Tag Archives: Tone Poem Tuesday

You know how when I get hyper-focused on finishing a writing project, I push everything else aside and work only on that? Sure you do! I spent the bulk of this week’s leisure and writing time on finishing second-round edits … Continue reading →

Continuing an exploration of work of black composers in this, Black History Month, I turn to William Grant Still, one of the best-known black composers. The difficulty black composers have faced in history can be illustrated in the fact that … Continue reading →

February is Black History Month, so each of this month’s regular music selections (Tone Poem Tuesday and Something for Thursday) will feature music either composed, or performed, or both, by black musicians. George Walker (1922-2018) was the first black composer … Continue reading →

In his lifetime Hector Berlioz wrote three operas (four, if you count the “Dramatic legend” La Damnation de Faust, which is sometimes staged as an opera even though its long passages of purely orchestral music make such staging difficult). The … Continue reading →

I’ll have more to say about this later in the week, but for now I learned yesterday that one of my musical heroes, pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, has retired from public performance. Ashkenazy has been a giant of the … Continue reading →

I am constantly amazed at the sheer output of Antonin Dvorak. Music poured out of the man, and his gift for melodic drama set with wonderful orchestration never, ever fails to delight. Even so, I was unprepared for the degree … Continue reading →

I suppose a “Back to basics” kind of thing is normal in January, isn’t it? Not so much a series of resolutions or a grand statement of intent to change my life, but there is most definitely a desire to … Continue reading →

Thus we end 2019! I’ll hear this work newly performed tomorrow night, when it is the traditional second encore in the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Years Concert. It’s not a new year until I hear On the Beautiful Blue Danube. See … Continue reading →

If you’re familiar with the work of Robert Russell Bennett, you’re almost certainly familiar with the work he did using the tunes and melodies of other composers. And if you have any love of American musical theater of the 20th … Continue reading →

So this week we conclude our trip through Dvorak’s trio of tone poems that he called “Nature, Life, and Love” with the Othello Overture. There was some definite Shakespearean inspiration for Dvorak here, but it’s not wise to try to … Continue reading →