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.
For Erik Satie, dance, theatre and cabaret music run as virtually continuous threads throughout his life. And every single composition adheres to the virtues of his musical craft; simplicity, brevity and precision. Many of Satie’s early compositional efforts rely on
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the undisputed pop star of the 18th century! Numerous composers and musicians arranged his music, and profited handsomely from this indirect association with a superstar. But Mozart himself was also a rather active arranger of works
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875) Even at the best of times, the relationship between Russia and the Ukraine has been somewhat troubled. Although they share much of their early history, the Mongol
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the undisputed rock star of the 18th century! Incredibly gifted as a musician yet nevertheless prone to long periods of self-doubt and professional jealousy, he made a lot of money but spent it just as quickly.
Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) The tango developed as a distinctive dance around 1880 in the poorer districts of the city of Buenos Aires. Because it emerged from an economically marginal and semi-criminal social milieu, the dance was long rejected by Argentine’s
Beside various occasional pieces for violin and piano and several scores for strings along, Taneyev’s chamber music catalogue contains three large-scale works with piano. All three dates from the late stages of his career and almost excessively focus on musical
When it comes to transcriptions and arrangements, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach has beautifully served the aesthetic and practical musical needs of subsequent generations. As we have heard in a number of episodes, Bach’s music was variously aligned with
Madrigals in elevated style formed the basis of various musical entertainments during the late Italian Renaissance. Before the advent of opera, composers habitually turned to the dramatic madrigal in an effort to create new musico-dramatic forms. Among the most popular
