You walk on stage, and it’s terrifying: senior-recital-gone-wrong, late-to-a-masterclass-with-Big-Name-Soloist, career-ending-farce-with-your-parents-in-the-audience terrifying. As always, it’s inexplicably hot on the boards (or too cold, or the lights are too bright) and you’re sure the audience can see the sweat glisten on your frustrated, unhappy face. You’re flubbing notes left and right, barreling through an old favorite, lilting […]
Author Archives: Peter Tracy
Peter Tracy is a writer, cellist, and noisemaker based in Seattle, Washington. His writing on music has appeared in Early Music Seattle's Clef Notes as well as Second Inversion and his online newsletter, Everyone and I. Peter currently splits his time between playing gigs, teaching, improvising with his friends, and researching obscure happenings from the annals of music history.
Posted inPlaylist
A Mechanical Instruments Playlist
The musical instruments of the concert stage are products of thousands of years of experimentation in sound; the often taken-for-granted results of a long process of tinkering. Keyboard instruments are just one example: From early string instruments to the harpsichord, the pianoforte, and the modern concert grand, the piano has been a long-term, collaborative project. […]