August, 2022

73 Posts
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On This Day
19 August: Vilde Frang Was Born
In 2012, violinist Vilde Frang was unanimously awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, and she made her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival shortly thereafter. Born on 19 August 1986 in Norway, Frang
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Musicians and Artists: Tsao and Goya
Ming Tsao: If ears were all that were needed Los caprichos, by Francisco Goya, are a series of 80 prints done in aquatint and etching created in 1797 and 1798. The series illustrates the world follies, as represented in contemporary
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On This Day
18 August: Antonio Salieri Was Born
The town of Legnago is situated on the Adige River, in relatively close proximity to Venice, Mantua, Verona, and Vincenza. Since it is located on a rich agricultural plane, it long served as a center of grain trading. On 18
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Magical Instruments
Magic flutes, bells, bagpipes, and ocarina from operas and video games! More powerful than any simple musical instrument, magical musical instruments can change the world around them. Where do we find them? In the opera Die Zauberflöte, both the hero,
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Stopping Time
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s Nunc fluens. Nunc stans
The Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė writes under self-imposed strictures: for the piece here, she confines herself to the diatonic notes, the white notes, of the piano, with only rare movements onto the chromatic, black keys. Her time signs are confined
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On This Day
16 August: Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Was Premiered
Cosima Wagner, daughter of a great musician and wife of another, was instrumental in helping to found Bayreuth, the festival featuring her husband’s operas, “and ensuring its survival as an annual event of worldwide fame.” Every year, large audiences gather
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Music Practice
Music Theory
When I first started taking music lessons in college, I thought that music theory was one of the most boring subjects in the world. My professors dutifully explained that music theory “is how musicians explain and describe the phenomena heard
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Mixing Styles: Bach’s Toccata in C minor, BWV 911
When we hear the toccatas of Bach, we’re hearing the written representation of something at which he was a master – free improvisation at the keyboard. When we have a paired piece, such as a toccata and fugue, we have
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