When my students compose, I prefer them to be mistaken if they must make mistakes, but to remain natural and free rather than wishing to appear other than what they are. I remember a day when Stravinsky was dining here. He took his neighbor at the table by the lapels, violently! His neighbor crushed, said to him, “But Monsieur Stravinsky, I don’t know why we’re talking like this, I agree with you.” And Strainvsky exclaimed furiously, “Yes, but not for the right reasons, so you are wrong.”
Mademoiselle: Conversations with Nadia Boulanger, ed. by Bruno Monsaingeon, trans. by Robyn Marsack. Cited in: O. Strunk, Source Readings in Music History: The Twentieth Century, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1998, p.218.
You can have good or bad reasons for searching. If you search in order to hide your inadequacy, you’re wrong. If you are looking in order to say what you really want to say, you’re right. And so it’s very important for a teacher first of all to let his pupil play as he wishes, write as he wishes; and then to be ruthless on questions of discipline.
— Nadia Boulanger
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The role of an interpreter
The interpreter is really an executant, carrying out the composer’s intentions to the letter. He doesn’t add anything that isn’t already in the work. If he is talented, he allows us to glimpse the truth of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected in him. He shouldn’t dominate […]
I’ll Softly SighComposer: Greg Smith Title: I’ll Softly Sigh Instrumentation: Piano Performer: Greg Smith (2010) Your browser does not support the audio element. Sheet music
Lord, Every Nation on Earth will Adore You (setting ii) – Psalm 71 (72)TITLE: Lord, every nation on earth will adore you (setting ii) TEXT: Psalm 71 (72): 1-2, 7-8, 10-13. R. cf. v.11 COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part
The AdventurerTitle: 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:
Beauty Around Us – Bernhard Severin IngemannTitle: Beauty Around Us Composer: Greg Smith Based on text by: Bernhard Severin Ingemann Instrumentation: Piano (easy) Product medium: PDF score Related products: – Beauty Around Us (piano version) – Beauty Around Us (easy piano version) – Beauty Around Us (mp3) SAMPLE:
The framework of a symphonyThe framework of a symphony must be so strong that it forces you to follow it regardless of the environment and circumstances: [it is] an “ethical necessity”. Jean Sibelius, to Jussi Jalas, 1 October 1939 Cited at: www.sibelius.fi [accessed 31 Mar 2010].
Brahm’s first meeting with SchumannHe [Brahms] sat down and began the sonata which had so impressed Joachim [a violinist]. As he played, a swift change transformed [Robert] Schumann’s impassive features. The Master listened with growing interest, then suddenly sprang to his feet. “Please”, he cried. “Will you wait just a moment? Clara -” He hurried to the door and […]
Rehearsal conditions must be suitableStrengthened by his initial triumph and by daily evidences of the ever-mounting appreciation and support of the Philadelphia’s new claim to artistic fame, Stokowski tried once again to convince the board that first-class musical results were impossible unless the orchestra rehearsed exactly where they performed. The men engrossed in the financial problems of balancing budgets […]
Stokowski’s first rehearsal with the Philadelphia OrchestraOn Stokowski’s first rehearsal with the Philadelphia Orchestra: From Oscar Schwar, a fellow faculty member at Curtis who became my friend, I heard the details of Stokowski’s first contact with the orchestra. He would never forget, he said, that Monday morning of October 7, 1912, when an amazingly young and handsome Stokowski, wearing a light […]
Determination not to be hurried“Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.” – Henry David Thoreau