MUSICAL NOTES & QUOTES

A born genius? Aside from Schubert, many great composers got early starts. Really early starts sometimes. Mozart composed his first concerto by age four. Beethoven and Chopin were both eight when they first performed in public.

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

- Mark Twain

Bathroom sing-a-long
In case you need to know, the average toilet flushes in the key of E flat.

If I have left anyone unoffended, I apologize.

– the notoriously rude Johannes Brahms, when leaving a party

Always prolific
Bach’s creative energy was not solely musical. He was the father of 20 children. Several of them were gifted musicians.

Classical Superstar
Born in 1811 in Hungary, Franz Liszt was such a fiery and technically dazzling pianist that he single-handedly created the solo piano concert. He sometimes insisted on having an extra piano onstage, in case he pounded the tune out right of the first one. Crowds cheered, women fainted, fans worshiped him. Sound familiar?

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

– Ludwig Van Beethoven

Music soothes the domestic beast
There’s some evidence that cows produce more milk when they listen to music.

Musical ABCs
Credit goes to Pope Gregory I for coming up with the first musical notation system. That was the start of the A-through-G system we use today.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

– Ludwig Van Beethoven

A really grand opening
At Carnegie Hall’s first concert in 1891, the conductor was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Ebony and Ivorine
It’s been 50 years since piano keys were generally made of ivory. The white keys are normally "ivorine," a type of plastic.

Before "ivorine"
Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano by jazzing up the old harpsichord with the ability to play both piano and forte – soft and loud. New York's Metropolitan Museum has a Cristofori piano dated 1720, presumed to be the oldest in existence.

Vexing is the word
Modern composer Erik Satie wrote a piece called "Vexations" in which the pianist plays a phrase that’s less than 60 seconds long, and repeats it for 24 hours straight. It’s been performed in Australia at least twice. Shouldn’t be hard to get tickets for that one.

How wonderful opera would be if it had no singers!

– Gioachino Rossini, composer of
The Barber of Seville