Tag: classical

Announcements

As Promised: Master’s Recital Video Recordings

Joy Morin

As promised, here are a few selections from my Master’s Recital in January!   I would have loved to be able to post the Gwyneth Walker piece for you to hear, but it is not old enough to be in the public domain yet so posting a recording online would not be legal (if I have my facts straight).  All the clips were edited with iMovie, a free video editing software that comes on all Apple computers.

Click here to view the post with the program notes for each piece.  Enjoy!

Haydn: Sonata No. 52 in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52 L. 62, Allegro.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpEDQNlKZw4 Continue reading “As Promised: Master’s Recital Video Recordings” →

Composition, Resources

Decorate Your Studio Idea: Bach Invention Manuscripts

Joy Morin

I just discovered these manuscript copies of Bach’s 2-part inventions over at the IMSLP’s Petrucci Music Library.  I always find free pdfs of music scores that I need on their site, but I never realized that they also have pdfs of some hand-written manuscript copies to download as well!  Although this is not Bach’s handwriting, but it is still a remarkable part of history — and looks really cool.  According to the site, this manuscript copy dates from around the 1790s.  Can you imagine having to copy music by hand?  What an art!

While I was so captivated by this manuscript copy, it occurred to me that printing some of these sheets off on acrylic print paper and then framing them would be a great way to decorate the walls of a piano studio!  I think students would really enjoy admiring the hand-written manuscripts, especially if they were working on the same piece.

To download:

Click this link to visit the Bach inventions page.  Scroll down until you see the download with the editor listed as “Peter Gronland” and says “Undated manuscript copy, 1790?”.  As always, be sure to carefully follow the site’s copyright restrictions for your country (in the US, basically all works published before 1923 are in the public domain).

Resources

free Renee Fleming download @ Amazon.com

Joy Morin

Picture 2Run on over to Amazon.com!  They currently are offering a free mp3 download of La Bohème/Act 3 – Addio! Che Vai?…Donde Lieta Uscì by the amazing Renee Fleming.  It is not often that Amazon includes classical music among their selection of free mp3s, and it won’t last long.  If you are a fan of opera music, especially by Renee Fleming, don’t pass up the chance to get this!

repertoire / methods, Resources

Free Sheet Music @ pianostreet.com

Joy Morin

Picture 4Free sheet music is always a good thing, right?  :]

By signing up for a free Silver membership over at pianostreet.com, you’ll have access to free pdfs of classical music scores, including:

  • Bach – 15 Inventions
  • Beethoven – 32 Sonatas
  • Burgmuller – 3 pieces from 25 Easy and Progressive Studies
  • Schumann – Traumerei
  • Tchaikovsky – 2 pieces from Album for the Young
  • . . .and other random pieces by composers such as Mozart, Clementi, Listz, and Brahms — including an arrangements of Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee.

If you upgrade to a Gold Membership, you’ll have access to even more music.  Personally, I am planning to stick with my free Silver membership.  I am thrilled to be able to print (for free!) these great classics for my students, particularly for the ones with little money to spare for piano lessons during these rough economic times.

Motivation, Resources

An Inspiring Reminder…

Joy Morin
The following is a something that has been recently circulating via email forwarding (thanks Dr. Le!).  I thought it make some excellent points, reminding us of our ultimate goal as musicians.  Hope you find it as inspiring as I did!  (Sorry for its length — but let me tell you, it’s definitely worth taking the time to read it!)
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(Welcome address to freshman at Boston Conservatory, given by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at Boston Conservatory.)

“One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn’t be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school—she said, “you’re WASTING your SAT scores.” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they LOVED music, they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the “arts and entertainment” section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it’s the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works. Continue reading “An Inspiring Reminder…” →