Beaumarchais: Barber of Seville, and the Genius Behind Figaro
The Beaumarchais Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro were phenomena in their time. They called for social equality in the years leading up to the French Revolution. They espoused feminism during an age when common women had no rights. They caricatured the aristocracy and championed the intelligence of ordinary citizens. And these plays ...
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The Influence of Dvorak on Later Composers
We’re about to launch episode 6 of Backstage Podcast, but as you can imagine, we had to make some cuts to the script. That always hurts a little bit. Fortunately for us, we have a blog to feature our edited material. It’s the kind of stuff that we think is really cool, but it didn’t ...
Dwight’s Journal of Music: Links, Overview, and Commentary
We promised some links to Dwight’s Journal of Music, so here you go: Read Dwight’s Journal of Music via Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/dwightsjournalm20dwiggoog You can now indulge in all 41 volumes of the first notable music journal in the United States. Dwight’s Journal of music started off in Boston during April of 1852 as a weekly periodical, ...
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President Harry Truman Was a Pianist
Did you know that President Harry Truman was a pianist? He wasn’t up to Condoleezza Rice’s standards, but Truman did spend the first fifteen years of his life practicing the piano for two hours per day. Here’s a video of Truman playing. The piano probably served as a consistent diversion from the world’s first nuclear ...
History of the Claque (Pt. 1): A Look Into Entertainment’s Original Laugh Track
Concert-goers haven’t always erupted in immediate applause at the end of a show. You might be surprised to learn that clapping as we know it — immediate, mandatory applause after a performance — couldn’t be taken for granted prior to the 20th century. That was due in part to the “claque.” Keep reading to learn ...
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Listen To the Hiroshima Symphony
You can’t truly understand the subject of “Ghosts of Hiroshima,” our podcast episode, without giving a listen to the Hiroshima Symphony. Here is a recording of the Japan Philharmonic performing Masao Ohki’s most famous work, followed by notes from the American Record Guide (as printed on the Naxos website). [embed height="560" width="315"]https://www.youtube.com/embed/0nQjf0mwuqw[/embed] Listen to the ...