Berio Sequenza X (Part III)
A History of My Participation in the Berio "Sequenza X" (Part III)
Read moreA History of My Participation in the Berio "Sequenza X" (Part III)
Read moreA History of My Participation in the Berio "Sequenza X" (Part II)
Read moreA History of My Participation in the Berio "Sequenza X" (Part I)
Read moreA brief note about the author of one of the solfege texts used At the Paris Conservatory during the early 20th century.
Read moreGeorges Mager as the source of the specific Vacchiano Rules on which the "....and Beyond " project is based.
Read moreMusicianship and Musicality: Musicians Must Possess Both Qualities
Read moreFor the Record: A correction of a decades old Arban story.
Read moreFour Quotables from Prominent Students of Max Schlossberg (plus a few comments)
Read moreQuotable: “I am absolutely amazed at what Jean-Pierre has done for me!”-James Stamp (1983) in a toast to Jean-Pierre Mathez, who was not in attendance, at a dinner with Irving Bush and this writer.
Quotable: “And Jean-Pierre Mathez made you a star!” Irving quipped in response to Stamp’s toast, paraphrasing (in a kind of sprechstimme) a musicians’ insider joke from the big band era (“Benny Goodman made me a star”), which was always sung over the second phrase of “I Can’t Get Started,” a popular song written by Vernon Duke and the first-ever best selling record made by a trumpeter, Bunny Berigan, who also did the vocal, in 1937 (Irving's longtime friend, trumpeter/vocalist Jack Sheldon, included the Benny Goodman line verbatim in his band's recording of the same song made over half a century later)
Read moreDuring a recent master class, an old performance problem reared its ugly head: the proper execution of slow (tempo or duration) triplets, which no one in the class could play accurately.
Read moreNot "one more time" or "one more once," but one time only (contradicting the Count of Basie).
Read moreQuotable: "There are no second chances in music"-old and oft-repeated music business aphorism.
Read more"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side."-Hunter S. Thompson
Read moreA little known anecdotal and a few comments about James Stamp's methodology.
Read moreBy Request: Some additional information re: the subject of the previous post.
Read moreWilliam Vacchiano's Approach to Musical Transposition: This Musician's Experience
Read moreA Mini-Primer for Very Young Trumpeters and Non Trumpet-Playing Observers of the Musical Art.
Read more"When in the sandbox, playground rules apply." -the late Robert Cowart, woodwind virtuoso.
Read moreAn age-old problem for performers of all stripes, both vocal and instrumental, is that pitches in the low register do not project as well as those in the middle or high registers, and, consequently, adjustments must be made by performers to remedy this problem.
Read moreAn Old Tradition Regarding Battery Parts in Classical Works
Read moreA few comments concerning trumpet mouthpieces from the past.
Read moreTwo distinguished thespians opine on the differences between taped and live performances.
Read moreA comment on intonation offered in 1980 by the preeminent maestro.
Read more"It seems to be a great deal of trouble just to sound out-of-tune."-Andre Previn
Read moreIntonation. For our purposes, a colloquial use of the noun as it applies to singing or playing a musical instrument in or out-of-tune.
Read moreThere are those who believe the usual questions and concerns regarding musical arrangements/transcriptions are démodé-very last century......
Read moreA few classics from Paul Hindemith, one of the twentieth century's leading critics of the arranging and transcribing of (classical) music.
Read more........."If the purists had their way, I would be forbidden to redo [arrange/transcribe] even my own music!" -Luciano Berio
Read moreAt the 901 Club............conductor Henry Lewis was holding court.......
Read moreThe practice of re-setting music originally intended for other instruments (voices) or venues is a controversial one at best.
Read moreFour not-so-serious but relevant comments plus a true classic on soft dynamics from four major leaguers of 20th Century classical music.
Read moreComposer ingolf Dahl offers a comment that supports the concept of relative dynamics.
Read moreCarlo Maria Giulini reiterates an old Toscanini line in a pianissimo version of the Leinsdorf/Sanderling points in Dynamics II.
Read moreA comment on dynamics from Leonard Bernstein, followed a somewhat less profound but not altogether inappropriate comment from a colleague.
Read moreIn making a point to establish his authority, the legendary Arturo Toscanini served up a marvelous Quotable (excerpted from the BrassBulletin Backstage series).
Read moreThe following are comments offered by two of the twentieth century's most distinguished symphony/opera conductors. The material has been exerpted from an article, "Fortissimo," that was originally published as one of my Backstage series for Jean-Pierre Mathez' BrassBulletin.
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