On Friday I began what I hope will develop into another book. I'm not sure about it yet because it's so completely different from anything I've ever written. For once, I'm writing something that doesn't require years of research and a mountain of books cluttering up the floor around my computer. All it requires is my being willing (and able) to, as journalist Red Smith once said, "sit down and open a vein". The working title is White On White. I'm not really sure where it's going, if anywhere. I'm not following any rules or formulas and I'm not writing for a publisher. That just adds to the 90% crap pile that fills both the bookstores and the online publishing companies. I'm just writing. "A slice of life" as Henry Miller said...We had a great weekend. A little gathering here at our house, with good food and wine and too many laughs to recall. Everyone was in rare form. Yesterday, Nettl, Micah and I went to the university (where we met up with Dr. Kielbasa) for a professional recital that spotlighted an exact replica of an 1802 Viennese Anton Walter fortepiano.
I have to confess that Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata has never been one of my favorite pieces. It's one of those, like Vivaldi's "Seasons" and Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", that you hear on every passenger jet's onboard radio station. I guess I'd heard it too many times and my brain was shut off to it, but hearing it live, and performed on an instrument like Beethoven owned, introduced me to a brand new piece. It was like I'd never heard it before. I'll never be able to listen to 18th and early 19th century piano music on a modern instrument now. Well, and like it, that is. And if you can't give me Bach on a harpsichord, then you know what you can do with your Steinway.
Nettl and I are now determined to own a fortepiano. I don't need the more expensive McNulty 1802 replica. In fact, I'd rather have the 1788. I've even decided that I'll give up my dream of owning a Jeep so that we can put that money on the instrument. Who needs two cars anyway? I'm more than willing to give up my vision of driving with the top off and a dog beside me. Where would I go except to the store or to Sonic? A fortepiano could take me back in time, where I would hear the music of Mozart and Haydn as they heard it! Besides, then I could accompany Nettl at our parties as she sings the repertoire of the era.
And now, to work, to write, to start the new week.
