Spring Breaking

I've been spring breaking for almost exactly 96 hours which actually seems like a smaller amount of time than if one says they have been spring breaking for 4 days. But that is mostly irrelevant. In the last 96 hours I've done a miniscule amount of piano practice, but it's spring break what can I say. I've made dinner twice and done some baking which included a key lime cheesecake that was quite lovely and eggless keylime cookies which did not look lovely but had a really nice flavor. I think they need some experimenting up the beauty ally. I have some lovely fabric waiting to be shaped into skirts and a garden plot that is now nicely rototilled compliments of Daddy.

Yesterday I rediscovered my bike and Daddy and I took off for a ride around the valley that included a stop at all-time favorite coffee shop Rick's Place and an unexpected visit with a friend. I am always amazed at how quickly my legs sink back into the pedaling motion after a long break, the last time I did really serious biking was the beginning of fall term. Biking is my favorite sport, you don't have to think so hard about the physical activity. . . most of the time, and you can travel a fairly large distance in a short amount of time. Of course when you live in the country there is the added bonus of lots of beautiful countryside to bike through. Our valley is turning quite green and spring is quickly bringing a shower of pinks, purples, and yellows to the garden beds. Only a few more weeks and I can start garden planting in earnest.

Being Bach

Last fall I embarked on the task of learning to play Bach English Suite III in g minor. It was a huge step for me to take, not because I was not ready or capable to play the piece but because Bach demands a different sort of awareness from the performer than the music I had worked on up to that point. If you were equating music to different sorts of physical activity Villa-Lobos, the music that was my primary reperoire last year is a lot sprinting, it is packed full of technical demands but has relatively short and concise ideas, you have to put a lot of mental thought into the shove off but from there on out it's a matter of maintaining the motion that you started, your mind needs to stay present with the music but does not necessarily have to track every detail. The sprint is one action followed through to the end with a relatively short duration, you mind works to maintain the motion but need not constantly analyze your surroundings to determine the next move. Bach demands the presence of the mind at all times. The player must be completely focused on where he is in the music and yet aware of what comes next or the music begines to unravel at a frightening pace. I imagine that it would be more like playing a sport where the actions of a player other than yourself determine your next move. Your mind has to constantly be engaged in the game tracking what is happening so that you are capable of making decisions based on the most pertinent facts. Bach is so tightly constructed and organized that your mind must constantly analyze the musical surroundings or it can quickly lose it's place and forget what comes next. Bach is perhaps less physically demanding than Villa-Lobos, the actual movement of the fingers although precise and involved is not as technically demanding because you are dealing largely with only two notes at a time, but the mental demand is so great that for the duration of the music you must become as though you were Bach himself composing the music. You must immerse yourself in the organization of the lines and follow their potential, there's no room for playing on the surface, you must be in the midst of the music engaging every aspect of its character.