by Kurt Knecht | Nov 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
As Jonah Sirota and I prepare for the first Mondegreen show on Sunday, I am reflecting again on what a great tool improvisation is for self-discovery. When you are improvising, you find out the real story on what your abilities are. The deficiencies in your aural...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
Whilst continuing my trek through some of the more obscure corners of the musical world, I found myself romping about this Summer with the incomparable Jonah Sirota and a digital tabla box that he ordered from India.Here is the amazing box. Inside of the box, there is...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 24, 2013 | Uncategorized
Earlier this year, Pete Eklund told me that he was planning to do a concert of different settings of Ps. 121 starting with the now Grammy nominated version by Jake Runestad. Pete asked for a setting in Hebrew that was pretty, accessible, and written for men’s...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
Each year, I do a little project with my budding young theorists to introduce them to music aesthetics and get them thinking about the important questions. We analyze a piece by Schubert or Brahms and then something by Gershwin or Cole Porter and then a popular song....
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Yesterday, I had the day off from teaching. I got to spend some time practicing, and I also treated myself to an organ lesson from Chris Marks. (Go to his website! Get him to come play a concert at your place. Buy his CDs.) I’ve been working on the BWV 544 for a...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
This week, the publisher that first published my work and with whom I have had a relationship for about 15 years sold their business to a different publishing firm. Walton Music was purchased by GIA. Everyone was speculating that Hal Leonard would have purchased...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Everyone has been passing around this article from the NYT lately. It’s a good article, but my friend David Von Kampen rightly asked earlier tonight:I get why people like this article, but I wish we would put more emphasis on music’s inherent value...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
This week, I had the chance to spend time with Jo-Michael Scheibe for the first time in a while. It is always good to watch Mike work. I am always impressed by how hard he works to listen to a choir. He cares deeply about text and whether or not it is being...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
In addition to having a painfully slow turn around speed during the publishing process, the traditional publishers are slow in other areas as well.Despite my best efforts, sometimes I make mistakes.I had a contract to publish a piece that I wrote in memory of my...
by Kurt Knecht | Oct 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
The old way of doing music publishing is outdated and slow.It is not rare for me to experience a period of two years between the time I finish a work and the time I actually see it in print. In an age where the internet provides so much instantaneous content, I find...
by Kurt Knecht | Sep 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
I received a commission to write a piece for piano and children’s chorus. So, I wrote a little lullaby on a William Blake text. I thought it was sweet, and that a publisher might be interested. So, I sent it off to one of my usual sources. No one was interested....
by Kurt Knecht | Sep 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
How a piece of music goes to die: a case study.One of the most preposterous aspects of publishing music is the issue surrounding copyright. When you get your first contract, it is very exciting. That contract arrives in the mail, and you tear it open. You read down...
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