In essence

1679 Posts
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Ethel Smyth: String Quartet in E minor
Ethel Smyth’s String Quartet in E minor has received considerable scholarly attention. Elizabeth Wood investigates the work as a representative of the struggle for women’s rights and Smyth’s involvement with the women’s suffrage movement. On the other hand, Jennifer Gwynn
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Alexander Grechaninov: A musical Dinosaur?
Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov (1864-1956) wasn’t entirely happy to study at the Moscow Conservatory. Although he took composition lessons from Sergey Taneyev and sat in the counterpoint class with Arensky, his initial attempts at composition were judged to be a waste
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Minors of the Majors
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Suite in D minor
“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening!
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Muses and Musings
Sisterly Muse : Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn
In his famous Tintern Abbey poem, the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote of his sister Dorothy, Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch The language of my former
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Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565): Proto-Madrigalist
Over the centuries, the Italian peninsula has given rise to an extraordinary number of artistic and intellectual movements. Ranging from literature and painting to the visual arts, Italy has magnificently contributed to European intellectual and cultural development. And then there
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Minors of the Majors
Modest Mussorgsky: Dawn on the Moscow River
“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening!
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“Good composers borrow, Great ones steal!”
Not so long ago, it came to light that a high-profile administrator working in Hong Kong higher education had received his advanced degree not only from a Philippine Sari-Sari store masquerading as a University, but that he simply copied his
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Moods of the Sea – Moods of the Man
English composer Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976) took an 1810 book of poetry written by the Aldeburgh poet George Crabbe and used it as the basis for his opera Peter Grimes. The poetry itself was presented in the form of
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