Sidney Joseph Perelman is and likely will remain my favorite writer. Aside from the fact that he makes me laugh out loud his economy impresses me. I have a sort of mania about elegance, concision and brevity. Perelman was a brilliant miniaturist. I don’t judge art by quantity but by quality which is why some of the more long-winded Teutonic […]
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I am currently reading a great deal about Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955). Utrillo was a self taught painter born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris. His mother was the artist Suzanne Valadon. She studied with Degas and Renoir and is said that she was never quite sure who was the father of Maurice. She finally attributed the paternity to a lesser
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I am currently reading Lipatti by Dragos Tanasescu and Grigore Bargauanu. It is the only English biography based on the life of Romanian pianist and composer Dinu Lipatti and it has long been out of print. I managed to find a used library copy for sale at Amazon. Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) died at the tragically early age of 33 from
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These past three weeks on hiatus, I have also been reading Diaghilev (a life) by Sjeng Scheijen. Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) is the historically famous impresario of the Ballets Russes. He was flamboyant and openly gay at a time when this was not generally accepted even in Paris in the 1920’s. Under his commission, the greatest of 20th century composers wrote
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At week three of my hiatus in the sun I have come up with a short guitar piece that I think is quite nice. The working title is “Poor Hidalgo.” I have been thinking about the Don Quixote character a lot and it led to this tune which utilizes as a unifying them the Spanish dance pattern called “Quajira” which
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Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was an Argentinian composer and bandoneon player. He was the father of “Nuevo Tango” or new tango. To say I love his music is understatement. There is a great sense of drama in his many compositions. Though tango is basically “music of the street,” Piazzolla took tango to new heights and hardcore tango enthusiasts didn’t (and some
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