Every piece of music Anton Bruckner ever wrote was dedicated to God, and his Symphony No. 9 was no exception. What is strange though is that it almost seems as if Bruckner knew that he would be leaving this symphony unfinished.
Tag: The Composer Chronicles
Ep. 39: Barnaby Martin
Sometimes one road leads us down another that we never expected to find ourselves wandering on. British composer Barnaby Martin has been active in the music world since a young age, but it wasn’t until later in life that his career as a composer led him to becoming a prominent video essayist on his YouTube channel Listening In.
Ep. 38: Star-Crossed – The Musical Reincarnations of Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy of two star-crossed lovers has been one of the most frequently adapted stories for musical purposes. Composers, such Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Gounod, Berlioz, and even Duke Ellington, have been touched by its heart-wrenching tale since its creation, and this episode gives you a look into the many musical reincarnations of Shakespeare’s young lovers, Romeo and Juliet.
Ep. 37: A Sad Shrovetide – Stravinsky and Petrushka
Petrushka, Igor Stavinksy’s second ballet, is a tragic tale of a living puppet who is treated like a mere toy and brought to the point of madness. Ironically, such a sad tale brought Stravinsky a great deal of success, especially after the triumph that was his previous ballet The Firebird. However, there’s a more you do not know, hidden behind the curtain.
Ep. 36: The Figure and the Frame – Mussorgsky and Pictures at an Exhibition with Notes & Strokes
The day architect and artist Viktor Hartmann died was a sad one. It was especially hard for composer Modest Mussorgsky, who’s opera Boris Godunov was one of Hartmann’s favorite works. After an exhibition of Hartmann’s art, Mussorgsky was moved to write a piano suite based on his experience there. This episode features Izaac and KC from the podcast Notes & Strokes. Together, we explore this piano masterpiece and the art that one may have seen at the exhibition.
Ep. 35: Spirit Playing – Scriabin and Le Poème de l’extase (Symphony No. 4)
During his most active years as a member of the Theosophical Society, Alexander Scriabin aimed to follow a spirit on it journey to the Time of Ecstasy via a three-hundred line poem that would eventually be set to music, Le Poème de l’extase (Symphony No. 4).
Ep. 34: J. M. Gerraughty
American composer J. M. Gerraughty imparts to listeners that the path to becoming a composer is sometimes the road less traveled. He shares the struggles of trying to maintain balance between working a full time job, raising a family, and keeping up with promoting his work on social media, but composition is always there as a creative outlet for him. Sometimes the passion is all the reason to keep doing what we love.
Ep. 33: Treasure in the Wreckage – Smyth and The Wreckers
How far are you willing to go to get you want? Dame Ethel Smyth was determined to get her opera The Wreckers produced the way that she wanted. Although the opera was written in French, she had no luck with being able to premiere the opera on French stages, relying on her contacts in Leipzig to get the opera produce in a German translation, but future productions of the opera would only get more and more difficult to produce.
Ep. 32: Repose en paix – Fauré and His Requiem
A Requiem, a Catholic Mass of the Dead, is typically written by a composer when someone is dying or in remembrance of someone who has already died; however, Gabriel Fauré wrote his Requiem for no one, altering it to be a Requiem of peace rather than fear.
Ep. 31: Devotion – Poulenc and Dialogues des Carmélites
In the darkest times, we all need something we can turn to for guidance and peace. During one of the most difficult times of his life, Francis Poulenc turned towards his spirituality and the Roman Catholic church and embedding his faith into his opera he was composing at the time, Dialogues des Carmélites.
