“Creative people, as I see them, are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of the “divine madness,” to borrow the term used by the classical Greeks. They do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being. They knock on silence for an answering music; they pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean. “
– Rolo May, Courage to Create
Creative people produce being
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Borodin transposing
Excerpts from Borodin’s Prince Igor were to be performed by the Free College of Music. Rimsky Korsakov recalled: At this epoch, Prince Igor advanced slowly, but advanced nevertheless. How many prayers I addressed to dear Borodine that he might finally decide to orchestrate a few numbers for the concert! His numerous occupations at the Medical […]
The life of a pianistMy life involves endless hours of repetitive and frustrating practising, lonely hotel rooms, dodgy pianos, aggressively bitchy reviews, isolation, confusing airline reward programmes, physiotherapy, stretches of nervous boredom … punctuated by short moments of extreme pressure …perhaps most crushingly, the realisation that I will never, ever give the perfect recital. It can only ever, with […]
Lord, You Are Good and Forgiving (Setting II) – Psalm 85 (86)Title: Lord, you are good and forgiving (Setting II) Text: Psalm 85 (86): 5-6, 9-10, 15-16 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Music as an emotional scienceMusic sets up a certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized. I like to think of music as an emotional science. — George Gershwin Daniel Albright. Modern and Music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, p. 388.
The soul and speech“There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.” Allan Bloom (1987) The closing of the American mind: How higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students. New York: Simon Simon and Schuster, […]
Lord, Make Us Turn To You – Psalm 79 (80)Title: Lord, make us turn to you Text: Psalm 79 (80) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
After music from a bridge, why not a tower?To mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson river in New York, composer Joseph Bertolozzi sampled sounds of percussively hitting various parts of the bridge. He now has his sights set on using the Eiffel Tower. Wakin, Daniel, ""After Music from a Bridge, Why Not A Tower?"", Arts Beat, 8 July […]
A motorboat experienceRachmaninoff 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 […]
The musician’s questThe violinist Ivan Galamian describes the musician’s quest for a goal greater than mere technical accomplishment: A complete technique .. implies the ability to do justice, with unfailing reliability and control, to each and every demand of the most refined musical imagination. It enables the performer, when he has formed an ideal concept of how […]
Schiff on Schumann"I know of no work by Schumann that is not wonderful and inspiring. One must leave every note just as he wrote it and experiment in order to find the correct balance and equilibrium. With Schumann there is always this burning inventiveness, this unbelievable inspiration." – András Schiff. Cited in Julian Haylock ""The Music of […]