Welcome to Pianonoise!  


"Learning to play the piano is learning to reason with your muscles."

--concert pianist Jeremy Denk
The New Yorker, April 8, 2013
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this is supposed to be a picture of my two hands on a piano keyboard
  Index of MP3 recordings
 
Featured Articles: 3-11-12
Can You Believe What They're Listening To These Days?
An Early Culture Critic Speaks Out (
 
Plato tries to keep it simple, and free from pernicious influences

What's With all the Italian?      

Have you ever wondered why musical terms always seem to be in Italian?
   Don't your fingers get tired?
A friendly question and answer page for the curious...
new question (3-12):
what do concert pianists do on vacation?
THE NOISE
a column about the music of people's lives

Latest post:
Bad news: you may actually be your brother's keeper
 (10/16/12)
this is supposed to be a picture of some dude playing the piano in front of a stained glass window!

 
 Wedding pages
These are some of my former piano students from Baltimore. Can't see them? sorry about that.
 for students:
 Blog: the 
  Development Section
Calendar
 Musical Games 




 Erasmus's blog:
In Praise of Chicken
 
  Mike's Ballpark
 hotdog review
  The Pianonoise Guide to Political Rhetoric

This week's featured recording: Veni Creator  (verse 1) by Jean Titelouze

The feast of Pentecost occurs this week (May 19) and it seems appropriate to play for you a verse of the prescribed hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" by the "father of French Baroque music" Titelouze (though what makes him Baroque is beyond me; he may have lived in the early years of the Baroque era, but this piece, at least, is stylistically high Renaissance). What is not particularly appropriate is that I'm playing this piece for organ on the piano and giving it, in all likelihood, a much gentler interpretation than would have been heard by its original auditors. Peace.		 New on the Blog
piano music on Mondays, teaching and learning on Wednesdays, church music on Fridays
Listen Up!
Monday 5/20: My new favorite fugue

Musicianship for smart people
Wednesday 5/22: Why your organist is a cranky old guy

The Visible Organist
Friday 5/24: Methodist flash mobs and other theoretical impossibilities
Hi! I'm Michael Hammer, a pianist, organist, composer, teacher, accompanist, church musician, attempted webmaestro, and a few other things. I live in Champaign, Illinois.  Have a look around. There are over 200 recordings of piano and organ music, articles about composers and various topics relating to music and life in general. The blog gets updated three times a week, new recordings appear once a week, and the various articles appear whenever I'm able to post them.


Muir Woods just north of San Francisco, CA (USA)


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Some of the most beautiful trees in the world. And it is no accident that it looks like the set from "Jurassic Park"--this species of tree was around with the dinosaurs. They are the oldest living things on earth.












































 

michael@pianonoise.com