we have got a piano!!!!

[ewein2412]

it arrived yesterday. I think this just about completes the list of demands polite requests that I moved in with over twelve years ago when I first came to live with Tim. Actually, it was not at my request that the piano finally arrived. It was only after Sara had taken over a year of piano lessons on the 5-octave electric keyboard that Tim finally said, "Sara's worked really hard at this and it would sound so much nicer on a piano..."

I bought the keyboard for myself, a couple of Christmases ago, because I was so homesick for the American tunes to "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

May I add here: The genius of Mozart, the REAL genius of Mozart, is not that he wrote amazing music. It's not even that he wrote quite a bit of amazing music that any old dope with a little bit of musical ability can play. The REAL genius of Mozart is that he wrote quite a bit of amazing music that is relatively simple to play AND--this is the genius part--he makes you feel like a virtuoso while you're playing it.

Comments

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

That has long been one of my favorite things about Mozart.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

"It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years."

-- Tom Lehrer

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I think the Scottish (English? The one Jean Redpath sings, anyway) tune to
O Little Town of Bethlehem is a big improvement.
My husband is talking about getting rid of our (old, funky, upright) piano and possibly replacing it with a keyboard. I'm resistant, even though it gets played maybe twice a year.

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Piano!!!!

We have a little spinet that goes out of tune if you look at it, and has keys that stick when it gets humid (like, all summer in Iowa). If all goes well this year, I'm getting us a new one (a new used one, I mean). The neighbors will appreciate it, at least.

Good luck to Sara as she continues her lessons.

Oh, and Mozart kills me. When I play Mozart all my lack of technique is revealed, woe.

[harukami]

Had to quote this one to my pianist S.O. *g*

Congrats on the piano!

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

Awesome!!

She's going to be so happy. I was taking piano for years without a piano of my own (I'd stay after school and use theirs when I could), and the day we finally got one, this second hand paint peeling one that needed a tune-up... i was in heaven!

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

...I am so clueless. I didn't even know those two had alternate tunes. I only know "Away In A Manger".

not a piano but a bell ringer

[(Anonymous)]

In a fit of research on change ringing, I came across a reference to your dissertation (it must have been you, yes?) on change ringing and its relation to social custom in English towns. But I find that you never distilled the thesis to an article or otherwise published on the subject. Quite sensibly, you moved on to writing that would provide some remuneration. In any case, is there some way I could obtain a copy. I haven't looked but I suppose it is on Dissertation Abstract. But in any case please advise.

And seeing that you are in Perth . . . I am coming to Edinburgh and forward to St. Andrew's to deliver my son to his first year of studies there at the end of September, although I may allow his mother this privilege and visit a month later. We did visit last April which was the first experience of Scotland for all of us. At last I understand why Scots are so offended when someone mistakes them for being English. They are altogether a different people.

Finally, the change-ringing is a newly emerging interest for me. I am living in Boston and have found the several active towers here. I have only ivisited a tower and sat through a practice and was invited to get the feel of a ring. Very very appealing, so to say. Sctland has many fewer towers (it not being England!)and it rather surprised me that St. Andrew's had none.

Best wishes,
Joseph Taylor (can.patller@gmail.com)

P.S. I have just remembered that there is a link to "randon unpublished work" that I have not explored yet. Perhaps the bell materials are there.
P.P.S. The girlfriend of the young man attending St. Andrew's is aimed toward a career as a pilot and I have sent here the link to the Ninety-Nines.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Eeee, piano. <3 My sister I think would go mad without one. It's so nice to hear someone playing, especially in the evening. Congratulations on your addition. ^___^

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Piano envy!!! Oh I want one. I miss my piano so very much.

As for Mozart, I entirely agree!

[firiel44.livejournal.com]

How nice! Now I miss playing. Mmmm, Mozart. I would pull out my old "A Little Night Music" and have a go at it in the music department on my lunch break, but it's a duet (originally played with the teacher I didn't like, before I had the teacher who was pretty much genius.)