Thoroughly Modern Mozart

Day 70: I joke that I eschew modern music, defining "modern" as anything north of Mozart, but in fact I stretch the rule to include Haydn. However, it is Amadeus himself who has my attention at the moment, and for the first time in many long years, I am seriously practicing a sonata. Now you must understand that there is a real live harpsichord in one corner of my living room, but it is extremely cantankerous about holding its tuning and an absolute bear to bring to a state of being tuned due to the fact that each string services two different notes and it has two voices (in other words, each note has to be tuned twice). That said, my husband was gifted with perfect pitch and kept it tuned during the years we were together. For me, the process of tuning becomes a two-day struggle, and by Tuesday, I often find that the notes I brought into accord on Monday have gone a bit flat. Such being the case, it does get tuned perhaps once a year, and played until even my poor ear acknowledges pitch problems. All is not lost, though. I replaced my massive upright grand piano with a small electronic keyboard several years ago and although I haven't been able to make much sense of the instruction manual, I've at least figured out how to get different voices. Mozart is lovely played as dual English horns. In the last few months, I have spent more time fingering the keys than in the whole of the last five years. It's delightful to lose myself in music once again.