𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 — 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐜 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

[FourcedowErsert]

@stella_vigo

Me listening to them, sometimes, especially a certain one of them.

Haha definitely

@stella_vigo

But in the meantime, you wanna see the dialogue where Michelle told him “You really are a Chopin fanboy”

Ooh, sure xD

@stella_vigo

The Funeral March be like me and my grades

MOOD Marching into exam season >.>

@stella_vigo

I’ve added ten nocturnes and one waltz to the Chopin Selection. The longest playlist on my thread is now even longer XD

Yayyyyyy! I’m gonna take a look haha.

@stella_vigo

So I’ve re-listened to my top picks. I gotta say, these are my favorite interpretations of the Fantaisie-Impromptu (in no particular order):

• Arthur Rubinstein
• Yundi Li
• Daniil Trifonov

Ah, I see! Yeah, Daniil Trifonov’s was one of the better ones, I actually stuck with that one before I found Tharaud’s. xD I do like the use of volume in his, but I was really picky with this one Probably because I sort of had a connection to it beforehand. That’s just my preference though.

Okay, but it’s so funny, because I just went and re-listened to some of them and I could immediately pick out the differences xDD I mean, it’s just such a familiar piece that I have a clear preference haha. It’s not like that with all pieces, but it’s crazy how much you notice for the ones you like. The variation in tempo and volume, the emphasis of certain notes, the flow, all of it.

@stella_vigo

What about yours? Is Tharaud’s interpretation your number one favorite or do you have others that you really like?

So yeah… I’ll have to say his is my favourite. But second favourite would probably be Trifonov’s.

@stella_vigo

And on a related note, do you have like just one favorite pianist (Tharaud) or are there others you equally like?

There are some others, I do enjoy Ashkenazy too hehe. Lukas Geniusas is pretty good, especially for Rachmaninoff xD and also Elisa Tomellini. And I recently got introduced to Giovanni Umberto Battel when I was listening to Chopin, and he struck an impression. I like his interpretation of the etude Op. 25 No. 1 in A flat major. I don’t know, I feel like it’s not always one artist I favour, but depends on the piece, too. But I guess I like these styles, overall?

@stella_vigo

So I’ve listened to Tharaud’s interpretation of my favorite waltz (Op. 64. No. 2 in C Sharp Minor). It’s really nice! I’d say it’s my second favorite interpretation, slightly lower than Kissin’s (emphasis on the slightly). I can say the beginning isn’t too fast, unlike some other interpretations, but I still prefer Kissin’s tempo. As for my other favorite piece… it’s also nice. I still think Arrau’s is definitely better, especially with the trills. I’d put his slightly lower than Rachmaninoff’s rendition of my other favorite piece (which is my second favorite interpretation).

Oh, yes, I’ve heard that one too, it’s pretty good. But yesss, I think we can all agree that Arrau’s interpretation of that one is the undisputed best. xD It’s really amazing, I love it. Ooh but yeah, Rachmaninoff’s version is beautiful too. I do like Tharaud’s, though. They’re all kind of different. It’s like that a lot, sometimes I like certain aspects of some interpretations but other aspects of others. I always wonder what it would sound like if all the preferred aspects were combined.

@stella_vigo

In other words, he passed the test… unlike Lisitsa

@stella_vigo

Also, it’s a minute to midnight. See you next week!

It’s almost next week already, whoops. I forgot to reply until you reminded me today and I was like, wait… I thought I had but then I looked back and I hadn’t xDD But yeah, see you in a day, I guess.

[stella_vigo]

@FourcedowErsert

Ooh, sure xD

Here it is. Warning: it’s long

“If you could only listen to composers from only one country, which country would it be?”

“Easy. France.”

“Easy? I thought you’d be torn between choosing France and Poland, you know, because of Chopin.”

“Well, France has Debussy and Ravel. Plus, Chopin was half-French so he counts.”

“He doesn’t.”

“He does.”

“He doesn’t.”

“He does.”

“He doesn’t.”

“His last name is literally Chopin. Not to mention that his father was French, he was a French citizen with a French passport, and he spent the majority of his adult life in France.”

“But he got them to bring his heart back to Poland.”

“But the rest of him is in France. He has a beautiful grave, by the way.”

“You visited his grave?”

“Only a couple of times, whenever I visited Père-Lachaise."

“Wow.”

“It’s a tourist spot, Michelle! It’s also rather peaceful for a tourist spot.”

“The nickname Edmort really suits you; you don’t just look like death, but you hang around it too.”

(deadpan) “Ha ha, Michouchou.”

“You really are a Chopin fanboy.”

“Aren’t you a fan of his as well?”

“Yes, but not as much as you are. You’d probably marry him if you had the chance.”

“Of course not! I admire him and his music, but not to that extent. I’m not like those hormone-filled teenagers who write romantic fantasies about their musical idols. And besides, I’m only romantically interested in women.”

(Michelle laughs.) “Oh, right. You wouldn’t write Chopin fanfics. You’d read them instead.”

“No.”

“You’ve read one, haven’t you?”

“No I haven’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“No I’m not.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re lying.”

(Eddie struggles to lie.) “I’m not.”

(Michelle gives him a funny look.) “You’ve read a Chopin fanfic, haven’t you?”

(Eddie sighs.) “I wouldn’t really call it a fanfic, but it was a short story about him.”

(Michelle widens her eyes.) “You read a Chopin fanfic?”

“I didn’t know it was!”

“Oh la vache, Edmond! I was just about to say that I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually read a Chopin fanfic, but now I’m actually surprised.”

“Let me explain! So, I always thought his hair and eyes were brown, but I recently discovered that he was, in fact, blond and blue-eyed. I couldn’t believe it. I searched the internet to see if he really had blond hair and blue eyes, and then I clicked on a link that was titled 'Chopin’s Eyes.’ I thought it was going to be an article about his eye color. It was only after reading some paragraphs did I realize that it was a work of fiction because in it he was possessed and it… described his immodest relationship with George Sand in detail.”

“I don’t know what’s more surprising: the fact that dead composer erotica exists or the fact that you read it.”

“It wasn’t on purpose! You’d know I’d never actively look for such things.” (Eddie shudders in disgust.)

(Michelle reacts similarly.) “I’m glad I’m getting my memories erased so I can forget all of what you just said.”

“It’s your fault. You asked the question and you weren’t content with my lying.”

“It’s your fault for not being convincing.”

“Anyway, where were we again? Oh right. Contrary to what I thought, Chopin was actually blond, blue-eyed, and pale. I thought he had dark hair and dark eyes the whole time.”

“Blond, blue-eyed, and pale. Doesn’t that remind you of someone?” (Michelle smiles.)

---

Yeah, I had a ton of fun writing and thinking about it, especially Michelle’s reactions

And the thing about the Chopin fanfic… that actually happened to me a few days ago look, I just read somewhere that Chopin was actually blond and blue-eyed, and not a brown-eyed brunet like I thought he was. When I read that I was like WAIT WHAT HE DIDN’T HAVE DARK HAIR AND EYES THE WHOLE TIME?! So I just Googled “what is Chopin’s eye color” and stumbled across that. I only realized it was a work of fiction when it started describing his mature relationship with George Sand (Sand is a woman by the way) and had an element of fantasy in it. I don’t think it’s graphic enough to be considered written pornography, but it still described that with some amount of detail You know how people say Paganini sold his soul, that’s why he’s a prodigy? Well in that story Chopin was a genius because he was possessed, except he didn’t know he was possessed. Sand knew the whole time but she didn’t do anything because that beast/demon/whatever that was inside him made him a “strong and confident lover.” So she didn’t really love him in the story, but rather loved the way he—or the thing that possessed him, rather—made love to her. So he was used twice—used as a vessel by the demon thing, and used as an object of pleasure by his “lover.” Yeah. You can imagine my reaction I did some digging and apparently it was published on the website of a speculative fiction magazine, and the author of that work is a published author. Yuck. I just wanted to find out what his eye color was! Worst part is that it’s actually one of the first links that show up. So if you search “Chopin’s eye color” on Google and find a link titled “Chopin’s Eyes” written by a person whose name starts with an L DO NOT CLINK ON THE LINK unless you want to be scarred like me

So yeah, remember the biography Liszt wrote about Chopin? I checked it and Liszt described him as blue-eyed, fair-haired, and light-skinned. Chopin’s passport said that he had blue-grey eyes, blond hair, and a light complexion. Blond, blue-eyed, pale… doesn’t that ring a bell? but seriously, when I realized that he didn’t have dark hair and eyes the whole time, I was like “my life is a lie”

There’s another reason why I didn’t include the dialogue above in Book Two. So, uh, whatever you do, don’t call Chopin anything but Polish. Especially around Poles Eddie and I consider him French-Polish, but some (or a lot) can find that controversial, so I just omitted it from the book

Speaking of which, he’s been occupying my mind too. Like if you looked at my search history (I don’t save it, ever, but assume that I have) you’d notice that Chopin would come up often. I almost thought I was moving into the jazz phase but no, I reentered the classical phase. Well not really classical, more like a Chopin phase. My mind wants to add even more pieces to the playlist to make it a nice 123 and because it has a low amount of waltzes, preludes, and etudes. The playlist I should be adding pieces to is the Tchaikovsky one, and meanwhile Debussy’s just waiting for me to start working on his playlist

Dammit Eddie, when I said I wanted to be more like you, I was referring to your intelligence and musicality—not your obsession fascination with a certain composer

I think you can call me Wacky’s resident Chopin fangirl

But like that “fanfic” (*shudders*) got me thinking about a Wattpad story. Have you read Blaze in the Darkness by @/FireAlwaysReturns? So in her book she has a character who’s a vampire. He’s pretty cool when he’s normal, but during battle he’s "possessed.” His inner beast takes over and transforms him into a bloodthirsty killer. That, in turn, made me think about Edin and how he completely changes during battle—if blood is shed. Except in Edin’s case, he doesn’t have an inner beast or anything that possesses him. More like a trait. Oh, and sorry Arden, but when you marry him your kids will probably inherit that trait as well

@FourcedowErsert

MOOD Marching into exam season >.>

I’m gonna die three times in two weeks, with all these exams

@FourcedowErsert

Okay, but it’s so funny, because I just went and re-listened to some of them and I could immediately pick out the differences xDD I mean, it’s just such a familiar piece that I have a clear preference haha. It’s not like that with all pieces, but it’s crazy how much you notice for the ones you like. The variation in tempo and volume, the emphasis of certain notes, the flow, all of it.

Yeah, I notice that. Rubinstein’s particularly stands out because he’s playing a different version of Fantaisie-Impromptu than (probably) everyone else.

So the version that’s been played is the one edited by Julian Fontana, Chopin’s friend who published his works after his death. In the 20th century Arthur Rubinstein acquired an album that was owned by a female aristocrat, and in it he found a version of Fantaisie-Impromptu written entirely in Chopin’s hand. It was different from the one that Julian Fontana published. You can say the Rubinstein version is “more authentic.” That’s partially why I put Rubinstein up there, because it’d be unfair to compare different versions. I also gravitate towards the more authentic version because, hey, who can beat the originals? But even before I knew about this I just liked Rubinstein’s tempo. I think I’m more sensitive to tempo than other aspects XD

@FourcedowErsert

There are some others, I do enjoy Ashkenazy too hehe. Lukas Geniusas is pretty good, especially for Rachmaninoff xD and also Elisa Tomellini. And I recently got introduced to Giovanni Umberto Battel when I was listening to Chopin, and he struck an impression. I like his interpretation of the etude Op. 25 No. 1 in A flat major. I don’t know, I feel like it’s not always one artist I favour, but depends on the piece, too. But I guess I like these styles, overall?

The only pianist I recognize is Ashkenazy I’ll check out the other ones!

@FourcedowErsert

But yesss, I think we can all agree that Arrau’s interpretation of that one is the undisputed best.

You and I can agree. The other people who voted on my poll preferred other versions. I remember one voted for Rachmaninoff and another voted for Rubinstein. For me, Arrau reigns supreme.

@FourcedowErsert

But yeah, see you in a day, I guess.

And I’m back for about 48 hours

EDIT: So during music class I’d normally sit at the spot right in front of the professor, right across the nice Yamaha upright. So she ended class earlier than usual so I practiced the mystery piece in front of her. She then named the composer and asked if I had been playing for a while. I said that I used to learn basic piano from first to fourth grade, but my sight-reading is really slow and I mainly learn from MIDIs. She then leaned over the upright Yamaha to whisper “actually you’re doing better than the others” and she invited me to join the piano club here. I said that I only knew three songs and that I wasn’t good, but she was like “nah it’s okay, just join!” so I scanned the QR code on the door of her office and I’m part of the club’s group chat don’t know when they’ll meet up next.

I also bumped into more pianists. Some good, others average. You know what, I’m going to stop detailing the pianists I encounter on campus because there are just so many of them

EDIT 2: I got chores and work to do so I won’t be able to catch the two afternoon matches. However, I might catch the first part of Med’s match. I hope he ends it quickly so that I can watch it in full

And did you see that meme on Reddit where it said that Team Europe was like a bunch of awkward introverted exchange students who all secretly hated each other, while Team World was a bunch of rowdy guys who were just there for a good time? and then they showed the bench with Med and Tsitsi sitting on opposite sides and just being all quiet

EDIT 3: MED IS PLAYING THE LAVER CUP RIGHT NOW AGAINST SHAPO!

EDIT 4: HE WON THE FIRST SET AGAINST SHAPO 6-4 LET’S GOOOOOO!

If you’re wondering why there wasn’t a string of edits, that’s because I was eating dinner while watching

Oh and I listened to Giovanni Battel’s interpretation of the nocturne. It was too slow for my liking it was borderline mawkish, at least to me. I understand that the piece is andante, but it sounded closer to adagio for me. I haven’t listened to the others though.

EDIT 5: Med won the match 6-4 6-0! Brutal! Oh and he won the match in one of the funniest ways possible: by falling down he hit a ball, slipped and fell on his butt, but it didn’t matter because Shapo hit the ball to the net so he won the match what annoyed me was that the stream would show ads during changeovers >.> come on! This is the Laver Cup! The exchanges the players make at changeovers is one of the highlights of the tournament. We got so many iconic moments from watching players talk at the bench, like Rafa telling Stefanos “we need to talk about the finger”

EDIT 6: No wonder I’ve never heard of Elisa Tomellini—she hasn’t recorded a single Chopin piece and of course you’d listen to her, since she has two Rachmaninoff albums. Oh well. On to the next one, Lukas Geniusas.

EDIT 7: So I’m checking out Lukas Geniusas. He didn’t record my two favorite Chopin pieces, but he did record my favorite piano concerto: Piano Concerto No. 1. I’m listening to the first movement (my favorite piano concerto movement, ever) and the orchestra’s looking good so far. Good tempo. Still waiting for the piano to come in. There’s this certain part of the movement that’s my favorite, and I’m curious to see if he’ll pull it off. My current benchmarks are Kissin and Seong-Jin Cho.

EDIT 8: Speaking of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, remember when I said that I’m part of the piano club’s Discord server now? It had a list of rules, and one of them was mandatory listening of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and I was like YESSSS EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN and then after that was a line that said “the above rules are lax. Just be a decent human being”

The version that was listed was the one by Seong-Jin Cho, and man, it was good. Same level as Kissin’s. To be fair, I only judged the first movement because I love the first movement, especially in the later part where it was as if the strings were following/echoing the piano and that hook at the beginning is just

EDIT 9: Okay, I’m at that part now. Actually there are two or three parts that I really like in this movement actually, I like the entire movement so much anyway, it was nice, but a tad too slow for my taste. The piece is marked allegro maestoso, and it didn’t sound fast enough to me. It’s still good, though. I’ll wait for that other part to come around.

EDIT 10: I’m at that second part. I was hoping it’d be faster, but it’s still a bit too slow for my taste.

Oh and Europe won the doubles tonight! You know what that means? If they win just one more match tomorrow, they win! It was a lot closer last edition. The final match was a decider between Sascha and Isner, and Sascha (and Europe) won. Man, Europe now is just steamrolling Team World. Looks like they didn’t need Fedalovic

EDIT 11: Wait I’m at the other part I like in the piano concerto, towards the end. The tempo is okay, faster than previously.

So if I have to rank the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Allegro maestoso movements, then it’d look like this:

1. Evgeny Kissin and Seong-Jin Cho (tie)
2. Krystian Zimerman (the actual piano playing was beautiful, but sometimes the strings felt a tad too slow for my taste)
3. Lukas Geniusas

Hmm, I might compare the other ones. Oooh. There’s one by Trifonov. Another by Argerich. Ah, Yundi Li! But the movement is like 18–25 minutes long. I’ll compare them next time.

[Churro]

flies in using my duvet as a cape.

Sup?

[stella_vigo]

I just came back to the forums after a five-day break, and I’m doing well. Will disappear in 48 hours (again)

How about you?

[Churro]

I started writing, you?

[stella_vigo]

Oh, it’s great that you started writing! Hope the story goes out well. What’s it about?

I’ve managed to update a couple chapters for my WIP this week. Chapter IV should’ve been posted to Wacky by 8pm yesterday.

[Churro]

I have wolfboy, crazy man and the brothers to write about. Three projects lol.

Yay! I am happy for you.

[stella_vigo]

Three projects? Hope you can juggle them all. I sort of have three projects too though I have way more focus on one of them. The other two are poetry books and I don’t know when I’ll complete them; they’re just there for practice and fun.

Thanks!

[Churro]

I am playing with them all and seeeing what comes of it.

Poetry is fun, and I am glad you are having fun writing them.

NP

[J.L.O]

Yeah, Poland is on the Baltic Sea–blonde/blue is far more common out of Northern Europe. Mediterranean Europeans tend towards the dark brown/brown combo.

Most Polish people have the general Slavic look. This look has features like lighter hair, paleness of the face, blue eyes, and high cheekbone and sharp noses. Among the Slavs, the people of Poland have the lowest pigmentation. This single factor is what accounts for the lightness of the skin. It is what influences the color of their hair and their eyes.

What Do Polish People Look Like? - The Freeman Online

This is one of the lighter compilation faces.

[FourcedowErsert]

@stella_vigo

Yeah, I had a ton of fun writing and thinking about it, especially Michelle’s reactions

I like this!!! You always make them have such fun banters xD The dialogue is great, I would never be able to come up with that. That’s why I like reading them. It’s nice and relaxing and humourous.

@stella_vigo

You can imagine my reaction I did some digging and apparently it was published on the website of a speculative fiction magazine, and the author of that work is a published author. Yuck. I just wanted to find out what his eye color was! Worst part is that it’s actually one of the first links that show up. So if you search “Chopin’s eye color” on Google and find a link titled “Chopin’s Eyes” written by a person whose name starts with an L DO NOT CLINK ON THE LINK unless you want to be scarred like me

Oh, man. Thanks for the tip, I’ll make sure to avoid it. I would hate to read stuff like that, demoralising your favourites In a way. That would definitely scar me. It’s always terrible when you read something bad about people you look up to, because then you feel punched in the gut. I’ve… Done that before. I mean, with researching deeply about interesting historical figures or composers or people and then finding stuff I would rather NOT know and then being all depressed about it the next day yeah, it’s not fun But if it’s fiction, that just disgusts me and gets me annoyed.

@stella_vigo

Blond, blue-eyed, pale… doesn’t that ring a bell? but seriously, when I realized that he didn’t have dark hair and eyes the whole time, I was like “my life is a lie”

Definitely Honestly, I didn’t know he looked like that either o.o

@stella_vigo

Well not really classical, more like a Chopin phase. My mind wants to add even more pieces to the playlist to make it a nice 123 and because it has a low amount of waltzes, preludes, and etudes. The playlist I should be adding pieces to is the Tchaikovsky one, and meanwhile Debussy’s just waiting for me to start working on his playlist

Very understandable That’s always the way to go I am tempted to say, go for it xD

@stella_vigo

Have you read Blaze in the Darkness by @/FireAlwaysReturns? So in her book she has a character who’s a vampire. He’s pretty cool when he’s normal, but during battle he’s "possessed.” His inner beast takes over and transforms him into a bloodthirsty killer. That, in turn, made me think about Edin and how he completely changes during battle—if blood is shed. Except in Edin’s case, he doesn’t have an inner beast or anything that possesses him. More like a trait. Oh, and sorry Arden, but when you marry him your kids will probably inherit that trait as well

Hmm, don’t think I have. I rarely read wattpad novels, haha. But that does kind of sound like Edin But yeah. Oof, they’re gonna have to teach them how to harness it well. xD

@stella_vigo

I’m gonna die three times in two weeks, with all these exams

Same All my term tests are coming up. I literally just found out my calc test is on Monday x.x But the content is easy, I’m just worried about the explanation part. I don’t like how they make you explain each step like you’re talking to a toddler. It’s too… flexible, for math. But anyways, I also have a chem term test next SATURDAY T.T Like, whyyyy. ;-;

@stella_vigo

So the version that’s been played is the one edited by Julian Fontana, Chopin’s friend who published his works after his death. In the 20th century Arthur Rubinstein acquired an album that was owned by a female aristocrat, and in it he found a version of Fantaisie-Impromptu written entirely in Chopin’s hand. It was different from the one that Julian Fontana published. You can say the Rubinstein version is “more authentic.” That’s partially why I put Rubinstein up there, because it’d be unfair to compare different versions. I also gravitate towards the more authentic version because, hey, who can beat the originals? But even before I knew about this I just liked Rubinstein’s tempo. I think I’m more sensitive to tempo than other aspects XD

Ooohhhh That’s so interesting. I see, I see. Okay, now that I know this, I’m gonna listen to it again in that perspective xD

@stella_vigo

The only pianist I recognize is Ashkenazy I’ll check out the other ones!

Haha yeah, the other ones aren’t really too well-known. Some of them are kind of recent.

@stella_vigo

You and I can agree. The other people who voted on my poll preferred other versions. I remember one voted for Rachmaninoff and another voted for Rubinstein. For me, Arrau reigns supreme.

Meh, they don’t count just kiddingggg

@stella_vigo

She then leaned over the upright Yamaha to whisper “actually you’re doing better than the others” and she invited me to join the piano club here. I said that I only knew three songs and that I wasn’t good, but she was like “nah it’s okay, just join!” so I scanned the QR code on the door of her office and I’m part of the club’s group chat don’t know when they’ll meet up next.

Ha, see, I knew you weren’t bad!! That’s so great. You’re officially in the loop! Tell me how it is if you get to go!

@stella_vigo

I got chores and work to do so I won’t be able to catch the two afternoon matches. However, I might catch the first part of Med’s match. I hope he ends it quickly so that I can watch it in full

Same, I was out almost the whole day. Also tried to catch up on assignments but didn’t get much done >.> I’m too slow at thissss T.T I need to do all my practice problems and the readings, but it’s always so late before I start. I don’t know how people manage it.

@stella_vigo

And did you see that meme on Reddit where it said that Team Europe was like a bunch of awkward introverted exchange students who all secretly hated each other, while Team World was a bunch of rowdy guys who were just there for a good time? and then they showed the bench with Med and Tsitsi sitting on opposite sides and just being all quiet

Yep, I saw that Also, I notice that in the team huddle things it seems like Med is always missing or somewhere hidden or something

@stella_vigo

If you’re wondering why there wasn’t a string of edits, that’s because I was eating dinner while watching

Hehe, I was watching that match too xD Half watching and half doing assignments. Well. Maybe like… three-quarters watching o.o

@stella_vigo

Oh and I listened to Giovanni Battel’s interpretation of the nocturne. It was too slow for my liking it was borderline mawkish, at least to me. I understand that the piece is andante , but it sounded closer to adagio for me. I haven’t listened to the others though.

Oh yeah, his interpretation of that one isn’t too outstanding. But some of the other pieces are nice. Depends on which ones. I haven’t listened to them all yet myself, since I’ve been kind of busy, but yeah.

@stella_vigo

Med won the match 6-4 6-0! Brutal! Oh and he won the match in one of the funniest ways possible: by falling down he hit a ball, slipped and fell on his butt, but it didn’t matter because Shapo hit the ball to the net so he won the match what annoyed me was that the stream would show ads during changeovers >.> come on! This is the Laver Cup! The exchanges the players make at changeovers is one of the highlights of the tournament. We got so many iconic moments from watching players talk at the bench, like Rafa telling Stefanos “we need to talk about the finger”

I KNOW!! I was like, YESSS XDD I saw that too, it was hilarious. They were all laughing at the end BUT SAMEEEE, I was LITERALLY thinking the EXACT SAME THING when I was watching, about the ads!! And I was thinking to talk about it here too xDD But anyways, exactly!! I was looking forward to seeing them interact. Argh. Aside from that, though, it’s too bad there weren’t any Med-Tsitsi doubles… ;-; Med’s not even in any doubles I guess that’s the way to go, but it would’ve been fun if he was.

@stella_vigo

No wonder I’ve never heard of Elisa Tomellini—she hasn’t recorded a single Chopin piece and of course you’d listen to her, since she has two Rachmaninoff albums. Oh well. On to the next one, Lukas Geniusas.

Hehe. She’s quite a good one for Rachmaninoff.

@stella_vigo

There’s this certain part of the movement that’s my favorite, and I’m curious to see if he’ll pull it off.

Hahaha, that sounds familiar, I have some of those favourite moments in some pieces too xD Like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 It bugs me so much if people don’t pull it off the way I like it, so I completely understand

@stella_vigo

Speaking of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, remember when I said that I’m part of the piano club’s Discord server now? It had a list of rules, and one of them was mandatory listening of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and I was like YESSSS EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN and then after that was a line that said “the above rules are lax. Just be a decent human being”

That’s awesome I’d be so excited too, if I were you xD

@stella_vigo

Oh and Europe won the doubles tonight! You know what that means? If they win just one more match tomorrow, they win! It was a lot closer last edition. The final match was a decider between Sascha and Isner, and Sascha (and Europe) won. Man, Europe now is just steamrolling Team World. Looks like they didn’t need Fedalovic

Yup, I watched the last bit xD And totally. Did you hear about the comment Zverev made about how team world’s point was the last they’d ever get?

@stella_vigo

So if I have to rank the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Allegro maestoso movements, then it’d look like this:

1. Evgeny Kissin and Seong-Jin Cho (tie)
2. Krystian Zimerman (the actual piano playing was beautiful, but sometimes the strings felt a tad too slow for my taste)
3. Lukas Geniusas

Hmm, I might compare the other ones. Oooh. There’s one by Trifonov. Another by Argerich. Ah, Yundi Li! But the movement is like 18–25 minutes long. I’ll compare them next time.

Interesting I’d want to know how you rate them all xD Give me a heads up when you get time to do that. But yeah, it’s a great piece, for sure. I love when the piano comes in xD I actually haven’t listened to Lukas Geniusas’s interpretation though, since I mainly just focused on his Rachmaninoff pieces but I might check that out and compare.

[stella_vigo]

@FourcedowErsert

I like this!!! You always make them have such fun banters xD The dialogue is great, I would never be able to come up with that. That’s why I like reading them. It’s nice and relaxing and humourous.

Thanks! I’ve been working on my dialogue a lot because that was one of my weaknesses. I used to make people say stuff that people wouldn’t say in real-life. Sometimes they’d come off as too childish or immature. Glad you found it humorous

Really? I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to come up with something like that too, you know, with your arsenal of puns XD

@FourcedowErsert

It’s always terrible when you read something bad about people you look up to, because then you feel punched in the gut. I’ve… Done that before. I mean, with researching deeply about interesting historical figures or composers or people and then finding stuff I would rather NOT know and then being all depressed about it the next day yeah, it’s not fun

That’s happened to me too. There’s this saying, if I remember correctly, that goes “Never meet your idols.” That’s why sometimes I try to separate the artist from the work.

Which reminds me of these articles I read about Chopin as a teacher. If you wanted to have a lesson with him, you’d have to go through his friends first. If you were lucky enough, you’d meet him and play for him. If you weren’t good enough to be his student, he’d refuse you politely. Only advanced students had lessons with him. Some said that he was a kind and inspiring teacher. He would even give free lessons to some of his students if they were not that well-off.

And then there were pupils who were untalented but had lessons with him anyway because they could afford it. Most (if not all) of them were aristocratic women. Oh, he’d be harsh to them. His assistant noted how those kinds of pupils would “run away in horror” and end up crying he could also be very sarcastic (told one of his students “Has a dog been barking?”) and as his health got worse, so did his temper, to the point of literally breaking chairs O.o

Which is why even if I had the chance, I wouldn’t want to meet him especially with how I played the prelude. If he found out that I not only butchered his prelude, but memorized it instead of using the score, oh he’d be furious. Oh yeah. He was against memorization and said that music should be played from the score, and once got angry at a student for trying to play by heart (said “I don’t want any of this. Are you reciting a lesson?”). And the pedaling. He would not be pleased with my pedaling, especially on an acoustic piano

Speaking of the prelude, I’ve been playing it differently, with a steadier left hand. I read that Chopin was not a fan of wayward tempo and preferred an “unwavering” left hand movement, so I tried to do that too.

@FourcedowErsert

Definitely Honestly, I didn’t know he looked like that either o.o

Yeah, it was a total coincidence. My favorite character and my favorite composer sharing similar physical traits I know right? Especially because in his photograph, his eyes and hair appeared dark. In his portraits, he also had dark eyes and hair. So when I read that I was like WHAT?! but then, apparently a lock of his hair is still preserved, and it’s like a dark brown-blond. Maybe he was one of those people whose blond hair darkened with age. But the eye color, though. That caught me by surprise. The pale part didn’t surprise me because I knew he was sickly.

@FourcedowErsert

I am tempted to say, go for it xD

I am seriously contemplating it

@FourcedowErsert

Hmm, don’t think I have. I rarely read wattpad novels, haha.

Same here. I used to go for years without reading Wattpad stories because every story I picked up was trash. And then I found the forums, discovered your work, and other people’s work, and then I started reading more often because I managed to find actually good stories

Speaking of which, Blaze in the Darkness is one of my favorite Wattpad novels. It’s really good. It’s one of the books I reread, especially some chapters. You should check it out sometime.

@FourcedowErsert

But that does kind of sound like Edin But yeah. Oof, they’re gonna have to teach them how to harness it well. xD

I think that story actually partially influenced Edin’s trait, now that I think about it. I read it last year and plotted E/A\D this year, so I think my subconscious decided to take some inspiration from there too He’s going to learn how to harness/tame that trait in Act II by the way

I’d say more but then I’ll just be spoiling stuff. Then again, I literally spoiled the entire trilogy for you. You already know how it’s going to end so I might as well tell you. Instead of slaying small beasts, Arden will capture them. She’ll chain one to a pole and instruct Edin to kill it. After obeying her, he’ll feel the urge to butcher it further. She’ll order him to control himself. Unfortunately, he’ll lose control and end up mindlessly butchering the beast. It’ll take many tries before he’ll manage to tame himself.

@FourcedowErsert

I literally just found out my calc test is on Monday x.x But the content is easy, I’m just worried about the explanation part. I don’t like how they make you explain each step like you’re talking to a toddler. It’s too… flexible, for math.

Oh know. Well, at least the content is easy. It’s not like that in my case. Good luck!

@FourcedowErsert

I also have a chem term test next SATURDAY T.T Like, whyyyy. ;-;

SATURDAY?! WHOSE IDEA IS THAT ;-;

@FourcedowErsert

Tell me how it is if you get to go!

I will! I heard that they have meetings during the first Thursdays of the month, something like that, and October’s near. I’ll let you know how it goes

But they had other meetings before that and I didn’t go to any of them so yeah. That club is full of prodigies too. As in, those who can play complicated classical pieces. And meanwhile I’m still struggling with the mystery piece, which I’m sure they can play well.

@FourcedowErsert

I don’t know how people manage it.

this so much! Reminds me of the chapter where Giorgino was just stressed and like “I don’t know how all of you do it.” He was based off me suffering in college while everyone was cruising

@FourcedowErsert

I KNOW!! I was like, YESSS XDD I saw that too, it was hilarious. They were all laughing at the end BUT SAMEEEE, I was LITERALLY thinking the EXACT SAME THING when I was watching, about the ads!! And I was thinking to talk about it here too xDD But anyways, exactly!! I was looking forward to seeing them interact. Argh. Aside from that, though, it’s too bad there weren’t any Med-Tsitsi doubles… ;-; Med’s not even in any doubles I guess that’s the way to go, but it would’ve been fun if he was.

I was like “ladies and gentlemen, the USO champion and World No. 2” They don’t even have Schwartzman Opelka/Isner doubles I was hoping they’d make a matchup like that. Also, if Europe wins their first match tomorrow (which is likely) then the other matches will get cancelled because they’d already win. I have things to do around that time ;-;

@FourcedowErsert

Did you hear about the comment Zverev made about how team world’s point was the last they’d ever get?

Oh yes that one! Oh man. What a statement. And now Team World only has one point, so in a way, Zverev’s statement will likely become true XD

@FourcedowErsert

Interesting I’d want to know how you rate them all xD Give me a heads up when you get time to do that.

I was listening to two of them while waiting for you to reply speaking of which, as soon as I saw the notifs from you and saw that you were typing, I played the piano concerto movements. I was anticipating that you’d take long because my post was crazy long.

It took you about fifty minutes to reply, or Daniil Trifonov + Yundi Li + part of Kissin’s interpretations

So the way I’d rate them is based on the following:

• tempo. This is a big one for me. Here, the movement is marked allegro maestoso, so I expect it to be fast and majestic. I understand that the piece is supposed to slow down at some parts, but not to the point that it feels lagging
• sparkle. I don’t know how to explain this one, honestly I don’t know about you but Chopin’s pieces have a certain sparkle to them, especially with his melodies. I can’t quantify it or anything. Basically, I listen to the higher notes, especially during the fast part, and try to search for that sparkle it’s a “you know it when you hear it” kind of thing
• orchestra. Though the piano is the star of the show here, the orchestra plays a big role. The strings especially. I expect them to play with a certain energy. They also should blend well with the piano. This is what brought Zimerman’s performance down—the orchestra was too slow during some parts
• pianism. I’d say that this is related to sparkle except that it’s the overall performance. The dynamics, the rhythm, that kind of thing. I can’t explain it
• how it executes my favorite parts. There are also some parts later in the movement where the orchestra “follows” or “echoes” the piano, or the piano would play really fast and the orchestra would be playing softly and silkily, like a rolling wave. It’s those parts that I pay attention to the most
• overall vibe. As important details are, the big picture is also important. How the movement sounds as a whole is another factor I take into account

So these are my rankings as of now:

1. Kissin/Seong-Jin Cho (great orchestral accompaniment, perfect tempo, and that sparkle )
2. Trifonov/Yundi Li (really, really close to Tier 1. However, they had a little less of that intangible quality compared to Kissin and Seong-Jin Cho)
3. Argerich (too fast during some parts)
4. Zimerman (beautiful piano, but the orchestra could’ve done a better job)
5. Geniusas (two words: too slow)

Fun fact: Seong-Jin Cho, Krystian Zimerman, Martha Argerich, and Yundi Li were all first-place winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition, one of the most (if not the most) prestigious piano competitions in the world. Daniil Trifonov and Lukas Geniusas entered in the same year; the former came in third place while the latter came in second place.

However, Trifonov did win first place in the International Tchaikovsky competition. That same year, Seong-Jin Cho came in third place.

Evgeny Kissin didn’t enter any competitions as far as I’m concerned. He went straight from the music school to the stage—he debuted at the age of ten, and recorded the Chopin piano concertos at the age of twelve.

EDIT: So remember when @/A-Fireflys-Muse listened to my Chopin playlist? They said they’re a fan now so I’m just like YAYYYY XD I managed to convert someone into a Chopin fan

EDIT 2: The Laver Cup’s already over! The two best buds, BWEH and Sascha, won in the doubles match today. I shouldn’t be that surprised. The two have been really close since childhood and Rublev has won an Olympic medal in doubles.

Wow. Sascha said “That’s the last point they’ll win” and it turned out to be true, in a way. Team World got only one point throughout the tournament although I was hoping Team World would win more points. 13-1. Just brutal. That was more of a steamroll than when any of the Big Three were competing

EDIT 3: So I went back to the Chopin Selection and felt like listening to some mazurkas. Guess what happened when I clicked it?

It said “video unavailable” (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

And then I checked the videos to see if there were any other unavailable pieces. The ones that were removed from YouTube (Music) are the mazurkas and the études

Well I guess that gives me an excuse to add more pieces to the playlist. It’s official. I’ll add twelve more pieces to the Chopin Selection, bringing the total to 123

EDIT 4: So good news is that the Rubinstein mazurkas are still up on YouTube music, albeit under a different album. But Alfred Cortot’s études have been removed time to compare interpretations again from my research so far, some choices include Pollini, Kissin, and Perahia.

EDIT 5: So apparently Kissin’s recordings of the Chopin études (if they exist) are nowhere to be found on YouTube music, and Pollini’s recordings are incomplete. The most complete is Perahia’s. Well, I managed to replace the most of the études with Perahia’s, with the exception of the last two—I managed to find official recordings by Alfred Cortot. All the mazurkas are back. So I added eleven mazurkas and one prelude. Why one prelude? Because somehow I didn’t add the Raindrop Prelude the first time so I had to add that now the Chopin Selection has 123 pieces and it still feels lacking

To put into context just how much it is, Chopin composed 225 pieces (245 if you include songs). There are 123 pieces in the playlist. That’s a little more than half of everything he composed if this doesn’t stop, it’ll go to 150

EDIT 6: Remember Deemo, the rhythm game? I remember there’s a book (or more) composed of classical piano pieces by well-known composers. Chopin is included! of course, they’d only put the shorter versions, but yeah. I checked the game’s wiki and the game also has Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Schumann, and Liszt! I think they’re part of a paid book, though.

EDIT 7: It’s almost midnight. See you next week! and good luck for your exams! you can do it!

[Zena]

@stella_vigo

I’m in the process of growing up right now

You do not want to grow up

Noted

[FourcedowErsert]

@stella_vigo

Thanks! I’ve been working on my dialogue a lot because that was one of my weaknesses. I used to make people say stuff that people wouldn’t say in real-life. Sometimes they’d come off as too childish or immature. Glad you found it humorous

Really? I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to come up with something like that too, you know, with your arsenal of puns XD

What, me? I’m pretty sure you’re the one with the pun arsenal

@stella_vigo

Which is why even if I had the chance, I wouldn’t want to meet him especially with how I played the prelude. If he found out that I not only butchered his prelude, but memorized it instead of using the score, oh he’d be furious. Oh yeah. He was against memorization and said that music should be played from the score, and once got angry at a student for trying to play by heart (said “I don’t want any of this. Are you reciting a lesson?”). And the pedaling. He would not be pleased with my pedaling, especially on an acoustic piano

O.o that’s…intense Ahaha, yeah… Probably wouldn’t want to meet him. Good motto. I wonder what his reaction would be to everyone’s interpretations of his pieces nowadays o.o

@stella_vigo

Speaking of which, Blaze in the Darkness is one of my favorite Wattpad novels. It’s really good. It’s one of the books I reread, especially some chapters. You should check it out sometime.

Oohh, hmm! I will note that down.

@stella_vigo

He’s going to learn how to harness/tame that trait in Act II by the way

fun! xD

@stella_vigo

I’d say more but then I’ll just be spoiling stuff. Then again, I literally spoiled the entire trilogy for you. You already know how it’s going to end so I might as well tell you. Instead of slaying small beasts, Arden will capture them. She’ll chain one to a pole and instruct Edin to kill it. After obeying her, he’ll feel the urge to butcher it further. She’ll order him to control himself. Unfortunately, he’ll lose control and end up mindlessly butchering the beast. It’ll take many tries before he’ll manage to tame himself.

Oh dear, that sounds like some process. Would their kids have to go through that too??

@stella_vigo

SATURDAY?! WHOSE IDEA IS THAT ;-;

I KNOWWW T.T There’s probably going to be a lot more of those in the coming weeks >.>

@stella_vigo

Reminds me of the chapter where Giorgino was just stressed and like “I don’t know how all of you do it.” He was based off me suffering in college while everyone was cruising

Oh, wow, no wonder I could relate to him too

@stella_vigo

So these are my rankings as of now:

1. Kissin/Seong-Jin Cho (great orchestral accompaniment, perfect tempo, and that sparkle )
2. Trifonov/Yundi Li ( really, really close to Tier 1. However, they had a little less of that intangible quality compared to Kissin and Seong-Jin Cho)
3. Argerich (too fast during some parts)
4. Zimerman (beautiful piano, but the orchestra could’ve done a better job)
5. Geniusas (two words: too slow)

Ooooh Honestly, your rating scale is so detailed and meticulous Whenever I listen, I just go with what I hear, without necessarily putting them into words. I mean, I guess I could if I wanted to, but it’s all up there anyway

@stella_vigo

Fun fact: Seong-Jin Cho, Krystian Zimerman, Martha Argerich, and Yundi Li were all first-place winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition, one of the most (if not the most) prestigious piano competitions in the world. Daniil Trifonov and Lukas Geniusas entered in the same year; the former came in third place while the latter came in second place.

However, Trifonov did win first place in the International Tchaikovsky competition. That same year, Seong-Jin Cho came in third place.

Whoa, that’s so cool! Where do you even find these facts? xD

@stella_vigo

He went straight from the music school to the stage—he debuted at the age of ten, and recorded the Chopin piano concertos at the age of twelve.

prodigy xD There are so many of those nowadays.

@stella_vigo

So apparently Kissin’s recordings of the Chopin études (if they exist) are nowhere to be found on YouTube music, and Pollini’s recordings are incomplete. The most complete is Perahia’s. Well, I managed to replace the most of the études with Perahia’s, with the exception of the last two—I managed to find official recordings by Alfred Cortot. All the mazurkas are back. So I added eleven mazurkas and one prelude. Why one prelude? Because somehow I didn’t add the Raindrop Prelude the first time so I had to add that now the Chopin Selection has 123 pieces and it still feels lacking

Oh, Perahia. Perahia’s okay. Except I didn’t really like his Fantaisie-Impromptu interpretation But yay! More pieces! xDD

@stella_vigo

To put into context just how much it is, Chopin composed 225 pieces (245 if you include songs). There are 123 pieces in the playlist. That’s a little more than half of everything he composed if this doesn’t stop, it’ll go to 150

WOWWWW xD At this point, why don’t you just put everything on there

@stella_vigo

Remember Deemo, the rhythm game? I remember there’s a book (or more) composed of classical piano pieces by well-known composers. Chopin is included! of course, they’d only put the shorter versions, but yeah. I checked the game’s wiki and the game also has Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Schumann, and Liszt! I think they’re part of a paid book, though.

Really??? That’s so cool! Aww, no Rachmaninoff >.>

@stella_vigo

good luck for your exams! you can do it!

Thank you!! I hope so

[stella_vigo]

@FourcedowErsert

What, me? I’m pretty sure you’re the one with the pun arsenal

Me? Oh well, what about both of us having pun arsenals?

@FourcedowErsert

I wonder what his reaction would be to everyone’s interpretations of his pieces nowadays o.o

Same. I remember reading somewhere that there was a piece of his that he was, um, I think he was very particular about it. One of his students asked “who else can play it beautifully other than you?”

He answered, “Liszt can.”

I also wonder how he’ll react to today’s interpretations because I feel like some players go through his pieces too quickly. Would they reach his standards? I think there should be at least one interpretation that he’d like.

EDIT: Found the source. It was in an article about my favorite nocturne.

@FourcedowErsert

Oh dear, that sounds like some process. Would their kids have to go through that too??

Haha, probably not. Even if they do, it won’t be as drastic as his process.

Edin didn’t know about it until he was twenty-three years old. He was already an adult. If ever their kids are to have it, then their parents will find out while they’re still children, before the trait has already affected them as much as it affected Edin.

Oh, and I just got another idea. Remember that flashback where a young Edin refused to drink blood, and when his father found out that he sneaked out of the house he slashed open Edin’s skin? I think I’ll expand on that flashback. So his father would not only slash his skin open, but curse his own son with intense bloodlust as punishment. Not sure if I should go with it. Although, it would help explain why Edin has the bloodlust trait but Damon doesn’t.

Ooooh, I know where I can go with this. I can make it so that Edin’s bloodlust trait is the result of his father cursing him. If that’s the case, I’m not sure whether I should let Arden break the curse or make her unable to undo it because it’s been in him for more than twenty years (so by then it has already become permanent). On one hand, if she breaks the curse, then Edin will lose some of his power. He can only regain it if he directly ingests blood, which is what he’ll do before the final battle. Well, if Arden doesn’t break the curse, then he’ll still have to drink blood before the final battle anyway.

Either way, in that case she can block it from being passed down to his children. Phew. Looks like your kids are safe Arden if I decide that the trait is due to a curse than genetics.

Wait, I got another idea. So the actual trait of drinking blood is genetic. However, him becoming violent and bloodthirsty is due to a curse. I’ll go with that. I’ve already thought of a line that Damon will say to Edin in OFB, when they meet in Edin’s head.

The lust for blood is in your blood.

I’ve thought of another line, but that’ll spoil Edin’s surname

@FourcedowErsert

I KNOWWW T.T There’s probably going to be a lot more of those in the coming weeks >.>

Ugh, that’s horrible! I wish you nothing but the best. You can do this!

@FourcedowErsert

Ooooh Honestly, your rating scale is so detailed and meticulous Whenever I listen, I just go with what I hear, without necessarily putting them into words. I mean, I guess I could if I wanted to, but it’s all up there anyway

I’ll be honest: I only put these into words when you asked me how I rated them I usually just listen for enjoyment, but when I’m actively comparing, I tend to pick at details here and there. Actually even when I’m just enjoying a recording, sometimes my brain picks up these details and compares them without me telling it to.

@FourcedowErsert

Whoa, that’s so cool! Where do you even find these facts? xD

Wikipedia I just went to the page for the Chopin competition and saw the list of winners, and I recognized a bunch of names. Same thing with the Tchaikovsky competition.

@FourcedowErsert

WOWWWW xD At this point, why don’t you just put everything on there

Because I said that I’d only list my favorites, but then he was such an amazing composer that a lot of his pieces just made it I’m going to add more preludes, études, and waltzes. Maybe more polonaises.

Meanwhile Tchaikovsky and Debussy are just waiting, and waiting, and waiting…

I really want to get started on Debussy though because his pieces—the ones I’ve heard, at least—sound like my kind of thing. You know, that sparkle well it’s not that surprising. Chopin did inspire Debussy, and Debussy even claimed that “Chopin is the greatest of all.” I remember saying that Debussy might be my second-favorite composer, creating a new tier below Chopin. We’ll see

Ravel might also be a candidate. I’ve been listening to Ondine (played by Ravel himself) on repeat and it’s just it’s the sparkle that’s my kind of music.

@FourcedowErsert

Really??? That’s so cool! Aww, no Rachmaninoff >.>

Yup! It’s under a book called the “Etude Collection.” Oh yeah, there was no Rachmaninoff, and also no Debussy nor Tchaikovsky. I think it’s because they listed pieces that are popular, bittersweet, or happy-sounding, especially because of the context of the book. It’s about fond memories of an older brother (who’s a pianist) with his younger sister around when the brother was still alive. Rachmaninoff’s pieces might’ve been too dark for that theme

EDIT: So, this is the piano that was played during the piano club meeting.

It’s the Yamaha CLP 970. It’s also a Clavinova, like mine, but from the cheaper line and it’s a way older version. Wikipedia says that it was first released in the year 2000. It’s more than two decades old It has a very light touch but not as light as keyboards. I don’t think the keys are weighted. At least it sounds okay. Oh, and that clicking sound you hear is the sound of the keys being pressed. Yeah. It’s very clicky XD

I really miss my Yamaha CVP 501 back home it’s not as nice as the AvantGrand, but it’s way nicer than most of the uprights here on campus.

Also, out of curiosity, how would you compare the digital piano I have at home (the Yamaha Clavinova CVP 501) to the pianos my university has? If we were to compare non-acoustic pianos, I’d rank it second only to the AvantGrand in terms of sound and how nice it feels under my hands.

EDIT 2: Have you heard of the piano YouTuber WillsKeyboardSink? He’s not only talented, but he’s quite funny. He adds commentary to his interpretations and reading them made me laugh

Like this one for example:

Chopin, Fantaisie Impromptu Op.66

One of the things he said in the video:

And no, Chopin…
…changing ornamentation doesn’t count as “new material”
(butttt it’s all so good that I can forgive the ctrl+c)

He’s also the YouTuber who “introduced” me to Rush E. I think his arrangement of the meme song is the best.

EDIT 3: I found a new emoji here that I can use!

:smiling_face_with_tear:

Because that emoji exists on Apple devices () but unfortunately it doesn’t show up on Windows computers nor Android phones. Now that Wacky finally has I don’t have to resort to using :’)

EDIT 4: So do you know TwoSet Violin? It’s a music channel run by two classical violinists who used to play in an orchestra. A couple of months ago, they made a video of them guessing and reacting to the top ten most viewed classical pieces on YouTube.

There was no Chopin >.> He should’ve made the list! My joint-favorite piece had more views than Moonlight Sonata yet it did not make the list >:(

I was not the only one to notice it

I just checked that specific video and holy moly, it’s at 185 million views! I knew the piece was iconic—before I dove deep into classical I was already well aware of it—but not to the point of surpassing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Speaking of which, Waltz No. 2 by Shostakovich surprisingly made the list of “top ten most viewed classical pieces” on YouTube. Wow. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one (bonus points if you get the reference).

Reminds me of when they made a “tier list” of classical pieces. I scrolled to the comments and…

As a member of the piano gang, I feel this there were not a lot of iconic solo piano pieces on that list (not necessarily written by Chopin or Liszt). I guess it’s mainly because they’re both violinists.

And in that video, one of the guys was defending Debussy’s piece because Debussy is his favorite composer. His friend was like “You just like Debussy!” and he replied “I do love Debussy, you got a problem with that?”

I can imagine Eddie and his friend being like:

“You just like Chopin.”

“Yeah, is there a problem with that?”

great, and now Eddie’s dominating my headspace again I just keep imagining him obsessing over his favorite composer and his two best friends having to put up with him. Now I may or may not be becoming more like that

I guess I really am in a Chopin phase. How am I supposed to move on to Debussy if I keep obsessing over Chopin’s pieces? First Funeral March, then Ballade No. 1, then Piano Concerto No. 1 allegro maestoso, and now the wrong note étude. Remember when I said that someone played Chopin’s “Wrong Note” étude at the piano club? I only figured out what it was after the meeting and now I’m playing it on repeat. No joke, this is actually what I said in my head:

“Chopin, you were truly a genius! You could make ‘wrong notes’ and dissonance sound so beautiful! Dissonance! Wrong notes! And you made them sound ‘right’! Genius! You really were a masterful composer! Even after hearing the arrangement with ‘correct notes,’ somehow I ended up preferring your original composition, the one with ‘wrong notes’! You really were a maestro of the piano!”

and after that I was like “oh dear I am getting more obsessed. Eddie, what have you done”

At this point I won’t be surprised if I end up writing a poem about him

I’m getting too obsessed, aren’t I? but you might say that I’m not because I remember you ranting in your personal thread about how much you love Rachmaninoff’s music. I also rant about how good certain music is, except I usually just do it in my head or in a private chat. I think this is the first time I’m publicly showing my growing obsession with a classical composer—or any musician, for that matter

EDIT 5: So, I decided to look for some classical composer tier lists on YouTube. I watched (well, I only partially watched the videos. I just skipped to the end where they had the tier list set up ) this one and this one. To my immense delight, my favorite composer was put in the S tier in both videos

In both videos, the only person ranked higher than him was none other than Bach. Bach was in his own tier Of course. If any composer were to have his own league, it had to be Bach. Everyone else was in the same tier as Chopin or lower. Like, I knew he was legendary on the piano and stuff, but I didn’t expect both videos to rank him so highly, since he pretty much wrote only for the piano or piano + other instruments.

EDIT 6: TwoSet just released another video today. The title is “What Kind of Rachmaninoff Sheet is This?”

It was referring to this:

me with small hands: aight I’mma head out

The most I can do is a ninth. Even to play an octave is already stretching my fingers.

Yes, we pianists are finger gymnasts

EDIT 7: HAHAHA I FOUND THIS COMMENT UNDER A VIDEO I WATCHED

But in all seriousness, Liszt didn’t actually “steal” one of Chopin’s nocturnes. He simply wrote a composition dedicated to him after his death, and it sounded a lot like one of Chopin’s nocturnes.

EDIT 8: Speaking of the “Wrong Note” Étude and YouTube videos, I found some golden comments under Rousseau’s interpretation of the etude

“throws piano at another piano”

And I just realized that Waltz Op. 64 No. 1 (the Minute Waltz) was also called the Waltz of the Puppy because it was inspired by a little dog. So while he was composing music for this piece, there was a dog spinning around chasing its tail. Chopin was fond of the dog and even wrote about it in his letters. There’s a passage in the Minute Waltz that represents the sound of the bell around the dog’s neck.

My favorite composer actually wrote a piece about a little doggo I swear the more I learn about him, the more I love him

dammit Eddie look what you’ve done >.> XD

Oh, and a funny story about Rachmaninoff. So he learned that Stravinsky liked honey. A certain type of honey, if I remember correctly. Rachmaninoff wanted to be friends with Stravinsky, so you want to know what he did?

Showed up at Stravinsky’s house. In the middle of the night. With a jar of honey. No context

So if you ever feel like you’ve got terrible social skills, just remember that your favorite composer’s attempt at befriending a fellow composer involved showing up in the middle of the night with a jar of honey and no explanation

EDIT 9: So I watched some Adam Neely videos, and in one of them he explained how there was such a thing as “feminine” and “masculine” cadences. Some composers were criticized for using “weaker, feminine” cadences in their compositions.

Guess who he named as an example? Chopin one of my favorite YouTuber musicians mentioned my favorite composer man, his videos are so interesting. In one of them he debunked the myth of the tritone being banned in the Middle Ages, and during the video there was a sample of old chant being used. He was like “hey that sounds like we can make some 13th century LoFi to it.”

And then a few seconds later it happened. Imagine that. Thirteenth-century Gregorian Chant fused with LoFi? And it sounded good!

EDIT 10: Manage to record three more grands I’m going to put them all in a piano-hunting post anyway, but would you still like to hear?

EDIT 11: Nvm I already posted the recordings to my personal thread. And guess what? I went back to those other pianos (including the Kawai in the basement and the Estonia) and managed to make new recordings with little to no background noise AND DID YOU KNOW THAT MY CAMPUS HAS TWO DORMS WITH STEINWAYS! oh and remember last time when I walked into an all-male dorm by accident? This time it was on purpose they have a Young Chang that’s pretty nice. Oh and the grand piano in the classroom that I’ve told you about is a Kawai. It has wheels and it’s really nice! Gotta be one of my favorite grands.

Now that I’ve uploaded recordings of every single piano that I can access on my campus, I wanna know which one you like the most?

EDIT 12: So remember when I said that I shared “The Letter” by Sakuzyo and Katali on the piano club Discord server and someone reacted with fire? Make that three people like, I didn’t expect that that many people would react that way! I shared that here on the “rate the song above you” thread and someone gave like a 7/10 and said that it was chaotic. Yet, when I shared it with pianists (mainly prodigies and classical pianists), they really liked it.

EDIT 13: I just learned that the piano club will hold an informal recital at the end of the semester I wonder what they mean by informal because there’s no way I’m good enough to make it unless I master the mystery piece by then

EDIT 14: So I had another informal hangout with some friends from the piano club. First we got dinner, then boba, then the rest of us went to the Sohmer & Co piano to just play pieces and chat. This guy wanted to show us his progress with Chopin’s Étude Op. 10 No. 4 and man, am I just blown away! It wasn’t perfect. He didn’t play it in full. But still. He could get that far with just 1.5 months of practice. I’ve been working on the mystery piece for nearly six months and I haven’t finished it I also requested him to play my favorite waltz. He has never heard of it before, but he still got through the entire thing. Granted, he played it really slowly and had often had to repeat passages, but he still sight-read the whole thing on his first try! I just tried the first two bars and then gave up

Ooooh, and I also showed them the mystery piece in one of the counting threads, I told you and Muse about the pianist-composer that’s part of our club and what he said about it. Guess who also saw it? Some girls from my residence hall

After church I dropped by the Steinway to practice, but there were already a few people in the lobby so I just sat and played on my phone. I think they had an event to make cards or something? I overheard them talking about the pianos and how the ones in my residence hall aren’t top quality, with the Baldwin being just plain broken. I was nodding my head and then one of them noticed and I was like “yeah, I tried it as soon as I found out about it, and then I was disappointed. But I’m in a music course so I practice in the music building instead.”

Then they were wondering if the Steinway in my dorm had a rack to hold sheet music. I found out just today that there was a rack to hold up sheet music! It’s just that you have to open the lid first I’ve never opened the lid because I was afraid that it’d make the sound louder, and you know how I feel about volume so I asked if I could practice and they were like “yeah sure! Is it okay if we’d listen?” and of course I told them that I was really bad, just a beginner, and always made mistakes when playing. I sat down. Another girl came and said that she heard someone playing the piano every night.

as soon as I heard that I had a strong feeling she was referring to me, because I would practice almost every night (especially recently) so I was like “did you hear this?” and played the mystery piece. She was like “yeah” and another girl was like “I’ve heard this” and I was like “yeah, that was me” so they went back to whatever they were doing and I just practiced the mystery piece. After that they asked if I memorized it, and I explained how I learned. Then I went back to playing other pieces: Vindicta, the prelude, Gymnopédie No. 1, and Safe and Sound. Then I practiced the mystery piece for one last time before I left. As I was leaving one of them was like “You sounded good!” and another echoed that thought, so I was like “thanks”

I’m almost done with the mystery piece I’m literally at the end. I just hope that I’ll be able to release it soon. Maybe even before December. No promises though and now I’m a bit scared to go back and practice on the Steinway, because now there are people who know who’s the mystery pianist

EDIT 15: I recently realized that I’ve been playing the bass notes of the mystery piece wrong the whole time I played them an octave lower than they should be. Oh well.

So, I got my library card and checked to see if the public library had a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’ll show you the book cover of one of them.

Does the guy in the picture ring a bell? Look familiar? Well…

IT’S FRANZ LISZT HAHAHAHA

Sorry, I just found it so amusing that they used a portrait of Franz Liszt to portray Dorian Gray. As soon as I saw it I was like “THAT LOOKS LIKE LISZT, WAIT, IT IS LISZT” idk but I’ve always pictured (haha) Dorian Gray as having black hair and, idk, being more handsome? Not to say that Liszt is ugly because I don’t think he is. I mean, he was able to drive women into a frenzy for a reason but yeah. Really neat find.

I’ve also requested a bunch of books that they didn’t have, so hopefully they’ll be able to get them.

EDIT 16: So originally I made Arden a violinist and Loren a pianist. Well, Loren’s still going to be a pianist. However, I felt that 1) I have too many violinists and 2) perhaps the viola suited Arden more. I asked in the piano club server for any piano-viola duet recommendations. Someone recommended me this:

Aleksandr Glazunov - Elegie for viola and piano Op. 44 (GSARCI VIDEO REVIVAL)

It’s really nice! After hearing that I was like “Okay, Arden, you’re going to be a violist.” I think it suits her more because the viola has a darker sound. Arden also has a low voice.

EDIT 17: Yooo so remember the piano in my residence hall that had a broken damper pedal? I filed a report saying that it was broken. A few weeks later I checked to see if they fixed it, and what do you know, they fixed it! now I can practice in private without having to walk all the way to the music building.

Also I was thinking of moving to the residence hall with the Boston and Estonia next year because of the really nice private piano they have, but now that they’ve fixed the piano in my residence hall, I guess I’ll stay my current residence hall has a really good location and good facilities. The one with the Boston and Estonia is quite far. When I told some of my piano club friends that I was thinking of moving there they were like “but that’s so far!” and “(insert dorm name here) already has a good location!” and I was like “but they have a really nice piano in a private room whereas the one in (insert dorm name here) has broken pedals” and one of them was like “the long walk is not worth the piano”

EDIT 18: So I got a new pair of headphones it’s the Sony WH-1000 XM4. If you’re an audiophile, you’d instantly recognize it as one of the best noise-cancelling wireless headphones right now. I bought it as an early birthday present.

So I was planning on buying the Beoplay H9i. I’ve always wanted a pair of Bang and Olufsen headphones. I remember when my family went around comparing wireless noise-cancelling headphones, and my dad said that the best one he’s tried out so far is the Beoplay H9i, and he’s an audiophile (sort of) so he knows his stuff. We didn’t end up getting them because they were very pricey, and my mom settled for the Bowers and Wilkins PX.

The Beoplay H9i’s quite old. They’ve already released the latest ones, but I wanted the H9i because it has a replaceable battery and was far cheaper. I asked my parents if I could buy my birthday and Christmas presents early, and they said yes. I tried to buy it from eBay, and… there was an error during checkout, yet the card I was using was charged twice. I knew because my dad got notifications. Now I can’t use that credit card when I want to buy stuff online, but I can use it if I’m going to buy stuff in person. I don’t have enough money in my debit to buy those headphones, so I couldn’t get them.

Enter me going to Target to buy some dryer sheets, or whatever you call the sheets you put in dryers to remove the static. I saw they had the flagship Sony headphones. I knew I was going to use my dad’s card but I wasn’t sure if I wanted those headphones because they were over $300, but I got them anyway. It turned out that they were having a Black Friday discount so I got $100 off, plus a new pair of really good headphones they also come with a flight adapter which is perfect because I’m a frequent flyer—at least I was, before the pandemic—so I don’t have to rely on the free ones they have.

Man, I miss listening to music in really nice noise-cancelling headphones. It’s so cool. It’s so quiet when I put it on and the music sounds really good. I was listening to Sandglass by M2U, the song that describes Loren telling Arden to let go of him and move on, and I was literally crying. I guess that’s one downside of having really nice headphones: when a sad song comes on, it sounds even sadder somehow, and it makes you more emotional, haha, at least it does for me.

Oof, sorry, you probably weren’t interested in that, but I had to tell someone I’m still keeping my Pioneer earphones but I’ll just keep them as a backup.

Oh, and Edin’s Diary is up now the first post is a slideshow btw, and the last slide contains links. Took me a while to code it. @/Novel_Worm said it’s really interesting, and I managed to gain a new reader for BWT thanks to it XD I haven’t reached the part where Edin writes the first love letter, though one of his entries so far does mention him feeling warm and fuzzy inside every time Arden smiles.

I’ve just realized that I’m giving major spoilers for the last two-thirds of BWT but you already know what’s gonna happen anyway. But still. And, idk, but it feels like I’m uploading an entire story. Well, some books have been written in diary form. Oh wow. I’m technically posting an entire story to Wacky

EDIT 19: So they managed to fix the damper pedals for the Baldwin in my residence hall, but they’ve yet to tune the Steinway. I got an email saying that they’ve done maintenance, because I filed a report saying that it needs to be tuned. I rushed towards the Steinway and saw two of my piano club friends, the Chopin fan and the club president. The latter was practicing and they were like “hey” and I was like “hi!”

It turns out that the Steinway’s still not tuned I asked them about it but then they said that it’s not tuned. I showed them the email and they were like “oh, they were lying to you” but I did hang out with them there. The Chopin fan said that he can’t play the piano anymore; he’s part of the violin gang now, and he joked that he’s a fake member of our club. But he won in a contest though when he played a Chopin waltz >.> it’s Op. 69 No. 2. I then checked my Chopin playlist to see if I had it, but it wasn’t listed, so I was like “maybe I should add more, but there’s like 123 pieces already.” He showed me a playlist and was like “this playlist doesn’t have any classical music but it’s 40 hours long, c’mon you gotta step it up.”

So now I’m going to expand the Chopin Selection again

I also requested the club head if she could play Waltz on the brink of the cliff by Sakuzyo. Their first reaction upon seeing the sheet music was like “what is this” XD this is what the club president said while she was sight-reading the piece:

This melody is nice

I probably got a lot wrong

So many sharps, might as well change the key

I’ve never been so happy to see naturals, and then you give me flats

Yeah, it’s hard then after that they were talking about how they worked on pieces that were above their level. The club president was like “Yeah I actually worked on Scarbo. I shouldn’t have”

I don’t think I’ll ever touch Scarbo. I’d rather learn to play Ondine, but that’s still way above my level, haha.

EDIT 20: Med lost in the finals to Zverev >.> Well, I’m fine with it, since it’s not Djokovic but yeah, I watched starting the second set and it was so painful. Med couldn’t do anything ;-; Man, Peak Sascha is just unstoppable on Bo3 on hard courts. There’s a reason why he was World No. 3 at one point, right below Fedal. I didn’t finish the match because I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore. Well, he made it to the finals undefeated, so that’s still something.

Oh and the off season has started, so we won’t be seeing any tennis until January next year (unless you count Davis Cup). So yeah. No live tennis. The players do deserve a break though, because the tennis season is long. Out of 365 days, they only get about a month off. That’s brutal.

Also did you know that Med and his wife graced the cover of the Tatler Russia? When I saw that I was like “neat, he’s on the cover of a fancy magazine!” I mean, it’s Tatler.

But then I took a closer look at the cover and I was like “why are they posing that way?” they were both fully clothed and all but like the pose and the way his wife rested her knee on him while he was sitting down and… From the comments section on the Reddit post, people were like “why does this look so dominant-submissive” and “does he want his kinks to be known”

I checked out the other pictures they had and they were… “hot.” There was no nudity but some of the pics did have that vibe. Now I’m wondering what people were thinking when they got the couple to pose that way, or if it was their idea I mean I shouldn’t be surprised because he’s 25 and married but still.

Those pictures reminded me of Edin and Arden’s relationship

He’s uploaded some pictures to his Twitter account if you’re curious, but they’re the more tame ones. The ones that are… eh, kinkier are linked in one of the comments of the Reddit post. I didn’t expect him to participate in this kind of photoshoot. Maybe if it was another ATP player, then yeah, but him? And he also posted the more tame pics to his Instagram. He captioned it “A different side of me”

At least it’s not like Rafa in Shakira’s music video. Just don’t look it up. I accidentally saw the music video in Hard Rock Café, and boy, was it raunchy. Shakira was scantily clad and then Rafa was shirtless and they were kissing on bed and I was like looking away, but I had no idea it was him. When I realized that it was Rafael Nadal who starred in that Shakira music video I burst out laughing and I was like “THAT’S HIM?! THAT’S RAFA?”

Oh and also one of the Reddit comments say that Rublev might be married, because his partner’s credited as Nastya Rubleva! Awww I didn’t know he had an S. O. idk why but I just find him cute. No, not “physically attractive” cute but more like “dorky smiley emo good guy who’s friends with everybody” cute. I’ve never seen her in his box when he played. Maybe she was there, but nobody recognized her or pointed her out. I guess he’s very private about that kind of stuff.

Someone on the subreddit dove deep into the Instagram accounts of the next gen players while they were younger, and their interactions are priceless these are one of my favorites:

Khachanov: Your looking cool, is that a new hairstyle?
Our favorite octopus-pretzel: IT’S YOU’RE!!! YOU ILLITERATE FOOL

I swear the more I learn about this guy the more I love him.

Oh and this one between Rublev and Bublik

EDIT 21: LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON WIKIPEDIA AHAHAHA

To be fair his actual first name is Achille BUT STILL I was like “imagine if there was a composer with that name” and there was!

EDIT 22: So remember when I told you that I’ve managed to borrow two books, one of them being Chopin’s Letters? The guy was hilarious! I didn’t know he had such a sense of humor. His letters make me laugh. I’m only a few pages in and there’s already gold. Here’s the first part of his sixth letter:

Dear Wilus’!

Thanks for remembering me; but on the other hand I am annoyed with you, that you are such a mean and horrid etcetera and only write such a scrap to me. Were you short of paper or pens, or did you grudge the ink? Perhaps you had no time to do more than put in a scrawl? Eh, eh, that’s it; you go horseback riding, enjoying yourself, and forget about me — Well, well; give me a kiss and I’ll forgive you.

I’m glad you’re well and jolly, because that’s what is wanted in the country. I’m so glad I can write to you. I am also enjoying myself; and you’re not the only one that rides, for I can stick on too. Don’t ask how well; but I can, enough for the horse to go slowly wherever he prefers, while I sit fearfully on his back; like a monkey on a bear. Till now I haven’t had any falls because the horse hasn’t thrown me off; but — if ever he should want me to tumble off, I may do it some day.

He described himself horse-riding as a monkey on a bear

Oh and he actually wrote this:

Now ask since when I’ve had such activitas? A short answer: Since Sokowoło, for really I got so fat, so lazy, that, in one word, I don’t want to do anything, anything at all.

Chopin I had no idea you’d be this relatable

It’s weird because I’ve always imagined him to be skinny, but ever since I began reading his letters, the image of a fat Chopin rolling around on bed, too lazy to do anything, has been popping up in my head from time to time and it’s making me laugh.

As I’ve said before, the more I learn about my favorite composer the more I love him. I think I’ll actually buy a copy after I return it to the library. His letters are fascinating! They’re one of those things that I’d love to reread.

I have to say that I don’t think I’m in a Chopin phase anymore. Well, that lasted quite long: a few months. I’m sort of in a Sakuzyo/Feryquitous phase, but I’ve also listened to some classical music. Eh. I’ve finally made some progress on A Dose of Debussy.

EDIT 23: I saw this online and I am so hyped to read this part of the book

Chopin thought Liszt was a terrible composer. Ouch. According to the next paragraph I guess Liszt had never read that part, because if he did

Although Chopin did have his nocturnes dismissed by John Field, the composer he admired.

It’s ironic since Chopin’s nocturnes are now way more popular than Field’s But imagine meeting your idol and showing him the pieces you wrote that he inspired, only for him to dismiss them and call you “sickroom talent.” Interesting how Chopin still admired him after that incident

Yeah, never meet your idols. Even the great Chopin got roasted when he met his.

EDIT 24: Alright, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to let a part of this out somehow. I will spare you from my full rant because I’ll unleash it in my private chat. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EXPAND THIS PART, AND DO NOT UNBLUR IT. Unless you want to read paragraphs of pure rage. Seriously. Skip this edit

WARNING: IF YOU UNBLUR THE PARTS BELOW, YOU MIGHT WANT TO END OUR FRIENDSHIP BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE, BUT I’VE BEEN HOLDING IT INSIDE FOR FAR TOO LONG.

NO SERIOUSLY DO NOT OPEN THIS

DO NOT OPEN THIS

Uh, you sure you wanna read a bunch of rage?

This has a ton of fury inside, you know that right?

This contains rage against something you like.

Hint: book. You should turn away.

Welp. Uh, brace yourself.

@FourcedowErsert

IT WAS BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.

IT WAS MORE UNBEARABLE THAN I EXPECTED!

Whoops, sorry, I’m trying to contain the rage within me right now. Anyway…

@FourcedowErsert

Read it!!

I did. The entire book. All 800+ pages.

@FourcedowErsert

Well, I mean, some parts are a bit of a tough read but it all adds to the experience so much.

Frankly the POV made the entire thing a hard read. It adds to the experience of torture, yeah it does.

@FourcedowErsert

It’s heartbreaking and can get depressing at some parts but so beautiful how it shapes him, and there’s such a comeback and it’s all worth it in the end

I get this one. The plot was heartbreaking, but also the whole book was heartbreaking because I just wish I was able to appreciate it. But I can’t. I was physically clenching my jaw almost the entire time. Even as I’m typing this I still am. So, even though plot-wise I think it’s worth it, the whole experience-wise I wish I was ignorant of that POV that shall not be named. Also that’s nine hours of my life (plus about three hours of sleep and including several hours I could’ve devoted to studying or reading stuff I actually enjoyed) I’ll never get back, so, you owe me a part of my sanity because it’s occupying my headspace in a negative way XD joking, for the most part

I swear I wish it was in third past but it wasn’t.

@FourcedowErsert

@stella_vigo

Maybe if I read the whole book my view would change. I mean, I only read the prologue and first two chapters. What do you think? Do you think I’ll eventually warm up to it if I read the whole book?

You know, that’s quite possible. Because I think the barrier most people have is just unfamiliarity. It’s very different from the past tense. Now, I read it with almost no effort, but it wasn’t always the case. If you read the whole book, it might help a bit. Especially because in some areas, the effect is really brought out. The beginning is kind of slow. Well, the book is really long, actually, but at a certain point I just couldn’t stop reading. xD

Frankly the beginning was more interesting than many parts of the book for me. I only pushed myself to read it just because I know you like it so much, and you recommended it, and if I didn’t read the whole thing it would be unfair. After all, you were in the same position as I was. I thought maybe if I read the whole thing, I would go through the same process as you and appreciate this POV.

This POV is unpopular and I see why. It should stay that way—no, it should not even be used, unless you’re doing it as a narrator directly talking to the reader a la The Hobbit or The Book Thief. The only way I can see the effect being brought out is “When you are dead, you are silent.” Or something like that. That’s the only time I can see the effect working. Everything else just made me feel like throwing the book out the window, but then people would be able to pick it up and read it still, so perhaps a fireplace with an open flame that’s not surrounded by glass would be better. Oh, I wish I could just chuck all of what I’ve read of it through a window and forget you even mentioned that book or that POV in the first place.

Okay, this opinion is completely subjective, but I stand by it.

It reads like a movie script in the bad way. I can understand first person present because when you’re writing a diary, which uses first person, you tend to write in present tense. I can understand second present because it mimics a player going on an adventure, and there are choose-your-own adventure books out there. Since you don’t know the ending and you are the character, present tense makes sense in second person.

Not with this. At least for me. I know movie scripts are written in third present, but this is a novel we’re talking about. Third person has a storyteller effect, and as far as I’m concerned storytellers talk about events that happened in the past.

Well, news anchors talk about present events.

There’s a disconnect because it’s in present tense, but I know it’s not happening now. And also when telling someone else what happened, it’s more natural to use third past. Like imagine a bank robbery happened and the police are asking what happened. Which one sounds more natural?

“Where’d he go?”

“He went that way!”

or…

“Where’s he going?”

“He’s going that way!”

The former sounds more natural. Another example, using the same bank robbery scenario. If the police ask you what happened just one second ago, which of the choices below would you say?

“The alarms go off and three men barge through the exit carrying sacks. A car pulls up and they get in. They go that way.”

“The alarms went off and three men barged through the exit carrying sacks. A car pulled up and they got in. They went that way.”

Come on, don’t tell me you’re going to default to the present tense one if a policeman asked you what happened even if it just happened a second ago.

First and second person get a pass for using present tense, because we actually use them in present tense sometimes. Not third person. It’s just unnatural to use it in prose.

And some people say that that POV has the feeling of “immediacy” because it’s in present tense. Yeah, no. I didn’t feel that at all.

I REALLY tried, but I just couldn’t. It was so glaring. I love to just sink into a story and get caught up in the events, but this POV just keeps me out of it.

Plus all the flashbacks are easier to do in past tense. Doing the flashbacks in present tense is confusing, and even if I knew it was a flashback, still.

I almost always (if not always) borrow only one book at a time. In this case, I borrowed two books at once just in case I needed to wash off the taste of that POV by reading another book I actually enjoyed, and thankfully I did. I still have that other book with me. Meanwhile, as soon as I finished that book, I celebrated and the first thing I did was walk all the way from my dorm to the library and drop it into the return box. I will be brutally honest: if you didn’t recommend me that, I would’ve quit after a few pages. At least I managed to read a few chapters of Twilight before dropping it out of frustration.

Oh and you will almost certainly hate me for this:

@FourcedowErsert

You know, I think the main character had as tough of a life as E in your story.

True. I was thinking about it while reading the book.

And I abhorred the comparison.

I’m not saying one character is superior than the other (if ever it is, it’s not mine; if I said so I’d be delusional). I’m not saying one suffered more than the other. For some reason as I thought about this comparison, I just clenched my jaw even tighter and I was speeding through the pages like a madwoman, just trying to forget it. I don’t know why. I can see the comparison, but… I just think it’s too different to compare, or it feels so wrong to compare their experiences. I don’t know why but it makes my blood boil… sorry, sublimate.

sigh

AND THE DIALOGUE! THE COMMAS ARE OUTSIDE OF THE QUOTATION MARKS 99% OF THE TIME! It drove me insane. I can’t find a single page on the internet that states where it’s allowed to have commas outside of the quotation marks! And this is a published book too. I know you talked about grammar mistakes in the Hunger Games but how were you able to tolerate this glaring and deliberate punctuation discrepancy?! At least when I read the Hunger Games the errors were far less noticeable, but this one?! IT’S THE MOST BASIC RULE OF PUNCTUATING DIALOGUE AND IT GETS BROKEN 99% OF THE TIME, AND SOMETIMES IT DOESN’T. AND I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THE “BRITISH ENGLISH” EXCUSE BECAUSE I WAS EDUCATED UNDER THE BRITISH SYSTEM FOR TWELVE YEARS, AND WHEN I MEAN BRITISH SYSTEM, I MEAN MY EXAMS WERE FREAKING FLOWN ALL THE WAY TO THE UK, HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD, TO BE GRADED BY BRITISH PEOPLE. NOT GRADED IN ASIA. GRADED BY BRITISH PEOPLE IN THE UK. THEY FREAKING SEALED OUR EXAM PAPERS, PUT THEM ON A PLANE, AND FLEW THEM TO THE UK TO BE GRADED. I KNOW BRITISH ENGLISH. THEY TAUGHT US SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS. EN DASHES WITH SPACES. THOUGHTS SPELLED OUT WITHOUT ITALICS. THEY ALSO TAUGHT US TO PUT THE COMMA INSIDE. I CAN GIVE A DOZEN LINKS TO THE EXAM PAPERS, INCLUDING THE ONES I ACTUALLY TOOK, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT THE COMMA IS INSIDE AND NOT OUTSIDE.

My roommate saw me reading it and was laughing when she saw me reading it, saying she would’ve dropped it and told her friend that it was terrible. Well I didn’t.

You don’t need to reply to this.

You don’t need to reply to all of this in fact because it will just make me think about the book more and I’ll become even more furious.

And I’m suspicious of the fact that it doesn’t mention the act of contrition at the end of the confession scene, only penance. Actually, why doesn’t any media that uses a confession scene show the act of contrition? It’s an essential part of the sacrament! Especially considering the author’s background I was perplexed and disappointed. You don’t even need to say the whole thing. But, man, I just didn’t see it. If you’re going to include a confession, include the whole thing! I swear what do I have to do to see the act of contrition being depicted, whether in its full form or through a simple mention, during a confession scene in a piece of media. I know for a fact that it can’t be a cultural thing because I’ve confessed in my home country and in the US and it’s still a vital part of the sacrament. At least it’s not like that sacrilegious scene in The Nun (the movie).

Even if this book was in past tense, I wouldn’t put it on my favorites list. There was some clever writing with the repetition and all, and heartbreaking moments (that barely moved me to be honest, if at all) but the writing as a whole… I just didn’t find it very noteworthy.

I went from not knowing that POV is actually, not ironically, being used in prose, to loathing it after reading the preview, and later to full-on, indescribable, burning contempt that not even the heat of a million suns can compare. I swear I didn’t expect to hate it this much. I mean I like second person present which is way weirder so why would I loathe a present version of my favorite POV?

It’s literally the only POV I despise. I’d rather give up writing than write in that POV, and considering how I’ve been writing for fun since I was six and have experimented with first past, first past changing to first present, and second present, that’s saying something.

I’d rather give up reading than read that POV that shall not be named.

The only places where I don’t mind that POV are if they are used when the narrator wants to directly tell the reader something a la The Hobbit or The Book Thief but the actual story itself is in third person past, or if it’s used in blurbs. Or in movie scripts or inside dialogue, as in, inside the quotation marks.

I won’t say that it’s a bad book. I hate it beyond description, but I won’t say it’s bad. I’m unbiased enough to admit that it’s not a bad book even though I despise it with an unimaginable passion. It’s not a bad book. It’s decent, I guess. But I still hate it. Hate is a strong word, and frankly it’s not strong enough.

Yeah, I know it must suck severely to have one of your favorite books being bashed. Is it your all-time favorite above every single other book you’ve read to date? If so, then what I’ve done must’ve been even more criminal. Then again you did tell me to my online face that you disliked the Hunger Games even when I said I liked it and criticized its use of the “children with traits from both parents” trope (which I myself will sort of be guilty of). Then again, the Hunger Games isn’t my favorite book/series.

You know what, you can take up my favorite book and figuratively (and literally) rip it to shreds to get back at me. I’ll accept that. You can open it, peek at the first page, and quit reading it and nitpick it just to get back at me.

You can also just pretend I don’t exist anymore. I’ll accept that too.

EDIT 25: I hope you didn’t read EDIT 24. If you did… yikes. Sorry I bet you absolutely hate me now >.<

And if you didn’t, great! Because look

I GOT TWO CUSTOM EMOJIS!

I think people are way more likely to use the latter emoji

I mean look at it!

If this looks familiar, that’s because I first saw it in a meme and I was like “I wish that emoji is real”

Now it is! On Wacky, at least

This might be my new favorite emoji

EDIT 26: So, this must be a record… 26 edits this is what happens when I’m left hanging for a few months: I cram the last reply with a ton of edits because I don’t want to spam the thread every time I think of something to tell you XD

But anyway, I’m reading The Book Thief right now, and I LOVE IT! I’m not yet finished and I know what happens at the end, but still.

Oh and I found this cool website you might want to use: doesthedogdie.com. It tells you whether a certain piece of media—whether a book, tv show, or movie—has some sensitive content. It’s more focused on TV shows and movies, but still! It helps. If you don’t want to go to Wikipedia to read the synopsis but still want to make sure that you won’t read stuff you don’t like—like graphic bed scenes, for example—you can search it there. It may show spoilers related to the sensitive content, but not the entire plot, so at least you’ll be prepared.

I probably won’t use that because I’ll just check on Wikipedia anyway. Just thought you might find it useful.

And I’m having more progress with Debussy. I thought he was going to be my second favorite, but after going through his preludes and etudes, I think he’s not creating a new tier between Chopin and the rest for me. Actually, my second-favorite composer might actually be Sakuzyo. Huh. My favorite composer is the (arguably) greatest composer for piano and the pioneer of Romanticism (although he disliked being called a romantic) while my second-favorite is an obscure Japanese composer who also composes heavily in other genres.

Also, now that I’ve finally finished Chopin’s Letters, I can share some of my favorite bits

I finally got to that part about the waltzes!

“Here, waltzes are called works!”

And I also read this in another letter:

I write to you without knowing what my pen is scribbling, because at this moment Liszt is playing my études, and transporting me outside of my respectable thoughts. I should like to steal from him the way to play my own études.

And this one from another letter genuinely made me laugh out loud:

Come this evening and bring me that Hungarian by force.

And then there was a footnote: Franz Liszt

And he signs off his letters differently. One time, he ended his letter like this:

Your
old Ch. with a longer nose than ever.

I LOVE THIS GUY

And then in some of those letters he wrote to George Sand, his most notable lover, he called himself her “most fossilized fossil.”

Oh, and this is from one of his earlier letters:

Her image stands before my eyes: I think I don’t love her any more, and yet I can’t get her out of my head.

Aww

And then this is from when he was older and really weak, as in near death:

Perhaps that has given someone the notion that I am getting married; but there really has to be some kind of physical attrait, and the unmarried one is too much like me. How could you kiss yourself —

THAT LAST SENTENCE THOUGH and then later in the letter he says that even if he does fall in love, he wouldn’t want to marry, because he’s poor and sickly and women want a young, rich, and healthy husband. And then even later, he says that he’s closer to a coffin than a marriage bed.

It’s funny because some of his letters are pages long, and then there’s one letter that’s literally a sentence long. It was something along the lines of “May God help you in your endeavors” or something like that.

Just a fair warning: there are bits of it that sound a teeny tiny bit erotic, but that’s just him using flowery language. I read in some articles that it’s just how people from that place and time period wrote. Although I do remember this part where he wrote something along the lines of “Can you imagine that? I, as a seducteur!” that was written in a joking manner, and when I read it I imagined a younger version of him playing the piano while flashing a mischievous smile at someone.

There were also some letters that were business-related or transactional, like sending his compositions to publishers or something similar.

I also found out that he liked hot chocolate!

I really hope that the library finds that copy of the book I put into the dropbox, because I distinctly remember putting it inside, yet it still looks like it’s checked out. Hmmm. I mean I wish it’s still with me but it’s not so…

Oh, and I found out that he’s part of the small hand gang! His old lover’s son-in-law made a death mask and a cast of his hand. So this is what his hand’s shaped like:

I was comparing it with my left hand I was like “My left hand looks like my favorite composer’s?” but it’s not as flexible though. There were accounts of his hands being small, unlike Liszt, but they were unusually flexible. One person wrote that his hands even “expanded to swallow a third of the keyboard” o.O

And meanwhile I can’t reach a tenth ;-;

I’ve also watched a YouTube video that mentioned that the hands are the second-most attractive thing girls find about guys, after the face. I was like “no wonder I find pianists attractive” well, I still look at the face first and overall body size, but smooth and slender hands are like

And after that video I kept on thinking about Eddie’s hands especially when he’s playing the piano. Slender, long, flexible. He can reach at least a twelfth. I can’t reach a tenth

EDIT 27: I’ve recently listened to Thierry de Brunhoff’s interpretation of the complete Chopin nocturnes (except for No. 21, which wasn’t in the video), and he has to be my second-favorite interpreter of those pieces, if not joint favorite. Have you listened to them? It’s beautiful *chef's kiss* I know Arrau’s recording of my all-time favorite is our favorite interpretation, but Thierry’s is just… honestly his has to be my second-favorite or joint-favorite. It’s that good—to me, at least.

They don’t have it on YouTube music ;-; but at least they have it on the actual YouTube! Oh, and he didn’t record Nocturne No. 21. Oh well.

I read his Wikipedia page out of curiosity, and apparently he became a monk. Sort of reminds me of Liszt—did you know that Liszt eventually became a monk? Except, unlike Liszt, he was never a promiscuous superstar at some point of his life I think he was devout his whole life and then ended up choosing the religious life. On the other hand, Liszt went from a concert-loving virtuoso who impregnated his mistress more than once to a monk who composed religious music If that’s not a drastic jump, then I don’t know what is. Oh, and de Brunhoff was a student of Alfred Cortot! If you’ve forgotten who Cortot is, he’s the interpreter of the Chopin etudes I put in the Chopin Selection—well, was, until YouTube removed those recordings there are still some Cortot recordings, but most of the etudes are now Perahia recordings.

Here’s the YouTube video:

Thierry de Brunhoff plays Chopin -- Complete Nocturnes

It ends on your favorite nocturne if only he recorded No. 21 in C Minor though ;-;

Speaking of which, as much as I like No. 20, I’ve started listening to it less and sort of avoiding it because now there’s an image associated with it, which is sad because I love it, but then it keeps on popping up and making me a bit uncomfortable I can tell you what it is, but I’m afraid it might spoil your enjoyment of the piece, unless you have the power to dissociate an image from a song/piece.

EDIT 28: NAOMI OSAKA IS HEADING TO AUSTRALIA RIGHT NOW AND I AM SO PUMPED FOR HER TO PLAY IN THE AO! I CAN’T WAIT FOR HER TO RETURN TO TENNIS BECAUSE I MISS HER SO MUCH AND AAAAAAAH

Sorry I can’t help it but she’s back! Man, do I miss her. It’s about time that women’s tennis have more dominant players. The field’s been weak. I mean, Ash Barty’s managed to snag more weeks as No. 1 than a lot of legends, but she’s nowhere as good as them. Put Ash Barty in the WTA scene ten years ago, and she wouldn’t even be Top 5. Other WTA players in the past would win grand slams but still end up as World No. 2, or even No. 3! I’d like to see some consistency, at least man, the old WTA really spoiled us.

Anyway, on a darker note, some players tested positive for COVID most of them, if not all, were playing at a tournament in Abu Dhabi—or were supposed to play there—and they tested positive there. Nadal, Shapovalov, Bencic, Jabeur, BWEH, and your favorite. Well at least they’re all fully vaxxed, to my knowledge. They should be able to recover in time for the AO.

And I saw a picture of Iga learning to apply makeup, as in actually learning, with a pencil in hand and a sheet of paper on her lap XD someone commented that she and Danya should play mixed doubles and I was like “YASSS” I just love their banter, especially when she called him a pretzel XD

And Djokovic may or may not play in the AO. You see, he’s antivaxx or a vaccine skeptic it all started years ago, when he was skinny and didn’t have as much stamina. He was known for retiring from losing matches instead of closing it out. One time a quack doctor put a slice of bread on his body—forgot the exact details, but it’s something like that—and said that he should cut out gluten. And then boom. Gluten-free Novak ended up becoming one of the tennis GOATs. Now he’s consumed by all this pseudoscience and spiritual healing stuff. Some say he’s vaccinated because he’s playing in the ATP Cup, and considering Australia’s entry requirements he should be vaccinated. Others say he might be, but with an unapproved vaccine like Sputnik. Others say he’s not. Well the guy himself has yet to tell us whether he’s vaccinated or not. Makes me glad that I’m a Fed fan, because he not only got the shots, but publicly said that he got them to protect those around him and prevent transmission. Nadal also said something similar. As for Med, he literally can’t take the vaccine because of medical issues. Someone from Australia, I forgot whether it was Tennis Australia or part of the government there, said that there are one/two players with medical exemptions who will be allowed to play, and I’m pretty sure he was referring to Med.

Also, have you seen this?

フエラムネを一気に鳴らしたい

I LOVE KARAMERU VIDEOS I made an entire post about them on my personal thread because I’m addicted to them, haha

EDIT 29: SIMONA HALEP WON THE ADELAIDE TOURNAMENT AND DJOKOVIC OFFICIALLY GOT DEPORTED FROM AUSTRALIA AND NOW MEDVEDEV IS THE TOP SEED AND ALSO NAOMI WON HER FIRST MATCH AT THE AO 6-3 6-3 AND I REALLY HOPE SHE MAKES IT AND AAAAAAAAAAAH

Sorry just the tennis fan in me

Also I’m not sure if the thread will still be around by the time you’re back, but I’ve been having fun talking about OCs with @/korralistic in the “Tell me about your OCs! I wanna ask questions” thread. Her reactions to it are hilarious and I literally pulled an all-nighter because it was so fun I’ll post the best ones here:

So now we have new nicknames: Edin and Damon’s dad is “mr murder man,” Damon is “mr murder junior,” and Edin is “mr murder jr the second” and Arden is “miss oh no i can’t have bursting vaults of my shiny money in one of my 574638475747 castles”

Also I’ve made a poll about which of the three E/A\D characters has the most epic battle theme. It’s here. I won’t tell you the results because I’m afraid of swaying your decision, but I just want you to be completely honest if you do happen to vote on it.

Edin’s surprisingly gaining new fans

[Churro]

Churro slips in.

[stella_vigo]

how ya doing?

[Churro]

sick u but alive

[stella_vigo]

Oh, hope you won’t feel sick anymore soon. At least you’re feeling alive.

[Churro]

Thanks. I should write too.