citizens of day and night
Oct. 8th, 2021 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomi・An interesting day last week for the orchestra second generation. I’ve known Y-ko, the daughter of my fellow cellist T, since she was a gawky amiable four-year-old; this week she got accepted (very early!) to art school and I’m delighted. (Maybe she’ll end up a famous mangaka? She is a Yuri on Ice fangirl among other things, and I’m still hoping to get her into Guardian one day.) At the other end of the kid range, our player-conductor H brought his two-year-old Yu-chan up to the podium with him during rehearsal. Yu-chan waved a pen around (“Which conductor should we follow?” from R in the trombones, very drily), hung onto his dad’s leg, walked in circles, rattled the fire extinguisher on the wall (everyone in the front row stops playing: “Yu-chan, no!”), and sat down on the podium edge to gaze earnestly at M the concertmaster (I see your point, kiddo, he’s a fine violinist with beautiful eyes). Possibly not conducive to concentration during rehearsal, but very entertaining.
・Oh dear, I suspect part of my Yuletide requests this year will fall under “cdrama weird antagonistic side characters edition.” I mean...nobody actually said I can’t (separately) request both Huo Daofu from LTR and Wang Shi’an from The Rebel...? (I’m not really under the impression that anyone is likely to write Wang Shi’an fic, but I remain so fascinated by him that I might as well go ahead and make the gesture.)
・Some very kind person went through and left kudos on, I think, every single one of my Guardian fics, even my poor unregarded Lin Jing one, which was a very nice boost. I keep meaning to be better about kudos and commenting, oh dear.
・Rereading Jane Langton’s The Astonishing Stereoscope, which has to be one of the most, well, astonishing children’s books about religion ever written. It’s funny (“’The whole thing is just chemistry,’ [Aunt Alex] mumbled to herself, running her finger down the recipe. ‘Simply a matter of applying heat and cold to various compounds to achieve a change of state. Now what on earth does “cream the butter” mean? I’d better look it up. I hope it’s in this dictionary of Pictish and Proto-Saxon.’”) and painful (Eddy’s and Eleanor’s guilt is so, so well described), and it uses the most straightforward of vocabulary and phrasing to evoke the numinous with incredible vividness, without ever pinning itself down to any one faith. “This party of four is hereby declared free citizens of day and night, and of the top and the bottom of the infinite firmament, and it shall therefore be accorded all the rights and privileges belonging thereunto.”
・laireshi reminded me that the Chopin Competition is happening now, and so I’ve been listening to Chopin all week. I don’t have a very good ear for distinguishing between pianists, just occasional moments of “wait, no, why would you pick that phrasing” or “ooh that’s nice, that’s just how I like it,” but it’s an education. They also interviewed a previous winner, my pianist-crush Seong-Jin Cho, who just seems like a very low-key, likable, thoughtful guy as well as a stunning musician. I liked this idea of interpretation, with regard to writing etc. as well:
E.B.: What is your attitude to Chopin’s music today? Has it changed in the six years since the Chopin Competition?
S.J.C.: I think, I haven’t tried to change my interpretation, but with interpreting music it is like with a face: you don’t recognise that you’re getting older, but other people tell you, that ‘Oh, you’re changing’. I didn’t intend to get old, but it is what it is... It is the same with an interpretation.
And (reposted from elsewhere because it still makes me laugh), this Z1L-esque earnest missing the point:
E.B.: If you could advise or wish something for the young pianists who are participating in this Chopin Competition, what would you say to them?
S.J.C.: I’m still a young pianist, I could participate again. I don’t have any such advice for my colleagues, but Warsaw in October was colder than I expected and I was a little dismayed at the beginning. So it may be a good idea to take many warm clothes for such cold weather.
[Is this entry annoying to read in terms of length, by the way? Let me know if I should put in a cut somewhere.]
Photos:
Be safe and well.
・Oh dear, I suspect part of my Yuletide requests this year will fall under “cdrama weird antagonistic side characters edition.” I mean...nobody actually said I can’t (separately) request both Huo Daofu from LTR and Wang Shi’an from The Rebel...? (I’m not really under the impression that anyone is likely to write Wang Shi’an fic, but I remain so fascinated by him that I might as well go ahead and make the gesture.)
・Some very kind person went through and left kudos on, I think, every single one of my Guardian fics, even my poor unregarded Lin Jing one, which was a very nice boost. I keep meaning to be better about kudos and commenting, oh dear.
・Rereading Jane Langton’s The Astonishing Stereoscope, which has to be one of the most, well, astonishing children’s books about religion ever written. It’s funny (“’The whole thing is just chemistry,’ [Aunt Alex] mumbled to herself, running her finger down the recipe. ‘Simply a matter of applying heat and cold to various compounds to achieve a change of state. Now what on earth does “cream the butter” mean? I’d better look it up. I hope it’s in this dictionary of Pictish and Proto-Saxon.’”) and painful (Eddy’s and Eleanor’s guilt is so, so well described), and it uses the most straightforward of vocabulary and phrasing to evoke the numinous with incredible vividness, without ever pinning itself down to any one faith. “This party of four is hereby declared free citizens of day and night, and of the top and the bottom of the infinite firmament, and it shall therefore be accorded all the rights and privileges belonging thereunto.”
・laireshi reminded me that the Chopin Competition is happening now, and so I’ve been listening to Chopin all week. I don’t have a very good ear for distinguishing between pianists, just occasional moments of “wait, no, why would you pick that phrasing” or “ooh that’s nice, that’s just how I like it,” but it’s an education. They also interviewed a previous winner, my pianist-crush Seong-Jin Cho, who just seems like a very low-key, likable, thoughtful guy as well as a stunning musician. I liked this idea of interpretation, with regard to writing etc. as well:
E.B.: What is your attitude to Chopin’s music today? Has it changed in the six years since the Chopin Competition?
S.J.C.: I think, I haven’t tried to change my interpretation, but with interpreting music it is like with a face: you don’t recognise that you’re getting older, but other people tell you, that ‘Oh, you’re changing’. I didn’t intend to get old, but it is what it is... It is the same with an interpretation.
And (reposted from elsewhere because it still makes me laugh), this Z1L-esque earnest missing the point:
E.B.: If you could advise or wish something for the young pianists who are participating in this Chopin Competition, what would you say to them?
S.J.C.: I’m still a young pianist, I could participate again. I don’t have any such advice for my colleagues, but Warsaw in October was colder than I expected and I was a little dismayed at the beginning. So it may be a good idea to take many warm clothes for such cold weather.
[Is this entry annoying to read in terms of length, by the way? Let me know if I should put in a cut somewhere.]
Photos:
Be safe and well.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-09 09:07 am (UTC)I think you might like the Langton book! As noted in other comments here, it's actually #3 in quite a long series (although the ones I really like are #1 through #3); if you have a chance to come across them, let me know what you think.