A few years ago I saw Lucille Chung in concert and enjoyed it so much I bought her CD. I played it at home a few times but it really did not work out because I can only listen to the music in one room and I am never there for long. It makes it difficult to listen to modern piano music because all I hear is “plink, dead air, plink”.

Anyhow, not having the opportunity to really listen to this CD, I soon forgot about it until I read someone gushing about Ligeti’s Grand Macabre opera on one of the opera blogs I follow. I finally got around to bringing the CD into my car so I can listen to it when I am not moving from room to room and I am finally enjoying it.

Yesterday as I was listening to it I wished I had practiced some of these pieces back when I was taking piano lessons in the late 80’s. At my dance school we were allowed to practice on free pianos but goofing around was frowned upon. If I was practicing Ligeti, the people whose job was to chase the non serious kids off the pianos would never know whether I was playing some complex and critically acclaimed passages or was just goofing around.

Burt seriously, would not piano lessons be much more fun if they included some modern stuff and maybe some jazz? Even though I always enjoyed classical music I can’t ever remember actually liking any pieces I was practicing. The only tunes I remember enjoying playing were Frere Jacques, Fur Elize and some improvisations that attempted to sound like Ligeti, none of which I would be allowed to play on the school piano for fear of being accused of goofing off.

Plink plink plink!

And yes, I have embarked on a new and ambitious knitting project. Wish me luck!