view from the laptop

Isle of Lismore

The other (possibly more important) thing about playing classical music is that it sets out clear failure/success parameters.  If you’ve played Mozart badly, or in a mediocre fashion, it’s very difficult to have achieved anything other than mediocre Mozart, or getting it wrong.  But when you’re making music without direct reference to an event or a composition in the past, then sometimes (in fact often) when you get it wrong, the end result is far more successful than what you had originally intended.And who’s going to tell you you’re doing it wrong? The early music police? Don’t think so.

Other bits of today… I saw an otter playing on the rocks and swimming off, from the living room window this morning. Tonight I cycled to Port Ramsay in the dark: no streetlights, no road markings, just an occasional sheep jumping out of the way, and a cattle grid. Unsportingly, the moon stayed behind the clouds, but cycling across the island alone under the hills in the quiet feels good. For reading material I’ve moved on to the Acme Novelty Library 18 (Building Stories rather than Rusty Brown), which takes some digesting but repays the effort. And tonight with the laptop at the kitchen table I’ve also been learning my way around Steinberg’s Halion sampler.material I’ve moved on to the Acme Novelty Library 18 (Building Stories rather than Rusty Brown), which takes some digesting but repays the effort. And tonight with the laptop at the kitchen table I’ve also been learning my way around Steinberg’s Halion sampler.