A lovely, loving article about the beautiful tonal quality of Maurizio Pollini’s Hamburg Steinway-Fabbrini piano (which he takes with him on tour), with some history of the evolution of tone in concert grand pianos. Makes me wonder wistfully if I should have searched longer for a rebuilt 1920s Steinway rather than get a factory new [...]
The first canon from Bach’s Musical Offering, BWV 1079, illustrated cleverly as a Mobius strip (wait for it to come about 2/3 of the way through the video). A crab canon is a form in which the notes are first played forwards, then in reverse order, then forwards and reversed against each other. Cool!
A few years ago my friend Marnie introduced me to Jeremy Denk’s piano performances, and his writings. I’ve fallen in love with both. But especially the two together: there are other great performers to listen to, and other great writers on music and life to read: there are few who are both. Another friend sent [...]
Duality is concept that was crucial — and somewhat magical — in my training as an economist. I first encountered it when I learned linear programming, and then in my microeconomic theory classes, with the duality at the heart of the theory of optimizing behavior by both individuals and firms. So now I’m kicking myself [...]
There’s a story on “Snap Judgment” on NPR about Derek Amato, who on his 40th birthday dove into shallow end of a pool, hit his head, had a concussion. Afterwards, he could suddenly play the piano, at a very high level, after never playing before. Amato was diagnosed with “acquired musical savant syndrome”, and with [...]
Noe Kageyama is a Juilliard-trained violinist who is now a sport and performance psychologist. He discusses the famous work by Ericsson and subsequent scholars on deliberate practice — there seem to be hundreds of blog and popular press articles that do this — but then goes on to give specific advice with rich, sophisticated examples [...]
From Scientific American: Scientific evidence suggests that even a little music training when we’re young can shape how brains develop, improving the ability to differentiate sounds and speech. Christie Wilcox, “Even a few years of music training benefits the brain“, 21 August 2012
A bit of inspiration for all of us sitting long hours at the keyboard, struggling to make progress: Nicholas McCarthy, born with only a left hand, just graduated from London’s Royal College of Music (piano performance).
Based on a recent scholarly article, “Should People Pursue Feelings That Feel Good or Feelings That Do Good? Emotional Preferences and Well-Being,” an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that discusses whether angry moods are sometimes good for us, and how music that induces different moods might affect our performance (in non-musical activities) in [...]