If The Messiah and The Nutcracker went head-to-head, which one would be accorded the title of most famous masterwork? That’s a hard choice. Indeed, we are about to enter the season when both dominate performance venues across the globe. They are radically different works in … Read more
James Barnes, Symphonic Overture James Barnes (b. 1949) and I crossed paths as graduate students at the University of Kansas in the mid 1970s. Jim worked primarily with the bands, and by that time my band days were basically over. So we were mostly involved … Read more
Would you like to travel in time back to 1964? If so, take up the pages of Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Salads including Appetizers, a cookbook that once stood in my mother’s kitchen. The title evokes a different age—a time when enrollment in … Read more
Beethoven, O Welche Lust Beethoven completed only one opera: Fidelio. Its premiere in Vienna on November 20, 1805, unfortunately came on the heels of Napoleon’s occupation of that city a few days earlier. Consequently, the audience was comprised mostly of French officers who likely preferred … Read more
An unexpected thing happened during the premiere of John Mackey’s Divine Mischief. In my essay last week, I described this premiere, and noted the delicacy that characterized much of this piece—something noteworthy in today’s cranked-up, electronically amplified world. But a brief incident occurred at the … Read more
Loewe, Erlkönig Carl Loewe (1796-1869) began his musical studies as a choirboy in Köthen, a town where J. S. Bach had earlier held a court appointment. He was noted for his excellent singing voice and as a child had sung the famous Queen of the … Read more
The chance to experience the birth of a composition is rare. The chance to experience the unveiling of a major work by superstar composer John Mackey, created for one of today’s leading virtuosi, the British clarinetist Julian Bliss, is even rarer. Involvement with Divine Mischief, … Read more
The American composer Carson Cooman (b. 1982) is active as a concert organist specializing in contemporary music. He has written numerous works for organ, but his compositions also include opera, orchestral works, and works for other solo instruments. Cooman has held the position of Composer … Read more
It was cheesy, I admit it. There we were, joyfully circling the same fountain that Julie Andrews and the actor-versions of the von Trapp children skirted as they sang “Do, a deer, a female deer.” We ran through the same arbor, flinging our arms as … Read more
Buxtehude, Erfreue dich, Erde The cantata Erfreue dich, Erde (BuxWV 26) is referred to as a “parody” because the composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) had written the music and performed it earlier in a different form. There was nothing unusual about that. In his position at … Read more