Plays in the Jacobean period (16th century England) were divided into acts to enable the theatre company to manage the candles. Source: Martin White, University of Bristol. “Shakespeare by Candlelight”, The Times, Cited in The Australian, 30 November 2012.

Title: “October” from The Seasons, op. 37 bis Composer: Pytor Illich Tchaikovsky Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello quartet Product medium: PDF score and parts Sample:

Tchaikovsky disliked teaching at the best of times, but he particularly didn’t enjoy teaching female students, most of whom, in this period of history, were of an amateur status: Although it is a dreary business to have been forced to explain to my young men’s classes for eleven consecutive years what a triad consists of, […]

“There is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps.” — Peter A. Cohen Ford Saeks, Superpower!  How to Think, Act, and Perform with Less Effort and Better Results, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, 2012, p. 198

During a rehearsal of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony: Stokowski had inserted a gratuitous part for bass clarinet. “It so happens,” wrote O’Connell, “that the player of this instrument was a quite temperamental gentleman as well as a composer, and when he saw Stokowski’s addition to Schubert’s score, he was possessed by fury.”  When he expressed his […]

“I also like to play the famous tunes because there’s nothing like inspiring a whole bunch of kids who are struggling to play these pieces on flute.  And then they see me ripping through them.  They all want to play Flight of the Bumblebee when they’re 11 years Old.  And it goes something like “dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-splat!” […]

With regard to counterpoint in Chopin’s music, you might be interested in the conversation that Chopin had not long before his death with the painter Eugène Delacroix. Delacroix was one of a handful of quite intimate friends of Chopin’s. In his diary, he mentions how he had picked up Chopin in a carriage, and they […]

“Some misprints remain on my scores, because for some reason I have always been in a rush to get the proofs to the publisher by the deadline. In the orchestral parts everything has usually been corrected.” Jean Sibelius, to Jussi Jalas, 27th July 1942 Cited at: www.sibelius.fi [accessed 31 Mar 2010].

Title: The Lord hears the cry of the poor Text: Psalm 32 (33): 2-3, 17-19, 23 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:

“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” Matthew Arnold (poet and scholar), Preface to Literature and Dogma (1873 edition), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Literature_and_Dogma/Introduction, accesssed 29 August 2021.