Wolfgang Iser

Complexity played an important role in Baroque music, which can be described as “extravagance and structure”. As new possibilities arose, composers were able to make their music more complex. The emergence of new instruments, like the brass and woodwind instruments, increased flexibility in tone color. This allowed for more expression in music. The improvement of instruments such as the violin, which Stradivari and other makers perfected, and the organ, allowed for the emergence of virtuosos…

As listening to one of the best music composers to live, Ludwig Van Beethoven, I realize the music he produced is more powerful than I have ever thought. Listening to Symphony Number Five has changed the passion I have for music. Beethoven is my favorite composer to live. On the first movement called Allegro con brio on symphony Five in C Minor is one of my beloved favorite track. I loved when the violins came in and built suspense towards the trumpets. Let’s be honest, where would the song be…

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg Austria. Mozart was the son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart. He was an influential part of the Classical era, he influenced Beethoven. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a famous composer of the Baroque period. As a 3 year old Mozart learned to play the piano by watching his father teach his sister to play the piano.At the age of 6 Mozart, a child prodigy, went on tour. The time period that Mozart played in was during the transitional…

For years people have believed that musical training and listening has the ability to increase IQ, but some recent studies have inconsistent results. Many people also question whether listening to modern music has the same effects and benefits as classical music. Exposure to music, that includes both listening and lessons through childhood and teenage years, has been proven to increase IQ and other similarly based skills. There have been many studies but the most well known is the controversial…

Samuel Osborne Barber II, a well remembered American composer, was known for his astounding musical skills. He showed his ardency for music from childhood and even at an extremely puerile age and went on to he decided to become a music composer. He was a master of orchestral, opera, choral and piano music. It was practically instinct for him to go along with music all his life since he was brought up in a family packed with musicians. Barber’s works acknowledge his love for poetry and his deep…

Have you ever wondered how similar two Baroque composers could be? Although there are numerous differences between the two composers, such as that Bach did not become famous until years after his death, while Handel was famous during his lifetime, they are very similar. They both were German composers who could play a myriad of instruments and started their musical journey as children. One way that Bach and Handel are similar is that they were both German. Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany…

Gustav Holst is a well-known composer, he was born in 1874 in Cheltenham, England and died in 1934. As a child, Gustav played the piano and violin but was miserable and weak because of his asthma. Gustav wanted to pursue a career in composing music and playing the piano but was unable to get scholarships from many colleges. This disappointed him, but he was left with an amazing opportunity to play the organ. Through this experience, Holst heard the music of Arthur Sullivan, which inspired him to…

I’ve listened to Messiah since I was very young. My grandmother is very fond of baroque music, and has about a dozen different versions of Messiah, let alone any other pieces. Because I’ve listened to so many versions of it for so many years, I know a quite a bit about what the piece sounds like or at least what it should sound like. The instrumental backdrop of the piece is predominantly homophonic and is founded on the combination of smooth strings, gentle woodwinds, and strong brass in a…

Violin Concerto in F Minor by Vivaldi In the year 1720 a composer named Antonio Vivaldi created what is known as one of his greatest master pieces: The Four Seasons. It’s a concerto about, as the title suggests, the four seasons of the year. He wrote them to accompany poems about the seasons. The section of the concerto known as Winter, or “L'inverno" is the piece this paper focuses on. “L’inverno” is played with strings. Meaning it has violins, violas, and cello. Accompanying these strings…

At the dawn of the 21st century, a lock of hair, once attached to possibly the greatest composer in the history of Western Music, was sold at Sotheby’s Auction house. The lock held within its strands both the known facts of Beethoven’s life as well as clues to the mystery of his death. Beethoven’s Hair, written by Russell Martin, has two main objectives – to tell the biographical story of the great composer Ludwig Van Beethoven, and to trace the lock’s path through history from the head of the…