I think I am going to murder myself via my music choices.

I have been taking piano lessons since I was about twelve, so it's been, what? Eight years on the piano?  I really like to play, too, I wasn't one of those kids whose parents forced them to participate in activities.  I chose to keep up with my lessons in college, believing that if I didn't have someone behind me the whole time telling me to practice I would probably only practice about once a month (which is sadly true).  As much as I enjoy playing it, I just can't seem to practice often enough.

Over the past year and a bit, I decided to play songs by composers that I have admired since I started the piano, the major one being Chopin, but this year we have moved to Grieg.  I am supposed to learn three pieces a semester, and this time around all of them are by our dear Edvard.

I got a book of his Lyric Pieces and I was glancing through it to see which pieces I wanted to learn.  I hadn't heard of many of them, so I was playing little bits of them on the keyboard, just messing around really, when I landed on the Elfin Dance.

I really like it, I do, and I decided I wanted to play it. I am not very good at playing fast songs, but I decided, just this once, to try and improve myself.

Then I saw his Scherzo.  It has a lovely triplet-over-straight eighths rhythm which I am particularly fond of, and when I sounded it out I decided it was going to be my second piece.  Then, I looked it up on YouTube.

And it says, very blatantly at the top, that it is supposed to be played hella fast. Which I somehow missed on my first read-through. But the middle is nice and sweet, and I decided not to back down from the challenge.

Just this Thursday I got my third piece, which my instructor picked out for me, his Arietta, a nice, slow song.

So, yeah. It will be a challenging semester, if nothing else.

My Walking Around Campus Playlist or, I Swear I Am A Normal Teenager.

Start with Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King:

Begins quietly, then rushes, rushes to its conclusion.

Then follow with Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries:

It's exciting from the outset, a good follow-up to the Grieg.

Then some Brahms, with Hungarian Dance No. 5:

A little more stately, a little calmer, but still so awesome.

And then straight to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2:

Slower, more dangerous, very emotional, and then almost campy.


Followed by Chopin's Grand Valse Brillante!:

Just to calm it down a little (and he's, like, my favorite person ever.)


AND THEN MORE CHOPIN! Prelude in D Flat Major:

Totally NOT because Chopin is awesome and I'm playing this song right now on the piano but because it's a lovely song. There is NO ulterior motive here.


And finally, we have Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (finale):

In which cannons are used as musical instruments, officially making classical music cooler than anything else on the radio.


And that is my Walking Around Campus Playlist. I hope you all enjoy.

Things I like that no one else understands or, My favorite religious song is for the Shakers

I have a band concert tomorrow, in which I will play the flute and generally be really awesome.  I'm excited for this concert, too.  I really like the pieces we're playing, my favorite of which is called "Chorale and Shaker Dance," which is a variation of Simple Gifts, the Shaker Theme Song.

I like Simple Gifts.

I like Simple Gifts like normal nineteen-year-olds like Rihanna or whatever they listen to, I don't know. I'm busy making classical piano playlists so when I walk to class I can feel like I'm in a music video.

(Seriously, though, have you ever walked to class and listened to an orchestral recording of anything? It's spectacular.)

That's the Chorale and Shaker Dance. If you actually listen to it, four or five minutes in (it is kind of long, forewarning) everything starts to taste like Batman and the lights dim like Gotham City and then you get back to hyperactive Shaker Dance Aerobics and it's just lovely. If any of that made sense.

Our other songs are good too, and I think I already posted the Gershwin one, which is also one of my favorites.  I might post the rest of them later, since it gives me an actual excuse to look up concert band songs on YouTube without feeling like a nerd.

Oh wait.

I don't care.

COME TO ME, CONCERT BAND MUSIC PLAYLIST! LET US BE LIKE VIENNA IN THE 18TH CENTURY.  MAKE ME FEEL AWESOME, GRIEG AND CHOPIN, YOU GENIUSES.

Speaking of, bonus Grieg: