(Roughly) Daily

A rich collection of interactive music theory tools & visual references to learn music online for free…

I’m creating this site to anchor what I’m learning and as a way to bring creative and interesting ways to present music theory topics. I’m hoping the content on this site will prove helpful in your own music-making journey!…

Learn music theory: “Muted.io,” from @muted_io. You might want to start with the Cheat Sheet“…

(Image above: source)

* Asa Butterfield

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As we play (with) scales, we might recall that it was on this date in 1962 that Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto (Op. 38) premiered as part of the opening festivities for Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Center in New York, with John Browning as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

The first two movements were completed before the end of 1960 but the last movement was not completed until 15 days before the world premiere performance. According to Browning (in the liner notes for his 1991 RCA Victor recording of the Concerto with the St. Louis Symphony), the initial version of the piano part of the third movement was unplayable at performance tempo; Barber resisted reworking the piano part until Vladimir Horowitz reviewed it and also deemed it unplayable at full tempo. In the end, the work was met with great critical acclaim; it earned Barber his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 and the Music Critics Circle Award in 1964.