Look Who it Was Random video

IN THE REALMS OF GOLD - Uke improvisation

798 views · Published 18 March 2012 · 3:59 · Indexed 9 October 2026

Channel: Ken Middleton · 2012 · Music

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I was going to post this as a fail vid because a very noisy printer starts up towards the end and then someone makes a loud knocking sound as they open the door. Notice my terrible look of disdain just before the last note.

I am off to a big trade show in Frankfurt in a few hours, so apologies if I don't immediately reply to comments. 

I have always wanted to play somewhere really famous. When Anton Rubinstein was asked how to get to Carnegie Hall, his reply was "Practice, practice, practice". I'm certain that I would need to practise this a bit more before I played it there in front of an audience.

The title is from "On first looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats.

MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,  
  And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;  
  Round many western islands have I been  
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.  
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told          
  That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:  
  Yet did I never breathe its pure serene  
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:  
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies  
  When a new planet swims into his ken;   
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes  
  He stared at the Pacific—and all his men  
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—  
  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

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