The Oboe Quartet in F major, (K370/368b), was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in early 1781. The quartet is scored for oboe, violin, viola and violone basso or cello. In 1780, Mozart was invited to Munich to visit Elector Karl Theodor, who had commissioned the opera Idomeneo for a carnival celebration. While in Munich, Mozart […]
Bruch – Kol Nidrei
Kol Nidrei, Op. 47 (also known as All Vows, the meaning of the phrase in Aramaic), is a composition for cello and orchestra written by Max Bruch. Bruch completed the work in Liverpool, in 1880, and published it in Berlin in 1881. It was dedicated to and premiered by Robert Hausmann, who later co-premiered Johannes […]
Mazurka
The Mazurka is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple metre, usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur’s “strong accents unsystematically placed on the second or third beat”. The Mazurka, alongside the polka dance, became popular at the ballrooms and salons of Europe in the […]
Bach – Partita No. 3 in E Major
The Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin, BWV 1006.1 (formerly 1006), is the last work in Johann Sebastian Bach’s set of Sonatas and Partitas. It takes about 15–18 minutes to perform and consists of the following movements: This Partita is perhaps the most exuberant and cheery of the three in the book; while it is […]
The Trolley Song
“The Trolley Song” is a song written by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. In a 1989 NPR interview, Blane and Martin reminisced about the song’s genesis. They were assigned to write a song for the trolley scene in the film. […]
The Pleasure Fair
The Pleasure Fair was a musical performing group based in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The original group membership included Robb Royer, Tim Hallinan, Michele Cochrane and Stephen Cohn. Robb Royer obtained his first guitar when he was 19 years old and a college sophomore at San Fernando Valley State College in Northridge (now California […]
Mozart – Bassoon Concerto
The Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K 191/186e, was written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is the most often performed and studied piece in the entire bassoon repertory. Nearly all professional bassoonists will perform the piece at some stage in their career, and it is probably the most commonly requested piece in orchestral […]
Parov Stelar
Marcus Füreder, better known by his stage name Parov Stelar, is an Austrian musician, composer, producer, DJ and designer. He is one of the pioneers of Electro swing as well as a visual artist (including painting and screen printing). His musical style is based on a combination of jazz, house, electro and pop. Marcus Füreder […]
Basin Street Blues
“Basin Street Blues” is a song often performed by Dixieland jazz bands, written by Spencer Williams in 1928 and recorded that year by Louis Armstrong. The verse with the lyric “Won’t you come along with me / To the Mississippi…” was later added by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden. Pianist and composer Spencer Williams titled […]
Mannheim School
Mannheim School refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of the Elector Palatine in Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century and the group of composers of the early classical period, who composed for the orchestra of Mannheim. The father of the school is considered to be the Bohemian […]