Bruce Brubaker on all things piano
The story told by Robert Levin involved snickering Italian waiters. Bob asked quite a few Italian speakers, "What does sfogato mean?" (An Italian-English dictionary will say something like “letting loose.”) The motivation for Levin's particular curiosity was the use of the term in the score of Chopin's Barcarolle (m. 78). It's a word that doesn't appear in (earlier) piano music. Frédéric Chopin: Barcarolle In this written music, … [Read more...]
My grandmother, my father’s mother, had a nonchalant and serious way of saying “homeplace.” She was talking about the family farm where she lived for more than five decades, where members of the Brubaker family had lived for a century. It wasn’t grand. But conveyed in her pronunciation of that word was both great comfort and resignation. I don’t suppose I understand it. There were entire winter months when she stayed there, never … [Read more...]
Composers may receive commission fees for making new music. Some kind of pricing structure for learning new difficult piano pieces seems to be needed. Presenters will better be able to plan the use of their resources. In addition to a reasonable base fee, pianists can be paid for add-ons in a new piece. Herewith a pricelist for additional or extraordinary services -- like the extra ingredients in an omelette, or atop a pizza. For all notes … [Read more...]
In the parlance of mechanical player-pianos, "hand-played" described a piano roll that was directly derived from a realtime human performance. After the initial punching of a roll, it could be retouched. Alternatively, a roll could be prepared entirely by a technician punching holes in a paper roll, measuring physical distances on paper to make the rhythm -- no piano playing required. Conlon Nancarrow carried that practice to considerable … [Read more...]
I learned Brahms's Opus 114 quickly -- about ten days from my first encounter with the music to the performance. As a fellow at Tanglewood, I was working on several chamber and ensemble pieces. There were coachings. (Joel Krosnick worked with me and my Brahms colleagues.) The performance went well. There was one place in the last movement when I didn't come in properly -- I played a conspicuously wrong harmony. For years, I avoided listening to … [Read more...]
The first time I ate skate, I'm sure it was a fillet that was sautéed and crispy. A piscatorial classic of the bistro, it was made with lots of butter, and probably capers. It's a classic that requires an act of virtuosity, the cutting of the fillet. Fancy fish sellers and well-trained chefs turned a rather ordinary ingredient into something most cooks couldn't really do. About ten years ago or more, skate started showing up unfilleted on … [Read more...]
Last summer, I went to Iceland to record Nico Muhly's Drones & Piano. I planned to spend two days in the studio, walk around Rejkavik, go to the Blue Lagoon, and fly back to New York. When I arrived at Greenhouse Studios, the door was opened by Nadia Sirota. I had no idea she was going to be there. According to Nadia, she "kind of Jedi Mind Tricked" me into recording another of Nico's drone pieces with her, Drones & Viola -- after I … [Read more...]
"Richard told me." Or, "Martha thinks so." The inspeak of the classical music anointed? A mark of self-importance, of access, or just an acknowledgement of exactly how the celebrated wish to be addressed? Unusual names can serve more easily. "Just ask La Monte." And beyond, "Milton thought so," there are histories and associations. Alexis Weissenberg would be "Siggy” Weissenberg. For some, Susan Wadsworth remained "Susan Popkin." And … [Read more...]
All the piano pieces I didn't play. All the pieces I didn't cover, didn't learn... didn't perform... didn't record... All those pieces I never heard (of). It's my Anti-Repertory. Some of the old pianists covered more. (They had to, there was no recording -- ) Antimatter, Antichrist. ( to be able to hear anything, it had to be played.) Doesn't matter. The molecules don't … [Read more...]
Recurring patterns of signification in music -- topoi. The grand unfolding of time and space represented by a steady repeated-pitch ostinato with slow-motion harmonic change around it, found at the opening of Haydn's Creation, for example. (Haydn could have had a career in sci-fi futurism...) I heard a pianist play through Debussy's prelude "...La terrasses des audiences du clair de lune." Near the end, there's an anomalous passage that … [Read more...]
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Bill Boggs on Transaction
Bruce, I often think that music gets better as it gets older myself. I grew up in the 60s...Bill Boggs on Continuity Conscious
I have had great students do a variety of things. One of my best students, who is 17 years...Arthur on Photographs of Paderewski
Normally, pianists don't receive the recognition they deserve. Instead, many talentless individuals are called "celebrities". However, Paderewski is an exception....Angelo Bambini on Fixed
Technology has taken art and education to brand new levels that I never would have dreamed 20 years ago. ...William Boggs on Cause or Effect?
The thing that I notice about certain sheet music is that 5 different pianists can make the same notes sound...