“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.
Edwards, Tyron (1891) A Dictionary of Thoughts. New York: Cassell Publishing Company, p.367. Digitally archived at https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Thoughts/uUi0R_St0qYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=A+Dictionary+of+Thoughts:+Being+a+Cyclopedia+o&pg=PA263&printsec=frontcover, accessed 11 September 2021
— Beethoven
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Music better than it can be performedNow I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a neverending problem, it doesn’t interest me too much. For instance, Chopin’s studies are lovely pieces, perfect pieces, but I […]
Rachmaninoff on modernity versus his musical styleI feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing, and I cannot acquire the new. I have made intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me. Unlike Madame Butterfly with her quick religious conversion, I cannot […]
We can’t all play first violin“If all would play first violin, we could not obtain an orchestra. Therefore esteem every musician in his place.” — Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (translated by Henry Hugo Pierson), Advice to Young Musicains [Musikalische Haus- und Lebens-Regeln]. New York: J. Schuberth & Co. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28219/28219-h/28219-h.htm, accessed 29 August 2021.
Understanding the world“If we understood the world, we would realize that there is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent dissonances.” Jean Sibelius, in conversation with Gustav Mahler, 1907. Cited in: Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas Living Biographies of Great Composers. Garden City (NY): Blue Ribbon, [1940] 1946) p. 309. [Cited at Wikiquote.]
The source of inspirationFor me, inspiration comes from a bunch of places: desperation, deadlines… A lot of times ideas will turn up when you’re doing something else. And, most of all, ideas come from confluence — they come from two things flowing together. They come, essentially, from daydreaming. . . . And I suspect that’s something every human […]
Warmed pianosThere was soon to be no excuse for not practising in the chill of the winter. This excerpt is from The Musical Times, April 1869: WARMED PIANOS (G. Price’s Patent) – These Instruments invite playing in Winter, when the coldness of the keys of all others makes it unnecessarily uncomfortable, if not painful, to many, […]
TaleTITLE: Tale COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: Bassoon and Piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part PRICE: $11.95 SAMPLES:
Purpose of the artsThe King’s EntranceTitle: The King’s Entrance Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – 1 (five finger position) Product medium: PDF score and MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)