Blessings (more piano)

Good Afternoon, my Baby,

I've been at home, cleaning up after the Cricket War. Last night passed without a single sighting, and my luck is still holding out. I'm not gonna declare victory until maybe a week passes, but what I am doing is vacuuming everything, behind everything really, pulling boxes out of the closet, pulling the couch away from the wall, etc., and vacuuming in all the possible cricket hideouts. Really, though, I think they were hiding in the baseboard in my bathroom, which - because this is an old building - is separated a little bit from the floor, which gave them a hiding place. That's where I sprayed the Raid, and they haven't been heard from since, so maybe I got the right location.

Exciting, eh?

Well, I wanted to check in to wish you a Happy Monday and to tell you I Love You. This will be another great week for us, in a special season. I will be back after Pearl's.

Each day is a Great Blessing, Thank You for sharing them with me.  :):)

11pm : Tonight I am listening to a piano sonata by Charles Ives, Sonata #2. It just popped into my head to listen to him, probably because I heard something on the radio a while back. This sonata would definitely qualify as abstract, and yet it has a rhythm to it, and a theme. Some of the abstract piano stuff, like Iannis Xenakis, if you've heard of him, is so "out there" and extreme that I can't relate to it, but this Ives sonata is very nice so far. It's the kind of thing that's best absorbed in an indirect listen, maybe while reading or typing on the computer, as I am doing. One of my favorite abstract piano albums is called "Das Klavierwerk" or "Piano Music" by Arnold Schoenberg, as played by Mauritzio Pollini. If you put it on, and sit there trying to intently listen to it, you might be disappointed. But if you put it on, and let it absorb while doing something else, you might just like it. I don't know what got me into abstract classical music. As an infant, my first exposures to music were largely classical, but all based in melody. My Dad was not a big fan of abstract music.

I think, maybe for me it's because I go through so much music, and listen to so much different stuff, that #1, I am always looking for new music, and #2, I tend to go by my listening mood nowdays, rather than just put something on.

Melodic music hooks you, and demands more attention - active listening - while abstract music (which may have elements of melody) generally has no hooks. Abstract music is like a wandering stream, and when you walk along a wandering stream, or trail, you take in whatever comes at you.

Now, I must say that I don't know how Ives, or any other abstract composer, actually composed something this off-track. Why would your brain tell you to remember such a piece? Or, more likely, this type of music is composed in pieces, possibly small pieces, and some of the more striking or abrupt are simply constructed at a whim in the middle of the composing process.

Of course, I am guessing at all of this. I am not a composer of classical music.

But I think the Debussys and Chopins of the music world begin the compositional process with particular melodies as a basis, whereas the abstractionists begin with a mental image. With Ives, particularly in this very long sonata, you can hear both abstraction and melody.

Anyway, my Darling, I hope your week got off to a good start. Just remember that each day is an entity unto itself, comprised of the thoughts and feelings you experience, and the way in which you observe and respond to all the myriad "little things". Every day, when you wake up, you get more and more used to noticing the ways in which you interconnect with life. As an Artist, you are keeping track of what you notice twenty-four hours a day, all the time. As you go along, the business of life becomes secondary, and you can do it on automatic pilot, but the observation part ever increases. Each day is an individual package of interesting information, but it is up to you to notice and interpret it. It's like going down a trail in the woods, and the more you notice, the more interesting and mysterious is gets. Conversely, those who don't notice anything interesting turn back. They find the trail uninteresting. But if you just keep going, and maintain interest, and look at each day as a seperate package (of hours, minutes and other spans - for time is elastic), then you will find an unending carpet of mystery unfolding before you, and from that you will create your art.

Your life will be a discovery rather than a program.

You already know that, but I tell you anyway, as a reinforcement to begin the week.

You are You. I Love You, and will see you in the morn.  xoxoxoxoxox  :):)