The score for Pulcinella was something new— not an original composition, but more than just an arrangement.
Read MoreThe “Dance of the Hours” was intended to depict neither dancing hippos nor desperate letters from summer camp.
Read MoreAs difficult as it may be to believe, The Firebird was Igor Stravinsky’s first large-scale work for orchestra.
Read MoreWe’re all familiar with the ending of Shakespeare’s most famous play: Romeo, discovering the seemingly lifeless body of his bride, drinks a lethal poison. Juliet, awakening from her faked death, finds him and, heartbroken, stabs herself with his dagger. This wasn’t how Sergei Prokofiev thought it should end.
Read MoreThe tragedies and triumphs of war have inspired composers to create some of their greatest work. In World War II, governments realized that artists could be more useful to the war effort in their trained discipline than as conscripted soldiers, and composers were encouraged to produce work supporting national morale and the education of the public.
Read MoreIn a 1906 letter, Ravel mentioned that he was thinking of “a grand waltz, a sort of homage to the memory of the great Strauss, not Richard, the other, Johann.”
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