The Medieval Era. Beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire around 500 CE and ending around 1400 with the Renaissance, the Medieval period is known for the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, the Black Death plague (which killed almost one-third of Europe’s population in the late 1340s), the 100 years war, and knights/serfs/King […]
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Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was one of the most important composers leading into the 20th century. He pushed against boundaries, created his own harmonies, and paved the way for future composers to compose beautiful and unique sounds. Read more about him here. Musical Analysis Nuages is the first movement of a work called Nocturnes, a set of three symphonic […]
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I recently came across a little Mozartian gem called Das Veilchen (“The Violet”), K. 476. It’s a song for voice and piano he wrote in 1785 set to the words of a poem by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The poem was written in the early 1770s as a metaphor for a young man’s broken heart, and […]
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La Valse (The Waltz) by Maurice Ravel, written between 1919 and 1920, exists in three different versions: a piano solo, a piano duet, and an orchestral version. The work was originally written as a ballet, but due to tension between Ravel and commissioner/impressario (one who organizes and produces concerts, plays, or operas) Sergei Diaghilev, it was never turned […]
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Music has been around since the beginning of time. It has been a form of communication and community since before there were even communities (haha). But because drawings, the written word, photographs, movies, the Internet, etc. haven’t been around as long to document our cultural history, we only have a small amount of knowledge about the […]
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Learn about the life and music of composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
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About Scriabin Alexander Scriabin: one of the most influential composers of modern music. The Russian composer and pianist, who lived from 1872-1915, either crazy or a genius (or both), influenced prominent 20th century composers (such as Igor Stravinsky and Prokofiev). Scriabin is known for his harsh dissonance and atonal music (music that does not have a tonal […]
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Learn about the life and music of composer Sergei Prokofiev.
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I love Christmas. Like, I really love Christmas. I love how there is an emphasis on spending time with family and being kind to others. I love the cold weather (even though it doesn’t really snow here in western Oregon 🙁 ) and hot chocolate and twinkling lights. But probably the thing I love most about Christmas […]
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Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn (also known as Joseph Haydn or Papa Haydn) is a staple of the Classical era. Throughout his lifetime (1732-1809), he was highly regarded as a composer; in fact, he is known as “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” because he was instrumental (pun definitely intended) in shaping […]
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