Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest pianists of all time and one of the most outstanding melodists amongst composers, was born at Oneg, near Novgorod, on 20 March 1873 (1 April New Style), into a musical family: his grandfather had been a pupil of John Field and his father, too, played the piano. When Sergei was nine, financial difficulties forced the sale of the family estate and they moved to St Petersburg, where he took piano lessons at the Conservatoire. Rachmaninoff’s cousin, the pianist and conductor Alexander Siloti, had studied in Moscow with the strict Nikolai Zverev, and suggested that Rachmaninoff go to Zverev as well, and so in 1885, he made the journey to Moscow, staying with Zverev for three years. In 1888 Rachmaninoff began…

December Composer of the Week Borodin Borodin was born on October 31, 1833, in St. Petersburg Russia. Borodin grew up in comfortable circumstances, as his father was a Georgian prince and his Mother a army doctor’s wife. He was a child prodigy who was able to play piano, flute, cello, and compose music. From 1850 to 1856 Borodin studied at Medico-Surgical Academy, specializing in chemistry. From 1859 to 1862 he studied in Western Europe before returning to Russia. In Russia he became a…

1. Who created the syllabus and why? a. The Vaganova syllabus was created by Russian dancer Agrippina Vaganova. b. She created this syllabus with her backgrounds in French, Italian, and Russian techniques, time spent at the Imperial Ballet School and years of experience. The syllabus was designed as a refined way of teaching and training. 2. Where did it begin? a. The syllabus began in Russia during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The Vaganova Academy wasn’t always the Vaganova Academy; it…

The Nutcracker and The Rite of Spring are some of the most influential ballets ever produced. In this paper, I will be describing the composers, what influenced the writers, what the ballets are about, and I will contrast the two works of art. Since these greats works of art are so influential, it is important to talk about them their importance when they were created and what impact they still have today. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or better known as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovosky, was the man who…

Isabelle Easton’s paper on Igor Stravinsky Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882 in Oranienbaum, Russia. Igor Stravinsky was a conductor, pianist, and film score composer. He was considered the most influential composer in the 20th century. Igor Stravinsky had no other professions other than music. His father was a Russian singer, so he was introduced to music very early in his life. His music began to fade away for a while when he began to study law and philosophy. He first made a name for…

they need to assemble the film. This unquestionably makes editing the foundation of film art. The importance of editing and appreciating the innovations of edit masters, is the very reason why Vsevolod Pudovkin stated that “the foundation of film art is editing” [Pudovkin, V.I. (1975)]. This is the hypothesis for this dissertation. Before Georges Méliès accidently discovered editing, after a fault with his camera, the art of film was little more than a stage production captured on film. Méliès…

Historically Paris finds a new art scene after the war which is incorporated into the set, narrative, and ballet. Within in the story there are three ballets, one at the beginning reflecting Paris after tragedy; a panorama of dark streets with breadlines. The second concluding act I, is to Gershwin’s second rhapsody and connects the charterers’ narratives together. The largest is the finale piece. They wanted to ballet to be a part of the narrative and made it a collaborative effort between the…

For this submission I decided to choose to learn more about the dance of Ballet. I’m not really a big dance person, but the dance of ballet has always intrigued me because of how beautiful and elegant it is. Ballet originated in Renaissance Italy. It started out as a dance used at balls and social gatherings. Ballet was the acceptable way and proper etiquette at these social gatherings. There were a lot of rules that went along with it, such as when and how to bow, step, and the distance from…

Dun Huang is a city in the Gansu Province of western China, and was one of the key cities on the “Silk Road”, the main trade route between China and the rest of Asia and Europe. Dun Huang is famous for many things, including its caves, which are a famous example of Buddhist art. Silk Road style dance, also known as “Dun Huang Dance”, was inspired by the art inside of those famous caves. The origin of Ballet dance can be traced to the 15th century Italian Renaissance courts, and later developed…

Russian formalism and Pierrot le fou In this essay I will apply the ideas of Sergei Eisenstein to Jean-Luc Godard's film, Pierrot le fou: one of the first road movies. Both are two filmmakers who seek to create transcendental movies through a methodical use of editing and offering a political and controversial vision of the time in history to which they belonged. One is linked to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the other one is a contemporary of May 68, two of the most important events in…