The solo violin has long been acknowledged as the perfect instrument to express emotions like love, longing, heartbreak, rapture, and romance. The Romantic era lasted from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and produced numerous works that
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Handel for Beginners: Eleven Pieces to Make You Love Handel April 20th, 2024 Composer George Frederic Handel was born in 1685 in Halle, Germany. Over the course of his career, he became one of the most famous and influential composers of the Baroque Era. Here are a few points about Handel’s life and -
Musical Postcards: Albeniz’s Recuerdos de viaje April 19th, 2024 The seven images memorialized in Recuerdos de viaje (Memories of Travel) by Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) take us around Spain from the sea to the Alhambra. His use of his melodies that sound like Spanish folksong was a large part of -
Shaking for Queen Victoria April 18th, 2024 In her 64 years as the reigning monarch of the British Empire, Queen Victoria oversaw a prolific era of cultural, industrial, and political change. Even more remarkable was the fact that music occupied a central place in the lives of -
Eleven Classical Music Composers Who Lived in Vienna April 17th, 2024 Which Composers Lived in Vienna? If there’s a world capital of classical music, Vienna is it. From the mid-eighteenth century up until the present day, Vienna has flourished as a musical center. The city attracted a veritable constellation of composers -
15 Pieces of Classical Music About Time April 15th, 2024 Time, time-keeping, ticking watches, ticking clocks: all of these concepts have proven inspirational to composers of classical music. Today we’re taking a look at centuries of classical music about time. There’s no time to waste, so keep reading! John Dowland: -
The Radical Upstart: The Saxophone April 14th, 2024 One of the few instruments of the orchestra that’s named for a person, the saxophone, was named after its inventor, Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax (1814–1894). His father, Charles-Joseph Sax (1790–1865) was also an instrument maker and had established a -
A Tour of the Galaxy
Leopold van der Pals’ Mönch Wanderer: Sphären-Musik April 13th, 2024Leopold van der Pals (1884–1966) took a different approach to the music of the planets in his 1931/1956 work Sphere-Music to the Dramatic Poem Mönch Wanderer, Op. 84. His Monk Wanderer was originally intended as a stage piece for actors, -
Playlist: Water Games April 12th, 2024 ‘Water games’ is one translation of Jeux d’eau by Maurice Ravel, others being Fountains and Playing Water. Each is equally apt: in this piece Ravel brilliantly evokes “the splashing of water and by the musical sounds of fountains, cascades and