Music of the people

“True music … must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.”

— George Gerswhin

Edward Jablonski and Lawrence D. Stewart (1926) The Gershwin Years.  Garden City: Double Day.


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What about me?
Songwriter Johnny Green recalled Gershwin bragging about his achievements after a concert, eventually to stop and say: “That’s enough about me.  Now what did you think about how I played?” Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.46.
Einstein as a musician
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.” – Albert Einstein Cited in: Lyth, David (2019) The Road to Einstein’s Relativity. Boca Ranton: […]
The cleansing power of music
Each art endeavors to isolate itself, to remain independent of all others. But a play without music is like a feast without wine. Music cleanses the soul from the dust and dross of every day life and seems to say to every one: ‘You are no longer in your office, in the barracks, or in […]
A motorboat experience
Rachmaninoff was a great lover of motorboating and used to go out every day.  He always steered himself.  Often he went out alone.  This hobby of his nearly proved fatal during that stay of ours.  About an hour before dinner he said: “I think I shall go for a spin on the lake.” He got […]
Abstraction XIII
Title: Abstraction XIII Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score     Related products:     – Abstraction XIII (mp3)  
Beethoven our artistic brother
It is the function of art to bring to us emotions, thoughts, states of mind and heart which are larger and more exalted and more intense than those we can produce ourselves, but which we can still recognize as possible within the compass of our imagination, still lying within our capacity for thinking and feeling. […]
1.1: The Fundamental Vibration of Nature
1In 1994, Dr. Masaru Emoto began taking photos of ice crystals. What he found was that environmental surroundings had different effects on the nature of the crystals. The crystals formed at Mt. Fuji, for example, had a different structure to those found at the Rocky Mountains. He then extended this study to include a study […]
Pavel Kolesnikov on the Goldberg Variations
“Like climbing an infinite stairway, one step at a time.” —Pavel Kolesnikov, working on Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Jeal, Erica, “Pavel Kolesnikov, the pianist making ‘a palace of sound built by your own imagination’”, The Guardian, 9 September 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/09/pavel-kolesnikov-the-pianist-making-a-palace-of-sound-built-by-your-own-imagination, accessed 11 September 2021.
Fantasia on Ding Dong Merrily on High
Composer: Greg Smith (based on a 16th-century French melody)Title: Fantasia on Ding Dong Merrily on HighInstrumentation: Cello and piano Available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus. SAMPLES:
Szymanowski’s dogs
The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski was brought up in  very musical environment: he had a dogs named “Scherzo” and “Crotchet”. Source: Palmer, Christopher (1983) Szymanowski.  London: BBC, p. 9.