Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Into the second lap.

Monday, Feb. 7, 2005
2:07 p.m.
My mom called this morning to let me know that her vision was back to normal, i.e. she could see as well as she has been seeing up until this most recent episode. This is good news, but it�s only a short reprieve until her vision totally deteriorates. I wish I could be more optimistic, but if you live long enough, you start to wear out and fall apart. My mother is fortunate that she has had relatively good health for her almost-86 years, very few major crises that she has managed to recover from, and this is just another sand trap in the golf course of life. Unfortunately, the golf course is more sand than green from here on in.

I�m home early because my recital student cancelled. She�s sick yet again. My 11:30 student was 15 minutes late. I was just gathering up my stuff to leave when she arrived. She offered no excuse for her tardiness, was in a �mood� all lesson, and although she did try, she didn�t put much effort into it. I asked her how the rudiments class was going (she came into the programme with absolutely no musical background whatsoever and somehow I always seem to get saddled with these ones) and she replied, �Not well.� She understands the concept of one whole note = two half-notes = four quarter-notes = eight eighth-notes, but as soon as Fannie starts clapping rhythms so the class can identify which line on the board she is reading, this girl is totally lost. I found a measure in a song where the piano accompaniment is set up so that the bass is in half-notes, the tenor in quarters, the alto in two quarters and a half, and the soprano in eighth-notes. Extremely straight forward. But the melody above that was dotted quarter-eighth-dotted quarter-eighth. She just lost it. It�s all lined up, making perfect sense, and she just doesn�t see it.

Anyway, I would very strongly like to recommend on this girl�s final report in the spring that she seriously consider changing programmes. She doesn�t belong in a university music department. She can�t seem to learn (she just squeaked by last term), she has an attitude which makes me want to scream, and I�m sure she would do much better in a different discipline.

I printed out 30 pages of score before I left for work this morning, and have started the next section, where the strings are divided into 13 parts (three in each section, but still one bass). I�m getting caught up, which is a relief. It means that the end is in sight, although it�s still a long way off.

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