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On This Day
5 December: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Died
At 12:55 am on 5 December 1791, the singular and unique Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart took his last breath. He had fallen ill in Prague in September 1791, but continued his professional activities, including conducting the premiere of The Magic Flute
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NetEase Cloud Music Appoints Maestro Xu Zhong
NetEase Cloud Music is a freemium music streaming service publically launched in 2013. Its music service has attracted over 800 million registered users, and its principle aim, according to a spokesperson, is to “actively fulfill our responsibilities to promote the
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Frankfurt Does the Foxtrot
Seiber, Hindemith, Schulhoff and Tansman
The composer, conductor and educator Bernhard Sekles (1872-1934) caused a minor scandal in 1928. Sekles was director of the Hoch Conservatory of Music in Frankfurt am Main, and he decided to put Jazz on the curriculum. The courses in the
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On My Music Desk……
Richard Pantcheff – Nocturnus V
This atmospheric piece for solo piano, whose Afrikaans subtitle ‘Wind oor die Branders’ translates as Wind over the Waves, is by Richard Pantcheff, a British composer, born in 1959. It comes from ‘Nocturnus’, a suite of six pieces written for
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On This Day
30 November: Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme Was Premiered
On 30 November 1877, the German cellist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory Wilhelm Fitzenhagen performed the premier of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme under the baton of Nikolay Rubinstein. Nadezhda von Meck wrote to Tchaikovsky, “today is the
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On This Day
29 November: Gaetano Donizetti Was Born
Gaetano Donizetti was born into abject poverty in the town of Bergamo on 29 November 1797. He was the fifth child of Andrea Donizetti, a custodian at a local pawnshop, and Domenica Nava-Donizetti. His older brother Giuseppe served as a
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The Musician’s Autonomy II
Encouraging Autonomy in Music Students
The best teachers want to be made redundant – that is, they aim to make their students confident, independent musicians. In other words, they want to encourage autonomy in their students. As a teacher, perhaps the simplest way to encourage
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On This Day
28 November: Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto Was Premiered
Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto—nicknamed “Emperor” after Beethoven’s death and referring to the work’s majestic character rather than a specific political figure—was conceived during troubled times. Napoleon’s forces had invaded Vienna in 1809, and the subsequent French occupation brought physical and
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