14)

Only played for 5 minutes today. The weird feeling on the top of my pinky came back again. I'll be smart this time and not play through it. Also a weird pain in the left side of my right hand palm surfaced. This might have been my positioning but as I maneuvered around it still was there. I'll take another try at it tomorrow or on Sunday. No harm was done.

With all the thought that Stravinsky's lectures revealed I have decided to dig deeper into the trenches to see if more "enlightenment" will arise.

On a brighter note I'll be finishing up Holst's The Planets this morning. He uses such a great pallet of sound and rhythm in his pieces.

Which reminds me...I was listening to Bernstein's recordings (with the New York Philharmonic) of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue yesterday and was disgusted. Between beautiful passages of piano work there was this blaring of the orchestra. By blaring I mean like a fog horn or air horn. This wildly loud and naked sound. There was nothing in there!!! Just instruments playing as loud as they could. Where was the melody? I was lost and confused half the time because I didn't know what was happening with the instrumentation! I feel like Bernstein had the philosophy of "Conduct heavily, with a big stick". It was gross. I however do not believe that this is anyway Gershwin's fault, (perhaps the venue is wrong for Gershwin, but other than that it is the conductor) so I may attempt Gershwin's American in Paris , but only if my stomach is settled before hand.

Composition lesson today.

Futhon