WHEN MUSIC MAKES YOU FEEL FREE ("Me atrapaste" in music!)
Where do you feel “all there”? When do you feel that you want to jump so high that you don’t have to come down? When do you feel whole?...
Rhapsodydmb.com
Hello and welcome ...
I'm a dedicated, enthusiastic, amateur senior pianist, poet, feminist, and author of "Poetical Musings on Pianos, Music & Life (Volume I is in process of being republished and Volume II will soon to be published; click "Poems" above or scroll down to read sample poems).).
I encourage anyone to take up the study of the piano, listen to more music, and pursue your creative muse - at any age! At exactly the right time in my life I came back to my high school piano and lessons - after retirement following a 63-year gap to pursue a legal and then a fashion business career!
Now I'd like to connect with people, experiences, things - and music - that make my body come alive, my bones shake with laughter, my mind understand, and my soul and creativity take flight.
I'd also love to connect with those who support the inclusion of women as artists, music writers, and piano technicians, as well as those who believe that amateurs can be "serious" about their music love!
My hope resides in another day, a new song, and perhaps you -- a new friend to join my email list, submit a Guest Blog, or meet in San Francisco, CA for coffee and to share our music love!
Ann Grogan
P. S. My heart is often aflame in the pure delight of playing Rhapsody-Arabesque, DMB (The Duchess of Music & Bliss), my rebuilt and refinished Golden Age 1928 Steinway Model M, as I discover new or remembered Romantic era compositions by composers whom I deeply respect and admire.
On special occasions I enjoy the good fortune to attend a musical event such as the lovely, intimate music salon sponsored at Brani Piano Atalier by Groupmuse in early September featuring the pianist Ian Scarfe, or the San Francisco Symphony on June 2, 2023 to hear Beatrice Rana (pictured right on the marquee and with guest conductor of the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck). She played my favorite piece by my favorite composer Rachmaninoff, "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini."
NOTE: Pianist Ian Scarfe will perform in San Francisco at our home at 7:30 pm Sat. Dec. 16 in an intimate holiday Groupmuse Soiree; details posted here; we have room for only 10 more guests so kindly consider reserving now. The tentative program includes Chopin, Albeniz, Granados, and DeFalla.
I hope you enjoy my latest blog: "When Music Makes You Feel Free" (9.26.23) and recordings on this page of sweet romantic pieces by some of my favorite composers. And a warm thanks to musicologist, piano teacher & writer Frances Wilson for linking to my blog and experience in leaving a piano teacher.
Where am I now? Home I think,
And waiting there all these years,
The tears I never cried from missing...
What? I do not know. I only know,
I’ve found it now, lost no more
But wrapped in shimmering, silver tissue wings,
Aloft, in flight, rising up, in love,
In music.
"There is a harmony which underlies all endeavor, without which there is no true greatness in art or science.”
— Albert Einstein
"I absolutely loved this second volume of light-hearted poetry about playing the piano in maturity. "Andante" or "Allegro" particularly resonated as I try to live my life at an Andante tempo, while my brain tries to force Allegro upon me! And Grogan captures the state of flow at the piano with her poem "I Heard My Piano Play"
"I heard her join in with what I played,
but speak in a different voice,
fuller and richer than I’d heard to date.
I completed the phrase, but in a haze,
wondering what I had heard?"
This is a great collection for older adults who brave the bench, and know what it is to love the piano, the process, the pain and the deepest pleasure."
- Gaili Schoen , composer and piano teacher; UpperHandsPiano.com
A New Word!
Hail me no “member” nor think me the same,
much less treat me as one in the crowd with one name.
“Interpellate” me not, nor corral me on trails,
I’ll just osmose through the strongest of rails.
Wrestle me not to the cold and hard ground,
for my spirit on the floor will never be found.
I’ll be lifting off there, far out of your reach
of the lies that you spew and the cant that you teach.
True freedom exists far from labels or groups,
and I’ve no use these fine days for inclusion with troops,
but pursue with most vigor where other’s don’t tread
and pursue my own muse without any dread,
Or choose whom I love or revere and respect,
as guides or as friends from a heart I detect
in their treatment of others and no less of me,
who value as I do, the task to live free.
_____
From Oxfords Reference, online, https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100008265;jsessionid=745DF6B9538023B5630C0C16C2D130F4
“Interpellation” - Althusser's term to describe a mechanism whereby the human subject is ‘constituted’ (constructed) by pre-given structures (a structuralist stance). By being named or ‘hailed’ as a member of a group, a person is led to see themselves as an ideological subject. For example, when a politician addresses a crowd as ‘citizens’, or a teacher addresses a class as ‘students’, the people in those situations are being asked to adopt a certain subject position or social role that is conducive to the maintenance of the social order.
Who’s On Top?
Can one love be more serious than any other?
Does one parent love one daughter over the other?
Can we choose who lives or dies
between two equal brothers?
Is one composer really greater than another?
Could single never exceed the joys of being a mother?
Why is “who’s on top?”
more important than the bother
to simply appreciate just what you’d druther?
Live Free
The TV and consumers are consumed with pop news;
is there nothing left to debate?
Short shrift is given to the Ukrainian war
with cluster bombs sent to the fray of late.
Nothing goes on in the world of hunger
(to sell consumes the interstitial spaces);
no one needs a job? Or has time to sob
or indulge in the simple social graces?
“Everyone’s on social media,“ claims a music, professor,
speaking from a well intentioned, elite position,
assuming the poor have time to so indulge,
for their “business” or even for fun.
How about using social media or even A.I.
to not only address but solve
the worlds greatest problems like violence that abounds
or income inequity resolve ?
How about childcare for single mothers
not to mention more prenatal care?
How about medicine taking women’s complaints seriously
or artists paid equitably -- so rare!
The only solution to a world gone mad
and to avoid pure insanity,
is to be sure that the choices I personally make
help others–and me-to live free.
Donne Italian for "women." Project of opera singer Gabriella di Laccio whose mission is to make more visible the prodigious contribution of women to music. She reports the astounding and devastating fact that, in October, 2022, almost nine out of ten pieces played by orchestras around the world were composed by Caucasian men. She provides a list of more than 5,000 women composers, and offers program consultation services to music directors who are committed to the inclusion of women, including minority and LGBQT women, to achieve a more just musical world.
Feminine Endings: music, gender, & sexuality by Dr. Susan McClary (Case Western Reserve University) The seminal 1995 book that brought feminist analysis of musicology throughout history to the present day, into the academy; a must read!
The Future is Female - is a performance available by prolific, talented pianist, writer, and producer Sarah Cahill featuring more than 70 compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Cahill performs regularly in the Bay Area and leans toward modern and experimental music, has a fabulous website and leads a musical radio program on Sunday evenings at 8 - 10 pm live streamed on YouTube.
National Music by Women Festival at the Mississippi University for Women, Founder & Executive Director, 2016–Present. The annual conference brings together a diverse, inclusive group of women composers and performers. Dr. Julia Mortyakova has a prodigious background in music and leadership in both academia and the community. She currently serves as the Department of Music Chair at MUW and has fostered inclusivity in all aspects of music studies and performance.
I’m so glad you share my love of music and the piano! I want to celebrate that love and my recent journey back to music via former career paths through law and fashion corsetry. Shortly after a happy retirement in 2020, a creative muse took my hand after 63 years and chose to bring to life the musical sounds within my heart via poetry and returning to play my piano -- and she brought me fully to life again!
"Touch me with care, and the gentlest of sounds!
The piano's the thing that lifts with no bounds."