You know what I think about metronome marks: they’re right for a single bar, like “roses, with a morning life”. Only there are “those” who don’t hear music and who take these marks as authority to hear it still less! But do what you please.
F. Lesure & N. Nichols (ed.), Debussy Letters, London, Faber, 1987, p. 305
— Debussy, Letter to Jacques Durand of 9 October 1915
Debussy on Metronome markings
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“Learning makes a man fit company for himself.” — La Harpe Day, E. P. (1884) Day’s Collacon: An Encylopaedia of Prose Quotations. International Printing and Publishing Office, p. 498. Digitally archived at: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Qo\_Mhkcu8iAC, accessed 8 September 2021.
Eighteenth century aestheticsMozart was not at all a purely instinctive, intuitive artist. His remarks to the effect that he “loved to plan works, study, and meditate” and that “he preferred to work slowly and with deliberation” [demonstrate this] … On one level, Mozart’s musical aesthetic is informed by three fundamental and closely related principles that can be […]
Believe in Luck“I am a great believer in luck and the harder I work the more of it I have.”— Stephen Leacock, Canadian author American Opinion, volume 2, issues 8-11, page 20
The piano, as distinct from the harpBeethoven on the development of the piano as an instrument in its own right: There is no doubt that so far as the manner of playing it is concerned, the pianoforte is still the least studied and developed of all instruments; often one thinks that one is merely listening to a harp. And I am […]
Karajan and directionSeiji Ozawa recalls Karajan’s overarching concept of music: I really shouldn’t start comparing Karajan and Bernstein. I’m thinking of the word “direction” – the direction of the music. In Maestro Karajan’s case, he had it from birth – the ability to make long phrases. It was something he taught us, the ones who studied with […]
Abstraction IITitle: Abstraction II Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
Accomplishing great things“To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan… believe… act!” – Alfred Montapert, Author Cited at: QuotationsBook
Rachmaninoff scares meCyril Smith recounts Rachmaninoff’s stage presence: Those who were fortunate enough to hear him play will almost certainly remember this very tall, melancholy figure, with his graying hair in a crew cut and his deeply-lined face set in a somber expression, walking unwillingly to the piano as though he hated the very sight of it. […]
Frank Churchill in production meetingsAfter joining the Disney studios in 1930, Frank Churchill composed music for animated shorts and feature films. His output includes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and The Three Little Pigs (featuing “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf). Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston recalled in Disney Animation: Walt [Disney] used to claim […]
To be a good playerBach was once complemented on his organ playing: “There is nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right notes at the right time, and the instrument plays itself.” Quoted by Johann Friedrich Köhler, Leipzig, after 1776. Hans-Joachim Schulze, ed. Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs, 1750-1800. Bach-Dokumente, III. 1972, no. […]