Articles
Friday Performance Pick – 428
Philidor, Sinfonia 1 in G Minor François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795) came from a family with a prominent place in French Baroque music during the 17th and 18th centuries. The oboist Michel Danican (c. 1600-1659) so impressed Louis XIII that he dubbed him “Philidor” as a … Read more
Folk Songs and World Instruments
Last Friday morning I stood before a very large group of exuberant teachers to tout the priceless value of folk songs. I had been invited to give the keynote address to the Phoenix-area network of Great Hearts Classical Schools. This one-day symposium was serving as … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 427
Kedrov, Otche Nash Traveling through Russia with Professor Carol took me to quite a few Orthodox churches and monasteries in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and along the Volga River. We traveled on our own much of the time, but I also tagged along on some of … Read more
Good Fortune Surrounding Bad Fortune
It has been a tough week at Professor Carol. We were in Germany when sudden malfunctions hit our website: error messages, odd formatting, and the like. And then the site went completely down at several points. The problem was simple to describe. It dominates the … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 426
Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture Is there a more famous piece of “classical” music than Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture? To answer that question, we need to think about the things that contribute to a given work’s fame. And I don’t mean the kind of fame that a work … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 425
Reich, Music for Pieces of Wood Steve Reich has been called “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker), and “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times). So begins Reich’s biography on the Boosey & Hawkes website. It … Read more
Paragliders of Interlaken
My train got in late to Interlaken. Disembarking at Interlaken West, I should have continued four more minutes to Interlaken East station. Had I done so, my automatic-pilot route to the hotel would have been correct. Instead, I dragged my suitcase about a quarter mile … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 424
Gershwin, Strike Up the Band We traditionally turn to something with an American theme for the Fourth of July. Yes, we have been doing this series long enough to have traditions. This years marks our 9th Fourth of July. And when it comes to American … Read more
Languages and the World
As a child who hardly left her street growing up, I cannot fathom what it is like for children who have monumental opportunities to travel. What must it feel like to observe, absorb, and become fluent in the atmospheres, customs, and languages of places far … Read more