Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Where Am I?

As I prepared to leave for work today I thought again of Debussy. I fell in love with The String Quartet in G minor when I first heard this. Combing through the classical portion of my CD collection I could not find it today so I settled for Bartok. In the car I realized that my copy is on cassette, one of the reasons I have not heard this in some time.

When I came home I was still thinking of Debussy and thought I might need to make a trip to the Music Library to look at scores. Then I decided to search the internet and minutes later I had a pdf downloaded and an mp3 from legit sources. This was one of those moments when the opportunities for learning that are in front of us these days is staggering. Now I'm not great at reading scores much less following along with the music being played but I now have an opportunity to improve this if I choose.

While practicing with the guitar tonight I decided to review Broken Wing. After I had notated the chord structures for this piece the night it came out, suddenly it is nowhere to be found. I even checked the mixed paper recycling that I'll be putting out in the morning. What a world I have created, where in seconds I can download works of others and at the same desk can not find my own. Help!

2 comments:

  1. Wrote my thesis on Debussy (and Gaughin and the Symbolist Poets) way back when. Love Debussy's music. Love Bartok's quartets too and would not call it settling to listen to one instead of Debussy, but then when one wants to hear that particular shimmer....well...

    I love where you are pointing. How easy it is to find information about everyone and everything and how we can so easily lose ourselves in it.

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  2. "Settled" was not a good choice of a word for Bartok. Rather I was in a bit of a hurry but did want to continue in the vein that arose with the Bill Evans work. I recall reading how Bartok awaited the scores of Debussy to see what he was doing musically.

    I love the Bartok String Quartets, particularly # 5 & 6. i am wondering if I can hear an influence of Debussy on Bartok. Would ne interested in reading your thesis.

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