182. What Elephant ?

'ts been a while, have barely played past two weeks. You may notice there's a #181 missing; that I did record last week, bu I'm still processing that recording, as I hadn't got around to posting it, mostly because it's really two recordings and I had a hard time deciding.  So do tune in later today for it, and to find out how I solved the dilemma.

Back to roots, this one is recorded at seven in the morning, as dictated by my original premise: unedited, from first note on until ran out off notes.  The basic theme had been running through my head for a few days now, so I just played it at once.  And then found out the trouble I got myself into ;-)

Not playing for a while sure stiffs up the old fingers, but I hope there's no real bother by it in today's elaboration of a short melodic phrase from Saint Saens' 'Carnaval des animaux'. On of the classical pieces my Father used to play for me when I was a kid. Being a baby this would be played on a taperecorder next to my cradle in a noisy room and I'd go to sleep like, er, well, like a baby!


PS: Still looking for a nice picture to this episode, any suggestions?  There's also a little anecdote to go with this recording, but I'll tend to the otherr episode first, so do cast your eye on this one later on too.

180.Sun At Last!

Willow with wild plants on it; picture by me this morning

This bright spell started yesterday evening, wich gave me a great chance to see Saturn and Venus through the telscope, ever so clear and sharp. Soooo beautiful, If I had pictures of that I'd put 'm here and name this one 'Venus & Saturn' instead...

And to share it with a Facebook Friend who came to stay over for two days, and got me out to take an amazing amount of great pictures all over town.  She'd never seen a Planet through a telescope before, and was awed...  Like I am awed by the way this willow caught some earth and a seed and grew these beautiful flowers up there.....
PS you'll hear her kind remark after I ran out of notes...

179.Mozart's Mower, Bird AndViro-Mental Piano!

A duet with the environment again.  Has been a while since I done that.  Always surprising.  At first I figured: 'ah, too much noise from the mower outside, I'll record later'.  Now it's later and they're still mowing, so I'm glad I decided: if you can't beat'm join'm.

Besides, here we're bak to my original premise; record at seven in the morning, any wich way.  I opened the window to let in the mowing-machine - and why bother switching of the TV with Mozart's Zauberflöte -...  Kept the remote handy though.

In the last minutes a bird decided to get in on the fun.  At first I didn't really notice it at all, I think it was perfectly in tune and adding to the music before it attracted my attention.  It has not let me down for the rest of my play.

And we end this one the way we began it, Mozart's Mower and the bird.

PS I still need a great picture for this one (and the last one too!) ; Anyone?

178,Sturm und Drang

The creative process can be quite disconcerting and confusing from time to time.  This process, from blinding, paralizing inspiration to fruit was my premise for todays improv.   This and the approach of the piano as a percussion instrument, rather than the harmonic/melodic approach I usually embody.

Working title was 'Stepping Stones', and I suppose that shines through quite obviously.  As it was done, and I contemplated what I had played minutes later on my bike-ride, the present title presented itself as more appropriate.

It takes a considerable while of seemingly meaningless chaotic dissonant percussive rythmic elaboration before the planted seeds sprout into some of the more familiar harmonic and agreeable elements emerging into a final realisation of relaxation and fulfillment.  (did I seriously just type those words in ernest?  It looks like jibberjabber from a comedy on make-beief artistic folks...  but seriously, if you listen you'll find it makes real sense after all... Sometimes as Dad sez truth is stranger than fiction; and may I add: more banal..)



PS if you have a illustration to suggest for this, please don't hesitate to fill me in/send it?...

177.Naturlaut

An exploration of the first few bars of Mahler's 1st symphony, Titan.  On the score this first movement has the instruction:

 'Langsam schleppend, wie ein Naturlaut'.

Pictures by Yours Truly.

 Hence the title.  


Dad used to play this when I was a little kid to wake me up whenever I was at his place, if you play it: Chicago Symphony Orchestra you'll understand that was a great way to wake up.

I did not linger to much on the rest of that symphony here, just let go to explore where that short progression and mood would take me. Nowhere, eventually, but that's after a lot of very nice everywhere.  Still hard to anticipate the moment where I run out of notes, and I guess today I was slightly late; so I just let be there and closed to an open end. 


I'm quite sure this mornings play would not be a bad alarmclock either.

176.Saly's verjaardag Pt1. Being Green

Happy birthday Saly!

These are the two songs I had planned to play on your birthday-party last Sunday, but in all the turmoil of the huge party there was no time and/or chance to squeeze it in, so I did it now, today, the actual day of your 75th birthday.
'God's song', by Randy Newman, and 'Being Green', by Kermit the Frog.
Somehow I found these two songs to be appropriate.  Those who know Saly as I do would probably agree.

For you listeners who do not have a clue what I'm on about, Saly is my 'evil stepdad', ever since age 13.  And I love the Man, he rocks and is way cool, has taught me way more than I dare ever admit. 


 How lucky I am, to have two evil stepdads ánd my beautiful biodad,  all still around...

PS. The recording of God's Song I found subpar on second listen; the advantage of the trouble with posting this a few days ago when it was made.  So I'm still planning a  new recording of that.  To be continued!

175.Intricate Stillness

By Robyn van Horn

Soft and sweet.  Very intricate braided voices that mostly just took my fingers wherever they needed to be; not much control really.  That was a good thing, because I could never control such mazes consciously...

Totally lost control -or maybe I should say tried to take control- and lost my way after about 7 minutes.  So I just shut up, let stillness return and did the equivalent of sewing a closing seam to an unfinished blanket to make it whole.

174.Baby Upright My Baby

Retuning Mom' s piano yesterday, the piano I played most of my life until I moved out on my own.  Very different to my own piano, the one you usually hear here.  Tiniest baby-upright, ever such a light touch.  Very responsive to subtle and fast movements, and biiig sound.

Just like meeting an old friend again, or an old lover.  Forgot myself for some time there, over 20 minutes instead of the usual 5-10.  And really, the only reason to stop playing was Mom came home again from her shopping spree... 

Thought I'd leave that bit in, some couleur locale...

Just like this.  But with my DNA and all my fave pianists' on it of course.

Will have to do something about the creaking pedals though, soon; plus the worn hammers at the highest register, deep grooves therein; but... those grooves smehow stick a bit to the strings when played really softly, making a delightfull ringing overtone-rich clavichord- / bell-like sound.  Top is a bit detuned too, but I left it as such, as my tuning hammer has such bad fit I' d damage the tuningpins if I' d get to work on that, so I left that for later when I bring the right hammer, and used it as an excuse to let rip for the time I had.

Enjoy!   I'm sure I did.

173.Chaos Butterfly

Standing on the shoulder of giants, From chaos to harmony and ordered body of knowledge.

Forest Fire Model

Plus a butterfly in Tokyo that causes a storm in Amsterdam; a definition or illustration of chaos-theory.  Two opposing sides of the same coin.

Dare I toot my own horn besides the piano to say this is one of the rare episodes that has my 100% seal of approval? I have not played it back yet, but whilst playing this it was one uninterrupted stream of unconscious consciousness, and satisfaction with almost everything my fingers did.

172.Bookends

Old friends, old friends sat on their parkbench like bookends
A newspaper blowin' through the grass
...  ...
Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph

Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you
...  ...
Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy

Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears

lyric and melodic excerpts from 'old Friends/Bookends' by Simon & Garfunkel

171.The Year of the Cat

A total break with tradition here; guitar and vocals, no piano. Not really impro either, but true to the original premise: first take, no cuts.   Song I haven't played in over ten years.
First few lines may be a bit confused, finding a string not as much in tune as I want it to, and if there's one thing I can't stand... So it had to be retuned as I went on.   Also the bridge got me somewhat mixed up, but never mind the excuses.

It's gotta be the weirdest and most original version I ever did of this.  Just like a cat would, I guess.

And remind me again of the fact that one microphone is not sufficient for a good balanced mix.  And see if I care.  ;-)  (actually I do, but never mind just the same)

Enjoy.
Illustrations: Cat's Eye Nebula, from Wikipedia

170.Adagio del Primavera

Another winter survived... Living in The Netherlands is a constant rollercoaster of ever changing weather.  The idea that there is places in the World where the daily news on TV and radio does not contain an extensive section on the weather-prediction is totally alien and uncomprehensible to a Dutch boy.

Seasons is one thing, Dutch weather a totally different matter.  Anyway.  The average of daily temparature and friendlyness of the atmosphere is climbing back to agreeable now.   Past few days were marvelous, all the trees are springing, birds are tweeting their little hearts out way before Sunrise and most of the flowers that sprout from bulbs (such as tulips and all their family; daffodils, krokussen (don't know that in English) have all shown their faces by now.  And tonight the clock will swallow an hour.

So.... time for contemplation and melancholic joy.

Pictures by yours Truly.  This is 'hondsdraf' in Dutch, abundant in the grass and all over road-sides

Today's play has a touch familiarity; either I ripped it of something I forgot, or it' s just something I have more or less played before.  Probably the second, though I am not really sure.  If you have an idea where these melodic stanza' s are partly from please let me know, use the 'reactions'  button...


Safe from a few misgrips close to conclusion most of this is the way I intended, but I sure lost my way for a few bars there...  Just like spring usually goes here, so I suppose it' s appropriate.  And today I joined the birds with some vocal additions as well.

PS. Alas, now that i have monitored the recording I find ot the vocals are barely audible...  Yet again reason to get at rearrangng my recording-setup.   Sorry!   There's just so much one microphone can pick up, especially when afterwards the music gets compressed to mp3, wich takes out all that is 'not audible'.  On the original recording the voice is much more present.  I'll see if I can improve it a bit, but.. no promises...

169.Almost Cut My Hair

Yours truly, this morning.

Almost, but not quite.  From the epic album 'Deja Vu' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  a rock band with a name like a lawyer firm.  First in a whole line of such named bands.  Up to then bands had names like Mushy Marshmallow Rainbow and the likes,  Tthese were the greatest minds and voices of such bands former glory.

Almost cut their hair.  almost, but not quite.  Not even close.  That's when the freakflag truly started its flight.

I really have to do something about my recording setup; just one microphone has in a way a nice direct sound that I like, but stereo and an extra vocal mic would be preferable.  That and less noise, let alone distortion, wich, I'm  afraid, has crept in here once more...

Pictures by me, being me, this morning.

168.Spherical Harmonics

Totally different approach of the instrument today. No sense explaining, just press play and sit back. Or stare at the picture.

Pictures by Robyn van Horn

PS Nothing wrong with your speakers, the recording is slightly distorted.

167.Minimal Lavender Fields Amongst Concrete

Hate it when this happens; the recorder gave me quite a scare when I finished todays recording.  It was not running.   But I was pretty sure I got the aquired habit of checking it for running when I start down all right.

Slight reassurance of this told me it had recorded, but I ran out of virtual tape....   So: compositional balance is slightly lost in this recording.  Even though all that is lost is the slow and easy petering out of what I played, back into reaquired silence, it might leave you slightly out of equilibrium.

  So just imagine another minute or so of re-affirming and settling of whatever notes were left when it fades out where an abrupt ending was.

166.Hurried Rhapsody

Although I had about 10 minutes left to make my recording this morning before I had to go about my daily chores - and most of my plays take less than that - I did feel somewhat in a hurry to get the music down.  So much to say and play, in what felt like so little time.  

In about 7 minutes I felt like I did manage to get it all in.  Then I hit some keys and found whole new fields of exploration, and frankly those opened up probably way more than some extra minutes of new music.   But; no more time.   So, as fragmented as the first minutes were, these became split-up seconds of opening doors and closing them again, straight away.

So I do hope you can enjoy this rhapsody of cosmic possibilities unexplored...

165.Gymnopedie

Story and illustration will be added in an hour or so, here's today's recording for now.



PS: If you have any suggestion for illustration please use reactions to post a link.

164.Full Circle

don't really know what to say about this piece except; Somehow it just felt very circular, and the ending, though abrupt, felt like perfectly running out of notes at the exact point where the circle was closed.

Henk.  Alas entered eternal silence few months ago...

The other thing being: I mentioned before one of the credo's of my once composition teacher Henk Alkema; It is as important to compose silence as it is to compose sound.  This time -while the circle got closed- it just did not feel finished.  And after one of the longest silence-bits I've ever created, what at first I thought was the beginning of a new piece, turned out to be the short epilogue.  Including the sound of knocking over a cymbal next to the piano when I turned on my chair to switch of the recorder.

Circle filled.

163.Static Stoïcism

I had some trouble today with processing this recording. Not so much tech-wise, more in the compositional/musical realm. First of all after playing my first round I had the feeling it wasn't up to scratch. Though a nice idea came up and got mostly fullfilled, I tried again. Wich of course did not work. Or, to be more precise, some parts were the things I felt were missing in the first try, but the rest was just nonsense and misgrips....

 So after that second try I figured let's try something completely different. 2nd or 3d move in that second try was indeed very nice, but not exactly what I wanted. So, listening to the whole track, I was torn between three (no, four) sentiments: first: just post the whole track and let you work it out. Second: just post the first movement. Third: cut out the middle. oh yes, and there it got just to intricate, because cut out the middle; exactly wich middle?  Ending up on a cut that was not from silence and so needed really more and extra processing and editing and..

STOP!
That was not what I meant to do with this blog/podcast. Remember: 'From the first keystroke on, unedited, until I run out of notes'. So, just the first movement it is.  That one is perfect in its own right, fresh and real. Though not really a whole piece, it is a nice and comprehensive idea for one.  The rest is just thinking and elaborate workings again. and that's a different blog: 'Musical Nightgown', Pyjamapiano's little sister that got a bit crushed because of that whole stupid affair with the last provider etc etc etc.
 Oh boy, I'm just blabbing way to much again. here's the recording, enjoy.

162. Being Green

Kermit & Prince from Wilma's kikkersite

Another song I haven't played in years and years.

Kermit's credo...

Did it twice;, both are very different approaches, so I just give you both.

It's always an adventure, the way a familiar song from the past can carry you to long forgotten places and sing itself...