Jake Chambers

The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from 1947 to 1991. While there were no direct military operations or battles between the two, billions of dollars were used to fund the war and millions of lives were lost. Following WWII, the United States was attempting to prevent the spread of the USSR’s Communist power in Africa, Asia, and the rest of Europe. Americans viewed communism as a threat to democratic freedom. Diverse theaters such as Korea,…

Franz Joseph Haydn was a Austrian composer that was born on March 31, 1732 and died on May 31, 1809 . He became the main composer of the classical style of music. Franz Joseph Haydn is also known as the “ Father of the Symphony.” Two of his most famous pieces are The ‘Surprise’ Symphony and “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” With his musical talent he became rich.He composed about 100 symphonies. Franz Joseph Haydn influenced music very much. During his early life in 1740 around…

The string quartet has been one of the predominant genres of chamber music since the year of 1759. The string quartet consists of four string instruments, usually with two violins, a viola and a cello which performed structured symphonies in the form of four movements. The first movement in Sonata form, Allegro, in the tonic key; the second movement is a slow movement, in a related key; the third movement is a Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key; and the fourth movement is often in Rondo form or…

Contemporary period is a big-mixed era in the world. Many materials and ideas all can put into music or art works. In this research paper, I will talk about the background of the contemporary era, composers of the contemporary period, the modernism and many different styles of music in this period. This piece I want to talk about, is the horn sonata, wrote by Paul Hindemith. This piece is a good piece to describe the music of the contemporary period because we still perform this at present, and…

Case Study: Liberace Liberace was a world-renowned pianist. Even in the early 20’s, when Liberace (full name Wladziu Valentino Liberace) was a child, he showed great aptitude for the piano, beginning his formal musical schooling at the Wisconsin College of Music when he was merely seven years old. His skill at the piano earned him several positions in orchestras when he was only a teenager. He became no less successful as he grew up— in fact, the Guinness Book of World Records lists Liberace as…

Robert Schumann composed orchestral music, including four symphonies and one piano concerto. He also composed chamber music, including three string quartets, one piano quintet, one piano quartet, piano trios, and sonatas. In the emotional abandonment of his music, Schumann is the true Romantic. His piano pieces are filled with impassioned melody, unique changes of harmony, and driving rhythms. His music was often had literacy, meaning and was connected by a literary theme or musical motto.…

Johannes Brahms composed his Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, in 1877, while visiting a rural town in Austria. This composition is typical of Brahms’ works in that it is a mixture of classical form and more modern ideas. The first movement, Allegro non troppo, is in sonata-allegro form and in triple simple meter, this movement is filled with contradictions in mood and contrasting sections. The numerous contrasts between the different sections make the transitional material especially important…

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born in 1756 is one of history’s greatest composers and became a protégé at a young age. When he died in 1791 he had already composed numerous classical pieces that are still considered masterpieces today. In 1979, Peter Shaffer performed his play Amadeus that he fashioned after Alexander Pushkin short play called Mozart and Salieri. The film version came out in the 1980’s. The film is an adaptation of Mozart life and all his struggles as a prodigy, and the man who people…

1. What were Mozart’s fetishes? What about his wigs? a. One of the main fetishes of Mozart was poop. He would talk about it with anyone around him and sometimes he would mention it in the letters he wrote to his family. Which in a way made him sound crazy around all the composers and royalty since they were very formal and educated people. b. Mozart never wore a wig. He mostly wore a wig for official occasions. The movie Amadeus over exaggerates with the party-joke wigs. There are even rumors…

This last Tuesday, September 20th the Fry Street Quartet performed at the Caine Performance Hall. I was in attendance at this even and my feelings about it are varied. I chose this performance for a few reasons, first was that despite it not really fitting into the rock or pop categories whatsoever I was curious to see if any type of message could be spread by a quartet playing classical music. It is a different type of music for the subject and as the performance went on it became clear it was…