Category: Uncategorized
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Reserve some time for…
I had a chance to study with very good musicians. One of them was my orchestration teacher. He taught me to pay more attention to instrumentation and orchestration. Through him I again discovered the art of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (couple of year ago I visited his home – now a museum, – in Saint-Petersburg, sensed a…
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A new piece becoming ready!
Couple of days ago I came across one interesting article. The author was writing about 6 varieties of love that ancient Greek used to distinguish. It seemed to me so wonderful the idea, that few days later I sat down and decided to write a set of small pieces – each representing one kind of…
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Writing a melody
Writing a theme or a melody for a piece for me is an intellectual work, a lot of analysis. I think of a theme as of a person and search for a better way to describe its character. In music for that we have three basic tools: Melody. Harmony. Rhythm. Where the second one can be seen as a…
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Small composers-performers. 2nd concert
ET Eelmisel nädalal mu väiksed heliloojad-esinejad õpilased mängisid oma teise kontserdi. Jällegi soe vastuvõt publiku poolt. Vanemad väga õnnelikud! Mõtlen käivitada oma kontserdisarja. RU На прошлой неделе мои маленькие композиторы-исполнители сыграли свой второй концерт. Опять тепло принимается зрителями. Родители очень счастливы! Думаю о запуске нашей собственной серии концертов. EN Last week my little composers-performers students…
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Concert video of “The Miraculous Monk”
Some time ago I wrote a piece for two guitars, dedicated to the school where I teach. “I wanted to write a work that reflects the school’s history through the centuries to the present day and also add my experience of working there: the support of colleagues, сheerful students and general enjoyable atmosphere.” Here is…
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A Form
When I teach composition to my small and big students I always spend some extra time and repeat again how important it is to have a form: beginning, middle part and ending. How to arrange them, so that they work. It’s like a cake: when all the ingredients are mixed without a clear logic, without…
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An Instant Piece
I was always impressed how someone can come on stage and create an instant piece of music. “The Köln Concert” called is an album by pianist Keith Jarrett, when he was touring Europe playing improvised concerts. That’s a good example, I think. Also, now and then I hear “classical” guitarists doing something close to that…
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Being alone…
About a year ago one Spanish composer came to me after my concert and told: – “You know, Dmitri, we – composers, are alone in what we do!” Now I am starting to understand… Just the other day, felt some special new type loneliness. When I was only a performer, this feeling did not come.
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Developing your style as a composer
Most of the composers want to go further in developing their style and language (musical, harmonic). It is important to do it and be armed with a couple of facts. What I have noticed while analyzing pieces of other composers (comparing their pieces from early periods of life till latest) is that in most of…
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Let the music live
Already for a several weeks I struggle with one of the parts from one of my suites of chamber music. I like the method of first writing a story, “libretto”, and then composing music to it. Yet at times it doesn’t work. Let’s say a story has romantic calm ending, so I intend to write…