But weeds have this virtue: they are not easily discouraged; they never lose heart entirely; they die game. If they cannot have the best, they will take up with the poorest; if fortune is unkind to them today, they hope for better luck tomorrow; if they cannot lord it over a corn-hill, they will sit humbly at its foot and accept what comes; in all cases they make the most of their opportunities.
John Burroughs (1895) The Writings of John Burroughs: Pepacton. Digitally archieved at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7441/7441-h/7441-h.htm, accessed 11 September 2021.
— John Burroughs
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Brass ensembleThe construction of music
It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. Melodies of 12-tone rows just don’t happen. They must be constructed…. To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the […]
A party pieceIrish pianist and composer George Alexander Osburn (1806-93) was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music and a director of the Philharmonic Society. One of his most popular compositions was La Pluie de Perles (The Shower of Pearls). At a fashionable party, at which he arrived very late, he was invited to play, and […]
Growth by dreamsWe grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them, nurse them through bad days till they bring them to […]
A tribute to Beethoven“The Last Master of resounding song, the tuneful heir of Bach and Handel, Mozart & Haydn’s immortal fame is now no more. The harp is hushed. He was an artist – and who shall arise to stand beside him? He was an artist – thus he was, thus he died, and thus he will live […]
Paderewski, the dandyOverheard in a New York street car:— Average Young Man (to neighbour): “Everything they say about Paderewski is true. He’s a perfect genius. Why, he played fourteen pieces and did not once look at the programme. Yet he played straight ahead and never once forgot what piece was to come next. I tell you the […]
Autumn LeavesPianist Roger Williams on his hit recording of Autumn Leaves (which was recorded three days after signing his contract with Kapp records): “I said, ‘You mean ‘Falling Leaves’? I didn’t even know the title,” Mr. Williams told the Los Angeles Times in 1996. “I stayed up Friday and then Saturday night working on an arrangement.” […]
Pierrot LunairreA performance of Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire was given by Artur Schnabel (piano), Boris Kroyt (violin), Gregor Piatigorsky (cello), Paul Bose (flute), Marie Gutheil-Schoder (speaker), conducted by Fritz Stiedry. Gregor Piatigorsky was amused at the need for a conductor, given the size of the ensemble: The half-spoken, half-sung voice indicated in the score was partly filled […]
A man is not a failure until …What is luck? Is it being in the right place at the right time? I think it is something more. Luck is the active process of creating the life you want. So don’t just sit back and hope that good things will happen to you. Be courageous and go after what you want. Commit to […]
Nietzche on Art“We have art in order not to die of the truth.“ Friedrich Nietzsche, notebook from the Spring-Summer of 1888, 16 [40]