Mandy Leach

I just found this AWESOME video on youtube.... it makes me want to go practice and to be as incredible as he is on the violin. (but of course, piano for me.) We went over this piece in my music lit class and my teacher (who I love) showed us this video and I have been showing this to everyone. This is Itzhak Perlman playing the third movement of the Mendelssohn violin concerto. I love to watch his face and to see how effortlessly he performs the whole thing. I hope you enjoy it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPgqfHYeI0Q

I was introduced to this poem in my Piano Lit class when we were talking about Impressionism. I really enjoyed it! I love the rhythm and the beat that it has. It's really neat to listen to the sound of the poem - the meaning is good too, but it's really pleasing to the ear. I also love how the first section talks about the bells being happy and merry, and the sections progressively talk about more intense or alarming bells. I thought it was a very interesting poem. (It's kind of long, but it goes fast.)

I
Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells -
Golden bells!
a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! -how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells -
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now -now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -
Of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people -ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells,
Of the bells -
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Edgar Allen Poe

My brother just got his mission call! I was at my aunt's house in Ogden and he called me on the phone to listen to him open it. He's going to Leon, Mexico! Yay, I'm so excited for him, although it's going to be weird when he's gone - he's the first one in my family to go on a mission. He leaves on December 31st. I'm glad that he'll be able to be with our family for one more Thanksgiving and Christmas. Way to go Spencer!

One of my friends (a violinist) asked me the other day if I would help her with a CD for one of her students - the student asked her to play at her baptism a long time ago but at the last minute she was going out of town. So, we sat down at about 7 last night, sight read some music, and by about 9:40 had a nice little 4 track CD! We played in the Barrus concert hall, which has the best acoustics like this side of the US or something like that. It's so much fun to play in there (especially because you also get to play on the big concert grand). If anyone knows how to post songs on here - like quicktime attachments, please let me know... I'd love to let you listen to our work!

August 1, 11:00 PM: