The love story between Robert and Clara Schumann is often regarded as one of the most romantic in classical music history. Happily for historians, many of their love letters survive. They document their inner thoughts and emotions, as well as
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Lucrezia Floriani
Romantic Relationship Between Frédéric Chopin and George Sand October 17th, 2022The phrase “to kiss and tell” first appeared in print in 1695 in the comedy Love for Love by playwright William Congreve. In the play, the swain is worried about his love’s indiscretion as she is in the process of -
Elliott Carter October 16th, 2022 “My musical life started with hearing contemporary music” The American composer Elliott Carter (1908-2012) blended the “achievements of European modernism and American ultra-modernism into a unique style of surging rhythmic vitality, intense dramatic contrast, and innovative fracture.” Glowing accolades aside, -
Four-Hand Piano Works From Latin America I October 16th, 2022 Latin American music is a broad term: it encompasses a variety of styles and often combines elements of folk and indigenous music, African rhythms, and traditional western European music. We may be aware of several famous Latin American composers of -
On This Day
16 October: Marin Alsop Was Born October 16th, 2022Much has been made of Marin Alsop’s appointment as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007. And rightfully so, as she was the first woman to hold this position with a major American orchestra. Her achievement forever raised -
Le Corbusier
“To Be Modern Is Not a Fashion, It Is a State” October 15th, 2022Born in a small town in the Swiss Jura region famous for precision watchmaking on 6 October 1887, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, later known as Le Corbusier, was one of the great pioneers of Modernism in architecture. His designs, buildings, and urban -
Ludovico Einaudi: Saviour of Classical Music October 15th, 2022 Oh go on, get over it. You clicked on it, you’re ready to scoff and get angry, and you’re sceptical as shit about anything I could write that might convince you to think otherwise. But let me invite you for -
On This Day
15 October: Claude Debussy’s La Mer Was Premiered October 15th, 2022Claude Debussy writes, “I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the -
Dance, Dance, Dance: The Chaconne / Ciacona October 14th, 2022 The chaconne or ciacona in Italian, is a dance with a double life. When it first appeared in Spain in the late 16th century as a transplant from the New World, it was a quick-tempo dance song, where the texts