Ravel’s compositional processRobert de Fragny recalled a conversation with Ravel about his compositional process: The G major Concerto took two years of work, you know. The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of chiseling then begun. We’ve gone past the days when the […]
Art isn’t your pet"Art isn't your pet – it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you." Joss Whedon, screenwriter
Determination not to be hurried“Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.” – Henry David Thoreau
One way to get a doctorateRobert Schumann aspired to be awarded a doctorate degree. On January 31 1840, Robert Schumann asked a friend to appeal to the University of Jena to give him an honorary degree, or set him a degree to pass, on the grounds of: “My sphere of action as an editor on a high-class paper, which has […]
FocusConcentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. – Alexander Graham Bell Orison Swett Marden, (1901) “Bell Telephone Talk”, How They Succeeded. Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, p. 38. Digitally archived at https://archive.org/details/howtheysucceeded00mardrich/mode/2up, accessed 11 September 2021.
Environmental soundscapesIn the 1960s, the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer founded the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University. The research group explored the sonic environment. Later projects would include The Vancouver Soundscapes of Canada (1973), European Sound Diary, and Five Village Soundscapes. In his book on the subject, The Tuning of the World, Schafer wrote […]
Let the Lord Enter – Psalm 123 (124)TITLE: Let the Lord Enter (Setting II) TEXT: Psalm 23 (24): 1-6. R. vv.7, 10 COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
Silence, expression, and musicFrom pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death—all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence. After silence that which comes […]
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.
