More Gratuitous Musickal Posting (TM)

This is a neat site: Pianopedia. One-stop shopping for information on a variety of composers and their keyboard works, including sample scores.

A piece I've been working on a great deal lately is Bach's Partita No. 5 in G major, BWV 829. I've been concentrating in particular on the Praeambulum (I even take on the hand-crossings) and the Corrente, although I can get through all the other dances except the Allemande, which is a bitch of triple time and dotted notes that I still don't have the hang of.

There are plenty of other composers whose music lets you "express yourself" but I can't name a single one who makes you think as much as does Bach. And the sense of working through one of his pieces, of understanding it and reproducing the intellectual arguments that he sets down, is to me a very satisfying feeling. And you can keep your snide comments about "celestial clockmakers" to yourselves, because I don't think the intellectual beauty of his work detracts at all from its aesthetic qualities. There's nothing dry or dusty about it at all, as far as I'm concerned. This is just supremely grown up music. And when I've managed to play through it even half-way decently, I really feel as if I've accomplished something worth while.