Baton Talk

Baton Talk

“Hey! I'm a new follower of yours! Just curious, I currently have a Mollard and Custom Batons, what is your baton preference?”

Conducting Business

Conducting Business

Hi Jordan,

I’m 17 years old and been playing violin for 8 years and piano for 2. I am interested in conducting but I have no idea where to start. I am done with high school so a school orchestra is out of the question for experience. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction or give me advice. 

Thanks
Jamison

Haydn Tempo Markings According to Czerny

Haydn Tempo Markings According to Czerny

Czerny’s metronome markings for Haydn’s London Symphonies. Czerny was a student of Haydn. Download the pdf here.

Source: Early Music. February 1988: 77-78.

Analysis: Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Mvt. I.

Analysis: Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Mvt. I.

Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste highlights Bartók's mastery of orchestration, and innovation with rhythm. However, the opening movement perhaps least exemplifies these features (relative to the other movements). The first movement of the work instead showcases his mastery of counterpoint with a particularly praiseworthy example.

Marching to Nowhere

Marching to Nowhere

I wrote a sort of open letter to many of my former directors and teachers coming from the band world, which I've reprinted in modified form below:

VIDEO: Composing with Twelve Tones

VIDEO: Composing with Twelve Tones

This is one of the most informative and educational videos on any musical topic that I have ever seen. Youtuber Vihart has condensed many hours of information into the densest half hour explainer on serialism one could imagine.

“María” Provokes and Penetrates at Le Poisson Rouge

“María” Provokes and Penetrates at Le Poisson Rouge

I occasionally write for Sequenza21. Here's a concert review from a very special concert I attended in 2013:

Greenberg managed to turn the cramped, uncooperatively spare stage to her advantage, projecting into the space a smokey, claustrophobic Buenos Aires alleyway positively dripping with sinful lust and criminality, where “Hustlers, pimps, and devils appear at every turn,” as Greenberg wrote in the program.

 

Nuance and Rubato

Nuance and Rubato

...Bartok, for instance, gives us not only metronome markings, but precise timings for sections as a second check against grossly deforming his works. He believes his music to be more delicate with regards to timing, so one wrong move and snap. Mahler, on the other hand, gives loads of instruction with regard to tempo, some metronome markings, but a degree of sturdy flexibility to his music. It seems that his approach to harmony and orchestration further supports this.

Jordan Randall Smith is the Music Director of Symphony Number One.