Welcome to Wedgebill Music, the home page of Greg Smith, Australian composer and pianist.

PUBLICATIONS
Sheet music
Recordings

COMPOSITION SERVICES
Composition
Arrangement & Orchestration
Transcription

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Tuition (piano, aural, harmony, analysis, music history)
Analysis
Anecdotes
Articles, papers, and program notes
Quotes
Research services

COLLABORATIVE PIANO
Accompaniment and solo performance

Latest Scores

Latest recordings

Latest anecodotes

Latest Quotes


Featured content

Practising at every opportunity
The conductor Stokowski was co-conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.  He was rehearsing his own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.  The orchestra, however, was used to playing Ravel’s exuberant orchestration. Charles O’Connell recalled: “In the midst of the rehearsal, one of the second violinists busied himself practising the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which […]
Music acting as a spirit resonance
My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing.  To attempt what old Chinese painters called "spirit resonance" in melody and sound. – Alan Hovhaness. Cited at The Alan Hovhaness Website: http://www.hovhaness.com/Hovhaness.html
The Lord Has Revealed To All Nations His Saving Power (Setting ii) – Psalm 97 (98)
Title: The Lord has revealed to all nations his saving power (Setting ii) Text: Psalm 97 (98): 1-4. R. cf. v.2 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
New art and the old formulae
An art gathers new material usually by an original rejection of old formulae, a gesture of negation. At the beginning, this gesture is conscious, defiant, it lacks any other reason for existence than the very healthy one that dogma is death. In the turmoil of growth and expansion, this negation and denial loses its identity […]
When precision isn’t enough
Debussy was well known for wanting precision in performance. However, it was not always quite enough: Some time in 1917 Debussy went to hear the Suite played by a famous pianist. ‘How was it?’ I asked him on his return. ‘Dreadful. He didn’t miss a note.’ ‘But you ought to be satisfied. You who insist […]
The Precepts of the Lord give Joy to my Heart – Psalm 18 (19)
Title: The precepts of the Lord give joy to my heart Text: Psalm 18 (19): 8-11. R. c. Jn 6:68 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:    
Trombone and piano
Air IV
Title: Air IV Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Duet Level (Piano I): 1.2 – five finger position extended to 6/4 through to octave (left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)
Brahms on Schubert
My love for Schubert is a very serious one, probably because it is no fleeting fancy. Where is genius like his, which soars heavenwards so boldly and surely, where we see the few supreme ones enthroned. He is to me like a son of the gods, playing with Jupiter’s thunder, and also occasionally handling it […]
Artificial by nature
Burnett James describes how in the 1920s Ravel was preoccupied with decorating "Le Belvédère" [his house] and in laying out the garden with many small exotic plants and miniature Japanese trees. To see that house and garden today is to experience a feeling of direct contact with Ravel. He deliberately made it an accurate reflection […]