Unconscious bursts of creativity that engender significant artistic endeavors are not necessarily inspired by passionate romantic love alone. Greek mythology believed that this kind of stimulus came from nine muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Muses were long considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs and ancient myths. Throughout the history of Western art, artists, writers and musicians have prayed to the muses, or alternately, drawn inspiration from personified muses that conceptually reside beyond the borders of earthly love. True to life, however, composer inspiration has emerged from the entire spectrums of existence and being. Nature has always played a decidedly important role in the inspiration of various classical composers, as did exotic cities, landscapes or rituals. Composer inspiration is also found in poetry, the visual arts, and mythological stories and tales. Artistic, historical or cultural expressions of the past are just as inspirational as is the everyday: the third Punic War or the contrapuntal mastery of Bach is inspirationally just as relevant as are the virulent bat and camel. Composer inspiration is delightfully drawn from heroes and villains, scientific advances, a pet, or something as mundane as a hangover. Discover what fires the imagination of people who never stop asking questions.
Carl Nielsen’s second symphony bears a curious title: The Four Temperaments. The temperaments, or the four bodily humours, were the four liquid elements that make up the human body: ‘yellow bile, phlegm, black bile and blood, a preponderance of any
The Goldberg Variations, published by Bach in 1741, is beloved by musicians. Those who don’t play a keyboard instrument have been quick to arrange it for their own specialties. We’ll continue our examination with more ensemble versions and some other
The demon violinist, Niccoló Paganini (1782–1840), the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his day and who is still known today, wrote a set of 24 caprices for solo violin between 1802 and 1817. The caprices (meaning ‘a sudden and unaccountable
After looking at the background of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the Goldberg in the hands and sounds of other instruments. Let’s continue with the ensemble versions. The Goldberg Variations, published by Bach in 1741, is beloved by musicians. Those
The Goldberg Variations, published by Bach in 1741, is beloved by musicians. Those who don’t play a keyboard instrument have been quick to arrange it for their own specialities. We’ll start with stringed instruments and how they treat the first
Located nearly 1,400 km northwest of Denmark, the Faroe Islands were first under Norwegian rule in the 11th century and under Danish rule in the 16th century. During the 20th century, the language of the islands gradually grew away from
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) published his well-known Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, in 1741, in the 4th part of his Clavier-Übung (collection of keyboard music). Its creation story, as told by Bach’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749–1818), wrote that Count Hermann
Penelope was the queen of Ithaca and the wife of Odysseus. She and her son, Telemachus, who was just born at Odysseus’ departure for the battlefield of Troy, wait patiently for Ulysses’ return. While he’s away for 10 years at
