Orchestra
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Weekly Woman: Gloria Coates *1938
An American composer who has made her career for the most part in Germany, Gloria Coates was born in Wisconsin in 1938. As a child, she sang on local radio and in her early teens, she took top honors at a National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Contest. This girl from rural Wisconsin headed over…
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The Life You Give: Anton Maria von Webern *1883
Anton Webern — Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern — born Dec. 3, 1883, in Vienna, Austria, was a composer of the 12-tone Viennese school. He is known especially for his passacaglia for orchestra, his chamber music, and various songs (Lieder). Life and works Webern’s father, a mining engineer, rose to the highest rank of his…
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The Life You Give: Virgil Thomson *1896
Virgil Thomson, (born November 25, 1896, Kansas City, Missouri, USA ), American composer, conductor, and music critic whose forward-looking ideas stimulated new lines of thought among contemporary musicians. Thomson studied at Harvard University and later in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a noted teacher of musical composition. There he was influenced by early 20th-century French composers,…
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Happy Birthday, Manuel de Falla! 1876
Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu was born November 23, 1876, in Cádiz, Spain, and is the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. In his music he achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism, and ardour that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest. Falla took piano lessons from his…
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“Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten
Join us in listening to this opera, in celebration of Benjamin Britten’s birthday today, at 1pm EST, at the Opera, Blood and Tears Club, on Clubhouse. Music: Benjamin BrittenLibretto: Montague Slater Musicians:Benjamin Britten – conductorPeter Pears – peter grimesClaire Watson – ellen orfordJames Pease – capitän balstrodeJean Watson – auntieDavid Kelly – hobsonOwen Brannigan -…
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Is it wise to “fall” asleep with a requiem on the ears?
Looked lightly at my small record collection, and picked a recording from 1954 — Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic playing the Requiem by Johannes Brahms. I did wonder, not intensively serious but with some depth, what is being conveyed to the sleeping living when the piece is for the non-living sleepers?
Sila Blume 