In essence

1680 Posts
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“Art has to deal with eternal Questions”
Arvo and Nora Pärt
I know it’s hard to believe, but there are still celebrities who wish to keep their public and private spheres completely separate. For Arvo Pärt, one of the most respected and revered composers of contemporary classical music, it is a
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Musicians and Street Names in Belgium
A new website in Belgium is collecting together a list of streets in the country named after musicians. We were pleasantly surprised to see the international nature of street names as we looked through the site https://muzikalestraatnamen.wordpress.com/.
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The early Pärt
Living through the political and artistic complexities of the 20th century, Arvo Pärt always sought to communicate the spiritual power that he sees as music’s essential purpose. Initially, this quest proved rather difficult as his native Estonia was squarely placed
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Variations on Goldberg II
Chamber Music Transcriptions of Bach’s Famous Repertoire — Goldberg Variations A variation set for harpsichord that’s considered the model of a variation set? Lots of other instrumental players looked at Bach’s Goldberg Variations in envy and immediately started making arrangements
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Forecast Sunny and Bright: It’s Summertime!
As we come into summertime, we want music that matches our positive outlook. Composers, however, may take a different look at the heat and weather conditions. They give us storms, sleepy naps in the sun, and even work to do!
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Robert Schumann: Paradise and the Peri, Op. 50
When Robert Schumann premiered his secular oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50 (Paradise and the Peri) in December 1843 in Leipzig, the composer was instantly catapulted from provincial to international fame. In the first decade after the composition,
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Old Wine in New Bottles
Chopin in the 20th Century
The first transcriptions of Chopin’s music appeared as early as the 1830s, shortly after the publication of the original compositions. In time, some 1500 composers took up the task, with some popular works transformed hundreds of times for all possible
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In the Service of Music
Béla Bartók and Ditta Pásztory
Béla Bartók had always been interested in young girls. His first wife Márta was only sixteen when they married, and he did have an extramarital affair with the fifteen-year-old poetess Klára. Bartók also vigorously but unsuccessfully pursued the young violinist
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