A Belated Valentine
The creation emotional tension and the release of it is a common aesthetic goal among all composers of wordless, abstract music. The moment of greatest emotional intensity in a movement…
Rachmaninoff
A Pearl Among Us
No, I’m not speaking of the precious collectible created by oysters and other mollusks, but of violinist Itzhak Perlman. I have enjoyed his playing for decades and feel privileged to…
Discovery Orchestra Chat 110 – Another Effective Surprise
All surprises in life feel the way they do because of the unexpected aspect of the surprise. Composers can create “musical surprises” – see how in this Chat featuring pianist…
Thanks! An Encore Presentation. . .
As I began to write what I hope will be an annual Thanksgiving Day blog post, I re-read last year’s – my first. It appeared to contain some good thoughts,…
Discovery Orchestra Chat 108 – The Land of 6th’s and Octaves
When composers want to add harmony to a melody, there are a number of ways they can do it. Learn more in this Discovery Orchestra Chat, featuring high-school musicians Katie…
Can We Really Multitask And Listen?
. . .Or my longest blog rant to date, with my apologies. (THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS) definitely caught my attention. The Quest for Generational Diversity by…
All of the shows I have been to have helped me to realize how pieces of music, well, “click”. This is especially helpful with complex orchestra pieces.