The God Warrior

[donjuan]

it doesn't  mean anything until your life depends upon it. 

One could argue that 'your life depends upon it' only if you think it depends upon it.  In other words, you need God only if you think you need God.  Therefore, convince yourself you don't need God, and you won't!

to make things fair- we should have a video clip of some 'new age' meetings.

I like that idea.

[pianistimo]

if you are for 'rational thought' - explain what is 'rational' in new age philosophy.  it is inward and subconsiously driven - and is drivel in my book.

[donjuan]

if you are for 'rational thought' - explain what is 'rational' in new age philosophy.

Where in my posts did I claim to be a supporter of new age philosophy?  I don't know anything about it; it sounded like you did, so I was hoping you would explain it (or post videos, as you mentioned).

[pianistimo]

i don't think you picked the VERY BEST video to describe madness of thought.  maybe madness of action.  did you know the occult is very real?  otherwise, there would not be crazies who have followed the occult to extremes.  ie charles manson, adolph hitler, zodiac killer...etc.

one of my husband's friend's had a bad experience.  his wife started going to new age meetings and became suspicious of his intentions and changed her attitude, dress, demeanor, actions, superstitions - dramatically.  she divorced him within a year or so and has not been the same as a wife/mother to her children.  she is very inward. 

[thalbergmad]

one of my husband's friend's had a bad experience.  his wife started going to new age meetings and became suspicious of his intentions and changed her attitude, dress, demeanor, actions, superstitions - dramatically.  she divorced him within a year or so and has not been the same as a wife/mother to her children.  she is very inward. 

A friend of mine had a similar experience when his wife started to go to the Baptists.

Thal

[ahinton]

one of my husband's friend's had a bad experience.  his wife started going to new age meetings and became suspicious of his intentions and changed her attitude, dress, demeanor, actions, superstitions - dramatically.  she divorced him within a year or so and has not been the same as a wife/mother to her children.  she is very inward. 

A friend of mine had a similar experience when his wife started to go to the Baptists.

He might have had an even worse one if the Baptists had come to them.

I wonder if it will soon be "time" not for yet further additions to the omnipresent word-association thread but for a new thread which someone initiates by checking and reporting the number of appearances respectively of the name "God" and of the word "piano" on this forum and then throwing it open to discussion and debate. We know the identity of He who, it is said, sitteth on the right hand of God, yet he/she who sitteth (and occasionally standeth) on the left hand side of the piano is known merely as the page-turner; useful as the latter functionary often is, does this not strike some members as somehow inequitable?

Best,

Alistair

[pianowelsh]

What exactly do you find so replusive about Baptists may I ask?? Let it be clearly known that comments like that are close to the line. Let me be really clear Baptist churches do not sanction divorce. They certainly dont encourage it. Indeed most bible believeing churches wouldnt.  JPflorida et al.. Just a reminder that it really doesnt matter what percentage of the world is Christian and whether we are majority or as in places like N.Korea and Kyrgyzstan we are the minority and being persecuted If God is for us who can stand against us. They who are with us are more than are with them(the army of the Lord is numberless - im sure you guys know the story).

[penguinlover]

I am a Christian first, Baptist second.   If you want to know what we believe, ask me. I will try to answer.  Don't just randomly bash us, call us crazy, etc.  Really, some of us are actually nice folks.

[thalbergmad]

My experience of the Baptists after attending several "alpha" courses is that they are a bunch of happy clappy, tambourine banging mind benders.

The preacher in charge of the course publicly admitted that he told his own 15 year old daughter, that she would burn in hell if she did not accept Jesus as her saviour. What kind and loving people, not.

Hopefully they are not all like that, but it was enough to turn me off religion for a few years. This thread is enough to turn me off for life.

Thal

[ahinton]

My experience of the Baptists after attending several "alpha" courses is that they are a bunch of happy clappy, tambourine banging mind benders.

The preacher in charge of the course publicly admitted that he told his own 15 year old daughter, that she would burn in hell if she did not accept Jesus as her saviour. What kind and loving people, not.

Hopefully they are not all like that, but it was enough to turn me off religion for a few years. This thread is enough to turn me off for life.

Just as a matter of interest, what persuaded you to attend that course, Thal? Although I've never been on any such course, I have to admit that my own expeience of Baptists is almost exactly the same as Thal's and, whilst I would go farther than he does and assume that they surely CAN'T all be like that, this kind of attempted proselytising behaviour is just one thing that gives the practice of Christianity (as distinct from Christianity itself) a bad name; now I'd be the first to admit that this is not the fault of most Christians - still less is it Christ's fault - but it is also sadly true that such behaviour is not confined to those Chrstians of Baptist persuasion, for I have encountered it, in its various forms and guises, among Methodists and, to a lesser extent, Church of England and United Reformed Church folk, ALL of whom are, once again, "not like that". I've never personally encountered it among Roman Catholics, but I am aware that it has existed among Irish Roman Catholics in the past.

As to the mindless and unbearable happy-clappy guitar-playing praise-the-Lord persuasion which again affects not only many Baptists but also certain Methodists, United Reformed Church people and even some Church of England attendees, I find it anti-Christian and anti-religious, as though it somehow defiles - and perhaps even defames - the very thing that it is supposed to promulgate. As I have stated previously, I am not a Christian and I am likewise not an anti-Christian, but if ever I wish to attend a service in a Christian Church (which I very rarely do but which has been known) it is invariably sung High Mass in Latin. I cannot participate, of course, since, far from being confirmed in the Christian Church, I have not even been baptised in one, but at least I can accept and appreciate the dignity of such a service and recognise a desire to seek after something higher than temporal concerns. I can honestly say that on no occasion when I have attended a service in a Roman Catholic Church have any followers attempted to pressurise me into becoming a Christian, nor have I been frowned upon as an interloper. Indeed, the only time anyone questioned why I would not take Holy Communion and I explained why I was not entitled to do so, the only concern seemed to be that I might accordingly derive less from the service than those that did - no coercion or patronising attitude whatsoever.

I would doubt - or at least very much hope - that many Baptist ministers would never tell their own 15-year-old daughters that they would burn in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their saviour, but I imagine that those who would do such an unChristian thing would rarely cut any ice with such daughters, given the manifold influences upon those 15-year-olds from other sources; that in no wise excuses such behaviour, however - especially from a minister of the Christian Church.

Best,

Alistair

[jpianoflorida]

uh oh! the baptist debate!   Well I was baptist for 30 years, my parents and family still are....I converted to Presbyterian... half my friends are still baptist....You have to find what's right for you!  there are all kind of people and ideas in every religion...    but this is one topic I'm going to stay neutral on!   Because without you knowing me in person and knowing my experiences there is no way I could accurately post my thoughts. With all of us, we are going to judge based on our experiences that were usually with one or 2 churches, and that's not really fair to do!

[pianolist]

I'm with ahinton. I go to church services sometimes, not because I believe in God, but because I like to be with people when they share their gentleness, their aspirations towards some sort of dignity in what can be a very base worldly existence. As members of the ape family, we are born with a great deal of innate aggression, but if we are to to live in an organised society, we have to temper that aggression with co-operation and tolerance. We use our capitalist system to deflect the aggression into commercial competition.

Most of what I see in this thread is religion being used to further the aggression and the tribal concerns ("we are this, they are that"). People get aroused (and contribute to threads) far more when they can passionately disagree about some topic or other. That is exactly the behaviour of the chimps, and I am amazed that humans can be so self-deceiving that they don't perceive the intimate similarity. I am fairly gloomy about humanity, because certainly at the moment we do not seem to have the ability to grow beyond our self-destroying instincts, and we now have nuclear and biological weapons that smaller groups can use.

It is ironic that those who most fervently deny their ape-like ancestry are sometimes the ones who most ape the apes.

[thalbergmad]

Just as a matter of interest, what persuaded you to attend that course, Thal?

To cut a long story short, I had just been released from the "funny farm" after a short visit. A lady i worked with dragged me along to her Church and thence to an "alpha" course, with the suggestion that i might find some peace.

I was also taken to another Church in Maidstone, where the whole congregation started to faint at the altar and then proceeded to shake uncontrollably on the floor.

This did actually help as it clearly showed me that there were a lot of people more mentally ill than i was.

I am now thinking of joining the Jedi Knights. According to this mornings Daily Mail, there are already thousands of members in England. It could certainly no more strange than what i have previously experienced.

Thal

[pianowolfi]

I am now thinking of joining the Jedi Knights. According to this mornings Daily Mail, there are already thousands of members in England. It could certainly no more strange than what i have previously experienced.

Thal

What will your Mullah say to this, Thali?

[thalbergmad]

What will your Mullah say to this, Thali?

Good riddance probably.

Thal

[ahinton]

To cut a long story short, I had just been released from the "funny farm" after a short visit. A lady i worked with dragged me along to her Church and thence to an "alpha" course, with the suggestion that i might find some peace.

I was also taken to another Church in Maidstone, where the whole congregation started to faint at the altar and then proceeded to shake uncontrollably on the floor.

This did actually help as it clearly showed me that there were a lot of people more mentally ill than i was.

I am now thinking of joining the Jedi Knights. According to this mornings Daily Mail, there are already thousands of members in England. It could certainly no more strange than what i have previously experienced.

Thal

I am truly sorry to hear that you underwent the problems that you allude to (by implication here) - but as to joining some other group, why would you do this when you can (are surely already do) find far more that is of value to you in your pursuit of music and in practising the piano?

Best,

Alistair

[jpianoflorida]

to reply to the above...I think people all search for a connection to other people, to their world....piano is great! but I personally need interaction with other people and human contact.     If all I did was piano I would be miserable.

[thalbergmad]

I am truly sorry to hear that you underwent the problems that you allude to (by implication here) - but as to joining some other group, why would you do this when you can (are surely already do) find far more that is of value to you in your pursuit of music and in practising the piano?

Best,

Alistair

I did not really have a choice, hence my use of the word dragged and taken.

Religion is a bacillus that attacks when you are at your most vunerable.

Thal

[jpianoflorida]

I did not really have a choice, hence my use of the word dragged and taken.

Religion is a bacillus that attacks when you are at your most vunerable.

Thal

see that is very sad...and i know people who have had your experiences...    it makes the rest of us Christians look bad! but please believe me, we are not all that way!   My circle of Christian friends are very open minded, nice, pleasant, caring, etc...      But I also know people that you are talking about who are racist,narrowminded, etc., I hate that they give the rest of us a bad name!

[pianistimo]

ahinton has once again made me wonder if i am not totally alone in the world of making mental associations to things that seem 'off topic.'  and, yet, as it seems - 'page turners' now have(and alwas have had, to me) a higher status.  i mean, if it weren't for the page turners - what would we have?  of course on the opposite side of things - we have 'hit the fan.'  i suppose that improvisers wouldn't care if the music hit the fan and they would just keep on playing and not worry.

i sort of equate improvisers to baptists 'gone wild' - or probably more likely southern baptists of the wildly improved sort from the media in movies like 'brother, where art thou.'  and, strict anglicized churches with strict music reading.  of course, there are many 'inbetween' states as well.

if you haven't seen 'happy feet'  (a penguin movie) and see it for nothing less than learning a bit more toleration for the idiosyncracies of others (and the amazing computer graphics nowdays) - you have to see it.  it makes me realize that on this large earth we are as little specks of penguins - occasionally moving out of our particular ice pack and into someone else's territory.  when we no longer 'fit in' - we simply do something really crazy.  in the main characters instance - it is taking flying leaps/jumps off of icebergs from great heights.  thus, gaining back any lost repect for the widly bizarre behavior if nothing else. 

i never really thought of one's music philosophy matching their general personality and religious views sort of.  but, it kinda follows that if you are able to improvise - you're probably not going to be in a church that won't allow clapping or spontaneous shouts of 'amen.'  now, clapping leads to another thing entirely.  bodily movement.  you know, a little hip wiggling.  all this brings me back to that penguin movie.

[ahinton]

I did not really have a choice, hence my use of the word dragged and taken.

Religion is a bacillus that attacks when you are at your most vunerable.

Thal

OK - understood (and I think that I should indeed have understood that first time around) - but religion is only what you say it is when it is used as, for example, in the personal case to which you refer and, even then, only because the coercer is deliberately making it look like that in ored to try to satisfy his/her pesonal agenda. Correct me if you really believe that I am wrong here, but I cannot help but feel that you were pressed into being a victim not so much of religion as much of the person trying to pressurise you.

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

what thal needs  is a good experience. 

[ahinton]

ahinton has once again made me wonder if i am totally alone in the world of making mental associations to things that seem 'off topic.'  and, yet, as it seems - 'page turners' now have(and alwas have had, to me) a higher status.  i mean, if it weren't for the page turners - what would we have?  

As a casual glance at what I wrote would surely reveal, I did not undermine - nor did I seek to undermine - the rôle of the page-turner; indeed, I thought that I'd rather tended towards doing the opposite.

i sort of equate improvisers to baptists 'gone wild' - or probably more likely southern baptists of the wildly improved sort from the media in movies like 'brother, where art thou.'

On this basis, jazz musicians, Bach and Liszt would all qualify as some kind of "Baptists"; somehow, I don't quite see Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Art Tatum, Miles Davis, the composer of the Passions and B minor Mass and the composer of Totentanz, A Faust Symphony and Csardás Macabre as occupying such a rôle at all comfortably...

it kinda follows that if you are able to improvise - you're probably not going to be in a church that won't allow clapping or spontaneous shouts of 'amen.'
How does that follow? Plenty of musicians who improvise never attend any kind of church at all; furthermore, plenty of improvising musicians that do attend church from time to time do not usually do so for the purpose of playing their instruments or singing while there.

now, clapping leads to another thing entirely.  bodily movement.  you know, a little hip wiggling.

Does it? How, Why, Where? When? Is there reliable and incontrovertible scientific evidence? Do you accordingly expect churchgoers to end up wiggling themselves following - and as a direct consequence of - having clapped? Whatever your answers - if any - here, as long as they don't ever do it in front of me, that's OK, I guess - even though its inherent connection to genuine religious worship seems to me to be a greater mystery even than the "ways" in which it is said "God moves". That said, I have to confess that, as a composer, I am obviously not as interested in the apparent wigglings that may arise as a result of clapping as I am in what precedes the clapping and, if the piece before that clapping is one of mine, I'm always grateful for the clapping that follows it and I really don't need or expect any subsequent wigglings...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

what thal needs  is a good experience. 

No doubt - but we all need those, susanistimo dear!

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

i forthwith divide some homemade bread between you and sprinkle you with some cinnamon.   and, if i catch you and thal looking up and snickering during the prayer - i will grab the bread back and make you both start all over again.  that is...if i were responsible for you both having a 'good experience.'

[ahinton]

i forthwith divide some homemade bread between you and sprinkle you with some cinnamon.   and, if i catch you and thal looking up during the prayer - i will grab the bread back and make you both start all over again.

I'm sure that's very kind of you, susanistimo dear - and it would accordingly be most uncharacteristically churlish of me not to appreciate, at least in principle, the motivation for your generosity of spirit here - but it seems either that you have not read, or have deliberately overlooked, my earlier remark about not having been baptised into the Christian Church or that you are prepared equally deliberately to overlook the tenets of your Christian faith in your apparent willingness to proceed to break bread with a non-member (and I do not mean a non-member of this forum, as I expect you realise). Although you didn't mention the wine, I assume that this would follow in your proposed scenario and, if so, a Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses would do nicely, thank you.

Seriously, though, it is not for me to defile the sacrament either with the dubious humour - still less with my presence at its celebration where said presence is neither appropriate nor required.

Nice touch with the cinnamon, though - except, perhaps, that since some say that cinnamon is an aphrodisiac, it's probably better that you sprinkle it over the "sexual dysfunction" thread rather than this one...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

i forthwith divide some homemade bread between you and sprinkle you with some cinnamon.   and, if i catch you and thal looking up and snickering during the prayer - i will grab the bread back and make you both start all over again.  that is...if i were responsible for you both having a 'good experience.'

Your incoherent ramblings are more than sufficient to put me off religion for life.

Thal

[ahinton]

Your incoherent ramblings are more than sufficient to put me off religion for life.

Thal

Now, come on - hands off susanistimo, Thal! Where's your gentlemanly chivalry? (the kind of which you'd probably need abit if you really did go ahead and join those "Kinghts" you mentioned). You've already stated quite clearly that both the baptist preacher and this thread have already "put you off religion for life"...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

true Hinty, very true.

I have decided to join the Templars and hunt for the Holy Grail.

I is going to Glastonbury next month anyway, so might get lucky.

Thal

[ahinton]

true Hinty, very true.

I have decided to join the Templars and hunt for the Holy Grail.

I is going to Glastonbury next month anyway, so might get lucky.

Thal

I don't wish to spoil any part of your fun at the prospect of so doing before you've even set out on your quest in your new-found capacity of Knight Templar Sigismond of Schloss Thalberg (probably "Knight Errant" [pace Medtner] in your case), but any oboist could tell you what the Holy Grail is, even if they cannot actually lead you to it; it's the perfect double reed.

Glastonbury has, as no doubt you know, a famous tor, which no doubt it would do you the world of good to walk up and down a few times first, in order to render you fit for the quest. Once you've failed to find that perfect double reed, however, you may at least console yourself (if you wish) with the thought that Glastonbury is only a short distance from the city of Bath, so perhaps a visit to The Sorabji Archive on your way back to Le Fin des Graves might appeal?

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Most of what I see in this thread is religion being used to further the aggression and the tribal concerns ("we are this, they are that"). People get aroused (and contribute to threads) far more when they can passionately disagree about some topic or other. That is exactly the behaviour of the chimps, and I am amazed that humans can be so self-deceiving that they don't perceive the intimate similarity. I am fairly gloomy about humanity, because certainly at the moment we do not seem to have the ability to grow beyond our self-destroying instincts, and we now have nuclear and biological weapons that smaller groups can use.

Plenty of welcome, reasoned and non-combative good sense here, as usual - but why be "gloomy" about the fate of humanity when it includes people like you who are not only able to grow beyond those things but who have done so and can and do write about it as you have done here? Apparently, humanity also includes one human who is prepared momentarily to discard a certain vital tenet of her faith and offer Holy Communion to an infidel; now, bizarre as that may appear to some, one has to award such a gesture full marks for human generosity, surely?(!)...

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

as usual - i am on pianoforum instead of getting ready for a big night of liszt from a 'rock keyboardist.'  i am sort of reluctant to go and even less reluctant to eat - so i think i see where you are coming from, thal, when you feel uncomfortable about eating bread and being sprinkled by a person who in the real sense is probably some form of a baptist.  i mean, the main tenent of that faith is being baptized for the remission of sins.  perhaps this is uncomfortable thinking for you right now - but for me, it is feta comple.  is that how you spell it? 

ahinton really puts himself out to experience whatever there is to experience without much complaint.  in fact, suggesting the best wine to use with homemade bread.  if i weren't baptized - i'd drink the entire bottle with him - knowing that he'd probably pick a pretty good wine for the occasion.  and, prayers not being said for infidel parties - who knows what the cinnamon would lead to.  but, being of faith and waiting for a better party at the ressurrection - i leave the bottle after a glass for each of us - and pray for the both of you to dunk yourselves in the river sometime before the end of your lives.  perhaps even when you are old and simply taking a bath.  just ask the nearby local minister to dunk you completely - head and all - and say a quick prayer for your baptism in the name of the Father and Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.  this will assure your 'sealing' and recording in the book that God keeps on all of us.  there is the 'book of life' which records all the names of those who choose willingly to be 'with God.'

you can be sure, if it was up to me, you'd be soaking wet at sometime in your 'good experience.' 

[thalbergmad]

just ask the nearby local minister to dunk you completely - head and all - and say a quick prayer for your baptism in the name of the Father and Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

If any of those morons come anywhere near me again, it will be them getting a dunking.

I won't even tell you what i will do with the tambourine.

Thal

[ahinton]

as usual - i am on pianoforum instead of getting ready for a big night of liszt from a 'rock keyboardist.'  i am sort of reluctant to go and even less reluctant to eat - so i think i see where you are coming from, thal, when you feel uncomfortable about eating bread and being sprinkled by a person who in the real sense is probably some form of a baptist.  i mean, the main tenent of that faith is being baptized for the remission of sins.  perhaps this is uncomfortable thinking for you right now - but for me, it is feta comple.  is that how you spell it?

Bread and cheese now, is it? Well, sorry, but you did mention feta! What you meant to write was "fait accompli", which is French, unlike feta cheese, which is Greek. And by "tenent" I think you meant "tenet".

Does your sector of the Christian Church sanction women baptising people? (just curious); as I'm sure you know, there is a vast array of differences of opinion as to the "legitimate" rôle of women in the various branches of the Christian Church, so I have no idea whether even the one to which you personally subscribe approves of women serving the Church by giving Holy Communion. Not that it's really any of my business, of course...

ahinton really puts himself out to experience whatever there is to experience without much complaint.  in fact, suggesting the best wine to use with homemade bread.  if i weren't baptized - i'd drink the entire bottle with him - knowing that he'd probably pick a pretty good wine for the occasion.

Well, I'd try my best, of course - but please don't let this circumstance prompt you to consider blaming me (not that you are necessarily doing so) for your having been baptised! And why would your prior baptism into the Christian faith discourage you from sharing an entire bottle of fine wine? God gave us grapes, didn't He? And God made Man in his own image, so that Man could use God-given intelligence to figure out how best to grow, tend and work with grapes (not those of wrath, I mean - I was thinking rather more along the lines of pinot noir, which is a darn sight harder to deal with successfully than wrath any day).

and, prayers not being said for infidel parties - who knows what the cinnamon would lead to.

The top of a cappuccino?

but, being of faith and waiting for a better party at the ressurrection - i leave the bottle after a glass for each of us

Well, that's at least a darn sight better than what some Methodists of my insufficiently distant acquaintance would do - which is pass it up altogether. But you reckon that the resurrection (only one "s", please) will be "a better party", do you? You don't say whose resurrection, who's to organise the party or who will issue the invitations...

- and pray for the both of you to dunk yourselves in the river sometime before the end of your lives.  perhaps even when you are old and simply taking a bath.

Why do we have to get wet? Britain has more than enough rainfall as it is; one is often made very wet unless one goes out with a suitable umbrella. Although I live in the city of Bath, I never take a bath, by the way; I always have a shower.

just ask the nearby local minister to dunk you completely - head and all - and say a quick prayer for your baptism in the name of the Father and Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why a "minister", specifically? (i.e. the kind of person that officiates in what we call a "non-conformist" - i.e. protestant but not establishment - Church over here); not a "priest" (Roman Catholic) or a "vicar" (Church of England)? Anyway, I reckon that if I were to ask any one of these kinds of Church official to "dunk" me, I would expect them to immerse me in a sufficient depth of water "head and all" (as you so invitingly put it) and then to hold that head down until the life-not-so-everlasting had been drained from me; after all, what would I ever have done for them during my lifetime other than merely to try to discourage some people's animosity towards those who hold a genuine faith just because they do so?

this will assure your 'sealing' and recording in the book that God keeps on all of us.  there is the 'book of life' which records all the names of those who choose willingly to be 'with God.'

This isn't the "Book of Seven Seals", is it? Now I suggest that you take the first opportunity to go and listen to Franz Schmidt's oratorio by that name (if you are not already familiar with it) - one of his most powerful compositions. Anyway - who's the publisher of this "book"? And what about publisher's rights? And author's rights? What does God think about the 70-year rule?

you can be sure, if it was up to me, you'd be soaking wet at sometime in your 'good experience.' 

Now I'm not quite sure what you may mean by that, but it could be interpreted by some as though you were subtly changing the subject (if I dare suggest such a thing...).

Best,

Alistair

[pianolist]

humanity also includes one human who is prepared momentarily to discard a certain vital tenet of her faith and offer Holy Communion to an infidel; now, bizarre as that may appear to some, one has to award such a gesture full marks for human generosity, surely?(!)...

I have no problem with ladies who offer this poor sinnerman some cinnamon as sustenance! But I think our goddess knows that. In truth, I am not so troubled by the God Squad as I am by those who feel it is thoroughly right to kill in the name of religion. My gloominess comes from the fact that is is so easy to kill in large numbers these days. There is virtually nothing that we ordinary mortals can do about it, other than to trust in the efficiency and honour of our security services, neither of which is as certain as it used to be.

In the meantime though, we may as well eat, dunk and be merry. Here's my début as a concert pianist.

[thalbergmad]

What happened to the beard?

Thal

[pianolist]

I removed it with Adobe Photoshop. I bet you can put it back again, though!

[ahinton]

I have no problem with ladies who offer this poor sinnerman some cinnamon as sustenance!

Delightful!

But I think our goddess knows that.

I hope and would like to think that she does...

In truth, I am not so troubled by the God Squad as I am by those who feel it is thoroughly right to kill in the name of religion.

Moi aussi - although I would naturally extend that concern also to cover those who might seek to do the same in any other name or none.

My gloominess comes from the fact that is is so easy to kill in large numbers these days. There is virtually nothing that we ordinary mortals can do about it, other than to trust in the efficiency and honour of our security services, neither of which is as certain as it used to be.

I understand and cannot in principle argue with that.

In the meantime though, we may as well eat, dunk and be merry. Here's my début as a concert pianist.

"Eat, dunk and be merry
For tomorrow we début - with 25/11".

Cher Pianolist (and anyone else who may happen to be interested) - I do not know if you are aware of this, but some years ago my very good friend Marc-André Hamelin wrote a piece called Triple Étude after Chopin, which is a study for piano based on all three études by Chopin that are in the key of A minor; his motivation for so doing was to reflect the fact that Godowsky is supposed to have done this but the results have never yet come to light. Unbeknown to Hamelin, I had attempted to do something similar in 1977 with a piece called Les Trois Chopins; my motivation had been similar to his, but, unlike him, I had not realised at the time of writing that Godowsky had done this himself. Once I discovered that he had, it occurred to me that, one day, it might eventually surface, so I did the honourable thing by introducing my efforts to the waste bin and then transferring the copyright in my transcription (transgression?) to the local government organisation that provided the garbage collection and disposal service in my area. Years later, when Hamelin played his Triple Étude after Chopin to me here, I told him what I had done and he said that he wondered what my piece was like. Perhaps he should not have done this, because his wonderment prompted me to attempt to reconstruct it from memory with the new title Étude en forme de Chopin and dedicate it to him. Chopin's Op. 25 No. 11 (the one colloquially known, of course, as the "Winter Wind" study) is obviously one of those three A minor études featured in both Hamelin's and my own transcriptions and, bearing in mind that this is the one of the three that acts as a kind of cantus fermus throughout almost all of my piece, I wrote on the title page of my score:

"Blow, blow thou Winter Wind -
How Art-knots so entwined
Chopin’s ingrate-Études..??"
(with appropriately abject apologies to Shakespeare)...

This work, however - unlike you, Maître Pianolist - has yet to have its début...

Now, we have taken the subject matter from God to Chopin; did anyone notice?

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

I removed it with Adobe Photoshop.

Does that removal constitute an act of Adobe PhotoChopin?

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

Is your version very different from Hamelin's?

[pianolist]

Maître

Someone on Piano Street used the circumflex! I bow in humble admiration. I didn't know Microsoft allowed it.

[pianolist]

Is your version very different from Hamelin's?

I was only 18 months at the time of this photo. I was still playing it straight then, but after my second birthday I put away childish things and concentrated on the Godowsky.

[mephisto]

Well don't we all?

[pianowolfi]

Yes piânolist, maître of the piânola, microsoft allows that

[ahinton]

Is your version very different from Hamelin's?

Yes.

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

Post me a copy, please, hopefully in pdf, format. I'll give you something great as a thank you.

[ahinton]

Post me a copy, please, hopefully in pdf, format. I'll give you something great as a thank you.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that I don't actually have it in .pdf format so am unable to send it to you electronically; I am able only to get it to you in paper format, if you still want it in this way.

Best,

Alistair

[pianolist]

This work, however, has yet to have its début...

Perhaps I might make a roll of it?

[mephisto]

I'm sorry to have to tell you that I don't actually have it in .pdf format so am unable to send it to you electronically; I am able only to get it to you in paper format, if you still want it in this way.

Best,

Alistair

Thanks for at leats thinking about it

[ahinton]

Perhaps I might make a roll of it?

That's kind of you to offer, but it seems that Fredrik Ullén wants to play it some time, so I'd like to see what comes of that first, if that's OK. Much appreciated, though!

Best,

Alistair