Crumb, Voice of the Whale And now for something completely different. The American composer George Crumb (b. 1929) pushed many of the boundaries in 20th-century avant garde music. But unlike some of his contemporaries, he didn’t do it merely as an experiment or for shock … Read more
Fauré, Piano Trio, Op. 120 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) attended a boarding school for musicians with a conservative focus on church music and turning out good organists and choirmasters. During his time there, Camille Saint-Saëns took over the piano instruction, and opened his students ears to … Read more
Charles Ives: Variations on “America” For a celebration of the Fourth of July, we should turn to something American. Who are the quintessential American composers? We could toss out some names like Sousa, Billings, Copland, or Irving Berlin, and pretty soon we would have a … Read more
Bartók: “Fast Dance” from Romanian Folk Dances Folk music exerts a powerful influence on many composers. You can hear that influence in some of the music of Mozart and Schubert for instance. Composers have turned to folk styles at times either to invoke the indigenous … Read more
I’ll never forget this moment. It was about two weeks into my 20th-century music history class—a key course then in Southern Methodist University’s music-history curriculum. I was on a professorial “roll,” forecasting for my sophomores a few of the drastic changes that would occur in … Read more
Igor Stravinsky: Fireworks Fireworks arguably started it all. Stravinsky wrote the short work for the wedding of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter. But it is remembered as the work in which the young Stravinsky found his voice, and the work that established his connection with Sergei Diaghilev. … Read more
György Ligeti – Six Bagatelles Let’s start the New Year with something clever. The name Ligeti will not be familiar to many of our readers, but those of a certain age may recall his works from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (released in 1968). (Yes, that … Read more
Igor Stravinsky’s fairy-tale ballet The Firebird is filled with magical themes, opulent color, and provocative special effects. This program tells the story of Firebird and the Ballets russes, the brilliant theatrical company headed by Sergei Diaghilev that created and staged the work in Paris in 1910. The … Read more
Podcast: Play in new window | Download