The composer had an “ambisexual phase” during the Ballets Russes period in 1910s Paris, according to a new book by Robert Craft. the composer’s longtime assistant. Craft goes so far as to say that Stravinsky “was in love with” the son of Rimsky-Korsakov.
Tag: 06.24.13
We Now Have A Concerto For Ophicleide
This odd brass instrument – something like a cross between a tuba and a saxophone – featured in the orchestras used by Verdi, Mendelssohn, Wagner and especially Berlioz but had fallen out of use by 1900. Yet when New York composer William Perry heard Sydney brass virtuoso Nick Byrne play the ophicleide, a beautiful relationship was born and a new concerto conceived.
German National Railroad Tries To Suppress Anglicisms Used By Its Staff
“Germany’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn has launched a campaign to roll back the use of English, issuing staff a booklet of 2,200 German phrases that should be used instead of the corresponding Anglicisms.”
Gertrude Stein’s Prose Is ‘A Bedrock Of Modern American Writing’
Adam Gopnik: “It isn’t the least of Stein’s virtues, or importance, that Hemingway was in many ways the popularizer of a style that she had invented. One could even say, to borrow Picasso’s famous disparaging remark about his imitators, that Stein did it first and Hemingway did it pretty. But, prettified or not, Hemingway’s style was the most influential in American prose for more than fifty years.”
Why Hollywood Loved Richard Matheson
“Matheson’s writing lends itself particularly well to contemporary Hollywood because it’s ‘high concept’ – which translates, in screenwriting parlance, to ‘easy to pitch’. At the heart of Matheson’s best tales you’ll find a simple, compelling question.”
Newest Major Piano Competition Winner Denounces Competitions
“I’m a bit angry at the world for not having come up with another way of discovering talent other than competitions,” says Boris Giltburg, who recently won Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Competition. He insists that he’d never serve on a jury himself, even as he’s grateful to the jurors who just boosted his career.
Pushy Stage Moms And Sports Dads Really Are Projecting, Says Study
“Our research provides the first empirical evidence that parents sometimes want their child to fulfill their unfulfilled ambitions – for example, that they want their child to become a physician when they themselves were rejected for medical school.”
Why The Big Report On Humanities Education Will Go Nowhere
“These and other deep and seemingly intractable problems are either completely ignored or barely glanced at as the authors of the report alternate between grand, un-cashable claims and pie-in-the sky proposals that have no traction because there is barely a suggestion of a road map that might lead to their realization.”
The Mozart Effect, Part 437 (The Idea That Wouldn’t Die)
“Researchers report the soothing sounds of a Mozart minuet boosts the ability of children and seniors to focus on a task and ignore extraneous information.”
If We Make Paying For Things So Easy We Hardly Notice How Does That Change Us?
“It’s a payment system that encourages instant gratification. Interestingly, however, research suggests that we derive greater happiness from goods we pay for immediately, but don’t use for some time, than we do from goods we use now but pay for later.”