"Life Without Music Would be a Mistake"
-- Friedrich Nietzche, in
Twilight of the Idols (1889).

"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
-- William Congreve, dramatist (1670-1729)



Here you will find some musings on the nature of piano technique and how to acquire it, a clear connection with martial arts; a list of original compositions, most not involving a piano; an essay on mathematical patterns in musical compostion, an essay on music as language, a brief bio and a complete list of the works of Anton von Webern, a brief bio and rather incomplete list of the compositions of Stefan Wolpe, a brief bio and a list of the compositions of Raoul Pleskow, and some links to music resources.

I'd like to thank Michael Somos and Anne Whitefield for proofing some of the longer html files here, Kyle Gann for attribution of the Nietzche quote above. All remaining errors are, of course, my fault. I'd also like to thank Alan Bellamente for aid in compiling the list of Webern's compositions, and much proof reading.




	How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
	Here will we sit, and let the sound of music
	Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night
	Become the touches of sweet harmony.

		-- Shakespeare
		   (Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo, Act 5, scene 1)




Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best -
and knowing why.



ON THIS SITE



  1. List of Original Musical Compositions
  2. Piano Methods and Technique - First Draft
  3. Essay On Problems of Postwebernian Composers
  4. Essay On Patterns in Musical Composition
    Groups of Transformations and Symmetries, with links to pages here on overtones, the circle of fifths, harmony and modes.
    A Belorussian translation at Webhostinggeeks is also available.
  5. Essay On Motivic Transformations & Lie Algebras
    Transformations of motivic and larger structures can be understood by the two dimensional Euclidean group and its algebra acting in "score space"; comments on possible extensions to encompass more than time and pitch parameters.
  6. Composition with Pitch Sets
  7. Dodecaphonic Evolution
  8. Essay On Music as Language
  9. Essay On Listening to Music
  10. A Brief History of Musical Concepts
  11. Musical Bibliography and References
  12. Complete Works and Home Pages of Raoul Pleskow (1931 - )
  13. Stefan Wolpe (1902 - 1972)
  14. Complete works of Anton v. Webern (1883 - 1945)



MUSIC LINKS



  1. Vox Novus - The New Voice in Contemporary Music [Link]
  2. The Odradek Institute [Link] A wonderfully general and extensive site on all things musical on the net. A must visit for anybody interested in music.
  3. International Society for Group Theory in Cognitive Science [Link]
  4. International Society for Mathematical Aesthetics [Link]
  5. Howard Rovics [Link]
  6. The Wolpe Trio (Essen, Germany) [Link]
    Lesley Olson - Flute
    Scott Roller - Violincello - Home Page [Link]
    Susanne Achilles - Piano
  7. Scott Roller's Network and Link Pages [Link]
  8. Richard Wagner Archive [Link]
  9. The Requiem Web [Link]
  10. Leonard Salters' Music Pages [Link]
  11. Musicians and Non-Linearity of Thought [Link]
    An Essay by Bob Frazier
  12. http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Artists/By_Genre/
    Classical/Composers/20th_Century_and_Contemporary/
  13. More Music Links





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The URL for this document is:
http://graham.main.nc.us/~bhammel/music.html
Created: September 1997
Last Updated: July 9, 2002
Last Updated: July 9, 2002
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