Since the beginning of this semester I have realized a ton of new epiphanies, they have been dropping on my head like snowflakes. <Warning tangent alert> It is snowing, I wore my birki sandals the past two days, nothing like global warming... Thank goodness its snowing </end of tangent> Like most students starting the semester I have been challenged by the horrid effects of not focusing. At the same time when I fall into focus there is such brilliance and clarity that I am retaining information like never before. Amazing. If only I had more time for these quasi-euphoric experiences of academic masochism. I have bonded once again with my violin (piano is still there and roaring, and i am juggling the two). Oh my dear little German Hopf how you are in need of a tune up and some love; a new bow too but lucky enough my wonderful Jennie is letting me borrow a fabulous one. I am playing in the UMF orchestra once again and now I have to say playing the Mozart Piano Concert 23 is absolutely undeniably incredible. The first movement is like eating the best food or wine in the world or trotting around Venice or watching one of the best Sunsets of the summer, the second movement is like witnessing the eyes roll back into the head of someone who is struck by unrequited love and at the same time had a knife plunged and turned into their heart. What odd images music evokes... Sorry ol' 250yr old chap, but Mozart you slacked on the third movement. Maybe it will catch my ears differently as time progresses. It is one of those works I grew up listening to about 50,000 times. My mum must have had a tape or cd with the 21st and the 23 piano concertos on it. Every weekend as a child it would be on repeat all day I swear, both are imprinted in my brain like ABC, 123, CAT, DOG. She would play the 21st more than the 23 but nonetheless they are branded. Thanks Mom, you might not be a musician but you know how to make an impression on a kid. That and the violin one christmas. (okay now its getting sappy) Oh, and after further realization I take back my comments from Music Seminar last semester calling Mozart just another Joe, such mindlessness.
I am currently embarking on a little journey called my life. NO REALLY! Another epiphany I had was that by golly I am living the life that in the first two years of my college career I would have killed someone for. A week from friday (2/10 @ 7:30 Nordica Auditorium UMF) I join my distinguished professor and colleague in music history crime (okay maybe the former is more valid) concert pianist Steven Pane in concert. He is playing Ives - Three Page Sonata Janacek - From the Streets and Scriabin - Fifth Sonata and i will present the music history and analysis of the pieces as a good little quasi-musicologist would, all technological and such. All the research I have been doing since June is coming to its deceptive cadence. I say this because Scriabin has really gotten my little research toe caught in a big 'want to write on everything' vice.... OHH dear
Scared? of the Concert/presenation. Um, sure to be honest I think my blood pressure goes up immensely just writing and finishing the powerpoint. EH. And it shouldn't because I am becoming incredibly more comfortable in front of classes, groups, etc either playing or presenting. I should follow dear Ives and just "knock the mollycoddles out" of me.
Presently as I sit here I have about 1/3 of the presentation done. Into the night I hope for 2/3rd and into the afternoon tomorrow I hope for the happy whole. I might be exaggerating with that but by golly I am driven, well driven to the point of mere limits of Meg but oh "these are the days my friends, these are the days" HA! Someday I will look back and say, I only wish... Oh, but I shouldn't say that life should be more adventurous than the limitations of present ideas.
And I would also like to mention my little Electro-Acoustic project and it's progress. I have three songs, two are a part of the four2minutes work. SA-5 is a wonderful look at summer, oh sun, shorts, swimming, and the smell of grass I miss you dearly. After I complete four2minutes I will attempt the Italian Catalogs possibly 5 works. This is the work I have been meaning to do since June. Then I will release my first album of EA works called Meggleswerks, under the name of Quilisma including all of the above.
No, I haven't been drinking.
My mother asked me on the phone the other day "Are you happy" and I replied: "Of all the work I do and all the headaches it gives me, all the stress there is nothing but a feeling of accomplishment in the end. Yes, I guess I am happy."
I guess that sums up this part of my life.
