Bernstein as a counterpoint student at HarvardThe composer Harold Shapero, who lived a few doors away from Bernstein in Newton and was a year behind him at Harvard, also noted Bernstein’s cavalier approach to counterpoint studies. “Lenny didn’t come to class at all. I was a dutiful little student. I did my Palestrina stuff and I got an ‘A.’ . . […]
Handel’s speedy methodMorrell gave Handel the words of Cleopatra’s air “Convey me to some peaceful shore” in Alexander Balus, he cried out “Damn your Iambics!”. Morell offered to change them to trochees and went into the next room to do so, only to find about three minutes later that Handel had set them as they stood.” Dean, […]
Satie on La MerAt the 1905 premiere of La Mer, one of whose movements is called “From Dawn to Midday on the Sea”, Debussy received the usual post-performance congratulations. Satie’s deflating comment was, “Ah, my dear friend, there’s one particular moment between half past ten and a quarter to eleven that I found especially stunning.” Levison, B. (2015). […]
Forgive (Tchaikovsky)Title: Forgive ( Прости!) (opus 60, no. 11] Composer: Pytor Il'yich Tchaikovsky (arr. Greg Smith) Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Gershwin’s romantic sideRodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner. It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics […]
Bernstein on immersive performanceIt happens because you identify so completely with the composer, you’ve studied him so intently, that it’s as though you’ve written the piece yourself. You completely forget who you are or where you are and you write the piece write there. You just make it up as though you never heard it before. Because you […]
Cello and pianoEverything affects music making‘”…turning 40 and new fatherhood have other effects: ‘It opens things up emotionally’, he says. ‘I find that my whole perspective on life and my whole emotional range generally has changed. I laugh more easily and cry more easily. And that probably has an impact on the music making in one way or another. Everything […]
A carriage of flowers for TchaikovskyTchaikovsky’s favourite flower was lilies of the valley. The local musical society at Tiflis was extremely enthusiastic to have the presence of Tchaikovsky at a gala concert of his works at the Opera House: Ippolitov-Ivanov had thought of everything, even finding out by devious means what his favourite flower was. This flower did not grow […]
Baudelaire on inspiration“Inspiration is merely the reward for working every day!” – Charles Baudelaire (French poet). According to Roland-Manuel, Ravel would often recite this phrase. Source: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel Remembered. London: Faber & Faber, p. 143.
