Madrigals in elevated style formed the basis of various musical entertainments during the late Italian Renaissance. Before the advent of opera, composers habitually turned to the dramatic madrigal in an effort to create new musico-dramatic forms. Among the most popular

His teacher Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky called Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev “the greatest master of counterpoint in Russia; I am not even sure there is his equal in the West.” And his student Sergei Rachmaninoff, described Taneyev as “a master composer, the

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915) was a rather unusual character! Well into adulthood, he lived with his beloved nanny Pelageya Vassilievna Ivanovna. He abhorred alcohol and was a militant non-smoker; making his friends smoke at the open kitchen window in clear

Joseph Haydn was famous for his pranks! When he was a choirboy at St. Stephen’s cathedral in Vienna in 1749, he decided to test the sharpness of a new pair of scissors by snipping off the pigtail of one of

What happens when you take a synthesized excerpt of the fugue in B-minor from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach and use it to frame a pop song? In the case of Lady Gaga and her

Many composers are inspired by the places that they live, or by the people they know and their music can convey those images long after the places or people are just memories. The American composer, Ferde (or Ferdie) Grofé, was

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) gleefully reminds us that high-quality classical music does not always have to be deadly serious. He managed to sum up his general approach and attitude towards music in a few meaningful words: “I want to be free—independent

Natalya Sekerina emphatically rejected Alexander Scriabin’s proposal of marriage, and the composer was devastated. In a long letter, after many years had passed, Natalya writes, “That beloved man could never have had happiness, if I had been afraid to say