With his twenty Études for solo piano, written between 1992 and 2012, Philip Glass follows in the footsteps of composers such as Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninov, and Ligeti. Glass wrote the first book of Études as an exploration of “tempi, textures, and piano techniques,” adding “At the same time, it was meant to serve as a pedagogical tool by which I would improve my piano playing.” Étude No. 6 was commissioned in 1994 by WNYC …
The mighty Choral No. 3 in A minor for organ was the final work of César Franck. Composed in 1890, it is an epic farewell. Filled with chromaticism and moments of haunting dissonance, its progressive harmony pushes at the boundaries of tonality. The symphonic scale of the music, with its array of tonal colors, was influenced by the magnificent three-manual Aristide Cavaillé-Coll pipe organ Franck played for 30 years at Paris’ Basilica of …
In search of what he called “the dark and the beautiful and the endless,” American composer Ingram Marshall (1942-2022) blended electronic and acoustic elements to create awe-inspiring soundscapes. The Listeners’ Club archive includes Marshall’s atmospheric Fog Tropes (1982) and Wanderer’s Night Song (1992). Timo Andres made this impromptu recording of Marshall’s 2002 solo piano work, Authentic Presence, following the composer’s death. He wrote the following program note: Ingram Marshall was one of my graduate …
In 1814, after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key penned the famous words that would become the American National Anthem. At the end of the battle, the 15 stars and stripes of the young nation’s flag continued to fly defiantly above the Fort, forming the poem’s defining image. Composed in 1866, a year after the end of the American Civil War, Dudley Buck’s Concert Variations …
Felix Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 30, No. 6 for solo piano evokes a dreamy, nocturnal Venetian scene. A quiet, longing melody emerges over a barcarolle rhythm. It suggests gently lapping water, and the hypnotic repetition of the gondolier’s oar. The brief work is set in melancholy F-sharp minor. Its final notes fade suddenly into the night. Composed in 1835, it concludes Book II of Mendelssohn’s collection of Songs Without Words. This …
Throughout the music of Tchaikovsky, the key of F minor is associated with deep sadness, resignation, and the triumph of fate. F minor is the key of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, with its haunting and recurring “fate” motif. A similar melancholy envelops Tchaikovsky’s Romance in F minor, Op. 5 for solo piano. It was composed in late 1868 around the time of Tchaikovsky’s doomed relationship with the Belgian soprano, Désirée Artôt. The first …
In 1992, musicologist Peter Wollny came across two dusty unattributed musical manuscripts in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Wollny recalled, The handwriting of the score just fascinated me, and I had this vague feeling that these bits of paper could be interesting some day. So I made photocopies and created a file that I dragged around with me for 30 years. The two works were chaconnes for organ. Featuring variations …