Mattheson on the courante“The passion or affection which should be performed in a courante is sweet hopefullness.” – Johann Mattheson. Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 103.
A poet is a nightingaleA poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why. Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1821
How not to get an audienceSatie’s ballet Relâche (1924) had trouble pulling a crowd: the title translates as “this performances is cancelled”. Source: Lawrence, Christopher (2001) Swooning. Sydney: Random House, p.70.
1.2: The Fundamental Vibration of Music1 1 1 For Pythagoras (c. 570 BCE – c. 495 BCE), the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, numbers were not merely a mathematical phenomena, but were representative all levels of existence, from the individual, to society, to the universe as a whole. In Metaphysica (Metaphysics), Aristotle wrote: Pythagoreans applied themselves to mathematics, and […]
Liszt on BeethovenLiszt on Beethoven’s music, in a letter to Wilhelm von Lenz in 1852: To us musicians the work of Beethoven parallels the pillars of smoke and fire which led the Israelites through the desert, a pillar of smoke to lead us by day, and a pillar of fire to light the night, so that we […]
Richter on Scriabin“Scriabin isn’t the sort of composer whom you’d regard as your daily bread, but is a heady liqueur on which you can get drunk periodically, a poetical drug, a crystal that’s easily broken.” -Sviatoslav Richter, pianist Monsaingeon, Bruno (2001). Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations. Princeton University Press, p.267 Cited at: Wikipedia
Ashkenazy on RichterPianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy on his colleague Sviatoslav Richter: Richter magnetized me, like he did so many others, and I wouldn’t have missed his concerts for anything. I think he communicated more than anyone else complete devotion and sincerity to his art. When I look back, this is what attracted me most to him […]
How to get an audienceJohannes Brahms and the violinist Eduard Remenyi had been concertizing to great success in Cello and Lüneberg. By this time the two musicians were so elated over their success that they decided to try a concert in the city of Hildesheim entirely on their own. They had no one there to herald their coming, write […]
Oration XIV (St. Gregory the Theologian)Title: Oration XIV Text: St. Gregory the Theologian Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score Samples:
Deereeree the Wagtail, and the RainbowTitle: Deereeree the Wagtail, and the Rainbow Text: Aboriginal dreamtime legend. Based on the account by Catherine Langloh Parker. Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Voice, Flute, 2 Clarinets in Bb, Cello and Piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
