It’s below freezing in Philly this morning, but no snow… yet. Here are a few items for you:
- I’ve been re-reading Ralph Kirkpatrick’s book on interpreting the Well-Tempered Clavier. In a section on technical matters, Kirkpatrick says:
I built up my own keyboard technique very largely on the exercises of Hummel’s piano method of 1828, which contains an admirably organized series of exercises designed to take care of nearly everything that the ten fingers need be expected to negotiate.
(Well, maybe not everything.)
I had not heard of the Hummel and was interested to learn more about it. Perhaps this would be something to add to my bookshelf of exercise books, something to draw upon in my own practicing. A quick visit to IMSLP revealed that I might need a separate shelf for the Hummel - it runs 468 pages! Admittedly a good size chunk of that is text, but still, not exactly the concise and practical resource for which I was hoping.
- Kile Smith reveals compositional secrets here.
- Someone has clearly spent time in school rehearsal rooms. The Anne Boleyn is especially nicely named.
James Primosch, composer 