1. Without a trace of irony or sarcasm in my voice, let me say that I started the day on a high note. I strolled down the street to the dentist's office. Today's cleaning went beautifully. There were no problems with my teeth. I had the pleasure of having my mouth feel sparkly and fresh.
2. Debbie called and I had an uncomplicated tax question for her and she updated me on how the first three weeks of February are shaping up for her and Adrienne's family. We shot the breeze about this and that, very enjoyably. This morning that started off so positively got even better, thanks to this phone call.
3. I slowed down my listening to The Great Course I'm taking to learn much more about listening to and understanding classical music. I listened again to Prof. Greenberg's first lecture on Beethoven's 5th Symphony. I might go back and listen to this lecture yet again. The lecture I'm trying to absorb focuses on the first movement of the Beethoven's Fifth.
Beethoven composed the first movement in sonata form and as Greenberg presents his analysis of this most famous first movement, he draws upon terminology that he explained in a previous lecture. It's all new to me, words like exposition, development, recapitulation, cadence, and others. I'm trying to become more familiar with these terms and gain a deeper appreciation for how Beethoven follows the demands of the sonata form and how he bends the form, improvises, and composes music being more faithful to his own self-expression than to the form itself.
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