Great Weather, Great Practice, Great Drama (April 29, 2025)

Today was a particularly beautiful day, with the weather making everything even more wonderful in my beloved New York.

I always try to take some time to prepare before practicing the piano, and since the day was so nice I had time to concentrate in the park near Mr. Cosmo's apartment. When I close my eyes and feel myself surrounded by all the various sounds, such as people's voices, cars, birds singing, and leaves blowing on trees in the breezes, I gradually start to hear only the sound of my own breathing and the beating of my heart. When I open my eyes again after a while, I see such a bright and shining world, and my ears are also clearer than before. 

I sometimes wonder what other people do to concentrate. 

In today's practice, Tamino was very photogenic!  He likes to use a small table to exercise his legs, which I always find very funny. The pieces I practiced were Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and an aria from Verdi's Macbeth which I will be playing at my concert. I will continue practicing the aria and Chopin on the keyboard after returning to my apartment later until I go to sleep. 

After practicing on Mr. Cosmo's piano, my mother and I took a little detour. There was a new sales section in Bloomingdale's that didn't exist before. Unfortunately, we didn't make any great purchases, but it was very interesting to see everything that was there. 

After about 30 minutes, we left the store and headed home, but there was a little incident at the bus stop in Times Square. The bus driver let the passengers get on and off far before the bus stop, leaving behind the passengers who were waiting at the original bus stop. Two angry men stood in front of the bus as it was about to leave, yelling. Then, a number of police officers, came rushing in in an instant! Where on earth were had they come from? The NYPD officers quickly put the commotion under control. It was like a scene from a TV drama!

Even with all of the drama on the street, after we got home my mother and I couldn't stop discussing the difference between drama for Italians and Beethoven's drama, which we learned about from talking with Mr. Cosmo.

Every song has dramatic phrases, such as chords containing chromatic scales and minor key phrases, but I find differences between the type of drama present, for example, in Italian songs and some of the works of Beethoven.

I just watched a program about Chopin so I am now going to find out more about the role of politics in his life as a man who lived in Paris but came from Poland, in order to find out how he used the conflicts in his homeland to compose.

Tomorrow, after practicing on Mr. Cosmo's piano, I plan to go to the Columbus Citizens Foundation, where I will be playing in June.