Monday, March 28, 2011

Why The Maiden & the Nightingale

The first time this melody entered my ears it simply sky dived into my musical heart and I knew that I had to own it.

I was 14 years old. I stumbled through the manuscript but did not have the knowledge of how to create a fingering and voicing pattern that could give life to the complex text.

Years later I decided to LEARN the piece in such a way I could perform it. Virginia Willard in Idaho Falls put my hands and brain into the correct direction. Later, Seymour Bernstien in NYC would open my heart to it's many hidden mysteries. I perform this piece differently every time I play it!

The entire piece evolves out of the first sound of F Sharp. One must touch the black key F# on the piano as if it were a delicate piece of precious crystal... from that vibration evolves every emotion within the haunting melodies of the piece.

I have always imagined a lover sitting in a window sill, pining, yearning, longing with heart break pain for the return of the secret lover... then the nightingale begins to answer the Maiden's pleas... the blessed bird's melody constantly answers the Maiden's voice. It is a composition full of intense emotion, questions and answers as well as that indefinable red blooded passion the Latin race have seared into their DNA...

Every emotion is recorded within this masterpiece. The last page of the music is a BIRD SONG... I believe the lover was singing to his Maiden through the Nightingale...

I owe boundless thanks to the engineer that creates such gorgeous images, ART that moves to my music!

The Maiden and the Nightingale - Brent Johnston

Friday, March 18, 2011

So many amazing things occurring...


I am depressed about the situation in Japan... I am upset about the situation in Christchurch New Zealand... I am angry about so many things I have NO CONTROL OVER... sooooo, I play my piano.

I took a moon bath last night. It worked.

You can't fool mother nature. She is the Goddess.

I wrote an entire blog years ago about the joy of learning how to play a musical instrument. The answers are real. That blog is way back... you would have really dig through a lot of blogs!
Happy Days...

Friday, March 11, 2011

sometimes........




Last night I watched Monsaingeon's film 'MADEMOISELLE' about Nadia Boulanger. For some reason it saved me from going into a funk of depression...

It is an amazing film about her ability to still teach composition to pupils when she was 90 years old!

With everything that is happening in the world I wonder at times WHY? WHEN? WHERE? HOW? WHERE? WHO?... then I sit with my music and I know without a doubt that life is good... Karmic balance is forever demanding it's justice...

Today I played the piano at St. Peter's for about 2 hours... I played Debussy, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and my own compositions... An absolutely gorgeous young woman sat in the pews the entire time I played... she heard me talking to myself... she heard me sigh, moan and groan... When I was finished... she walked up to the piano. Mind you a beautiful woman and dressed in such angelic clothing! She said:

"I've never ever heard such beautiful piano playing in my life." I asked where she was from... BORN IN SANTA FE NEW MEXICO and when she was 4 years old moved to NZ. Father is USA Mother is NZ.
We had a wonderful visit. One never ever knows how sound will touch a certain individual and why they are in the room at that particular moment in time...

The earth quake in Japan is horrendous. It is alarming because it awakens all of us to the fact mother earth is reclaiming her domain.

America is far from broke... it is a capitalistic mega power that depends on oil, and other minerals that are controlled by a very small and most powerful group of people... they control everything... democracy is a big front for some amazing things...

When you start breathing radiation and a few other things besides the shit we already are breathing, take a deep breath and think: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I can explain it to ya.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Suicide

A few days ago... I was given the news about a young man that had died due to an over does of drugs and alcohol... SUICIDE.

When I was around 14 a very close friend of mine committed suicide. We had seen each other the night before the event... He was depressed. I was very naive and did not understand many of the things he was telling me... Next day he was found inside the garage of his home inside a car with a hose running from the exhaust pipe of the inside of the car via the window of the seat he was sitting in.

Asphyxiation is not pretty... Your skin changes color etc... He did leave a suicide note... (I have not a clue where that letter is now...) I do know that RELIGION and DOGMA had 99% to do with this tragedy.

Many people still ache and hurt over this ordeal which shook the hell out of a little Mormon farming community... Harsh words from a stupid BISHOP... worse, harsh words from a father that did not understand what what going on and most of... the

AMAZING FEAR THAT EVERYONE COULD NOT PUT INTO WORDS: THE YOUNG MAN HAD TAKEN HIS VERY OWN LIFE INTO HIS OWN HANDS... HE WAS NOT AFRAID TO DIE RATHER THAN TO FACE OTHER HORRIBLE SITUATIONS LATER IN HIS LIFE AND MOST OF ALL HE PROVED THAT DEATH EQUALIZES US ALL... rich, famous, old, unknown, wonderful and loved beyond imagination we all DIE...
He saved many people from suffering... his siblings, his friends, his church, his school... why? IF HE HAD LIVED FOR MANY YEARS another story could and would have been written! Now in hindsight, he saved a hell of a lot of drama in the family...

Things aren't all so TANGIBLE and SYABLE as people waould usually have us believe.
Most expiences are UNSAYABLE.
THEY HAPPEN IN A SPACE THAT NO WORD HAS ENTERED< and more UNDSAYABLE THAN ALL OTHER THINGS ARE WORKS OF ART, THOSE MYSTERIOUS EXISTENCES, WHO'S LIFE ENDURES BESIDE OUR OWN SMALL TRANSITORY LIFE.

Human beings amaze me at times... to think we short lived humans have the arrogance to even think WE can OFFEND this GOD that created this planet and all the life that endures... We are really something...

I was in Viet Nam three times... I saw some stunning things... I also know of a few men that committed suicide. WHY? They KNEW and still KNOW something WE DO NOT KNOW! They were brave beyond poloticians, egos, religions, philosopy... they were brave beyond my imagination... they knew something... something you and I do not know... May the universe forever bless those brave men and woman that have crossed over by their own means... I DO NOT BELIEVE IN SUFFERING and MAKING OTHER'S SUFFER... I believe in life eternal.