Vaughan Williams on an authentic performance of BachVaughan Williams gave a broadcast talk on Bach entitled “Bach the Great Bourgeois.” It was later published in The Listener. Vaughan Williams, who was involved in performances of works such as Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion as part of the Leith Hill Festival, offered some insight in contemporary approaches to Bach performance: WHEN I was a […]
Tin Pan AlleyTin Pan Alley refers to the concentration of music publishers in New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. It started around 1885 and lasted till the depression in the 1930s. It’s title comes from the the sound of all the cheap, tinny pianos playing, being likened to the beating of tin […]
The power of enthusiasm“Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money, power and influence.” Henry Chester
You cannot hope for substance“You cannot set art off in a corner and hope for it to have vitality, reality, and substance.” – Charles Ives, American composer
Study music profoundly“The advice I am giving always to my students is above all to study the music profoundly. Because the music is like the ocean, and the instruments are little or bigger islands, very beautiful for the flowers and trees, or the contrary.” Andrés Segovia, guitarist. Cited in: Cited in: Kimball, K., Petersen, R., Johnson, K. […]
Liszt on BeethovenLiszt on Beethoven’s music, in a letter to Wilhelm von Lenz in 1852: To us musicians the work of Beethoven parallels the pillars of smoke and fire which led the Israelites through the desert, a pillar of smoke to lead us by day, and a pillar of fire to light the night, so that we […]
A lesson with BeethovenOne fearful winter’s day in Vienna, in 1794, the snow standing deep and still falling fast, the traffic almost entirely suspended in the streets, Countess Teresa Brunswick, then a girl of fifteen, was waiting for Beethoven’s arrival, to give her her pianoforte lesson. Weather never stopped him; but when he appeared it was obvious that […]
Instrumental stereotypesInsider jokes are not just for White House Correspondents’ Assn. Dinners or ESPN kibitzers or Academy Awards emcees. They also crop up in discussions about symphony orchestra musicians — a society unto itself. There are jibes and even sober-minded studies that characterize personality types according to the instruments they play. Who are the string players? […]
What we play“What we play is life.” Louis Armstrong, Jazz musician Cited at: Satchmo, “Louis Armstrong Quotes and Tributes.” https://www.satchmo.com/louisarmstrong/quotes.html, accessed 6 September 2021.
The soloist will get his wayPianist Freddy Kempf on the recording process: Solo recording is the most indulgent type … it’s 90 per cent down to me. The producer can shout at me all he likes, but if I am set on doing it my way, there’s few people who can stop me! – Freddy Kempf, in an interview with […]
