Hank Reynolds Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3, Op. 68 If you have already taken our mini-course “7 Days to Beethoven,” you will recognize this video. It shows up in Professor Carol’s discussion of musical rhetoric. Beethoven was a musical wordsmith, and the third movement of this Cello Sonata … Read more
Bach: St. John Passion, Mein teurer Heiland, laß dich fragen Today being Good Friday, it seems appropriate to turn to the Passion story. It has been a fertile field for music and art. Bach wrote two Passions. His St. John Passion was composed in 1724, … Read more
Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales Waltzes were once scandalous, as Professor Carol likes to point out. The court dances of the 17th and 18th centuries featured intricate footwork; a couple’s fingertips might touch lightly. In the waltz, however, a man would grab a woman by … Read more
Bottesini: Concerto for Double Bass No. 2 in B Minor Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) may not be on your short list of composers to explore. I confess that I knew little about him. His name didn’t appear on a single music history test throughout my undergraduate … Read more
Danny Boy With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, what could be more fitting than the famous Irish folk song “Danny Boy”? A couple of weeks ago, we discussed how Bartók collected folk songs from the Hungarian countryside and incorporated them into his compositions. Bartók was … Read more
Franz Schubert: Der Erlkönig Schubert’s Der Erlkönig has a prominent place in our general course on “Classical music,” Discovering Music. Many people tend to think that the music we call “classical” is all about big orchestras playing symphonies and concertos. Those things are important, of course, but the … Read more
Bartók: “Fast Dance” from Romanian Folk Dances Folk music exerts a powerful influence on many composers. You can hear that influence in some of the music of Mozart and Schubert for instance. Composers have turned to folk styles at times either to invoke the indigenous … Read more
Wagner: Siegfried’s Horn Call As a former horn player, I can vouch for the fact that what’s on the video below doesn’t come naturally or easily. French Horn is a treacherous instrument in part because it is pitched high in the overtone series. If that … Read more
Palestrina: Super flumina Babylonis Since I’m doing some editing of our unit on Jerusalem in the Early Sacred Music course, it seems natural to turn to Psalm 137 for this week’s performance pick. Many composers have set this text to music. Psalm 137 describes the … Read more
J.S. Bach: “Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht” from “Coffee Cantata,” BWV 211 Bach spent his last 27 years (1723-1750) in Leipzig writing mostly sacred music. As Kapellmeister of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church), he was expected to compose new works for the church. In contrast, … Read more
