“A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.”
Auden, Wystan Hugh (1988) The Complete Words of Auden, Princeton University Press, vol. 3, p. 251.
– W. H. Auden, English Poet
The nature of music
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The art of playing the triangle
George Plimpton, a writer and sportsman, asked if he could play in the New York Philharmonic for a month to write about the workings of an orchestra. Leonard Bernstein assigned him to the percussion section. The principal percussionist, Walter Rosenberg, recalled his experience: During rehearsals I would lean over and point to where we were […]
A task no longer“Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer. It is joy and art.” -Carman Bliss, Canadian Poet Cited at QuotationsBook
The Seed That Falls On Good Ground – Psalm 64 (65)Title: The seed that falls on good ground Text: Psalm 64 (65): 10, 11, 12-13, 14. R. L. 8: 8 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Structure and disharmony“I need to start from the assumption that the world of spirit is ordered, structured by its very nature, that everything which causes disharmony in the world, all that is monstrous, inexplicable, and dreadful … And the formula for world harmony is most likely linked not to the blurring of evil but to the fact […]
Beethoven distractedA student of Beethoven’s, Ferdinand Ries, went on a walk with his teacher in the country: Beethoven muttered and howled the whole time, without emitting any definite notes. When I asked him what he was doing he answered, “A theme for the last allegro of the sonata [the Appassionata] has occurred to me.” When we […]
The soul and speech“There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.” Allan Bloom (1987) The closing of the American mind: How higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students. New York: Simon Simon and Schuster, […]
The mannerisms of PachmannThe Russian pianist, Vladimir von Pachmann was known for his funny mannerisms: Everyone knows that the Russian pianist has funny ways of his own, which the public tolerate for the pleasure he affords them as an artist. On this occasion, we read, he remarked, first of all, “Too few people; I cannot play. This is […]
Teaching methodHilary Hahn on the “story” behind the musicI think the back stories [behind the creation of a work] are interesting … But for me the first aim is to look at the notes, and see how I might interpret them … No offence to the media, but I’ve seen stories told about people I know – and about me – that are […]
Why we readWe read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel—or have done and thought and felt; or might do and think and feel—is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become. A person who had never known another human […]