Creativity between now and Tuesday“Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.” – Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s corporation
Sondheim on expressionMike Brown interviewers musical theatre composer Stephen Sondhiem: When I venture that his songs might suggest that he has a somewhat jaundiced view of love, he momentarily flares into irritation. ‘How can you tell? Every single song I’ve ever written is sung by a character created by somebody else. Some might have a jaundiced view […]
Pavarotti“Pavarotti is like someone who has swalled a Stradivarious.” – Peter Ustinov Cited in: Jarski, Rosemarie (2005) Great British Wit. London: Ebury Press, p. 203.
Practising at every opportunityThe conductor Stokowski was co-conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He was rehearsing his own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The orchestra, however, was used to playing Ravel’s exuberant orchestration. Charles O’Connell recalled: “In the midst of the rehearsal, one of the second violinists busied himself practising the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which […]
The piano as furnitureIn the ninteenth century, the piano was not only regarded as a musical instrument but as a part of the decor a room. An article in The Musical Times in February 1893 describes some possible applications: Placed near a bay window, it shuts in the cosiest lovers’ next imaginable. Soft-cushioned window seats that have room […]
An insight into the “Happy Birthday” tune“Happy Birthday to You” is not an accidental success. It is not a traditional song nor did it appear ex nihilo. It originated with the Hill sisters, Patty and Mildred, and was first sung in a kindergarten classroom in Louisville, Kentucky in the late 19th century, back when kindergarten was a social experiment. Patty Smith […]
Jean Sibelius: Bagatelles (op. 97)(i) Humoresque I (ii) Song (iii) Little Waltz (iv) Humorous March (v) Impromptu “Never write an unnecessary note. Every note must live”.1 — Sibelius The miniature is the perfect genre to master this philosophy. Sibelius wrote the Opus 97 Bagatelles in 1920, in between his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. The quirky nature of these Bagatelles […]
The art of playing the triangleGeorge Plimpton, a writer and sportsman, asked if he could play in the New York Philharmonic for a month to write about the workings of an orchestra. Leonard Bernstein assigned him to the percussion section. The principal percussionist, Walter Rosenberg, recalled his experience: During rehearsals I would lean over and point to where we were […]
Playing with fantasy“Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.” – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology Quoted at QuotationsBook
It’s two-four … It’s three-fourChopin had a free sense of rhythm. In 1842, Chopin was giving a lessen to Wilhem von Lenz when Meyerbeer walked in. The Mazurka (op. 33 no. 3) was being played. von Lenz recounts: Meyerbeer had seated himself; Chopin let me play on. “That is two-four time,” said Meyerbeer. For reply, Chopin made me repeat, […]
