If you're a musician, this video will make your ego as big as your enormous brain.
https://youtu.be/R0JKCYZ8hng
Teach your child to play an instrument, no matter what you want them to do in the future. Practicing an instrument is one of the best possible workouts a brain can get and will help them in almost every aspect of life.
- long-term goal setting
- delayed gratification
- memory
- hand-eye coordination
- reflexes
- concentration and discipline
- imagination
- big brains
- attention span
- language skills
- teamwork with other musicians
- dealing with stress and anxiety in performances
And much more.
They might not like it at first and it is a difficult road, but the road to happiness is often rocky and rough, it is not padded with pleasure and fluff.
https://youtu.be/R0JKCYZ8hng
Teach your child to play an instrument, no matter what you want them to do in the future. Practicing an instrument is one of the best possible workouts a brain can get and will help them in almost every aspect of life.
- long-term goal setting
- delayed gratification
- memory
- hand-eye coordination
- reflexes
- concentration and discipline
- imagination
- big brains
- attention span
- language skills
- teamwork with other musicians
- dealing with stress and anxiety in performances
And much more.
They might not like it at first and it is a difficult road, but the road to happiness is often rocky and rough, it is not padded with pleasure and fluff.
YouTube
How playing an instrument benefits your brain - Anita Collins
Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins
When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when…
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins
When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when…
Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) was one of the first American composers to be recognized on the same level as European ones.
Woodland Sketches takes scenes from old New England and paints them with sound. MacDowell's unique style of composition feels American. Not the America we know now, but a place lost to time, gone from our world though somehow still lingering in our hearts. A slow moving rural sentiment, of mulberry trees, maple syrup, and large families full of bright-eyed children.
https://youtu.be/zFfz5K3W4dc
Woodland Sketches takes scenes from old New England and paints them with sound. MacDowell's unique style of composition feels American. Not the America we know now, but a place lost to time, gone from our world though somehow still lingering in our hearts. A slow moving rural sentiment, of mulberry trees, maple syrup, and large families full of bright-eyed children.
https://youtu.be/zFfz5K3W4dc
YouTube
'Woodland Sketches Op.51' by Edward MacDowell (complete), Hal Freedman, pianist.
From the Cd album "Voices of the Woods"
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/voices-of-the-woods/id549342050
http://cdbaby.com/cd/halfreedman3
http://www.amazon.com/Voices-of-the-Woods/dp/B008S0MIIG/ref=sr_shvl_album_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350000928&sr=301-3
Woodland…
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/voices-of-the-woods/id549342050
http://cdbaby.com/cd/halfreedman3
http://www.amazon.com/Voices-of-the-Woods/dp/B008S0MIIG/ref=sr_shvl_album_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350000928&sr=301-3
Woodland…
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is dark, dense and highly enigmatic, like most of Poe's work. If you know Poe, you know what you're in for; a highly symbolic and detailed work of horror that says a lot with just a few pages. It stands out as one of his best short stories and I highly recommend reading it.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932
Alternatively, you can read a short synopsis on sparknotes or wikipedia or something if you don't have the time.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932
Alternatively, you can read a short synopsis on sparknotes or wikipedia or something if you don't have the time.
Project Gutenberg
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.
Nikita Koshkin (b.1956), a Russian modern classical composer, wrote one of the most interesting pieces in the classical guitar repertoire: Usher Waltz. Koshkin wrote this after Poe's story, and it stands out as a brilliant example of storytelling with music.
Koshkin is well known for his unorthodox and inventive use of guitar technique, including using prepared guitar. One interesting technique he uses here is the Bartok pizzicato, a pulling out and releasing of the string with the right hand to slam into the frets, creating a jarring tone.
His use of modern harmonic choices includes strong and persistingly dissonant lines, which serve him well in evoking the spirit of Poe's work.
https://youtu.be/w3ulenPf_II
Koshkin is well known for his unorthodox and inventive use of guitar technique, including using prepared guitar. One interesting technique he uses here is the Bartok pizzicato, a pulling out and releasing of the string with the right hand to slam into the frets, creating a jarring tone.
His use of modern harmonic choices includes strong and persistingly dissonant lines, which serve him well in evoking the spirit of Poe's work.
https://youtu.be/w3ulenPf_II
YouTube
John Williams - Usher Waltz (Nikita Koshkin)
One of the greatest guitar pieces of all times.
In light of the catastophic situation in Lebanon at the moment, I'd like to highlight Wadia Sabra (1876-1952) a Lebanese composer and founder of the Conservatoire Libanais.
From Wikipedia:
"Wadia Sabra was born in Ain el Jdideh and died in Beirut. He married Miss Adèle Misk in 1921 but had no children. He's buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Sodeco Beirut.
As a composer, his music is characterized as a blend of Western and Eastern musical languages, incorporating the strengths and charms of both traditions. He is best known today as the composer of the Lebanese National Anthem, popularly known as Kulluna lil Watan (words by Rashid Nakhle), which was officially adopted by the Lebanese Government through a presidential decree on 12 July 1927.
He's considered the founding father of classical music in Lebanon.
After studying at the American University of Beirut, he left for Paris in 1892, with a scholarship from the French Embassy to study at the Conservatoire de Paris. He stayed for 7 years where he studied with the musicologist Albert Lavignac. He took a job as the principal organist of the Evangelical Church of the Holy Spirit. He then returned to Beirut, where he founded, in 1910, the first School of Music (Dar ul Musica). Despite having a great interest in the study of Western disciplines, Wadia Sabra was, during his first stay in Paris, the initiator of a new style in oriental music, particularly Lebanese. His conspicuous taste for research made him return to Paris, where he worked with the Pleyel studios to develop a "new unit of measurement", the "universal range", which he was going to present to the specialists in music during a Congress planned in Beirut, when death came by surprise on April 11, 1952.
Sabra who was the founder-administrator of "Dar ul Musica" had the satisfaction of seeing this School become “National"on 31 October 1925, which, in 1929, also grew to became the "National Conservatory ", which he was called to direct. Not only does his legacy include a keyboard with quarter-tone intervals, but also an appreciated - and discussed - work on "Arab music, basis of Western art", as well as a certain number of various works, including the Lebanese National Anthem. The National School of Music has been endowed with a Monthly Review, a sort of permanent link between this Institution, its students, and the first music lovers of Lebanon.
Most of Sabra's music was considered lost, and only a few examples of his work remained in the performance repertoire; however, since 2016, all his works have been found and archived at the Centre du patrimoine musical libanais [fr] (CMPL).
Wadia Sabra was in ruins after spending all his money on his work; hence, after many unsuccessful requests of grants and retirement pension to the Lebanese government, his wife, Mrs. Adèle Misk, went to live with her nephew Dr. Robert Misk. Moreover, the atmosphere between Adèle and their adoptive daughter Miss Badiha Ashkar had arrived to a point of no return, she decided to hide all her husband's works in a big blue trunk, La Malle Bleue. They remained there until 2016, when the Misk family gave it to the CPML for safe keeping.
Thanks to these precious archives, Mrs Zeina Saleh Kayali was able to write his full biography in 2018 in the collection "Figures musicales du Liban [archive]". éditions Geuthner (ISBN 978-2-7053-4002-5)
"Wadia Sabra was born in Ain el Jdideh and died in Beirut. He married Miss Adèle Misk in 1921 but had no children. He's buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Sodeco Beirut.
As a composer, his music is characterized as a blend of Western and Eastern musical languages, incorporating the strengths and charms of both traditions. He is best known today as the composer of the Lebanese National Anthem, popularly known as Kulluna lil Watan (words by Rashid Nakhle), which was officially adopted by the Lebanese Government through a presidential decree on 12 July 1927.
He's considered the founding father of classical music in Lebanon.
After studying at the American University of Beirut, he left for Paris in 1892, with a scholarship from the French Embassy to study at the Conservatoire de Paris. He stayed for 7 years where he studied with the musicologist Albert Lavignac. He took a job as the principal organist of the Evangelical Church of the Holy Spirit. He then returned to Beirut, where he founded, in 1910, the first School of Music (Dar ul Musica). Despite having a great interest in the study of Western disciplines, Wadia Sabra was, during his first stay in Paris, the initiator of a new style in oriental music, particularly Lebanese. His conspicuous taste for research made him return to Paris, where he worked with the Pleyel studios to develop a "new unit of measurement", the "universal range", which he was going to present to the specialists in music during a Congress planned in Beirut, when death came by surprise on April 11, 1952.
Sabra who was the founder-administrator of "Dar ul Musica" had the satisfaction of seeing this School become “National"on 31 October 1925, which, in 1929, also grew to became the "National Conservatory ", which he was called to direct. Not only does his legacy include a keyboard with quarter-tone intervals, but also an appreciated - and discussed - work on "Arab music, basis of Western art", as well as a certain number of various works, including the Lebanese National Anthem. The National School of Music has been endowed with a Monthly Review, a sort of permanent link between this Institution, its students, and the first music lovers of Lebanon.
Most of Sabra's music was considered lost, and only a few examples of his work remained in the performance repertoire; however, since 2016, all his works have been found and archived at the Centre du patrimoine musical libanais [fr] (CMPL).
Wadia Sabra was in ruins after spending all his money on his work; hence, after many unsuccessful requests of grants and retirement pension to the Lebanese government, his wife, Mrs. Adèle Misk, went to live with her nephew Dr. Robert Misk. Moreover, the atmosphere between Adèle and their adoptive daughter Miss Badiha Ashkar had arrived to a point of no return, she decided to hide all her husband's works in a big blue trunk, La Malle Bleue. They remained there until 2016, when the Misk family gave it to the CPML for safe keeping.
Thanks to these precious archives, Mrs Zeina Saleh Kayali was able to write his full biography in 2018 in the collection "Figures musicales du Liban [archive]". éditions Geuthner (ISBN 978-2-7053-4002-5)
"Based on his Bußlied, Tannhäuser became the subject of a legendary account. It makes Tannhäuser a knight and poet who found the Venusberg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess. After leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser is filled with remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV (reigned 1261–1264) if it is possible to be absolved of his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is impossible, as much as it would be for his papal staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's departure, Urban's staff bloomed with flowers; messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to Venusberg, never to be seen again."
"The Venusberg legend has been interpreted in terms of a Christianised version of the well-known folk-tale type of a mortal visiting the Otherworld: A human being seduced by an elf or fairy experiences the delights of the enchanted realm but later the longing for his earthly home is overwhelming. His desire is granted, but he is not happy (often noting that many years have passed in the world during his absence) and in the end returns to fairy-land."
Some of the information in these pictures is technical, aimed at the musicians in this chat, and some is general.
The text I'm posting is a very interesting excerpt from "A Geometry of Music" by Dmitri Tymoczko. While this isn't specifically related to classical music or history, it is generally related to the perspective we have toward music and, therefore, our way of listening to all music.
It should be a quick read, just a few minutes, but it could change the way you see music, especially since it is so common to teach music as a type of language. An inadequate tl;dr -- "What is important is not that you understand the magic trick, but that you feel the force of the illusion"
The text I'm posting is a very interesting excerpt from "A Geometry of Music" by Dmitri Tymoczko. While this isn't specifically related to classical music or history, it is generally related to the perspective we have toward music and, therefore, our way of listening to all music.
It should be a quick read, just a few minutes, but it could change the way you see music, especially since it is so common to teach music as a type of language. An inadequate tl;dr -- "What is important is not that you understand the magic trick, but that you feel the force of the illusion"