By the time you read this post, it may be December 26 or 27. Christmas, they say, is over. They’re wrong. We’re still at the beginning of Christmas, despite what the commercial world says. Our modern culture has forgotten the actual parameters of the Christmas … Read more
Imagine growing up in the 70’s—the 1870’s, that is. You live on the vast, mostly unsettled prairie in what is now the Midwestern United States. It takes a whole day to travel the forty miles by wagon to the nearest town, and your closest neighbor … 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
Inspired by suggestions we heard from so many of you, we decided to publish a collection of the daily essays of our online Advent Calendar. We are pleased that it is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle editions. Journey Through Advent began its own journey … Read more
Ravenscroft, Psalm 98 (Bay Psalm Book) With Thanksgiving approaching, lets take a look at the music of early American settlers. First, a disclaimer: Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1588-1635) was British, not American. But if you plopped down in a group of Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1640, you … Read more
Lully, Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs The Italian-born Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) became one of the most prominent composers of the French Baroque era and court composer for French King Louis XIV. Also employed at the time by Louis XIV was the playwright Molière with whom Lully … Read more
Richard Strauss, Horn Concerto No. 2 in E Flat No. 53 means that we are starting a second year of Friday Performance Picks. We have covered a lot of ground in the past year in terms of musical eras, styles, and genres. But you don’t … Read more
J.S. Bach – Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 There is a zombie movie playing in the next room. Or maybe it’s a television program. And no, let’s be clear, Professor Carol is not in the next room watching it. I won’t explain … Read more
As we expand our material at Professor Carol, we have more links. Hundreds, thousands—the links grow like sticker burrs in a pasture. These are not substitutes for our own learning materials, but they provide valuable resources that allow you to dig deeper into specific topics and … Read more
Rameau: Suite from Castor et Pollux Elegant, refined, ornamented, sensitive – all terms applied to the mid-18th-century Rococo style. The 1717 painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau epitomizes the style. It depicts a fête galante on the island of Cythera, the birthplace of Venus, with happy, carefree aristocrats enjoying the … Read more