For me, inspiration comes from a bunch of places: desperation, deadlines… A lot of times ideas will turn up when you’re doing something else. And, most of all, ideas come from confluence — they come from two things flowing together. They come, essentially, from daydreaming. . . . And I suspect that’s something every human being does. Writers tend to train themselves to notice when they’ve had an idea — it’s not that they have any more ideas or get inspired more than anything else; we just notice when it happens a little bit more.
Neil Gaiman, writer, in an interview with Clem Bastow. Cited in: Maria Popova, “How Creativity Works: Neil Gaiman on Where Ideas Come From”, Brain Pickings, https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/18/neil-gaiman-creativity/, accessed 13 December 2020.
The source of inspiration
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When precision isn’t enough
Debussy was well known for wanting precision in performance. However, it was not always quite enough: Some time in 1917 Debussy went to hear the Suite played by a famous pianist. ‘How was it?’ I asked him on his return. ‘Dreadful. He didn’t miss a note.’ ‘But you ought to be satisfied. You who insist […]
Seeking challengesPianist Artur Schnabel was asked at a public forum why his repertoire was so restricted: My answer is that now I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a […]
Liszt meets BeethovenI was about eleven years old when my respected teacher Czerny took me to see Beethoven. Already a long time before, he had told Beethoven about me and asked him to give me a hearing some day. However, Beethoven had such an aversion to infant prodigies that he persistently refused to see me. At last […]
Valley of shadows“When walking through the valley of shadows, remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.” – H. K. Barclay Cited at: QuotationsBook
Success is a staircase“Success is not a doorway, it’s a staircase.” — Dottie Walters
Merlin the WizardTitle: Merlin the Wizard Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Duet Level: 2 Product medium: PDF score
What is imagination?What is Imagination? We talk much of Imagination. We talk of Imagination of Poets, the Imagination of Artists &c; I am inclined to think that in general we don’t know very exactly what we are talking about. Imagination I think especially two fold. First: it is the Combining Faculty. It brings together things, facts, ideas, […]
Collaborative pianoPERFORMANCE BIOGRAPHY GREG SMITH Certifications and degrees: – 1996: Associate of Music, Australia (A. mus. A.) in piano performance – 1998: Licentiate of Music, Australia (L. mus. A.) in piano performance – 2001: Bachelor of Music, with honours, class I (University Medal). University of Newcastle. Double major in piano and composition. – 2003: Master of […]
Intermezzo, op. 118, no. 2 (Brahms)Title: Intermezzo, op. 118, no. 2Composer: Johannes BrahmsArranger: Greg SmithInstrumentation: Cello and pianoProduct medium: PDF score and part
Bless the Lord, My Soul – Psalm 103 (104)Title: Bless the Lord, my soul Text: Psalm 103 (104): 1-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-30 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and partSAMPLE: