A Night at the Opera Thursday, July 28 at 8 pm Eastern Much as we explored an oratorio in our “Night at the Opera” series, we open the stage to a ballet that tells a story beloved by artists across the centuries: Romeo & Juliet. Sergei … Read more
Wagner, Die Meistersinger Prelude We have had numerous occasions to discuss the “singers’ wars” in our courses and various other materials on this website. Richard Wagner built his opera Tannhäuser around this competition (Sängerkrieg) of the Minnesingers that occurred at the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. … Read more
I began penning these words while sailing up the Moselle River, moving southwest from the Rhine River where the principal part of our voyage from Basel to Amsterdam has taken place. As you may know, lack of rain in Europe is threatening the flow of … Read more
Ives, Songs My Mother Taught Me If I had it to do over again, I might argue in favor of including this song in our collection of traditional songs Hurrah and Hallelujah. No, it’s not really a traditional song. It was written by the American … Read more
It’s an eye-catching title, yes? To be fair, we didn’t really brawl. It’s hard to brawl when everyone mostly agrees. Instead, we grappled on this panel with the question of how to cultivate the Fine Arts as an indispensable element of a child’s education. Maybe … Read more
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 1 Beethoven wrote his early piano concertos as a way to showcase his virtuosity as a pianist. He premiered an early version of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1795 but continued to rework it until 1800. Because there were many … Read more
At social gatherings with colleagues, a common question arises: “What are you reading right now?” Do you find yourself hearing that question also? How blessed Hank and I are to work with friends who are serious, thoughtful, and well-read. Our dinner conversations regularly turn to … Read more
Schuman, New England Triptych (Chester) When it comes to American patriotic tunes, Chester sits pretty much at the top of the list. Col. Jim Keane, director of the U.S. Army Field Band and a contributor to some of our courses, remarked in one of Carol’s … Read more
Several days of compiling prose about the music of Sergei Prokofiev, the topic of our July Composer-of-the-Month resource, threw me back to a time when my heart belonged solely to his music. From early teens, my goal became to study and perform every piece of … Read more
Dittersdorf, Double Bass Concerto in E-Flat Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) has one of the more colorful names among composers. Born Carl Ditters, he was ennobled by Maria Theresa in 1773 as a prerequisite for assuming a new post, and that gave him the additional … Read more