ABennett

Because of the pro-Italian classicist rage of the time, for a lot of Renaissance composers born away from Italy traveling there to learn the craft of composition was all but essential in order to be successful. Though I'm sure it's much less a matter of being inspired, these composers nonetheless were heavily influenced by their time studying in Italy. Some of the composers described above: Josquin des Prez Philippe Verdelot Adrian Willaert Jacques Arcadelt Cipriano de Rore Orlando di Lasso Heinrich Schütz (arguably transitional between Renaissance and Baroque)

Tchaikovsky was very enamored with Italy during his sojourns there and wrote a few works commemorating his visits (e.g. Capriccio Italien, Souvenir de Florence). Though he did not leave what we call Austria today, Schubert thrived on travel. Being a self-claimed Schubert aficionado, I know from some research that his summer vacations to Steyr and Bad Gastein left very lasting impressions on his works, maybe most obviously in the ninth symphony. In fact summer was often Schubert's happiest times - though typically his least productive. Following his vacations he would be like a bat out of hell writing works of all kinds. The summers when he was forced to stay in Vienna because of his illness, while more musically productive, he was significantly depressed. I believe for Schubert, travel and taking breaks from composing was vital to his musical existence.

The situation of classical no longer has the sense of practicality associated with writing music that the masters of old had. The key in the Viennese Classical era, for example, was to write music as quickly as possible to either appease the needs of a composer's patron or to invest it in the then budding publishing industry. Either option usually made them enough money to at least squeeze by. Families living in those times were musically inclined regardless of their actual ability, playing string quartets as a means of entertainment for example. I don't know of too many families doing that these days, but we do have an abundance of amateur guitarists and wannabe rock musicians playing/singing covers of well-known pop/rock tunes. Classical music today has simply gone by the wayside in terms of being the forefront of musical thought whether we like it or not. Jazz is becoming that way as well. Composers today are writing niche music for a niche audience, which allows great artistic freedom but at the same time makes being a composer rather nonviable as a profession - except for the extremely lucky. I think the best - if overused - example of an avant-garde composer living in a less-than-accepting musical landscape is Charles Ives - he realized that being original doesn't make money and living without money sucks. A little off topic but I thought I'd say it anyway.

One disadvantage we have living in the present is the challenge of misunderstanding the affect of a work in the context of the time it was written in. Mozart and Haydn were arguably just as revolutionary - if not more so - than Beethoven when considering their accomplishments within the greater musical world at the time. I think there are a great number of examples of similar situations throughout musical history. Conversely, Bach, whose music is often subject to an unwarranted perception of being very complex, was quite backward-thinking in style compared even to Handel. Part of the problem is that nothing except the most avant-garde shocks listeners anymore, when there are no confines a listener can justly expect anything to happen - and I'm not saying that's an inherently bad thing. It's a blessing and a curse particularly for composers.

But your hands would be worn down to nubbins if you tried to play the Dvorak straight through, Phil. For me it's a tossup between the Schumann concerto, the Bach suites, and Schubert Arpeggione sonata.

It's too bad Slava plays so out of tune on the false harmonics, isn't it?

Almost all the triumphant themes have a rising fourth (sol-do) in the beginning, e.g. Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones. The love themes tend to have the ascending major sixth like the second theme of the Dvorak Cello concerto 1st movement (Star Wars, Indiana Jones). Menacing themes have dissonant elements like tritones and minor seconds (Imperial March, Jaws). That pretty much sums up John Williams.

I'm wondering why you find this monothematic. Certainly the primary theme is most obvious but I see the material of the quasi-cadenza after the first statement of the primary theme to be a kind of amoebous secondary theme. Since it's mostly rhythmic, I personally think how he develops the second theme is what ties the piece together and lets it go on for so long. I think Brahms uses some nice orchestration in this piece too, but it's very ordinary. I agree about the use of color change in this piece. I quibble with the idea that he was borrowing from the early beginnings of Impressionism. I see this piece as kind of its own coloration of a typical Classical-form piano concerto. It has some Romantic tendencies (for example harmonic color change just for the hell of it, and how rhapsodic it seems to the listener) but I still think it's very clear-cut in structure and form. The use of an broad and expansive primary theme, with a rather truncated and rhythmic second one allows for several developmental sections without losing interest. The result is a mammoth first movement along the lines of the Tchaikovsky Violin concerto or the Dvorak Cello concerto, but this piece handles the length much more effectively than either of those pieces simply by using those juxtaposed theme styles. I love this piece (it's probably one of my favorites of Brahms too), and I especially love the 3rd movement with the mini cello concerto since I'm a cellist.

You were right, Silva, many of the measures are simply impossible to play. Mm. 1-8 are possible but as written will need to be played only on the C and G string. The issue is that there is significant movement in the upper voice which will require a lot of shifting (and many times with difficult intervals like m. 7's M7 - no pun intended :P - between Eb3 and D4...) M. 9 + 13 is impossible as written. Since the E is held thru the whole measure, the only possible way to play it with the G just above it is to play the two notes on the G and D string. However the G4 on beat 3 is not within a players reach whilst holding the E. M. 11 has the same issue as m. 9: this time between the C3 and F4. M. 29 the repeated C5 is impossible with the other C held. M. 32 has the three eighth notes that are out of range with the held E5. The rest has issues that were discussed already. My suggestions for writing two-voice cello music would be to keep things generally within an octave (on two strings) and avoid rapid shifts to awkward or significantly different positions. Other than that, it looks pretty good. The MIDI would not play for me, so all I can give is technical advice on cello playing (coming from a cellist, naturally). Cheers! :)

Perhaps the inter-connectivity of the piece to the painting is not clear and in many ways that enhances the aesthetic of the music and the style of art. The painting demands explanation but I didn't mean to make the explanation with the piece. It was really just imagined as a piece to be played while the audience has the opportunity to look at the painting and make what they will of the music and the art for that matter.

Maybe I'm the odd man out, but I've always been drawn to Schubert's later sonatas (e.g. the A major and the obligatory Bb major). While certainly not by any means virtuosic, there is a kind of humility and introspection that pervades these works, which to me overcomes the limitations that the music has to be "impressive". Compositionally I think the later sonatas are of the highest quality and maturity (coming from a man who was barely over 30 years old). Just my opinion.

In the spirit of hyphenated Charleses, Take a look at Charles-Marie Widor! He's known now mainly for his organ symphonies but equally impressive are his works for chamber ensembles, solo instruments, duos etc.!!!

I completed this work as a final project in a term of composition. The theme is rather unusual and uses a kind of iconic sequence (though slightly varied in the second half). Some issues of the MIDI recording will show themselves should you have a gander at the score. The third variation is intended to use the overtones of the held notes as they are not sounded but depressed. I heard this read live and the effect works quite well, however the performer pointed out that the breaks between phrases are perhaps not quite long enought to pull it off successfully in a concert situation. Hope you enjoy! Theme and Variations for Solo Piano

I wrote this in the summer a year ago and envisioned it as the middle movement of a 3 movement piano sonata based on a triptych painting series by Lithuanian painter/composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis.Here is a jpeg of the painting.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Juros_sonata.Andante.jpgPlease enjoy (both the music and the art!)Sadly it is in MIDI format and therefore is lacking in just about everything, but I hope you can at least get an idea of the piece. Sonata of the Sea, Movement II

During the last academic year I had the privilege to perform in a Balinese gamelan. With that experience, I chose to emulate the style and aesthetic of Balinese gamelan music in a piece for two pianos as a short project reflecting on multi-culturalism in my composition course. The form of this piece is a loose original representation of a once sacred dance piece called Rejang Dewa - a piece our gamelan performed. The idea is that the two pianos are tuned slightly differently (one in equal temperament while the other is tuned about 7Hz lower). While some issues of tuning and timbre will always be present in trying to accomplish the sounds of the Balinese style of gamelan music, I did my best to find a means to emulate the music on traditionally Western instruments. I used a MIDI player to render this as best as i had invisioned the work. Please enjoy, and for anyone who has perfect pitch or has no knowledge of Balinese gamelan - I sincerely hope you are not harmed or thrown aloof by this. :D Remembering Rejang