Farnaby's Conceit
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book comprises nearly 300 works composed for keyboard by notable English court composers from the time of Queen...
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Michael Allen
- Sep 15, 2017
Breaking up the Romance
Too soon? I'm having too much fun with these titles. I promised to talk about the decision to transpose this movement of Robert...
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Michael Allen
- Sep 14, 2017
More advice on Romance
One of the things I appreciated about teaching was that I learned things about my own playing by observing and articulating ideas to...
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Michael Allen
- Sep 12, 2017
Limoges - The Big News
Sadly, only a few of the sketches by Victor Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition have survived. We must rely on...
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Michael Allen
- Sep 8, 2017
Mussorgsky's Pictures
I'm always surprised that some still believe that Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition is the 'original
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Michael Allen
- Aug 28, 2017
Musical thievery and 12 steps
After Bach, the composer I’ve spent the most time with is Claude Debussy. In fact, the first two arrangements I made for large brass...
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Michael Allen
- Aug 26, 2017
Willow, Willow
Many years ago, I was walking past Bill Stanley’s trombone studio at CU Boulder and heard a most remarkable thing. I stuck my head in the...
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Michael Allen
- Aug 25, 2017
Huzzah! to the Queen's Chapel
Renaissance keyboard music is really fun to arrange. The simplicity of the music (well, at least some of it) lends itself to crafty...
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Michael Allen
- Aug 5, 2017
Four Dimensional Texture
This blog is a way to collect my thoughts and 'ship em.' This is modeled after the blogging philosophy of Seth Godin (one of my daily...
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Michael Allen
- Jul 31, 2017
Striving for balance with horns
Another curious Richard Strauss quote "If you can just barely hear the (French) horns on stage, the balance is perfect." Strauss clearly...
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