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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György Sebők – Pianist, Artist, Alchemist March 18th, 2014 Have you ever had a teacher who was a great musician, mystic, mentor, statesman and alchemist all at once? Pianist, György Sebők was such a man. When I first met him at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in the late -
Pipe Dreams
The instruments of Gottfried Silbermann March 17th, 2014Are you ready for your monthly instrument quiz? I think you’re going to like this one! Here it goes. What instruments did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have in mind when he wrote, “These instruments are magnificent beyond measure?” And in case -
The Supernatural in Music
I. The Interval of the Devil: Basic Musical Elements March 16th, 2014The Devil is incarnate in music! Or so the medieval musicians believed as they worked to develop the basics of sound. Some pitches, when sounded together, just seemed to make an organ howl, hence they were known as wolf tones. -
Musicals and Opera: Long-lost Siblings? March 16th, 2014 The statures of musicals and operas seem worlds apart – opera’s for the snobs, musicals are for the masses, right? This is, thankfully, becoming more and more of a hackneyed stereotype, untrue of the current situation. Opera companies are trying -
Representation of the Supernatural in Music March 15th, 2014 From the very beginnings of human memory, witches, ghouls, ghosts and goblins have played a highly significant role in the formation and continuance of stories that have attempted an explanation of natural phenomena and inexplicable cultural conventions. -
Extreme Privacy
Jean-Philippe Rameau and Marie-Louise Mangot March 15th, 2014Jean-Philippe Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie, “Ou suis-je?” Jean-Philippe Rameau was extremely tall and thin, “more like a ghost than a man.” He had a sharp chin, no stomach, flutes for legs and his eagle profile was aesthetically so attractive that -
Visions of Arcadia in Music, Art and Literature II March 14th, 2014 In my last article, ‘Visions of Arcadia in Music, Art and Literature I’, I focused on the Arcadian theme in the classical period. Today I will concentrate on its continuation in the 19th century — with the music of Jacques -
In touch with Michael Thomas Foumai March 13th, 2014 Hailed as “the city’s most innovative music experience” by the Financial Times, the Intimacy of Creativity, founded by Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng, begins its fourth cycle this April, to bring together internationally acclaimed performers and composers for creative dialogue and