“Britain’s greatest living composer”
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…
Playing for ballet class tips #22: With harmony too, less is more
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.…
Playing for ballet class tips #18: take a lesson in 18th century composition
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…
Playing for ballet class tips #17: Composing and improvising
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…
Ballet troubles & music
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…
Music at Rambert
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?…