A musical entry

Fumbling with the kitchen radio, Thomas found an all-new radio channel for us - it's a foreign station, maybe Slovenian? Anyway, so the soundtrack of our home no longer includes sugary teen pop stars sounding like somebody is trying to strangle them; instead, we've got great oldies like the Beatles and Elvis Presley to cook along to. All I can say is I hope I don't ever have to listen to any more Austropop at home. Let's not even go there!

Okay, so I might have been too hasty when I flatly crushed Schumann's choral music in this blog some entries ago. I got interested in some of his pieces for double chorus a cappella in a rehearsal of a choir where I'm sort of "assisting" (that includes working as a stand-in bass, accompanist and conducter all in one rehearsal) and yesterday I bought a brand-new recording of Schumann's a cappella output. It's not Brahms, but it'll do!

I just came home from our Kammerchor-rehearsal. We have a concert in January and there are a lot of evening- and night-related pieces in the programme, including an international selection of lullabies. I thought I was going to make a really intellectual impression when I walked up to my teacher after the rehearsal and suggested that the concert should be titled "Night". Well, as it turned out, that was the precise title of the concert, decided ages ago, and the pieces had been chosen based on it. I responded with a blank look, felt slightly embarassed, and walked home. When I just can't laugh at myself anymore I know I must be really tired.

Ligeti's "Reggel": one of the more meditative and tender endings in 20th century a cappella literature.