Luzula

My new house has a piano, which the previous owners left behind. It was terribly out of tune, so I had it tuned--well, at least it is now internally in tune, as the piano tuner who came to do it said that it probably hadn't been done in 20 years and he couldn't tune it all the way up without risking it breaking. He said to call him again in a year.

I played piano in my youth, and it has been fun picking it up again--it's surprising how easy it has been to re-learn things I played then (although ten years ago I did live for a few years in a place with a piano and played a bit then too, so that probably maintained my playing). But I find myself wishing for some new music to play and not sure what I might like? I am open to any genre really. If you play the piano, what is your favorite piano sheet music?

What I played earlier has often been determined by what sheet music happened to be available. The most difficult piece I can play is probably this, to give you an idea of what level of difficulty I'm looking for (though it would also be nice with some easier stuff, as that took a long time to learn well). I went to the library and came home with some Telemann, which is pleasingly patterned and is nice to practice on. But I am not sure where I should go next.

Firstly, please enjoy Dick Gaughan singing Tom Paine's Bones.

So, an update. I've had a few stressful weeks: a ton of teaching, lots of work and some conflict in my environmental organization, trying to find a new housemate. To my huge relief, work will calm down beginning next week. The volunteer workload will likely continue as is, but I can cope with that if work is calmer. We decided against the housemate I posted about a while ago, deciding to follow our gut feeling, and another one that we liked unfortunately found another place. But if we don't find anyone this month, that's okay--we can share the rent for that room and wait for someone who feels right.

I had pancakes today with a buffet of homemade jam: bilberry, lingonberry, gooseberry, red currant, blackberry, apple. All from berries that either I or my mom have picked. Yum. This is why I make pancakes often...or probably Americans would call them crepes, since they are thin.

I am currently rereading my first FotH longfic (That Good Faith), from a book I have bound myself. It's the first time I reread it since 2020, and while there are small things I might change, I do like it. I can tell that it's my first fic in the fandom--it has that headlong energy of falling in love. <3

My current longfic is at 130K, and I just finished chapter 26, which will be posted soon. And I just started writing my assignment for unsent_letters_exchange. Oooops, and I should write a letter for that exchange! Coming up soon.

OMG, there's a new Karine Polwart album out. It's lovely, with just voice and piano. Aaagh, her voice.

Have a Librivox audiobook! : D Obviously what I actually wanted to do is Flight of the Heron, but that only comes out of copyright in 2021, so here is Flemington instead. I apologize for my lack of a Scottish accent; what I did instead was to tone the Scots dialogue down as much as possible and not attempt any accent beyond my own. Thanks to garonne for beta-listening. ♥

There were three folk songs in the book that I set to music in order to sing them. I think they're actually all from Violet Jacob's poetry collection Songs of Angus, but I couldn't find any melody for them online. You can listen to the songs separately here, if you want.

Also, it amused me to post the audiobook on AO3. If a podfic is a transformative work of a fic, then surely an audiobook is a transformative work of the canon. Hee, it also meant I could label the canon with pairings if I wanted. *g*

[Audiobook] Flemington (83 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Flemington - Violet Jacob
Length: 8 h 3 min
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Archie Flemington/James Logie, Captain Callandar/Archie Flemington
Additional Tags: Audio Book, 18th Century, Scotland, Spies & Secret Agents, Honor, War, Duty, Podfic Length: 7-10 Hours
Summary:

Archie Flemington, a spy in Government service during the 1745 Jacobite rising, is sent to investigate the suspected rebel James Logie. Despite the secrets and enmities between them, the two men form a lasting connection. But when the war comes to its bitter end, and they are forced to choose between honouring that connection, and their military duty, what will they do?

This is an audiobook of the canon (a very slashy book from 1911).

Follow-up from last post: here is me singing the old melody and lyrics of Both Sides the Tweed, from the 18th or early 19th century. Could not find it anywhere on Youtube, and thought some of you might want to hear it...it's just the first verse + chorus though. I do like the two last lines!

So on Thursday garonne sent me the Steeleye Span version of 'The Lowlands of Holland', and then on Friday I couldn't concentrate on work and instead spent my day rewriting the lyrics from Keith's POV, when Ewen is about to be taken away to Carlisle.

Then yesterday I made harmonies for it and recorded, and here you go! I sing both harmony and melody, since in these days of social isolation I can't meet up with anyone to sing, or give me guitar accompaniment...

I'd only heard the more common version of the ballad that starts with 'On the day that I was married...' before, which would've never inspired me to this, so I'm glad garonne sent me the other version. Check out the original lyrics here (at the bottom). Thanks to garonne and regshoe for beta-reading/listening!

The Highlands of Scotland (365 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham
Additional Tags: Filk, Folk Music, Grief/Mourning, Romance
Summary: A rewritten version of the folk ballad The Lowlands of Holland, written from Keith's point of view when Ewen is about to be taken away to Carlisle.

Since I'm recommending Scottish things anyway, I really love the album A Pocket of Wind Resistance, by Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy. It's gorgeous folk music combined with spoken word poetry (apparently from a play or something?) I love this:

The outstretched wing-tips of each migrating goose
create an up-wash, a pocket of wind resistance
for the bird tucked in behind and below.
These nooks of ease, these aero-dynamic sanctuaries
cut the drag by up to sixty-five percent.
It's a wonder, and it's also a gale-bitten struggle to sustain cooperation.
Every goose takes a turn: stepping up, falling back, labouring, and resting,
stepping up, falling back, labouring, and resting.
Like sky-borne socialists, no lone bird bears the brunt.
It's a gorgeous symbiotic dance: stepping up, falling back, labouring, and resting.

Also it's the first music I've heard that includes Latin names of mosses! Although they seem to have missed that Sphagnum magellanicum has been split into three species, of which only S. divinum and S. medium occur in Europe, whereas S. magellanicum is restricted to southern South America (as is only appropriate, considering the name). : )

The translation bug bites again! This is only likely to be of interest to Swedish (or Danish) speakers, but. Obviously I was inspired by the Pride movie--after I watched it, I searched the web, thinking that surely this song must be translated into Swedish already. But no, so I went ahead and did it. Then later I dug into the university library archives and did find an obscure translation from the 70's, but I like mine better (it has no rhymes, but I don't mind that). Hopefully I'll get to perform it with my sister some time.

( Bröd och rosor )

( Bread and roses )

1) Freudian misreading of the day: Pascal's Pensées, read as Pascal's Penises.

2) Must finish Yuletide. Not much left to go now! Must also obtain Christmas gifts. Must graaaaade exams. Must sleep.

3) This is a song that really moved me. It put tears in my eyes the first time I listened to it, probably because it immediately made me think of a specific person I know, someone who does not give themselves enough credit.

I wanted to share the Swedish folk song "Jag vet en dejlig rosa" with you guys, so I translated it to English! The first half of this is the Swedish song, so if you just want to listen to the English one, you can skip to the break in the middle. My voice is still a bit rusty from the cold I had, but whatever.



( Swedish lyrics )

( Lyrics in English translation )

( Notes on the song and the translation )