Greatness

Greatness means the construction of an inner world, and the communication of this inner world to the physical world of humanity.  The two belong together; neither is thinkable without the other.  The strongest feeling and the most vivid imagination are worthless to humanity if they do not manifest themselves; the greatest constructive talent is worthless if it does not serve a creative power that is capable of forming a cosmos.

Einstein, Alfred (1941) Greatness in music.  Trans. César Saerchinger.  New York: Oxford, p.163.  Cited in: Barrett-Ayres, Reginald (1974) Joseph Haydn and the String Quartet.  London: Barrie & Jenkins, p. 387.

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The healing power of creativity
So creativity helps us to be seen, expressed, and healed. This is fantastic! But I just recently had a bit of an epiphany and tapped into a deeper truth while talking with my old love. Being expressed, healed, and seen is actually a service to humanity. A gift to the world. When we are expressed, […]
Concert band
Evolving recordings
Gwilym Gold has released an album that never plays the same way twice. Developed in collaboration with Lexxx and scientists from Goldsmiths University in London, Gold says the system, called Bronze, “makes the music more engaging, similar to a live performance. Every time it’s played, it’s renewing itself.” Mark Savage, “Gwilym Gold releases ‘constantly evolving […]
James Levine on Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Conductor James Levine on Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin: Eugene Onegin is very special, an incredibly successful piece; there is nothing quite like it. The character of Tatyana is so extraordinary. Tchaikovsky absorbed certain things from Pushkin’s original poem, and then composed his own opera, which of course angered some other great Russian artists, like Stanislavsky […]
Glinka’s compositional priorities
“My earnest desire is to compose music which would make all my beloved fellow countrymen feel quite at home, and lead no-one to allege that I strutted around in borrowed plumes.” – Mikhail Glinka Cited in Jerremy Nicholas, “Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka”, Classic FM, April 2012, p.35.
How we decorate space and time
“Art is how we decorate space; music is how we decorate time.” Jean-Michel Basquiat,  street artist
In critique, then in praise of Bach
The dilemma of “old” versus “new” style is evident in the comments of the Johann Adolf Scheibe in reference to his elder fellow musician, Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1737, 29-year old Scheibe write in The Critical Musician: A musical composition must naturally be pleasant and tickle the ear, it must also please the reason … […]
The juggling jazz musician
“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” – Benny Green, British saxophonist Benny Green (1975) A Reluctant Art: The Growth of Jazz.  Books for Libraries Press, p. 16.
The illiterate of the future
“The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that can not learn, unlearn, relearn.” -Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist Cited at QuotationsBook
Don’t loaf and invite inspiration
Don’t dash off a six-thousand-word story before breakfast. Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it. […]