Monthly Archives: March 2014

“Keyboard Teaches Hand” spoke of physical tension and relaxation. Now I want to point out something about two kinds of tension: physical and emotional. They’re separate, but it’s all too easy to confuse them. This tires us, and robs us of technique. When a piece is ebullient, triumphant, tragic, dramatic, joyous—or intense with any emotion—our […]

Not long ago, I had occasion to make

If you have trouble playing one-hand

We used to go early when George Lucktenberg was playing harpsichord. The playing was delightful; we went early to hear the tuning. Pianos should be tuned as close to concert time as possible; but harpsichords must be tuned just before the performance. It was the way Lucktenberg tuned that gave us the giggles.

I was bored listening to talks at the Las Vegas

At 16, I played the last two movements

Seymour Benzer was a great scientist, “whose biography,” said a colleague, “Caltech shines up

At age 8: In my teacher’s studio were grainy, gray-ish busts of composers, all with the same