Abstraction VTitle: Abstraction V Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLES:
The art of playing the triangleGeorge Plimpton, a writer and sportsman, asked if he could play in the New York Philharmonic for a month to write about the workings of an orchestra. Leonard Bernstein assigned him to the percussion section. The principal percussionist, Walter Rosenberg, recalled his experience: During rehearsals I would lean over and point to where we were […]
Debussy improvisingDebussy would sit himself down without speaking at the piano of the little study-cum-library and start to improvise. Anyone who knew him can remember what it was like. He would start by brushing the keys, prodding the odd one here and there, making a pass over them and then he would sink into velvet, sometimes […]
Handel’s dinner for threeHandel certainly liked to eat: A story is told of him that he once ordered up enough dinner for three. Noting that the servant dawdled about, Handel demanded why; the servant answered that he was waiting for the company to come, whereupon Handel stormed, in his famous broken English, “Den print up der tinner prestissimo. […]
Mattheson on the allemandeAn allemande is a stately processional couple dance. The dances formed lines of couples, extended their hands, and moved forward and backward throughout the ballroom. It was a common stylised dance in baroque music. Johann Mattheson described it in 1739: Now the allemande is a broken, serious, and well constructed harmony, which is the image […]
Bach’s weddingJohann Sebastian Bach married Anna Magdelena, 3rd December 1721. They married at home, by command of the Prince of Saxe-Weissenfels. It was Bach’s second marriage. Bach purchased a 264 quarts (about 250 litres) of wine, worth 84 thalers and 16 groschen (about one fifth of his annual salary). Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites. Crows […]
Debussy’s reception in EnglandIn 1908-9, Claude Debussy made two appearances conducting his own works in England. The Musical Times reported on the occasions. The report on the first concert: Nothing could have been heartier than the applause which greeted M. Claude Debussy as he stepped on to the platform at Queen’s Hall on February 1. The warmth of […]
Composing in the bathGustav Mahler recalled: After an illness, Bruckner was ordered by his doctor to take a daily hip-bath. Loath to waste time, he would take music paper and compose while in the tub. While absorbed in his work one day, the mother of Rudolf Kryzanowski, one of his pupils, knocked at the door. “Come in!” called […]
How not to get an audienceSatie’s ballet Relâche (1924) had trouble pulling a crowd: the title translates as “this performances is cancelled”. Source: Lawrence, Christopher (2001) Swooning. Sydney: Random House, p.70.
Music and health“Musical instruments are aids to the maintenance of health, and to the restoration of health once lost, according to the difference in the complexions of men. For this art of music was anciently ordained to draw the mind back into healthful habits, and thus doctors are dedicated to its use to cure bodies. Therefore they […]
