Unconscious bursts of creativity that engender significant artistic endeavors are not necessarily inspired by passionate romantic love alone. Greek mythology believed that this kind of stimulus came from nine muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Muses were long considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs and ancient myths. Throughout the history of Western art, artists, writers and musicians have prayed to the muses, or alternately, drawn inspiration from personified muses that conceptually reside beyond the borders of earthly love. True to life, however, composer inspiration has emerged from the entire spectrums of existence and being. Nature has always played a decidedly important role in the inspiration of various classical composers, as did exotic cities, landscapes or rituals. Composer inspiration is also found in poetry, the visual arts, and mythological stories and tales. Artistic, historical or cultural expressions of the past are just as inspirational as is the everyday: the third Punic War or the contrapuntal mastery of Bach is inspirationally just as relevant as are the virulent bat and camel. Composer inspiration is delightfully drawn from heroes and villains, scientific advances, a pet, or something as mundane as a hangover. Discover what fires the imagination of people who never stop asking questions.
Franz Joseph Haydn is recognized today as the central figure in the creation and establishment of the Viennese Classical Style. Famous around the mid-1760s, by the 1780s he had become the most celebrated composer of his time. And from the
It’s a testimony to the public knowledge of classical music when we look at a couple of Bugs Bunny classics as part of the Merrie Melodies series. One of the first cartoons where Bugs takes on the classics is Long-Haired
The story of Christmas has had a powerful hold on the imagination of writers around the world for centuries. Literary greats ranging from Charles Dickens to Kurt Vonnegut have referenced a variety of Christmas rituals, but the central drama of
Madrid, the heart of Spain, is a city of both historical architecture and the latest of the modern. The classical sound in the city includes the guitar and the orchestra. At the center, the city visitor will find the Royal
The post WWII era saw more social topics being taken up in the musical such as social injustice, union-busting, and racism, it also saw the introduction of international settings that were normal rather than fantastical.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the French cabaret was a gathering place for the artistic and literary elite. It projected social and artistic ideals and was widely imitated through new establishments and touring performers. Among the traveling stars
One of the wonders of animation in the 1930 and ‘40s was the breadth of classical music. Walt Disney took this seriously in Fantasia. Intended to be an ongoing series of settings of classical music, the feature-length cartoon (and some
You want to check out the city ahead of the crush of the 2020 Summer Olympics, here’s a bit of travel music to see the city. City sounds, traditional sounds, the modern and the antique are all part of Japanese