June 15th, 2009
Charles Ives, one of the greatest and revolutionary American Composers, was born in October 20, 1874 and died May 19, 1954. Ives had probably one of the most interesting musical backgrounds one could ask for. His feather was a Band Master in Connecticut and much of his time was spent listening to his father’s band practice and parade alongside several other bands. Accompanying this was also a very open minded approach to music theory. His teaching included non-conventional practices such as bitonality and cluster chords.
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Tags: 20th century, Charles Ives, classical music, piano
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April 20th, 2009
Schoenberg may not be alive today, but he’s still considered a contemporary composer (like most since the end of the Romantic Era). Either way he is by far one of the most important and influential composers that the world has seen. Check out the video on the last page.
Although this one might freak you out a bit it’s one of the most influential pieces of our time. Starting in the early 1900′s there was a huge movement to try and create the most organic form of music. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 20th century, classical music, Pantonality, Pierrot Lunaire, Schoenberg, Sericla Music, vocals
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March 24th, 2009
For those of you who don’t know NPR Music is a great source for classical music news and also has great clips of classical music pieces.
There was an article in there about Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring:
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March 11th, 2009
The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky is by far one of my favorite. It’s a piece that breaks the traditional classical ballet and has defined contemporary music. It is one of his many ballets that was first preformed in 1913. It is a fantasy version of a pagan Russian pagan ritual. Stravinsky was quoted depicting the piece as “…the wise elders are seated in a circle and are observing the dance before death of the girl whom they are offering as a sacrifice to the god of Spring in order to gain his benevolence.”
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Tags: ballet, orchestra, rite of spring, stravinsky
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