The potential of music to spread peace

A German proverb says: Bose Menschen haben keine Lieder (bad men don't sing) . It is not impossible that out of a tremendous movement of amateur community music a peace movement could spread over the world. Could it not be supported by our high dignitaries? Instead of the president of the United States solitarily playing the piano in Washington and the ruler of the Russians strumming his balalaika (or whatever he strums) in Moscow, could they not, together with their respective governments, join once a week in an orchestra or chorus, thus giving the world an example of common enterprises towards a lofty goal? People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least not while the music lasts.

– Paul Hindemith

Cited in: Paul Hindemith (1952) A composer's world: Horizon's and Limitations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, chapter 11 (digital edition at held at www.archive.org).

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

Featured Content

The Lord Gave The Bread – Psalm 77 (78)
Title: The Lord gave them bread from heaven Text: Psalm 77 (78):3-4. 23-25. 54 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and parts Sample:
What drives the wise
“There is hardly any treatise which could be too learned for me. I have not the slightest pretension to what is properly called erudition. Yet from my childhood I have striven to understand what the better and wiser people of every age were driving at in their works. Shame on an artist who does not […]
Through a Looking Glass
Title: Through a Looking Glass Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Duet Level: Piano I – level 1 (five finger position) Product medium: PDF score and MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only
Entertaining to educate
“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.” — Walt Disney L. Howes, “20 Lessons from Walt Disney on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Chasing Your Dreams”, Forbes, 17 July 2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lewishowes/2012/07/17/20-business-quotes-and-lessons-from-walt-disney/?sh=4b3af9d44ba9.
A musician’s canvas
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” -Leopold Stokowski, conductor
The ideal and the played performance
Some conductors put all the emphasis on the melodic line, while others are fanatics about rhythm, but there are very few conductors who are uniquely able to look at the score and hear every part before it actually happens. With the very best of conductors, it’s as though there are two performances going on simultaneously. […]
Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio (Hob. XV, No. 25) “Gypsy Trio”
I. Andante II. Poco Adagio III Rondo all’Ongarese Chamber music in the eighteenth century was written for and performed for the aristocracy. Music was an aesthetic pleasure: thus an emphasis was placed on musical balance and clarity in the context of an expressive style: evident particularly in the first two movements of this trio, which […]
White Christmas
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 […]
Dance of the Knights (Prokofiev)
Title: “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo and Juliet (op. 64) Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
A motorboat experience
Rachmaninoff was a great lover of motorboating and used to go out every day.  He always steered himself.  Often he went out alone.  This hobby of his nearly proved fatal during that stay of ours.  About an hour before dinner he said: “I think I shall go for a spin on the lake.” He got […]