15 Comments

Beautiful!

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Thank you, Paul!

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I enjoyed your playing. I'll listen anytime you want to come out of your solitude.

I have only recently sampled your writing and wish I could afford a paying subscription. My ancestry led me to suspect a shorter life line; I enjoyed my life a lot too much and am now more healthy than wealthy.

If Substack offered a tip jar I would have thrown something in it.

Ah! I'm going to try subscribing for a month and hope I don't lose you when I unsubscribe.

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Thank you, Mike! I saw your subscription come through. Also look for a little bonus from me to come through on your end.

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This is truly lovely, Matt. And super sad that your prior tradition of playing for audiences during the holidays has not resumed post covid. I'm sure you could volunteer at schools, retirement homes, etc!

Let's all hope for a 2025 that isn't as bad as we fear.

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Thank you, Leslie! Yes, volunteer opportunities are probably available. Who knows, I may end up looking that direction sometime. I share your wish for a good 2025. I'm convinced that taking specific steps -- maybe inner, maybe outer, maybe both -- to tune out the din of the collective mad monkey mind, and to tune in to the clear source of truth and reality as manifest in the fact of our own real identity, will be irreducibly necessary for facilitating this outcome.

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Thank you for sharing your musical gift. You play the way you write—beautifully. I hope you’ll record and share more in the future.

I discovered an album this past Christmas by one of my favorite pianists/composers that you might enjoy. It is much more mellow (per Stephan Moccio’s usual style) than this arrangement by Lanz, but very calming and introspective, which is my preference for Christmas music.

What Child is This is my favorite track on the album. Something to keep in mind for next Christmas, but per its title, will be listenable even now.

I pasted the link below, but if you don’t have Apple Music, it won’t work.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/winter-poems/1535928022

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Thank you, Georgia. Moccio is a favorite of mine as well, but I haven't ever listened to that Christmas album. I look forward to discovering it. His song "Dukes" is something I've enjoyed playing myself in that cocoon of pianistic solitude that I mentioned.

Regarding "What Child Is This," Liz Story's arrangement of "Greensleeves" (same tune, of course), which was included four decades ago on the first installment of Windham Hill's Winter Solstice series of albums, has remained a favorite of mine since college, circa 1990. It's also one that I play/perform for myself and have previously played for, e.g., prelude music at December college commencement ceremonies. Here's her own performance of it from that album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpbQjGdKLKM

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Really lovely and ethereal. If you can play that, and you also have Joy to the World under your belt, seems like perhaps a Matt Cardin’s Christmas album is in order.

Thank you for the link. It’s been forever since I heard anything Windham Hills.

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What a beauty! I love those Christmas carols sung in their original form. Now you share this piano version as a surprise gift, very apt for starting off the new year, I find: bright and sparkling and with that bouncy on-your-toes-come-cross-the-threshold-into-the-new-year-happily-and-sprightly pattern in your left hand for much of the time. Thank you very much for this dancing into the new year!

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Thank you, Anne! I'm glad this music spoke to you as deeply as it does to me.

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Beautiful! Let's hope for a bit more Joy to the World this year- I certainly feel happier having just listened to this. Thank you for sharing, and Happy New Year to you!

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Thanks, Philippa! Happy New Year to you as well.

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Lovely gift to us. Thank you 🙏

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Thank you, Teri!

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