When music?

Summer vacations can bring at the same time two opposite feelings to me. Being bored and doing nothing vs having so many activities that I need a break from them. That sounds weird, imagine someone saying this: I need a break from the break. But as I mentioned, these last days were full of different (also very cool) activities that I need to dedicate a few hours just to relax without anyone around.

Without anyone around... it is not a truthful statement, as I will have around some classical music composers. And many of these black dots running up and down between the lines. A bit of physical activity for these music notes... As you know what I was doing yesterday late evening?

I was riding the bike with my niece and did a crazy route with her (just because I was not aware of its difficulty). I thought it will be just a short or medium-long route, as we already had a full afternoon of swimming and going again with the boat to the sand island.

So, the bike route happened in nature. No asphalt. Just a dirt road, which is nice but you have to go slower. And it was already 8 p.m. when we began the route, but then, I was not aware that complete darkness would cover this part of the world in just one hour from the moment of taking this photo.

We followed the river, so on our right, it was the forest that separated the path from the river and on the other side of the road, different landscapes were given to us. We passed by meadows, woods and fields. A lot of corn and wheat fields. I so much liked that, it was indeed beautiful, however, I started to complain to my niece and ask her questions. When this path will finish? Will we have asphalt and a better road? How many kilometres do we still have to pedal etc.

Well, the answer to my questions arrived after two hours, when I was literally dead, in the complete dark but in front of my house. The tracker showed that we did 30 km, so this is why today I can't do anything else, just be alone and heal my muscles.

{Btw, that siluette on the photo below is me, when finally found some better road but surrounded by tall trees and getting already darker...}

So, I have decided that my relaxing activity will be browsing around my old piano books, and maybe also playing something on my former piano (which is now not at my home anymore). I already found some piano scores of Chopin's works, for example, his Scherzos and started to practice them a few days ago. Now I put out from the shelves a pile of these old books, indeed very old ones. There are piano scores that my mom used when she was a child and also older books that I got from someone who had them in his attic.

A lot of German and Austian composers got home on my shelves. I would gladly talk to them, but my German is equal to almost nothing. Luckily, I know one universal language, which is music so clearly, that is the only way I can communicate with their works. Playing them on the piano.

First, I have to select what I want to play. A new name for me, Alfred Jaell, although he is sleeping here for so many years... I guess that yesterday's bike ride and my healing process today had to happen so I start to browse and see this book. Not many recorded pieces can be found online, probably he was not very famous worldwide. Just in this area, which more than a century ago belonged to the Austrian Empire.

That composer is not the only one I have seen now. There is also a book of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, many studies by Czerny, Chopin again etc. I remember playing from those studies, when I was still studying the piano. Also my mom played them, and my aunt, I saw their names in the scores and their teacher's instructions written by a pencil. Hmm, just found a list written by me with the piano works I played and the years I played them, that's cool I wanted to have organized everything already back in time. I didn't remember this list though.

I guess I should finish my writing here and do just one thing at the same time - browsing between those books and memories. After all, I am on vacations, and multitasking should be forbidden for me today!