The ideal and the played performanceSome conductors put all the emphasis on the melodic line, while others are fanatics about rhythm, but there are very few conductors who are uniquely able to look at the score and hear every part before it actually happens. With the very best of conductors, it’s as though there are two performances going on simultaneously. […]
The musician’s role: maintain our trust in the world“I feel that tolerance, love and social harmony can and should be the by-products of an artist’s way of life and creation. I would like to believe that beauty and truth, two great disciplines, when combined as they are in music, where order is based on self-restraint and a better understanding of repose, will lead […]
Satie’s daySatie wrote that “An artist must organise his life.” In 1913, he set said out a schedule in which he stated he would be inspired between 10:23 and 11:47am, and 3:12 to 4:10pm. The timetable allowed for daily house riding, and various other activities such as fencing, reflection, immobility, visits, contemplation, swimming, etc. The day […]
Tin Pan AlleyTin Pan Alley refers to the concentration of music publishers in New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. It started around 1885 and lasted till the depression in the 1930s. It’s title comes from the the sound of all the cheap, tinny pianos playing, being likened to the beating of tin […]
Murray Perahia“It’s a very reactionary viewpoint and I’m slightly ashamed, but I find it very difficult to access contemporary music. I am not prejudiced, but my work in tonal music leads me to believe nothing can be organic if it doesn’t have a [sense of] “home.” This idea of belonging, or home, can’t be an intellectual […]
Bach’s preferred instrumentJohann Sebastian Bach’s preferred to play the viola when conducting an orchestra. Source: Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 216.
Menken on the the strength of music“It’s like, why move to Florida if you don’t like the sun?” says Menken when I visit his home in North Salem, an hour out of New York. “Music is a viscerally powerful medium, both on a bodily level and on an emotional level. There are intellectual components about it, but its basic strength comes […]
Liberation from formalism“The present time has to a great extent liberated itself from symphonic form – from formalism. This started when the concert halls became empty, because that form has nothing to do with human beings. I believe that the present time is progressing.” Jean Sibelius, to Jussi Jalas, 17th July 1946 Cited at: www.sibelius.fi [accessed 31 […]
Concentrate on the performanceDaniel Saidenberg ws the first cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. He recalled: Stoki’s ability to exert disciplines was occasionally matched by a sense of humor. After a concert at which I had played the Saint-Saëns A-minor Concerto, one of my buddies said, “Watch your step, Danny. All through the second movement, […]
Lord, You Are Good and Forgiving (Setting II) – Psalm 85 (86)Title: Lord, you are good and forgiving (Setting II) Text: Psalm 85 (86): 5-6, 9-10, 15-16 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
