Baudelaire on inspiration“Inspiration is merely the reward for working every day!” – Charles Baudelaire (French poet). According to Roland-Manuel, Ravel would often recite this phrase. Source: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel Remembered. London: Faber & Faber, p. 143.
The Poet and the MusePoet, you are no liar. The world that you imagine is the real one. The melodies of the harp alone know truth, and in this life they can be our only true guides. Cavafy, “The Poet and the Muse”
Your Words, Lord, are Spirit and Life – Psalm 18 (19)TITLE: Your Words, Lord, are Spirit and Life TEXT: Psalm 18 (19): 8-10, 15 COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
From the heart“What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.” — Samuel Coleridge Taylor, English poet, critic and philosopher. Coleridge, Samuel (1856) Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton. London: Chapman and Hall, page xlv
Super-Hooper-Dyne LizziesTitle: Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (silent film score) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (mp3 recording) Details: Film released in 1925 Directed by: Del Lord Written by: Felix Alder, Frank Capra, Al Geibler & Jefferson Moffitt. Starring: Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Lillian Knight, John J. Richardson. Synopsis: […]
Beethoven on music“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. Although the spirit be not master of that which it creates through music, yet it is blessed in this creation, which, like every creation of art, is mightier than the artist. — Beethoven Edwards, Tyron (1891) A Dictionary of Thoughts. New York: Cassell Publishing […]
Elgar’s distractionsIn 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 […]
Advice to opera performersIn the early 18th century, the standard of Italian opera performances had become somewhat questionable. In 1720, The satirical writer Marcello offered some advice to those involved in opera performance: [The opera performer] will hurry or slow down the pace of an aria, according to the caprice of the singers, and will conceal the displeasure […]
The healing power of creativitySo creativity helps us to be seen, expressed, and healed. This is fantastic! But I just recently had a bit of an epiphany and tapped into a deeper truth while talking with my old love. Being expressed, healed, and seen is actually a service to humanity. A gift to the world. When we are expressed, […]
Orchestra/Concert bandConcert band