Cécile Chaminade (August 8, 1857 - April 13, 1944) was a French composer and pianist who came from a musical family. It was still rare at the time for a woman to be a performer, let alone a composer, even though family friend Georges Biz...
July marks the birth anniversary of Hungarian composer, pianist, and conductor, Ernst von Dohnányi (July 27, 1877 - February 9, 1960). Although he wrote in various genres, he composed primarily for the piano, including the witty Variatio...
Composer Franz Liszt was a bit obsessed with death and the afterlife, allegedly going so far as to visit prison dungeons to see first-hand people sentenced to death. His interest in the macabre is often found in his work, with one of the...
Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I thought it would be fitting to feature the popular Liebestraum (Dreams of Love) No. 3 by Franz Liszt. Here's a performance by Lang Lang:
From now until Christmas, I'm featuring a holiday-themed selection on Sunday Music Treat from film scores of crime movies through the years. Today's offering is from Lady in the Lake, based the 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler in...
From now until Christmas, I thought I'd feature a holiday-themed selection on Sunday Music Treat from film scores of crime movies through the years. Today's Christmas Crime Carol is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" a song by lyri...
This coming Tuesday is the birthday of Franz Liszt, born October 22, 1811, in Austria. Liszt was probably the first real "rock star" (if you'll pardon the mixed genre refernce) in the music realm; women would literally attack him, tearin...
If you ever thought classical music was staid and boring, you probably haven't encountered Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613). A New Yorker article referred to him as the "Prince of Darkness" and others have dubbed him the "Madman of the Renaiss...
Classical music may seem staid to today's younger generations, but in its day, it was often revolutionary. Beethoven's famous Egmont Overture is a perfect example. Egmont celebrates the life and heroism of the Dutch nobleman, the Count o...
The output of John Philip Sousa, the American "March King," wasn't just "Stars and Stripes Forever." He also wrote works like "Hands Across the Sea," which the composer said was "addressed to no particular nation, but to all of America's...