COMPOSER NEWSBBC Composer of the Week: Edward Elgar (1857-1934)January 31, 2012 By the end of the Great War, Sir Edward Elgar couldn't compose any music to celebrate peace, disillusioned as he was by the whole period, which Donald Macleod explores in conversation with Terry Charman from the Imperial War Museum.
BBC Composer of the Week: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) January 17, 2012 Donald Macleod charts the course of Vaughan Williams's John Bunyan odyssey, a thread which would weave itself through the whole of his creative life, and would culminate in 1951 with the premiere of his full-scale opera The Pilgrim's Progress. Presented by Donald Macleod.
Deathbed Music: The Final Works Of Famous Composers January 12, 2012 When it comes to last words, there's a kind of poetry in even the oddest ones. Oscar Wilde hated the wallpaper in the room where he died: "One of us has to go," he muttered. Salvador Dali: "Where is my clock?" Steve Jobs: "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow," according to his sister, who was in the room. Writer and composer Jan Swafford was thinking about these and other last words recently. In a piece for Slate, he takes a look at another kind of swan song: the late or final works of famous classical composers.
New Mexico Philharmonic meshes classical music, electronics January 10, 2012 The New Mexico Philharmonic will launch its series of PULSE concerts in February. They are aimed at drawing a younger audience, and meshing classical music with modern electronic sounds.
Did Beethoven's Hearing Loss Shape His Compositions? December 22, 2011 Ludwig van Beethoven was arguably one of the most influential classical music composers of all time, yet he was deaf by the end of his career. Now, new research in the Dec. 20 issue of BMJ suggests that the progression of his deafness may have shaped his musical style.
BBC Composer of the Week: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) December 15, 2011 Donald Macleod looks at two distinctly different sides of Beethoven's character as he strikes a publishing deal in England and willingly gives up his time and music to benefit the needy. In 1810 Beethoven took advantage of his growing popularity in England and sold some of his music to Muzio Clementi, who had set himself up as a publisher in London. From these works Donald introduces an intimate piano sonata, a piece whose intimate scale is in direct contrast to the grand sweep of the previous 'Appassionata' Sonata. Also, his newly published oratorio, a copy of which he'd happily provided for performance at a charity concert in Graz. Plus the rarely heard overture from a one-act singspiel commissioned for the opening of the new theatre at Pest, and the final movement from the symphony Wagner described as "The Apotheosis of the Dance".
Battle for the River Kwai composer's cash December 13, 2011 The former carer of The Bridge on the River Kwai composer Sir Malcolm Arnold is suing the Oscar winner's children for nearly 23-years of holiday pay and redundancy following his death in 2006, a court heard today.
Composer James Matheson wins Charles Ives award December 08, 2011 Composer James Matheson -- whose new violin concerto is a co-commission between the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony -- is the winner of the Charles Ives Living award, a prize organized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The prize includes an award of $200,000 over a two-year period, beginning July 2012.
BBC Composer of the Week: Percy Grainger (1882-1961) November 22, 2011 In today's programme, Grainger finds himself in demand as a concert pianist, and with the backing of his old friend Balfour Gardiner has his first taste of success as a composer too. At first, London must have seemed the perfect base for his activities, but when war was declared in August 1914, he and his mother Rose decided to up sticks and head out of harm's way - to the Big Apple - on the not unreasonable grounds that a war casualty could not become Australia's first significant composer. In New York, Grainger quickly established himself as a pianist, becoming known as "the Siegfried of the piano" for his dashing good looks. He found himself a publisher and commissions started to follow - one of the earliest resulted in one of his best-known compositions, the orchestral suite In a Nutshell. A promised ballet commission from the conductor Thomas Beecham failed to materialize, but Grainger wrote the work anyway; it became his "imaginary ballet", The Warriors, one of his most original and inventive scores.
Memorial Drive: Atlanta’s forgotten classical music history November 21, 2011 Were there classical composers and a thriving new-music scene in Atlanta before Robert Spano arrived? The answer is not only “yes” but “hell, yes.”
Is this the sound of Sibelius's lost Eighth Symphony? November 16, 2011 Is this the sound of Sibelius's lost Eighth Symphony? Readers of Helsingin Sanomat get a chance to hear the Helsinki Philharmonic performing a fragment of draft material that sounds tantalisingly like it might be from Sibelius's famously burned late work.
Requiem for an art form: Why modern composers are fighting a losing battle November 14, 2011 War has always inspired great music, says Jessica Duchen, but since 9/11 classical has fallen behind pop in a world racked by conflict.
Arthur Honegger's Joan Of Arc For The Ages November 10, 2011 I became fascinated with Jeanne d'Arc Au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) by Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger many years ago, when I first heard a snippet of the piece on the radio. It was one of those arresting moments where I felt I'd heard the music before and couldn't place it for the life of me. As it turns out, I'd never heard it, but it's understandable why I thought I had.
Copyright Battle: Who You Calling “Big Money”? October 26, 2011 Corey Field, an attorney who has worked in the music world for many years and at one point represented European publishers, takes this argument further. “Where does the money go that publishers charge? Part of it is paid out in royalties, but the reality is that most of the revenue from successful works goes to support new composers. As a music publisher, you are engaged in the practice of bringing along new talent, and new composers usually don’t generate a lot of money. It’s not like pop music. Think of Mahler. With classical composers it’s about the quality and quantity of work over time.”
BBC Composer of the Week: Finnish Composers October 24, 2011 Sibelius has been the dominating figure in the history of Finnish music - but this week Donald Macleod is looking at other composers who have contributed to making this one of the most musically active small nations in the world.
Just Don't Call it Classical October 20, 2011 My SFCV colleague Matt Cmiel is also an enterprising composer who, while still a teenager, founded a new-music ensemble called Formerly Known as Classical. Its latest incarnation is the After Everything Ensemble. In a remarkably short time, in other words, he and his mates have gone from questioning the relevance of the “C-word” for the music they make to adopting a “postlabeling” stance.
BBC Composer of the Week: Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) October 13, 2011 Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Karol Szymanowski.
Sept. 11 In Children's Voices: Michael Gordon's 'The Sad Park' October 11, 2011 Michael Gordon never planned to write a piece of music based on the events of Sept. 11. "I wouldn't have known how to approach this subject," he says. "I wouldn't have dared approach this subject. It's huge and I don't think I could have done it justice." But Gordon, one of the co-founders of the new music collective Bang on a Can, eventually did write a Sept. 11 piece, The Sad Park. He found inspiration amid an unlikely group of commentators — the 3- and 4-year-olds who attended a Lower Manhattan preschool with his son after Sept. 11.
Our music restored harmony and rhythm, says Steve Reich September 29, 2011 Steve Reich has been called 'the greatest living composer.' The American musician performed two of his works at the 2011 Beethovenfest and talked with DW about how his compositions fit into the musical canon.
BBC Composer of the Week: Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) September 23, 2011 Despite ongoing health problems, in later years, Carl Nielsen remained as much of an innovator as in his youth. His Opus 45 Piano Suite shows how receptive he was to current musical trends, while one of his final compositions looks back to the sixteenth century and the music of Palestrina. Presented by Donald Macleod.
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