In the world, in life, and in nature, there is nothing but beautiful tales, and when the door opens, enter and accept it with all your soul. Art is an immense, eternal forest, where the trees stand as sparsely or as densely as you wish. The moon, sun and all kinds of glittering stars move about at your will, and when you come to the shore of a lake in the wilderness it is fathomless if you so want, and lush waterlilies and wonderful red-speckled waterbirds swim on the black water. And if you want, the day will dawn on the other side of the lake behind the craggy mountain, and the yellow sun’s rays shine through the delicate spiderwebs which hang between the eternal firs. The birds can begin their concert and beyond the mountain the spirit of the mountain accompanies them on the organ.
Cited in: K. Berg, “Nordic Art at the Turn of the Century”, in B. Schreiber, C. Edam, L. Ahtola-Moorhouse (eds), Dreams of a Summer Night: Scandinavian Painting at the Turn of the Century, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986, p. 47.
— Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finish painter, from his journal in 1893
Art is an immense forest
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Musicians’ response to violence
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. — Leonard Bernstein, 25 November 1963 Christopher Buchenholz, “An Artist’s Response to Violence”, Leonard Bernard Office, https://leonardbernstein.com/about/humanitarian/an-artists-response-to-violence. Accessed 18 March 2022.
Abstraction XVIITitle: Abstraction XVII Composer: Greg Smith Performer: Greg Smith (April 2020) Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: MP3 recording Related products:– Abstraction XVII (PDF score)
Life is green“All theory is grey, but the precious tree of life is green.” Maurice Ravel to Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, describing Schoenberg’s intellectualism. Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, Ravel et nous (Geneva, 1945), p. 104. Cited in: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel Remembered. London: Faber & Faber., p. 61.
Lullaby for EdwardTitle: Lullaby for Edward Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – Level 1 (5 finger position, left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track SAMPLES: (audio sample of accompaniment track only)
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Against GregorianIn Anglican England in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was considerable opposition to the Roman Catholic Gregorian chant. The Parish Choir or Church Music Book, published by the Society for the Promoting of Church Music (October 1847), applauds those who “deal heavy blows at Romanism and every other form of dissent.” (1) Part […]
Glenn Gould on recordingPianist Glenn Gould discussed the recording process with Yehudi Menuhin completing the playback of a Bach gigue: Now, Yehudi, you’ve got to admit that you would not be likely to encounter a sound like that in the concert hall… The point is that, if I were to play that piece in a concert hall, as […]
Bless the Lord, My Soul – Psalm 103 (104)Title: Bless the Lord, my soul Text: Psalm 103 (104): 1-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-30 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and partSAMPLE:
Vocal and choralSee also Sacred Music
Shedding light on what is invisibleWhen we create something, whether it’s a one-woman show, a video animation, a poem, a song, whatever—we’re taking what’s inside of us and stepping it out. Now it can be shown or heard. Now it can be experienced, transmitted. Now it can be shared. When it’s shared, parts of us that were once invisible, hidden, […]