Specific cities have inspired a huge amount of classical music over the years. Today, we’re looking at a selection of classical works explicitly connected to major cities, examining how each composer responded to each place. Some pieces reflect civic pride
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Franz Schreker: Der Ferne Klang (The Distant Sound)
Premiered Today in 1912 August 18th, 2018Franz Schreker (1878-1934) is largely forgotten today, but in his time he was Richard Strauss’ main rival for the title of Germany’s leading composer of opera. Schreker wrote complex harmonic scores using advanced chromatic harmonies and large orchestras, yet his -
Familiar but Different – Opera in Other Languages August 17th, 2018 We are so used to the sound of opera aria sung in their native language that when we run across translated versions, we’re often stopped in our tracks. English National Opera in London is (in)famous for its presentation of all -
The Silver Voice on the Silver Screen
An Interview with Grace Davidson August 16th, 2018You’ve heard her voice but never seen her perform, she’s been in all of your favourite movies but you won’t recognize her. She’s been in Thor: Ragnarok, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Hobbit films 2 and 3, -
Tributes and Piano Transcriptions by Franz Liszt August 16th, 2018 In the nineteenth century Franz Liszt probably did more than any other composer for the genre of the piano transcription. His transcriptions and paraphrases made an important contribution to the development of piano music, with their technical challenges, innovative notation, -
Rarities of Piano Music August 15th, 2018 Every summer a rather special piano festival takes place at Schloss vor Husum in the remote North German seaside town of Husum in Schleswig-Holstein. It is not a festival which parades its star performers. Rather, its very remoteness and its -
The World Captured in Music August 14th, 2018 Swiss composer Arthur Honegger wrote three ‘symphonic movements,’ as he called them. The first, Pacific 231, written in 1923, brought the world of a great train to the concert stage. -
Mapping the Musical Genome
The Wagner Family August 13th, 2018Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was the manliest man in a manly world of manly composers! Creator of theatrical and musical dramas lasting the better part of eternity, his works are perpetually in danger of drowning in gigantic puddles of testosterone. As -
The Melotype by Gustave Rundstatler August 12th, 2018 Last time, I introduced you to the Columbia Music Typewriter. And rightfully, you must have thought that it really doesn’t look anything like a conventional typewriter or a machine operated via a keyboard. And it certainly looked rather cumbersome to