Did you know that the smallest member of the lute family is known as the mandolin? The mandolin is a plucked string instrument with a neck and round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening

Symphonic composers are convinced that what they have to say is important. They have to be. Not only are these composers spending months or years preparing a score during the composition process, they’re also asking a room of a hundred

When I was a little girl, I heard Gabriel Fauré’s famous Pavane in an arrangement for two pianos on a classical music compilation disc. From the very first notes, I was taken by its elegant restraint. I listened to the

Ever since Beethoven redefined what a symphony could be, composers have been, by turn, inspired and intimidated by the genre. Today we look at the stories of how five very different composers dealt with the pressure and weight of expectation

First things first, a symphonic poem is an orchestral composition, usually in a single continuous movement. Basically, the music of a symphonic poem attempts to communicate or carry meanings, messages, or concepts that originate from outside music itself. This can

We think of them as a summer phenomenon, a mysterious blinking in the bushes, or a trail of light seen out of the corner of your inattentive eye: fireflies! American composer Stephen Barber was in a garden in upstate New

Getting a good night’s sleep is not a luxury. It’s a necessity for our physical and mental well-being. Music can help people relax and fall asleep faster. Classical piano music can be especially effective at inducing sleep. In this article,

The romance and its successor the mélodie was one of the main genres cultivated by Les Femmes “Compositeurs.” A mélodie is a form of French art song that is somewhat comparable to the German Lied. Claude Debussy wrote as follows,