A collection of musical firsts, including the first string quartet, the first use of trombones in a symphony, and the first professional musician to make a recording.
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After Dmitri Kabalevsky wrote music for a play called The Inventor and the Comedians, he put selections from that music into a concert suite called The Comedians. Listen to what’s […]
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Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn’s older sister, was a talented pianist and composer. So was Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann. Also featured: music of Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, […]
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Copland’s ballet Rodeo tells the story of a cowgirl who is in love with a cowboy, but just can't get him to notice her. Once she finally does, she decides […]
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In the „Farandole“ from Georges Bizet’s Arlésienne Suite, there are examples of all three kinds of harmonic texture: monophony, homophony, and polyphony. Hear those terms explained in words and in […]
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By the time Dmitri Kabalevsky was 14, the Russian Revolution had turned his country into a communist state. In spite of the Soviet Union’s control over artists of all kinds, […]
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Some composers in Tchaikovsky’s day didn’t think his music sounded „Russian“ enough, but Tchaikovsky was Russian through and through. Tchaikovsky wrote symphonies, operas, songs, chamber music — and of course, […]
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To go with this month’s music from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, some more music by composers who were playing with fire.
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When Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn put on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream to entertain their family, the two of them played all the characters! Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer […]
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Kodály’s opera Háry János is about a real person who told real whoppers – big, fat lies. If you listened to him, you'd think he defeated Napoleon's army all by […]
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