Bernstein is intent on demonstrating that the inevitable doesn’t just happen. It comes from intense work. To show this, he restores a handful of Beethoven’s discarded sketches to the score so that we can hear how the Fifth would have sounded if Beethoven had retained his first (or second or 10th) thought. Some discarded passages […]

…He who lies here was possessed. Seeking one goal, caring only for one result, suffering and sacrificing for one purpose, those did this man go through life… If there are some of us who can still feel a sense of total dedication in these fractured times, let us meet at his grave. Has it not […]

“The difference between the reputation that Bach enjoyed in his lifetime and that which accumulated posthumously is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of music.” Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites.  Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 65.

Composer: Alexandre Michel Gerard DesplatArranger: Greg SmithTitle: “Love Letter” from The Boys in the BoatInstrumentation: Piano solo Available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus

Title: You are a priest for ever (Setting ii) Text: Psalm 109 (110): 1, 2, 3, 4 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:

Satie wrote that “An artist must organise his life.” In 1913, he set said out a schedule in which he stated he would be inspired between 10:23 and 11:47am, and 3:12 to 4:10pm. The timetable allowed for daily house riding, and various other activities such as fencing, reflection, immobility, visits, contemplation, swimming, etc. The day […]

Title: Abstraction X Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF scoreRelated products: – Abstraction X (MP3) SAMPLE:

Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee (1786-1868) was a composer who wanted lessons with Beethoven.  Beethoven would only look at his compositions. Schnyder often dined in the Mehlgrube, because he knew that Beethoven often went there at the same time in the evening. One lovely spring night Schnyder, on entering the restaurant, saw his friend Beethoven […]

In a radio interview in 1937, Edward Elgar’s violinist friend William H. Reed described Elgar’s “distractions” while composing the violin concerto: I can never play the last movement without seeing the River Wye flowing past the meadow at Hereford where Sir Edward and I used to practise throwing a boomerang in our “off-time” between working […]

Tin Pan Alley refers to the concentration of music publishers in New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.  It started around 1885 and lasted till the depression in the 1930s.  It’s title comes from the the sound of all the cheap, tinny pianos playing, being likened to the beating of  tin […]