In Reference to Murder

Sunday Music Treat

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...

Sunday Music Treat

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...

Sunday Music Treat - Halloween Edition

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...

Sunday Music Treat

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:

Sunday Music Treat

You are quite likely to hear J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio this time of year, although it requires some planning and scheduling, seeing as how it's in six parts, each part being intended for performance on one of the major feast days of...

Sunday Music Treat

Arnold Schoenberg is best known for his dissonant modernist music, but his "Weihnachtsmusik (Christmas Music)," is actually a nice little arrangement for chamber ensemble of the classic carol, "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen," by Praetorius...

Sunday Music Treat - A Christmas Crime Carol

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...

Sunday Music Treat - A Christmas Crime Carol

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...

Sunday Music Treat

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...

Your Sunday Music Treat

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...