steven yi :: music

I’ve always enjoyed Chinese poetry (in translation at least, as I am unable to read Chinese) by Li-Bai and others. It’s been a while since I last spent time reading poetry so I decided I would like to find some on the internet so I could convert them for my PDA (I’ve been reading texts on it quite a bit lately). I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of websites having translations of “300 Tang Poems” (here and here). I’m looking very forward to exploring these poems once again. =)

Last week I changed my morning route to work and instead of taking the bus all the way I’ve been getting off half-way to work and walking the rest. Stopping by the tea shop, now a part of my morning routine, I picked up a cup of lady grey and walked down the street, looking ahead towards the bay, a cool gentle breeze, an intensely deep blue sky–I was satisfied.

I find myself returning to Rachmaninov’s “Isle of the Dead” everyone once in a while… today, I marvelled at how long it is before that wonderful opening returns, accompanied with a lovely floating violin line. The swells of sound that move with the piece’s lush harmonies, the delicate textures which arise from the mass of sound, the almost unending delay of the inevitable in the return of that opening… I think it is Rachmaninov’s orchestration of his harmonies that have made the most impression on me, the choice of timbres and open spacing.

I don’t know his music as well as I’d like, and perhaps this reaction to this latest listening of his music is a sign I should I be spending more time with it…