That time of year thou may'st in me behold

By William Shakespeare (1546 ~ 1616)
That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang:

In me thous see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-an-by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest:

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by:

-- This thous perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Revolutions

By William Shakespeare (1546 ~ 1616)

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And time that gave, doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow;
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:---

And yet, to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising Thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Weekly Piano Post - Prelude, Op. 28, No.1 by Frederic Chopin

One of my friend asked me if I was going to learn Goldberg Variation and post a video of it.  Taking that request to heart, I would like to try to post a selection from from a single piece consisting of several short movements (such as Goldberg Variation) or a collection of short pieces (such as Schumann's Kinderszenen) each week.  For my first collection, I have chosen, Chopin's Prelude.  Hope you enjoy them.

P.S. Given that a month isn't enough time for me to learn a piece (as evident in my monthly posting), the performances on these postings are obviously not going to be very polished.  My apology in advance for that.

Random tech news that caught my interest this week (April 18 ~ April 24)

• I think my birthday is coming up soonish: ASUS to release EeePad Transformer on April 26th.
• RIP, Ohga San:  Former Sony CEO and CD pioneer, Norio Ohga, passes away.
• On other Sony news, how am I going to watch Netflix on my TV now?: Playstation Network down due to intrusion.
• Speaking of failure, Amazon Cloud fails: Amazon Cloud outage causes service disruption to a number of websites.

Since Brass, Nor stone

By William Shakespeare (1546 ~ 1616)
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

O how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?

O fearful meditation! where, alack!
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?

O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

Time and Love

By William Shakespeare (1546 ~ 1616)
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;

When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the water main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;

When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate---
That Time will come and take my Love away:

---This thought is as a a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

Love's Farewell

By Michael Drayton (1563~1631)
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part, --
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
-- Now if thous would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!

Diaphenia

By Henry Constable (1562~1613)
Diaphenia like the daffodowndilly,
White as the sun, fair as the lily,
Heigh ho, how I do love thee!
I do love thee as my lambs
Are beloved of their dams;
How blest were I if thou would'st prove me.

Diaphenia like the spreading roses,
That in thy sweets all sweets encloses,
Fair sweet, how I do love thee!
I do love thee as each flower
Loves the sun's life-giving power;
For dead, thy breath to life might move me.

Diaphenia like to all things blessed,
When all thy praises are expressed,
Dea joy, how I do love thee!
As the birds do love the spring,
Or the bees their careful king:
Then in requite, sweet virgin, love me!

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night

By Samuel Daniel (1562~1619)
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born,
Relieve my languish, and restore the light;
With dark forgetting of my care return.

And let the day be time enough to mourn
The shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth:
Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,
Without the torment of the night's untruth.

Cease, dreams, the images of day-desires,
To model forth the passions of the morrow;
Never let rising Sun approve you liars,
To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow:

Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain,
And never wake to feel the day's disdain.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

by Christopher Marlowe (1564~1593)
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle

A gown made of the fines wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move
Then live with me and be my Love.)

Ecossaise by Ludwig van Beethoven

About the piece:
In key of G major, it was apparently composed in around 1810.  It was originally written for wind instrument and was transcribed to Piano by Czerny, a student of Beethoven and a famous piano pedagogue, in 1834.  (see here)

According to Classical Archive and Wikipedia, an Ecossiase is a dance piece in the style of Scottish dance.

Other music composed by Beethoven around 1810:

• Egmont Overture
• Piano Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a - Les Adieux 
• String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95 - Serioso
• Bagatelle No. 25, WoO 59 - Fur Elise

Major political event(s) of 1810:

• Napoleon, having divorced Empress Josephine, marries Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma.

Art scene in 1810:

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Theory of Colours published
• Jacques-Louis David painted The_Distribution_of_the_Eagle_Standards