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Steve Cohen Music

  • Home
  • Chamber Music — COMPOSITIONS
    • Purchase Sheet Music
    • Concertino for Flute and String Quartet
    • Desperate Measures
    • Elegy for Flute and Piano
    • Fiveplay (original version)
    • Fiveplay (saxes & piano version)
    • Jiggery Pokery
    • Oboe Variations
    • A Paschal Offering
    • Quintet for Alto Saxophones and Strings
    • Quintet for Contrabassoon and Strings
    • Riverwalk
    • Saxophone Quartet No. 1
    • Saxophone Quartet No. 2
    • Saxophone Quartet No. 3
    • Saxophone Quartet No. 4
    • Sextet for Piano and Winds
    • Sinfonia for Saxophone Choir
    • Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano
    • Sonata for Baritone Saxophone and Piano
    • Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano
    • Sonata for Tenor Saxophone and Piano
    • Sonnet 60
    • String Quartet
    • Suite for Flute and Harp
    • Summer Rains
    • Threeplay
    • Toccata Veronese
    • Trio for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Piano
    • Walzer: Zwei Hintern auf einer Klavierbank
    • Wind Quintet
  • Chamber Music — ARRANGEMENTS
    • Purchase Sheet Music
    • Bethena
    • Champagne Rag
    • Capriccio - Op. 76, No. 2
    • Danse (Tarantelle Styrienne)
    • Deux Arabesques
    • Overture to "Nabucco"
    • Ragtime Nightingale
  • Choral - Sacred
    • Adon Olam (Choral)
    • Adonai Malach (Psalm 93)
    • Adonai Malach (Psalm 97)
    • Adonai Roi (Choral Version)
    • Ahavat Olam
    • Al Naharot Bavel (Psalm 137)
    • Amarai Ha-azinah (Psalm 5)
    • Al Rosh Simchati
    • Al Sh'loshah D'varim
    • Avinu Shebashamayim
    • Bar’chu
    • Baruch Habah (Psalm 118)
    • Beloved
    • Chatzi Kaddish
    • Chazak ve'Ematz
    • D'ror Yikra
    • Ein Keiloheinu
    • Ein Kitzvah
    • Eishet Chayil
    • Esa Einai (CHORAL) (Psalm 121)
    • Hal'lu et HaShem (Psalm 117)
    • Hal'luyah (Psalm 150)
    • HaNeirot Halalu
    • Hashkiveinu
    • Havu Ladonai (Psalm 29)
    • Higid L'cha
    • Im Ein Ani Li
    • Kiddush
    • Kol Ha-amim Tiku Kaf (Psalm 47)
    • L'cha Dodi
    • L'chu N'ran'nah (Psalm 95)
    • L'dor Vador
    • L'ma-an Tziyon
    • Lo Yisa Goy (Choral)
    • Mi Chamocha (2-part choir)
    • Mi Chamocha (4-part choir)
    • Mi Shebeirach
    • Oseh Shalom
    • Netzach Yisrael
    • Psalm 130
    • Shalom Aleichem
    • Sha-alu Sh'lom Y'rushalayim (Psalm 122)
    • Shalom Rav
    • Shalom Rav/B'sefer Chayim
    • Sim Shalom
    • Sh’ma-Baruch Sheim
    • Tov L’hodot
    • Tzur Yisraeil
    • V'ne-emar
    • V’shamru
    • Yigdal (No. 1)
    • Yigdal (No. 2)
    • Yih'yu L'ratzon
    • Yism'chu
  • Choral - Secular — COMPOSITIONS
    • Fear No More
    • Fugue for Fascists
    • Sigh No More
    • Three Shakespeare Songs
  • Choral - Secular — ARRANGEMENTS
    • Umru Mayne
  • Concert Band — COMPOSITIONS
    • Fiesta
    • Intrada
    • Meditation for Concert Band
  • Concert Band — ARRANGEMENTS
    • Danse (Debussy)
    • Souvenirs de Bayreuth (Fauré/Méssagè)
    • Toccata (Widor)
  • Opera
    • The Cop and the Anthem
    • La Pizza del Destino
  • Jazz Arrangements
    • Purchase Sheet Music
    • All Nite Diner (Cohen)
    • Mambo de las Flores (Tchaikovsky)
    • Mardi Gras
    • Siempre Simpatico (Cohen)
    • Praise (Cohen)
  • Orchestral — COMPOSITIONS
    • Adagio for Alto Saxophone and Strings
    • Bachanalia Fanfare
    • Concertino for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra
    • Fiesta for Orchestra
    • Juggernaut
    • Revels for Orchestra
    • A Song For Strings
    • Symphony in One Movement
  • Orchestral — ARRANGEMENTS
    • The Seasons
    • A Klezmer Nutcracker
    • Barcarolle (Fauré)
    • Nocturne (Fauré)
    • Away in a Manger
    • The First Noel
    • Good King Wenceslas
    • Jingle Bells
    • Silent Night
    • We Wish You A Merry Christmas
    • Not Even If I Try (K. Oldham)
    • I Feel Fine - Mambo (Lennon/McCartney)
    • Scherzo in C# minor (Mussorgsky)
    • Shiru Ladonai Shir Chadash (N. Hirschhorn)
    • With a Song in my Heart (Rodgers/Hart)
  • Vocal - Sacred
    • Adon Olam
    • Adonai Roi (Solo Version)
    • Elohai N'shamah
    • Esa Einai (SOLO)
    • Hashkiveinu (DUET)
    • Lo Yisa Goy (SOLO)
    • Psalm 84
    • Psalm 98
    • Simeni Chachotam
    • Y'did Nefesh
  • Vocal - Secular
    • Dos Naye Lid
    • Longing
    • Stanzas for Music
  • Blog Directory
  • Subscribe
  • Links
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  • Steve Cohen's Music Store
  • Discography
Music-noise+Quote.jpg

Music? Noise?

January 05, 2019

Several of my friends on Facebook have recently shared a graphic with an unattributed quotation: “May all that has been reduced to noise in you become music again.”

A quick search on Google revealed that the quote comes from David Teems, an author and songwriter who caters to the Christian market.

I’m sure Mr. Teems means well with his message. I have some trouble with it myself.

Obviously, his message is that he wishes people who are troubled to find a way out of whatever is disturbing them, and move towards something more healthy and positive. That’s a lovely sentiment, and one which I embrace, all except for the part about music.

Mr. Teems seems to equate music with happiness, fulfillment, inner peace, and other such warm and fuzzy feelings, Certainly, music can be all of those things, but that is not all that music is.

Music expresses thoughts and feelings which cannot be put into words. Music can express dark sentiments as well as light ones. Music can frighten as well as comfort. Music can excite as well as soothe.

I believe that dissonance is the spice of music. Music without dissonance strikes my ears the same way food without seasonings strikes my palate; I find it bland and innocuous.

In the words of Charles Ives, “Stand up and take your dissonance like a man!”

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