Tag Archives: composition

“Britain’s greatest living composer”

Posted on June 24, 2013 7:37 am by Jonathan Still

Sir John Tavener, according to Ian Youngs in an article on the BBC website, is regarded as ‘one of Britain’s greatest living composers’. I mean no disrespect to Sir John Tavener, but don’t journalists say this about a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Music, composers, composition, popularity, sociology of music, value | Leave a comment

Playing for ballet class tips #22: With harmony too, less is more

Posted on December 22, 2012 11:51 am by Jonathan Still

If you’re improvising or harmonising a melody, there’s a lot to be said for just sticking to simple harmonies, and avoiding chromaticism or excessive modulation for the sake of it. It’s not a competition to see who can fit the … Continue reading →

Posted in Advent calendar, Dance, Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Dance, Delibes, Music, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, advent 2012, ballet, ballet accompaniment, ballet class, class, composition, harmony, improvisation, waltzes | Leave a comment

Playing for ballet class tips #18: take a lesson in 18th century composition

Posted on December 18, 2012 10:38 am by Jonathan Still

A lot of pianists are frightened of ‘improvisation’ because the term is widely (mis)understood to mean that you play a chord with your left hand and wait for God to tell you what to do with your right. It’s seen … Continue reading →

Posted in Advent calendar, Dance, Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Dance, Music, advent 2012, ballet, ballet accompaniment, ballet class, class, composition, improvisation, music sociology, musicology | Leave a comment

Playing for ballet class tips #17: Composing and improvising

Posted on December 17, 2012 3:19 pm by Jonathan Still

Today I’m delighted to have a guest blog by Andy Higgs, friend, composer and musician who’s currently company pianist at Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf. This all came about because he asked if I was going to do something about composing for … Continue reading →

Posted in Advent calendar, Dance, Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Dance, Music, advent 2012, ballet, ballet accompaniment, ballet class, class, composing, composition, guest blog, improvisation | Leave a comment

Ballet troubles & music

Posted on June 23, 2010 7:12 am by Jonathan Still

Music in Motion is an article on new scores for NYCB from The New Yorker by Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise. (Via theballetbag via Twitter) I enjoyed reading The Rest is Noise more than any other book … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, Music, Playing for ballet class | Tagged Dance, Music, News, ballet, choreography, choreomusicology, composition | Leave a comment

Music at Rambert

Posted on April 12, 2010 9:32 am by Jonathan Still

Very nice article about music at Rambert from the magazine of the ISM. Great to see all the big topics (what’s music for? how do choreographers & composers work together? who gets the last word? what are the problems?) raised … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, Music | Tagged Dance, London, Music, choreography, choreomusicology, composers, composition | Leave a comment