1. |
Sugar Plum Fairy
02:56
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2. |
Chopin Funeral March
03:07
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Chopin's Funeral march has been played at the funerals of John F. Kennedy and ironically, Russian leaders Brezhnev and Stalin. But the very first time it was performed at a funeral may have been the most important: Chopin's own.
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3. |
Bach: Goldberg #15
02:54
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The Goldberg Variations is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations and was first published in 1741.
Glenn Gould said of variation #15: "It's the most severe and rigorous and beautiful canon ... It's a piece so moving, so anguished — and so uplifting at the same time."
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4. |
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Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor was so popular that audiences would demand it as an encore at his performances, shouting "C-sharp!" Because of this, Rachmaninoff grew very tired of it and once said, "Many, many times I wish I had never written it."
Harpo Marx and Rachmaninoff were staying in nearby units at The Garden of Allah Hotel in Hollywood. Harpo's harp practice was drowned out by the composer's piano playing, so Harpo began playing the opening bars of the prelude repeatedly. Finally the composer went to the management and demanded to be moved to another unit. Harpo stated he was unaware at the time of how Rachmaninoff felt about the piece.
In the Marx Brothers comedy, "A Day at the Races," Harpo plays the prelude with such energy that the piano explodes. He takes the harp out of the wreckage and begins to play it!
Here is the scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoTyDD0C93U
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5. |
Serenade in Dm
03:04
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This serenade is a tribute to the great Austrian composer, Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Appreciation of Schubert's music while he was alive was very limited but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his early death at 31. Schubert was remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his short career.
Franz Liszt, who was a significant force in spreading Schubert's work after his death, said Schubert was "the most poetic musician who ever lived." On his deathbed, Beethoven is said to have looked into Schubert's works and exclaimed: "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!" Beethoven also reportedly predicted that Schubert "would make a great sensation in the world."
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6. |
Albinoni's Adagio?
02:41
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This piece lives on as one of the most popular, adaptable and recognizable pieces of classical music. You have heard it in countless film scores such as Manchester By The Sea, Rollerball, Gallipoli, and Flashdance.
It is, in fact, arguably the biggest fraud in music history.
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni was born in Venice in 1671. Much of Albinoni's unpublished music made its way to the Saxon State Library in Dresden, where it was preserved before being all but completely destroyed in the Allied bombing raids in the winter of 1945. That same year, Remo Giazotto, a musicologist from Milan set out to write a biography of Albinoni and catalogue his remaining works, mining what was left in the Dresden archives. At that time, Giazotto stated that he had arranged the work but not composed it.
In 1958 (perhaps aware of the financial implications), Giazotto retracted his story, claiming sole credit for the piece.
In any event, I have always liked the piece and have adapted the chord progression.
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7. |
A Salute to Mozart
03:58
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created pieces of music that captivated the world’s attention and stood the test of time. Many of today’s pop songs are based on a few chords and sequences that were discovered by Mozart. His masterly manipulation of the tonic-dominant chord progression created moments of tension followed by a cathartic release. Mozart explored the depths of the human psyche in ways that were revolutionary for his time. He was a master of creating mood, drama, and atmosphere.
Albert Einstein has said that Mozart's music "was so pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to be discovered by the master."
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8. |
Piano in F minor
03:33
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Glenn Gould once said if he could be any key, he would be F minor, because "it's rather dour, halfway between complex and stable, between upright and lascivious, between gray and highly tinted... There is a certain obliqueness."
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9. |
Ode to Dekoven
02:37
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Seymour DeKoven turned me on to baroque music. I fondly remember listening to DeKoven Presents on the radio in the late 1950s and 1960's. He played exclusively music of the baroque era (1600 to 1750). Dekoven considered anything composed after 1750 to be too modern. His unrestrained enthusiasm accompanied by his vast knowledge of the music of this period made listening to his program a most enjoyable and enriching experience. He tended to wax enthusiastic over every piece of music he selected for play and was "passionately opinionated."
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10. |
Für Elise
03:13
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Today is The Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit).
It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990.
Having just come back from several weeks in Germany, I did this rendition of Beethoven’s “Für Elise.”
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11. |
Amazing Grace
01:47
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"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 and is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.
Its message is that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins committed.
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12. |
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Seymour DeKoven turned me on to VIVALDI when I was a child in the 1950s. DeKoven produced a syndicated classical music radio program from the 1950s through the 1970s that featured baroque and rococo music exclusively. Anything composed after 1750 was too modern. ViIVALDI quickly became my favorite composer and his "Four Seasons" became my favorite piece.
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13. |
Moonlight Sonata
02:26
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Beethoven never called this piece Moonlight Sonata. The name "Moonlight Sonata" comes from remarks made by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of this first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne.
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14. |
THE TRITONE
03:38
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The tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones and can be used to avoid traditional tonality. The tritone is a restless interval, and considered as a dissonance in Western music. The tritone was considered not only an unfit and unpleasing interval by the Church fathers - it was believed to be an evil interval that could adversely affect our character when used in music. It was referred to as Diabolus in Musica, or Devil in Music, and expressly forbidden under Church canon law.
But I kind of like the tritone. We all know it as the first notes of Maria (from Bernstein’s West Side Story), The Simpsons Theme, Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix) and countless heavy metal tunes.
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15. |
The Digital Orchestra
03:16
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16. |
Dear Heidrun
02:17
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17. |
Chopin Tribute
02:45
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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was the first composer to devote himself uniquely to the piano. Every one of his works was written for piano, either as a solo instrument or in combination with other instruments.
After Poland lost its independence in 1795, any manifestation of national identity became extremely important for boosting the nation's morale. The young Chopin grew up in an atmosphere of great respect for national values where music was expected to convey national and folk themes. Audiences in Poland adored Chopin for celebrating the Polish spirit which he brought to the whole world through his exquisite compositions.
He was a thoroughly romantic composer who wrote musical masterpieces filled with a unique national flavor. Chopin has become a timeless, pan-cultural phenomenon, whose music has become the property of the whole world.
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18. |
Bachish
02:20
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Nearly 300 years after his death, Johann Sebastian Bach is still the gold standard in classical music.
“This is what I have to say about Bach – listen, play, love, revere – and keep your trap shut.” ALBERT EINSTEIN
Bach’s music is synonymous with the art of musical counterpoint; a way of layering different melodies so that they retain independence, yet work together in a unified way. One of the challenges of Bach is that the music almost never stops. In other words, there are not nice places to stop and rest as there are in almost every other composer's work.
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19. |
Beethoven Everywhere
03:19
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“I have never thought of writing music for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.”
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
This year the world will celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday. Beethoven has influenced and inspired every composer for the past 250 years and his music still rocks the world.
He has also inspired us by pushing himself to break his own barriers, both physical and mental, to overcome limitations, to strive for excellence and to express his personality in all his works. Beethoven’s compositions reflect his complex emotional makeup and his visceral opinions on politics, class divisions, war and the world at large.
In this piece, I have taken small harmonic fragments from Beethoven and put them in a modern context.
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20. |
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I recently heard the San Francisco Symphony play Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Also on the program was Jörg Widmann’s Con brio, which is a modern Beethoven tribute that is built on allusions rather than out-and-out quotations. Widmann has said that his goal was to create a sense of “fury and insistence” reminiscent of Beethoven, using the same instrumental forces as the earlier composer.
I decided to use out-and-out quotations in my knock off of Beethoven's Seventh to show his incredible sense of melody and harmony in a modern context.
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21. |
Ode to the Bassoon
02:02
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The bassoon features prominently in the theme music of Leave It To Beaver, represents the grandfather character in Peter and the Wolf, and scores Mickey Mouse's misadventure with the dancing broomsticks in Fantasia.
The bassoon is one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra to play, but people just don't take it seriously. We have heard the bassoon in dopey pet-food commercials, in movie soundtracks and on sitcoms such as Curb Your Enthusiasm.
While the bassoon can be bouncy and silly, it can also be jazzy, romantic and serious. The bassoon is present in "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "Jennifer Juniper" by Donovan, "59th Street Bridge Song" by Harpers Bizarre, and the oompah bassoon underlying The New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral."
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Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
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