First we make music“…the nature of music is inherently social. Blackburn argues, ” … we need to remind ourselves that music in itself does not exist. Despite evidence to the contrary (scores, analytical charts, music stores, CD shelves, etc.) music exists only in performance. … It is therefore a social and political act.” The performance of music corresponds […]
Blessed Are They Who Dwell In Your House – Psalm 83 (84)Title: Blessed are they who dwell in your house Text: Psalm 83 (84): 2-3, 5-6, 9-10. R. v.5 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano (unison verses) Product medium: PDF score and partSAMPLE:
Eighteenth century aestheticsMozart was not at all a purely instinctive, intuitive artist. His remarks to the effect that he “loved to plan works, study, and meditate” and that “he preferred to work slowly and with deliberation” [demonstrate this] … On one level, Mozart’s musical aesthetic is informed by three fundamental and closely related principles that can be […]
Emerging from suffering“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Kahlil Gibran, Broken Wings
To be a good playerBach was once complemented on his organ playing: “There is nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right notes at the right time, and the instrument plays itself.” Quoted by Johann Friedrich Köhler, Leipzig, after 1776. Hans-Joachim Schulze, ed. Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs, 1750-1800. Bach-Dokumente, III. 1972, no. […]
Believe in Luck“I am a great believer in luck and the harder I work the more of it I have.”— Stephen Leacock, Canadian author American Opinion, volume 2, issues 8-11, page 20
Appreciating beautyMusic exists only in a passing of time, racing past us like the mid-nineenth-century trains Ruskin so hated. It is utterly non-fixed, and to focus on one moment is to destroy the whole. It is a forest that we have to pass through, not a single tree that we can contemplate or capture. But, if […]
Rachmaninoff and phrasingA student of Rachmaninoff, Ruth Slenczynska, recalled: I remember how Rachmaninoff explained to me the problem of phrasing: he showed me an elastic band and stretched it slightly, then allowed it to bounce back; next, he stretched it beyond a certain point, and it snapped. He meant to say that no part of a musical […]
Discovery“Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.” Albert Szent-Györgyi , American bio-chemist.
Columbine’s VeilTitle: Columbine’s Veil Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Background: Pierrot, separated from his love Columbine, is weeping in his room. Overcome with sorrow, he falls asleep in the corner. Some friends of Pierrot come to visit. When they eventually find him, they fetch a nearby pianist and suggest waking Pierrot with […]
