Improvisations on The Ledge
Music Podcasts
In "Improvisations on the Ledge," award-winning composer-pianist Peter Saltzman searches for universal truths by stumbling upon them—both with words and music. The basic premise is simple: he improvises on the piano, then talks about what the music tells him. Then makes music about what the talking tells him. Then...well, it goes on like this. Droll, funny, dramatic, musical, short.
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Location:
United States
Genres:
Music Podcasts
Description:
In "Improvisations on the Ledge," award-winning composer-pianist Peter Saltzman searches for universal truths by stumbling upon them—both with words and music. The basic premise is simple: he improvises on the piano, then talks about what the music tells him. Then makes music about what the talking tells him. Then...well, it goes on like this. Droll, funny, dramatic, musical, short. Powered by Firstory Hosting
Language:
English
Contact:
6307476837
Website:
http://www.petersaltzman.com
Email:
peter@petersaltzman.com
Episodes
Themes Alive: Musical Structure From a Single Note!
11/19/2021
Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/story/ckw6kzm991rm90878rsjk4zli?m=comment
The moment a theme is stated, it wants to do something. What? Like all lifeforms, it wants to replicate, mutate, transform…become something. That something is musical structure.
How we get from a single note to a theme (motif), to a full-blown musical structure (song, free improvisation, symphony) is seemingly a mystery. And yet it's not.
Due to a naturally occurring...
Duration:00:33:53
The Theme Dream Machine
11/3/2021
Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/story/ckvk002b34j0c0938go4chdbo?m=comment
Musical themes seem to emerge from the sonic abyss almost by their own volition. But where do they come from?
Are they elusive attempts to describe the moment? State of musical mind? Emotion translated into sound? Or are they just, as I discussed in the previous episode, a form of musical memory (and forgetting.)
After working through this episode, I must admit that while the...
Duration:00:29:32
The Many Layers of Musical Memory—and Forgetting (S3:E2)
10/22/2021
"The Many Layers of Musical Memory—and Forgetting" is an episode about how listening to music, and performing it, are really acts of thematic memory—and forgetting.
And sometimes the forgetting is part of the creative process. Or maybe it's just forgetting. In any case, I take a deep dive into the many layers of musical memory that go into improvising or composing. But also into the listener's experience of any given piece of music. There is the short-term memory of what happened earlier...
Duration:00:26:43
Theme is the Theme (S3:E1)
10/8/2021
After an extended layoff, I've decided to get back to Improvisations On the Ledge by sticking to the theme—literally. The entire season—including this episode—is devoted to musical theme: how we create, perceive it, and make music out of it.
In the pilot episode for season three, I randomly stumble upon a couple of themes, including "My Funny Valentine" and "Money, Money, Money", then proceed to create a show out of them.
Along the way, I delve into what a "theme" is in musical terms....
Duration:00:26:56
Rearview Mirror
8/15/2020
Using jazz educator David Bloom's metaphor, musicians need to look in the rearview mirror and remember the theme if they wish to move forward. But when you look back, you are not just remembering what you played at the beginning of an improvisation—you're remembering all of that music that got you to the point of even being able to look back in the first place.
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Duration:00:39:59
Planned Chance
7/31/2020
My intent was to dive into Part 2 of my “End of Melody Episode,“ but by planned chance, I rolled the dice and came up with something completely different. Unplanned, but fated to be this way? Possibly.
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Duration:00:19:48
The End of Melody, Part 1
7/16/2020
Melody. As a creative musician, you're either born with it or not. Or maybe everybody is born with it but some choose to suppress it. Why would anybody do that?
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Duration:00:53:14
The (Un)Quantifiable Mystery of Music
6/18/2020
Math, science, and logic can explain a lot but not everything about how music works. The strange thing, though, is that great music almost always has a perfect logic to it. How is that possible?
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Duration:00:37:45
Maximal Minimalism: Me v. Philip Glass
5/26/2020
In this episode, I do battle with Philip Glass and, by extension, the entire genre of minimalism. To my surprise, though, I found that even while I reject the aesthetic as a whole, there’s plenty I can take from it creatively—but only by adapting some of its techniques in ways never intended by its practitioners.
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Duration:00:34:31
Everything's Related to Everything Else (Again)
5/14/2020
After I finished recording this episode, I remembered that I had already done one early laster season on the same subject. Thus the "again". I didn't go back and listen to that because I gotta believe this one's completely different. Or is it?
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Duration:00:24:07
The Seinfeld Episode...Or How to Make Music Out of Nothing
5/8/2020
I was watching Jerry Seinfeld's new standup release on Netflix the other night and it put me in the mind of nothing. Specifically, how we build music out of essentially meaningless sound events that end up adding up to...something?
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Duration:00:15:39
S2-E1: CoVidious Improvisations on Covert Thoughts
4/23/2020
Season Two is finally here but it’s not at all was I was planning. Befitting the title of the podcast, Improvisations on the Ledge, in fact, resists any serious planning. And yet, for this premiere episode of season two, I can’t avoid the elephant in the world-sized room: CoVid-19. The central theme of this episode, then, is how the crisis changes the way we go about making art—if at all.
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Duration:00:30:17
Season Two Trailer/Teaser
4/3/2020
It's been a LONG wait, but season two is just about ready to launch. With an exciting new format and several new features, it will be well worth the wait!
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Duration:00:02:27
#28: A Variation on Theme and Variations
12/20/2019
What if I came up with a theme in the morning, then improvised variations throughout the day? What would that add up to? Call it a variation on the theme and variations idea, but in the form of a diary of a single day in the life of Peter Saltzman.
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Duration:00:33:52
"#27: What Not to Think About When Improvising-Featuring Jean-Michel Pilc"
12/4/2019
Do you ever think about what you’re thinking about? Of course, you do, and I often think about what I’m thinking about when improvising. But when I pose this question to the great French pianist-composer Jean-Michel Pilc in this episode, his answer is sort of along the lines of...a kind of nothing. Sort of.
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Duration:01:13:35
"#26: The Improvised Sonata"
11/23/2019
For years I’ve had this thought that I should be able to improvise a full 4-movement piano sonata. Is this just another example of me being completely out of touch with my times? Well yes. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
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Duration:00:39:57
IOTL Short #7: Mid-Afternoon Nocturne
10/28/2019
In the interests of busting yet another musical myth, I improvise a nocturne in the afternoon. At least it’s relatively dark in its sweetness.
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Duration:00:06:16
IOTL Short #6: And A Plane Flew By
10/23/2019
...Or how musical order insists on materializing out of seemingly random occurrences...
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Duration:00:08:32
#25: "Improvisations with Play-by-Play Analysis"
10/19/2019
Yes, that’s right, improvisations with sports-style play-by-play analysis—including instant replay!
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Duration:00:37:07
#24: Venting in Two-Part Inventions
10/8/2019
Is it possible to make beautiful music with just two intertwining melodies? Bach did. Can I?
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Duration:00:35:39