While it can be tempting to pigeonhole composers, there’s a long history of composers who’ve excelled at creating works for both the concert stage and the cinema. Many of the great film composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age hailed from the European tradition and were successful composers for the concert stage before making the move to […]
Aaron Copland
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#ClassicsaDay #Classical1921 Week 1
What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921. It turns out there was quite a lot going on […]
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#ClassicsaDay #PoetryMonth – Week 2
What’s the connection between classical music and classic poetry? That was theme some of us decided to explore with #ClassicsaDay. For April 2018 we posted examples of settings of poetry in classical music, works inspired by poetry, and more. Here’s an annotated list of the works I posted for the first week of #PoetryMonth. Gustav […]
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Rotholz Tapestry of American Flute Duos
The album is titled “American Tapestry,” but it’s no crazy quilt. The four duos for flute and piano Susan Rotholz and Margaret Kampmeier perform fit nicely together. All are tonal after a fashion, giving the program coherence; and yet each differ in character to give the listener real variety. Robert Beaser takes a simple theme […]
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Composing America: Lark Quartet’s study in contrasts
The Lark Quartet’s latest release is a broad sampling of American string quartet music — and it’s broad in many ways. First, it ranges from the 1928 modernism of Aaron Copland, through the minimalism of John Adams, the populist sound of William Bolcom and ending with the more formal writing of Paul Moravec. It’s also broad […]