back to the piano, 2011, January 25th

[Derek]

Okay, my little clavichord mania finally drew to a close. I still love playing the thing though. It provides a good timbral contrast to the piano when I've had too much of it.

Here's one from tonight.

Piano: Roland F-100 digital

[pianowolfi]

Very beautiful! "Welcome back"
But your clavichord output is awesome too, of course .

[oliversadie]

This is highly creatively left-field, what a treat! Thanks for sharing.

(btw Jan 25th was my birthday)

[rachfan]

Hi Derek,

This is a really lovely improv.  There are some wonderful dissonances and shifts in tonal centers, along with a gorgeous lyricism throughout.  This music has a neo-romantic style which I especially appreciate.  Excellent!

David

[utterlysneaky]

Wow! Another good one! You seem to be right at home with this sorts of romantic(couldn't find a better word for it right now, sorry) improvisation. I liked the whole thing, and it wasn't over long to my ears either, the length was just right. I am however cursed with(we probably all are over here) what I like to call "composer hearing", meaning when I hear a melody or piece of music, my mind at some point deviates from listening to what is actually played, and continues the melody
in it's own way inside my head, kinda like "this is how that melody or tune should have gone or developped into".. So I will say I had a major moment like that while listening to this(and this only happens when my mind perceives the music as "good", I don't really walk around thinking about how some shitney spears tune should have gone LOL).

Specifically at 1:11 - 1:22. It sounded to me like you knocked on a very interesting door there,
maybe tried the knob out a little bit, but then proceeded to leave and go back to the neo-romantic setting which you command so well. This is of course all IMHO.
To me that door is very familiar, I could almost say I live on the other side when it comes to music making. An Indian mystic by the name of Osho once said, "Whenever you have a choice between two paths, choose the one that requires more consciousness, in other words; the lesser known, the harder path". The path that requires you to explore new avenues, that is.
To my hearing those ten seconds sounded like your own originality coming out, pushing forwards, anything thematically new could have happened from there, and the beginning of the impro that led up to 1:11 was also good and justified to my ears. The middle and last parts did not sound so original to me but that's of course a matter of opinion and musical taste.
But as I said, all in all it was a very enjoyable impro, had to listen to it thrice even though my dog is going ballistics beside me cuz I haven't fed it yet since your music kept my mind involved.
Good work.

[Derek]

rachfan, thanks

utterlysneaky, thought provoking comments there, thanks. I think the phenomenon of hearing someone
else's music go a certain direction is an interesting one, a lot of people experience it, myself included. I like the "two paths" comment. Though, I think it is more complex than that. At any given point there are really an infinitude of paths, though they can vary widely in simply plopping down more notes or forming a new, interesting idea totally different from or related to previous ones.

[samthegreat4]

Nice.. a bit of romantical mysticism combined with grandness.