Grace Under Pressure

Quinn needed to make an audition tape for music camp, but we ran into technical problems. After trying three different ways to videotape his Handel, we finally succeeded in getting a recording on his cell phone. Mimi the cat, however, wanted to get in on the act.

In the video, you can see her pacing back and forth. Then you can hear me slap the piano book back on the rack after she knocked it askew by rubbing her face on it. Finally, she decided to help me play the piano.

There was no help for it; the deadline was on him and Quinn (who never stopped playing during all these shenanigans) submitted the cat-assisted tape. Not only was he accepted by the camp, but he won one of the Coastside Community Orchestra's music scholarships and will be playing with the first violins in this Saturday's concert.

Comfort Ye

"Comfort ye my people." Every time I hear this aria, words by Isaiah, music by Handel, I get all teary-eyed. Johann Sebastian Bach, the grandfather of all musicians, said that the only purpose of music was to glorify the Creator or to recreate the human spirit. That is why we don't work the piano; we play it.

J.S. Bach, 1685-1750: In addition to composing thousands of major works, he is probably the inventor of the tempered tuning used in all keyboards today. He was the inventor of modern harmony and is even credited with beginning the use of the thumbs in keyboard playing.

G.F. Handel, an exact contemporary of Bach, is best known for composing the Hallelujah Chorus.