Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born into a highly musical family. His father was was a skilled violinist and his older sister played the clavier excellently, so from his infancy he was surrounded by music. Yet, as he wrote in a letter to a friend, that was supplemented by deep study. “it is a mistake to […]
How Great Artists become Great: Mozart version Read More »
According to his biographer: Karajan seems to have spent the greater part of his like seeking the one thing he believed would make him completely happy: absolute mastery over his own destiny. Richard Osborne, Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music, Northeastern University Press, 1998, p. 33 Related: How other great artists became great:Igor Stravinsky
How great artists become great: Karajan version Read More »
I’ll be speaking (by Zoom) at the Media Entrepreneurial Marathon today (November 21, 2020) at 9:30 Central Time. The conference is sponsored by a large group of Latin American idea and entrepreneurship organizations committed to creative and business freedom. Related: How great artists become great: Liszt. Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Beethoven. Creative geniuses as selfish: Maria
Artists Need Free Minds and Free Markets [Colombia talk] Read More »
What made Rudolf Nureyev an outstanding dancer? Some insights from biographer Julie Kavanagh’s Rudolf Nureyev: The Life. On his focus as a student and his eliminating non-essentials from his life: “I’ve always tended to reject everything in life which doesn’t enrich or directly concern my single dominating passion.” A fellow student noted: “When Rudolf arrived
Nureyev as thinking dancer (and movie recommendation) Read More »
When he became an American citizen in 1943, Sergei Rachmaninoff said: “This is the only place on earth where a human being is respected for what he is and what he does, and it does not matter who he is and where he came from.” Related: “How Rachmaninoff’s composing was hurt by the Soviet Union.”
Rachmaninoff upon becoming an American citizen Read More »
Both are smart guys, and I haven’t read the book or the review, but I am fascinated by the social dynamic, which follows a common pattern: What could be an engaged and productive argument devolves quickly into insults, exasperation, uncharitable interpretations about who said what, claims of immoralities, and suggestions of lawsuits. Also fascinating is
Steve Patterson and Jason Brennan Read More »
[Below is the text of Richard Wagner’s 1849 essay “Art and Revolution” (and here is a PDF version).] Richard Wagner “Art and Revolution” Almost universal is the outcry raised by artists nowadays against the damage that the Revolution has occasioned them. It is not the battles of the “barricades,” not the sudden mighty shattering of the pillars
Richard Wagner’s “Art and Revolution” text Read More »
In my judgment, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is the greatest novel on the themes of independence and integrity. I’m reposting the contrast of Howard Roark and Peter Keating below, as in my Introduction to Philosophy course this week we are reading Part I, in which Rand’s primary purpose is to contrast the characters of Roark
The Fountainhead — contrasting Roark and Keating Read More »
From Igor Stravinky’s Autobiography: “For me, as a creative musician, composition is a daily function that I feel compelled to discharge. I compose because I am made for that and cannot do otherwise. Just as any organ atrophies unless kept in a state of constant activity, so the faculty of composition becomes enfeebled and dulled
How great artists become great — Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky Read More »
When Mstislav Rostropovich was already an accomplished cellist at age 19, he began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory: “But it was also obvious to me that the most important priority was to educate my pupils to love music. And parents should aim to stimulate in their children a love for music and not a love
Rostropovich on love and music education Read More »