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... has greatly expanded in its defintion. I don't mean by this that symphonies have gotten bigger and louder and two hours long! I mean that a particular genre known as the "symphony" during Beethoven's time has turned into a much more liberal genre in the twentieth century. But when? and by...

I asked this question elsewhere and methinks it's a good one: Philosophical question: Why are some cultures so afraid of their own women that they have to bind them, legalistically speaking, to veil them like cloistered nuns, to treat them like cattle in their marriage rituals, to invariably...

I have sampled a lot of it in a remote location and, curiously, Mahler's not it. I get annoyed by all the noise generated, all the themes pushed forth at a stressful pace, all the "sound effects." It clashes with wildlife sounds too much. How much does the place you're in influence your taste?

Just fooling around! But you really need not answer, really!!! If you had to determine which of this composer's works are most lasting, most technically remarkable, most "scholarly" (given his reputation as a "salon" type of composer), what would they be? I don't me the more popular ones...

Some good works you have heard lately from composers who are seldom performed, with a recording here and there over the last several decades? Let me start! Henriette Renié's "Pièce symphonique" for harp! A 1913 work, a little over eight minutes in length. Incidentally, the French were...

The Dutch will be fighting an uphill battle, with so much of the territory below the sea level. What's the situation like in Denmark? Are most settlements along the coast line? How would a metre of water added to the sea level affect Denmark?

[Qu'en pensez-vous] What do you think of him? An interesting guy who couldn't care less about "great," magnificent works. He composed and composed as though he were writing his diary in music. I guess his goal was to say, "I'm here, listen to me if you like." At the core of his opus one...

I know that the fifth is always the most popular (just check youtube and you'll see how much it is!), but Villa-Lobos' last three Bachianas Brasileiras are those which I tend to resonate the most to because of their emotional intensity. He's a man of great passion who did not bother with...

The 29th of May, tomorrow, marks the scandalous world premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris, in 1913. I have little to add to the story of this "debacle" except that some of the confusion pertaining to what Camille Saint-Saens did or did not do stems from the fact that he attended...

Aaron Copland: Cultural Diplomat in South America On December 21, 1947, Aaron Copland published a brief report in the New York Times titled “Composer’s Report on Music in South America.” In this article, Copland places emphasis on the extent to which American composers were known among South...

Forget the organ, the rock and roll band, the concerto, the opera! Keep it simple! What's a nice song? Examples??

chip in! There's so much imagination in combining visual art with music! Who comes to mind, here, first and foremost?!!!

I have been playing an insignificant little game googling recent news about a variety of composers. Naturally, it helps if the composer's name is not a very common one! It also helps to compare cultural news in different languages, but my knowledge is limited to only two of those. Anyway, it has...

I am curious and will simply leave this poll going for a while.... How many members do listen to classical music, any classical music?

Wishing you a very happy birthday. I'm four years older.;)

Ralph Vaughan-Williams is my favorite British composer. Most of his symphonies, though composed well into the 20th century, seem to address and to reconcile the difficult aesthetic problem of modernizing classical music without alienating all those who still long for a romantic sound. His...

Sometimes it can be heard loud and clear because its creator has been listening closely to an area's folkloric traditions, studying every detail. The ethnic "sound" is so obvious in Bartok, Kodaly, Janacek, Villa-Lobos, Revueltas that there's no need for a dissertation. It's there! Before them...

I am posting this message in the hope of obtaining information about any Danish source concerning Beethoven's lock of hair which was in the possession of Dr. Kay Alexander Fremming, from Gilleleje, Denmark, beginning in 1943. While this story is fascinating in itself, another party is interested...

Listening to the songs of Nadia Boulanger tonight, I am wondering what happened. Yes, Lili died early in life and she was a promising composer (first female Prix de Rome, no?). Yes, there are emotions involved and much that I do not understand or could not appreciate as a man. But, why? why did...

I have been listening to the "complete solo piano music" of Bela Bartok, with Gyorgy Sandor at the piano. Of these five CDs, over forty percent of the music time consists of pedagogically inspired and conceived pieces: first in chronological order, the two volumes of his "For Children," then the...