An art gathers new material usually by an original rejection of old formulae, a gesture of negation. At the beginning, this gesture is conscious, defiant, it lacks any other reason for existence than the very healthy one that dogma is death. In the turmoil of growth and expansion, this negation and denial loses its identity as such, and is metamorphosed into a positive entity; the fruit of the gesture remains, and is welded into the body of the old material.
H. Pollack, Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World, New York, Oxford University Press, p.36.
— Marc Blitzstein
New art and the old formulae
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The Great Collapse (The Boy and the Heron)
Composer: Joe Hisaishi Arranger: Greg Smith Title: “The Great Collapse”, from The Boy and the Heron Instrumentation: Piano Solo Available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus.
The potential of music to spread peaceA German proverb says: Bose Menschen haben keine Lieder (bad men don't sing) . It is not impossible that out of a tremendous movement of amateur community music a peace movement could spread over the world. Could it not be supported by our high dignitaries? Instead of the president of the United States solitarily playing […]
Sondheim’s pass timesSondheim is a lover of games, and collects antique ones (many were destroyed in a fire that swept through the lower floors of the house in 1995). He has a passion for murder mysteries, puzzles (he once spent 18 months devising cryptic crosswords for New York magazine), word play and anagrams. His own name, he […]
Ravel’s fashion senseRavel was always particular about his sense of fashion. As Léon-Paul Fargue recalled: Even when he was wasted by illness, Ravel never appeared unkept even among his closest friends. All his life he kept the perfect, discriminating taste which led him to match his braces to his blue or pink silk shirts, much to the […]
White ChristmasAccounts vary on where Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas”. Berlin himself even recall differing circumstances on when it was penned. Some sources claim at was written at the poolside in Aizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix. Other accounts state that is was in Beverly Hills, California. In any case, the narration is set in […]
An author’s perogative to be critical“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.”— Marianne Moore, American poet Donoghue, Denis (1988) Reading America. University of California Press, p. 244
A successful day“If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.” Alex Noble, cited at Brainy Quote
From the heart“What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.” — Samuel Coleridge Taylor, English poet, critic and philosopher. Coleridge, Samuel (1856) Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton. London: Chapman and Hall, page xlv
Music is richer than words“If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.” Jean Sibelius, in an interview with Berlingske Tidende, 10th June 1919. Cited at: www.sibelius.fi […]
The orchestra as a symbol of unity“You see behind me a symphony orchestra. Every single one of the instruments has an entirely different background and history; they come from different places …; they’ve had different developments; they sound different… And so, the next time your soul sings, assailed with some sort of horrid indication that people can’t get along together, please […]