User talk:Graham87

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May music

Bach's cantata was performed 300 years ago, by occasion. The youtube is with Gerlinde Sämann, remember? -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:48, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gerda Arendt: you bet I do ... not just because of her blindness but also because of the tea rodent incident! :-)Graham87 (talk) 03:22, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And on listening to the link, her aria was my favourite (not just because of her amazing singing, like all the singers in that performance), but also the oboe parts and the general feel of that movement ... sublime! And apparently, per the Youtube comments, she's reading the Braille music on stage during the performance. I think Braille music works best for singers because their hands are free to read while performing ... for just about every other instrument, we have to memorise everything! Speaking of which, yesterday I discovered an became obsessed with an absolutely lovely little piece that seems within my ability to play ... Grieg's "Arietta" from his Lyric Pieces! That piece along with Tchaikovsky's "Morning Prayer" from his Children's Album, inspired by the concert I attended two months ago, will be the next pieces I try once I have the bourrées from Bach's 1st English Suites under my fingers (they're getting there, but are trickier than I expected ... I'm not aiming to play them as fast as that recording though)! Graham87 (talk) 04:14, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I often told others that tea rodent story ;) - Yes, she's reading Braille, and she is free to "look" at the conductor at the same time (which she does) while we can't. - Did you get from my talk that a friend sings (bass) in this? (Before the livestream started they had the choir sing Bach motets! - speech at minute 18, music 21, first a new a cappella piece, It's A Journey by Tania León, then Requiem 31) - Good plans for the piano! The French Suites are easier but the B-flat English one is just great! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:45, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gerda Arendt: Wow re everything. Nope, I didn't notice the link on your talk; sounds cool ... will check it out. Yes, a slight majority of the Bach suite movements I've learnt are from the French Suites (I actually got a hard-copy Braille version of all of them made for me from some digital files written in Braille ASCII ... because out of the sets of Bach suites, the French Suites have the most material that I can play). But I've been trying some movements from the English Suites that I really like that are within my technical ability (the prelude and bourrées from the 1st in A major, plus the allemande and sarabande from the 3rd one in G minor ... which I learnt about from some audio files on Commons that I added to Wikipedia in 2007), along with the prelude from the first Partita in B-flat (I studied the minuets from that partita as a kid as part of the Suzuki method, but was exempted from playing the gigue because of all the hand-crossing). Re the French Suites: so far I've learnt everything in the 1st French Suite in D minor except the courante and the gigue (the allemande is particularly delightful), the air from No. 2 in C minor, the allemande from No. 4 in E-flat major, and the gavotte from No. 5 in G major. Also, while we're on the subject of blindness and classical piano, I can't *hnot* mention Nobuyuki Tsujii, who is amazing! Graham87 (talk) 07:06, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Today's main page has again memories of three people who died, for two just the name and for the third an image (great!) coupled with a little bit from her life which seems too little for my taste. What do you think? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:52, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Recommended reading today: Christfried Schmidt, a story about patience. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:19, 8 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Margot Friedländer, May Abrahamse (with uncertain licensing of portrait), and Vakhtang Machavariani (nominated) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:06, 13 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

listen to Machavariani's Mariupol --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:47, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gerda Arendt: That story link you added went to the wrong place; I've fixed it on my end. Graham87 (talk) 15:52, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

thank you! - musings on 15 May --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:34, 15 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

birthday of Erik Satie - can we get his article to GA for his centenary of death? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:56, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

all Verdi today: tenor Luigi Alva and the premiere OTD of his Requiem, see my talk --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:58, 22 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Jadwiga Rappé - lovely alto voice --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:11, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A first: two stories about two people who worked together and died the same day --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:36, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, born 100 years ago, described by Alan Blyth --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:52, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ascension Day today, time for a service at a small church nearby and meeting friends. 300 years ago Bach performed a cantata for the occasion, with a rich use of brass and winds, and to the libretto of a woman. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:53, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

reasons to look at Bach (and listen): it's a recent GA (not by me), he assumed the position of Thomaskantor OTD in 1723, he's up for PR, and several of his cantatas for GA, and his Easter Oratorio for FAC --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:33, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

another reason: the village organ he played, and we can still listen to its sound --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:17, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Gerda Arendt: Wow, amazing that it's survived so well! I don't think that recording renders that instrument's sound particularly kindly though; maybe it's just me but I find it rather harsh to my ears (I've heard that organs are particularly difficult to record). This demonstration of that organ that I found by Kimberly Marshall sounds a lot nicer to me; even comparing that recording at 2:13 (where most/all of the stops are being used) to the opening of your link, I can tell quite a difference, but I don't exactly know how to explain it. Graham87 (talk) 08:10, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for exploring. I saw that other video also but it had too much talk for my taste, and the (fixed) camera shows the organ not quite straight, throughout ;) - an interesting cantata today --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:31, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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Talk:MG Cars

What was the point of replacing a 21-year-old comment that was removed by its author 19 years ago? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 19:33, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I was wondering that. WP:REDACTED permits people to remove their talk page posts if nobody else has responded. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:42, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jpgordon and Redrose64: Fair point; my restoration of that comment was a bit outside general practice. As part of my general checks of almost every article I encounter on Wikipedia, I like to make sure that the initial comment on its talk page remains intact (if it was constructive), whether archived or otherwise. If the comment had only been on the page for a couple of weeks or so before its author removed it I would've let it go, but it was there for over a year and therefore associated with the page for a significant part of its history. WP:REDACT goes on to say: "... Once others have replied, or even if no one's replied but it's been more than a short while, if you wish to change or delete your comment, it is commonly best practice to indicate your changes." At the time of the deletion in question in April 2006, all I can find in the talk page guidelines about talk page comment removal is: "Avoid deleting comments on talk pages, particularly comments made by others". This isn't a situation I encounter very often, though I've done restorations in situations like this in the past. Sometimes I just like asking the oddest questions of page histories and therefore get the oddest answers ... Graham87 (talk) 04:47, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It just seems kinda pointless. Kinda like whoever is fixing lint errors on talk pages of users blocked or departed years ago. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 05:35, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jpgordon: There was MalnadachBot, which has since stopped editing. Some people still fix these errors but only the more serious ones I think. Graham87 (talk) 05:38, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sort keys

A sort key (specifically "Mahler symphony 9" in a category list) isn't a matter of likely or "unlikely to be confused". Please learn what they do before removing them, thank you. ELSchissel (talk) 01:10, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@ELSchissel: I know what sortkeys do ... I just didn't read the diff properly, and my edit summary was referring to the hatnote. Graham87 (talk) 05:17, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. Has since been reverted, anycase. ELSchissel (talk) 08:35, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cleisthenes

I may have very unhelpfully tried to "help" here...

Essentially, there are two "famous" Athenians by that name, and by far the more famous is Cleisthenes, the democratic reformer. Cleisthenes (son of Sibyrtius) was a very minor political figure mostly known for being the butt of the joke in a couple of comedies by Aristophanes.

Personally, I'd suggest that if Cleisthenes (Athenian) redirects anywhere, it should be to Cleisthenes with a hatnote (as it currently does after my edits), but I'm not convinced that having that redirect adds a whole lot of value over just Cleisthenes (disambiguation). UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 12:59, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@UndercoverClassicist: Not a problem; I've adjusted Talk:Cleisthenes (Athenian) so it also redirects to the same place. At least all the edits to Cleisthenes (son of Sibyrtius) are in the right place now after my history merge. Graham87 (talk) 13:05, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

June music

The image shows foxglove in abundance, each an upright stem with many purple flowers, but the many next to each other creating an almost abstract band of purple vs. the light green of the leaves below and the dark green of the forest above.

The places: a day full of great discoveries, culminating in Oliwa Cathedral which was called a must-see by Graham Waterhouse who played the organ once. (There are two, one with an extra set of pipes separately at an angle. Dinner right next to the Abbot's Palace, where Penderecki had also been a guest.

The story: Bazon Brock spoke at an exhibition at Kolumba to honour Anna and Bernhard Blume on her 80th birthday. [1] Did you know "An Anna Blume"? -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:47, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have Easter Oratorio on the main page, but of course told the story, which is admittedly complex, on Easter Sunday for the music's 300th anniversary. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:40, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

sang today --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:00, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]