Unconscious bursts of creativity that engender significant artistic endeavors are not necessarily inspired by passionate romantic love alone. Greek mythology believed that this kind of stimulus came from nine muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Muses were long considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs and ancient myths. Throughout the history of Western art, artists, writers and musicians have prayed to the muses, or alternately, drawn inspiration from personified muses that conceptually reside beyond the borders of earthly love. True to life, however, composer inspiration has emerged from the entire spectrums of existence and being. Nature has always played a decidedly important role in the inspiration of various classical composers, as did exotic cities, landscapes or rituals. Composer inspiration is also found in poetry, the visual arts, and mythological stories and tales. Artistic, historical or cultural expressions of the past are just as inspirational as is the everyday: the third Punic War or the contrapuntal mastery of Bach is inspirationally just as relevant as are the virulent bat and camel. Composer inspiration is delightfully drawn from heroes and villains, scientific advances, a pet, or something as mundane as a hangover. Discover what fires the imagination of people who never stop asking questions.
The regularized austerity of J.S. Bach’s music, in particular The Art of Fugue, has fascinated many composers. Bach’s work was left unfinished, with the final quadruple fugue (Contrapunctus XIV) started but not completed before Bach’s death. J.S. Bach: Die Kunst
When Darius Milhaud immortalized his favorite Brazilian tavern in a brilliant ballet work, Le Boeuf sur le toit, he was joining in a long line of composers who brought the common cow into music. To take a look at the
When Claudio Monteverdi secured his first job at the ducal court in Mantua, he had to report to the maestro di cappella Giaches de Wert. A Franco-Flemish composer actively working in Italy, Wert was one of the leaders developing the
A Look at Debussy Piano Music — Preludes Following the model of Bach and his 24 Preludes and Fugues from 1722, Debussy also wrote his own set of Préludes for the piano. Debussy began Book 1 in December 1909, finishing
Prague Spring 2017 72nd International Music FestivalClosing Concert: 2 June 2017Krzysztof Penderecki & Prague Radio Symphony For Krzystof Penderecki, born on 23 November 1933 in Dębica, Poland, music is a fundamental and essential part of the human condition. He started
Maurice Ravel’s piano piece, Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), hides in its deceptively childlike title a radical piano work of great imagination. The pianist Alfred Cortot called it “one of the most astonishing examples of instrumental ingenuity ever contrived.
William Grant Still (1895-1978) is called ‘the dean of African-American composers’ and throughout his life, worked in all genres of music, from jazz, where he was an arranger for both W.C. Handy and Artie Shaw, to Broadway, where he played
Beginning in the late 18th century, something magical happened in Paris on Friday! As a contemporary observer wrote, “Friday is the day that was adopted by most artists as the day to entertain; on this day, everyone visits their painter.
