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Grace Notes

Norman Gilliland gives the stories behind the struggle to create great music.

Grace Notes News

Red Spin

October 15, 2013 - 11:30am

In 1927 Joseph Schillinger organized and directed the first jazz orchestra in Russia. Schillinger was an academician and a scientist, and so it’s not surprising that the Russian debut of symphonic jazz took place not in a theater or a dance hall, but in the State Academic Choir Hall in...

Collision Course

October 13, 2013 - 11:30am

In the early days of radio someone decided that it would be a good idea to time orchestral performances. The results were surprising to most conductors, and put two of the greatest on a collision course. In 1949 Leonard Bernstein was a young up-and-coming conductor and an avid listener to...

The New World

October 12, 2013 - 11:30am

On October 12, 1892, newly arrived in the New World, Czech composer Antonín DvoÍák wrote from New York to a friend in Moravia about his first impressions of America: After being in quarantine for just a little while we arrived safely in the promised land. The view from Sandy Hook,...

I Quit!

October 11, 2013 - 11:30am

The job was good, the pay quite nice, and the employer friendly, so in 1717 Johann Sebastian Bach accepted the position of conductor of the music staff for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. The only catch: Bach already had a job and he needed to get out of it. For nine...

The Money Back Guarantee

October 10, 2013 - 11:30am

The following letter to Giuseppe Verdi shows that to be a composer is to expose oneself to criticism from anyone and everyone: May 7th, 1872. Much Honored Signor Verdi, on the second of this month I went to Padua, lured by the sensation caused by your opera Aida. I was...

Awkward Encounters

October 9, 2013 - 11:30am

In the summer of 1907 Spanish pianist and composer Manuel de Falla piled up his meager savings and went to Paris in the hope of breaking into the international music scene. He was in for some setbacks. The jobs he had arranged fell through, and, after playing piano with a...

Faint Praise

October 8, 2013 - 11:30am

In October 1928 Russian Ballet director Serge Diaghilev wanted the famous Vaslav Nijinsky to endorse dancer Serge Lifar, and he went to great lengths to get a little praise. An advantage: Diaghilev and Nijinsky had been lovers. A disadvantage: Nijinksky had suffered a nervous breakdown back in 1919 and had...

Farewell Again

October 6, 2013 - 11:30am

Adelina Patti was one of the most celebrated sopranos in the history of music, but that didn’t put her above the barbs thrown by New York Evening Post critic Henry T. Finck. Finck had several misgivings about Patti, most of them having little to do with her singing, which he...

I Am Sick of It All!

October 5, 2013 - 11:30am

After receiving an invitation to write a choral work for the 1898 Leeds Festival, Edward Elgar began work on his cantata Caractacus . His inspiration would have to carry him past a series of obstacles, including his own pessimism. He decided on a story about an ancient British hero, but...

Last Laugh

October 4, 2013 - 11:30am

In his autobiography, Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf couldn’t resist passing along a story that suggests how seriously eighteenth-century Venetians took their music. The famous castrato Guadagni had given three fine performances in an opera that was a particular favorite of Venetians. But after an argument with the impresario, he decided...