Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Why don’t you add the motif to your composition?” His voice echoed through the large, empty classroom. Dmitri Shostakovich, my tutorial partner, is critiquing my music! What a dream! Dmitri Shostakovich, a Russian composer and pianist, is my classmate at Williams College. He has been assigned as my partner in the Music Composition Tutorial. I am looking forward to learn more about why and how he composes music in the style that he chooses. His music represents curiosity and…

There are many significant developments in the musical and dance genres throughout the 19th century. The first significant development in the performing arts is the arrival of new genres to music like Romanticism. Romanticism was unheard of as a musical genre until the 19th century, it used to consist of paintings and other works until it was illustrated in music. Romanticism is considered such a significant accomplishment because it combined expression of emotions that was not present before…

ARS Trio is a darkly twisted experimental Portuguese project composed of Renato Diz on piano, Sergio Tavares on double bass, and Jorge Queijo on drums and percussion. Despite the plans regarding this project had started in 2009, only recently the band members have reunited in Portugal to record their debut album, Poetics of Sight, strongly influenced by film and released on the W&J Productions, a new record label from New York. Using imaginative techniques and resorting to unconventional sounds,…

In Baroque period, People were interested to listen to music, and the rulers were searching for the best artists to work for them. Due to this great interest in music, many good songs were composed. Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the talented artists in Baroque Era. His great piece “ Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (“Little”) was one of his organ works. In my opinion, the best version of the piece was the orchestral version that was arranged later by Leopold Stokowski in 1940. Stokowski kept Bach’s…

The life of Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany to Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen and Johann Jakob Brahms. He was the second of three children. As his father was a musician in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, at age seven, young Brahms began playing piano. Brahms was an accomplished musician by the time he was a teenager. He used his talents to perform at brothels, local inns, and along Hamburg’s docks. He used the money he earned to help his family,…

Vicka Karlan MHST Project#1 March 14, 2016 Minor-key quartets of Mozart and Beethoven Mozart’s K 421 quartet and Beethoven’s op. 18 no. 4 quartet were the only minor key piece found in their 6 sets of quartet. Beethoven was certainly aware of Mozart’s works when writing his music. Beethoven admired Mozart and he used similar style as Mozart’s work (which was originally formed by Haydn} and took that style into a deeper content with extravagant imagination that resulted in many extraordinary…

Randy Newman is one of the many contemporary composers who has shaped our favorite movies and songs into what they are today. Randy was born in a humble home in Los Angeles, California on November 28, 1943. He moved a lot as a child. He first was in Los Angeles, then he moved to New Orleans his mother’s hometown, and finally at age eleven moved back to Los Angeles! He attended and graduated from University High School in Los Angeles, California, and went to college at the University of…

The Baroque era composer, George Frideric Handel, was born in Halle, Saxon, Germany to parents, George and Dorothea Handel, on February 23rd, 1685. Handel wanted to study music since he was a young boy. Alas, he faced opposition from his father, who thought that pursuing a music career would not be a realistic or highly esteemed occupation. His father wouldn't even let him own a musical instrument. However, secretly encouraged by his mother to pursue his passion, Handel would sneak up to his…

Johannes grew a very strong connection to music and eventually made music and composing for his entire career. Johannes Brahms was viewed as the leader of music and best at composing in the Romantic time period while on the same skilled level as Mozart, Beethoven, and Hyden. Johannes Brahms was born May 7th, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany. Johannes was the son of Jakob Brahms which was a famous jobbing musician. During Brahms’ childhood, money was very tight and hard to come by, because of this,…

The concert that I attended was Faculty Artist Alexandra Mascolo-David, piano with Alicia Valoti, piano oriented. I attended this concert on February 20th,2018. The concert was at 7:30 and was located at the Staples Family Concert Hall in the music building. The Variant of “Valsas Brasileiras” That I listened to was performed by Xiao Hu at Luther College. I found The piece on YouTube (https://youtu.be/u-14qal0xv4). This piece has very steady tempo throughout the entire piece. The tone would…