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Now Hear This
Mar. 20th, 2008 02:51 pmIt's being a noisy equinox. The guy next door was using a rototiller in his back yard yesterday afternoon when the rain brought his project to an end. Though there has been intermittent overcast and the threat of rain today, and though the dirt was still wet from yesterday's soaking, he resumed the digging fairly early and there has been much coming and going over there all afternoon. At least it's also been fairly chilly all day so I've not missed anything by having my windows closed. Being shorted on sleep has made me cranky, though.
But music hath charms to soothe the savage breast/beast/sleep-deprived. Here is The Piano Society, providing a couple thousand free recordings for download, mostly classical music, mostly played by students and amateurs, most of it sounding rather tinny on my computer speakers— even tinnier than decently recorded CD's I've played through them, so I'd say, yes, amateur recording engineers as well. But I find this no drawback.
My first elementary school had a grassy courtyard with the classrooms grouped around it, opening onto a loggia, and I recall once being sent to the office with a message of some sort and, passing a room in which someone— a teacher, most likely— was playing something on the piano, and I stopped to listen, there with the sunlight filling the courtyard and the loggia empty but for me, and the sound of the cheap school piano being played imperfectly on the other side of a door. These recordings remind me of that moment. I don't remember how that moment ended, so it's easy enough to pretend it's still going on.
I've listened to only a few recordings from the site, but I can recommend pianist Nathan Coleman's recording of Malagueña from Lecuona's Andalucia Suite. This Cuban warhorse is, to my mind, always at its best when played by a passionate amateur.
But music hath charms to soothe the savage breast/beast/sleep-deprived. Here is The Piano Society, providing a couple thousand free recordings for download, mostly classical music, mostly played by students and amateurs, most of it sounding rather tinny on my computer speakers— even tinnier than decently recorded CD's I've played through them, so I'd say, yes, amateur recording engineers as well. But I find this no drawback.
My first elementary school had a grassy courtyard with the classrooms grouped around it, opening onto a loggia, and I recall once being sent to the office with a message of some sort and, passing a room in which someone— a teacher, most likely— was playing something on the piano, and I stopped to listen, there with the sunlight filling the courtyard and the loggia empty but for me, and the sound of the cheap school piano being played imperfectly on the other side of a door. These recordings remind me of that moment. I don't remember how that moment ended, so it's easy enough to pretend it's still going on.
I've listened to only a few recordings from the site, but I can recommend pianist Nathan Coleman's recording of Malagueña from Lecuona's Andalucia Suite. This Cuban warhorse is, to my mind, always at its best when played by a passionate amateur.
