Tag Archives: Tone Poem Tuesday

Giacchino Rossini’s overture to his opera William Tell is an interesting piece. First, the opera itself is almost never heard anymore, due to its very long performance time and its awkward libretto (from what I’ve read–I’ve never actually heard or … Continue reading →

Mr. Gershwin:

Oh wow, you have to listen to this. I’d never heard of it, or its composer, until it popped up on a YouTube sidebar a bit ago. It’s a suite from a ballet called Estancia, by a composer named Alberto … Continue reading →

For September 11, Elegy by Mark Camphouse, played by the United States Marine Band.

I’m in crunch-time on drafting Forgotten Stars IV, which means that I’ve been focusing almost all of my energy there of late. But I don’t mean to leave this space completely fallow as I did this week! So, here’s a … Continue reading →

I still owe him a much longer post, but meantime, this past Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest musicians this country has ever produced. Here he is conducting the music of … Continue reading →

Remember how in the movie Amadeus Antonion Salieri is presented as a basically competent composer whose music might have been nice at the time but deserved its fade from memory? Well…no, Salieri was no Mozart. But he wasn’t a boob, … Continue reading →

We did a piece by Vasily Kalinnikov last week, so this week…let’s do another one! Just as last week I was unable to dig up much actual information about the Bylina Overture, so too am I unable to find a … Continue reading →

I’ve long loved the two symphonies that Vasily Kalinnikov wrote, but I’ve been largely unfamiliar with the remainder of his output. Kalinnikov was a talented composer who produced a lot of rich, emotional, and songlike work before his untimely death … Continue reading →

I discovered this work the other night purely by chance, thanks to YouTube’s “suggested video” algorithm thing. I gave it a try…and then I listened to it three times in succession. What a wonderful, magical, lyrical work! It’s full of … Continue reading →