| Recent Blog Posts in Music Theory
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by Chris A. Mooney
Our oldest Italian opera is less than 125 years old, and "Don Giovanni" only 122--an inconsiderable age for a first-class work of Art compared with its companion pieces in literature, painting, and Sculpture, yet a highly respectable one for an opera. Music has undergone a greater revolution within the last century than any other art in thrice the period, yet "Don Giovanni" is as much admired now as it was in [continue...]
May 4th, 2007 @ 9:47 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
In the official biographies of Serge Alexandrovitch Koussevitzky you will find that the boss of the Boston Symphony learned the art and mystery of conducting at the Royal Hochschule in Berlin under the great Artur Nikisch, but in this town there lives and breathes a rather well-known Russian pianist who tells a different story.
Long ago, says this key-tickler, when he was a youth, he [continue...]
March 13th, 2007 @ 7:44 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
All art is a compromise, in which the choice of what is to be foregone must be left somewhat to the discretion of nature. When the sculptor foregoes colour, when the painter foregoes relief, when the poet foregoes the music which soars beyond words and the musician that precise meaning which lies in words alone, he follows a kind of necessity in things, and the compromise seems [continue...]
February 17th, 2007 @ 4:51 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
Why is it that most persons are more interested in vocal than in instrumental music? Obviously because, as Richard Wagner remarks, "the human voice is the oldest, the most genuine, and the most beautiful organ of music—the organ to which alone our music owes its existence." And not only is the sound or quality of the human voice more beautiful than that of any artificial instrument, but [continue...]
January 10th, 2007 @ 9:52 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
The Basic Practice Approach (as found in The Principles) states, as Step #1: "Review and increase your understanding of what you are about to do, and how you are going to do it." There is a world of meaning here, and I would like to take a look at a few of the applications and ways of understanding this directive.
We [continue...]
October 21st, 2006 @ 4:37 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
There is a lot of confused thinking out there when it comes to the subject of reading music.
I want to examine what some of this confused thinking is, and how people get this confused thinking into their heads, and why it stays there. Why do some people think they shouldn’t learn to read music, when they should? [continue...]
September 19th, 2006 @ 10:30 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
The figure of the Conductor appears as a real need when the number and variety of instruments grew. He was necessary to unite the players´ willings.
The Technique is the sum of gestures and attitudes the Conductor uses to transmit his will with clearness and accuracy to any kind of musical ensemble. The [continue...]
September 5th, 2006 @ 7:55 pm GMT | No Comments
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