Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Hector Berlioz was born near the French town of Grenoble on December 11th, 1803. Berlioz started music at the much later age of 12, meaning he was never a ‘child prodigy’. After learning enough theory, he began writing small arrangements and compositions.Due to his father’s discouragement, Berlioz never learnt how to play the piano, instead Berlioz became proficient at playing the guitar and flute. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in 1830. This symphony is the perfect example…

When you see a teenager walking down the street, white earbuds firmly implanted, swaying slightly to their own inner grove, you can be pretty much certain that it’s not classical music they’re listening to. Teenagers I know can enthusiastically rattle off the name of a dozen bands on their current favorite playlist, but ask them if they know who Brahms was and a funny kind of glazed look comes over their eyes. Even my music students, who I’d hope would know better, are astonishingly…

Even though Mozart himself, who was only 32 years old at the time and had every reason to expect to live to see the dawn of the 19th century, certainly did not expect this to be the last symphony he ever composed, Symphony No. 41 could not have been a more perfect and appropriate summation and culmination of Mozart’s genius. This is an opinion shared by many scholars. One important reason for this argument is Mozart’s juxtaposition and integration of Learned and Galant style in the finale of…

Romeo and Juliet by Peter Tchaikovsky comprises of different events from the original play by William Shakespeare (Adagietto 2013). Tchaikovsky used many characters as well as moods with melodies that provided efficient musical differences. This play begins with an excellent clarinet and bassoon melody that indicates the two individuals’ relationship, somber as well as the friar Laurance. It is based on the Overture Fantasy; however it does not have the opus number Everybody can relate to the…

CANTATA In music, a chorale cantata is a sacred composition for voices and instruments, principally from the German Baroque era, in which the organizing principle is the words and music to a chorale. Usually, a chorale cantata is in multiple movements or parts. Most chorale cantatas were written between approximately 1650 and 1750. By far the most famous is by J. S. Bach, especially the cantatas composed in his second annual cycle of cantatas started in Leipzig in 1724. The dates of the…

I, Randy Rivas, attended a performance with two separate chamber groups and a soloist. One of the chamber groups was Christine S. Lopez and Sung Ae Lee both performing on piano, the other was Paul Da Silva playing piano and Manon Robertshaw on cello, and lastly Sung Ae Lee doing a solo performance. This was performed at Cerritos College in the music building at BC-51. It began at eleven in the morning on February twenty sixth. First musical performance was the piece of Muzio Clementi’s sonata in…

Biography Scot Joplin was an African-American pianist and a composer who was born in between 1867/68 and died on the 1st of April 1917. Scot Joplin was born into a musical family of railway laborers in Texas. He was greatly helped by his teachers to develop and understand his knowledge of music in his early years. In his young age, the composer grew up in Texarkana where he was involved in the formation of a vocal quartet and also taught guitar and mandolin (Berlin, 1996). In the late 1880’s,…

Romanticism was a period that started in the early 19th century, primarily in England and Germany. At first Romanticism influenced the literature world, but by 1820s musicians started to adopt the style in their music as well. Hector Berlioz was a French composer during the Early Romantics period in the 1830s. He is most famously known for his piece “Symphony Fantastique” 5th Movement composed in 1830, where he tells about his own personal love for an Irish Actress, Harriet Smithson. Hector…

The first Horn Concerto, Op. 11, by Richard Strauss is one of the most notorious pieces in horn literature. The concerto was written in 1882 and is a standard example of the Romantic era. Strauss created both the piano and orchestral versions, with the orchestra score calling for solo horn, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings (Steinberg). The orchestral version was premiered on March 4, 1885. Richard Struss’ father, Franz, was the…

Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on October 10, 1917 at Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Thelonious Monk was a famous jazz musician and composer that fell in love with music at a very young age. Before Thelonious Monk was known as a genius, he was judged by many observers for a decade, yet while receiving all the judgment he never changed his music once. Monk never gave up on himself and he loved his music so much, that's why he saw no need to modify his style. Thelonious Monk was around five…