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Continuing Activities - Month Four
Aug. 22nd, 2019 04:20 pmI took two more FutureLearn courses. The first was From Notation to Performance: Understanding Musical Scores by the Open University. This began with the introduction of musical scores, and following one line of music. From there it progressed to a piano score, concentrating on some Mozart variations. The following week we moved in small ensembles and reading some of Schubert's Trout Quintet. The final week was on orchestral music, with examples from Mahler's 1st symphony and Beethoven's 5th symphony. I find it interesting, and certainly learnt quite a lot. My ability to follow an orchestral score is still at the 'wait for the point where they all play a loud note together and carry on again' and it was fortunate I knew the Beethoven well. I did enjoy it, and have separately signed up for an Open University course on basic music theory.
The second course was How to Read a Novel by Edinburgh University. This was the one for which I'd read all four short-listed novels for the James Tait Black prize. It was interesting to a point, but I discovered I'd covered a lot of the content through discussions about writing fanfic. The course was timed to include the announcement of the winner of the prize, which was Crudo, the book I liked the least. I'd been prepared for my favourite not to win, but when the book I disliked won I lost all interest in the prize, since it appeared the judges were looking for something so totally different from what I want in a novel.
This year, for the first time since I started listed my goals, I've decided to abandon one. I wanted to do some artwork, but I've decided it's just unreasonable. I'm still sketching on occasions, and did some at the exhibition in London last week, but for the moment there isn't the time. If I want to continue with my studies, write and cross-stitch then I simply can't add another regular occupation. My goals have always been a challenge, but an attainable one, and doing much art currently isn't.
Meanwhile, the cross stitch is progressing nicely, a couple of days ago I reached the point of being three-eighths of the way through the Klimt:
The second course was How to Read a Novel by Edinburgh University. This was the one for which I'd read all four short-listed novels for the James Tait Black prize. It was interesting to a point, but I discovered I'd covered a lot of the content through discussions about writing fanfic. The course was timed to include the announcement of the winner of the prize, which was Crudo, the book I liked the least. I'd been prepared for my favourite not to win, but when the book I disliked won I lost all interest in the prize, since it appeared the judges were looking for something so totally different from what I want in a novel.
This year, for the first time since I started listed my goals, I've decided to abandon one. I wanted to do some artwork, but I've decided it's just unreasonable. I'm still sketching on occasions, and did some at the exhibition in London last week, but for the moment there isn't the time. If I want to continue with my studies, write and cross-stitch then I simply can't add another regular occupation. My goals have always been a challenge, but an attainable one, and doing much art currently isn't.
Meanwhile, the cross stitch is progressing nicely, a couple of days ago I reached the point of being three-eighths of the way through the Klimt:
