Ingram Marshall’s “Fog Tropes”: A Haunting Soundscape

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The American composer, Ingram Marshall, passed away on May 31 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 80. Blending elements of minimalism and electronic music, Marshall revealed magical new soundscapes. Disparate influences emerge throughout his music which include the Javanese gamelan, Balinese bamboo flute, and references to the works of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Sibelius, and Stravinsky, among others. As a composer, Marshall was in search of what he called “the dark and the beautiful …

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Copland’s “The Red Pony” Suite: Film Music of the American Frontier

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Aaron Copland was the quintessential city dweller. Born in 1900 to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, Copland grew up amid the brownstones of Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 21, he set sail for Paris to study with the legendary composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Returning to the United States four years later, Copland settled in a studio apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Although his maternal grandfather had lived on the Illinois prairie in …

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Barber’s “Prayers of Kierkegaard”: A Meditation on Redemption

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Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard is a single movement cantata based on texts by the Danish theologian, philosopher, and poet, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Completed in 1954, in response to a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, it is scored for chorus, large orchestra, soprano solo, and incidental tenor and alto solos. The piece unfolds in four sections, beginning with a mystical allusion to medieval Gregorian chant. The words evoke the suffering and redemption of Christ …

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Augustin Hadelich Plays Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, “Ballade”

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When performing, the great Belgian violinist, Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), strove for “emotion, poetry, heart.” Called “the king of the violin,” Ysaÿe’s brilliant technique set a new standard. The conductor, Sir Henry Wood, described his tone as “ravishingly beautiful,” and noted that Ysaÿe “seemed to get more colour out of a violin than any of his contemporaries.” Among the over 200 works written for Ysaÿe are Ernest Chausson’s Poème and César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major, …

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Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” Symphony: An Artist in Society

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In 1934, as the Nazis rose to power in his native Germany, Paul Hindemith worked concurrently on an opera and a symphony, both of which emerged from the same musical source. The opera, Mathis der Maler (“Mathias the Painter”), is a fictional account of the life of the German Renaissance painter, Mathias Grunewald (c. 1475-1528). It is set during Central Europe’s Peasants’ War of 1524, a brief, but tumultuous, rebellion which was …

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Telemann’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor: Han de Vries and Alma Musica Amsterdam

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For the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), writing music seems to have been an effortless part of daily life. Celebrated alongside J.S. Bach and Handel as one of the most significant composers of his time, Telemann produced more than 6,000 works. This amazing catalogue includes at least twelve concertos for oboe (or the slightly deeper oboe d’amore) which are set in the Italian concerto da chiesa (church concerto) form. This form features four …

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Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”: Three Powerful Excerpts

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Manon Lescaut, Giacomo Puccini’s 1893 opera in four acts, tells a haunting story of ill-fated love. Des Grieux, a student living in poverty, falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Manon, who is being taken by her brother to live in a convent. Des Grieux convinces Manon to run away with him. Yet, soon she becomes restless and torn between a life of passion with Des Grieux and material wealth with Geronte, a …

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