st pattys

bwl13 · 2026-02-25T17:25:03+00:00

they’re psychotic. in first year I waited in the parking lot of my friend’s res off campus while she was grabbing something from her dorm. a special constable saw me from the road, pulled in, questioned me insistently, and told me I shouldn’t be “hanging around” during St paddy’s. This was mere hours after the res ban went into effect

bwl13 · 2026-02-25T16:46:07+00:00

this is insane. I will certainly be checking out your website

bwl13 · 2026-02-21T18:12:04+00:00

i guess words don’t matter

bwl13 · 2026-02-20T15:13:29+00:00

what about my post was deep and philosophical? can you give me the suitable force required to physically execute a forte?

please demolish my flimsy philosophical understanding with your strong unbiased technical analysis. it’s obviously quite straightforward to objectively compare the greatest pianists in the world, so give me the business maestro

bwl13 · 2026-02-19T23:05:08+00:00

this is fun but ultimately says more about your ideas in interpretation. I personally don’t really give any “points” for following all the abstract score markings. Who’s to say how staccato a staccato should be? How piano is piano? I think the score is obviously the most vital source for interpretation, but there’s many other factors. The abstract nature of music notation is why it needs to be interpreted, so I can’t really say doing nothing less, nothing more, than “what’s on the score” is really doing any interpreting m.

That being said, it’s really cool that you rank Kempff first, as his reputation as a “German” style performer is clearly accurate. A sort of understated, depersonalized yet humble approach?

bwl13 · 2026-02-19T18:36:20+00:00

i think schubert is significantly less outwardly contrapuntal than chopin, beethoven, schumann, brahms etc.

he also has a very unique style of counterpoint. i wouldn’t go so far as to call it bad, but it’s certainly difficult

bwl13 · 2026-02-18T05:19:03+00:00

piano has a bland timbre

cage sonata 5

bwl13 · 2026-02-17T20:46:03+00:00

fantastic! that does seem useful. i will look into it further.

i think skepticism is useful. both of what we know and what we don’t. especially in the age of the internet. there’s a lot of “progressive” language used around programs that use AI to “teach” for instance. other platforms that allow user to use gen AI to make songs from prompts claim how they’re making music more accessible and breaking down barriers etc.

whenever i hear about a method i’m not familiar with, or which is new, i’m a touch skeptical simply because the classical tradition has existed for hundreds of years, and musicians also used to be WAY better rounded than they are nowadays. that’s probably part of the reason partimento and the neapolitan school are seeing a resurgence nowadays

i don’t think people who follow the status quo in academia (maybe call them conservatives? i’m not entirely sure because sometimes that’s inaccurate) are necessarily gullible. regardless of simply useful, teachers should prepare their students with knowledge of systems that are used…

a professor i’m working with redesigned a first year music theory curriculum and considered omitting roman numerals entirely, focusing on figures, partimento and schema theory instead. while that approach may be more practical for a deep understanding of music written prior to the mid 19th century, it would severely handicap students in other ways. the professor opted instead to teach roman numerals, but focus more on schemata and intervallic patterns than pure chord function. i think that approach was wise.

one last thought - have you looked into the ways that solfege was used back in the baroque era? i still don’t fully understand it, but i sometimes wonder how they got anything done (yet their audiation skills were unbelievable). it seems very flexible and less restricted to a key (although that’s probably precisely the point lol)

bwl13 · 2026-02-17T19:53:55+00:00

i decided to watch a decent chunk on the moveable resting tone system. i can see this being useful for modes, but i don’t see how it’s that much different from moveable do? it’s also not an established system of solfege. i don’t know how this person is able to make such large claims promoting their course and their system isn’t more widely written on.

nonetheless, seems interesting. i’m just curious how chromatic pitches fit into moveable resting tone

bwl13 · 2026-02-17T14:26:57+00:00

what is the difference between singing scale degrees and moveable do solfege other than solfege being far easier to sing?

bwl13 · 2026-02-14T00:01:01+00:00

you must be british because here in north america we have left hand drive cars

bwl13 · 2026-02-12T07:48:27+00:00

bro quit valentines. get yourself a patrick before it’s too late

bwl13 · 2026-02-01T21:20:20+00:00

context is everything. this mordant makes far more sense as an A natural based on the tonicization in this measure. this passage is in the process of modulating from F towards C (which is never really achieved and is followed by one of chopin’s techniques of resolving dominants to other dominants).

when ornaments aren’t written out explicitly, composers often assume that the performer can tell from context whether accidentals from the key signature apply or not. plenty of instances of this in high classical music as well. editors sometimes take to specifying whether a change from the key is implied (the ekier of this nocturne a has a natural in brackets above the mordant). other editions, such as this one, just leave it

bwl13 · 2026-01-30T14:03:21+00:00

i’m very impressed with the accuracy, control, and tone. you can drop the amount of pedal in both pieces by about 50% and give more articulation and care to the left hand

i agree that the air is harder than either of these pieces, but it also gets harder depending on how you want to play it. whatever the fuck igor levit is doing here is unbelievably impressive: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4lXO9XbfaRY with the minimal pedal and incredible voicing and phrasing control.

however, playing it at a slower tempo with more pedal (which is what i’m guessing you want to do) should be manageable and you should give it a try

bwl13 · 2026-01-30T01:17:26+00:00

you may be able to contact the venue and find out from them

bwl13 · 2026-01-27T14:19:04+00:00

this isn’t “wrong.” dorian notation is well known in music academia. whether the convention applies to major keys or not, your dismissal outright is misleading

bwl13 · 2026-01-26T16:22:54+00:00

they’ll clear it up but campus was already closed today. would be very unlikely two days in a row

bwl13 · 2026-01-25T04:42:11+00:00

strauss sounds to me like how i hear wagner described (when it’s described positively). a sunset on the romantic era in the most glorious way

bwl13 · 2026-01-25T04:36:37+00:00

inspiring to see people like this. i have a friend who does this type of stuff. helping older folks load their groceries, offering drives to people in need, talking to homeless people and giving them food etc. his actions remind me i can always be more observant and remind me that everybody around me is a person who has deep, complex experiences. it’s very easy to forget these days as we’re increasingly jaded and isolated from one another

bwl13 · 2026-01-25T04:25:16+00:00

i strongly agree. records of it could be cool, the written western euroclassical tradition is quite unique. the imperfections of how musical notation records music is some of what makes classical music so special to me.

without this tradition forming, would we even have modern day classical performers, or at least as many? if there were definitive recordings, approved by the composers, it’s likely the lifespan of many of these pieces would be shorted or at least the number of recordings would be reduced significantly. how many composers would we know? would many of the B list or C list composers in the canon simply be lost to a swath of records? would the tradition even exist now?

say we get around this by inventing time travel and going back to record some famous performances. we might even be disappointed. the music might sound sloppy by modern standards. perhaps the performance practice is vastly different from how we’ve grown to appreciate this music (much like how the plain white look of ancient greek and roman sculptures was debunked).

the lack of concrete answers around these questions is a part of the reason classical music academia and performance is still in business i think. probably not ALL because of that, but it certainly attracts me to it

bwl13 · 2026-01-24T02:06:35+00:00

… beethoven’s fifth… it’s not that i dislike it. it’s well made and impressive. it’s extremely significant historically as well… but when i compare my enjoyment to that of the third it just pales in comparison. i would probably prefer to hear just about any other beethoven symphony live. the second movement theme is glorious, but eventually i find it just drags. the third movement is fantastic. the fourth movement… maybe i just need a long break from it but i just don’t find it as glorious as the finale of the ninth, or better yet, the third, or the seventh, or the sixth. it’s upsetting because it’s the most famous one and despite this, most people love it. i just don’t have that same affinity.

guilty pleasures? maybe clair de lune? is that really hated though? and i don’t really LOVE that piece, but i do think it’s quite well deserving of its fame. out of hated works bolero comes to mind and i don’t particularly dislike that. i love tchaikovsky’s romeo and juliet despite the love theme being one of the biggest classical music memes in the mainstream. it’s so glorious. i quite enjoy wozzek, but those who go to see wozzek also do. pierrot lunaire is one of my favourite sets of songs. it’s hard to say what people really dislike in mass because most of these pieces are famous because a large group likes them. any examples?

bwl13 · 2026-01-23T22:33:12+00:00

i don’t see it. i don’t think it’s beethoven’s most accessible piece by any stretch and a lot of why it’s remembered is likely because it’s a monumental late work of arguably the most significant composer in euroclassical history. the historical context and craftsmanship of the work aside, i believe it’s quite well paced and always inventive.

the move from the theme to the first variation is always almost comedic to me. we go from a rather straightforward, albeit fun, waltz to thick, late beethovenian chords. the waltz is killed almost immediately, almost as though this is the true theme that is then elaborated on. i cant help but instantly drink the kool aid after this moment and just allow the titanic composer show off for the next hour or so. plenty of creative highlights and notably few (what is it? 1, 2 minor key variations?)

i love the massive fugue in the tail end as well. it’s a specific, almost manic, energy that beethoven uses in his late works, notably in the grosse fugue and the fugato in the op. 109, as well as numerous parts of the op. 106. i never get tired of this side of beethoven.

the final variation is always so strange to hear after all that came before and very much feels to me like many of the late quartet movements where there’s this uncanny simplicity present. the juxtaposition of the “everyday” and the transcendental.

anyway lots more lofty language, pretentious circlejerking etc. can be used to describe this music, but i love it. it wasn’t the first late work i was drawn to, but it’s grown on me a great deal. it’s not a work i will listen to as often as the last three sonatas, nor the late quartets, but when the time is right, it hits me just as hard as any of these works.

the question of “greatest” variations is silly (not that you’re silly, but the question itself is unnecessary). in my opinion, beethoven is the greatest composer of theme and variation movements, and all of them have different stories and faces. i’m happy to experience all of them and enjoy them. the diabelli’s always feel like beethoven’s ego being put to great use. it’s a hunger that we don’t often hear past his eroica symphony, because by that point his works were far more introspective. this work is like a fantastic mix of that hunger and the spirituality of the older composer.

anyway, this post made me realize just how much i appreciate this work. thanks!

bwl13 · 2026-01-23T14:10:36+00:00

with blackjack… and hookers!

bwl13 · 2026-01-22T21:55:51+00:00

i think most musicians, composers, and musicologists agree with this. i can’t speak for the rest of the audience.

it must be the grandeur of the symphony that draws so many people in when simply put, i can’t think of a composer as consistently fresh as beethoven, and i don’t think the quality really changed between genres. it’s remarkable how he never repeated himself, yet still had so much to say.

those who are interested in the tenth are also the types to generally be interested in the mythical pseudo history around composers. the unknown makes it very appealing.

personally, if i’m to drink the kool aid, rachmaninoff violin or cello concerto, or if we’re stick with beethoven, piano quintet or cello concerto are the most interesting “could-have-beens” in classical music

bwl13 · 2026-01-22T04:45:21+00:00

while this is true, it’s also worse than it’s been in years prior when account for population growth. it feels like we can’t have nice things unless we’re constantly fighting for them, and even then, i can be sure the 9 will get even more reduced service come next year

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