This category includes any kind of essay written on this site, including philosophy, psychology, musicology, music theory, and anything else related to being a musician. Some are more formal than others, but if I did any kind of research for the post, it probably ended up in this category!
Meet Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Пётр Ильич Чайковский for those who can read it). A flamboyant orchestral composer, he is best remembered for the range of his dynamics: the use of actual cannons in his 1812 Overture to his gentle The Nutcracker and heart wrenching Swan Lake. Born in 1840 in a small town in Russia, Tchaikovsky grew …
“O beautiful for spacious skies…” begins a tune that America has beat its drum to for many years. The song, a poem by Katharine Lee Bates set to music by Samuel A. Ward, speaks of the beauty of this land. Purple mountains in their majesty, amber grain waving in the breeze, seas shining in the …
Music becomes magical in the moments when it touches our vulnerability, and this can be anywhere: performance, jamming with others, or even on our own in the practice room. But this magic is built upon hours of arduous work, many of which can be frustrating if you’re not used to practicing patience with yourself. Learning …
5 Ways to Avoid Frustration While Practicing an Instrument Read More »
Meet Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Known as the “Prince of Music” he is responsible for hundreds of works that are known as “absolute perfection.” I love his music so much that he is a supporting character in a novel I wrote (not yet published; I’ll let you all know when it is). Perhaps this is …
While Langston Hughes was not a Jazz musician, he is known as a leader of the Jazz poetry genre. His poetic forms, remembered for their spirit, contain many stylistic devices also characteristic of music, especially the blues. This fully American music stemmed from the mixing of cultures, from the two traditions from which Langston Hughes …
Today, we Americans remember those who have fought for the ideals of our nation. Although national pride isn’t as rampant as it once was, the flag still inspires feelings of awe and gratitude in many citizens, and it’s something that all Americans have looked upon at least once in their lives. The National Anthem, based …
You made it to the weekend! I wanted to share one of my favorite pieces as a fun way to start the weekend. The “Rigaudon” from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is one of the pieces that made me fall in love with piano, and it’s just a fun piece to both listen to and play …
Robert Herrick, a forgotten poet of the seventeenth century, leaves his legacy in song. Known as the “songwriter,” his work is among the easiest to set to music. Blake R. Henson arranged one of Herrick’s most widely recognized poems, “To Music, To Becalm His Fever,” in a choral setting of tense chord clusters that resolve …
Negativity is something we’re all warned against. We’re told to be optimists, to see opportunities where others don’t, but we’re not always taught how. Turns out, it has a lot to do with discipline (something I need to work on). Lately, I’ve been obsessing over many different kinds of Ted Talks. From neuroscience, to music …
Piano: the instrument that continues to sing to the soul of humanity since its birth in the fifteenth century. A symbol of Baroque perfection, the harpsichord evolved into the piano to find a place in every genre of music. Classical, jazz, metal, rock, folk, pop, musical theatre, mainstream, or high-brow, the piano, in some capacity, is a …
