True greatnessLife is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in little things. – Charles Simmons (1852) A Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker: Containing Over a Thousand Subjects. North Wrentham: Charles Simmons, p. 315. Digitally archived […]
Saint-Saëns on the art of musicThe artist who does not feel completely satisfied by elegant lines, by harmonious colours, and by a beautiful succession of chords does not understand the art of music. — Camille Saint-Saëns Cited in Milton Cross David Ewan, Encyclopedia of Great Composers and Their Music, volume 2. Double Day, 1969, p.819.
I Turn to You, Lord, in Times of Trouble – Psalm 30 (31)Title: I turn to you, Lord, in times of trouble Text: Psalm 30 (31): 1-2, 5, 11 Music: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Lullaby for EdwardTitle: Lullaby for Edward Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – Level 1 (5 finger position, left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track SAMPLES: (audio sample of accompaniment track only)
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
It is who you are“Face the facts of being who you are, for that is what changes what you are.” Søren Kierkegaard, Danish writer. Cited at QuotationsBook
Claude Debussy: RêverieFromont published Rêverie years after Debussy had given it to them. By this time, Debussy’s opinion of it had changed: “I regret very much your decision to publish Rêverie… I wrote it in a hurry years ago, purely for material considerations. It is a work of no consequence and I frankly consider it no good.” […]
Early music discovered on carvingA craftsman replicating large medallions has discovered medieval Scottish notation of instrumental music. The notation is sequences of 0s, Is and IIs. Barnaby Brown, a specialist in early Scottish music, notated that, “This discovery is potentially of great significance to our understanding of medieval and Renaissance instrumental music – the normally ‘unwritten’ practice of the elite court […]
Hough and Schnabel on piano rollsI want to believe in piano rolls. The idea that we can insert an object into a present-day piano and hear long-dead pianists and composers perform again as if they were in the same room is a tantalisingly attractive prospect. It has a magical aura about it. But, I’m afraid, it’s a conjuring trick, or […]
Abstraction VIITitle: Abstraction VII Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLES: