The musician’s role: maintain our trust in the world

“I feel that tolerance, love and social harmony can and should be the by-products of an artist’s way of life and creation.  I would like to believe that beauty and truth, two great disciplines, when combined as they are in music, where order is based on self-restraint and a better understanding of repose, will lead to a greater maturity, awareness and equilibrium in our civilization.  Words may conceal truth, but this is hardly possible in the case of music.  Even when it is used corruptly, we should be able to detect the unwholesomeness within if we listen with care.  In any event, I feel it is the musician’s role to maintain our trust in the world and the world’s trust in us, to help us express genuine emotions.  When music takes on that responsibility, it draws upon the best kind of human effort and is deeply therapeutic, harmonizing the physical and the spiritual, the intellectual and emotional, joining body and soul.”

– Yehudi Menuhin.  

Menuhin, Yehudi & Davis, Curtis (1979) The Music of Man.  Sydney: Metheun of Australia, p.43.

 

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

,

Featured Content

Art cannot change events. But it can change people.
“The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed…because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may […]
Sleeping Beauty Waltz (Tchaikovsky)
Title: Sleeping Beauty Waltz Composer: Pytor Il’ich Tchaikovsky Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Collaborative piano
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 […]
Practising an art
Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You […]
Unless the Lord has built the house – Psalm 126 (127)
Title: Unless the Lord has built the house Text: Psalm 126 (127) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB Product medium: PDF score Sample:
Rising after we fall
“Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Oliver Goldsmith (1762) The citizen of the world: or, letters from a Chinese philosopher, residing in London, to his friends in the east, Dublin: printed for George and Alex. Ewing, 1762, letter 7, p. 30.  Digitally archived at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004776950.0001.001/1:9?rgn=div1;view=fulltext, […]
Brahms’ harmonic exercise
It was during the summer of 1858 that Brahms met Agathe von Seibold.  He had gone to visit Ise Grimm at Göttingenm the university town where Joachim spent his holidays.  Ise had recently married, and his home was a meeting place for the younger musicians. I have invited some people in this evening,” he told […]
Hilary Hahn on technique, practise mentality, and performance
Violinist Hilary Hahn on practice and technique: I’ve always worked hard at my technique … But I’ve worked hard at my musicality as well. When I was doing my etudes my teachers always made sure I didn’t go onto the next until I had the first really good. But it wasn’t good unless it was […]
One way to get a doctorate
Robert Schumann aspired to be awarded a doctorate degree. On January 31 1840, Robert Schumann asked a friend to appeal to the University of Jena to give him an honorary degree, or set him a degree to pass, on the grounds of: “My sphere of action as an editor on a high-class paper, which has […]
The Battle of the Somme
Title: The Battle of the Somme (silent movie score) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: Full score (PDF download) – 80 pages     Related products:     – The Battle of the Somme (MP3) Background: In 1916 France was struggling to fend off German occupation.  It had become apparent that to break the stalemate Britain […]