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Abstraction XIII
Title: Abstraction XIII Composer: Greg Smith Performer: Greg Smith Product medium: MP3     Related products:     – Abstraction XIII (PDF score) Sample:
The length of a rehearsal
Rachmaninoff completed his Third Piano Concerto at his summer estate at Ivanovka in September-October 1909.  He then toured America, learning the piano part on a dumb piano aboard the ship.  The work was first performed in New York under Walter Damrosch in November 1909.  In January 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the third New York performance. […]
Rachmaninoff on music
“What is music? How can one define it?  Music is a calm moonlit night, a rustling of summer foliage.  Music is the distant peal of bells at eventide.  Music is born only of the heart and it appeals to the heart.  It is love.  The sister of music is poetry and the mother – sorrow!” […]
Stokowski rebukes
The conductor Stowkoski was always in complete control of his orchestra: He never lost his tempoer with the orchestra, never raised his voice.  On the contary, he would lower his voice for a subtle rebuke or a sarcastic comment. Schwar recalled Stokowski saying, “Second clarinet, don’t play notes – sing them.”  To the first violist, […]
The inexpressible depth of music
The inexpressible depth of all music, by virtue of which it floats past us as a paradise quite familiar and yet eternally remote, and is so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from […]
Ruth Slenczynska’s advice on musical lines
Make your musical lines as long as possible. Rachmaninoff said, “Small musician, small ideas; big musician, big ideas.” After an artist has played a program many times he can soar so high above the music that he conceives the whole event in one arch of sound. Make each phrase prepare for the next; make many […]
Lord, I Love Your Commands – Psalm 118 (119)
Title: Lord, I love your commands Text: Psalm 118 (119): 57, 75, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Brahms’ reaction to Wagner’s Music
Brahms attended a Wagner concert in Vienna: All through the concert Johannes sat in stony silence. At the close, when everyone was applauding vigorously, he still made no move or comment.  Finally his companion – beside himself with enthusiasm – cried: “What music! Wasn’t it marvellous?” The composer raised his eyebrows a little.  Then he […]
The Adventurer
Title: The Adventurer (Silent film soundtrack) Composer: Greg Smith Performer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score     Related products:     – The Adventurer (MP3 recording) BACKGROUND: FILM:     Written by: Vincent Bryan, Charlie Chaplin & Maverick Terrell     Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell     Director: Charlie Chaplin     Year of release: 1917 SAMPLES:
Don’t wish me luck
“From here on out, I declare that no one ever wish me again to ‘break a leg’”. Joyce DiDonato, American mezzo soprano, shortly after having broken a leg on stage in a production of The Barber of Serville at the Royal Opera House. DiDonato insisted on continuing the performance in a wheel chair. Source: Kirkup, […]