Hank Reynolds
Mendelssohn, Songs Without Words, Op. 67, No. 2 The salons of the 19th century were an ideal venue for small-scale character pieces. Professor Carol devotes a significant part the Discovering Music course to this new development, which is so characteristic of the mindset after the Napoleonic Wars. … Read more
Debussy, Études Last week we listened to one of the Chopin études and how he took what had been mostly a technical exercise and turned it into a concert piece. We can continue to look at that dual function with a later set of études by Claude Debussy … Read more
Chopin, Étude in G Flat Major What makes Chopin’s 27 études stand out from those of his predecessors? Études (“studies”) had been written before Chopin’s time. Clementi and Czerny, for example, had written études in the 18th century designed to help piano students build dexterity and … Read more
Rachmaninov, Blessed Is the Man (Блажен муж) In our Early Sacred Music course we devote a complete unit to the music of Eastern Orthodoxy with particular emphasis on the Russian Orthodox Church. Orthodox chant developed on a different path than Gregorian Chant in the West and remained … Read more
Beethoven, Eroica Variations, Op. 35 Last week we featured a major work of Beethoven, his Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”). This week I want to look at a related work that Beethoven composed for piano the year before in 1802. It’s a set of 15 variations … Read more
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica“) can be viewed as marking the beginning of the Romantic era in music. Beethoven’s early works tend to conform to the Classical style that you would find in the works of Haydn and Mozart. But with … Read more
Telemann, Viola Concerto in G Major Since Professor Carol was answering a question about Telemann yesterday, why not turn to him for this week’s Friday Performance Pick? It’s hard to think about Georg Phillipp Telemann (1681-1767) without making comparisons to J.S. Bach. Telemann was just four … Read more
Barber, Adagio for Strings It may seem that I feature works in this series that tend to be less well known if not obscure. There’s some truth to that. It results in part from the fact that I look for shorter works that I think … Read more
Handel, Messiah – For Unto Us a Child Is Born If you followed Professor Carol’s Advent Calendar this year, you know that we remain in the middle of the Christmas season. It’s the 8th day of Christmas – maids a’milking and all that. Handel’s Messiah is frequently performed … Read more
Albinoni/Giazotto, Adagio in G Minor Here’s a question. How important is the identity of a composer to the listening experience? Do we need to know who he is, or what he wanted to accomplish, or as I sometimes say, what he had for breakfast? We … Read more