The viola may be the less flashy sibling of the violin, but in the hands of these seven great women composers, the viola truly shines as a solo instrument. From the bold modernism of Marga Richter and Peggy Glanville-Hicks to
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New Pieces to Try If You’re Stuck for Repertoire Ideas September 28th, 2020 Pianists are very spoilt for choice. We have a huge repertoire to draw on and a seemingly endless array of music to explore, with new music being added to the repertoire all the time. In addition, in the world of -
Music & Colours
How I Associate Colours to Music Vocabulary September 28th, 2020In a 2018 article entitled Three Shades of Yellow, I explain what synesthesia is — a condition in which one sense, in this case hearing, is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses, such as sight. I -
The Music of Poetry
Alfred de Musset: “La Nuit de Mai” September 27th, 2020The French dramatist, poet and novelist Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) is probably best known for his autobiographical novel La Confession d’un enfant du siècle (The Confession of a Child of the Century). It was inspired by his scandalous real-time affair -
Music – Refresher of Spirits September 27th, 2020 The title page of the first edition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations describes the work as music “for the refreshment of their spirits”. During this time of pandemic, people have turned to music not just to refresh but also to provide -
Composers in the Court Room
Lichnowsky versus Mozart September 26th, 2020A curious entry was found in a Logbook of the Special Court of Aristocrats in Vienna dated 12th November 1791. It states, “Prince Karl Lichnowsky in his case against K.K.Hof Kappelmeister Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, owing to indebtedness of 1,435 Gulden -
Dancing in Character: Bottiroli’s La tribu baila September 25th, 2020 When we think of a waltz, we think of the big waltzes in the Viennese style – sweeping gestures, sweeping gowns, and a multi-part complex composition. Argentine composer José Antonio Bottiroli (1920-1990), however, reduced the waltz to little works of -
The City Morning and Night
Molinelli’s 4 Pictures from New York September 24th, 2020How to you show the various facets of a great and complex city? In his Four Pictures from New York, composer Roberto Molinelli takes a range across a day, with a focus on the inherent music of the city. The -
Carl Maria von Weber: Inspired by Turandot
“Overture and Marches” for Turandot, Op. 37 September 23rd, 2020Carlo Gozzi’s play Turandot was first performed in Venice in 1762. It was a deliberate attempt to counter the new literary trend of bourgeois realism so prevalent in the works of Carlo Goldoni. When Friedrich Schiller fashioned his German translation,