Starting a Blog

Hello World,

On this somewhat sunny Saturday, I have finally decided to start on a project I've been meaning to get around to for a little while, that of starting a blog.

First and foremost I am a music student majoring in performance on Recorder. Baroque music is my long time fav, but I'm having a fairly big soft spot for some fourteenth century stuff that I'm playing. Recorder is a relatively unusual instrument to see at a tertiary level, so I'll provide a very brief history of it, of which many, many years ago in an AMEB exam, I couldn't say what recorders were first made of. What a terrible ten year old. The Recorder is a very simply constructed instrument, originally made from wood, and sometimes ivory and other precious materials. It is used primarily as a melodic instrument, and the repertoire dates from the earliest Western European manuscripts that we have, until J.S. Bach's death in 1750. Bach's death marks the popularity of a new instrument in the home and performance halls, known as the pianoforte, or piano. Also why Bach should be played on early keyboard instruments, but I digress. The recorder was unable to compete with the piano's dynamic range, and the increase of ensemble size with the popularity of the classical orchestra and so dropped out of use in the Classical period, so no recorder for Mozart. In the early 20th century, the Dolmetsch family was heavily involved with the revival and construction of Early Music instruments based on those in the British museum. A 1920's movement in Germany of cheap plastic instruments led the recorder to its usage as a classroom instrument. The 1970's saw a huge surge in Early Music and historical performance practice. So most recorder pieces are from the 13th century to the mid 18th and then from the mid 20th century.

I'm in my final year of undergrad, and looking forward to graduating. I've very much enjoyed my studies, and have been very lucky to be in a degree that allows both breadth and depth of learning.

To attend University, I moved from my North Queensland home to the city of Melbourne. I'm currently living in college, and intending to move into an actual house with some of my wonderful friends from down here next year. College has been an excellent experience, I would highly recommend it to anyone.

My other interests include photography, ballet, tap dancing, fashion, interior decorating, the rainforest and reef, my dogs (that live at home in Queensland), my wonderful family and friends, colour, nail polish (28 bottles down here and counting), composition, musicals, not having a tan, pretzels, mediation, blogs, politics, flowers and all kinds of music. I intend to post on all of this, and probably more.

This blog is to take control of my life on the internet. I've figured much of this information is out there on various forms of social media and such, and I'd rather be the one curating it.

To finish, here is a video from one of my favourite Aussie bands, The Basics. I recently saw them at a free concert very close to where I live, which was such a coo, because if you recognise their drummer, you'll be sure to know that these guys will probably be huge this year. The video is pretty beautiful, and the song is such a favourite. Such great harmonies, expect for me to post so much more from these guys. Or check it out yourself.
The Basics: With This Ship

Ciao for now kiddos,

J x