Ludwig van Beethoven

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.…

Richard Wagner was a great composer of music that shaped history as we know it. His music was full of passion and despite his many characteristic flaws, he was able to convey great emotion and love in his music. Wagner composed 13 operas with his most famous works like Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg(The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.) He transformed the way opera was written and performed by actually doing the libretto himself. The longest opera he…

Jerome Robbins' suggested the idea of developing a musical based off of the story of Romeo and Juliet to Leonard Bernstein in January of 1949 (originally proposed title: East Side Story, set in the less privileged areas of New York at the concurrence of Easter-Passover celebrations). In August of 1955, a gathering with Arthur Laurents took place where another idea emerged -- two teen-age mobs as the conflicting groups, one of them newly-arrived Puerto Ricans, the other self-styled…

The beginnings of music technology and consumption originated in the late 1800s with Thomas Edison’s ingenious phonograph. Over a course of seventy-five years, the phonograph has received many upgrades and has even become a basis for the recent music technology today (Price and Albright para. 5). Some of the newer music technological advances include vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, portable MP3 players, and streaming services, which have all revolutionized music consumption because they have…

Haydn’s “Baby-Stage” Sonata When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart focused on opera composition and Ludwig von Beethoven experimented innovations in various musical forms, Joseph Haydn was greatly responsible for the invention and refinement of sonata form in the classical period . His earliest sonatas, dedicated to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, feature galant style, and reveal Haydn’s growth as a composer in his early years. Among these pieces, Haydn piano sonata in F major, Hob. XVI: 23 shows a very solid…

Nicole Orgeron’s Movie Critique- “Amadeus” 10/21/2015 Watch the award winning movie from 1984, “Amadeus” based on Mozart’s life, directed by Milos Forman then answer the questions below to receive credit for this assignment. 1. Name one of the Academy Awards this film has won. One of the Academy Awards Amadeus won was Best Picture. 2. Which actor was nominated for an Oscar in this film? Tom Hulce, was the actor that was nominated for an Oscar for starring in Amadeus. 3. What does the old…

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…

Concert Report: Junior Recital Joe Crabb, Trumpet Drew Bridges, Tenor After my experience in this concert, I discover that I will like to continue going to this concerts or recitals. Not only because the concert is free, but also because I enjoy seeing the talent that my schoolmates have. This concert was a sonata. Sonata means a piece for small number of instruments or a single one. In classical period the term usually was referred to compositions for one or two instruments only (Kerman et…

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…

Peter Shaffer’s 1984 film Amadeus is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told from the perspective of his peer, so called friend, and rival Antonio Salieri. The movie begins with a man yelling Mozart 's names and saying that he killed him, we soon learn that the man is none other than Antonio Salieri and he is attempting to commit suicide. This act lands him in an insane asylum, where he is then interrogated by Father Vogler a priest who gets Salieri to tell him what he meant by he killed…