Theodore Shapiro’s “Severance” Theme: Haunting and Hypnotic

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In a recent post at his Youtube channel, Everything Music, Rick Beato analyzes the title theme from the hit television series, Severance, composed by Theodore Shapiro. Built on modal harmony, the theme is at once haunting, hypnotic, satisfying, and unsettling. Developing from a small fragment, its tension-filled melodic line is filled with wrenching, exotic intervals. Shapiro drew subtle inspiration from David Shire’s theme for the 1974 film noir thriller, The Conversation, which similarly features …

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Jocelyn Morlock’s “Solace”: Echoes of Josquin

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Born in the St. Boniface ward of Winnipeg, Jocelyn Morlock (1969-2023) was one of Canada’s most prominent composers. Based in Vancouver, she was the inaugural composer-in-residence for the city’s Music on Main Society (2012–14), and later for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2014-2019). She described much of her music as being  “inspired by birds, insomnia, or a peculiar combination thereof.” In the 2001 string orchestra work, Solace, the solo violin erupts in exuberant birdsong …

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Haydn’s Symphony No. 83 in G Minor: “The Hen” (La Poule)

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In 1784, Franz Joseph Haydn received a commission to write six symphonies (Nos. 82-87) from the board of directors of the Parisian concert society, the Concert de la Loge Olympique. The orchestra at Haydn’s disposal, which included 40 violins and 10 double basses, was far larger than the chamber ensemble of 25 players at the Esterházy Palace where Haydn was employed. According to musicologist Robbins Landon, “The musicians wore splendid ‘sky-blue’ dress …

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Handel’s “Semele,” “Endless Pleasure”: The Music of Elation

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Handel’s Semele, first performed at Covent Garden Theater in 1744, falls somewhere between an opera and a three-part oratorio. It is based on a mythological story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses which centers around Semele, the mother of Bacchus. At the end of the first act, Semele expresses delight in her role as the new mistress of the god, Jupiter. Her elation is expressed in the aria, Endless pleasure, endless love. Dancing accompaniment lines swirl …

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Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds and Orchestra

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In 1915, while working on his Fifth Symphony, Jean Sibelius ventured into the Finnish landscape where he saw sixteen swans take flight into the midday sky, circle, and disappear “into the solar haze like a gleaming silver ribbon.” The experience inspired the pivotal theme of the Symphony’s final movement, which emerges majestically in the horns. Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), perhaps the most significant Finnish composer of the second half of the 20th century, …

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Shunske Sato Plays Vivaldi: “Winter” from “The Four Seasons”

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Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) is one of the earliest and most iconic examples of programmatic music. Vivaldi composed the collection of four violin concerti, each depicting a season of the year, during his tenure as music director at the court chapel of Mantua. Along with eight additional concerti, the works were published in Amsterdam in 1725 under the enticing title, Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (“The Contest Between Harmony and …

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Schumann’s Six Fugues on B-A-C-H and Six Canonic Etudes: Contrapuntal Explorations

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“What art owes to Bach is to the musical world hardly less than what a religion owes to its founder,” said Robert Schumann. (Eric Frederick Jensen) Championed in part by Mendelssohn, the first half of the 19th century saw a revival of interest in the music of J.S. Bach. Nine days after their wedding, Robert and Clara Schumann began an extensive study of Bach’s counterpoint together. The occasion was documented by Clara …

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