“Most music is metaphor, but Wolff is not. I am not metaphor either. Parable, maybe. Cage is sermon.” – Morton Feldman, American composer Cited in Tom Johnson, Remembrance, September 1987. Accessed 11 May 2013.

How can you expect a beholder to experience my picture as I experienced it? A picture comes to me a long time beforehand; who knows how long a time beforehand, I sensed, saw, and painted it and yet the next day even I do not understand what I have done. How can anyone penetrate my […]

Title: A Child is Born in Bethlehem. Five Christmastide arrangements for piano by Greg Smith Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Contents: A child is born in Bethlehem (Danish melody) High from the tree's green top (E. Horneman) In a basement black as coal (C. M. Bellman) Lovely is the blue sky […]

Now I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a neverending problem, it doesn’t interest me too much. For instance, Chopin’s studies are lovely pieces, perfect pieces, but I […]

“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life” — Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161-180 Marcus Aurelius (translated by George Long) The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Book VII, 67.  Digitally archived at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_VII, accessed 10 September 2021. 

Title: The seed that falls on good ground Text: Psalm 64 (65): 10, 11, 12-13, 14. R. L. 8: 8 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:

“The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” Edwin Land, American scientist and inventor.

One of the most magical passages in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. The featured instrument, the celeste, was a relatively new invention, having only been developed by a Parisian harmonium builder, Auguste Mustel, in 1886. The French word “céleste” translates to “heavenly”. Tchaikovsky first discovered the celeste while visiting Paris […]

American pianist Seymour Lipkin, a student of Rudolf Serkin recalled a performance of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata Back in the 1970s I gave a recital at Curtis at Mr. Serkin’s invitation.  I was playing the Hammerklavier in those years.  Why, in my right mind … I should never have … but I did.  There, sitting in […]

“The future of classical music lies with the younger generation, which must be weaned away from the cacophony of rock and the neon glitter of “American Idol”-type TV shows. Instead of dragging children to concerts, where they squirm with boredom, rent some old movies featuring soundtracks of classical music. Even toddlers can be exposed to […]