Reflections on the New Year

 Slowly the New Year

Comes into focus: Hoping

That we all survive!

That was a little haiku I wrote a couple of days ago. This is the time of year we do a bit of reflecting, at least I do. I think about how last year went and what I could do to make the coming year better. Tempered, of course, by the realization that, as always, we are in the hands of the gods (or God) and who knows what is in store for us. So, we just do the best we can to be prepared.

For the first time in my life (!) I started doing a budget a few months ago. So far all I do is record my daily expenses, but that was always the missing data point, so I should be able to do a bit better financial planning in future. I was talking to my very elderly half-sister the other day and she told me that she has owned Tesla stock for seven years. Good grief! My two thoughts are: first, very humbling for me as an investor and second, she can never sell this stock as the capital gains tax will be other-worldly! She was also telling me she wanted to strangle her financial advisor who was wanting to sell Apple (she has owned Apple for a long, long time) in order to "rebalance" the portfolio. Yeah, well, maybe in normal times, but these days? What could you possibly buy with the proceeds from selling Apple? And don't tell me "value" stocks because they have been moribund for years.

But enough of this off-topic stuff! I want to talk a bit about what I might post in the blog in the New Year. I was thinking of getting back to the roots of the blog. In June of this year it will be the 10th anniversary of The Music Salon. In the earlier days I did a lot of educational posts, which have disappeared in recent years. Back then I got put on Cambridge University's list of music education blogs and later on I even won an award. So there is a lot of room to do more posts about understanding the basics of music. I might even do some of my satirical posts on pop music, always fun. And, who knows, I might do an occasional serious post on pop music.

If I can find a good long term project, like my survey of the concerto repertoire, or the Haydn symphonies, I might do that and I really should finish my series of posts on Sofia Gubaidulina and Luigi Nono. Plus, hanging my head in embarrassment, I did the first half of an analysis of the first movement of the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich, and never did part 2. I will, I promise!

And if any of my readers have any suggestions I am always happy to consider them.

Philosophically, the blog will continue to celebrate the virtues and triumphs of Western European Classical Music as it is practiced not only in Western Europe, but also in North and South America, Asia and the rest of the world. We will do so not only because it is worth doing, but because we believe in the long-lasting quality of this music. We will continue to resist the claims that anything written by Dead White Men is offensive because it is racist and misogynist and think that the people making those claims likely have a perverse relationship with reality and the truth.

Finally, my heartfelt thanks to my many, many commentators who bring so much to this blog and without whom there really would be no point.

A very Happy New Year to you all! To celebrate, here is a joyous and expansive performance of the Bach Magnificat that we have not posted before: