Another lesson with Georgia today, and there is much music afoot! Rachmaninov went very well, and we're starting work on the Sonatine, which needs lots of articulation and technical rehashing. Georgia also suggested (without prompting or knowledge of my previous repertoire) that I try the first Chopin Ballade! This is the first time it's actually been suggested to me that I play it, rather than my requesting hopefully with little chance of actually getting it up to performance level. So I'm trying it again--I feel like at this point I have a score to settle with it (pun not intended). I read through it this afternoon, and it's actually uncanny how much muscle memory I have of it, so we'll see how that goes. I may also try the Op. 26 #1 Polonaise, which Georgia also suggested, and if I get the chance I may round out the Rachmaninov pieces with the extremely fun Etude-Tableaux Op. 33 #6, which is sort of insane but great and I may die because it is crazy fast. So between old stuff and new stuff, there's more than enough to keep my on my toes, that is for sure! I may be slightly insane to be trying so many things at once, but it keeps me engaged.
Georgia actually paid me a lovely compliment by noting that I was capable of earning a diploma in music performance if I put in the time. Which I sort of knew, but considering my extremely sporadic practicing habits, it would probably take a small miracle for something like that to actually happen. But hey, at least its something I could look into if this PhD thing falls down around my ears. I've been putting in more hours in the practice rooms recently, so maybe there really is still room for growth on this front. My hands feel fit! Also slightly sore. I blame Chopin, and upright pianos with overly enthusiastic sound dampeners. It was impossible to get a proper fortissimo out of the Yamaha I was working on today. Oh well.
Okay, reading Allan Quatermain now.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
And We Are Back in the Swing of Things.
Busy-ness abounds! Classes are going well so far, in part because we take breaks halfway through each to have tea and biscuits. It's very English, and I like it, especially when I haven't gotten a chance to eat lunch. Anyway, my Nation and Empire course is turning out quite well, despite being centered on the Romantic period. There are only five of us in the class, but it's a good mix of people from different disciplines, so we're getting some good discussion in, and have a friendly rapport with each other. The professor's a fairly young guy who's good at leading discussion even when we're all scratching our heads over Coleridge, so all in all I think the course will go well.
My other course is Imperial Masculinities, which will be a challenge on the one hand, but quite fun on the other, because I get the sense that the professor is demanding, but the novels we're reading are basically the adventure books of my youth. I get to do a presentation on The Sign of Four! How cool is that? This week we're reading Allan Quartermaine, and we'll be covering Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson, and yeah, basically all of my favorite books from when I was twelve and devouring books like woah.
I'm also realizing that the way I have my semester set up, I've covered the Victorians proper, and am now studying the era's bookends--Romantics from 1790-1830, approximately, and Victorian fin-de-siecle. Which is leading me very nicely into my tentative PhD proposal, bwahaha. I've done some preliminary digging, and it appears that there are no definitive works on the Gothic and the Industrial Revolution...yet. And thus, with any luck that's what I'd like to write on. I think (so far) that the topic is sound, and as a bonus I'll be able to incorporate my MA dissertation into it--given how my focus this year is on how the Gothic changed in response to industry from the Romantic period to the middle of the Victorian era, I can widen that scope to include the very beginnings of the first Industrial Revolution, all the way up to the fin-de-siecle and the transition into Modernism. It's a very broad time frame, I realize, but given that the thesis will amount to 100,000-150,000 words, and the genre and historical event are fairly specific, I think I'll be able to swing it, at least as a preliminary topic. We'll see how it goes.
Last week, I also had a meeting with my dissertation advisor, Dr. Salmon, which went very well. Dr. Salmon seemed very taken with my topic; we discussed how it was coming along, and I was able to further specify where I'm going with it, so I'll be writing a piece of my introduction and a close analysis of one of my main sources for Easter break. I've not decided which novel I'm going to start with, but hopefully writing will commence in the next couple of weeks.
On a more personal note, my flat's dinner was a resounding success, in part due to the presence of three of Federica's friends from Italy. We had Chinese soup, spring rolls, and rice, along with spaghetti with bacon, egg and cheese,
and finally apple pie. It was extremely filling, but we spread it out over the course of the whole evening, and by the end, Alma broke out her guitar, and we had a regular soiree. The Chinese girls sang their national anthem and a couple of traditional songs, the Italians broke out dance and folk music, and I threw in some Fiona Apple and then tried to remember a song I'd written aeons ago, to moderate success, considering my woefully inadequate guitar skills. First time I've sung solo for an audience in years! But it was really fun. We're going to try and do something similar every fortnight or so. So hurrah for Federica, getting us to actually be social! And hurrah for music, the universal language of awesome.
I'm also under orders to teach everyone how to bake pie now. I'm okay with this plan.
My other course is Imperial Masculinities, which will be a challenge on the one hand, but quite fun on the other, because I get the sense that the professor is demanding, but the novels we're reading are basically the adventure books of my youth. I get to do a presentation on The Sign of Four! How cool is that? This week we're reading Allan Quartermaine, and we'll be covering Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson, and yeah, basically all of my favorite books from when I was twelve and devouring books like woah.
I'm also realizing that the way I have my semester set up, I've covered the Victorians proper, and am now studying the era's bookends--Romantics from 1790-1830, approximately, and Victorian fin-de-siecle. Which is leading me very nicely into my tentative PhD proposal, bwahaha. I've done some preliminary digging, and it appears that there are no definitive works on the Gothic and the Industrial Revolution...yet. And thus, with any luck that's what I'd like to write on. I think (so far) that the topic is sound, and as a bonus I'll be able to incorporate my MA dissertation into it--given how my focus this year is on how the Gothic changed in response to industry from the Romantic period to the middle of the Victorian era, I can widen that scope to include the very beginnings of the first Industrial Revolution, all the way up to the fin-de-siecle and the transition into Modernism. It's a very broad time frame, I realize, but given that the thesis will amount to 100,000-150,000 words, and the genre and historical event are fairly specific, I think I'll be able to swing it, at least as a preliminary topic. We'll see how it goes.
Last week, I also had a meeting with my dissertation advisor, Dr. Salmon, which went very well. Dr. Salmon seemed very taken with my topic; we discussed how it was coming along, and I was able to further specify where I'm going with it, so I'll be writing a piece of my introduction and a close analysis of one of my main sources for Easter break. I've not decided which novel I'm going to start with, but hopefully writing will commence in the next couple of weeks.
On a more personal note, my flat's dinner was a resounding success, in part due to the presence of three of Federica's friends from Italy. We had Chinese soup, spring rolls, and rice, along with spaghetti with bacon, egg and cheese,
and finally apple pie. It was extremely filling, but we spread it out over the course of the whole evening, and by the end, Alma broke out her guitar, and we had a regular soiree. The Chinese girls sang their national anthem and a couple of traditional songs, the Italians broke out dance and folk music, and I threw in some Fiona Apple and then tried to remember a song I'd written aeons ago, to moderate success, considering my woefully inadequate guitar skills. First time I've sung solo for an audience in years! But it was really fun. We're going to try and do something similar every fortnight or so. So hurrah for Federica, getting us to actually be social! And hurrah for music, the universal language of awesome.I'm also under orders to teach everyone how to bake pie now. I'm okay with this plan.
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