@CodingItWrong@mastodon.technology congratulations!

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108957821540335872

It’s been a solid couple #dailypiano weeks of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. I sorta want to get into something else. But when flipping through scores keeps turning up gems I’ve not yet heard, it’s hard to step away.

Here’s another: Op. 43 #5 Erotikk (“Erotikon”). https://youtu.be/djzrKDOFFjY

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108952713369697478

Before we head out for the day, here’s a quick phone recording of Grieg’s Op. 71 #1 Der var engang (“Once upon a time”).

https://youtu.be/CWGR_Y2IJCE

#dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalmusic #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg #lyricpieces

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108940377541578690

Today’s Grieg Lyric Piece is the Op. 38 #1 Berceuse. It rocks, in the back-and-forth sense. https://youtu.be/atR9sRhlJZQ #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #piano #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108934864106984202

Home from driving around a sick kid for an hour’s nap, with a few minutes before everyone’s quiet time, here’s an almost-but-not-quite-solo reading of Grieg’s Lyric Piece Op. 43 #2 Ensom vandrer (“Solitary traveler”).

https://youtu.be/W6Zz5EaAkTs

#dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #piano #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108929826447971331

@ryan_harg 💖

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108929824396076359

Today’s #dailypiano #pianominiature was selected from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces to appeal maximally to my dad’s musical tastes, and was embargoed until he and I could listen to it together — several times. Success!

Grieg’s Op. 65 #5 I balladetone (“Ballad”): https://youtu.be/eeAw66MIqIU

#piano #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108925246482508073

For today’s #dailypiano #pianominiature, it’s yet another old favorite of mine from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces: Op. 71 #6 Forbi (“Gone”). Not a lot of notes, but some of them are C#, and the rest are tricky to hold together on the maybe 5th read-through.

https://youtu.be/eAYlrvgpa4w #piano #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108918425737562097

Another Grieg Lyric Piece that I’m playing for the first time today, acquired quickly thanks to decades of listening: Op. 54 #4, Notturno (“Nocturne”).

https://youtu.be/HVMYfxetZRc

#dailypiano #piano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108912807509600301

Hoo boy, today’s #dailypiano #pianominiature could REALLY use a C# that works. And maybe some more nuance in the keyboard action. (And more technique, but let’s be realistic.)

Grieg Lyric Pieces, Op. 68 No. 5, Bådnlåt (“At the cradle”):

https://youtu.be/o1EV-MKOyRY

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108906811845631800

Yesterday was #playmusicontheporchday. Today, we’re back to one (and only one) #dailypiano #pianominiature from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, another that I’ve known and loved and am finally playing with my own two human hands: Op. 47 #3 “Melodi”. https://youtu.be/2JM6ORSxKxM

#pianominiatures #piano #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108900920149884408

For #playmusicontheporchday I sat out on the almost-porch and played for a couple hours. Medtner, Alkan, Satie, Grieg, Rachmaninov, and Schumann. Maybe there's a piece you'd want to hear again, after I've worked on it. 🤪 #classicalmusic #classicalpiano

https://youtu.be/rhLZjKO5NXU

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108898152341273435

It’s #playmusicontheporchday! I won’t be playing music on the porch. Piano’s in the adjoining room, though, and the windows’ll be open.

For those of you not in my neighborhood, follow my Twitch to be notified when I’m playing: https://www.twitch.tv/schmonzie #dailypiano

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108892934518962327

Here’s one of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces that I’ve heard (and loved) for decades. Finally putting hands to Op. 57 #6, Heimweh (“Homesickness”). Hands are pretty happy. What differences in style do you notice from the earlier Op. 12 works?

https://youtu.be/bdNng0lclOo #dailypiano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108890113947190102

Just an ordinary neighborhood omen. I like how this one’s boding.

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108885762415335864

Continuing my discovery-by-hands of Grieg’s Op. 12 Lyric Pieces, here’s #5 Folkevise (“Popular melody”). Characteristic of this thread, we really miss that C#. #piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

https://youtu.be/lDp4mZs39Kw

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108884235754671117

Getting a kick out of playing music I’ve never met; equivalently, out of meeting music by playing it. My first read-through of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces Op. 12 #4 Alfedans (“Elves’ Dance”) was almost as good as this one. What even is going on here. #dailypiano #pianominiatures #grieg https://youtu.be/N5FSOh1jyAo

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108878587231819827

Yesterday’s #dailypiano was a new and exciting formula:

1. Share myself playing something I’ve never heard
2. Find a recording and see how I did

So here’s another of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces I’m not familiar with: Op. 12 #3 Vektersang (“Watchman’s Song”).

https://youtu.be/BFzYtryY71s

#piano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108873885068608550

Brought my folks the “complete” Daily Piano Miniatures on 3 audio CDs. They’ve been having a listening party.

Today’s Grieg Lyric Piece is Op. 12 #2, Vals (“Waltz”), and a #dailypiano #pianominiature first: to my knowledge, I’ve never heard it before.

https://youtu.be/0v_7AG6V5-8

#piano #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108868419903557733

It’s gonna be a tricky couple weeks for #dailypiano, with camp over and school not yet in session. I’m counting on Grieg’s Lyric Pieces to be simple and forgiving enough. Here’s the first one from the first set, Op. 12: “Arietta”.

https://youtu.be/Ah0NNxBXayE

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #grieg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108861711982518808

Until we meet Alkan again, here’s not a Prélude but an Op. 63 Esquisse (sketch), the fourth, called “Les Cloches”. I wonder if Mompou, from a family of bell makers, was familiar with this one.

https://youtu.be/V8fEnlBNa9c

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108856891998254090

We’ll wrap up our visit with Alkan tomorrow. But first, let’s bring back some weird.

Op. 31 #22 “Anniversaire” starts Baroque and ends in the parallel major (redolent of that era, sort of). In between, it’s all newer harmonies and odder progressions.

https://youtu.be/5tZW7a51Hvg

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108850453648028447

Yesterday we had Alkan’s version of western art music’s Baroque style. Today we have his take on Classical (which as a term of art refers to a much narrower period than “classical music”). Like jumping from Bach to Mozart, except it’s one 19th-century guy.

https://youtu.be/yvTQ97PosKE

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108844538946378595

To myself, I usually sound like “guy who loves the piano.” No shame in that. But this time I sound almost like “poorly recorded pianist.”

Not sure I’ve ever heard myself this way. Digging it.

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108841079060539202

Alkan’s apparent naïveté, as mentioned previously, is faux. Here’s an example of how we know what he knows. Prélude Op. 31 #3, “Dans le genre ancien” (“In the old style”): https://youtu.be/Mc9SVAznMzs

#dailypiano #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #baroque #romanticism #piano #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108839229503153140

Here’s another video (less than 20 minutes) of what the #dailypiano learning looks like, showing a bit of deliberate practice followed by a bit of immediate improvement. https://youtu.be/06voBmgnYsg

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108835443528887698

If I were one for morning prayer, I guess I’d need it to be short, optimistic, short, pleasant, short, formulaic, and short. Here’s Alkan’s Prelude Op. 31 #19, “Prière du matin”. https://youtu.be/i2lHLTUJS_Q #piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108833432029854836

Some reflections after nearly three months of daily piano miniatures: https://schmonz.com/2022/08/15/daily-piano-miniatures

#dailypiano #pianominiatures #mindset

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108828396529995716

Based on the name (“I was asleep, but my heart was watching”), this could be my family’s theme song.

I was playing quietly, but my iPad auto-gain was engaging. Imagine this in a concert hall, each chord eking out its tiny sonority atop the last.

https://youtu.be/RlqxC4l1Px4

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108827497677806877

A pivotal moment in schmonzdom: on the merits of this recital I played in hopes of getting some tuition money, uni accepted me as a music major. Problem is, I hadn’t wanted that. I wanted CS classes more than anything and my advisor from the music dept couldn’t get me into those.

I frazzled out at that uni, and almost certainly would have regardless of which courses I took.

8 years later I tried uni again somewhere else, and at that point music WAS what I wanted to study. I graduated at 30 with a bachelor’s in it.

I also graduated with a changed belief.

My belief at the time of this 1997 recital, and at the beginning of the 2005-6 school year: reading music is an aptitude, I lack it, and I compensate well enough by memorizing quickly.

My belief a few years later: sight-reading is a skill. By practicing, I’ll get better at it.

All that seems obvious to me now, and it surely seemed obvious to you well before now. But young-musician-me had been resigned to playing only pieces that others could show me and help me with. I would never have believed a different experience were possible for me.

Lots of lessons in this: for me personally, for how I raise (and praise) my kids, for how I work in and with teams. Most of all: by changing a key belief, I changed how I relate to music. You’ve been seeing and hearing the fruits of that.

How did I get that belief to change? Well, that’s the magic, isn’t it. Lots of things had to change a little bit.

What else changed when I gave myself a more direct relationship to music-making? Another thing I never would have guessed: making more direct relationships with you.

In conclusion, behavior, conditions, beliefs, mindset, behavior, and so on, forever. But mainly, thanks for listening. And I don’t mean about the music. 💖

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108821961326383848

Here’s another sweet, utterly guileless Alkan #pianominiature. The Frenchman wrote other pieces called “Berceuse” so I have no idea why my score says this one’s “Wiegenlied”. It’s also marked Doucement AND Dolce. Simplest explanation: a Swiss conspiracy.

https://youtu.be/JK4pV5TE6hU

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108817382074577626

Occasionally you reach the end of an Alkan piece and realize that not one weird thing happened the whole time. Gotcha! _That’s_ what’s weird.

“Le Temps Qui N’est Plus” (“The Time Which Is No More”), Op. 31 #12 is one of these. Just gorgeous. Imagine if that D flat worked.

https://youtu.be/Bn4jUzXBGF4

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108810629940494978

Today’s weird Alkan (approximately “Song of the Madwoman on the Seashore”) has a bass ostinato of closely spaced chords, begging for better sonics, while also being the longest stretch of music I’ve ever played with my arms this far apart. https://youtu.be/7zSIVtwcoiM #piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108805051064606028

Both Alkans are always weird. Today we get jarring major-minor shifts, unmitigated tritones, oddly emphasized third and seventh scale degrees, the occasional parallel fifth, and two distinct alternating styles (I might dub them “Jewish” and “European”).

https://youtu.be/KUATWYaOrq4

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108799571897006026

I’d need at least a few years’ prep time to acquire the technique to attempt torrential-Alkan, so for #dailypiano #pianominiatures I’ll be playing the other kind. Today’s Alkan is another of the Op. 31 Préludes, this time #4 “Prière Du Soir”.

#pianominiature #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

https://youtu.be/xxxPS8kBrFM

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108793708081858405

This week in #dailypiano #pianominiatures, let’s do some Alkan.

Oversimplifying, there are two Alkans:

1. Torrential, as if Beethoven were a drug and Liszt were high on it
2. Sweetly naïve, or seemingly so

Here’s the first of Alkan’s Op. 31 Préludes:

https://youtu.be/tbazyXVawGk

#pianominiature #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #alkan

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108787709137539323

We complete Schumann’s Kinderszenen today with the enigmatic “Der Dichter Spricht”. New composer coming Monday!

https://youtu.be/7EaxigmfABk

#dailypiano #piano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108776468895756049

@joeyh sweet

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108770766648093565

“Kind im Einschlummern” is our eternal Wunsch für our Kinder. Maybe tonight can be the night.

It’s also the penultimate of Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Let yourself drift off with it.

https://youtu.be/PnP72ZjATYk

#dailypiano #piano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108770764661708489

We’re nearing the end of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, so I’ll have to figure out where our next batch of #dailypiano will come from.

Time enough for one take today. By definition, therefore, it’s good enough. Here’s “Fürchtenmachen” (“Frightening”): https://youtu.be/A4gNzAGnLmE

#piano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108765769469627400

“Fast zu Ernst” was relatively tricky for me to understand, so I worked (relatively) hard to untangle it. I think I finally got the idea. A C-sharp would really help on this one, but your ear will imagine it anyway.

#piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

https://youtu.be/OacCm8VxnyE

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108759421934730278

Schumann’s Kinderszenen-a-day continues with “Ritter vom Steckenpferd” (“Knight of the Hobby-Horse”). In the second-section repeat you’ll see the moment when I realize I now know the notes and had better watch my hands instead. You’ll hear the difference, too. #piano #dailypiano #pianominiature #pianominiatures #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

https://youtu.be/WhhgSrCR9-g

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108754323448628631

“Am Kamin” is much harder to tame and much less striking to hear. But it’s shorter, so it’s got that going for it. And it’s still Schumann. #dailypiano #pianominiatures #piano #classicalpiano #classicalmusic #romanticism #schumann

https://youtu.be/Wu1dKNrfyaw

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108748593192869635

If you’d previously heard only one #pianominiature from Schumann’s Kinderszenen, it’s surely this one. “Träumerei” is famous in part because it doesn’t need to be played terribly well to sound terribly beautiful. Which comes in handy right about now.

https://youtu.be/-1o91CKEfJo

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108743631396820285

I did not know this was a name I could have. I don’t have it, but I could.

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108733581898403759

Today’s bit of Schumann’s Kinderszenen didn’t take many run-throughs to memorize. It’s “Wichtige Begebenheit”, and its job is to succinctly herald its Important Event and promptly and courteously withdraw.

https://youtu.be/iKZvQUh9WT4

#dailypiano #pianominiatures #schumann

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108731141263468477

A couple days ago, “Hasche-Mann”’s technical details took enough work that I wound up memorizing it. Came close with today’s #pianominiature from Schumann’s Kinderszenen, “Glückes Genug” (“Happy Enough”), a strong contender for the most Germanic sentiment possible.

https://youtu.be/YaGMYiRKPI8

#dailypiano #pianominiatures #classical #piano #classicalmusic #schumann

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108725708084365217

Next up from Schumann’s Kinderszenen: “Bittendes Kind”. #dailypiano #pianominiatures

https://youtu.be/U2H-l59RoUw

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108721543982353625

The next scene in Kinderszenen is even shorter: less than a minute! Here’s my approximation of “Hasche-Mann”. #dailypiano #pianominiatures

https://youtu.be/cDHbwCaqJiA

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108714288734592502

A couple of those Bowen pieces were downright long. We’re on a mission to bring the average track length back down, and thanks to Schumann’s Kinderszenen we’re going to succeed. Here’s the second one, “Kuriose Geschichte”: https://youtu.be/4tNKFgMgM70

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original post: https://octodon.social/@schmonz/108708643704265585