by Kurt Knecht | Dec 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
Every year, I wind up doing a little parlor trick for students toward the end of the Fall semester. I have them pick a carol and a composer, and I try to play the carol in the style of the composer. A student once told me that it was more fun than watching...
by Kurt Knecht | Nov 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
My setting of San Juan de la Cruz’s text “La blanca palomica” is finally out in print from the folks at Colla Voce thanks to the indefatigable Jo-Michael Scheibe. He really is one of the most important new music champions of our time.The piece was...
by Kurt Knecht | Nov 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
When I was an undergrad, I didn’t think I was allowed to listen to any music that wasn’t “classical”. Nobody said that those were the rules. I just assumed that I was only allowed to listen to Chopin. Of course, I grew up in the 80s, so I would...
by Kurt Knecht | Nov 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
For a few years now, I have been complaining about the tendency of composers to write music that is sonically interesting that doesn’t ask anything of me emotionally. I’ve been working against this kind of music for most of my life. I try to encourage...
by Kurt Knecht | Nov 23, 2014 | Uncategorized
I heard Reza Aslan interviewed on Krista Tippet’s On Being this week. I’ve seen him before on videos that people post on social media. Normally, it is an exchange that goes like this:Reporter: But, (insert religion) teaches that (insert thing)Aslan:...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
My priest said to me yesterday, “What’s with all the dressing up lately?”I had to explain. “You may think I’m stepping up my game, but it’s much more complicated. You remember my old sweater that I wasn’t allowed to wear...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
I won two free tickets to the orchestra by finding a stuffed turtle hidden under a sculpture inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies.Coincidentally, this happened only a week after Jennifer had made one of her infamous declarations. In an almost unimaginable confluence...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
When you are a professional musician, you sometimes dream about the day that your son will come up to you and say, “Papa, what I really want is a horn.” You hope that he might want a saxophone. You pray that he doesn’t have the personality that would ask...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
I have been imagining what it might be like if classical musicians got a post game concert interview and could respond like athletes. Here is how I imagine it would go.Erin Andrews: That was quite a performance!Arthur Rubenstein: I just want to give all the glory...
by Kurt Knecht | Sep 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
I may be kicking a hornets nest, but a thought occurred to me this week. I’m teaching a graduate seminar in Baroque Performance Practice, and I’m delighted to report that students are arguing away about the intentional fallacy, the relationship of the...
by Kurt Knecht | Sep 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
No matter how good you are at your job, you’re probably not as good at Thomas Weelkes. Weelkes was an English organist/composer in the late 16th and early 17th century. In 1616 he was reported as”noted and famed for a comon drunckard (sic) and notorious...
by Kurt Knecht | Sep 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’ve been so busy with MusicSpoke and the beginning of the semester that I haven’t had time to blog in a while. I did, however, finally receive a packet of much overdue evaluations of the students at Nebraska Wesleyan from the Fall semester today. I always...
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