In celebration of the holiday season, here is music by the twentieth century English composer Benjamin Britten. A Ceremony of Carols is scored for three part treble chorus, solo voices and harp. The text, from Gerald Bullett’s The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems is Middle English. Listen to the uniquely pure timbre produced by the boys’ choirs in these recordings. This is a sound that has been heard for centuries in cathedrals across England. …
Following up on last month’s post, let’s return to the music of Franz Schubert. Now we’ll hear how Schubert cleverly turned the melody of one of his songs into the second movement of a string quartet. Let’s start by listening to the song Death and the Maiden, written in 1817. It’s performed here by the legendary contralto, Marian Anderson. The text is from a poem by Matthias Claudius. Follow the English translation below. Death …
Schubert and Beethoven were contemporaries at the dawn of the Romantic Era, yet each approached composition differently. Beethoven painstakingly developed small musical motives that roared to life as shockingly innovative music. The music of Franz Schubert on the other hand, is firmly rooted in long, flowing, effortless melodies. Although Schubert lived only to the age of 32, he wrote over 600 songs. Before we get to a few Schubert songs, let’s consider …
Here are some inspiring clips featuring the great Russian violinist, Maxim Vengerov. In the first video, Vengerov performs the Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). The Chicago Symphony accompanies, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The concerto is followed by two encores: The Sarabanda from J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin (0:35:31) and Eugene Ysaye’s Ballad (0:40:06). Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) contributed greatly to the development …
Javelin…Michael Torke (b. 1961) Find on iTunes Find on Amazon In my last post we explored a fun, eight minute piece called Javelin by contemporary American composer, Michael Torke. I asked you to pay attention to the rich orchestral colors in the music. Now go back and listen a few more times to pick up some new details. Do you hear bright, shimmering colors? Do you feel swept along by the music’s motion? Maybe …