Music is a moral law

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

– Plato

Posted

in

by


Featured Content

The Adventurer
Title: The Adventurer (Silent film soundtrack) Composer: Greg Smith Performer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score     Related products:     – The Adventurer (MP3 recording) BACKGROUND: FILM:     Written by: Vincent Bryan, Charlie Chaplin & Maverick Terrell     Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell     Director: Charlie Chaplin     Year of release: 1917 SAMPLES:
Elgar on his Violin Concerto
“It’s good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional, but I love it…” Edward Elgar on his own Violin Concerto Jeremy Pound, “First Violin”, BBC Music Magazine, October 2010, p. 36.
The soloist will get his way
Pianist Freddy Kempf on the recording process: Solo recording is the most indulgent type … it’s 90 per cent down to me. The producer can shout at me all he likes, but if I am set on doing it my way, there’s few people who can stop me! – Freddy Kempf, in an interview with […]
A replacement conductor
The following appeared in the Musical Times, August 1890: We read that “a Saxon engineer has invented an automatic machine, the object of which is to save conductors the physical part of their duties. By pressing a button the apparatus, which is provided with an arm holding a conducting-stick, can be made to beat with the […]
Music better than it can be performed
Now I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a neverending problem, it doesn’t interest me too much. For instance, Chopin’s studies are lovely pieces, perfect pieces, but I […]
Accessibility for kids
Benjamin Britten wrote the score to Instruments of the Orchestra, which would become the concert work, Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. The theme to the score was based on a hornpipe from Purcell’s Abdelzer. Britten commented to the producer, Basil Wright, that “I was never really worried that it was too sophisticated for kids […]
Vaughan Williams on an authentic performance of Bach
Vaughan Williams gave a broadcast talk on Bach entitled “Bach the Great Bourgeois.” It was later published in The Listener. Vaughan Williams, who was involved in performances of works such as Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion as part of the Leith Hill Festival, offered some insight in contemporary approaches to Bach performance: WHEN I was a […]
Ombra mai fu from Serse (Handel)
Title: “Ombra mai fu” (from Serse) Composer: George Frederic Handel Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello quartet Product medium: PDF score and parts Sample:    
Work so that you don’t have to work
Herr Richter, the pianist, is going on a tour that will take him back to Holland, his native country – I have given him a letter introductionto the Countess Thun at Linz. – He also wishes to visit Salzbourg, so I gave him a 4-line note for you, my dearest father … He plays well […]
Unless the Lord has built the house – Psalm 126 (127)
Title: Unless the Lord has built the house Text: Psalm 126 (127) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB Product medium: PDF score Sample: