Another trivial entry because it’s hard to focus on important ones…and another “if there’s ever a memoir” entry.
A while back (more than a decade, less than a quarter-century) my wife and I were both getting radios installed in our cars and walked around while it was being done. “Around,” in this case, taking us past a music store. Where we went in and my wife started looking at pianos.
After trying out pretty much everything in the store, she settled on–and fell in love with–a Schimmel vertical grand. You may never have heard of Schimmel, but they’re one of the great German piano companies, with (I believe) the same action as Boesendorfer. This group of piano stores got two shipments a year of Schimmels: five grand pianos and one vertical grand in each shipment. (This was a long time ago; things may have changed.)
A vertical grand is not the same as an upright. A vertical grand is a grand piano with the soundboard tilted 90 degrees, so it stands upright–but the weight, construction, and sound are those of a grand. In the case of the Schimmel, that’s a crystalline, bell-like purity; it’s not hard to fall in love with it.
I’m not sure whether it was the same day, but I do know that we wound up buying the piano, which we really couldn’t afford at the time: Certainly the last consumer loan we ever took out. (The piano cost more than a small car, although certainly nowhere near as much as a Boesendorfer! And this was a long time ago…although I believe the “car” comparison is still valid.)
My wife’s been playing on and off ever since. She takes a while to read music, but plays with feeling and soul. It’s purely a hobby, of course, but worth every cent we spent on the piano (and since then on tuning).
That’s not the story. This is.
A few years back, my wife bugged me to start playing. She knew that I read music (on good days, I can sight-read for singing): After all, I grew up in a Methodist household where we were all in various church choirs from an early age, and my mother had a teaching credential in music. She knew that I knew how to play the piano–my mother convinced me to play all the way through each song in the Methodist hymnal (fine four-part arrangements!) one summer, giving me some royal reward like $10 for completing the 500+ songs. And when I was in the Berkeley Community Chorus (again, a LONG time ago–at least 30 years), I rented a piano so I could hold extra practice sessions with the other baritones/basses, since we really needed the extra practice.
So I tried. And stopped.
The reason? Right up there in the title of this post. I realized something, listening to my wife play (and watching her) and listening to myself at the keyboard.
To wit: I don’t play piano. I can type the sheet music with reasonable agility: I “get the notes right.” But that’s not playing–it’s not making music.
I’d like to think I’m an acceptably good hack-level writer: I’m not just typing words.
But at the piano, I’m just typing notes. And that’s a waste of my time and no joy for the listener.
I’d have to disagree with the opening, this is hardly trivial. It is some of the most insightful writing I’ve read in quite some time. How many writers/bloggers are just typing not writing. I have to examine my own writing to see if I’m just typing. Even if I am, maybe I serve some purpose by passing along information just as you served a purpose in choir practivce. This gets me thinking. Thanks.
Whew. Thanks. I’ve read your stuff; you don’t need to worry.
I meant “trivial” in the sense of unimportant compared to the issues of the day…but then, most of what’s here is trivial in that sense.
That was one in what may be a series of “knowing myself too well” posts (a trait I was accused of years ago, and never saw reason to deny).
I don’t see a lot of bloggers who are just typing. The writing may be hurried, informal, or in some cases poor–but very few people keep up a blog unless they believe they have something to say. As soon as you believe in what you’re doing, you’re writing, no matter how badly.
I didn’t believe in my piano playing: I saw no possibility of art.
The singing was different: I could be part of a larger whole that did, in fact, make something worthwhile–Faure’s Requiem, Bach’s b-minor Mass, and of course the Messiah. I could also help to make that larger whole more effective, or at least the bass/baritone section.
This post was recommended for the Carnival of the Infosciences #6 which can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/chqkr
[…] Typing Music David Bigwood says Walt Crawford’s post at Walt at Random is “some of the most insightful writing I’ve read in some time.” [Actually from last week, but what’s a few days among friends?] […]