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 […]

Beethoven was a musician for the Electoral court and chapel in Bonn. Franz Wegeler, a friend of of Beethoven’s, recounted an incident where the young Beethoven was to accompany a singer, Ferdinand Heller, in a church service. Heller prided himself on being able to sing in tune, no matter how complicated the accompaniment. Beethoven asked Heller if he […]

Title: The Rink (Silent film soundtrack) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score     Related products:     – The Rink – MP3 soundtrack BACKGROUND: FILM:     Written by: Charles Chaplin, Vincent Bryan & Maverick Terrell     Starring: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman & Albert Austin     Directors: Charles Chaplin & Edward Brewer     Year of release: […]

It is the function of art to bring to us emotions, thoughts, states of mind and heart which are larger and more exalted and more intense than those we can produce ourselves, but which we can still recognize as possible within the compass of our imagination, still lying within our capacity for thinking and feeling. […]

…everybody was possessed by the Russian passion for gathering mushrooms.  Rivalries ran high, mushrooms were counted and compared, their beauty was discussed.  Rachmaninoff was an early riser and often went alone for a walk in the woods.  He used to return contented and start teasing (he was a great teaser).  One day he badgered us […]

“Like climbing an infinite stairway, one step at a time.” —Pavel Kolesnikov, working on Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Jeal, Erica, “Pavel Kolesnikov, the pianist making ‘a palace of sound built by your own imagination’”, The Guardian, 9 September 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/09/pavel-kolesnikov-the-pianist-making-a-palace-of-sound-built-by-your-own-imagination, accessed 11 September 2021.

“Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.” – William James, American philosopher and psychologist W. James, Essays in Pragmatism, United Kingdom, Free Press, 1970, p. 113.

“As musicians, we are already doing something for the world … We make it more flowing? … Through music”. Pianist Lang Lang Shirley Apthorp, “Piano Man”, The Australian, May 14 2011.

“One of things that’s been forgotten in music for a long time is the ability to be nakedly emotional”. David Lang, composer Cited in “When Opera Is New and Unproved”, Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, 7 September 2008.

“To orchestrate is like a thumbprint. I can’t understand having someone else do it. It would be like someone putting color to your paintings.” – Bernard Hermann on orchestration. Hall, Roger L., A Guide to Film Music, p. 43.  Cited at Wikipedia.