String Maestro is back

Music is an essential facet of life
thus, it must go on.

I admit, it is not easy to continue writing music
A daunting task, but one I strive to perfect
Because To Those Who Were Given More, More is asked of Them

To me is bequeathed the music, thus i write

the sadness
the pain
the joys
the agonies
the heartbreaks

of the life i see around me

there is no better music
than heart music.


However, dear (and undear) readers
I have not come to resurrect the composer
but to bury him.

I have taken up a new instrument
I'll let you guess what it is, for now
I won't be composing, I'll be performing
and until I can get Mardia (yups, I named her Mardia)
to sound as good as Melia ( my 1st classical guitar)
and Triste (my 2nd classical guitar),
I won't be composing till then.

Right now, I'll be butchering the Ave Maria.

Rest and Recreation

These few weeks have rested me a tremendous lot
But, I'm walking into a musical block yet again
I've got no music coming to me, no flow of inspiration.
Sorry, Bob, the birds have flown
There's no flogging this dead horse anymore
but hope upon hope, tis pointless to assume
that suddenly up and about music around me flow
i fear the composer's dead, or at worst, slumbering
its the 1st time i saw the composition questions in the past year papers
and blanked out.
the only ones that doesn't bore me are the orchestral scores
and Corelli, i curse you and your trio sonatas,
they're already bad enough without having to torment me with figured bass

I want my music to be grand!
maybe a string quartet.
but not brass. i loathe brass.
too boastful and pushy.
maybe woodwind? but ah, the clarinets, how they bother me
with their pithy transpositions.
I suppose I'll remain
the Master of Strings.

Progress

This holidays has seen me compose....about 5% of a song
inspired by a phantom long thought vanished.
No, it lives on in my music.

I have a new angel of music now.
Gone are the days of writing trite and naive melodies
A new source of inspiration heralds a new flavor
more richness...more complexity
and a somewhat sombre and REAL feel to it.

Another is completed!

Sorry for late announcement, but I've finished a few more pieces.
One's a cello solo, another's a flute solo, i think...
its so long ago, i don't remember if i mentioned it before...
anyway, here's an inventory!

1 piano sonata
1/3 violin sonata
1 violin solo
1 cello solo
1 flute solo
a few mixed instrument ensembles
and a few unfinished pieces
all in all, 12 different pieces.

I hope this year is another year of inspiration!
XD

Lunga pausa

Yours truly is facing the last 2 papers of his exams
for this semester

Apparently taking a foreign language is quite capable of causing an uproar
french wasn't feasible because ivin my man woudn't take it,
and norman chickened out later
and so...i wanted to take...italian.
yups. italian.
Well, its a means to an end
the study of classical latin

yups.
Classical Latin
because its a forefather of the modern Italian
Learn the child language, then the parent

et ecce equus niger
et qui sedebat super illium
habebat strateram in manu sua

Thoughts on the end of the year

2011
what an awful year
truly annus horriblis
a year of strife
of sorrow
of abandonment
of being Richard.

but also a year of Joy
of celebration
of passion
of being Myself

I have grown
to realize the truths of life
that sometimes its not worth fighting for
that sometimes we need to give up a fight
that sometimes its not meant to be
that sometimes others are waiting
that sometimes others do care
that sometimes others have a heart as well
that sometimes others love you

eureka
I have loved and lost and loved again
and bitter though the gall, sweeter the sweetness grows
here's a short poem for her

I love a love that is innocent
she walketh in the light
she shineth like the sun
and with her wings take flight
I love a love that is ever true
she smileth with her eyes
she compareth with none
and soareth to the skies
I love a love that is now mine
she misseth me so much
she besideth me run
and my whole life she touched

Jon Black (2011)

Merry Christmas one and all

To all my readers,
merry Christmas to you all
yeah

unfortunately for me

This Christmas sucks

to the max

A few days ago,

I might have looked forward to celebrating it

but

something came up

and totally killed the mood

I will never be the same again

because I realized that after 6 months

the epilogue of Prodigal

Maddie goes off to the states

Devon, well, we don't hear of him anymore

Liz and Jarrod, are yet unmarried

and live separated by distance

as for Richard, the "pro" with women,
he loses Bailey after a loveless romance
when he gave his all heart to her.

Well, this story sucks
but it is real.
I never thought it would end like this
But ah, the drama, the irony, the angst
the sheer art and genius
truly the answer is found to the philosophical question:
Art imitates life or life imitates art?
nothing can be so full of tragedy than real life itself

I ascribe to Lucanus when he states:
"God is our Adversary, and we are made to strive with Him"
such is the lot of man
there is no other reason to explain the sad reality
of perfection revealed
and suddenly taken away
leaving only the forlorn to his pining
Since He is my enemy and I am to contend with Him
then let us contend
He shall defeat me, as He is God
but I am a man
and I shall not back down from a fight
not when it has been brought to me
I will go down with pride
I will be Richard