Bruce Brubaker on all things piano
From the school's library I checked out again the copy of Messiaen's Le merle noir (The Blackbird) that I used last fall when I played the piece with Paula Robison. Since then, many markings were made in the piano part. I don't mark anything in the scores I use, but when I opened the music again there were all the things pianists write: dark circles drawn around printed dynamic markings, fingering, penciled-in lines showing correspondences … [Read more...]
Long notes are more important than short notes. Pianists often get confused. Because we don't hold out long-duration tones with bow or breath, it's easy to underestimate their significance. Virtuoso pianists spend so much time attending to what's difficult in virtuoso pieces that it can seem these difficulties -- often passages of short, quick notes -- really are the most important thing in a piece of music. Frequently, it's the other way … [Read more...]
After many years, I figured out what many eighteenth-century musicians must have known: 9/8 meter is in three. (There are three beats in each measure.) 9/16 meter is in one. … [Read more...]
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Ian Stewart on Arts & Crafts
This is a really interesting post and raises many points. Copying out music is really a good way of learning,...Eliza on Klained
I'm reading the comments on the YouTube video. What a remarkable early-21st-century crossover-under, intertextual cultural re-appropriattion!CrossEyedPianist on Amphora
Another fascinating post, thank you. I have heard Levin speak on Mozart and the piano several times, most recently about the...Ian Stewart on Amphora
Leon Fleisher's attitude I can understand. Despite the fact that most of my work has involved improvising, and for many...Jay Golan on Amphora
This is a great post. I would only add that in historic preservation circles -both for conservation of objects and...