Sondheim’s pass timesSondheim is a lover of games, and collects antique ones (many were destroyed in a fire that swept through the lower floors of the house in 1995). He has a passion for murder mysteries, puzzles (he once spent 18 months devising cryptic crosswords for New York magazine), word play and anagrams. His own name, he […]
Brahm’s first meeting with SchumannHe [Brahms] sat down and began the sonata which had so impressed Joachim [a violinist]. As he played, a swift change transformed [Robert] Schumann’s impassive features. The Master listened with growing interest, then suddenly sprang to his feet. “Please”, he cried. “Will you wait just a moment? Clara -” He hurried to the door and […]
A hundred violins may play softer than oneJohn Holmes “reiterates that only with a large group can you get a truly soft sound. Sure, a solo fiddle can hold its own against a hundred fiddles: a hundred fiddles are never a hundred times louder than a solo at the same dynamic, since there’s no such animal as “a same dynamic,” or even […]
The Harmonic Palette: Exploration of Music Style1 1
NAXOS and the recording industry“There was a time, not so long ago, that Klaus Heymann was accused of trying to destroy the classical music industry. That was around the same time that the world realized that Naxos, Heymann’s budget-record label, was not just another series of CDs in the bargain bin. At first, nobody really knew what to make […]
Sight singing with HandelWhen Handel travelled through Chester, on his way to Ireland, this year, 1741 (to give the first performance of Messiah), I was at the Public School in that city and very well remember seeing him [Handel] smoke a pipe, over a dish of coffee, at the Exchange Coffee House; for being extremely curious to see […]
A musical use for trashFavio Chávez, a technician at a Paraguayan landfill site, formed the the Cateura Orchestra of Recycled Instruments: an orchestra comprising of the children of landfill works. The orchestra was designed to encourage musical education in an low socio-economic area. A violin would hold more value than a landfill worker’s house. However, by creating instruments out […]
Following the crowd“The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.” Alan Ashley-Pitt (Francis Phillip Wernig) Cited in: Eda LeShan (1973) The Wonderfujl Crisis of Middle Age. New York: Warner Books, p. 304.
Real genius“Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.” Simone Wells, French philosopher and mystic. Cited at QuotationsBook
The RinkTitle: The Rink (Silent film soundtrack) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – The Rink – MP3 soundtrack BACKGROUND: FILM: Written by: Charles Chaplin, Vincent Bryan & Maverick Terrell Starring: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman & Albert Austin Directors: Charles Chaplin & Edward Brewer Year of release: […]
