Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and–if at all possible–speak a few sensible words.
Goethe, Johann (translated by Frederick Ungar & Heinz Goethe, Johann W., Frederick Ungar, and Heinz Norden). Goethe’s world view : presented in his reflections and maxims : with new English translations and the German originals. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 1963, p.131.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Each day, according to Goethe
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Liszt meets Beethoven
I was about eleven years old when my respected teacher Czerny took me to see Beethoven. Already a long time before, he had told Beethoven about me and asked him to give me a hearing some day. However, Beethoven had such an aversion to infant prodigies that he persistently refused to see me. At last […]
DaydreamTitle: Daydream Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
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.
On Artur Schnable’s playingArtur Schnabel is a pianist unlike any other. One is conscious in listening to him of a powerful and original mind revealing unsuspected meanings and complications in music as familiar as Brahms’s Intermezzi and Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ Sonata. His tone is a rule dry in anything above a piano, but a sudden touch of the pedal […]
The Lord is Kind and Merciful – Psalm 102 (103)Title: The Lord is kind and merciful Text: Psalm 102 (103): 1-4, 9-12. R. v.8 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Piotr Anderszewski on interpretationTo me it’s all about how you read and translate the music you play: the most important thing is to reach the point where you feel you understand what happened in the composer’s mind before he actually wrote it. Musical notation is a very sophisticated yet imperfect system; it was the only way for the […]
The current state of the recording industryFounder Klaus Heymann, founder of the successful NAXOS label, on the current state of the classical music recording industry: “We can’t live off CD sales anymore,” says the German-born Heymann, 75, speaking by phone from his base in Hong Kong. When Naxos began, Heymann proved that you could make money selling tens of thousands of […]
A successful day“If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.” Alex Noble, cited at Brainy Quote
Relationship with the museI need time to be idle in order to experience and romance my muse, Music, my lifelong partner. In some ways, when I think about the enforced thirty minute practice sessions and much-resented violin lessons during Friday recess which introduced us during my early childhood, our story feels a bit like the plot of a […]
Bernstein’s WorkroomLeonard Bernstein’s children have donated the contents of his main composing studio to Indiana University. The contents include “Bernstein’s stand-up composing table; a conducting stool that may have been used by Brahms, given as a gift by the Vienna Philharmonic; an electric pencil sharpener; a telephone; an ashtray and disposable lighters; Grammy-nomination plaques; and […]