Coosje van Bruggen

“If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.” ~Gustav Mahler. The romantic style period started during 1780 and ended in about 1910. It was one of the most influential time periods that ever was. The romantic period was dramatic and full of action, also involving contradictions between capitalism and socialism, freedom and oppression, emotion, and faith. Many passionate pieces were written during The result of this was creative artists…

Gustav Holst, born in Cheltenham in September 1847, is still today considered to be one of the greatest music composers of all time.He didn’t start out as the great composer that we know and love. His path to success wasn’t the smoothest. Holst was born to Adolph von Holst and Clara Cox Lediard. His father was a professional pianist who practiced many hours a day leaving very few to his wife Clara and their children. Clara was a student of Adolph when they first met. She was also a talented…

Yo Yo Ma is the picture of a modern day musician. Growing up in France and then America, he has always struggled to find his individuality. After years of rebellion he finally settled down career, he created the Silk Road Ensemble and went on to win many awards and recognitions. Ma has changed the face of music forever. Born in 1955, Paris, France, Yo Yo Ma changes classical music forever. His father, a professor of musicology and a composer, and his mother, an opera singer, both knew he was…

“It’s the little things that are vital. Little things make big things happen” (by john wooden), I agree with this quote by Mr. Wooden. I may not be related to vampires, but it is true little things the vampires do help our humanity. It has created believer to keep believing in science fiction. By having the power of the underdog, it has created a new culture, fear, and monsters. Vampire literature has changed dramatically over the centuries. The old vampire is a blood-thirsty, emotionless…

ou might say they pulled out the stops at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert on Friday. There were many engaging moments in the Cincinnati Symphony's unique program hailing the French organ tradition in Music Hall. But Louis Langrée’s direction of the famous “Poco adagio” in Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, “Organ,” was truly magical. At the Allen organ, Thierry Escaich’s tones provided a soft, rich carpet under the lustrous sounds of the Cincinnati strings. It was serene and moving, and…

José Vivas- Astara created an oil on canvas painting Catalan Scene in 1971 using oil paints. The painting is a landscape painting. The art piece shows the missions with a couple of houses surrounding it. All the houses are connected to each other but they are all different heights. The houses have red tiled roofs and white stucco walls. Close to the houses there is a body of water with trees and grass surrounding it. In the painting you can tell it’s a sunny day by how the painting depicts warm…

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid 19th-century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for 'trumpet'. A person who plays the tuba is known as a tubaist or tubist. In the United Kingdom a person who plays the tuba in an orchestra is known…

In the world of music, no piece quite received quite the same reception as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. As a paganistic approach to the rebirth and celebration of nature, the piece astonished audiences with its forceful and earth-like tones. However, the world premiere induced a massive riot throughout the audience, which rendered the orchestra inaudible. The chaos that ensued angered Stravinsky, who was displeased with humanity as a whole. In the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky expressed the…

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Vincent Van Gogh were artist that painted work some 200 years apart. Each contributed many wonderful painting to society. Both were extremely talented and struggled to be discovered. To narrow one down as the bigger contributor to society, I would have to proclaim Caravaggio. The variety and stories depicted in his works are biblically and historically valuable images. Van Gogh’s seemed to paint at a fast rate turning out several paintings that were…

If you’ve ever heard the Mozart requiem, chances are, you’ve heard the Süssmayr completion. What many people don’t know is that there are also other completions, the most famous ones being the versions by Franz Beyer, Robert Levin, Richard Maunder, Duncan Druce, and HC Robbins Landon. Today we are going to take a closer look at one section, the Lacrimosa. As many people already know, Mozart only wrote eight bars of the Lacrimosa before his death on December 5, 1791. When Joseph Eybler tried his…