classical music
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Jacopo Peri *VIII 20 1561 / Composer of the first opera
Jacopo Peri, byname Il Zazzerino, born August 20, 1561, in Rome or Florence, is the composer noted for his contribution to the development of dramatic vocal style in early Baroque opera. Under the early sponsorship of the Florentine Cristofano Malvezzi, Peri had published by 1583 both an instrumental work and a madrigal. After early posts…
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Götterdämmerung (Wagner) premiered on this day in 1876
Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is the last in the music drama set of four, entitled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) or The Ring Cycle or The Ring for short) which premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, concluding the first performance of the complete cycle. The title is…
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Kaikhosru Sorabji: Organ Symphony No 1
Organ Symphony No. 1, KSS 39 Piece detailsWritten for: OrganDate composed: 1924Dedicatee: Emily Edroff-SmithApproximate duration (minutes): 120Manuscript pages: 81Manuscript location: Library of Congress Structure: IPrelude. ModéréPassacaglia (theme with 81 variations)PostludeIIIntroduction. LentoAndante (quasi fugue)CodaIIIModeratoCadenza de’ pedali. Con bravuraModeratoCadenza-ToccataCoda-Stretto
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Kaikhosru Sorabji: Concerto per suonare da me solo & Symphonia Brevis
Concerto Per Suonare Da Me Solo / Jonathan Powell Concerto per suonare da me solo, KSS 69 (Concert to play by myself)Piece detailsWritten for: PianoDate composed: 1946Dedicatee: Norman PeterkinApproximate duration (minutes): 50Manuscript pages: 70Manuscript location: Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel Structure:I Incomincia l’orchestra arrogante e pomposa / Brioso FocosamenteII AdagioIII Scherzo diabolico Symphonia Brevis / Donna…
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Bake your blueberry basil cornbread, and eat it, too!
That is what one may do when listening to the piano marathon by Kaikhosru Sorabji, “Sequentia cyclica super Dies Iræ ex missa pro defunctis”. We are listening to it right now — just entered the third hour — on Clubhouse.
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Kaikhosru Sorabji: Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ Missa pro defunctis
This week we celebrate the achievements of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, born on the 14th of August of 1892. He is one of the most enigmatic and controversial 20th century composers. Largely self-taught he chose his own way, never fitting into any school or movement. His style is highly idiosyncratic, inspired by late-romantics like Busoni and…
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Kaikhosru Sorabji: Toccata Seconda per Pianoforte & Songs for Soprano
Toccata Seconda per Pianoforte KSS57 Written for: PianoDate composed: 1933–34Dedicatee: Norman PeterkinApproximate duration (minutes): 150 (2h25)Manuscript pages: 111Manuscript location: Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University Structure/Movements:I Preludio-ToccataII Preludio-CoraleIII ScherzoIV AriaV Ostinato (theme with 49 variations)VI NotturnoVII InterludioVIII CadenzaIX Fuga libera a cinque voci Toccata Seconda per Pianoforte KSS57 Sorabji wrote four piano works entitled toccatas –…
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Enrique Granados *VII 27 1867 / La Vida Que Das
See the biography in English below Enrique o Enric Granados y Campiña nacido en Lérida, 1867, en el canal de la Mancha, fue pianista y compositor español, hijo de padre cubano y de madre gallega. Su disposición para la música se reveló ya en su niñez; estudió los primeros elementos de solfeo y teoría, en…
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“Parsifal” (Wagner) premiered today in 1882
The Poem Parzival, an epic poem, is one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, written between 1200 and 1210 in Middle High German by Wolfram von Eschenbach. This 16-book, 25,000-line poem is in part a religious allegory describing Parzival’s painful journey from utter ignorance and naïveté to spiritual awareness. The poem introduced the theme…
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Evelyn Glennie *VII 19 1965 / The Life You Give
Evelyn Glennie is the world’s foremost, and first full-time, solo percussionist. She has been pivotal to the expansion of percussion as solo instruments, personally having commissioned over 200 new works. The recipient of enormous media attention due to her deafness, Glennie is likewise noteworthy for the variety of her repertoire and recording projects. Glennie was…
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The Life You Give: Gustav Mahler *VII 7 1860
Gustav Mahler, born July 7, 1860, in Kaliště, Bohemia, Austrian Empire, is the composer and conductor, noted for his 10 symphonies and various songs with orchestra, which drew together many different strands of Romanticism. Although his music was largely ignored for 50 years after his death, Mahler was later regarded as an important forerunner of…
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Symphony Number Nine — Mahler (VI 26 1912 premiere)
Listening to the 9th Symphony of Mahler With the Ninth Mahler returns to a purely orchestral Symphony, after having succeeded in integrating chorus and orchestra in his Eighth, and the genres of the song cycle and Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler turns his attention to the purely abstract orchestral music of his…
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Harry Partch *VI 24 1901 / The Life You Give
Harry Partch, born June 24, 1901, in Oakland, Calif., U.S.A., is the visionary and eclectic composer and instrument builder, largely self-taught, whose compositions are remarkable for the complexity of their scores (each instrument has its own characteristic notation, often involving 43 tones to each octave) and their employment of unique instruments of his invention. Partch’s…
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Martha Argerich *VI 5 1941 — La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
Martha Argerich, (born June 5, 1941, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Argentine pianist known for her recordings and performances of chamber music, particularly of works by Olivier Messiaen, Sergey Prokofiev, and Sergey Rachmaninoff. A prodigy, Argerich was performing professionally by age eight. In 1955 she went to Europe, where her teachers included Friedrich Gulda and Arturo Benedetti…
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The Life You Give: Cecilia Bartoli *1966
Cecilia Bartoli, born June 4, 1966, in Rome, Italy), is an operatic mezzo-soprano who achieved global stardom with her outstanding vocal skills and captivating stage presence. Both of Bartoli’s parents were members of the Rome Opera chorus, and she joked that when she was a child, her babysitters were the likes of Rossini and Verdi.…
Sila Blume 