Musicon / Debussy / Franck / Ravel / First Impressions: Franck, Debussy, Ravel chamber music – Decca Audiophile
Listening for the first time to this newcomer containing Franck and Debussy sonatas for violin and piano, the Debussy sonata for flute, viola and harp, and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet. This is a Decca release (1988) of recordings made back ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Overtures
Concertos for piano or violin are usually written in three movements, of which the first and last follow the symphonic model in respect of elaboration and form, and the second is a brief movement in slow or moderate time, which has the character of an intermezzo. As to the nomenclature of chamber ::More
Musicon / Musical education / The double-bassoon (contra bassoon)
A swelling martial fanfare may be made absurd by changing it from trumpets to a weak-voiced wood-wind. It is only the string quartet that speaks all the musical languages of passion and emotion. The double-bassoon is so large an instrument that it has to be bent on itself to bring it under the ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Wagner / Strings remain the chief factor of the orchestra
In the hands of the latter-day Romantic composers, and with the help of the instrument-makers, who have marvellously increased the capacity of the wind instruments, and remedied the deficiencies which embarrassed the Classical writers, the orchestra has developed into an instrument such as never ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Instrumental music was not always an art
The string quartet makes up nearly three-fourths of a well-balanced orchestra. It is the only ‘choir’ of instruments which has numerous representation of its constituent units. This was not always so, but is the fruit of development in the art of instrumentation which is the newest ::More
