In essence

1669 Posts
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Johannes Brahms and His Circle of Friends
Johannes Brahms was well connected. He befriended and collaborated with hundreds of people during his career, including fellow musicians and composers, publishers and artists, poets whose texts he set to music, and even rulers of certain German states with whom
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Dog Music
If you’re not a cat person, perhaps dogs are your home animal of choice. Known for their love and faithfulness to their owners, dogs are also work animals for some people. In this survey of dog music, where does your
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Robert Schumann: Album of Songs for the Young
For the 7th birthday of his daughter Marie, Robert Schumann compiled a short album of “Little Piano Pieces.” Once he had gotten that process started, Schumann kept adding miniatures to the collection. His wife Clara Schumann wrote in her diary,
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The Delphic Mysteries
Annie Bélis and Mark Edwards Wilson
Zeus sent out two eagles and where their paths crossed was the center of the world. At that center, Delphi the Oracle, made her pronouncements. You could seek guidance from her, but the interpretation of what she said was up
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The Chromatic Master: Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903
Schoenberg, the master of the Second Viennese School, called him the first 12-tone composer. It was his treatment of chromatic themes that prompted that statement. It’s J.S. Bach, of course, and one of the works that prompted that label was
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Classical Music Moments in Movies V
The music of American composer Howard Hanson entered popular consciousness when excerpts of his 2nd Symphony were used in the 1979 sci-fi horror movie “Alien.” Although the musical excerpt was used without permission, the composer decided not to fight the
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Films Adapted from Dostoevsky Novels
“The Gambler”
Gerard Schurmann: The Gambler Suite The Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and journalist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) had a serious gambling addiction. Like a good many gamblers, he believed that he had found the secret to winning at the tables.
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Giving the Lark New Wings
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ quintessential work for violin and for the summer is The Lark Ascending. We are so familiar with its trilling and rising skylark, personified by the violin, who takes flight above a quiet chamber orchestra. Vaughan was inspired
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