Site Index
|
Pianonoise currently has over 80 web pages of various kinds of writing, music, pictures, and videos. It is a rather motley assortment, and all of it can be accessed from this index page (as well as the search box on the right) |
Loading
|
Site Map and Archived writings and recordings:
welcome and index pages
home page
Site Index You are here!
About page
all the nitty gritty details about the webmaestro and his strange domain
MP3 Index
access to all the sound files on the site
Site Update Index a chronological
guide to what I've posted and when (and where to find it)
Music from
the Yellow Room new mp3 posts and stuff
about the music
Articles about composers
Note: These are not straight biographies. If you want to know when a composer was born and what his most famous works were, there are thousands of places to go find that information. Instead, these articles explore some aspect of the composer's character, his or her environment, relationships, or an incident from their lives or career. In most cases there are accompanying MP3 files of their music you can listen to as well.
| Composer | Article |
| Bach, J. S |
And now, a word
from our friend, Mr. Bach: Some friendly, or perhaps not-so-friendly advice about organ playing. |
| Brahms, Johannes | It's Only the Truth If You Can Yell the Loudest Brahms writes a letter to the editor |
| Beethoven, Ludwig van | Looks Aren't Everything, Unless you are a Legend -- what did Beethoven really look like? |
| Buxtehude, Dietrich | What a long, strange trip it must have been: Bach travels 250 miles to hear Buxtehude |
| Gottschalk, Louis Moreau | Not Your Average Concert Tour: Louis Moreau Gottschalk tours the United States during the Civil War |
| Joplin, Scott | Respecting Mr. Joplin Joplin's battle to bring dignity to his person and his art |
| Mendelssohn, Felix | Thank you, Mr. Freud Even great composers are human beings. Which, alas, makes them pretty irrational. So much so that many of them didn't wait around for the advent of psychoanalysis to be born, write great works, throw themselves into rivers, and die. What would Freud have to say about all this? You'll have to ask him. This essay's only concern is the relatively tame case of Felix Mendelssohn. |
| Moszkowski, Moritz | The Sunshine Composer Answers his Critics Was he just too nice to produce great art? |
| Mozart, Wolfgang A. | Not bad, for a four-year old: Mozart's first compositions |
| Mussorgsky, Modeste | With Friends Like These... pals dish a little gossip about Modeste Mussorgsky |
|
Praetorius, Michael, Hieronymus and Jacob |
'The Three Mayors': Michael, Hieronymus, and Jacob Praetorius in the digital age |
| Ravel, Maurice | TBA |
| Satie, Erik | Erik Satie, the Individual |
| Scarlatti, Domenico | The Solace of Noble Minds: The Strange Employment of Domenico Scarlatti |
| Schubert, Franz | Back to School with Franz Schubert Schubert chooses the last week of his short life to start taking counterpoint lessons |
| Scriabin, Alexander | TBA |
| Tchaikovsky, Pyotor I. | All I want for Christmas is to have my mentor and roommate completely trash my piano concerto A heartwarming anecdote regarding one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire |
Other Articles on Music
| articles about instruments and the people who play them |
The Anatomy of the Piano |
|
The Behemoth of Instruments
Inside the mighty pipe organ |
|
|
Simple Gifts
A brief guide to the things musicians do
simple gifts an essay on same |
|
|
Do your fingers get tired? A friendly question and answer page for the curious...
|
|
| in concert | A Page Turner's Survival Guide How to get an up-close look at your favorite artists! |
|
I Survived the St.
Paul's School Holiday Concert
The closest thing to a blow-by-blow description of
being a pianist during a concert I've come up with so far! |
|
| things you might not know about classical music |
Koechel, God Bless You!
What's the deal with those funny numbers? What's With all the Italian? Have you ever wondered why musical terms always seem to be in Italian? On the Nature of Harmony: (Orthodoxy and the Overtone Series) What makes harmony so, er, harmonious? The Wonderful World of Enharmonic Spellings Wouldn't the world be a nicer place without F-double sharp? Well.... A Semi-brief Explanation of When to Clap Afraid to enter the cathedrals of music because you might genuflect at the wrong time? Then, would-be concert-goers, this is for you! |
|
|
|
| Musical History from early to recent |
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) |
|
The Birth of Musical Notation (the Pope gets "inspired" by the thought of written music) |
|
| Take this Job and...Great Composers and their employers | |
|
If They Don't Sue You, Is it Still Stealing? Sergei Rachmaninoff weighs in on the subject of illegal downloading, with a brief history of the art of helping yourself, musically speaking A Guide to the 'Isms' (a thumbnail guide to music in the 20th century)
|
|
| from the department of musical mythology... | Music and Math Music is just math in sounds, right? |
| professionally
speaking (articles for fellow musicians more than laypeople) |
When Is a Piano not a piano? How most of our greatest pianist-composers didn't know how to write for their instrument, according to some of our mediocre academicians. |
|
Is Music theory Really Necessary?
Would I deserve a doctorate if I didn't
answer "yes and no"? |
|
| Inside the Music (the creative act of writing and understanding music) |
The Gymnopedie Project: students take on the eccentric Frenchman by writing their own Gymnopedies |
|
Taking a Chance with the Music: Mozart's Dice Game (you too can play at composing music) |
|
| What's in a name: Fugue | |
|
How Not to Write a Musical |
|
| a little speculation on the graphic representation of sounds... |
Looks Like it Sounds--or, those bizarre squiggles
we call music.
|
| What's the meaning
of this? Essays on Art and society |
Sandwich Artist Does art have to pass a qualifying exam? (2003) |
| Speak For Yourself Christo's Gates spark the usual diatribes about what art isn't, but it's not coming from the critics (2004) | |
| Music and Its Uses, United States, circa 2010 Music in the 21st century is about as plentiful as running water, electricity, and food, and is often treated as such. (2007) | |
| The Universal Language of Mankind After reading this essay, you will agree with everything I have to say. If you don't, go find yourself another universe, buddy. (2006) | |
|
Topping the Charts
An Uberpopular cell phone ringtone signals the decline of civilization
for those who like to lament this sort of thing (2005) |
Godmusic as organist of Faith United Methodist Church in Champaign, Illinois, I frequently post music I play for services as well as bulletin commentary, and other resources as well.
blogs about musical issues
traditional worship music
A
Mysterious Stanza in 'Wondrous Love' /
An Interesting Conversation
contemporary praise bands
So What key is this thing in, anyway?
/
My Very First Praise Band Keyboard Lesson
/
Making a lead sheet; some observations
Christian Piano Music
Modulating and the Gospels
the Godmusic (non-musical) blog
pages
(2009)
The Imitation of Thomas a Kempis
/
Could it be...Satan?
/
Salt of the Earth
/
You Who Are Evil
/
The Sower /
Comfort Ye
(2008)
What it's really all about... /
Can They
Do That? /
Jesus
for Messiah '08 /
A Letter to Martin Luther /
Not to
be rude, but... /
The
God-Sellers
planning ahead for members of Faith this page is mostly unhelpful unless you are involved in planning services at our church
wedding pages
If you happen to be planning a wedding at the
above church, you might find these pages helpful.
page two: the email form (currently non-functional)
page three: FAQ and
our sound system
The Noise a more-or-less monthly column about things non-musical, or perhaps about 'the music of men's lives' to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare--Now with a series of archived pages of previous columns:
(2009) Things I Read In the Newspaper / Testing, Testing / Don't Take You Car to Champaign Auto Sales and Repair / Nazdar, Y'all! / Just Having a Beer / What Really Happened? / Get Reel! / Biblical values / Typo / Toward A theory of Swearing / Conversion Rate / Immediacy / Dwarf Planet This! / The Sound and the Fuhrer / Bush Made Us Dumber / OMG! We Were Just Kidding! / Notes from the Blagosphere
'Classic Noise' (pre-2009) :
Primary Colors
Some people may have learned
everything they needed to know in kindergarten, but I found first grade
a pretty valuable learning experience, too (2003)
Hot Buttons
Once upon a time, the state of Maryland had a Republican governor. And
he got some people mad at him.... (2003)
Why
They Really Named It Twice A civil look at civic pride, civic
snobbery, and civic inferiority complexes (2004)
Hail to the....
Another round in the endless cultural debate. Here it concerns the late
lamented symbol of the Fightin' Illini (of the University of Illinois),
and who should or shouldn't be happy about its demise. (2006)
public service with a side of sarcasm
The Pianonoise guide to political rhetoric
teaching pages
studio page
teaching calendar
gamespage
travel pages I still, after
many years, have only gotten around to chronicling one trip. It was,
however, a wonderful experience. Shortly before the apocalypse I may get
around to further installments!
trip to Greece (2004) part one part two part three
catpage one of the oldest pages on the site, it contains pictures of a very polite and personable feline with whom I've been privileged to share a domecile.
footnotes anytime I needed to add something parenthetically, I stuck a hyperlinked asterisk that steers you to this page. It should more properly be called endnotes, but I couldn't resist the pun.
michael@pianonoise.com