Monthly Archives: February 2012
An Afternoon of French Music
Here’s one for the power of the personal invitation. When you’re marketing a concert (or whatever, I’m sure), all the nice posters and advertising don’t go as far as a personal invitation from someone who is involved. The Calgary Civic … Continue reading
Posted in General, Inspirational
Tagged Calgary Civic Symphony, Cor anglais, Ma mère l'oye, Orchestra, premiere rhapsodie, rolf bertsch
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Perfect Pitch – Update
When I started this blog a little over a year ago, one of the first things I wrote about was my gradual loss of absolute pitch (“perfect pitch”). It’s an aging thing – normal, and to be expected, much like vision … Continue reading
Snow Evening
The snow storm during the afternoon rush hour yesterday messed up my classes last night. This is one of the (many) times I’m so glad my work comes to me and that I don’t have to deal with the traffic … Continue reading
Are the French suites French?
It happens that the French Suites of Bach are not really French at all ( just like the French horn is German, and the English horn is neither English nor a horn. It’s thought to have originated in Silesia, which … Continue reading
No Warm-up? Really?
Stephen Hough, concert pianist by night and writer of things musical, theological and all sorts of things, blogs for The Telegraph (in the U.K.). I stumbled upon a series of practice tips that he wrote fairly recently. One is his … Continue reading
Simply Divine
Angela Hewitt was simply divine Thursday night. It was the most inspirational recital/concert I’ve attended for quite a long time. In the last 10 years, since I have chosen to focus more exclusively on teaching, I’ve re-discovered my first love … Continue reading
Posted in Performance
Tagged Angela Hewitt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Le tombeau de Couperin, Maurice Ravel
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Wantin Somethin So Bad
Half-Blood Blues is a current best-selling novel by Esi Edugyan, a Canadian, as it happens. The story is about a few jazz musicians of various nationality and race caught in Berlin and Paris at the beginning of World War II. … Continue reading
Arpeggios are Fractals
A fractal is a math thing – apparently a relatively recent concept – where the bits of something look the same as the whole. The easiest example to understand is a tree or leaf – the shape of the leaf … Continue reading
Posted in General, Inspirational, Theory
Tagged Chaos and Fractals, Piano Technique, Theory
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Don Cherry’s Tailor
It’s Saturday. In Canada that means it’s Hockey Night in Canada with our ever-colourful commentator, Don Cherry. When he’s not busy instructing the kids in TV-land how to play and fight while he’s playing his piano desk, he’s buying new clothes.
