Trust yourself

All this, my friend, will time provide,
And of itself, itself will give;
Soon as you in yourself confide,
You know the way to live!

— Mephistopheles to Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: A Tragedy, translated by Lewis Filmore, (London: William Smith, 1847), p. 79. First published in the German as Faust: eine Tragödie, (Tübingen, Germany: J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808).

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There is no failure
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard, American author, artist, and philosopher
Stokowski as a sound engineer
The conductor Stokowski (who was the conductor of Disney’s Fantasia) was a pioneer of orchestral recording.  This was not without its problems: Stokowski was moving more and more toward what is recognized as his most significant achievement – the broadening of popular interest in serious music.  He developed a firm conviction that radio, recordings, and […]
Nino Rota on happiness and music
“When I’m creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but – the eternal dilemma – how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I’d do everything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That’s what’s at the heart of my music.” Nino Rota, Italian composer. Cited at: Wikipedia.
Arnold on culture
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” Matthew Arnold (poet and scholar), Preface to Literature and Dogma (1873 edition), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Literature_and_Dogma/Introduction, accesssed 29 August 2021.
The influence of music
Conductor Leopold writes: There are millions who find solace in music – it opens for them the sun-bathed gates of inspiration – through music they know that behind the sordid, grim surface of life there nevertheless exists an ideal and external Beauty. Music powerfully stimulates the growth in us of impulses we had never suspected […]
Abstraction IV
Title: Abstraction IV Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
Ruth Slenczynska’s advice on musical lines
Make your musical lines as long as possible. Rachmaninoff said, “Small musician, small ideas; big musician, big ideas.” After an artist has played a program many times he can soar so high above the music that he conceives the whole event in one arch of sound. Make each phrase prepare for the next; make many […]
Hilary Hahn on technique, practise mentality, and performance
Violinist Hilary Hahn on practice and technique: I’ve always worked hard at my technique … But I’ve worked hard at my musicality as well. When I was doing my etudes my teachers always made sure I didn’t go onto the next until I had the first really good. But it wasn’t good unless it was […]
Obedience and liberty in creativity
A great work, I believe, is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty. Such a work satisfied the mind, together with that curious thing which is artistic emotion. Stravinsky said, “If I were permitted everything, I would be lost in the abyss of liberty.” On the one hand he knew the limits, on […]
Part of the bigger picture
Leopold Stokowski conducted the American premier of Berg’s opera Wozzeck in 1930 (a joint effort of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Phildelphia Grand Opera, and Curtis Institute).  Abram Chasins recalls a rehearsal: I attended his second rehearsal with the orchestra in the pit and singers on the stage.  After some twenty minutes of singing and acting, […]