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I just had one of those "piano moments."
Topic Started: Oct 12 2006, 09:51 AM (242 Views)
George K
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Finally
Unexpected early day at work. Got home about 11:30, and I wasted killed spent some time here, and then went to the piano to brush and polish some things and keep them relatively fresh. After the carppy 14 hour day I had yesterday, I deserved it.

So, I sat down any played some Poulenc (Nocturne #8 and Novelette #1) and things were going really really well, even on my carppy piano. Then I opened the WTC. Did the 1st 2 preludes and fugues, and then I turned to the G minor prelude and fugue.

Then it happened. About 10 measures into the prelude, everything was right. I was getting the mirrored voices right, the (out of tune) piano was co-operating, and suddenly, I got a chill up my back. Bach's music was so moving, so emotional, so complex. I was so moved. The same thing happened with the fugue. I had to stop, lest I ruin the moment with something that falls apart.

I had to share.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
I love when music really happens! :thumb:

It's magical.
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
I love it. For me, it's more often a "soprano moment" than a piano moment...but I do well sometimes. Rather than stopping, I tend to cancel everything else and wallow in it as long as I can. When you're in perfect voice, you don't dare stop. Pianissimi spin for days...you can pierce through dry wall with a high note, runs and trills flow easily like the water in a babbling brook. Dinners don't get made, laundry gets put on hold, I don't answer the phone, it's tooooooooo good to stop. Then the next day, I wake up, begin to warm up and it's the vocal equivalent of climbing Mt Everest and I feel very frail and human.
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OperaTenor
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Pisa-Carp
"Tenor moment" here.

:thumb:



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Dave Spelvin
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Fulla-Carp
One of the best feelings in the world. To me, that's the closest to evidence of God we're liable to get. I've been working at Liszt's transcription of the Tristan & Isolde Love Death, and I find that the tingles come regularly.
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apple
one of the angels
i like piano hours
it behooves me to behold
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TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
For me it's a Baratone and Guitar moment.
Great George. Music is truly wonderful.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
I miss my piano at home.. sniff... sniff.

Great story, George. May you have many, many more!.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Cathys
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Senior Carp
Mikhailoh
Oct 12 2006, 02:19 PM
I miss my piano at home.. sniff... sniff.

Great story, George. May you have many, many more!.

Mik - I feel the same way :( . Missing my piano big time.

George I love those times for me they are pretty rare

Cathy
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
Awesome George!

___.___
(_]===*
o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Klotz
Middle Aged Carp
George K
Oct 12 2006, 07:51 PM
Bach's music was so moving, so emotional, so complex. I was so moved.

I played some Czerny today , on my "always in tune" digital. Great moment. I couldn't hear the phone, the door bell , the dog barking, the meows of the five (or six) cats. Sennheiser... the best closed headphones. Czerny...the most deep and profound moving music.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
I have many of those piano moments -- just never when my teacher is nearby....
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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David Burton
Senior Carp
Yes George, me too, I have known and played good old #10 for a long time.
I usually start the prelude really slow so that when the break comes to double time it may sound rabid, intense, unrestrained. Then the mysteriously hauntingly brief fugue, an invention really, can carry one completely away. It has me from time to time. Maybe there’s nothing deeper than Bach. But I do admire a lot that you play Francis Poulenc, such an underrated composer, as many of the French are; Camille Saint-Saëns, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Paul Dukas and Vincent D’Indy to neame just a few.
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CrashTest
Pisa-Carp
Great story!

If you practice a lot and reach a certain level of understanding of the music, every note you play in a great work is like that!
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George K
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Finally
Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I played for an hour this evening, and the moment was gone. But, I had it for a while, and I reveled in it. I was alone in the house, and it was like heaven must be.

David:
Poulenc is like a French gem. Quirky, melodic and frequently haunting. I love the first nocturne, though I can't play it for crap. The eighth is certainly easy enough. However, the 1st novelette has those "look how neat I changed keys" shivver moments, if you know what I mean.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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David Burton
Senior Carp
George K
 
Poulenc is like a French gem. Quirky, melodic and frequently haunting. I love the first nocturne, though I can't play it for crap. The eighth is certainly easy enough. However, the 1st novelette has those "look how neat I changed keys" shivver moments, if you know what I mean.

Thanks, George. At Newport in 2005 they featured Poulenc and Prokofief, composers one usually doesn't get to hear enough of. Most of the Prokofief was surprisingly well performed, but the Poulenc was spectacular. I recall one performance in Ochre Court's great performance space of a set of his songs for a baritone tenor and piano to poems by Baudelaire and maybe someone else. The singer had a particular training that enabled him to render the French with precision while being able to infuse the phrases with changes in his voice, which oddly matched the meanings of the words perfectly. I almost burst into tears; some of it was so beautiful.

I have recently re-established contact, through e-mail, with my college advisor, a professor who I had not been in contact with for many years. He wasn't a musician, but he was always very much interested in music and in particular seemed very interested in the idea of putting music to words in such a way that the music conveyed how the words were to be intended. And it is sort of his belief that in song, opera, masses, etc. some of the greatest music exists precisely because of the bond between the notes and the words and the meaning each carried into the mix. He is particularly fond of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in operatic roles. He doesn't seem to have any preferences among female singers. The fact that the man understands about a half a dozen European languages helps too.

I shall certainly look into these Poulenc pieces you suggest. Besides, I love the whole idea of the nocturne, both as music and specifically as music for the piano.
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