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 simply can’t spend time on them. I believe I know these pieces; but playing a Mozart sonata, I am not so sure that I do know it, inside and out. Therefore I can spend endless time on it.
– Artur Schnabel, in a lecture at the University of Chicago, 1945
W. Grünzweig and L. Matheson (ed.) Music, Wit, and Wisdom: The Autobiography of Artur Schnabel, Hofheim, Wolke Verlag, 2009.
Music better than it can be performed
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The musical memory
“Of course, almost anybody can memorize things, especially music. It’s like the ABCs and, for most, fun to do. I’ve taught music in middle school programs and have been surprised at the hefty repertoires of popular music that 12- to 16- year olds commit to memory. To boot, they knew when I made a mistake […]
The importance of rejuvenation"Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German writer, philosopher and scientist.
Knowledge and Wisdom“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” Martin H. Fischer, German born American physician and author. Encore : A Continuing Anthology (March 1945) edited by Smith Dent, “Fischerisms” p. 309.
Transforming Bach’s Cantatas into an operaTheatre director Herbert Wernicke has taken six of Bach’s Cantatas dealing with the frailty of the human condition and presented them in a staging of mundane human activities. Albrecht Puhlmann, the general director of Stuttgart Opera, states that “From the woman with the baby to the coffin being carried out, life and death is being […]
In the event of a lack of singersIn a letter to his friend Abbé Joseph Bullinger, Mozart jokes about the musical environment in Salsburg. One of his subjects is the search for an additional final principle singer. “I can hardly believe it!” he wrote “A female singer!? When we have so many already! – and all of them first rate…” (1). Mozart […]
We can’t all play first violin“If all would play first violin, we could not obtain an orchestra. Therefore esteem every musician in his place.” — Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (translated by Henry Hugo Pierson), Advice to Young Musicains [Musikalische Haus- und Lebens-Regeln]. New York: J. Schuberth & Co. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28219/28219-h/28219-h.htm, accessed 29 August 2021.
Chopin and counterpointWith 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 […]
I Will Sing Of Your Salvation – Psalm 70 (71)Title: I will sing of your salvation Text: Psalm 70 (71): 1-6, 15, 17 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Shostakovich on music“There can be no music without idealogy … We, as revolutionaries, have a different conception of music from the composers of other [non Soviet-Russia] countries. Lenin himself said the “Music is a means of unifying people”. It is not a leader of the masses, perhaps, but certainly an organising force … I think an artist […]
Music is the real lifeIn modern life electricity plays a great part. Sometimes it is used destructively – sometimes creatively – but there is another power which is like electricity, only far more subtle and penetrating. This power is all-pervading. It is omnipresent. If we understood this power we would know the secret of the magical influence of music. […]