In classical music, the Romantic Era lasted from around 1810 to around 1910. That century gave us some of the most famous symphonies in the repertoire. Nineteenth-century composers like Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvořák, Schubert, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and others elevated the symphony
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On This Day
19 October: Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser Was Premiered October 19th, 2022Prior to his transformation of operatic thought via the notion of the “Gesamtkunstwerk,” a concept that attempted to achieve a synthesis of poetic, visual, musical, and dramatic arts, Richard Wagner was predominantly known as an opera composer in the romantic -
On This Day
18 October: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 Was Premiered October 18th, 2022In the afternoon of 24 February 1901, Gustav Mahler conducted the sixth Philharmonic concert in a performance of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony. Mahler had been unhappy that Bruckner had left so many passages and themes “of a Beethovenian grandeur not carried -
The Greatest Composers of Film Music
From John Williams to Tan Dun October 17th, 2022Do you know the answer to the question as to which film score the American Film Institute considers the greatest film score of all time? I am sure you can hazard a pretty good guess, but just in case, the -
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