What we play

“What we play is life.”

Louis Armstrong, Jazz musician

Cited at: Satchmo, “Louis Armstrong Quotes and Tributes.” https://www.satchmo.com/louisarmstrong/quotes.html, accessed 6 September 2021.


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Featured Content

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:
A very specific error indeed
The following is an account of the conductor Hans von Bülow: The newspaper critics Bülow continued to despise because of their self-importance, and he lost no opportunity to expose their musical ignorance.  On one occasion, Bülow, at a public rehearsal in the Philharmonie, remarked upon a printing error in the second horn part of the […]
Steering the audience’s taste
The following advice appeared in the British Journal the Musical Times in January 1879: A young student wishes us to tell him what to do under the following circumstances: He has been carefully educated in music, for which he has considerable aptitude and an intense love; he is an efficient pianist, and knows most of […]
The voice of life
“Is there not an art, a music, and a stream of words that shalt be life, the acknowledged voice of life?” – William Wordsworth, writer Cited at QuotationsBook  
Performers
A courteous conductor
Brucker was invited by Hans Richter to conduct one of his symphonies with the Vienna Society of Friends of Music. At the rehearsal he stood on the conductor’s platform, stick in hand, with a beatific smile on his face. The orchestra were all ready to begin, but he would not lift his stick to give […]
Shaw on the cello
In the nineteenth century, the cello was regarded as an important solo instrument.  George Bernard Shaw wrote in 1890 “I am not fond of the violoncello: ordinarily I had as soon hear a bee buzzing in a stone jug.” Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites.  Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 71.
Quasi Dance II
Title: Quasi Dance II Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
The cleansing power of music
“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician, lecturer and author.
Rachmaninoff practising slowly
Abram Chasins visited Rachmaninoff in Hollywood: Arriving at the designated hour of twelve, I heard an occasional piano sound as I approached the cottage. I stood outside the door, unable to believe my ears, Rachmaninoff was practising Chopin’s étude in thirds [G sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 6], but at such a snail’s pace that […]