by Kile Smith | Oct 22, 2012 | Classical music, Composition
[Reprinted with permission from the Broad Street Review under “From Beethoven to Wagner: The political uses and abuses of music”] Before you hear any more of my music, maybe you were wondering whom I’m voting for. We’ll get to that after a word from...
by Kile Smith | Sep 12, 2012 | Classical music, Composition, evolution, Pop Music
[This article republished with permission from the Broad Street Review.] And I could say Oo oo oo… Most of my recent case against the evolution of music concerned itself with the mechanics of DarwinTunes, the program touted as making composers unnecessary. (See...
by Kile Smith | Jul 26, 2012 | Composition
[This article has been republished with permission from Broad Street Review.] At Imperial College in London, Bob McCallum spends his days researching mosquitoes. At home, he puts composers under his microscope. And has concluded, according to BBC News, that we...
by Kile Smith | Jun 28, 2012 | Broad Street Review, Composition
[First published in the Broad Street Review 26 Jun 2012, as “What I learned from whale watching.” Reprinted by permission.] Looking for whales for the first time, the first thing you notice is that everything looks like a whale. I grew up in South Jersey...
by Kile Smith | May 22, 2012 | Broad Street Review, Classical music, Composition
[First published 22 May 2012 in the Broad Street Review and used here by permission.] The bank of the river is dark—darker than it seems from a distance. I pick my way down to it, and it looks like sand, chocolate sand. Under my feet it slides softly down toward the...
by Kile Smith | Jan 5, 2012 | Chamber Music, Choral music, Composition, Dance Music, Jazz, Music Composition, new music
Some scattered thoughts on the interview with David Patrick Stearns in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. Generous remarks by him, and by Donald Nally. Very generous. Am I notoriously self-effacing? Notoriously? I mentioned the Hi-Lo’s in a Broad Street Review...
