This week we celebrate two giants of the Romantic era, who actually share the same birthday. Johannes Brahms (b. 1833) and Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. 1840) were born on May 7. They have proved to be some of the most influential and memorable composers of their era. Brahms was born Hamburg, Germany to a…
This April celebrates two great composers, one classical and one jazz. Sergei Rachmaninoff (April 1, 1873 – 1943) and Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – 1974). Both were regarded as geniuses of their craft, and left a lasting impression on the music world long after they passed. Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer…
The technological craze that has taken over the music industry for longer than a decade known as “auto-tune” has been a point of contention for many artists. Nowadays, some artists will even go out of their way to state that their album wasn’t created with auto-tune, while some artists will even use it in live…
The music scene today is saturated with many different pop stars, electronic music djs, and indie/folk bands. There is a lot of great music to be heard from them (and a lot of not-so-good music as well). I believe that we as listeners have to dig deeper for bands or artists that excel dramatically at…
The guitar has an ancient beginning in instruments such as the harp. Not too many primary resources on ancient harps exist so we will begin with a distant cousin of the guitar, the medieval lute. Both a beautiful and complex instrument, the lute was the most popular chordophone of its time. The lute probably has…
With the approach of NYSSMA it is important to hone in on your sight reading abilities. Many times sight reading is the one aspect that will cost a person a perfect score, so follow these tips to improve! 1. Just do it: The only way you can get better at sight reading is to sight…
I usually do a NYSSMA prep blog around this time each year, but this one in particular comes with a somewhat larger sense of urgency. Upon doing a master class last week with some students preparing for NYSSMA, it dawned on me that there were certain aspects of preparation that were being neglected. Here are…
Did you know that when your piano tuner comes to tune your piano, he or she purposefully puts it out of tune?! While this might sound odd, a look back through history will reveal the logical reason. Before the 1500s, musicians used what is known as “Pythagorean” tuning. This refers to the famous Greek mathematician…
Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930) is one of the most influential and popular composers of musical theater. His songwriting ability has garnished him 8 Tony awards (an unprecedented amount for a composer), 8 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, among other accolades. Sondheim continues his legacy by remaining an active composer and collaborator…
March seemingly has a plethora of famous and influential composers, so I will try to cover a few in small detail. This month we celebrate Frédéric Chopin (March 1, 1810), Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685) and Franz Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732). I could easily write an entire book of these composers’ lives and…