Symphony No. 94

John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Without Bach there would be no history of music as we know it. There would be no Mozart, No Beethoven, there would be no romantic fera as we know it. Every period of music has been informed to some except by the example of Bach. Bach died in 1750 he was more than an organist, more of a keyboard player than as composer. Yet till today the resident power of his work and the best achievements in history music. Bach was the youngest of 8 children in 1685 Eisencich,…

I attended the Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars Concert series on Sunday, February 28, 2016 in Wright Auditorium. The stars consisted of Janai Brugger a soprano, Sarah Mesko a mezzo-soprano, Sean Panikkar a tenor, Trevor Scheunemann a baritone, and lastly Brent Funderburk the pianist. These performers are apart of the S. Rudolph Alexander performing arts series. The audience consisted of a wide range of people; from college students to the elderly citizens of Greenville, NC. First, I would like…

Discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781 William Herschel was born November of 1738, in Germany. As he grew up, he loved music and played in a band. In 1759 he moved with his family to Great Britain. In Great Britain, he taught music and became an organist. In 1772, with his sister Caroline, he began his study of the stars. Herschel and Caroline loved the night sky. As they were observing the sky one night in 1781, Herschel saw something moving ever so slowly in the sky. At first they…

Spanning approximately forty minutes, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem was first performed on October 2, 1936. Following World War I and preceding World War II, this suite of choral pieces appears to be a call for peace and a warning against war, perhaps directly referencing R. Vaughan Williams' own personal beliefs. Divided into six sections or movements, the text is taken from poems by Walt Whitman, John Bright, and passages of the Bible. These pieces are: "Agnus Dei", "Beat, beat,…

Verdi's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A Major, and "The Mountain Whippoorwill" by Jess Turner are three very different pieces. The first is an opera with fantastic musical continuity accented by a broad spectrum of emotions. The second is an instrumental piece in the minor key, and it is very quick and lively. The latter is a longer piece than the first two, an instrumental like the second, but it is happen set to match a poem, which makes it somewhat similar to the first. Verdi’s…

Paul Hindemith was born on 16 November 1895 in Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main Germany. He began learning music since his childhood by entered Frankfurt's Hoch’sche Conservatorium during the winter semester of 1908 and 09 when he was only 12 years old. In the conservatorium, he studied violin with Adolf Rebner. In Frankfurt, Hindemith supported his family and himself by worked as a violinist in dance bands and musical-comedy groups. As well as, he often substituted his teacher, Adolf Rebner, to…

As the conductor entered the silent hall, the lights over the audience started to dim until only the orchestra was illuminated. With his penguin-like coattails wobbling behind him, the conductor stepped onto the gray and worn-out podium, and checked each face of his performers. The small wrinkles on his cheeks slightly lifted as each member grinned back at the conductor. The dimly-glowing white baton began to rise in the air, and with a small twist in the wrist, slowly swirled in front of the…

La creation du monde is a 20-minute ballet for small orchestra composed in 1923, which outlines the Creation of the world, based on African folk mythology. Influences in the music come from blues and ragtime, particularly in the melodies, and African rhythms. The ballet is in six continuous dance scenes, as follows: 1) Overture 2) The Chaos before Creation 3) The slowly lifting darkness, the creation of trees, plants insects, birds and beasts 4) Man and woman created 5) The desire of man and…

Problems in the relationship between composer and public have been evident at least since the early years of the twentieth century. Some composers have alienated the listening public with their music, while others have sought to reach out to the public. In this paper, I will discuss some ups and downs of this issue through the course of the 20th century. I will then give my view on where we stand now in this issue with who, I think, are some popular genres and artists today. I will focus on…

The first part with the original definition of the tempo - Non allegro - begins with a clear rhythm in the pianissimo of the violins, against which there flashes a brief, of only three sounds, the motif of the English horn, repeated by the clarinet, and then descending all the way to the bassoon and bass clarinet. This is a kind of premonition of the basic images that will unfold further. In the meantime, another theme comes into Fortissimo: tough, angular, in the jerky sounds of the orchestra…