Mozart's Bassoon Concerto

At lunch today, a couple of residents who sat down at my table started talking about their favorite music, sort of singing a bit of a song they liked.  But they both looked rather blank when I said my favorite is Mozart's Bassoon Concerto.  (Click on the labels below, if you want to hear a version of it that I have shared before about bassoons and Mozart.)  I'm not sure my two friends even know what a bassoon is, but it's what I used to play years ago  When I came back to my apartment, I called my friend Ginny in Tallahassee.  We played together in high school, and she now plays clarinet in the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra.

Mozart's Bassoon Concerto ~ my favorite music

For those of you who don't already know, I used to play the bassoon,

though I was never THIS good and never got to play this particular piece.

Listen to the music!

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession ~ by Daniel J. Levitin, 2007, music and science, 322 pages

This is an eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.  Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music — its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it — and the human brain.  Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin says that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language.  Drawing on research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, he reveals:

• How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world.

• Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre.

• That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise.

• How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head.

Right to Read Day ~ and Café Concert by Joe Taylor

Joe Taylor will be singing in a Café Concert for us today.  Click on the red arrow to hear him sing "What Happened to the Old Songs" that he composed in 1999.  Or view this on YouTube by clicking HERE.

The American Library Association announced a "national day of action" in defense of libraries and the freedom to read, designating April 24, the Monday of this year's National Library Week, as Right to Read Day.

How motivated are you today?

I'm motivated to keep exercising.  How do you exercise?  Besides walking, how else are you staying fit?  One possibility is this challenge from SilverSneakers designated the Move Better, Feel Better Challenge.

I'm motivated to practice playing the piano . . . and to teach Debbie as much as she wants to know about it.  Maybe next time, I'll show her these B-notes:  B natural, B flat, B sharp, and B quiet.  Do you read music?  Do you "get" what this joke is about?

B minor, added at 8:30 pm.

Monday Music ~ with Gail and Emily and Dora

Emily playing "our" piano

Friday
Gail asked me if I could read music.  I took piano lessons at the age of five and played bassoon in the Chattanooga Youth Symphony as well as my school's concert band and orchestra.  Gail wants me to teach her to play the piano.  I'm willing.  When I suggested a book for beginners, Gail was able to find a copy at the Barnes and Noble near us, and her daughter will pick it up.  Crown Center has two pianos we can use.  I gave my piano to Emily when I moved to St. Louis, since I was afraid playing would disturb my neighbors in an apartment building.  The first year I was here, I'd go down and practice on the piano in the Weinberg Lounge after 9:00 pm, when events are over and I wouldn't bother anyone.  Robert, evening support staff at that time, would leave the door open so he could hear me play while he was at the link desk.

Me playing my piano in 2010

Saturday
I heard Dora playing the piano near the fitness center in the Tallin building and went to listen.  She's one of our Russian residents, who told me months ago that she studied piano at the Conservatory.  We talked, even though she claims her English isn't good (it is), and she wanted to hear me play.  I didn't keep up my late night practicing downstairs, so my fingers have forgotten the melodies I once knew.  I stumbled around on the keyboard, playing for Dora without music, as I tried to remember pieces I'd memorized decades ago.  My music sits idle on a bookshelf.  I miss playing.  I need to save up to buy an electronic keyboard, so I can wear earphones and play without disturbing my neighbors.

Mine looks a lot like this one

Sunday
I got down my cedar flute to play "Whippoorwill" by R. Carlos Nakai, the one song I've memorized for wooden flute.  Here's the composer playing it on YouTube.  I know only the slow part that he plays at the beginning (0:55 to 2:05), which is all that's on page 63 of The Art of the Native American Flute by R. Carlos Nakai, 1996.

Monday
Apparently music is in my bones, and I need to let it out.  I've got to get a keyboard soon!  In the meantime, I could pull out that book of music and play my cedar flute.  (And go downstairs to practice the piano.)

*** Another variation of Carlos Nakai playing "Whippoorwill," which was posted on YouTube in 2018.  I think I like it better.  Here's a third YouTube version from 2015, and a livelier 2018 YouTube version.