Essays — Contents
Essays The Maxime Principle: Thoughts on the origin of dynamic markings Tenuto and Fermata: Rebels Against the Tyranny of Notation On the Significance of the Title The Conductor and his…
The Early Documentation of Emotion in Music
Thoughts on The Early Documentation of Emotion in Music The earliest documentation we have of conductors is the images we see of them in the tomb paintings of ancient Egypt.…
A Cheat’s Guide to Score Memorization
Music is a special language for communicating feeling. Your job as the conductor is to work out what the composer felt, not what they wrote. There is no music in…
How to teach emotion
All aspects of music performance—composing, repertoire selection, programming, rehearsal technique, conducting and baton technique, recording—should stem from this fundamental truth. Unfortunately, when conducting our ensembles we rarely get to the…
The aesthetic challenge for the wind band in the future
The wind band could perform a great public service in bringing aesthetic repertoire to an audience which has little access to it.
On some problems in performance
Considerations for the future of wind bands, part 3 First we must redefine the word "Music." Music is something which happens live before a listener. A recording of music is…
Leopold Mozart, Violin Treatise, 1756
The need to rethink how we teach music
Music is a special language for communicating feeling or emotions to the listener. We all understand this, but we do not teach this.
The language of music
The great genetic role of the right hemisphere of the brain is what creates meaning in music and is what we mean by "musicality" in performance.
Question Nr. 27
And those who seek for the best kind of song and music ought not to seek for that which is pleasant, but for that which is True.
Question Nr. 26
Plato presents questions about the arts which are only answered later when Aristotle founds the new branch of philosophy, Aesthetics.
The King Kong of Band Music!
Danish composer Andreas Hallager presented a gift to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, for his 47th birthday: an almost 900-page score of a programmatic composition for band.
Question Nr. 24
It bothered Plato that not everyone agrees when it comes to describing the beauty. In the end he complains, "All that is beautiful is difficult."
Question Nr. 23
Beethoven said that music is a more lofty revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. What higher wisdom do you experience in music?
On the teaching of listening
Audiences are disappearing not because of the repertoire but because they haven't been educated to consider music as something other than background atmosphere.
Question Nr. 22
With 500 TV channels, movies and sporting events beyond counting, should it be the school system's job to provide the public with more entertainment?
Wagner for Band: A Repertoire List
The music of Richard Wagner has always been a favourite amongst band conductors. At times Wagner himself recommended some of his music as an appropriate addition to the band repertoire.
Question Nr. 21
Move to the tune of tears that flow: For tears are music too, and keep A song unheard in hearts that weep.
Question Nr. 20
Every musician knows that the purpose of music is to communicate feelings to the listener. But this is first communicated in the choice of repertoire.
The Longy Club: 1900–1917
The Longy Club was a large chamber wind ensemble made up entirely of members of the Boston Symphony and founded by the principal oboist, Georges Longy.
Question Nr. 19
Pythagoras (580–500 BC) as a teacher is still remembered for a number of symbolic utterances. One was "Abstain from beans."
Holst for Band: A Repertoire List
The music of Gustav Holst has always been a favourite amongst band conductors. Now there are a great more works by Holst available for band, at all levels of difficulty.
Question Nr. 18
Porphyry recalled that Pythagoras (580–500 BC) allowed no one to become a friend or associate without first being examined in facial expression and disposition.
Question Nr. 17
Pythagoras (580-500 BC) has been judged by Walther Kirchner (1960) as "one of the most outstanding mathematicians of all times," but by Heraclitus (c. 500 BC) as "the chief captain of swindlers."
Question Nr. 16
Heraclitus (c. 513 BC) was one of the first philosophers to question the consideration given by musicians to their audience.