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Etudes—Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

When singer / songwriter Joni Mitchell played “Both Sides Now” at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, she was twenty-five years old and a rising star. When she sang the song at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, she was seventy-nine years old and had come back from a 2015 brain aneurysm that had initially

Etudes–Jacob Collier Performs Stevie Wonder

Jacob Collier Performs Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” This video shows a young Jacob Collier doing it all—singing all the parts, playing all the instruments, manipulating all the technology and creating wonderful music. Enjoy his rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” and come back on the other side.

Etudes–Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune

For what event (moment, mood, etc.) in your life would this rendition of Debussy’s Clair de Lune be the perfect music? Describe the time, what was happening and why this music suits it. Or, if it hasn’t happened yet, what would you like it to be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c977QdbTImU&t=21s Steinway & Sons @steinway steinway.com

Etudes–Claude Debussy: Classics for Elephants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1qQOGCyRbYu0026t=13s I can’t resist including Paul Barton’s version of Debussy’s Clair de Lune for elephants. Barton plays classical music for rescued elephants at a reserve in Thailand. Click the YouTube link above. Watch and react. How are you like that elephant? OR Write a monologue from the elephant’s point of view. ******************************************************** Can’t get enough

Etudes–Richard Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries (The Main Event)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQM97_iNXhku0026t=178s Valkyries are female figures in Norse mythology that usher dead heroes from the battlefield to Valhalla. Wagner gives these beings a rousing number in the third act of the opera Dië Walküre (The Valkyries), which is itself the second of four installments of the epic opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Yes. Huge. Wagner

Etudes–George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein–Conductor, Pianist and All-Around Amazing Human Gasp! This one is a stunner. In this 1975 performance with the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein conducts from the bench of the grand piano THAT HE IS PLAYING. He is conducting WITHOUT A SCORE and playing WITHOUT SHEET MUSIC. Seventeen some-odd wildly complex minutes committed