The composer does not sit around wait wait for inspiration to walk up and introduce itself … Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
Isaac Goldberg. Tin Pan Alley. New York, John Day, 1930, p. viii.
— George Gershwin
Waiting for inspiration
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Debussy on impressionism
What I am trying to do is something ‘different’ – an effect of reality, but what some fools call Impressionism, a term that is utterly misapplied, especially by critics who do not hesitate to apply it to Turner, the greatest creator of mysterious effect in the world of art. — Claude Debussy B. James, Ravel: […]
Working hard for music“Now we know that you are gifted, very gifted, but you must work very hard, because someone who is gifted has to work harder than someone who is not, and you will see how boring it is to work hard at music.” Ravel to Manuel Rosenthal after a concert. Cited in: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel […]
Widmann on BrahmsWidmann, a Swiss poet, describes Brahms’ performing at the piano: The broad leonine chest, the Herculean shoulders, the mighty head which the player sometimes threw back with an energetic jerk, the pensive, handsome brow that seemed to radiate an inner illumination, and the Germanic eyes which scintillated with a wondrous fire between their fair lashes […]
The excitement of all possibilities“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of all possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Gloria Steinem, writer http://www.gloriasteinem.com
Berlioz on editorial license“You musicians, you poets, prose-writers, actors, pianists, conductors, whether of third or second or even first rank, you do not have the right to meddle with a Shakespeare or a Beethoven, in order to bestow on them the blessings of your knowledge and taste.” – Hector Berlioz, on tampering with fine creations (in this case, […]
An experiment in the colours of keysThe relativity of all these key-colour associations was illustrated during a debate on the whole subject organised in London in 1886 by the Journal “Musical Opinion”. That section of the audience that maintained the definite existence of “key colour” by which it could aurally identify a key was submitted to a test, a well known […]
Feeling FineTitle: Feeling Fine Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: 1 (5 finger position) Product medium: PDf score & MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)
The Lord Upholds My Life – Psalm 53 (54)Title: The Lord upholds my life Text: Psalm 53 (54):3-6. 8 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano (unison verses) Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
LullabyTitle: Lullaby Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – Lullaby (mp3) SAMPLE:
Beauty captivates the fleshBeauty captivates the flesh, seeking permission to pass directly to the soul. — Simone Weil S. Weil, G Panichas (ed.) The Simone Weil Reader, New York, McKay, 1977, p. 378.