The Metronome Revolution In any musical culture there is an exciting turning point that occurs when music as a professional industry starts to emerge. Musicians start to play other musicians’ music, rather than just their own: composers are writing music down for people in the future (or in other countries) to play, multiple performances of… Continue reading The Marvellous Mr Maelzel
Author: Roman Benedict
Instrument Mimics: the birth of sampling
Musical instruments are mimicked throughout the natural worl: from the prodigious talents of songbirds, the singing sand dunes of the Sahara, or the instrumental mimicry of beatboxers and vocalists, the sounds of musical instruments have popped up in all sorts of unusual places. If, however, you aren’t interested in evolutionary reproduction, the physics of fluid… Continue reading Instrument Mimics: the birth of sampling
The Many Failures of Adolphe Sax
Motivational Self-Helpers and Ted-talking business coaches love to talk about personal failure – it lets them extol the virtues of grit and perseverance while selling you the idea that if you keep trying you too can eventually land on the idea which will make your fortunes. This is a similar story, but with a different… Continue reading The Many Failures of Adolphe Sax
Score Reading for the ABC
Aside from my feet appearing next to a broom on a BBC Proms broadcast title montage (I was sweeping straw for Oklahoma!) i haven’t worked much in broadcast before 2023. This yeah I worked on a load of great music as a score-reader for broadcast, streming and live screens, and had two projects broadcast by… Continue reading Score Reading for the ABC
Musical ancestry
I have written before about how most musicians have supported their composing or performing with other work, and recently I’ve been thinking about the importance of teaching in the lives of musicians. Not for myself – I’ve known since before I went to uni that I absolutely never want to teach (and have steered my… Continue reading Musical ancestry
Let me stay in my lane
There is an increasing expectation in the arts for people to be excessively multi-skilled. This pressure has only increased in the current arts shutdown situation, but it’s been going on for the last few decades and it’s a source of frustration for many artists. There was a time (although who knows when that actually was)… Continue reading Let me stay in my lane
The working lives of instruments
Seeing an instrument behind glass is, for me, a distressing experience. These objects are designed to be played, they’re alive: whether they are interesting is beside the point. There has been a lot of coverage in recent years of the ever-inflating market for high-end instruments. Italian violins fetching millions of pounds, historical pianos covered in… Continue reading The working lives of instruments
Maybe the audience is the problem?
Audiences for classical concerts and opera could learn a lot from those for theatre and dance. Classical audiences are a conservative bunch. The aversion to ‘new’ music has resulted in ensembles doing all sorts of workarounds to try and trick the audience into putting up with a new work. One of the more entertaining, and… Continue reading Maybe the audience is the problem?
The secret to a smooth performance
It may be just my own approach (although I am somewhat experienced in these matters) but for me there is only one technique in making any performance smooth and polished. I’m not talking about the musicians: there are countless people extolling the value of practise, talent, luck, alcohol etc. I’m talking about the performance as… Continue reading The secret to a smooth performance
Whatever happened to music appreciation?
When I was at school, our textbooks mentioned a mysterious thing called ‘music appreciation’. This appeared to be a worthy pursuit whereby a neighbourhood watch group would get together and a local musicologist would lead them in weighty musical discussion about Wagner or Schubert. Like a book club but for classical music. It was smug… Continue reading Whatever happened to music appreciation?