.  I forgot to bring a spare battery.  It has a music setting which isn't too bad for listening and practicing, but last night I had only one ear to hear with.  Still sounded pretty amazing.

After a very short intermission to set up the stage came the master's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.  Two percussion players use 11 different instruments during the piece, which is essentially a quartet.  Again it is in three movements, and follows traditional classic forms to a large extent.  This is vibrant and very exciting music to listen to, but very difficult to perform.  A fine job was done by all concerned!  I used to play a lot of Bartok, and have one of his big pieces scheduled for the concert after my upcoming one.  Meanwhile, several of the astronomy pieces I have been playing recently by Alexina Louie are heavily influenced by Bartok, as well as Debussy.  It was interesting to hear to hear the speaker last night tell how much Debussy's harmony influenced Bartok.

It was a cold a rainy night in Detroit, but restaurants were crowded and there was a lot going on in the big city.  We had dinner beforehand nearby, and were home by 10 pm.  Concert #3 for us is next Friday night here in Windsor, as my instructor Philip Adamson performs four more Beethoven Sonatas, his fourth concert in his complete cycle of the 32 sonatas.  I am very excited!  Sometime next week I will bother him again for a few lessons on my up and coming repertoire.  My practicing has gone much better this past week, and I am now considerably beyond where I was with the pieces before the trip to New Mexico.

Speaking of that trip, I am finishing up my written journal, and hope to start on the website version early next week.  Stay tuned for news of that.  In film news, one of Deb's short films took first prize at a festival in Venice!  She is currently working on her Youtube channel.