Today’s piece is the other one of two pieces that are so often played incorrectly that they have the distinction of being banned from competition in Northern Virginia Piano Teacher competitions. The first was Fur Elise. This one is Spinning Song by Albert Ellmenreich. It’s in many, many piano method books. When I was in […]
Today’s piece is Antonin Dvořák’s Humoresque #7. Humoresques Op. 101 (B. 187), is a piano cycle by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, written during the summer of 1894. One writer says “the seventh Humoresque is probably the most famous small piano work ever written after Beethoven’s Für Elise. Yo Yo Ma (cello) and Itzhak […]
Today’s listening assignment is a piece from the Piano Pronto book “Prelude” known as On the Bridge of Avignon. The Bridge of Avignon or Pont d’Avignon in French, is a famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon, in southern France. How to do the dance: Orchestra: Barney (remember […]
Today we listen to the third movement Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.11 III (Turkish March) with just a bit of the first movement near the end. The Turkish influence on western music came through the Turkish military band music (Mehter), which was at the time was the only military band in Europe. It was once popular […]
Finlandia, Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment […]
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major), K. 525, is a 1787 composition for a chamber ensemble by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German title means “a little serenade”, though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as “a little night music.” The work is written for an ensemble of […]
Today’s listening assignment is Can-can from “Orpheus in the Underworld” by Jacques Offenbach. This piece is very often in early method books because of the descending C Major scale. Can you find it? The can-can (or cancan as in the original French) is a high-energy, physically demanding dance that became a popular music hall dance […]
‘The Magic Flute’ (German name: Die Zauberflöte) is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final opera, and it contains one of the most well-known arias in music. But what is ‘The Magic Flute’ all about? An animated version: Played as a piano/organ duo: Arranged by Ferruccio Busoni for 2 pianos: Why Mozart’s Magic Flute is a […]
Today’s assignment is a very popular piece by Johann Pachelbel called Canon in D. A canon is a technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g., quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody, […]
Today’s assignment is Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor. It is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt and is by far the most famous of the set. In both the original piano solo form and in the orchestrated version this composition has enjoyed widespread use in animated […]
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