Music stirred him“Music had stirred him like that. Music had troubled him many times. But music was not articulate. It was not a new world, but rather another chaos, that it created in us.” – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey.
A musician’s canvas“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” -Leopold Stokowski, conductor
Arthur Schnabel“Artur Schnabel is a pianist unlike any other. One is conscious in listening to him of a powerful and original mind revealing unsuspected meanings and complications in music as familiar as Brahm’s Intermezzi and Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata. His tone is as a rule dry in anything above a piano, but a sudden touch of pedal […]
‘Real’ instruments in popular music“We’re seeing a big evolution of production, of recording techniques, and of the actual sounds. Everything’s getting sampled and synthesized…. When we do have an acoustic instrument like a saxophone, it tends to get processed to where [it’s] almost unrecognizable.” Jeff Harrington, saxophonist. Cited in, Kelsey McKinney, “Where Did All the Saxophones Go?”, https://getpocket.com/explore/item/where-did-all-the-saxophones-go?utm_source=pocket-app&utm_medium=share, accessed 29 […]
Mighty Like a MooseTitle: Mighty Like A Moose (silent film soundtrack) Composer Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score (34 pages) Background: Written by: Charley Chase & H. M. Walker Starring: Charley Chase, Vivien Oakland, Gale Henry, Charles Clary, Ann Howe, Malcolm Denny Directed by: Leo McCarey Film released: 1926 SAMPLE:
Art is a crucial, dangerous operationIf a man teaches composition in a university, how can he not be a composer? He has worked hard, learned his craft. Ergo, he is a composer. A professional. Like a doctor. But there is that doctor who opens you up, does exactly the right thing, closes you up—and you die. He failed to take […]
This music is too hardIn 1862 Brahms went to Vienna: Although he been in Vienna only a few weeks, Brahms was already making a name for himself. After the first performance of his First Serenade, Hanslick wrote more favorably, calling the work “one of the most charming of modern compositions.” A few months later, the leading Viennese orchestra played […]
Anxiety“Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity”. — Chuck Jones, animator Goleman, D., Kaufman, P., & Ray, M. (1993) The Creative Spirit. New York: Plume.
You don’t need permission to createGus Fairbairn (aka Alabaster dePlume) on the success of his album, To Cy & Lee: I was not expecting that with this piece of work. I made them not thinking that anyone would want to listen to them. It all goes to show that no one will give you permission to make the great things […]
Advance Australia Fair (Peter Dodds McCormick)Title: Advance Australia FairComposer: Peter Dodds McCormickArranger: Greg SmithInstrumentation: SATB and pianoProduct medium: PDF score and part Available from:Sheet Music Direct