Idiomatic

[sonateharder]

Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.

Ezra Pound (via sonateharder)

[austinkleon]

Bill Evans on the creative process and self-teaching

Several people have posted this video of jazz pianist Bill Evans — one of my very favorites — with his brother Harry, talking about jazz, process vs. style, creativity, and learning. (See: Brain Pickings, Open Culture, and Presentation Zen.) 

I watched the video over the past couple of days and transcribed some of my favorite bits. 

Bill emphasizes that he “learned on the job,” and that the jazz player will always eventually become a self-learner: 

“The jazz player, ultimately, if he’s going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself…. The jazz player, ultimately, must select and discard according to his own [tastes]… You as an individual always make the decision of what you accept and what you reject… That’s the thing that you as an artist are really concerned with, is: How are you handling your materials? Are you able to handle them in any way you want?”

His brother Harry, a music teacher, says that’s all well and good, but there has to be some teaching, and Bill pushes back:

Harry: If you just say, well, ‘Find an avenue,” you’ll be fired as a teacher. Bill: Why? Harry: You just can’t say, “Find an avenue,” because they’ll say, “He’s not teaching me anything.” Bill: But maybe that’s the way to teach, though. Maybe if you say, “You must find an avenue. Next week, I’ll show you an avenue, but this week, find an avenue. Harry: Well, in that way, yeah. The essence of teaching is getting the student excited about the subject and explore it on his own. This is the essence of teaching. Bill: In order to motivate yourself further, you should discover things yourself. It’s the same way with a student: if you give him too much, you take his motivation away, because he hasn’t discovered anything. Harry: Oh, true. This is the knack of a good teacher — the pulse — is to know when to feed in, and when to draw back.

Then, Harry tells a story about trying to get Bill to teach him:

Harry: I hadn’t seen you in three years, and I told musicians at the time, “Well, Bill’s coming down—boy am I gonna learn this week!” And you came down and spent a week with me, and I said, “Bill, show me those changes, harmonics, you know.” This went on for three days and you didn’t move from the couch to show me. About the fourth day, I said, “Bill, will you please show me?” And you walked over to the piano and said, “Well, I don’t want to deprive you of the pleasure of finding this out for yourself, and for that reason, I’m not gonna show you a thing. If you sit at the keyboard and get into it yourself, it’ll be a marvelous experience. I can show you in two minutes what I’ve done.” I think you’re right, because eight years ago when we were together, you did show me some changes… and I’m using those changes today. I still use them. Bill: Right. Like little tricks or something. Harry: Tricks, yeah. I can’t get the joy out of playing [those] as I can something I’ve developed myself.

Bill then talks about how he went about making a name for himself as a musician: 

Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that all I must do is take care of the music, even if I do it in a closet. And if I really do that, somebody’s gonna come and open the door to the closet and say, “Hey, we’re looking for you.” This is the way I really approached the whole thing. I never tried really to push doors open.

He then turns the conversation into settling into a profession:

If I’d spread myself all over the place, I would’ve lost sight of everything. It’s like, you say, “Isn’t it terrible that there’s a war here, and uh, starvation there, and poverty over there? What am I gonna do as a human being about this whole thing, you know?” Well, gosh, if you try to accept every problem, you’re just going to go insane. So you have to choose some field in which you operate at your best capacity, and which will then serve as an influence to deter all these other things that you’re worrying about. So I figure, if I take care of the music as best I can, and with my truest beliefs, then all these other things will be effected as I desire them to be effected as much as I can effect them.

Great stuff. Unfortunately, it seems like the DVD the video is ripped from, The Universal Mind of Bill Evans, is out-of-print. Fortunately, Bill Evans’ records aren’t — I’d start with Everybody Digs Bill Evans or Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

[liszten]

Etude In B Flat Minor, Op.8, No.11 - Andante Cantabile

By Composer Alexander Scriabin

Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist

Artwork : “A Song From Long Ago (Girl Playing Piano)” By Artist Fletcher Charles Ransom (1870-1943)

[lesser-known-composers]

Witold Lutoslawki, String Quartet (1965), New Budapest String Quartet  

[sonateharder]

Graham Fitch

(via Practising the Piano Improve Your Thumb Technique)

[sonateharder]

A strangely robust reading, but totally compelling.

(via Brahms - Intermezzo Op.117, No. 2 | Arthur Rubinstein [HD] - YouTube)

[1ks-deactivated20170726]

[sheikhzahir-deactivated20160528]

BEAUTIFUL #ramadan tradition in the old city of #jerusalem. The callers who go from house to house in the early hours of the morning waking up each family by name for Qiyam and s7oor. They do so in poetry form. Imagine being woken up daily in this beautiful way. This tradition has continued from generation to generation. Bless them (more videos coming up) #palestine

[itschinyere-deactivated20200201]

Someone find the full video please.

[itschinyere-deactivated20200201]

FOUND IT!

[sonateharder]

Piotr Anderszewski

[whowearsthetrousers]

Kate Lindsey as der Komponist, Ariadne auf Naxos, Seattle Opera

Photo by Elise Bakketun

[sonateharder]

Great Pianists Interviewed - Practising the Piano

One of my favourite books of interviews is Great Pianists Speak with Adele Marcus. It is full of insight into the pianist’s art, and Ms. Marcus’ questions are always very astute. Along with Pianists at Play by Dean Elder, I turn to Abram Chasins’ Speaking of Pianists for inspiration. How wonderful to find these clips on YouTube, conversations and interviews with famous pianists as well as some interesting documentaries. I hope you enjoy them!

[nikaida]

Google search for “peaceful man covered in bees plays the clarinet” yields more pics of peaceful clarinetists covered in bees than expected.

[sonateharder]

An honest ear is the most challenging skill to achieve – and to teach.

Nelita True

“An honest ear” – PianoPedagogy.org

(via sonateharder)

[sonateharder]

In this post, Graham Fitch gives a nice account of a technique he used to help a young student re-engage with a fresh approach to a piece that had become too familiar.

(via Practising the Piano Freshen it Up)

[sunyoool]

C. A. Debussy Images I & II performed by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

[violaboss]

I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)

stereotypical delightful classical music:

battalia a 10 in d major (biber)

brandenburg concerto no. 5

brandenburg concerto no. 3

symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)

if you need to chill:

rondo alla turca

fur elise

anitra’s dance

in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)

if you need to sleep:

moonlight sonata

swan lake

corral nocturne

if you need to wake up:

morning mood

summer (from the four seasons)

buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)

if you are feeling very proud:

pomp and circumstance

symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)

1812 overture

symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)

american (dvořák)

if you feel really excited:

hoedown (copland)

bacchanale

spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)

la gazza ladra

death and the maiden (schubert)

if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:

dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)

winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)

symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)

symphony no. 5 (beethoven)

totentanz (liszt)

quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)

young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

if you want to cry for a really long time:

fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)

adagio for strings (barber)

violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)

aase’s death

andante festivo

if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:

an american in paris (gershwin)

if you want chills:

danse macabre

russian easter overture

if you want to study:

eine kleine nachtmusik

bolero (ravel)

serenade for strings (elgar)

scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)

pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)

if you really want to dance:

capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)

blue danube

le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)

radetzky march

if you want to start bouncing in your chair:

hopak (mussorgsky)

les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)

if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:

hungarian dance no. 1

hungarian dance no. 5

if you want to hear suspense within music:

firebird

in the hall of the mountain king

ride of the valkyries

night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)

if you want a jazzy/classical feel:

rhapsody in blue

if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:

introduction and rondo capriccioso

unfinished symphony (schubert)

symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)

canon in d (pachelbel)

if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:

st. paul’s suite

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

l’arlésienne suite

pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:

symphony no. 40 (mozart)

cello suite no. 1 (bach)

polovtsian dances

enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)

perpetuum mobile

pieces that just sound really cool:

scherzo tarantelle

dance of the goblins

caprice no. 24 (paganini)

new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology​)

if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):

concerto for two violins (bach)

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)

violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

cello concerto in c (haydn)

piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)

and if you really just hate classical music in general:

4′33″ (cage)

a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!

also, thank you to viola-ology and iwillsavemyworld for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!

[pastel-garbage-deactivated20150]

How could anyone study to bolero?! Bolero is straight up sex

[justintime732-deactivated201801]

Ticheli’s American Elegy is a great feels piece, too

[myclassicalmusicobsession]

These are all good!

[clavierissimo]

As regards the way in which Schubert’s songs should be performed, there are very strange opinions today amongst the great majority of people. Most of them think they have achieved the summit if they interpret the songs in the manner they imagine to be the dramatic. According to this, there is as much declamation as possible, sometimes whispered, sometimes with passionate outbursts, with retarding of the tempo, etc. — I can only say that I am always apprehensive when it is announced at a party that Schubert’s songs are going to be sung, for even quite capable and, in their way, musically cultured ladies and gentlemen usually sin cruelly against poor Schubert… With Schubert, the true expression, the deepest feeling is already inherent in the melody as such, as is admirably enhanced by the accompaniment. Everything that hinders the flow of the melody and disturbs the evenly flowing accompaniment is, therefore, exactly contrary to the composer’s intention and destroys the musical effect.

Leopold von Sonnleithner, 1857 (via clavierissimo)