The Good Musician

All woodwinds, that is. The so-called woodwind quintet is a flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and french horn. The latter, however, is frequently included in small chamber consorts, especially in the Baroque, as they play those lovely hunting calls and stirring royal fanfares.
The Baroque sonata form often contained a 3/4 or 6/8 meter movement, and horns would feature prominently. The horn can also sustain a pedal tone or sound the root of a chord to support the other four instruments.
There was lots ‘o repertoire written for woodwind quintet in the 20th century. There is a woodwind quintet nestled in …read more

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I’ve been reading Sounding the Inner Landscape: Music as Medicine by Kay Gardner. She references Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of music and the sciences. I once had a teacher who said that music was like mathematics in technicolor.
Gardner also illustrates the relationship of the chakras to the overtone series. When you produce a pure tone, either vocally or instrumentally, it sets up vibrations that are strong enough to be heard, occurring mathematically on a vibrating string. Going from the root to the octave, the fifth, fourth, third, and so on…
This is one of the most effective, quick warm-ups for …read more

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From the February ‘08 issue of eSkeptic comes a feature from Will Dowd entitled

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The Good Musician loves great film music. Growing up with 50’s musical extravaganzas through the evolution to electronic and digital of today, I’m aware that what I hear in the movies is just as affecting as what I see. A great music and sound staff can pull a mediocre movie up to a decent one. Even though I have more than five favorites, I’ll try to be the Good Blogger and keep it short and sweet.
1. Kiss Me Kate (1953) Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson look fabulous and really wail on the Cole Porter score.
2. Psycho (1960) Pretty much the …read more

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Not so very blue, yet an important river, whatever color it may be.

Here’s Herbert von Karajan wafting down The Blue Danube Waltz.

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John Cage composed music that regularly transgressed the boundaries of convention. A pupil of Schoenberg and Cowell, Cage came into his own during the 1960’s while teaching at the U of Illinois. He invented the prepared piano, a compositional technique to alter the sound of a single or several notes by using non-conventional items directly on either the strings or felt hammers, such as thumb tacks, or erasers placed between or among the piano strings.
For instance, you could assign an octave in the middle range the instructions: place thumb tacks on the hammers of the black keys from middle …read more

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King Wenceslas (Szent Vraclav) statue, Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic.
Photo by TGM.
Prazska Muzejni Noc
Web designers: Czech out this gorgeous Web site!
Anniversary of 5th Prague Museum Night, a collaboration among the National Museum, Prague Public Transport Company Inc., and Association of Museum and Galleries of the Czech Republic. 25 cultural institutions and 51 sites were involved. Happens on Thursday evenings. Admission and transportation are free, except for a free will donation to two national sites.
The evening also includes concerts, recitals, movies, theatre, and dance performances, public readings, lectures, and guided tours.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every city in America …read more

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Castle Hill, Budapest, Hungary. The largest spire is the Basilica of St. Mattias, one of the venues where AVAE was privileged to perform.
A bit of background
The Danube River separates Buda (west, Castle Hill) and Pest (east, government and commerce). Built in the first century B.C. by Celts, the Romans occupied the town as the eastern border of the Roman Empire. In the fifth century, Goths and other peoples on the run from the Huns overran the Roman defenses. These in turn were routed by Ostragoths and Huns. The name Attila is still popular today.
Over the following centuries, Buda and …read more

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If The Good Musician were to travel due north from Budapest, she would cross the Polish border and explore Warsaw, birthplace of Anton Rubenstein. I was privileged to hear him in a 1963 concert, a high school graduation gift from my parents.
Actually, I was thinking of Bo Diddley, saying a fond farewell to an icon of my pre-teen and teen years. His music always made me get up and dance.
Somehow that led me to Rubenstein, and my night at the concert. He did a Beethoven concerto, several fiery Latin composers, one of my faves, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and …read more

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Jacobi Handl (Lat. Jacobus Gallus Carniolus), 1550-1591, is perhaps the best known Slovenian composer. Writing primarily masses and motets (374 of those mamas), he worked with a printer in Prague to ensure his compositions were printed before his death. Pretty remarkable in any period.
Here is a fascinating Web site that gives a run-down on Slovenian church music during the Reformation and subsequently a run-in with the Communist regime.
Composers of that time made their living as many do today–writing secular pieces, forming secular instrumental and vocal groups, and teaching in addition to the court duties to produce masses for …read more

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