Enid Luff's Blog (4)

As the Editor of an on-line music Newsletter, I am trying to compose a "Letter from the Editor". Believe me, there is nothing guaranteed to empty your mind of any cogent thought like writing a Letter from the editor. Everything worth saying has gone to fill the threatening void on the other pages. So, I look around for something to write about. It seems that the centre of Cardiff, where I live, was closed today, shops shut, buses diverted to bus stops half a mile out, the place milling with peop… Continue

A still space, April, between the busy-ness of March and the beginning of summery things, like May bank holidays, and holiday breaks. Why do all the concerts always happen in March? And why, for that matter, does a new phenomenon like Twitter happen along, just when I've convinced myself, by joining Myspace, Musbook and Facebook, that in spite of having begun my life in the 1930's, I'm keeping up with the 21st century? It's great, this new century. I can promote myself on Myspace and Musbook, se… Continue

Today I was brought in an unexpected way up against the effects of our current economic woes. While doing something I am sometimes asked to do, which is playing hymns on the piano for people to sing them, this time in the lounge of a care home, what used to be called an old people's home, this enjoyable activity (it's always a pleasure to play for people to sing, I enjoy persuading them to breathe, get louder and softer etc, just by the way I play, without their knowing anything about it . . .)… Continue

Recently I have been thinking around the subject of the inner "eye" with which we, in part, appreciate and understand music. Having taught listening skills, up to CertHE level, for a number of years during the nineties, I am very much aware of how our visual imagination helps our aural perception when we put together our experience of listening to a piece of music, what ever it may be. And, to be clear, this is not about the practice of "painting music", and emphatically not about synesthesia.… Continue