cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mental Variations on Rhapsody in Blue Lovely news that I should have mentioned in my entry this morning; We have DSL at home! Finally! Trish and I will be watching so much porn. But different porn, I'm sorry to say. She only likes gay porn and I'm only interested in straight porn. Not that I'm offended by gay porn. I mean, if she wants me to watch it with her for her own purposes, then fine. It's just not what I'm into. Also I had a nice dream last night that I was figuring out how to play 'Rhapsody in Blue' on the piano. Now I should say that I'm much less into Gershwin since discovering James P. Johnson. Once you've heard the symphonic work of James P. Johnson, Gershwin sounds like sort of like the Monkees imitating the Beatles. Except with the race thing on top of that. James P. Johnson was composing symphonic blues and jazz years before the Gershwins did. But he was a black man and thus nobody was going to take his symphonic work seriously in the early 20th century. So then Gershwin comes along, hears James Johnson, cranks out his white-boy imitation of it and experiences wild success. The same shit that happened with rock and roll years later. But I digress. The point is that I was playing Rhapsody in Blue on the piano and it was lovely. I wish I had a piano. Or a place to put one. I should really, really learn how to play. Because, no boasting intended, I have music so firmly in my head that it's a terrible waste not being able to get it out through my hands. Like right now I am listening to Rhapsody in Blue in my head and I can hear every soft, round note on the piano. Moreover, I am now mentally playing variations of the themes in the piece. Composing new parts of it and improvising. It sounds wonderful. It really does. But nobody else will ever hear it. This happens so often. Usually with a wholly new composition rather than variations on an existing theme. I can hear it played on piano and then I can add bass and drums or an orchestra. I have a little more trouble with solo violin than I do with piano. I can't hear a solo violin in my head with the same full range of tone that I can many other instruments. It's frustrating sometimes. But I am thankful that at least *I* can hear the music. Hearing it and not being able to communicate it is better than not hearing it at all. 16:37 - 2008-03-11 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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