March 10, 2006
Für Elise
Music - One of my favorite pieces of classic music is Beethoven's Für Elise. This past week Amazon shipped us Baby Einstein's newest foray into toddler hypnosis with Meet The Orchestra. Timothy, a fan of all 800+ voices built into our Yamaha Clavinova piano, loves this DVD because of all of the instruments they show and play. I love the DVD because it has this cool version of Für Elise. I ripped an excerpt from the DVD. First you hear the original, then an improvised piano version, and finally the improvised piano version with accompanying guitar. Do you think TJ and Cassidy can ever duet like that? It's got to be the 'hippest' version of the song I've ever heard.
Claire has three new music pieces she's working on this week. I recorded one into the piano but haven't made an MP3 recording of it. I'm hoping to record her other two songs into the piano this weekend. I haven't spent much time on the piano these past few weeks and am missing playing with it and helping Claire practice.
Misc - Other than that... hey, it's Friday. I don't have to commute to Marlborough tomorrow! The dining room table came in yesterday and looks nice. I'll see if I can put up a few pictures this weekend. Tomorrow I think I'll also be on a new mailbox hunt. It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow — sunny and in the 50's. Where was this when the folks were visiting!?
Abortion - I saw this story on Opinion Journal's Best of the Web yesterday. It talks about a lawsuit where a men's group is claiming that men should also have a choice in regards to whether to support a child in an expected pregnancy. It goes on to quote:
The gist of the argument: If a pregnant woman can choose among abortion, adoption or raising a child, a man involved in an unintended pregnancy should have the choice of declining the financial responsibilities of fatherhood. The activists involved hope to spark discussion even if they lose. (more at CNN)
While I do not support either unlimited abortion or "child support choice", I do hope that it does "spark discussion". It's odd that here in our developed country, a mother can end the life of her unborn child for any reason without legal consequence, but if the father merely withholds child support, he ends up before a judge.
I've always managed to dislike Fur Elise because as a child I was forced to listen to my uncle butcher it over and over on our spinet piano. But the versions you ripped sound a little more listenable.
Posted by: alicia at March 11, 2006 03:53 PMHi Alicia,
I'm sure that one or more of my siblings are probably tired of it as well. About 25 years ago I played it in a piano recital. They probably got tired of hearing me practice it too.
But yes, these versions sound like they would be a lot more fun to perform in front of an audience. I wonder if Beethoven would approve of the changes…
The Fur Elise was quite excellent! A bit of "Classical Gass" toward the end....
Posted by: Chris B at March 15, 2006 11:43 PMHi Chris B (friend, not brother),
Yep, it was a pretty cool version of an otherwise solemn classical number.
Send a little bit of that southwest heat back this way, will ya? In exchange, we'll stop using so much heating fuel and perhaps gas prices can come down...
Posted by: Scott at March 16, 2006 05:33 AM