(diaryland) May 30, 2007 - 7:30 a.m.

I've been practicing this piece I'm going to play in class on Friday. In case you're wondering, it's Nocturne Op 27 No. 1 by Chopin.

It's weird because I've been practicing it a lot, doing all the fiddly bits one million times and trying to get the left hand not too loud and stuff, but every time I play from the start, which is sixty thousand times a day, I accidentally go under a spell. It's because the music is that inconceivably excellent that I almost have a giant weep every damn time. You start off just playing a bunch of C sharps and G sharps, and then an E comes in eventually, really surreptitiously, and you're like, shit. A spaceship just landed on earth. That's the first note of the melody. Then - Egads! An E sharp! Shit! A creeping melody rips your heart out, then there's some Phrygian malevolence, and that's all just on the first bloody page. IT'S COOL.

This Chopin - he's a pretty smart guy.