A Minute with Miles

So here’s the famous riddle: Which came first, the chicken... or the violin? Or the piano? Or the valved horn?

Franz von Suppé could be the poster child for composers who were extremely prolific and very famous in their own time, but who, if they’re now remembered at all, are only remembered for two or three pieces.

So where does the word "fiddle" come from?

In a lifetime of performing and teaching, I’ve never once witnessed an argument that had anything to do with where somebody was from, nor, for that matter, have I ever heard, among the musicians I’ve known, a single word of nationalist or racist invective.

I came across a collection of the letters of Arturo Toscanini recently, and in the introduction the editor writes, “A whole psychology textbook could be written about Toscanini and anger.” Well all I can say is that if there had been such a book, Toscanini should have read it.

Anybody who’s been around the music business for any length of time has met performers who are – how can I put this gently – legends in their own minds.

The image of the starving artist may be a romantic one, but it turns out that poverty has not always been a necessary condition for writing great music. Sometimes, in fact, great music has gone along with great wealth.

Piano means “soft,” in Italian, and it seems a little strange that an instrument that can weigh almost a thousand pounds and compete in volume with a symphony orchestra should be called a “soft.”

Turning pages for pianists is a pretty thankless job—the page turner is usually only noticed when he or she messes up. But for pianists who depend on page turners, good, dependable, unobtrusive page turners are worth their weight in gold.

Have you ever wondered why pianists need page turners? They’re not, after all, the only ones who use both hands to play their instruments.