Musicon / Notes / Barenboim, Beethoven and Berlioz in Athens, 2009
Yesterday night I was with friends at Herodes Atticus Odeon in Athens, where Daniel Barenboim and the Filarmonica della Scala played the 3rd piano concerto of Beethoven and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. The audience was listening in solemn silence and it was very warm and welcoming. ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Cadenzas
Compositions belonging to the category of chamber music, and concertos for solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment, all have individual characteristics conditioned on the expressive capacity of the apparatus. The modern piano is capable of asserting itself against a full orchestra, and ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Inventing Bonds of Union in Symphonies
The desire of composers to have their symphonies accepted as unities instead of compages of unrelated pieces has led to the adoption of various devices designed to force the bond of union upon the attention of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in his symphony in C minor not only connects the third and ::More
Musicon / Classical Music / The movements of a symphony
Symphonies’ First movements are quick and energetic, and frequently full of dramatic fire. In them the psychological story is begun which is to be developed in the remaining chapters of the work–its sorrows, hopes, prayers, or communings in the slow movement; its madness or merriment ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Percussion
The percussion apparatus of the modern orchestra includes a multitude of instruments scarcely deserving of description. Several varieties of drums, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, steel bars (Glockenspiel), gongs, bells, and many other… Kettle-drums, or tympani, are generally used in pairs, ::More
