Author Archives: Peter Schmidt

Comments on Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music for Wind Quintet”

Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Part 1) – YouTube. A fine professional ensemble (Ensemble Wien-Berlin) handles this difficult but stunningly beautiful music–one of the very great wind quintets ever written.   See also Part 2 on YouTube (link … Continue reading

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On Nefertari’s Tomb in Egypt

Essay: Ankh, Snail, Blood, and Knot: A Virtual Tour of Nefertari’s Tomb (and its paintings). For a video tour of the tomb, see the following.  But the essay above will allow you to think about some of the meanings in all … Continue reading

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On Ruins and Prophecy

Ruins in the Eighteenth-Century Art of Panini and Others  

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excerpt from Jennifer Higden’s “Quiet Art” (for string quartet)

A lovely excerpt from the second movement, “Quiet Art,” of Jennifer Higdon’s “Impressions” string quartet, a great tribute to Ravel and Debussy and French painters. The second movement Higdon says is about “the solitude in which artists work, and the … Continue reading

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Just got a new iPad. So guess which is the first book I finish reading on it?

Turns out the first book I wanted to finish reading on our new iPad is a book that enchanted me when I was 12 and just becoming a serious reader—R. L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island. The free Kindle copy of the text … Continue reading

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Vijay Iyer Trio plays M.I.A.’s Galang (trio riot version) . – YouTube

Vijay Iyer Trio . Galang (trio riot version) . – YouTube.

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