Musicon / Musical education / The oboe
The oboe is naturally associated with music of a pastoral character. It is pre-eminently a melody instrument, and though its voice comes forth shrinkingly, its uniqueness of tone makes it easily heard. It is a most lovable instrument. “Candor, artless grace, soft joy, or the grief of a ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Instrumental music was not always an art
The string quartet makes up nearly three-fourths of a well-balanced orchestra. It is the only ‘choir’ of instruments which has numerous representation of its constituent units. This was not always so, but is the fruit of development in the art of instrumentation which is the newest ::More
Musicon / Beethoven / Musical education / The Birth of Chamber Music
In a broad sense, but one not employed in modern definition, Chamber music is all music not designed for performance in the church or theatre. (Out-of-door music cannot be considered among these artistic forms of aristocratic descent.) Once, and indeed at the time of its invention, the term meant ::More
Musicon / Music and Literature / The Musical Spirit of Germany
I had been to a recital of old church music in the Cathedral, a beautiful, though melancholy, excursion into my past life, to the fields of my youth, the territory of my ideal self. Beneath the lofty Gothic of the church whose netted vaulting swayed with a ghostly life in the play of the sparse ::More
Musicon / Music and Literature / We must play the best that we can
“Herr Pablo,” I said to him as he played with his slender ebony and silver walking stick, “you are a friend of Hermine’s and that is why I take an interest in you. But I can’t say you make it easy to get on with you. Several times I have attempted to talk about music ::More
