Blogs

archive-post-image
The Joy of Summer Festivals
They start to appear as the snows disappear – enticing notices for summer festivals. Spend a week of music in the mountains, or at the seashore, or in a famous historical setting. Summer festivals are a wonderful time to explore
Read more
archive-post-image
The Castrato and Allegri
Today, the idea of a castrato singer is a bit embarrassing. For our hyper-masculine world (would you like muscles on that?), the idea of a male singer who can only sing at a soprano pitch just seems wrong.
Read more
archive-post-image
Flow My Tears: Weeping With Dowland
John Dowland (1563 –1626) brought the art of weeping to an exquisite height in the early 17th century. This English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer became famed for his melancholy songs that have an inherent darkness that stands in contrast
Read more
archive-post-image
Sherlock and Music and Mysteries
We looked earlier at Sherlock and Opera and now, when we see what other music he ventured into, we find a connoisseur of the musical arts of his time at its highest point.
Read more
archive-post-image
What is a Concertmaster?
Sometimes the actions of an orchestra seem quite mysterious. You’d expect that the orchestra would come on stage, take their seats, the conductor would arrive, and off they’d play. Instead, the orchestra seats itself, and then the first chair of
Read more
archive-post-image
Instruments of the Orchestra X: The Trumpet
The next of the brass winds is the trumpet, which developed much on the same lines as the horn: first a simple structure, then with the addition of valves, an instrument more suited for ensemble work was created. The process
Read more
archive-post-image
The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music V –Alicia de Larrocha
Spanish pianist Alica de Larrocha was a favorite artist at our home when I was growing up and not just because of her diminutive stature. (She was less than five feet tall—like me!) Later in my life I was privileged
Read more
archive-post-image
Infinite Reflections: Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’
Spiegel im Spiegel has to be the best-known of all the music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Composed in 1978, just before Pärt left Estonia for Berlin, it was originally written for single piano and violin, though many other versions
Read more