Now I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a neverending problem, it doesn’t interest me too much. For instance, Chopin’s studies are lovely pieces, perfect pieces, but I simply can’t spend time on them. I believe I know these pieces; but playing a Mozart sonata, I am not so sure that I do know it, inside and out. Therefore I can spend endless time on it.
– Artur Schnabel, in a lecture at the University of Chicago, 1945
W. Grünzweig and L. Matheson (ed.) Music, Wit, and Wisdom: The Autobiography of Artur Schnabel, Hofheim, Wolke Verlag, 2009.
Music better than it can be performed
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George Sand on Chopin’s compositional process
“His creation was spontaneous and miraculous. He found it without seeking it, without forseeing it. It came on his piano suddenly, complete, sublime, or it sang in his head during a walk when he was impatient to play it to himself. But then he began the most heart-rending labor I ever saw. It was a […]
Learn my nameStokowski’s ability to inspire musicians was sometimes balanced by the ability to turn them off. Saidenberg altered me to a remarkable violinist who quit the Philadelphia Orchestra and went on to become America’s greatest authority on constitutional law. “Raoul Berger was a wonderful violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra. One day at rehearsal, Stoki stopped the […]
Ask Me Why (Evacuation) (The Boy and the Heron)Composer: Joe HisaishiArranger: Greg SmithTitle: “Ask Me Why (Evacuation)”, from The Boy and the HeronInstrumentation: Piano Solo This item is available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus.
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 […]
Meditation IIComposer: Greg SmithTitle: Meditation IIInstrumentation: PianoProduct medium: PDF scorePrice: $3 Sample: Your user agent does not support the HTML5 Audio element.
Music as an emotional scienceMusic sets up a certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized. I like to think of music as an emotional science. — George Gershwin Daniel Albright. Modern and Music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, p. 388.
Rustic DanceTitle: Rustic Dance Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
Gershwin’s romantic sideRodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner. It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics […]
Doing what I can’t do“I am always doing what I can’t do yet in order to learn how to do it”. – Van Gogh, painter, in a letter to Anthon van Rappard, 1885
Music is richer than words“If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.” Jean Sibelius, in an interview with Berlingske Tidende, 10th June 1919. Cited at: www.sibelius.fi […]