Throughout history, classical composers have written pieces based on all kinds of stories; but only one composer has ever undertaken the daunting task of telling 1001 stories in a single composition. While most composers would never dare to attempt the assimilation of such a wide range of stories into a single piece of music, Nikolai […]
Audacious, informal, and energetic, Brooklyn Rider performs music that is not only cross-cultural but also cross-genre. The string quartet is named after the city in which it is based – quite fitting, considering the fact that Brooklyn is most famous for its vibrant multicultural background. On Monday, February 16th, the quartet gave a relaxed concert […]
When music is brought out of its original environment, almost anything can happen. The slightest change in context could elicit fascination, horror, enjoyment, confusion, or controversy. Recontextualizing music always poses a risk, for it is almost impossible to tell whether the result will be a success or a failure. Yet, as a general rule, musical […]
Combining the musical traditions of different cultures is a risky endeavor. By merging different kinds of music, it is almost guaranteed that certain aspects of each style will be omitted in order to befit the piece as a whole. Therefore, it is often difficult to gauge whether or not a musical “fusion” has been successful, […]
Dartmouth College is one of the coolest educational institutions on the face of the earth, and it never ceases to amaze me. On January 15th, Philip Glass simply strolled into my Ethnomusicology class, holding a hot cup of coffee, and began speaking with us as if we were a group of old friends. Whenever he […]
“There is no way to the extracting of [the heart’s] hidden things save by the flint and steel of listening to music and singing, and there is no entrance to the heart save by the ante-chamber of the ears.”
Nasr, 1997
Sufi Muslims, who observe a mystical dimension of Islam, are renowned for their rich musical tradition. […]
In Where Rivers and Mountains Sing, Theodore Levin and Valentina Süzükei describe a musical technique called sound mimesis, the act of intentionally re-enacting and re-presenting a sound from our environment. Jean Sibelius’s tone poem, The Swan of Tuonela, is a musical depiction of a scene from the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology. The scene takes […]
Giuseppi Verdi was the shining star of the Romantic Era, and was best known for his operas. However, Verdi’s Requiem is not an opera; rather, it is a piece written for orchestra, chorus, and four solo singers: a male tenor, a male baritone, a female soprano, and a female mezzo-soprano. It has seven movements, one […]
Well hello again, after more than a year. Although there is no excuse for my lack of blogging, this has been a busy year for me. I recently finished my senior year in high school and will soon be attending Dartmouth College to study music (amongst other things). I hope that I will be able […]
Last Thursday, I went to the ballet, Romeo and Juliet, and didn’t like it. I don’t normally go to the ballet, but I threw caution to the wind that night. When I came home, I tried to figure out what I didn’t like about it, and broke it down into its individual components:
Was it the dancing? – […]