Poet, 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”

Title: I will praise you, Lord Text: Psalm 29 (30): 2, 4-6, 11-13 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:

Accounts vary on where Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas”. Berlin himself even recall differing circumstances on when it was penned. Some sources claim at was written at the poolside in Aizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix. Other accounts state that is was in Beverly Hills, California. In any case, the narration is set in […]

“Imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world’s supreme good.” – Pascal Blaise, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. C. Prendergast, A history of modern French literature: from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2017, p. 237.

When Handel travelled through Chester, on his way to Ireland, this year, 1741 (to give the first performance of Messiah), I was at the Public School in that city and very well remember seeing him [Handel] smoke a pipe, over a dish of coffee, at the Exchange Coffee House; for being extremely curious to see […]

Brahms was rehearsing his F minor piano quintet. But when they reached the Andante, the strings played too fast to suit Brahms. This had happened once before in an early rehearsal of the same work, and the composer had discovered a tactful way of handling the situation.  Instead of criticizing, he called: "Just a moment, […]

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 […]

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 […]

PERFORMANCE BIOGRAPHY GREG SMITH Certifications and degrees: – 1996: Associate of Music, Australia (A. mus. A.) in piano performance – 1998: Licentiate of Music, Australia (L. mus. A.) in piano performance – 2001: Bachelor of Music, with honours, class I (University Medal).  University of Newcastle.  Double major in piano and composition. – 2003: Master of […]