by Kurt Knecht | Jan 4, 2012 | gigging stories, jason mendelsohn, kurt knecht, Uncategorized
One of the unspoken rules of gigging is helping your fellow musicians when they receive unwanted advances from listeners. If someone comes up to the stage with a song request, there are ready made phrases to thwart them. Normally, you say something like, “The next...
by Kurt Knecht | Dec 30, 2011 | aesthetics, education, kurt knecht, St. Austine, Uncategorized
In De Musica, St. Augustine continues to refine his artistic theory in the tradition of Greek thought. Musical rhythm is related to the rhythm of the universe is related to the rhythm of the body is related to the rhythm of vegetables grown ad infinitum. The passages...
by Kurt Knecht | Dec 24, 2011 | go tell it on the mountain, kurt knecht, Uncategorized
So, the story of this piece is, I had this thing called the “little big band” at my church gig. I was writing charts for them. One Christmas, I wrote a chart for “Go Tell it on the Mountain”. After we played it, I thought it would work as a...
by Kurt Knecht | Dec 20, 2011 | aesthetics, kurt knecht, St. Augustine, Uncategorized
In De Ordine, St. Augustine seems to be under the full sway of Plotinus when it comes to the idea of artistic creation. He argues that you can get your soul “out of tune” by immoral actions.“For to the soul that diligently considers the nature and the power of...
by Kurt Knecht | Dec 19, 2011 | gigging stories, kurt knecht, organist, Uncategorized, wedding
I always wanted a great wedding story. Every organist has a wedding story, and for years, I did not have one. When we gathered for our secret organist meetings to complain about brides requesting “It’s a small world after all” for a processional and grooms requesting...
by Kurt Knecht | Dec 17, 2011 | gigging stories, kurt knecht, Uncategorized
In the late seventeenth century, there was a fantastic musician named Dietrich Buxtehude. He landed a sweet gig as music director in the city of Lübeck.. He could play the organ so well that people flocked from all over Germany to hear his concerts on Sunday...
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