Warmed pianosThere was soon to be no excuse for not practising in the chill of the winter. This excerpt is from The Musical Times, April 1869: WARMED PIANOS (G. Price’s Patent) – These Instruments invite playing in Winter, when the coldness of the keys of all others makes it unnecessarily uncomfortable, if not painful, to many, […]
Lord, Heal My Soul – Psalm 40 (41)TITLE: Lord, Heal My Soul TEXT: Psalm 40 (41): 2-5, 13-14. R. v.5 COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano SAMPLE:
A subtle way of changing the tempoBrahms was rehearsing his F minor piano quintet. But when they reached the Andante, the strings played too fast to suit Brahms. This had happened once before in an early rehearsal of the same work, and the composer had discovered a tactful way of handling the situation. Instead of criticizing, he called: "Just a moment, […]
Nick Cave on the creative processWhat makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult […]
The logic of opera in English“Opera in English, is about as sensible as baseball in Italian.” – H. L. Mencken, twentieth century American journalist, critic, and satirist. Peter, Lawrence J. (ed) (1977) Quotations for Our Time
Debussy on impressionismWhat I am trying to do is something ‘different’ – an effect of reality, but what some fools call Impressionism, a term that is utterly misapplied, especially by critics who do not hesitate to apply it to Turner, the greatest creator of mysterious effect in the world of art. — Claude Debussy B. James, Ravel: […]
Conditions stipulated for the Imperial Court ChapelThe Imperial Chapel Choir was founded in Vienna in 1498 and performed exclusively for the court. Composers that worked with the choir included Musicians like Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner. Schubert was a chorister. After the dissolution of the […]
MemoryAndrew Lloyd Webber originally composed the melody that is now known as “Memory” from Cats for a miniature opera about Puccini and his wife. The opera was never performed, but the melody was brought out of retirement as possible song for Juan Peron in Webber’s Evita. That show was certainly performed but the melody in […]
Violoncello piccoloA violoncello piccolo is a violin-sized instrument tuned like a cello. It is held horizontally, slung from a from a strap over the shoulder lika guitar. Some of Bach’s cantatas specifically written for this instrument. It is possible that Bach wrote the cello suites for the instruments (no instrument was specified on the manuscripts). Source: […]
Working hard for music“Now we know that you are gifted, very gifted, but you must work very hard, because someone who is gifted has to work harder than someone who is not, and you will see how boring it is to work hard at music.” Ravel to Manuel Rosenthal after a concert. Cited in: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel […]
