The progress of an artist

What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

– T. S. Elliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)


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Easy Street
Title: Easy Street (Silent film soundtrack) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – MP3 soundtrack BACKGROUND: FILM: Written by: Charles Chaplin, Vincent Bryan & Maverick Terrell Starring: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance & Eric Campbell Directed by: Charles Chaplin & Edward Brewer Released: 1917 SAMPLE:
Julius Asal on interpretation
On the one hand, I believe that to connect tradition and innovation is the most important thing to me personally. On the other hand, to explore the score and be close to what the composer wanted is essential. There is a way to find your own language within the details that the composers left. Julius […]
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol) – SATB, brass, and organ
Title: Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol) Composer: Rowland Prichard; arr. Greg Smith Text: Rev 5:9; William C. Dix Instrumentation: SATB, brass (hrn, tpt, 2 tb), and organ Product medium: PDF score and parts Samples:
I do not choose my listeners
“I do not choose my listeners. What I mean is, I never write for my listeners. I think about my audience, but I am not writing for them. I have something to tell them, but the audience must also put a certain effort into it. But I never wrote for an audience and never will […]
Beethoven and the spider
Xaver Schydner von Wartensee, in the early days of meeting Beethoven, was curious about a tale he had heard about Beethoven and a spider. Before Schnyder had become acquainted with the immortal Master, he had read the well-known anecdote according to which, when Beethoven was practising the violin in his garret, a spider lowered itself […]
Individuality
“I may not be better than other people, but at least I’m different.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Franco-Swiss philosopher and writer.
Conditions stipulated for the Imperial Court Chapel
The Imperial Chapel Choir was founded in Vienna in 1498 and performed exclusively for the court.  Composers that worked with the choir included Musicians like Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner.  Schubert was a chorister.  After the dissolution of the […]
Heard but not seen
In 1926, conductor Leopold Stokowski inserted the following into the Philadelphia Orchestra programs: The great conviction has been growing in me that the orchestra and conductor should be unseen, so that on the part of the listener more attention will go to the ear and less to the eyes. The experiment of an invisible orchestra […]
Ode I
Title: Ode I Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Encouraging progress
“I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.” – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman Cited at Quotd.