Piano Reflections

My music of the morning appeared out of nowhere and played itself. It clearly wanted to be heard and as yesterday’s partial eclipse illuminated some buried boxes, perfecto. 

Circling back in time fifty-ish years to teenage-hood. 

1. My mother, as a passionate pianist who played beautifully every single day, but never to her satisfaction,  decided that her daughters (my sister and I) would fulfill her need to BE something in this arena.  We would be g-r-e-a-t. And so, after years of diddling around with piano, we auditioned for THE piano teacher. We did our duty to both my mother and the teacher…we studied with her, we practiced, we grew, b-u-t our hearts were never in this…at least mine wasn’t, The absolute WORST monster on the horizon was a la-dee-dah recital in front of a serious audience in a fancy music hall that qualified one for something mysterious that one was supposed to want. I trembled at the notion and it was approaching.

The bottom line is that my primo piece, the Raindrop Prelude by Chopin, which I played gorgeously when I was alone, would not journey from my soul to my fingers on that night and therefore represents THE END of my mother’s dreams for my piano future. Whew. But that song lingers in my heart, with love and loaded memories.

2. At Northfield, my boarding high school, my best friend was a true pianist…as in another realm. The entire dorm could tell what was going on in her world from the music that wafted or pounded from the baby grand on the first floor, but no matter what, it was transportive. The one piece that explodes my reality every single time I hear it, is Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. As she is no longer on the planet, this music now beams me up to heaven, with force.

Back to this morning. The soundtrack of the 1996 movie, ‘Shine’, began to play….and unbeknownst to me, BOTH my Chopin and my friend’s Rachmaninof were both on this recording. …first mine and then hers. 

The Universe has its ways, and what an unbeleivalbe desert to the partial eclipse of yesterday.

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