A funeral march is a musical work with a slow, stately pulse – typically in a minor key and in 4/4 time – imitating a funeral procession. While the specific origins of the funeral march are unknown, books of military music suggest that the earliest funeral marches were slow, simple beats kept on a large […]
Read More
Ludovico Einaudi. I’ve heard his name come up often over the last year or so, but for some reason I never listened to his music. That is until someone suggested I find something of his to play on the piano, and I was amazed. Einaudi creates his own unique, colorful world through his music, and […]
Read More
It’s almost December! I hope you are all enjoying this season of love, family, and twinkling lights. 🙂 I personally love the cold weather – especially the snow and the music! And because Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” is a winter classic, that got me thinking. Has he written any other music inspired by winter? The answer is yes! So in […]
Read More
Music is hard. Doing this for a career is hard. It’s not your usual 9-5 job that you can forget about at the end of the day. It’s something that permeates your life, the good and the bad, whether you want it to or not. It resonates with and pounds against your soul and it […]
Read More
It’s almost Halloween! I’m not usually one to celebrate this particular holiday, but I thought it would be fun to look at some creepy classical music in today’s post. Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach This fun little organ piece (okay, this hugely enormous organ piece) is believed to have been written by […]
Read More
Background Even though some use the term “classical music” to describe all music from the middle ages through now, the Classical era went from roughly 1750 to 1820. In the middle of the 18th century – the end of the Baroque era – Western Europe shifted towards a new style of literature, architecture, and art […]
Read More
It’s officially autumn! Time to bust out sweaters and boots and pumpkin spice everything. And while you’re at it, take a moment to listen to some of these classical works inspired by the new season. Antonio Vivaldi‘s Concerto no. 3 in F major, L’autunno (“Autumn” from The Four Seasons) Written around 1721, The Four Seasons is a hugely […]
Read More
Welcome to the second installment of Music Favorites. Check out part 1 here! It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite piece of music. It’s like asking a mom to pick her favorite child or a movie fanatic to pick his favorite film. But I have compiled a list of my favorite works to share, […]
Read More
Okay guys, here’s the second installment of the series Music Inspired by Water. Check out part one here! Last time we talked about orchestral music, so today’s playlist is piano works inspired by water. Jeux d’eau by Ravel First up: Jeux d’eau (“Playing Water”) by Ravel (1875-1937). The composer himself said of this piano work: Jeux d’eau, appearing in 1901, […]
Read More
This weekend I’m spending a few days at the coast, so I created a playlist of music inspired by the ocean. I found many pieces of classical music inspired by water, so I thought I’d write a blog post about it! First up: “Die Hebriden” (The Hebrides) by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). This concert overture, also known […]
Read More