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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A Tour of Spain: Albéniz’ Suite Española May 8th, 2019 In 1887, Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz brought together a number of works for solo piano that he’d written the previous year and created his Suite Española No. 1, Op. 47. The works take the entire country for their inspiration, with -
Carl Loewe May 7th, 2019 The North German Schubert Carl Loewe (1796–1869) might no longer be a household name. However, in his time, he was a close friend of Schumann, Weber and Mendelssohn. In fact, he conducted the first performance of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream -
Three Dynasties Make One Orchestra May 6th, 2019 On April 24 2019, Xavier Bouvier visited Shanghai and made headlines. A professor of composition at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, he donated a sketch to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He’d purchased the sketch at an auction in -
Musicians and Artists: Gershwin and Dove May 5th, 2019 George Gershwin started on Broadway and finished on the opera stage. Along the way, he wrote the music that seemed to define the spark and light of the early American 20th century. The roaring 20s and Gershwin’s magic were brought -
Use the Difficulty May 5th, 2019 The title of this post is a quote from the British actor Michael Caine‘s memoirs which he read on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The phrase was first mentioned when he was describing setbacks in his early career -
How Inspiration Strikes May 4th, 2019 Composers tend to be a peculiar lot, particularly as it pertains to the best and most conducive circumstances in which they compose their best music. Of course, reports of that nature tend to be highly anecdotal, but more often then -
Music is the Rule May 3rd, 2019 Something that music teachers and composers could learn from people who mix and master music for a living is that music is the rule. Knowing the rules of music is as equally important as knowing the feel of music. Fine -
The Piano Sonata I May 2nd, 2019 The Evolution of the Classical Piano Sonata Say “Piano Sonata” and most people will think of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata (Op. 27/2), a work which bears what is generally considered to be the standard structure of a sonata – a work