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Spring
Composers, like poets, revel in spring images, setting poems about spring into songs and turning the colors and fragrances of spring, as well as her unpredictable weather, into spans of orchestral color, rhythmic motion, and melodic extravagance.
So let’s tour through some of Western culture’s best Spring musical treasures. From Renaissance madrigals and Romantic tone poems to popular tunes that we still sing, we’ll traverse the bumpy, beautiful months of Spring together in this free webinar.
Winter
Snow, ice, blasts of wind, grey cover of clouds, plus a some of those icy blue days of winter sunshine: winter is among us. For some of you “up North” as we say in the South, winter really has made its mark. Brrrr.
This will be our third session in the series, and opens up a new set of possibilities than we had in sunny summer or fragrant autumn. We will travel through some expected territory (Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky) but take new paths through the snow, including songs by Mussorgsky and Schubert, some classic Bill Monroe, music from two snowy-operas (one heart-rending, the other a classic Russian fairy tale), a bit of charm from the world of the waltz, and more.
Autumn
Falling leaves, morning fog, and a nip of cold in the night air: the mood of autumn is upon us. But how do these qualities translate into music?
In this episode of our seasonal series, we explore how composers translate autumn into sound and examine both sides of fall: the fading of summer’s verdure and the abundance of the months of harvest. I incorporate music of many styles, too: everything from Tchaikovsky to Nat King Cole.
Summer
Yes, composers across time have captured the themes of summer, from storms and squalls to the stillness of the air in August’s heat. Starting with a rollicking Medieval round, we’ll tour through Music for Summer, featuring both familiar and surprising pieces that will paint a vibrant picture of summertime.