It is my opinion that many people play Mozart and many other classical composers too fast. Liszt, surprisingly, also lamented this after having been questioned by a famous artist. The general public wants virtuosity and excitement, but what if that is not what the music truly wants, and what were the composers intentions? These questions are not as easy to answer as they may seem and are still debated to this day.

So, try listening to Gould playing a very familiar piece that we all know, but slower and with more expression than is usually seen in the common faster tempos.

To me, it has much more of a Turkish feeling played this way.

https://youtu.be/eTZ33EVK3Ug

Dusan Bogdanović (b1955) is a Serbian-born American classical guitarist and composer.

https://youtu.be/wayeqSR4weo

Double post for today
https://youtu.be/Vbw53GO2JGI

https://youtu.be/hcfl3lYQy9M

Clavichord - it has vibrato! (Kind of)

This isn't classical music, but I just wanted to highlight this artist. Incredible music is still being made today, though it is often difficult to find. The classical performance repertoire is often full of names you know. Turn on the classical radio and more often than not you'll be hearing familiar names of composers like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, or Mozart and Brahms, Debussy or Vivaldi. This isn't a bad thing, but it makes it difficult for new pieces and artists to enter the repertoire on a larger stage and even then they have to fit in a certain stylistic way.

It is good to branch outside of what you know and look for what you don't know yet. Our modern age muffles the voices of genius in favor of the mundane and mediocre, so it takes individual effort to really find the gold in the mountain of dirt.

Here's some gold.

https://youtu.be/xmScqhDSJrI

Camille Saint-Saëns claimed that he lived in music "like a fish in water". He composed over 300 works and began composing at three years old, wrote his first symphony at sixteen.

Whatever you want to do with your life, take that attitude and you will go far. Raise your kids with that attitude.


https://youtu.be/5LOFhsksAYw

Rico Stover tells us that Barrios wrote Julia Florida in December of 1938 while living in Costa Rica. It was apparently a difficult time for the composer due to diminishing health and a lack of regular employment. Julia Florida was dedicated to Francisco Salazar’s niece, Julia Martinez whom Barrios taught.

In a recent email Richard elaborated:
“I met Julia in Costa Rica. She told me that Barrios smoked a lot and was a bit nervous. Maybe because she was so beautiful and he of course wanted her but restrained himself…. or maybe not? She never let on to me that anything at all went down between them and I somehow think that was the case. But, knowing Mangore’s history with women, I wouldn’t rule it out either.

And of course you know why she was called “ Julia Florida” by her family? She grew very fast in adolecence, ”bloomed” and “shot up” at an early age (“florida’ means “bloomed” form florece = to bloom or flower).”

He must have been extremely fond of Ms. Martinez to write such a masterpiece. To quote again from Rico’s wonderful book, Leo Brouwer remarked:" Barrios’s mind and the structure of his thoughts were romantic. Just as Bach continued to write suburb baroque music up to the year of his death (1750), well after the high baroque period had come to an end, Barrios was writing exquisite romantic music long after its passing in Europe”

From:

http://www.benjaminverdery.com/bens-deep-thoughts/2014/12/12/reflections-on-agustin-barrios-mangores-julia-florida

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been very busy lately.

Here is one of my favorite current violinists on how to understand certain aspects of phrasing. This can help non-musicians understand what to listen for and how to clearly hear ideas in music and will definitely help all musicians articulate their thoughts and lines in a more musical way.

https://youtu.be/BEjRIXuUlCU

If any of you have suggestions for future posts, please message me. I'd be happy to either post it or expand on it. Credit and thanks to you, of course. Have a good weekend everyone.