I want to share some new music with you this week! Petite Waltz is an original piano solo composed by yours truly. Check it out: This piece was seriously fun to write. I composed the first minute and a half four years ago, but I set it aside to finish later. However, I never forgot about […]
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This week I came across a piano work by French composer Darius Milhaud (pronounced Mee-YO) called Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67. It’s a suite of 12 dances based on his trip to Brazil, and they’re simply charming. Although French, Milhaud (1892-1974) was heavily influenced by jazz and Brazilian music. In 1917-18, he traveled to Latin America and was […]
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This week I’m listening to 12 poems of Emily Dickinson by Aaron Copland, an American composer, teacher, and conductor who lived from 1900-1990. You can read more about him here. Have you ever read a poem that spoke to you in a way nothing else has? That’s what happened to Copland. He wanted to set some poetry […]
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The other day I was introduced to this piece – 3 Lieder nach Trakl, No. 1, Ein Traum I (Three Songs to Words by Trakl, No. 1, Three Dreams) by Polish composer Paweł Szymański (b. 1954). That’s a mouthful, I know. The first version I heard was this one, for soprano and piano: The first thing that struck […]
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Today I want to share with you a fun little piece I recently performed with the OSU Wind Ensemble. Danzón No. 2 was written by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) in 1994 after a commission from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Rhythm, through tempo changes and strangely placed accents, is the driving […]
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I found a new composer today named Marcos Balter. Born in 1974 in Brazil, he’s been a musician his whole life. Read more about him here. Balter’s compositional style is characteristic of 21st century composers in that it’s exploratory and unique. He makes new and colorful sounds through various extended techniques, unlikely instrumentation, and complex […]
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This piece came up in my “Recommended” section in YouTube, and I’d never heard it before, so I listened to it and thought I’d share it with you! American composer John Adams began writing music at a young age. He is one of America’s most well-known composers, as he has written a variety of works for […]
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So this week I want to introduce you to a 21st century choral piece called Northern Lights by Norwegian composer/pianist Ola Gjeilo. It’s incredible. The text is the Latin Pulchra es amica mea, from Song of Solomon (in the Bible). Here is an English translation: Thou art beautiful, O my love,sweet and comely as Jerusalem,terrible as an army set in […]
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Last week we talked about Renaissance music, so today I’m going to introduce you to Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis and his choral motet Spem in alium. An English composer who lived from around 1505-1585, Thomas Tallis is considered one of England’s greatest composers. Not much is known about his early life, but he was probably […]
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“Three lullabies for my sorrows.” That’s how Johannes Brahms (German pianist composer who lived from 1833-1897; read more about him here) described his op. 117. Written in the summer of 1892, op. 117 consists of three piano pieces categorized as – and named – Intermezzi (Brahms titled many of his pieces Intermezzo, which is defined as […]
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