Little Hymn on Bluethner

Great as usual, Hugh. I love the spare, uncrowded form of this piece. It has plenty of melody, a very nice one in fact, harmony and rhythm, the three things that pretty much define music, but without any grandiose arrangement (like Liszt excelled at).

When I think of a great tune like the famous theme in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, in one's mind what tends to stand out are the simple but beautiful melody, a simple form of the harmonic support (not necessarily the arpeggiated piano bass figure) and the propulsive rhythm (**.*|.*.*| etc. with asterisks representing the accented beats), and without all the extra notes Rachmaninov, although skilfully and wonderfully, worked into his pieces to give intricacy and interest to the musical fabric he was weaving (so to speak).

I'm also reminded of Grieg's Piano Concerto, where one of the most striking, beautiful and memorable parts is one simple, fairly brief, sparse piano theme, played with little orchestral support.

Anyway, wonderful, thanks for posting.

Stephen_Doonan wrote:

honjr wrote:

I think Hank Williams said, in effect, pieces are not written, they are given.

By the way, how do you get along with the Sennheiser HD600's? I have the 650's, which are great.

I like the Sennheiser HD600's very much, although I have also read great things about the 650's.

Regarding Hank Williams' quote and creativity in general, I guess I have thought a lot about the subject during my life. Sometimes, when I have created something (art or music), the product seems to be greater than my conscious abilities, as though I have exceeded myself somehow. However, after a time, when I continue to think about what I have done or created, I begin to develop the understanding and insight into how it was created, after-the-fact, and can then use that insight, that understanding, to create new pieces.

However, even when I am consciously engaged in what I am doing, using what I have already learned, I try to be as open to spontaneity as possible, in order to find new things, explore new territory at the limits of my abilities and perception, that I can later gently ponder for additional knowledge, insight and understanding to further my own exploration and efforts.

In my opinion, in order to create something that seems greater than oneself, one must tap into, momentarily at least, the more experienced and developed self that already knows how to do that. Becoming that self is my ideal goal. The two great goals in life in my opinion are health (in all of its forms) and creativity, which are interlinked (health is a creative process and creativity is a healthy process). Achievement of any sort is made possible by and is dependent upon those two fundamental dynamic attributes of consciousness.

Anyway, just a personal view, and probably too much for this particular discussion. I get a little carried away sometimes.
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