These last few months have been a little crazy and stressful. Okay, a lot crazy and stressful. I decided to take a little break today and listen to some music that I like, so I thought I’d share some of those pieces with you. Prelude in B minor by Rachmaninoff First up: Prelude in B minor […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
Learn about the life and music of composer Sergei Prokofiev.
Read More
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” penned Shakespeare in the late 16th century. The famous love story Romeo and Juliet has been read time and time again, and many a composer has called upon the play’s tragic woes as inspiration for new music. From ballet to film to Broadway, musical interpretations of Romeo and […]
Read More