So I’m reading An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. It’s a novel recommended by my friend Rhonda. Michael, the main character, plays second violin in a string quartet. He is obsessed by an old lover with whom he used to play. One piece comes to his mind that reminds him of her: Beethoven’s early piano trio in C minor (Opus 1 no. 3).
His current lover (who is not a musician) reveals to him that Beethoven made a different version of this same music and changed from a piano trio (piano, violin, cello) to a string quintet (2 violins, viola, cello). 
This latter piece (Opus 104) is pretty obscure I guess. Michael searches high and low for recordings and the sheet music of the quintet. At this point, the story becomes pretty dated. I became curious about the music and stepped to my computer and was looking at scores almost instantly online.
Also it turns out that the local college owns performing copies of the piano trio. I checked them out and my violinist and cellist graciously agreed to play through it. Which we did yesterday. The violinist fell in love with the music. We played the first and last movement of the trio that Seth uses in his novel. The last movement, a finale, was more immediately understandable to me. As I confessed to my musician friends, Beethoven has never been a composer that I was simpatico with. For me, he has definitely been an acquired taste in my life. But I have acquired it. Like so much good romantic music, it doesn’t make that much sense to me initially. I have to let it sort of sit in my brain for a while. We played the first movement twice. It made more sense the second time, as Beethoven often does for me.
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When Jim Crow Drank Coke – NYTimes.com
Duke Ellington worked for Pepsi. Who knew?
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Keeping Blood Pressure in Check – NYTimes.com
Different drugs for different cases of high blood pressure. Bookmarked to talk to my doctor about next time I see her.
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Shadowy Squads Enforce Modesty in Hasidic Brooklyn – NYTimes.com
Ay yi yi.
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Norman Foster’s Public Library Will Need Structural Magic – NYTimes.com
Hope College is planning some new buildings. This article sheds light on how difficult it is to that sort of thing well.
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84 pictures of dead malls | Death and Taxes
Speaking of large public buildings, these are great pics.
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Beijing Takes Emergency Steps to Fight Smog – NYTimes.com
China’s idea of emergency measures is to call a news conference and lie apparently.
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Drone Strike Lawsuit Raises Concerns on Intelligence Sharing – NYTimes.com
What confuses me is why the USA is not being the subject of a lawsuit since we’re the ones actually killing people.
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After the Brazil Nightclub Fire – NYTimes.com
I seemed to have missed the reporting on this recent tragedy. This article brings it life in a tragic way, plus comments nicely on what’s appropriate when reporting something like this.
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