It happens because you identify so completely with the composer, you’ve studied him so intently, that it’s as though you’ve written the piece yourself. You completely forget who you are or where you are and you write the piece write there. You just make it up as though you never heard it before. Because you become that composer. I always know when such a thing has happened because it takes me so long to come back. It takes four or five minutes to know what city I’m in, who the orchestra is, who are the people making all that noise behind me, who am I? It’s a great experience and it doesn’t happen often enough.
Leonard Bernstein. Cited in: Green, Barry (2003) The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry. New York: Broadway Books, pp. 3-4.
Bernstein on immersive performance
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Achieving great things
“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein
The price of an encoreAt a concert in London in December 1911, Rachmaninoff was received to great acclaim: perhaps a little too much from the orchestra's view point, who wanted to play the rest of their program: The London Philharmonic Concert given on November 7, provided an object lesson in this study of the relation of applause to encores. […]
Improvising a fugueOn 1 May 1747, Bach met Friedrich II, King of Prussia, in the Potsdam city palace (where chamber music was usually played from 7-9pm daily). Johann Forkel recalled: in 1802 The king used to have every evening a private concert, in which he himself generally performed some concertos on the flute. One evening, just as […]
Deereeree the Wagtail, and the RainbowTitle: Deereeree the Wagtail, and the Rainbow Text: Aboriginal dreamtime legend. Based on the account by Catherine Langloh Parker. Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Voice, Flute, 2 Clarinets in Bb, Cello and Piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Concert bandThe double life of an artistPeople are mistaken thinking that the creative artist uses art to express what he feels at the very moment of experience. Joy and sorrow are feelings expressed retrospectively. Without any particular cause for rejoicing I can be immersed in a mood of happy creativity and, conversely, I can produce, when cheerful, a piece saturated in […]
Bacharach’s teachersBurt Bacharach was a student of Darius Milhaud, Bohusalv Martinu, and Henry Cowell. Bacharach’s hits included Magic Moments, Walk on by, The Look of Love, and Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head.
Stanford on Tchaikovsky“Tchaikovsky reminded me, in more ways than one, of his countryman Tourgéniew, whom I once met at Madame Viardot’s. He had none of the Northern roughness, was as polished as a Frenchman in his manner, and had something of the Italian in his temperament… For all the belief which he had in himself, he was […]
Mattheson on the courante“The passion or affection which should be performed in a courante is sweet hopefullness.” – Johann Mattheson. Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 103.
The power of enthusiasm“Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money, power and influence.” Henry Chester