Music to ride by

[Patrick Moore]

Years ago, 25+ years ago, in fact, back when I thought that cold weather meant riding a trainer indoors -- the pain of it finally made me go out and ride outdoors in all weather except freezing rain and snow -- I had a carefully crafted trainer routine involving 60 minutes of intervals in an apartment with windows wide open, heat turned off, 18" fan 2' in front of my face, towel on bar, and plastic mat underneath to catch the sweat. I, meanwhile in shorts and shoes and nought else. 

This was a very rigorous interval workout, with heartrate chart on wall behind fan, and minimal recovery periods. The mag trainer had 10 settings, and the bike -- Miyata 410 or somesuch -- had 12 speeds. The regimen included multiple 10 minute intervals standing and cranking fast and hard in the 52 X 14 and #10 setting.

So far, so good. The great problem was the ineffable boredom. "Ineffable" doesn't begin to describe the mental pain. Time would slow down to 1/16 of real speed. I tried watching reruns of Friends, but they were even slower under exercise than ordinarily. I listened to NPR news, and tried Cream (Crossroads) and other heavy rock 'n' roll.

One piece that did help assuage the pain -- again, I didn't mind the physical suffering; it was the mental suffering -- was Handel's Dixit Dominus, putting to music one of the more violet Psalms:

"The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand until I make of thine enemies thy footstool" (KJV, of course, accept no other) with music composed to match.

Anyway, as usual today, after riding to and from liturgy, I came home to peruse the news (NYT Today's Paper), drink a drink or 2, and listen to music on YouTube. I favor Baroque.

And I stumbled across this performance of Dixit Dominus, which I link to for your enjoyment. Use it for your own trainer or Peloton workouts at no charge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS65-ZvUSSM

Patrick "will balance this with evening ragas for bedtime" Moore

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Patrick Moore]

The psalm was violent, not violet.

Dixit Dominus Domino meo: sede ad dextram meam donec poniam inimicis tuis scabellam pedam tuorum. I imagined my mighty quads crushing hapless hoards of attacking roadies.

On Sun, Sep 26, 2021 at 3:28 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

... One piece that did help assuage the pain -- again, I didn't mind the physical suffering; it was the mental suffering -- was Handel's Dixit Dominus, putting to music one of the more violet Psalms:

[Craig Montgomery]

For a good mountain climbing tempo I prefer Frank "Music is the only religion that delivers the goods" Zappa. Inspiring, energizing.   

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp6LT2MdaPI

Craig jivin' with my own cosmic debris in Tucson