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May
May 2006 is the first month of the record of Don Chihuahua's progress, return, last stand, and other punctuations. These things will become clear if they are not now.
It began with Leonard, which uses a finger-picking style which I could never play before when I tried, and then recently discovered I could play. I had, at that time, been slaving away over the Bach pieces Sarabande from BWV 1002 and Prelude for Cello BWV 1007. I was working on a trill from an old interpretation of a Sojo Cantico, and just added a string.
I like to think that playing Bach makes you better: a better person, as well as a better musician.
The Prelude took weeks to master - to the extent that it has been mastered at all... the tricky parts were not those I expected, like stretching for a large barre in the middle of a phrase, but changing my mind about counterpoints. The source I used had very little counterpoint (compared to Segovia's recording, for instance), so I added some of those by ear. Then I took them out again. Each time my fingers had forgotten what to do. And each time, I heard the Segovia version differently. Playing a piece of music changes your understanding of it totally, and there seems to be no going back.
Tarrega's Endecha, is slow, pompous, ponderous, over-dramatic and possibly not in the spirit of the thing at all. But when I played it I kept being put in mind of the passacaglias that Bach wrote for the organ, and so I played it that way. It is probably done more justice to by interpretations such as this by Braumeister.
I think June will see Don Chihuahua dwelling on lost love. I'll bring the story to you when I can.
Metaphorically speaking
Many poets should be left as they were by the riverside. Your first encounter is likely to be the most fulfilling.
Some poets, however, demand a longer relationship, since their words evolve, even if the printed page does not.
John Donne's metaphysical poetry evolves with you as you go by. You can measure yourself by the extent to which you adapt to his conceits.
I used to think a metaphor required rigour: metaphors that broke quickly at points of logic and dissimilarity were inadequate.
Now I realise that the end of the aptness of any metaphor is the beginning of its use: where Donne reaches a broken path in the pursuit of his conceit, he digresses, follows the new road, and never looks back.
Those complex conceits which work on many levels do not remain faithful to their absolute limit, but push you to introspect, analyse and learn from the limitation. You emerge into a new kind of light at the end of the metaphor.
Download: Tarrega - Endecha
