Jameson Irish Whiskey Commercial

That's what I was watching last night, unintentionally, when I suddenly found myself possessed by the piano music in the background.  I'd never heard it before, but I was certain it was Chopin.  Chopin just 'tickles' my brain in a way that nothing else does.  I thought I'd heard just about everything Chopin had written, but I'm always on the lookout for some obscure, unpublished work.  Or some composer who got lucky enough to write a few measures that sound like Chopin's work.

So I got online and started looking.  I almost had a fit when I found a website where someone had said it was a violin concerto by Mozart.  This was definitely something that was written specifically for piano, and it did not sound like Mozart.  Which was almost exactly what someone on the next website said.  Then I found someone claiming it was Chopin's waltz in A minor, but I knew that couldn't be true because I've played that one, many times.  But after a few more websites it dawned on me to put 'posthumous' in a search engine with 'chopin waltz in A minor', and there it was.

It's a good day when I can find some little-known work of Chopin's that I've never heard of before.  I found the sheet music and printed it out, and I've been playing it today.  I'm certain that it's something he wrote when he was younger--I'll have to poke around online and see if I can find out anything else about it.

And then I had an epiphany today--the reason I've been having trouble making my nocturne work is that it's a waltz!  I'd actually put a small waltz in the middle of it, but now I've made the whole thing a waltz, and I've basically finished it.  A little 'tweaking' left to do, that's all.  I worked on it all afternoon, and when the dogs started barking at something (never did find out what) I realized it was after four--I'd completely lost track of time.  This is something that just never happens to me.

I've had 'waltz' on the brain lately--several days ago I played Joplin's "Entertainer" as a waltz.  That was fun.

It's funny, how my brain seems to be going on ahead without me sometimes.

Not much else going on here.  It's very dry outside.  And hot.  Especially for May.  We're all sitting here after dinner, watching a "Sliders" rerun.  The kids are liking this series.  And I'm thinking that surely there must be an alternate universe where I'm a concert pianist or a composer. :)

And now I'm going to go look up that waltz.  The search engine is one of my favorite inventions.

Bye!