Tuesday 18th March - I would get a lot more done

Rooks nesting in the trees

.... if I could stick with something until it is finished, and maybe read just one, or two, or maybe only three books at a time... sew ot knit just one thing at a time...

But then I wouldn't be me, I'd be someone else...

....living a different kind of life...

...doing different kinds of things...

Music

While I was pondering the above thought (not a new one to me!) a piece of music came crashing into my head;

The Poulenc concerto for two pianos... 

I think this is the version I had on a cassette tape which I played over and over again when revising for A-levels in the 1970s.

I love the way it crashes from one mood to the next with almost no warning... rather like the way my mind flits from here to there.

I first heard this when two students at Winchester College performed it with huge enthusiasm at an end of term concert. To my horror and embarrassment it made me cry several times; why? I think it was the first time I had been moved so deeply by a piece of music. 

I think it could be because in-between the pyrotechics there are moments of great calm and beauty. And because it is such a celebration of happiness and because the two pianists are playing in perfect partnership. 

There's also a bit in the second movement which took me straight back to hearing the music of the gamelan in Bali. At that time I was at boarding school and really struggling to adapt, and flying out to Indonesia on the holidays where my parents lived. We had the most wonderful holiday in Bali, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by sadness. 

So perhaps it's not surprising as a homesick teenager I succumbed to tears.

When I was searching for the concerto on YouTube I came across this tremendous recent performance by two brothers... I'm not sure how often they were able to breathe in their joyous helter-skeltering around the piano.

Drawing and Art

I drew the rooks when I got home... while we were out yesterday we passed a rookery. Each nest was an unsteady looking arrangement of sticks pointing in all directions. I suspect they were already incubating eggs. Many nests had a rook standing sentinel close beside.

I used to pass several different rookeries as I hurtled round the county from djembe lesson to ukuleles, keyboards to recorders, samba (brilliant fun but very noisy) to clarinets... It used to be a bit of a battle to keep my eyes and attention focused on driving when everything around was so much more interesting. 

New Word of the day - borborygmus

While following up a comment of Ang's yesterday about a meal replacement product called Huel I disappeared down an Internet rabbit hole and discovered this;

(little realising I would be afflicted with borborygmi myself after lunch...)