Tag Archives: Tone Poem Tuesday

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was an American composer whose life forms one of the better What ifs of music history. He was one of those composers who, being born in the late 19th century (1884, to be specific), learned and came of … Continue reading →

First of all, Happy October! October is the best month, and on this topic I will hear no debate. Now, onto some music. This one I came upon by happenstance: I’m on vacation today and tomorrow (I’ve been on vacation … Continue reading →

Well, an apology of sorts is needed here: I had a new-to-me piece cued up and ready to go, but I wanted to give it a few more listens before I actually posted it, and then I lost track of … Continue reading →

I’m having a busy week at work, so here’s a piece that might come in emotionally handy by Friday: it’s basically a collection of drinking songs! Here is one of my absolute favorites, the Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 by Georges … Continue reading →

I like it when I get in the car and hear just a few minutes of a piece with which I am unfamiliar, and then I either do a music search using Google’s listening and “ID a song” feature, or … Continue reading →

Luigi Cherubini is a composer with whom I am almost completely unfamiliar, except by reputation…and that reputation is via the impressions left behind by another composer with whom I am very familiar. Unfortunately for Cherubini, that composer is Hector Berlioz, who … Continue reading →

Leonard Bernstein was born 106 years plus two days ago, on August 25, 1918. Oddly, I’ve never written much about him here, have I? I really should change that one of these days…maybe after I finally get Maestro off the … Continue reading →

I get asked all the time: “Hey, when you were a young musician, what was the first Sousa march you ever played?” [RON HOWARD NARRATOR VOICE: This is false. Nobody asks him this.] OK, fine, but anyway: when I was … Continue reading →

Longtime readers will recognize (I hope!) the name of Russian composer Vasily Kalinnikov, who was a deeply gifted composer who seemed destined to rise to towering greatness in late Russian Romanticism had he not sadly died of tuberculosis when he … Continue reading →