Technic  represents the material side of art, as money represents the material side of life.  By all means achieve a fine technic, but do no dream that you will be artistically happy with this alone.  There is a technic which liberates and a technic which represents the artistic self.  All technic ought to be a […]

Bassoon

In Halina Rodzinski’s book Our Two Lives she describes how on the very first day Artur Rodzinski came to assist Stokowski in 1929, his boss immediately restyled his hair without a part and combed straight back from the brow.  “That’s how a conductor should look,” said Stokowski, pointing Rodzinski at a mirror in his dressing […]

“There is also in this [nineteenth-century romantic] music an extraordinary sense of control over the passage of time; a moment will be held still as if suspended, and then released with a rush. Einstein has told us that time is relative, flexible and elastic; I have noticed these qualities whenever I have tried to play […]

(250, 308, ‘How Caffeine Can Cramp Creativity’, ‘how-caffeine-can-cramp-creativity’, ‘ Caffeine can boost energy, reduce fatigue, and increase short term concentration and problem solving skills. However, creativity is haboured in a less focused mind: Creative insights and imaginative solutions often occur when we stop working on a particular problem and let our mind move on to […]

Long before the tune Danny Boy even had words the tune existed as an Irish folk melody.  A study in 1979 revealed that Londonderry Air was related to Aislean an Oigfear (The Young Man’s Dream), which had been collected in 1792 from harpist Denis O’Hampsey  He was over ninety at the time and had played […]

Title: The Queen Stands At Your Right Hand Text: Psalm 44 (45): 10-12. 16 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score     Related products:     – The Queen Stands At Your Right Hand – Piano solo (mp3 recording)     – The Queen Stands At Your Right Hand – SATB and piano (score) Sample:

Grade 3 Theory

Rodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner.  It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics […]

On February 19 1786 Mozart attended a masked ball disguised as an Indian philosopher. He distributed pamplets with riddles. One of the riddles was: If you are poor but clever, arm yourself with patience, and work hard. If you do not become rich, you will at least remain clever. – If you are an ass […]