Lift every voice and sing! That’s what the program said about this recital of spirituals given by students to honor a voice teacher. What could be simpler than that? Forget simple! It’s a good thing we had our seatbelts on and had plenty of Kleenex. Bedecked with sequins … Read more
Tchaikovsky, Song Without Words, Op. 2, No. 3 Mendelssohn wasn’t the only one to write “songs without words.” Another Mendelssohn wrote piano works under this title: his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. (Some say it was she, in fact, who gave Felix the idea.) Tchaikovsky also … Read more
Interspersed with celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday at our granddaughter’s pre-school and watching our baby grandson lift his head during tummy time, we got it done: our hard-copy version of Early Sacred Music is ready to go. Or it will be next week when we get to … Read more
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
Have you gotten a call like this lately? This is Service Contractors. We’re trying to reach out to you and set an appointment to fix your sink. Maybe it’s not as irritating as “Have a nice day,” but it’s more distressing. When I hear the phrase … 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
Nothing is more delicious than a chance to visit with Jim and Randy Weiss at their beautiful home. On a recent visit, I joined Jim in his studio to record two podcasts on storytelling and the arts. Anyone who’s heard his magnificent CDs, or attended … Read more
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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
We are now daily in contact with our little granddaughter. Patti is nearly two and a half, and her language skills are developing at a prodigious rate. Of course, considering how much her mother and I like to talk, it’s no wonder she is following … 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