Things Composers Never Said

[Nick Armstrong]

'At home in Poland I was blessed to have lived a wonderful, free-wheeling life under the benign watch of both the Nazis and Communists, though, sadly, my intended solo piano career was halted in an accidental bombing raid, and so I turned to composing and conducting.

Later, after I accepted the conducting post at the Halle, a kindly colleague suggested that taking the short train trip to Edgeley Park to watch the amazing Stockport County FC was one of life's truly memorable experiences, right up there with the pure, unalloyed joy of performing Mahler or Brahms.

My goodness, how right he was! Standing almost alone behind the away goal on those delightfully soggy terraces, the famously cooling Mancunian drizzle omnipresent, and observing the ball soaring past my head on numerous occasions was an unique experience and certainly one which I'll never, ever forget.

Stuff Bruckner ... '

Stanisław Skrowaczewski

... you've been working on that for some time, P.G.

(Only a couple of weeks for Stan to hold out before our AB5 concert... C'mon Stan!!! You can do it !!)


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Talking of which:

"I do think it's important that each of my pieces should be totally unlike anything I've previously written" - A Bruckner





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[Pabmusic]

"I'm not really sure I'm doing the right thing ... I don't know ... What do you think?" - Richard Wagner
"Lend us five bob till the end of the week" - Richard Wagner
"Those E-flats are hopeless - the basses can't reach them" - Richard Wagner
"What do you mean - I'd need to have instruments built to play this?" - Richard Wagner
"Too expensive" - Richard Wagner
"Out of my own pocket" - Richard Wagner
"I'm looking forward to Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Meyerbeer, and the Viennese Strausses coming round tonight". - Richard Wagner

[Nick Armstrong]

"Your wife will be perfectly safe with me, Herr von Bülow, I'm simply going to work on her arpeggios" - Richard Wagner

[Pabmusic]

"Your wife will be perfectly safe with me, Herr von Bülow, I'm simply going to work on her arpeggios" - Richard Wagner

R v Williams [1923] 1 KB 340.

[Nick Armstrong]

R v Williams [1923] 1 KB 340.

... I thought at first - it's early - that this was a oblique reference to Ursula v Williams and Ralph's seduction of her - but no, it's the 'consent vitiated by fraud' case... "big breaths"

[Pabmusic]

... I thought at first - it's early - that this was a oblique reference to Ursula v Williams and Ralph's seduction of her - but no, it's the 'consent vitiated by fraud' case... "big breaths"

I have an Ll.B. I remember the important things. Williams was a music teacher, and his technique helped her breathing. Or so he said...

[Nick Armstrong]

I have an Ll.B. I remember the important things.

A.K.A. you flicked through the Criminal Law book for the dirty bits? Same here

[Pabmusic]

A.K.A. you flicked through the Criminal Law book for the dirty bits? Same here

Was there another way?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For those as confused as I was:

http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/cases/R-v-Williams.php

... in this case, it's "R" versus "Williams", not "RVW" - and Williams is shown to be a pathetic and nasty bit of goods.

[P. G. Tipps]

... you've been working on that for some time, P.G.

(Only a couple of weeks for Stan to hold out before our AB5 concert... C'mon Stan!!! You can do it !!).

Can't wait, Cal ... all fingers and toes well and truly crossed!


.

Talking of which:

"I do think it's important that each of my pieces should be totally unlike anything I've previously written" - A Bruckner.

[Pabmusic]

For those as confused as I was:

http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/cases/R-v-Williams.php

... in this case, it's "R" versus "Williams", not "RVW" - and Williams is shown to be a pathetic and nasty bit of goods.

To add to the confusion, RVW's brother's name was Hervey (pronounced Harvey).

[Barbirollians]

A.K.A. you flicked through the Criminal Law book for the dirty bits? Same here

Tut tut - the only dirty bit I recall is the whether the appendage was over the window sill case !

[Pabmusic]

Tut tut - the only dirty bit I recall is the whether the appendage was over the window sill case !

My fault entirely for dragging this into the gutter.

[One unresolved point in the case related to the metronome and the powder-puff.] ( Shut up, Brookes!...)

[ahinton]

"I think I'll write a nice little piano miniature" - Kaikhosru Sorabji

Whilst I doubt that he even gave himself time actually to say such a thing, he did write quite a few nice little piano miniatures; Désir Éperdu in 1917, Fragment: Prelude and Fugue and Fragment in the 1920s and Fantasiettina and three sets of Frammenti Aforistici comprising respectively 20, 104 and 4 pieces from the early 1960s onwards, along with Passeggiata Variata in 1981 - and then there's his 100 Transcendental Studies composed during WWII, of which all but around half a dozen are piano miniatures - so that's at least 220 of them!...

"I'm going to compose a massive and complex piano work punctuated by variation sets and fugues that will occupy an entire evening in performance": F. Mompou

[Nick Armstrong]

Tut tut - the only dirty bit I recall is the whether the appendage was over the window sill case !

That was the best bit, certainly! (As the actress said to the bishop)