Sunday, February 24, 2008

500 Years of Female Portraiture in Western Art

This is an amazing YouTube video of the history of female portraiture in Western Art. Each portrait morphs from one into the next, and the music is the Sarabande from the Bach Cello Suite in G, BWV 1007, played by Yo Yo Ma. Simply fabulous.



This one is by the same video artist, and does the same treatment with female movie stars. Here the music is the Prelude from the same Bach Cello suite, from the same CD by Yo Yo Ma. I just love this stuff.



I'm still in the midst of my annual metronome slow-play/forte play practice regemen, so posting will continue to be infrequent. I've managed to succeed with the program on two pieces I've previously failed with, so that's a good portent. I've discovered that pieces with a lot of rhythmic variety are much more difficult to do than the perpetual motion/motoric type works - a "duh moment" - and the one I knocked off yesterday was the famous Minuet in G from the Anna Magdalena Notebook of 1725 (Attributed to Bach, but actually written by Christian Petzold). That piece fits perfectly on the guitar with no transposition, which is quite rare. Anyway, I've been playing it for a couple of years, but it took me this long - five attempts - before I could get it down to half speed. The Bach Bourree in E Minor still eludes me, but I'm getting close. Since I have to go through the "problem pieces" at least three times, I may yet get it on one of the next two passes.

Jim Kozel is working on my Parker Nylon Fly as I write this, and I ought to have it back in a week or so. I'm just dying with anticipation. It will be so excellent to have an RMC pickup system in it. This guitar will have cost me over $4,000.00 before all is said and done, but it will be worth it. The next post will probably be when I get it back, probably within the next week or two.



Now, that is a redhead! My favorite variety, too: Even her eyebrows are red (And I'm sure her eyelashes would be too, if not for the makeup). The most awesome redhead I ever personally met looked a lot like her. Alas...

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