First class regardlessThe composer Karol Szymanowski was born into a landowning class family. Even, later in life, when short for money, he always retained the mindset of this class: At one time in Vienna, Szymanowski discovered that he did not have enough money to travel to Cracow, so some friends of him lent him the required sum. […]
The meaning of American PieWhen questioned about the meaning of American Pie, Don McLean would quip. “It means I’ll never have to work again.” Rob Walker, “Don McLean on the tragedy behind American Pie: ‘I cried for two years’”, The Guardian, 22 October 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/22/don-mclean-american-pie-its-meaning-family-deaths-tragedy-60s?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Schnabel on recordingHaving spent five days recording five Beethoven sonatas and two concertos, Schnabel wrote to his wife: This week was an ordeal, a torture chamber. “What does not kill me makes me stronger,” says Nietzsche. Hopefully (probably) this is true. I had no idea of how outrageous a process the recording on discs could be. Like […]
An artist’s job is not for small talkNora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, once told me a story about a reception she was at where Bob Dylan was in attendance. The business people there were quietly commenting on how unsociable Dylan seemed to them, not what they imagined an encounter with Dylan would be like. When that observation about Dylan's behavior and disposition were […]
Super-Hooper-Dyne LizziesTitle: Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (silent film score) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (mp3 recording) Details: Film released in 1925 Directed by: Del Lord Written by: Felix Alder, Frank Capra, Al Geibler & Jefferson Moffitt. Starring: Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Lillian Knight, John J. Richardson. Synopsis: […]
The cleansing power of music“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician, lecturer and author.
A pen and a hen“A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.” John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in an interview with Philip Norman. “The Prevalence of Hobbits”, The New York Times, 15 January 1967, http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/tolkien-mag67.html (accessed 20 July 2020)
My tempo must be followedRavel was very particular about how his works were performed. Ravel always insisted that the tempo for Boléro should be moderate and rigorously maintained throughout. He made a recording of that, too establishing his requirement. Toscanini took it much faster and made an accelerando towards the end. Ravel, who was in the audience, objected. He […]
Communication with the audienceIgor Stravinsky contemplates the ultimate goal of an artist versus reality: “Art postulates communion [between the artist and the audience], and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself. But in spite of that need, he prefers to direct and frank opposition to apparent agreement which is […]
The logic of opera in English“Opera in English, is about as sensible as baseball in Italian.” – H. L. Mencken, twentieth century American journalist, critic, and satirist. Peter, Lawrence J. (ed) (1977) Quotations for Our Time
