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# Timothy Summers

musical explorations in performance and computation

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](http://www.timsummers.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1952)
- [naïve backpropagation, laziness and chord roots](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1861) - The rolling-down-a-hill of backpropagation with gradient descent has proven enormously powerful. The process of identifying chords in a ternary harmony system is curiously similar, though the loss function is far more naïve and transparent. Instead of using derivatives, the algorithm simply derives the smallest earth-moving distance, at bit level. It's rather prosaic. But what this admin Timothy Summers July 11, 2026
- [scale- and chord-building](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1789) - One advantage of this ternary system is that a lot of the crazy folds and skips of scales and arpeggios – even in quite advanced tonalities – turn out to be pretty simply algorithmic. Here, for example, is what you get when you take every second bit in the F-to-B group of bits, starting on scale- and chord-building
- [ternary harmonic system in color](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1743) - Up to now, I've been showing these bit-groups in black and white, like a piano. But doesn't do justice to the differences within the 12-bit bandwidth. An octave makes a sort of spectrum. To begin, here is the circle fifths, visible and audible. This serves as a kind of identity matrix, serving specifically to mark Up to now, I've been showing these bit-groups in black and white, like a piano. But doesn't do justice to the differences within the 12-bit bandwidth. An octave makes a sort of spectrum. To begin, here is the circle fifths, visible and audible. This serves as a kind of identity matrix, serving specifically to mark
- [shepard tones](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1714) - Just as an experiment, here are a few chord progressions given as shepard tones. I was curious to see/hear how they would affect the perception of voice leading. (The intonation is just: powers of 3, sequential.) C Major: ii-V-I C minor ii-V-i: A harmonic minor ii-V-i: It begins to introduce questions of voice leading and
- [chord progressions](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1710) - A few simple patterns within the ternary harmony system can yield a surprising wealth of familiar diatonic chord progressions with close to zero computational effort. To keep things simple, I'm going to do just one sequence, reachable with only a bit shift operation. All the major/minor folds of thirds fall naturally into the right place.
- [musical harmony as ternary computing](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1667) - This is a theory, but it works in practise, and yields surprisingly specific and rich musical results.We know that binary numbers represent the presence or absence of powers of two: 1910 = 100112 = [[(1)×24]+[(0)×23]+[(0)×22]+[(1)× 21]+[(1)×20] = 16 + 2 + 1 We might also use binary numbers to represent the presence or absence of
- [sine wave blues](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1650) - I would post this as 'blues' only because I know it's not blues and never should be categorised as such. It's just some sort of tightened symbolic rendering, some mathemagical/numerological shadow. But here in our digital igloos, before our computers, respecting our 'social distance', we play with dots and waves, alone. Perhaps, at least, there
- [Jill Lepore's 'if then'](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1591) - The story of data analysis and prediction in Jill Lepore's extraordinary new book IF THEN: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future commanded my attention. It will serve as a concrete reminder that when we analyze data, we cannot forget that we engage not only with the intended subject ('human behavior', in the case of
- [playing along](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1581) - How playing over chord sequences creates a context for improvisation, with examples. Derived from the harmonypartition algorithm.
- [tonality => memory](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1548) - The question that keeps appearing before me is about what changing keys does to your memory. I'd like to build a framework to seek a more particular answer. long-term and medium-term tonal memory: ii vs. V/V To begin down this path, I'm going to start with the vi-ii-V-I sequence I've been going on about in The question that keeps appearing before me is about what changing keys does to your memory. I'd like to build a framework to seek a more particular answer. long-term and medium-term tonal memory: ii vs. V/V To begin down this path, I'm going to start with the vi-ii-V-I sequence I've been going on about in
- [midi => harmony](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1472) - harmonypartition works simply and cleanly with MIDI files. Using the music21 package, harmonypartition is able to analyze a MIDI file in exactly the same way it analyzes an audio file. Results from MIDI are cleaner than those from audio – though not necessarily better, since resonance and continuity play such a key role in analysis,harmonypartition works simply and cleanly with MIDI files. Using the music21 package, harmonypartition is able to analyze a MIDI file in exactly the same way it analyzes an audio file. Results from MIDI are cleaner than those from audio – though not necessarily better, since resonance and continuity play such a key role in analysis,
- [harmony=>audio](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1469) - I've built the harmonypartition system to generate harmonic sequences with just a few small numbers. Here is a simple one, built from simple piles of sine waves. Later they can of course expand to MIDI and DAW systems. harmony as a sequence So to begin: the following sequence: base_seq = [4,3,2,1] ...can generate this chord I've built the harmonypartition system to generate harmonic sequences with just a few small numbers. Here is a simple one, built from simple piles of sine waves. Later they can of course expand to MIDI and DAW systems. harmony as a sequence So to begin: the following sequence: base_seq = [4,3,2,1] ...can generate this chord
- [a new direction](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1449) - The power of electronic music – even the most dedicated analogue instrumentalist must admit – is beyond question. Though they do not cover the same musical ground as a finger on a string or breath in a column of air, the filters, echoes, synthesizers, and effects applied to waveforms in electronic music have enormous effect.
- [audio => harmony](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1474) - harmonypartition can harmonically analyze audio files by dynamically seeking and organizing tonal continuities. In a great many musical cases, these continuities take the form of familiar keys and chords. example: vi-ii-V-I Here, for example, is a vi-ii-V-I progression in C major, generated from fourier analysis of a .wav file: Here is the same progression, analyzed
- [Feet on the Ground](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1426) - As you start to play, aim for solidity in left and right hand. Your left hand should feel full, fat contact with the string; the hairs of the bow should sit thickly and exactly on the string it should meet.
- [Practising with a Mirror](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1409) - Practising with a mirror is extremely useful - for both hands. However, one must not become too self-obsessed. When practising with a mirror, try to position yourself so you do not see your own face. You will gain much in the way of objectivity
- [The mysterious energy of Pac Man](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1374) - As you play, your left and right hand are brought together not only by the bow and the string. Your arms, the bow, and the string make a complete circuit with a Pac-Man shape.
- [Tuning the violin like a drum](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1348) - Every time you use your left hand to choose a pitch, you must be confident in its tuning. It is as though you are playing the timpani: once you tune it, you can concentrate much more clearly on how it is struck, and how it makes sound.
- [Your Fingers are Sightless Animals](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1401) - The fingers of your left hand cannot see. You must give them eyes with your ears. Play any passage, concentrating on how your fingers depend on your ears for guidance.
- [Drawing the string as a bow](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1297) - Play a slow scale, watching the small part of the string between the bridge and the bow hair. Each time you draw the bow, you will see the string push to the left (for up bow) or the right (for down bow).
- [What you don't see when you play a stringed instrument, even if you look](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1294) - It may be that you have never seen a string move. It doesn't do what you think. This video will begin to change the way you think about sound production. Many thanks to whoever made it. And here is another nice explanation.
- [Skating](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1247) - The first impulse from the bow starts its motion. The continuation of that motion reinforces that motion. Like skating: the first impulse provides energy; the remaining motion takes that energy as far as it will go.
- [1. String Lengths](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1119) - Before you play each pitch, hear it strongly. Think of string length rather than finger placement as the source of intonation. Watch the string move as you play.
- [2. Energy Transfer](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1124) - Play a scale slowly. Watch the energy of the bow create a parallel (sideways) vibration in the string. Keep bow pressure fairly light. A taut string contains energy: release it.
- [3. Energy to Pitch](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1131) - Play a scale slowly, combining two exercieses: Think clearly of each pitch before playing. After the string length is set, pour energy smoothly into it with the bow.
- [5. Velocity and Dynamic](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1135) - Play a scale or arpeggio. As you play, change bow speeds from very slow to very fast. Create large changes in the size (amplitude) of the visible vibration of the string and listen for the changes in dynamic.
- [4. Hand and Wave](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1133) - Play a scale or arpeggio. Imagine your left hand is a breaking wave. Allow energy to flow up the arm and out from the fingers. Roll forward to upcoming sounds.
- [6. Energy Circuit](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1137) - Play a scale or arpeggio. Use the energy of motion in the string to connect the left and right hands. Between your hands you hold the energy that becomes the sound.
- [7. Lightness](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1139) - Play a scale or arpeggio, placing your fingers on the strings as lightly as possible. Use again the image of the breaking wave: think of the curl at its forward edge. Imagine that your left hand must simply point to the string rather than press it.
- [9. Radiance and Resonance](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1143) - The energy of the string has an outlet at the bridge. Watch the bridge drink the string motion (audio in). Feel the instrument's resonance as you play (audio out). The invisible motion of the bridge becomes the sound of the instrument.
- [8. Brightness](http://www.timsummers.org/?p=1141) - Experiment with the distance of the bow from the bridge. Create softness and distance over the fingerboard; create brightness and proximity near the bridge. Make the greatest possible differences in timbre and dynamics. Find the borders of string and instrument.

## Pages

- [about](http://www.timsummers.org/) - Violinist Timothy Summers is a member of the first violin section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra since 2009, and has performed on violin, viola, and occasionally mandolin with the orchestra at venues across the world.
- [program notes](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=21) - These notes come from concerts in which I've performed, mainly at the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. Comments are welcome. Credited stealing is okay... contact me if you'd like to use them.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 111, String Quintet in G Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=121) - It isn't clear exactly why JOHANNES BRAHMS set out to write a second string quintet in 1890, other than it was his job to be a composer. It seems possible that in writing the quintet, Op. 111, Brahms was depressedly reworking material meant for symphonies
- [Partito Harmony Engine](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=771) - Partito is an engine/algorithm for a bit-level quantization of harmonic combinations which defines polyphony as a kind of ternary computing.. It is an intuitively navigable and computationally efficient representation of 12-note harmony.
- [Violin Fundamentals](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1396) - A collection of short, meditative exercises for violinists and other players of bowed string instruments.
- [Kernis, Aaron Jay: "The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine"](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=52) - Aaron Jay Kernis' The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine has a strong element of hilarity in it. Its depiction of a wacko culinary future, as laid out in excerpts from the work of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, is as enthusiastic as it is archaic, full of bright and imaginative insanity.
- [Hindemith, Paul: Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11 no. 4](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=51) - At just about the time when he wrote his Viola Sonata, Op. 11 no. 4, PAUL HINDEMITH became a violist. He had initially trained to be a violinist at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatory, and added composition to his studies in 1912.
- [Haydn, Joseph: String Quartet in G minor, op. 20, no. 3](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=50) - The importance of JOSEPH HAYDN in the history of the string quartet can hardly be overstated. There were certainly pieces written for two violins, viola, and cello before his, but it was he who made the string quartet the core of the chamber music repertoire.
- [Hartke, Stephen: The King of the Sun](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=49) - For the purpose of this festival's programming, it is worth noting a passing resemblance between Hartke's The King of the Sun and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (concert of September 19) ' a series of resemblances, in fact, which also are 'both whimsical and serious.'
- [Harbison, John: "November 19, 1828" for Piano and String Trio](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=48) - One of the hallmarks of JOHN HARBISON's compositions is an intense, even obsessive, historical consciousness. Whether a piece of his is historically programmatic (like 'November 19, 1828) or not (like 'Twilight Music'), its sources and methods will almost always reflect, and respect, the influence of past compositions
- [Harbison, John: Piano Quintet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=47) - JOHN HARBISON wrote his Piano Quintet in 1981, for Georgia O'Keefe and the Santa Fe Music Festival. It is written in five movements, which can be fairly reliably grouped into heavier outer two and lighter middle three. The first movement, 'Overture', is taut and promising.
- [Finzi, Gerald: Five Bagatelles for Clarinet and Piano](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=46) - Gerald Finzi is known mostly as a composer of un-Modern English songs, and for the absolute care with which he set their texts. He wrote nine song cycles, including six to works of Thomas Hardy and one to works of Shakespeare ("Let us garlands bring").
- [Faure, Gabriel: Piano Quartet in G minor, op. 45](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=45) - GABRIEL FAURE wrote two piano quartets, the first of which (in C Minor, op. 15) is a great favorite in chamber music circles, loved for its warm eloquence. The G Minor piano quartet, op. 45, is less often performed -- less beautiful, even -- but perhaps even more powerful in its effect.
- [Dvorak, Antonin: Op. 87, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=43) - No matter whether a listener favors the technical, architectural influence of Brahms or the strong flavor of folk music and ethnographic exploration in the music of Antonin Dvoràk, he can always find in the music a great deal simply to enjoy.
- [Dohnanyi, Erno: Sextet for Piano and Winds](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=42) - The life, career, music, and legacy of composer, conductor, teacher and pianist ernst von dohnanyi span the 20th century in a remarkably comprehensive way. (By way of introduction, one might recognize his grandson Christoph von Dohnanyi
- [Reich, Steve: Violin Phase](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=64) - In electroacoustic terms, Steve Reich's 'Violin Phase' is a pretty old piece, dating all the way back to 1967. Nonetheless, or perhaps even because of that, it brings some of the basic issues of electroacoustic music and electronic memory into plain view.
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 493, Piano Quartet in Eb Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=58) - In 1785, the publisher and composer Franz Hoffmeister commissioned Mozart to write three piano quartets. This was a fairly unusual request. Most commissions for this sort of hausmusik asked for piano trios, but – after a bit of trouble – the experiment turned out worthwhile.
- [Ravel, Maurice: Violin Sonata](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=63) - There is a kind of perfection in the works of Maurice Ravel, a thorough and fastidious compositional virtuosity. Igor Stravinsky to call him the ‘most perfect of Swiss clockmakers’ — he was onto something. With Ravel’s perfection comes an unusually strong sense of artificiality,
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 621, Overture to "La Clemenza di Tito" (arr. String Quartet)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=61) - WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART's La Clemenza di Tito, written in 1791, was extremely popular for thirty years or so after it was commissioned for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II. Although it was initially somewhat overshadowed by the coronation itself (Maria Luisa wrote to her daughter-in-law Maria Theresa de Bourbon, 'almost all of us went to sleep')
- [Ravel, Maurice: Tzigane](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=62) - In Maurice Ravel's carefully balanced scores, virtuosity - however necessary to execution - rarely reaches escape velocity. Tzigane, however, is an exceptional case.
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 481, Sonata for Piano and Violin in Eb Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=60) - It seems that by the time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was writing the Sonata for piano and violin in Eb (K. 481), which was just about the time he wrote The Marriage of Figaro, facile or pre-cut characterizations and constructions were no longer compositional options for him.
- [Schubert, Franz: D898, Piano Trio in B-flat Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=69) - In the last year of his life, Franz Schubert wrote two full-length piano trios, one in B-flat Major, one in E-flat Major, and each one finer than the other. The B-flat trio, like many of Schubert's later works, has an enormous sort of efficiency in its composition
- [Schubert, Franz: D934, Fantasie for Violin and Piano](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=68) - Franz schubert's C major Fantasie for violin and piano has a simple musical premise, but, emotionally and technically speaking, an extremely complex realization. The piece is roughly in four movements, and approximates the basic topograp
- [Schubert, Franz: D803, Octet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=70) - Despite his present fame and unquestioned importance in classical music history, FRANZ SCHUBERT is a strangely enigmatic figure. He is perhaps most famous for his lieder, but, especially toward the end of his life, he was an equally accomplished innovator in large-scale structures.
- [Schoenberg, Arnold: String Quartet No. 2 in F# minor, op. 10](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=66) - So much has been written and said about the 'atonality' of ARNOLD SCHOENBERG that it is tempting to avoid addressing the issue altogether. Musicologically, it's an awful can of worms.
- [Schubert, Franz: D956, String Quintet in C Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=67) - The sense of vastness and wholeness around FRANZ SCHUBERT's Cello Quintet D. 956 cannot be simply explained, but the source of its unifying resemblances shows up very clearly in its first sounds. The opening chords present not only a germinal major/minor ambiguity
- [Roussel, Albert: Trio for flute, viola, and cello](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=65) - ALBERT ROUSSEL began his compositional career while at sea, serving in the Navy. As the story goes, the 25-year-old Roussel played one of his compositions for a group of officers on the ship's piano, and, on the advice of a fellow sailor whose brother was an opera singer
- [Ysaye, Eugene: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 2 - 'Obsession'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=79) - EUGENE YSAYE was an extraordinarily influential violinist. He was not only the most famous virtuoso of his day (which ran roughly from the mid 1890's until the First World War), but also a conductor, composer, and indefatigable champion of new French music.
- [Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich: Andante Cantabile for Cello and Strings, op. 11](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=78) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Quartet, Op. 11 was one of the composer's first major successes. He wrote it for a special concert of his music organized by Anton Rubenstein, and it was wonderfully received.
- [Shostakovich, Dmitri: String Quartet No. 7](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=77) - Writing string quartets must have become somewhat easier for Dmitri Shostakovich when, on May 28, 1958, the anti-formalism decree (!) of 1948 was rescinded.
- [Shostakovich, Dmitri: Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=76) - In the United States, the music of Dmitri Shostakovich has most often been associated with political protest, and treated as a coded and dissonant (read: dissident) reaction to Josef Stalin, Nazism, and/or Soviet/totalitarian injustice.
- [Shatin, Judith: Penelope's Song](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=75) - There are several poetical strands in Judith Shatin's "Penelope's Song" that make it a worthy introduction to navigating the relationship between the electric and acoustic in performance. First, and most broadly, the idea of weaving
- [Schubert, Franz: D583, String Trio in Bb Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=71) - The string trio, treated formally, is an unforgiving form for both composers and performers. Because the chords of Western classical harmony have no fewer than three notes, the role of every note in each instrument becomes quite crucial and individual,
- [Schumann, Clara: Three Romances for Violin, Op. 22](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=74) - Even before a note is played, there is a poignancy about the music of Clara Schumann. Women in the nineteenth century would only very rarely compose, and it was Clara's husband Robert who did most of the composing in the Schumann household. "Women," she wrote, "are not born to compose."
- [Schumann, Robert: Op. 41, no. 3, String Quartet in A Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=72) - One of the many curiosities of ROBERT SCHUMANN's composing career is that he spent the early 1840's in a fairly systematic sweep of the major genres of German classical music.
- [Schumann, Robert: Märchenerzählungen](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=73) - The year 1853 held ominous vicissitudes and important events for ROBERT SCHUMANN. One of the more propitious events was his first meeting, through the violinist Joseph Joachim, with Johannes Brahms. Schumann's instant recognition of the younger composer's abilities
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op.  1, no. 3, Piano Trio](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=358) - The Piano Trio Opus 1, No. 3, is Beethoven’s first major work in C minor. His fifth symphony is in C minor, as are the third piano concerto, the seventh violin sonata, the ‘Coriolan’ overture, the ‘funeral march’ of the Eroica symphony and his last piano sonata, Op. 111
- [Improvisations (with percussionist David Cossin)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=120) - At bottom, the theory is this: if one goes to a concert and someone on stage doesn't start messing around with the available materials for purposes of making noise, there won't be much of a concert.
- [Penderecki, Kryzsztof: String Trio](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=106) - Polish Composer Kryzsztof Penderecki initially became known for his 1959 work Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (a work initially, and less evocatively called
- [Strauss, Richard (arr. Hasenöhrl): Till Eulenspiegel (einmal anders)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=105) - Till Eulenspiegel is said to have been born around 1300 in Kneitlingen, Germany. Whether he was actually born or not is unclear, but he has in any case survived in myth as one of medieval Europe's most accomplished humorists.
- [Vivaldi, Antonio: Violin Concerto in F Major, RV 570, 'La Tempesta di Mare'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=104) - The music of Antonio Vivaldi has become so commonplace - accompanying quiet times everywhere from the lift to the loo to the Weather Channel - that one might look over one's shoulder for creeping Pavlovian responses.
- [Paganini, Niccolo: (on) Duos for Violin and Guitar](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=103) - By any recent standards for the presentation and reception of violin playing, it is simply impossible to measure the sensation of Niccolò Paganini. The royalty of Europe showered him with praise, titles, and gilded snuff-boxes;
- [Boccherini, Luigi: Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D Major 'Fandango'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=102) - Perhaps unfairly, the works of Luigi Boccherini play the role of the virtuoso, since their author stands among the greatest virtuosi in Western music. They are brilliant, practical, exploratory, inescapably peripheral, and too often gone like breath into the wind.
- [Schubert, Franz: D929, Piano Trio No. 2 in Eb Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=101) - The 'heavenly length' which Schumann ascribed to Franz Schubert (speaking of the 9th Symphony in C Major) can take many forms - it isn't just a matter of time.
- [Kurtàg, György: (from) Games, Signs, and Messages](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=100) - Hungarian composer György Kurtàg was a pianist and professsor of chamber music at the Budapest Academy. In his works one continually confronts the fragmentary nature of memory, the possibility and limits of expression, and the reality of disappearance.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1080, Three Canons from the Art of Fugue](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=99) - According to Monty Python: King Arthur and his Knights, having grenaded a vicious rabbit with pointy teeth, enter the cave of Caerbannog to find the location of the Holy Grail carved on the wall:
- [Franck, César: Piano Quintet in F minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=98) - The lives of Camille Saint-Saens and César Franck were similar in some ways, and the two composers crossed paths many times in Paris, but both their lives and music, beyond a few surface similarities, bear little resemblance to one another.
- [Glass, Philip: String Quartet No. 5](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=97) - Philip Glass' training was exactly what one would expect of an American composer born in 1937. He studied at the Peabody conservatory in his native Baltimore, and at Juilliard. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in mathematics and philosophy when he was nineteen.
- [Saint-Saëns, Camille: Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=96) - Camille Saint-Saëns was an extraordinary person. One of the great child prodigies of his time, he first performed in public at the age of five, playing the piano part in a Beethoven piano and violin sonata; by age 12, he is said to have memorized all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas.
- [Riis, Morten: Max Patch/Improvisation](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=80) - Its many creative uses notwithstanding, the primary function of a computer is to remember; from this arises its ability to repeat itself, and, more importantly, to repeat actions (hence the importance of the Jacquard loom).
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 515, String Quintet in C Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=94) - For someone as rhythmically experimental as Olivier Messiaen, the canonically classical Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart might seem an odd model for patterns of phrasing. But Messiaen was a great admirer and careful student of Mozart's works,
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 26, Piano Quartet in A Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=351) - Rather than talk about biography, which could be rather dry, or sketching out an analysis, which might be rather drier (to read, anyway), it might be interesting to speak about a few details in the A Major Piano Quartet that can open onto broader thoughts about the music of Johannes Brahms.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 29, String Quintet in C Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=95) - One would suppose that when Ludwig van Beethoven met Goethe, as he did in 1811, there must have been quite something to talk about. That may have been the case, but, on the record at least, the meeting seems to have been a remarkably earthbound occasion:
- [Rzewski, Frederic: Whangdoodles](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=354) - Frederic Rzewski (pronounced zheff-skee) was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. As a student, he worked with many of the major American modernists at Harvard and Princeton – Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, Milton Babbitt, for example – and Rzewski went on to perform as a pianist specializing in modern music.
- [Harrison, Lou: Ductia](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=356) - The music of Lou Harrison is music of melody. There are lots of things to be said about his experimental techniques and research, especially in his use of found or casual objects as instruments, and his use of non-Western and mathematical sources for tonal and rhythmic content.
- [Dvorak, Antonin: Op. 77, String Quintet in G Major (Bass Quintet)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=366) - When people say that music should be ‘accessible’, they usually mean it should be something like Dvorak. Or maybe Mozart, or Beethoven, or Brahms, or something that gets a lot of play... but Dvorak, especially, seems to suggest warmth and tunefulness and folk reference and a comforting lack of troubling subtext.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1001, Sonata in G minor for violin solo](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=373) - The Six Sonatas and Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach, casually known in English as ‘unaccompanied Bach’, don’t need so much in the way of introduction. Since they were taken up by violinist Joseph Joachim in the middle of the 19th century, they’ve been at the core of classical violin studies.
- [Schoenberg, Arnold: 'Pierrot Lunaire', Op. 21](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=385) - Just to create an impression of the type and feel of events in 1912, here is a bit of a sample, casually chosen: the Titanic sinks in the Atlantic the Republic of China is founded at the end of the Qing Dynasty the theory of continental drift is first proposed the Mayor of Tokyo donates 3,000 cherry trees to the city of Washington Fenway Park opens Carl Jung publishes Psychology of the Unconscious Arizona becomes the 48th state, closing the Western frontier the smallest earth-to-moon distance of the 20th century occurs on January 4
- [Busoni, Ferruccio: Albumblatt for Flute and Piano](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=383) - Ferrucio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni was born in Tuscany in 1866. He was a child prodigy at the piano, and began to compose before he was a teenager. Though his name could hardly be more Italian, his career took him far away, and mainly to the North.
- [Bruch, Max: Octet, Op. Posth.](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=397) - In strictly numeric terms, Max Bruch can be regarded as a late-romantic composer. He was born around the time of Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, and he outlived both Mahler and Debussy.
- [Satie, Erik: Gymnopedies (arr. Hans Abrahamsen for Oboe and String Quartet)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=405) - In much the same spirit with which Oscar Wilde wrote that smoking is 'an occupation of some kind', Erik Satie described as own occupation as 'gymnopedist'. 
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 110, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=378) - The power and greatness of Beethoven’s compostions changed much as as he (in his mid-forties) grew toward a ‘late’ period. By 1815, there was little to be found of the public rallying in the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, and little of the spaciousness of the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony;
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 11, Serenade No. 1 (arr. Alan Boustead for Nonet)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=395) - Something called a divertimento, whatever it may be, ought not to be a heavy thing. And Johannes Brahms, whatever his virtues, did write a good deal of music which can become heavy – sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes not. 
- [Mendelssohn, Felix: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=399) - It is difficult to pin down exactly what makes Mendelssohn so wonderful to play. He has an uncanny sense not only of harmony and compositional construction, but also of what makes the instruments themselves sound rich, full, and oddly unleashed by gravity. 
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 423, Duo in G Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=401) - The generous spirit of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Duo in G Major for Violin and Viola begins with its inception. Michael Haydn (brother of the esteemed Joseph Haydn) had been commissioned to write a set of six duos for an archbishop, but fell ill
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 580a, Adagio for Cor Anglais and String Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=413) - That Mozart left a nearly-completed Adagio for unspecified instruments has left a happy opening for Mozart scholars and arrangers and a still-happier opening for players of the Cor Anglais. 
- [Copland, Aaron: Movement for String Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=411) - No composer has been more important in defining what has become the American classical music sound than Aaron Copland. The open energy and harmonic clarity which he brought to his symphonic works has been atmospherically emulated for decades, and Copland's music continues to conjure up an idea of Americanism.
- [Carter, Elliot: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=409) - Elliott Carter is one of the foremost modern American composers. He was born in 1908 and continues, at more than a hundred years old, to write music of technically daunting, yet lyric and ebullient music.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 202, 'Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten' (Wedding Cantata)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=407) - Were it not for the efforts of a student named Rinck who copied out Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten in 1730, it probably would have been lost, like countless other Bach works, to the wrapping of fish (or some other, similar, use of the valuable paper). 
- [Korngold, Erich Wolfgang: "Mariettas Lied" from Die Tote Stadt (arr. Nicholas Charron)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=430) - For a bird’s eye view of the culture and calamities of the early 20th century, you could take a look at the life and works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. In his early youth he was a musical prodigy, well known as a performer and composer.
- [Kurtag, Gyorgy: 'Hommage a Robert Schumann'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=53) - The Hungarian musical tradition is enormously rich up to the middle of the twentieth century, but in the chill of the Soviet occupation, after Bartok and Dohnànyi had left - and especially after Kodàly had died - there was much silence outside of Socialist realism.
- [Mendelssohn, Felix: String Quartet in E minor, op. 44, no. 2](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=54) - Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet op. 44, no. 2, in E minor is one of a surprisingly large number of excellent pieces he wrote while on his honeymoon. He also wrote a choral setting of Psalm 42 (op. 42), the D minor Piano Concerto, and the Song Without Words, op 38/6.
- [Mendelssohn, Felix: Octet for Strings in E flat, Op. 20](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=55) - Like most composers lucky enough to be known, Richard Wagner got his share of bad notices. One reviewer wrote that Lohengrin was the "music of a demented eunuch"; Wagner also earned Mark Twain's famous (and pithy) remark that he was a composer who "wrote music which is better than it sounds."
- [Messiaen, Olivier: 'Quatuor pour le fin du temps'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=56) - OLIVIER MESSIAEN'S 'Quartet for the End of Time' is most famous for having been written in the German prison camp Stalag VIIIa, where it had its first performance in 1940. Having found a clarinetist, a cellist, and a violinist at the camp, Messiaen began to write a piece for the available forces
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 593, String Quintet in D Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=57) - There were precedents for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's string quintets, especially in the works of Luigi Boccherini, who wrote hundreds of quintets for two violins, viola, and two cellos. Furthermore, writing string quintets was not such a far cry from writing string quartets
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 516, String Quintet in G minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=59) - WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART''s 'Grand Tours' as a young prodigy were no doubt full of truly astonishing musical feats, but they also had an element of carnival about them.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 114, Trio in A minor for Piano, Clarinet and Cello](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=40) - Now that Johannes Brahms is one of the central figures of the history of Western art music, it can be a bit hard to imagine how his initial reception may have been ambiguous. But if ever anyone was a musical formalist, Johannes Brahms was one, and many have taken him to task for it
- [Britten, Benjamin: Suite No. 3 for Solo Cello](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=41) - The third cello suite of Benjamin Britten - like the Sonata in C for cello and piano, the 'Cello Symphony', and the first two cello suites - was written for Britten's friend Mstislav Rostropovich.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 135, String Quartet in F Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=36) - It is very hard to avoid dividing the career of LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN into 'early', 'middle', and 'late' periods, especially in describing the string quartets, which came in biographically convenient bunches.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 88, String Quintet in F Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=37) - By most accounts, JOHANNES BRAHMS was a very serious person: inward, imposing, solitary, and somewhat brusque. A snapshot of him with Johann Strauss, Jr., taken in 1894, seems to bear out this assertion (at least insofar as a photograph may be taken to reflect a character).
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 36, Sextet in G Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=38) - It is no secret to musicologists by now that JOHANNES BRAHMS coded a valediction in the first movement to Agathe Siebold, whom he ought to have married, but, clumsily - and painfully for both of them - did not. Clearly, he did not take the end of the affair lightly: the G major Sextet was only begun five years later (in 1864).
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 38, Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=39) - The music of JOHANNES BRAHMS can be quite resolutely systematic. It certainly has a conservative element, and an effusive 1853 article from Robert Schumann (who was at the edge of a complete break with reality) in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik seems to have reinforced Brahms' conservative leanings, as he wrote in a letter of somewhat shocked thanks:
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 70, no. 2, Piano Trio](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=33) - Some pieces are just hard to describe; Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio in Eb, Op. 70 no. 2. is one of them. It is not that the trio is difficult to hear or understand, only that its most beautiful qualities remain resolutely intrinsic.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 988, Goldberg Variations (arr. Sitkovetsky)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=26) - Since Glenn Gould's unbelievable 1955 recording of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH's Goldberg Variations, they haven't needed much in the way of introduction; they are now as familiar as any work in the whole of the classical repertoire.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1019, Sonata for Keyboard and Violin](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=22) - The life of Johann Sebastian Bach, at first glance, is not so mysterious. We can be quite certain of the basic facts. Bach's biography was first traced in his children's lifetime, and the fame of his sons Carl Philip Emmanuel (C.P.E.) and Johann Christian (J.C.) Bach, who knew very well what sort of a composer their father was, ensured that generations of musicians following their own would study the elder Bach's music.
- [Bargiel, Woldemar: Octet in C minor, Op. 15a](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=27) - It is hard to introduce the composer Woldemar Bargiel (1828-1897) without at least some consideration of the weird mechanics of history -- how history collects itself around certain figures and lets others be. On the one hand, reality was fairly kind to Bargiel: he enjoyed a comfortable career as a teacher and composer, his music was often played, and he was consistently in the orbit of those musicians whom we may now recognize as "Who's Who" in 19th-century German music.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1009, Suite for Solo Cello](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=23) - There were precedents for Johann Sebastian Bach's works for solo violin, especially in the works of Biber and Schmelzer, and there also had been solo works for lower instruments, especially the viola da gamba, for Bach to draw upon as models for his cello suites.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1004, Ciaccona](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=24) - The music of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH has often been likened to computational logic and algorithmic thinking (most famously, perhaps, in "Gödel, Escher, Bach," by Douglas Hofstadter, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980).
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1048, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=25) - Johann Sebastian Bach's third Brandenburg Concerto plays a rich game of uniformity and multiplicity, expanding exponentially upon the tradition of the concerto grosso.
- [Bartok, Bela: Sz. 111 'Contrasts'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=30) - In the summer of 1938, lunching on the Riviera with Benny Goodman at the Pagani Restaurant, the violinist Josef Szigeti had what he called a “brainwave”: he suggested that Goodman commission a piece from his friend BELA BARTOK for the three of them to play. Benny agreed.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 23, Sonata for Piano and Violin in A minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=31) - It wasn't an innovation for Ludwig van Beethoven to have built pieces by repeating small bits of music in harmonically and rhythmically varied sequences; to do so was more or less idiomatic to Beethoven's time and place, and especially characteristic of the music of Joseph Haydn (who was one of Beethoven's teachers).
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op.  17, Horn Sonata](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=32) - Ludwig van beethoven''s Horn Sonata, op. 17 was composed for a concert on the 18th of April, 1800, by the most famous horn virtuoso of the day, Giovanni Punto. Beethoven accompanied him at the piano, and the show was, by all accounts, a great success.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 74, String Quartet in Eb Major ('Harp')](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=34) - Amidst the spacious 'Razumovsky' String Quartets (Op. 59, nos. 1-3), the isolated roar of the 'Serioso' String Quartet (Op. 95), and the rarefied and sublime late String Quartets (Op. 127+), it is quite possible to overlook the 'Harp' String Quartet (op. 74) in the grand list of Beethoven quartets.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 20, Septet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=35) - In terms of its tunes and structure, it may be hard to see a Beethoven-hero in Ludwig van Beethoven's Septet, op. 20. It fits squarely in the tradition of the divertimento, a (generally) six-movement form without much in the way of metaphysical or political intentions, and with an implication that it could be light enough to play outside.
- [Rossini, Gioacchino: Sonata a Quattro No. 3 in C Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=433) - Rossini as a composer of opera was simply great. He was enormously successful, and rightly aware of his worth: “…of my works, the second act of Guglielmo Tell, the third act of Otello, and all of il Barbiere di Seviglia will certainly endure.”
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 452, Quintet for Piano and Winds,](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=440) - Since his death in 1791, Mozart has had a lot of afterlives. He is still the mascot of Austria, still ruling in Salzburg and battling for control of Vienna. He is the prodigy against whom all prodigies are measured. He is the key to infant brain development. He fights crime outside of 7-Eleven.
- [Schubert, Franz: D526, Violin Sonata in A Major ('Duo')](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=443) - By 1817, when he was 20 years old, Franz Schubert had written hundreds of works. Although his official opus numbers were still in the single digits, the number of works he had already written was incredible. Many of these works were published later. Schubert was as good as he was prolific.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 55, Symphony No. 3 ('Eroica') - arr. Ferdinand Ries](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=448) - With the Eroica Symphony, there inevitably comes the matter of Napoleon. According to Ferdinand Ries, student of Beethoven and arranger of today’s version of Eroica: Beethoven, enraged upon hearing of Napoleon’s taking the title of ‘Emporor’, scratches out his dedication to Buonaparte from the title page of the manuscript of his third symphony, and calls the great Frenchman a ‘rascal’.
- [Vivaldi, Antonio: 'La Pastorella' & 'Cessate, omai Cessate'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=453) - There is a kind of bland ubiquity about the idea of Vivaldi now. It is easy to forget, or never to have known, that his music was largely forgotten until the early 20th century. Somewhere between the powerful lyricism of Fritz Kreisler (who wrote his own ‘Concerto in the style of Vivaldi’), and the high modern historicism of Ezra Pound (who drew heavily on lurid and esoteric
- [HarmoGnome](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=962) - The world's first harmonic metronome, using a binary parametrization of musical harmony.
- [Bohuslav Martinu: 'Le Revue de Cuisine'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=467) - Bohuslav Martinu’s suite from La Revue de Cuisine is drawn from a ballet, and has a plot: Twirling Stick is threatening the marriage of Pot and Lid. Pot is tempted by the overtures of Twirling Stick, and succumbs somewhat. Dishcloth is interested in Lid, but so is Broom, who challenges Lid to a duel. Pot tires of Twirling Stick, but Lid is nowhere to be found. When Lid is kicked back onstage by a big foot, Pot and Lid come together again. Twirling Stick leaves with Dishcloth.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 78, Sonata No. 1 for Piano and Violin in G Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=474) - The beginning of the last movement of Brahms’ Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1, Op. 78, is the same as that of his ‘Regenlied’, Op. 59. One can even safely say, given the totality of the song quotation, that this Sonata is ‘about’ rain. If one knows the words, one can sing along a bit with the violin:
- [Enescu, Georges: 'Légende'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=471) - There are two legends in Enescu’s Légende. The first is the musician for whom it was written, Merri Franquin. M. Franquin was a celebrated performer and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, and he was one of the principal forces in bringing the C trumpet to be the lyric lead instrument it is today. The title of the Enescu’s work is said to refer to him, as a term of respect.
- [Ligeti, Györgi: 'Le Grand Macabre'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=465) - This year at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, we had the privilege to perform a chamber version of three arias from Györgi Ligeti’s le Grande Macabre. These three arias are written for the high soprano who plays the police chief Gepopo. The soloist was the (truly) incomparable Barbara Hannigan, who describes the scene as follows:
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1047, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=455) - Letting the famousness, the brightness, the radiance of Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto speak for itself, we can take a moment to explore a few of its patterns — to look at a few of the mirrors and mechanisms of its brilliance. They are a source of pulse, resonance and meaning. They are a bit amazing.
- [Cowell, Henry: Set of Five](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=520) - Though its institutions remain rather strong and its roots are reasonably deep, the place of classical music in America has never been easy or certain. The country is simply too large — and too willfully diffuse in its cultural and religious sources — to allow for a dense notation-based style to wrap itself around the nation’s musical identity.
- [Mendelssohn, Felix, Piano Sextet in D Major, Op. 110](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=510) - In this, the 200th anniversary of the birth of FeliX meNDelssohN, it is worth reflecting not only upon the music he wrote, but also upon his remark- able family and his influence on the practices and canon of European music. Felix was the son of Abraham Mendelssohn, an affluent banker in Hamburg; Abraham was the son of Moses Mendelssohn, a prominent philosopher of the 18th century.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 1050, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=514) - Considering that the fifth Brandenburg Concerto was written explicitly to cel- ebrate the possibilities of a new harpsichord brought from Berlin to Cöthen in 1719, and considering that there are plenty of harpsichords and harpsichordists around these days to make honest and beautiful attempts at authentic delivery, one feels a bit guilty programming the work for ‘grand piano’ in 2009.
- [Ysaye, Eugene: 'Caprice d’après l’Étude en forme de valse de C. Saint-Saëns'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=512) - Eugene Ysaye was one of the finest violinists in the storied history of the instrument. Like many performers of earlier generations, he wrote a substantial number of works for his own concerts, as well as for his students and friends. The current work is based on a piece by Camille Saint-Saëns, who was not known as a deep or probing composer, and a virtuosic caprice built upon his tunes has little potential to be a life-altering musical experience.
- [Schubert, Franz: D709 'Quartettsatz'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=538) - The Quartettsatz of Franz SchuberT is the first movement from an unfin- ished quartet. But it is an explosively complete work, surrounded as it is at start and finish by malevolent parentheses of C minor. The music between these epi- sodes is peculiarly wandering - ranging widely from a fantastically sweet melody which seems loathe to end itself, to outbursts of something like rage, to over-harmonized and diaphanous chorales.
- [Bartok, Bela: String Quartet No. 6](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=540) - There is some risk in bringing elements of biography to bear on a musical work, especially for such an abstract work as a string quartet. Realistic messages from the outside world can doubtless inform the ears and imagination of performer and listener alike, but biographical detail also opens up broad possibilities for hearing what is not there and (more importantly) overlooking what is there. What is, is music, whose forces can too easily be frozen by specific reference.
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 54, Cantata No. 54, 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=534) - The 54th Cantata of J.S. Bach is short, and its message is clear: stand firm against sin, which is of the devil. It doesn’t require much further clarification. It was almost certainly composed in Weimar, fairly early in Bach’s career, likely for the 4th Sunday in Lent (during which time the need to resist sin could probably use a bit of reinforcement).
- [Dowland, John: Three Songs](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=532) - For a non-royal personage of William Shakespeare’s time, John Dowland is quite well documented. He was indeed well known in his time, and he wrote about himself quite a bit. That said, Dowland lived a long time ago, in an age as distant from Bach’s as Bach’s to Beethoven’s, or Beethoven’s to Schoenberg’s, or Schoenberg’s to ours, so reliable details are sketchy.
- [Telemann, Georg Philipp: Sextet in G minor, TWV 44:33](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=530) - Georg Philipp Telemann has been cursed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s ‘most prolific composer’. It is hard to imagine that this is true, and it is still harder to imagine that any pub brawls were averted by the inclusion of this dubious assertion in the world’s beeriest encyclopedia. However, in the spirit of the (also dubious-but-attractive) maxim that there is ‘no such thing as bad publicity’, we can at least see the shadow of Telemann’s fantastic facility with composition.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 47, Sonata in A Major, 'Kreutzer' (arr. Anonymous for String Quintet)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=528) - The Kreutzer sonata is literally one of the most storied works in the entire Classical repertoire. Perhaps it had something of a reputation before Leo Tolstoy’s insanely misogynistic and wildly popular novella entitled “The Kreutzer Sonata,” but since Tolstoy’s literary canonization of it, its name has been cemented in popular concert lore. Why this piece came to Tolstoy’s attention is not absolutely clear.
- [Mendelssohn, Felix: String Quintet, Op. 87](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=526) - There are a few avenues open for discussion of Felix Mendelssohn’s Quintet Op. 87 for 2 violins, 2 violas, and cello. It has an exceptionally exuber- ant first violin part; it has four movements; it is in Bb major; it bears a reasonably close formal resemblance to his string quartet Op. 44 No. 1; it was written in 1845. These things are good to know. But it is the bicentennial of Mendelssohn’s birth; why pour cold water on the works?
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 466, Piano Concerto in D minor (arr. Czerny)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=523) - Having an orchestra around is pleasant enough, but hiring one is rarely the most convenient thing to do. The logistical issues around getting 40 or 50 or 100 or more people to the same place to do the same thing at the same time are steep enough; fitting them into your living room adds a whole new dimension to the problem. So there is a long tradition of reducing large orchestral works to fit a small ensemble — a tradition which was very important for the transmission of music before the age of reduction through recording. It was how music got into the house.
- [Mahler, Gustav: Symphony No. 4 (arr. Klaus Simon)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=435) - We should begin to look at Mahler’s Fourth symphony from the end, because the end is what it’s about. Its fourth and final movement is the center of its weirdness, and it is also the source of a great deal of music which precedes it (including some music in other symphonies and songs). The fourth movement of the Fourth Symphony is itself a song, ‘Das Himmlische Leben’, whose narrator is a child in heaven, singing praises of daily life there: We lead angelic lives, yet have a merry time of it besides.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 131, String Quartet in C# minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=546) - Somehow, the string quartet has allowed for the creation of architecturally significant castles in the air. Its combination of enormous expressive breadth with limited musical forces has created a uniquely focused repertoire. And there has been no finer quartet-architect than Ludwig van Beethoven, whose late quartets in particular defy known laws of what should be musically possible.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op.   9, No. 3, String Trio in C minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=628) - The string trio is an unforgiving group to write for. Its power and dynamic range are limited to that of only three instruments. Its three-note textures leave little room for doubling or for flexibility of voice-leading. Moreover, the violin, viola, and cello are all fairly similar in their materials, purpose, and expressive range. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, though, seemed to have no trouble with any of this.
- [Strauss, Richard: Two Pieces for Piano Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=626) - Two years before his death in 1949, RICHARD STRAUSS said of himself, “I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer!” It’s a nice quote, but maybe not quite a fair assessment. It might be more fair to say that he was “first-class second-rate” before 1889, when he finished the tone poem Don Juan, and began to find a way truly his own; after that, he wrote a great deal of extraordinary music.
- [Berg, Alban: Adagio from Kammerkonzert](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=621) - The word ‘romantic’ is often apologetically applied to the music of ALBAN BERG, like a conceptual pillow, but it is hard to avoid the fact that, however ‘romantic’ it may be in some aesthetic, technical, or historical sense, Berg’s music is unapologetically esoteric. It is full of codes and quotes and secrets, messages to friends, numerological biographies, and geometrical tricks with its tone-rows.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 40, Horn Trio](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=593) - However interesting and fruitful the matter of ‘original instruments’ is, it still is unusually perplexing. Even music of Stravinsky and Ravel brings up questions of which instruments—what strings, what reeds, what metals—work best. There can be no doubt that the problems of digital music will be still more intractable, as operating systems, instruments, and zeitgeists come and go.
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 581, Clarinet Quintet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=635) - A quality of uncanny simplicity pervades WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART‘s Clarinet Quintet, K. 581. Perhaps this feeling arises from the slight hierarchical division between the clarinet and the strings, which simplifies its texture; perhaps it comes from the fleet smoothness of figuration for clarinet; perhaps it comes from a rising Magic Flute aesthetic in the composer; or perhaps it’s the pure pentatonic feel at the opening. The quintet is, in any case, extraordinary for being so much more than simple.
- [Schubert, Franz: D940, Fantasie in F minor for Piano Duet, Op. 103](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=637) - Questions of scale always seem to hover around the music of FRANZ SCHUBERT. There is a combination of the personal and the supernatural, of the intimate and the transcendent, that, especially in the last year of his life, took on a quality no other composer has been able to conjure. There is an enormity of thought and feeling, of doubt and questioning, that seems to correspond to the smallest and largest of human ideas.
- [Schoenberg, Arnold: Chamber Symphony, Op. 9 (arr. Webern)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=639) - After the tonal and formal wanderings of Schubert, and after the further travels of Wagner on the one hand and Brahms on the other, the conventional materials of composition in Austro-German styles had come to seem (for ARNOLD SCHOENBERG, at least) rather old hat. So flexible and commonplace had the techniques become that it seemed possible and necessary to gather them all together, re-combining their forces.
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 421, String Quartet in D minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=657) - Chamber music doesn’t really have a definition, but it does have a few paradigms; one key paradigm shows up in the following defining anecdote, given by one Michael Kelly (who sang Don Basilio in the first performance of Figaro): Storace gave a quartett party to his friends. The players were tolerable; not one of them excelled on the instrument he played, but there was a little science among them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when I name them: The First Violin -- Haydn The Second Violin -- Baron Dittersdorf The Violoncello -- Vanhall The Tenor -- Mozart
- [Janacek, Leos: String Quartet No. 1 (inspired by Tolstoy’s 'Kreutzer Sonata')](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=651) - LEOS JANACEK was born in Hukvaldy, Moravia, and remained a stubborn Moravian patriot for the rest of his life. After pursuing a fairly conventional romantic style as a student in Prague and Leipzig, he returned to Brno in Moravia and began to write in an obsessive (‘con moto’) modal style, using speech-rhythm and folk- music as sources for musical expression. His career, and indeed the crystallization of his style, did not come until quite late in his life, when his opera Jenufa finally brought him success at the age of 62.
- [Enescu, Georges: Octet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=654) - Although Georges Enescu is not so widely known as a composer, he was a hugely influential musician. Born in Romania, he studied at the conservatory of the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde in Vienna, and then studied in Paris with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. Though he was principally interested in composition, Enescu was most famous as a violinist. He performed with Pablo Casals, Jacques Thibaud, Alfred Cortot, Dinu Lipatti (his godson), and Louis Fournier, among many others.
- [Schumann, Robert: Op. 44, Piano Quintet in E-flat Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=647) - The year 1842, for ROBERT SCHUMANN, was the ‘chamber music year’ during which he composed three String Quartets, Op. 41, nos. 1-3, the Piano Quintet, Op. 44, the Piano Quartet, Op. 47, and the Phantasiestücke, Op. 88. This productivity, however, in no way indicates calm – quite the opposite, in fact. Schumann’s manic-depressive creativity has been well documented, and in addition to his psychological bent, he and Clara (his famous-pianist wife) were having difficulties ironing out the relationships between their complex personal and professional lives.
- [Reger, Max: Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, Op. 141a](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=645) - Although not by any means forgotten, the composer Max REGER has lived for quite some time in the second tier of the classical canon. He wrote a great deal of music in almost every genre except opera, and set himself firmly in the abstract tradition of Johannes Brahms. Reger worked at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich, and then was named professor and director of the conservatory in Leipzig in 1908. He continued to work in Leipzig, but gave up his bureaucratic duties to work as court conductor in nearby Meiningen. He moved to Jena in 1915, and died the following year at the age of 43.
- [Weber, Carl Maria von: Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 63](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=643) - We don’t hear so much from CARL MARIA VON WEBER these days. There are performances of Der Freischütz fairly often, there some appearances of his clarinet concertos, and one will hear the Overture from Oberon now and again, but Weber is not a composer whose oeuvre is so much investigated, or who is much fêted by name at festivals or retrospectives. Indirectly, though, we hear a great deal from him.
- [Weber, Carl Maria (von): Op. 34, Clarinet Quintet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1047) - At the age of about thirty-five, I played in a performance of Weber’s Der Freischütz in Baden-Baden, on the northeast edge of the Black Forest. At the end of the second act I heard, for the first time, the famous ‘Wolf’s Den’ scene, in which seven bullets for a high-stakes shooting contest are magically forged through a bit of soul-selling. The following text comes forth:
- [Strauss, Richard: Metamorphosen, TrV 290](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1095) - Strauss gives the 13th of March, 1945 as the day on which he started the score for ‘Metamorphosen’, but it isn’t right. The piece was commissioned one year before, and Strauss had in fact been working on a piece for 11 stringed instruments even before that commission. However, on the 12th of March — one day before the date given above — the Vienna Opera was destroyed in a bombing raid. Upon hearing this, Strauss renewed his efforts on Metamorphosen, and marked the 13th of March as its new beginning.
- [Schumann, Robert: Op. 47, Piano Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1183) - For Robert Schumann, 1842 was the ‘chamber music year’. After writing mostly for piano until 1839, and then mostly for voice in the year 1840, Schumann began to extend his ambitions toward larger forces and forms. So in 1841 he wrote two symphonies, and in 1842 (with more symphonies in mind), Schumann spent a year studying counterpoint and exploring the public-private genre of chamber music.
- [Schumann, Robert: Op. 110, Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1052) - The word ‘dynamic’ is a good one for music. We take our musical dynamics rather for granted — piano, forte, crescendo and diminuendo — as indicators of volume. But they’re much more than that, as the word itself can remind us: thermodynamics, dynamo, dynamite, dynasty. It is a word for motion, power, and change — the opposite of static — and it has a long history. Music benefits from a deep understanding of the meaning of ‘dynamic’. Forte is about force and purpose, not just loudness.
- [Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Op. 143 for Guitar and String Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1037) - The name Castelnuovo-Tedesco stands out. Translating it to English, as ’Newcastle-German’, doesn’t clarify it much, and certainly doesn’t explain why it’s in Italian, or why it’s so long. The only certainty is that it seems to be European. Add to that the guitar-oriented nature of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s concert music, and he seems perhaps to have been Spanish.
- [de Falla, Manuel (arr. Leisner): Siete Canciones Populares Españolas for Guitar and Cello](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1190) - The capital-M ‘Modernist’ composers defined their time by trying to define a new relationship to time itself. Modernism, futurism, innovation, ’make it new’, the immediacy of abstraction, the swiftness of the avant-garde, the swiftness of shock (for the bourgeoisie)… whatever one makes of these musical developments, one can hardly deny that they were somehow about time — especially the time called now.
- [Berio, Luciano: Sequenza VIII for Solo Violin](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1059) - ‘Brutalism’ has gotten a bit of a bad name over the years. This may be because its name is no good, at least not in English. For us, the word ‘brutal’ has fairly unalloyed connotations of physical trouble. But the term ‘Brutalism’ stems from architectural material beton brut — raw concrete), not from any idea of assault.
- [Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 60, Symphony No. 4 (arr. Hummel)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1049) - Beethoven, Ludwig van: Op. 60, SymphWhy play a reduction of a symphony? Why, when there are orchestras and a few dozen recordings ready to rain out of the digital cloud at any time — why present such a large work with so much loss? One would only do it, of course, if there was much to gain. The contact such an arrangement brings with a sense of tangible history, of context, and memory is rich with meaning. To begin: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 was written in 1806. If one wanted to hear it at home before 1910 or so, one would have to hear it played, somehow, on a piano. This is something of a trivialization, of course — but it allows for first-hand contact with the basic materials of the composition. ony No. 4 (arr. Hummel)
- [Bach, J. S.: BWV 32, Cantata No. 32, 'Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1041) - With Bach, some things are clear. Not just the feel of the music, but also the path of it, the organization of it. Six Sonatas and Partitas; Thirty-Two Variations; Twenty-four keys; Cantatas for the liturgical year; preludes, fugues, and infinite patterns. His global compositional systems are so uncanny that they can seem like systems of the world. Many a mathematician has turned numerologist in the investigation of them. One might best not look too closely; there are spirals in those spirals.
- [Aguirre, Louis: L'Annunciation](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=20) - Louis Aguirre’s L’Annunciation is the first movement of a work for violin and piano entitled Iconos. Each movement of the duo is associated with a religious painting. The ‘Annunciation’ cited in this movement is from Leonardo da Vinci (shown at right). Iconos is an acoustic work, and the first movement is for violin alone. It immediately puts the violin at its ecstatic extremes, reflecting the depth of passion to come to the life newly arisen in the womb of the virgin Mary. Iconos was written in 1992 and revised in 1999.
- [Schumann, Clara: Songs](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1186) - It is a strange thing to see how history can collect around a few names, and then to see how one’s sense of time, space, and sequence can be distorted by these accidental or convenient constellations of names and rhymes. For example, seeing Liebst du um Schönheit on a concert program brings with it an assumption that one will be hearing from the Rückert-Lieder of Gustav Mahler.
- [Schnittke (Mahler): Piano Quartet](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1188) - It seems impossible that Gustav Mahler could write only symphonies and songs. Surely there were some intermediate steps. But whatever steps Mahler took, he left no prints — or almost none. A lone manuscript for a piano quartet was found at the New York home of Alma Mahler in the 1960s.
- [Prokofiev, Sergei: Op. 56, Sonata for Two Violins](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1181) - Where did the twentieth century go? There were times, within living memory, when all seemed to hinge on bookish ideologies, when over-determined systems and slogans of social distribution would define friendships, careers, artistic styles, political borders, and even the survival of populations. And where are they now, these ideas poured in concrete?
- [Haydn, Joseph: Hob.XV:28, Piano Trio No 44 in E Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1029) - With every piece of music — really, every piece — there is a crucial matter at the outset: how to begin? It’s almost too obvious to mention, but it’s too important to be left always unsaid. There’s a particularly dense sense of potential in the opening melody of Joseph Haydn’s Piano Trio No 44 E Major which brings the question straight up.
- [Schoenberg, Arnold: Op. 41, Ode to Napoleon](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1099) - It is surprisingly easy these days to forget how ruinous Europe can become. It is almost impossibly difficult to imagine its piazzas filled with fear, its buildings in ruins, or its peoples actually up in arms against one another, even when photographs and memorials are in the public squares themselves. But it does seem actually to happen periodically.
- [Schoenberg, Arnold: Op. 4, Verklärte Nacht](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1172) - To most of those who recognize it on a concert program, the name ‘Arnold Schoenberg’ carries connotations that might charitably be described as ‘mixed’. Cold overtones of abstraction and exaggerated theorizing hang in the air before a note is played.
- [Dvorak, Antonin: Op. 97, String Quintet No.3](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=1025) - According to the census of 2010, Spillville, Iowa, has a population of approximately 370 people, which makes it only about twenty percent larger than it was when Antonin Dvorak was visiting in the summer of 1893. Earlier that year, in the New York springtime, Dvorak had finished his symphony From the New World, and over the summer in Iowa he wrote two chamber works, a quartet and a quintet, both of which have come to be known as ‘American’. 
- [Dvorak, Antonin: Op. 81, Piano Quintet in A Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=44) - Although the reputation of ANTONIN DVORAK is still extremely warm, it may seem to one hearing (or playing) the Piano Quintet that his reputation could hardly be warm enough. It is a spectacularly beautiful piece. Dvoràk wrote the quintet in 1887, in about a month and a half.
- [Brahms, Johannes: Op. 18, Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=536) - Balanced though it may seem from the outside, with two violins, two violas, and two cellos, the string sextet can become dangerously unbalanced. The most organic balance for stringed instruments, seen both in string quartets and symphony orchestras, is to have two violin voices, and one each for violas and cellos.
- [Mendelssohn, Felix: Octet for Strings in E flat, Op. 20 (ii)](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=370) - There are many things to say about the Mendelssohn Octet, and in the 188 years since its premiere, a great many fine things have been said. But the discussion isn’t done: much of the commentary bears repeating, rephrasing, reaffirmation, and extension, because (as someone must have said by now) there is quite literally nothing else like the Mendelssohn Octet.
- [Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: K. 498, Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano in E-flat, 'Kegelstatt'](http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=518) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” trio belongs to two peculiar genres: 1) works for clarinet, viola, and piano — a small genre which was inaugurated by this piece; and 2) works which acquire a memorable nickname for no good reason.

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=1)
- [LeftHand](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=45) - Exercises for left hand skills on stringed instruments.
- [RightHand](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=46) - Exercises designed specifically to address issues of the right hand (bow hand) in stringed instruments.
- [Intonation](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=47) - Exercises designed specifically to help with intonation on stringed instruments.
- [RightAndLeftHand](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=48) - Exercises to promote coordination and cooperation of left and right hand for players of stringed instruments.
- [Sound Quality](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=49) - Bow hand exercises for players of stringed instrument, directed toward the development of sound quallity.
- [Dynamic](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=50) - Exercises addressing issues of dynamic in stringed instruments.
- [Posture and Composure](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=52) - Exercises to promote physical relaxation and energy flow for players of stringed instruments.
- [String Yoga](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=53) - String Yoga is a method of warmup for players of stringed instruments. The player does each exercise for 30-60 seconds, focusing on a specific physical process. Generally speaking, an alternation of Left-Hand/Right-Hand/Hands-Together exercises brings the greatest focus and benefit.
- [Basic Nine](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=55) - The original String Yoga sequence: Left Hand, Right Hand, Hands together — three times in a cycle leading to the exiting of sound at the bridge.
- [digital harmony](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=60)
- [Commentary](http://www.timsummers.org/?cat=61)

## Tags

- [violin warmup](http://www.timsummers.org/?tag=violin-warmup)
- [beethoven](http://www.timsummers.org/?tag=beethoven)
- [harmonypartition](http://www.timsummers.org/?tag=harmonypartition)
- [audio](http://www.timsummers.org/?tag=audio)