Explore every episode of The Classical Music Minute
Dive into the complete episode list for The Classical Music Minute. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
Rows per page:
50
1–50 of 219
Pub. Date
Title
Duration
14 Feb 2022
The Obsession With Mozart's Death
00:01:00
Description There has been much debate over the years as to how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died. What had he suffered from that had taken his life at the early age of only thirty-six? Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Most of us have seen the movie Amadeus, and the scene with Salieri pestering Mozart on his deathbed. However, there is little evidence that Salieri was present during Mozart’s final hours. The cause of Mozart’s death will surely be debated for decades to come, but we do know that he was buried in a common grave at St Marx Cemetery on 7 December 1791.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Chopin's Mazurkas: The Polish Dance That Is Undanceable
00:01:00
Description Over the years 1825–1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 59 Mazurkas for piano, based on the traditional Polish dance. But his unique style differed significantly from the original. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In 1921, Béla Bartók published an essay in which he said that Chopin "had not known authentic Polish folk music." Bartók suggested that Chopin instead had been influenced by national, and not folk music.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Esprit Orchestra is one of the few full-sized orchestras devoted to performing the work of living composers. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Conductor, Alex Pauk, is married to composer Alexina Louie. Over the years, both have collaborated on several film scores including Don McKellar's Last Night, which received a Genie nomination for Best Original Score in 1998, and The Five Senses, a film by Jeremy Podeswa that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the following year. In conjunction with David Henry Hwang, Louie composed a full-length opera, The Scarlet Princess (1996–2002).
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Alexina Louie is one of my favourite Canadian composers of contemporary classical music. I first heard her work “Music For Heaven and Earth” in 1990, which was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony. This is one composer you should definitely get to know. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Alexina Louie settled in Toronto in 1980, and over the subsequent four decades, she created a brilliant and ongoing career whose highlights are far too many to mention. Some of the most notable ones include her work O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould, composed in response to the tragic and untimely death of Gould in 1982; two JUNO awards, as well as numerous JUNO nominations; her opera, The Scarlet Princess, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company; her 2005 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada; and esteemed awards like the 1999 Jules Leger Prize for New Chamber Music and the 2019 Canada Council Molson Prize in the Arts.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Luciano Pavarotti was one of the most remarkable tenors of all time. Born into a humble working-class family, he attained worldwide fame, and eventually the honorific title of "King of the High Cs". Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Though praised for his voice, Pavarotti was often criticized for his inability to read music well and was unpopular with conductors due to telling them the correct tempo he believed was appropriate.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Sergei Bortkiewicz, Ukrainian Composer: "Through Hardship To The Stars"
00:01:00
Description Sergei Bortkiewicz, a Ukrainian composer and pianist, was oppressed by the Soviets and the Nazis, a refugee and survivor of two World Wars, yet he composed wonderfully rich, appealing and colourful music. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The outbreak of World War I in 1914 changed Bortkiewicz's life: Being a citizen of the Russian Empire, he was—together with his wife—initially put under house arrest and later deported from Germany to Russia. He returned to Kharkov, where he established himself as a music teacher, and also gave concerts. Hear his 3rd Piano Concerto.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Vladimir Horowitz is considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. What is less known is that Horowitz was born in Kiev, the capital of modern-day Ukraine and at the time this was part of the Russian Empire. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Horowitz was acclaimed for his recordings of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, and his performance before Rachmaninoff awed the composer, who proclaimed "he swallowed it whole. He had the courage, the intensity, the daring."
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Rachmaninoff & The Emotional Connection To Minor Keys
00:01:00
Description Sergei Rachmaninoff had an unmistakable connection to writing in minor keys. In fact, his three symphonies, Symphonic Dances, four piano concertos, and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are all written in minor keys. But why you may ask? Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact By 1900 Rachmaninoff was paralyzed with self-doubt and unable to compose. After professional help, his creative juices were rekindled. The Piano Concerto No. 2, completed in 1901 and performed by Rachmaninoff himself, was a success and led to a Glinka Award.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Dating back over one thousand years, it is said that Ukrainian choral music embodies a cultural identity and is truly a reflection of the soul of a nation. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact With ever-changing borders and territories, Ukraine became a truly independent state only in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet choral art in the Ukrainian lands stretches back for over 1,000 years. The so-called “Znamenny Chant” stood at the core of Eastern Byzantium church music and rites, but a good number of the early sources have not been fully deciphered to date. Eventually, responding to Western European developments, notation was reformed by the Kyiv square notation.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
What Did Mozart Like To Eat? Inquiring Minds Want To Know...
00:01:00
Description Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved to eat. His favourites included a variety of dishes to fuel his creativity. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact With Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and numerous other composers hanging around, Vienna was clearly a musical center. Concurrently, it was an epicurean center that created and established the Viennese cuisine we still enjoy today.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Teacher Mozart: Billiards, Bowling, & The Art Of Fugue
00:01:00
Description Teaching was part of Mozart’s lifestyle, and it was not uncommon for him to offer instruction while playing billiards or at the bowling alley. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact During the early stages of his career in Vienna, Mozart would give pupils 3 to 5 one-hour lessons per week but wasn’t particularly flexible about when the lessons could happen: he only wanted to teach during and around noon, so that he could have the mornings and evenings to write, perform and generally ponder over his own compositions.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto & The Passion Behind It
00:01:00
Description It was the passionate and sometimes tempestuous relationship between Tchaikovsky and violinist Yosif Kotek that sparked the miraculous creation of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, a true masterpiece. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Although Yosif Kotek and Tchaikovsky were inseparable at one time, due to Kotek’s “unbelievable womanizing” the two fell apart. They would occasionally meet, love had clearly turned into contempt, and they found each other’s company “more unpleasant than pleasant,” and more “tiresome than attractive”. As it happens, contempt turned into pity when Kotek contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Switzerland for treatment. Tchaikovsky rushed to the bedside of his estranged and ailing lover, and dispensed various spiritual and physical comforts for six days. Kotek died, aged 29, and Tchaikovsky was charged with informing Kotek’s parents of their son’s untimely passing.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Franz Schubert in just eleven years (1797-1828) wrote over 600 songs. He set some of the greatest poets of his time to music. Some of them were even contemporary minor poets who were his friends. The greatest poet of Schubert’s age was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. One of the most dramatic of Schubert’s vocal works was the setting of Goethe’s poem, The Erlking, Der Erlkönig. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact More than 10,000 of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s letters are still in existence as are nearly 3,000 drawings. He was a literary celebrity by age 25. A recent reviewer of a new biography of Goethe noted wryly that if Goethe had lived during the age of Shakespeare, we’d be wondering if there were one Goethe or if there were many, now confused under one name.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description After a harrowing pandemic, and shut down of the arts worldwide, the BBC Proms is back this summer. It will showcase repertoire not heard at the festival since 2019, but also lesser-known works in its ‘Cinderella’ instruments series. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The 2022 Proms marks the centenary year of the BBC, celebrating a historic partnership between music and broadcasting that has brought the world’s largest classical music festival into people’s homes across the UK and beyond.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description The theremin was the first electronic musical instrument invented purely by accident by a physicist and trained cellist. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The theremin became the go-to noise for an alien encounter, most famously in the classic 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (scored by Bernard Herrmann). Other high-profile credits, alongside lots of B-Movies, include The Lost Weekend and the Biblical blockbuster The Ten Commandments.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Music has the power to arouse strong feelings and recall memories and the performer is the conduit to communicate this emotion. But it is actually far more complex than that. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact We’ve all had those ‘Proustian rush’ moments when a piece of music, or a single movement or even a phrase, provokes an involuntary memory, sometimes with physical side-effects such as goosebumps or shivers. Sometimes we want to feel uplifted or transported by music, taking us out of ourselves and the mundanity of everyday life to another place, to experience something touching or transcendent. Such moments, and the memory of them, are very special and individual.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Medieval Western European music encompassed sacred and secular genres in the Middle Ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. It spans centuries and is worth considering as an integral part of our musical development. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Hildegard von Bingen was a rare Medieval female composer. Also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by many in Europe to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Conversation with Bekah Simms, Composer & General Manager for the Canadian League of Composers (Bonus Episode)
00:28:40
Description Occasionally, I am going to release a bonus interview episode for your listening pleasure. For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bekah Simms who is the outgoing General Manager for the Canadian League of Composers. She is also a truly innovative composer in her own right. We chatted all about the League as well as Bekah’s compositional process and what she’s currently working on. Enjoy!
About Bekah Simms The varied output of JUNO and Gaudeamus Award-nominated composer Bekah Simms has been heralded as “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music), “tough, even gutsy...with a sure sense of original and vibrant colours” (Vancouver Sun), and lauded for its "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range and sonic complexity" (The Journal of Music.) Propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe, her work is often filtered through the personal lens of her anxiety, resulting in nervous, messy, and frequently heavy musical landscapes. Foremost among her current compositional interests is quotation and the friction between recognizability and complete obfuscation.
Bekah hails from St. John's, Newfoundland and is currently Toronto-based. Her music has been widely performed across Canada, in over a dozen American states, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Lithuania, the UK, and Russia. Commissioning ensembles include some of the top interpreters of contemporary music in both Canada and internationally, such as Crash Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Esprit Orchestra, Continuum Contemporary Music, Ensemble Télémaque, Ensemble Paramirabo, and Duo Concertante. Upcoming commissions include new works for Crash, But What About?, New Music Concerts, and more.
About Steven (TCMM Host) Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Need a quick refresher on the plot of Verdi’s Rigoletto? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Rigoletto premiered on 11 March 1851 in a sold-out La Fenice as the first part of a double bill with Giacomo Panizza's ballet Faust. The opening night was a complete triumph, especially the scena drammatica and the Duke's cynical aria, "La donna è mobile", which was sung in the streets the next morning. It initially had a run of 13 performances and was revived in Venice the following year, and again in 1854.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Nessun dorma Part I: The Plot of Puccini's Turandot
00:01:00
Description I wanted to do a special two-part episode on the famous aria Nessun dorma. First the plot and lead up to the aria itself. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Although "Nessun dorma" had long been a staple of operatic recitals, Luciano Pavarotti popularized the piece beyond the opera world in the 1990s following his performance of it for the 1990 World Cup, which captivated a global audience. Both Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo released singles of the aria, with Pavarotti's reaching number 2 in the UK, and it appeared on the best-selling classical album of all time, The Three Tenors in Concert.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Nessun dorma Part II: The Tenors Who Brought It To Life
00:01:00
Description The aria Nessun dorma is one of the most famous in all of operatic history and has been sung by an array of fantastic tenors—each adding their own unique technical and expressive prowess. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact "Nessun dorma", "Let no one sleep" is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Era Of The Lute & The Composer Who Made It Happen
00:01:00
Description The lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687 – 1750) was one of the most prolific composers of the lute in history and was the virtuoso lutenist of his day. He was a contemporary of J.S. Bach and even competed with him in improvisation. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In later life, Weiss became a friend of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and met J.S. Bach through him. Bach and Weiss were said to have competed in improvisation, as the following account by Johann Friedrich Reichardt describes: "Anyone who knows how difficult it is to play harmonic modulations and good counterpoint on the lute will be surprised and full of disbelief to hear from eyewitnesses that Weiss, the great lutenist, challenged J.S. Bach, the great harpsichordist and organist, at playing fantasies and fugues."
About Steven Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact During the late 1940s, Copland became aware that Stravinsky and other fellow composers had begun to study Arnold Schoenberg's use of twelve-tone (serial) techniques. After he had been exposed to the works of French composer Pierre Boulez, he incorporated serial techniques into his Piano Quartet (1950), Piano Fantasy (1957), Connotations for orchestra (1961) and Inscape for orchestra (1967). Unlike Schoenberg, Copland used his tone rows in much the same fashion as his tonal material—as sources for melodies and harmonies, rather than as complete statements in their own right, except for crucial events from a structural point of view.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Conversation with world-renowned Theremin Player Pamelia Stickney, & Alexander (Sasha) Rapoport, Composer (Bonus Episode)
00:44:32
Description For this bonus interview episode, I chatted with world-renowned theremin player Pamelia Stickney (formerly known as Pamelia Kurstin). She has performed and recorded with many artists including David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, David Garland, Seb Rochford, Otto Lechner and Simone Dinnerstein, and was instrumental in the final design of Robert Moog's Etherwave Pro Theremin, for which she was the primary test musician.
I was also joined by composer, Sasha Rapoport, who has written several works for the theremin, performed by his good friend Pamelia Stickney. Among other things, he chatted and played a clip from his 3rd Sonata, march and minuet. Sasha's principal compositions include works for Jamie Sommerville (Waldberauscht, 2016) Pamelia Stickney (Sonata for Theremin and Piano no. 1, 2014 and no. 2, 2018) The Talisker Players (And Hast Thou Glossed the Jabberwock? 2011, and The Pilgrimage of Henry Pyne, 2009), The Canadian Children’s Opera Company (Dragon in the Rocks, 2008), The Windermere Quartet (String Quartet no. 1, 2006 and no. 2, 2017), Valerie Tryon (Variations on a Theme of Chopin for Piano and Orchestra, 1999) and Judy Loman (Hymn to the Redeemer of the Nations, 1986). He is an associate professor, teaching stream, in composition and music theory at the University of Toronto.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547) excelled at languages, literature, theology, sport and, famously, music. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In 1515, May Day was celebrated at Greenwich with all kinds of music, including, according to this description, a mix of natural and ‘made’ music: ‘In the wood were bowers filled purposely with singing birds which carolled most sweetly, and in one of these bastions or bowers were some triumphal cars, on which were singers and musicians, who played on organ, lute and flutes for a good while, during a banquet which was served in this place.’
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Queen Of The Night Aria Part I: From The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte)
00:01:00
Description The ‘Queen of the Night’ aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), is a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The story is a mixture of fun and high ideals, of Masonic philosophy and high jinx, of brotherhood and love affairs, of melodrama and serious thought. Within this context Mozart sent his final message of personal conviction and standards of living, which had been confirmed by his membership in the Freemasons, on January 7, 1785, admitted into the Zur Wohltätigkeit Lodge in Vienna. There, he was in familiar company. Other contemporary members of this Lodge were Joseph Haydn, his patron Prince Lichnowsky, his father Leopold, Michael Puchberg and Gottfried van Swieten, two of his most important patrons, Anton Stadler (clarinetist) and Angelo Solimon, a good friend.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Conversation with Maria Molinari, Canadian Media Composer (Bonus Episode)
00:48:41
Description For this bonus interview episode, I chat with Canadian Media Composer, Maria Molinari. Trained as a classical guitarist, Maria Molinari began her composing career writing concert music for soloists, chamber groups, ballet and orchestras until her love of film, storytelling & collaboration drew her to film scoring. Maria recently composed the score for the bold critically acclaimed anthology film TO THE NEW GIRL. Her music can be heard in the score for the feature film END OF DAYS, INC. and the theme for the forensic series MOTIVES & MURDERS: CRACKING THE CASE. She has provided additional music for the MARVEL COMICS based sci-fi syndicated series MUTANT X and the retro musical comedy series GETTING ALONG FAMOUSLY. Enjoy!
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Queen Of The Night Aria Part II: The Sopranos Who Brought It Life
00:01:00
Description "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), commonly abbreviated "Der Hölle Rache", is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). But who are some of the sopranos who successfully tackled this feat of brilliance? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Four Soprano Greats with their Queen Of The Night (℅ YouTube)
…Wow! I never get tired of listening to this aria…worth checking out. 🤓🎵🌎
Fun Fact the Queen of the Night Aria is written in D minor, and is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, along with timpani and the string section. This is a larger orchestra than for "O zittre nicht" and comprises all the players from the opera as a whole, except the clarinets and trombones. The aria is renowned as a demanding piece to perform well. The vocal range covers two octaves, from F4 to F6 and requires a very high tessitura, A4 to C6.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra: A Message Of Defiance & Hope
00:01:00
Description In defence of Ukraine and its cultural heritage, Keri-Lynn Wilson is leading the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra on its inaugural tour of Europe and America. Composed of leading Ukrainian musicians from both inside and outside of Ukraine, the orchestra was created by Ms. Wilson with support from the governments of Ukraine and Poland and the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Anton Bruckner was extremely critical of his own work and often reworked his compositions. One such perplexity was his Symphony No. 0. Or was it? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. Hans von Bülow described him as "half genius, half simpleton". Bruckner was critical of his own work and often reworked his compositions.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Blessed with good looks, but bad teeth, Franz Liszt had a number of vices, including cigars and cognac. All of which he would indulge in to excess. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Liszt was quite the rock star of his time. They called it “Lisztomania” – women would faint and go into a frenzy when he performed, so much so that local doctors thought it was an epidemic of mental illness. And it wasn’t just women swooning for Liszt! Upon seeing Liszt, one critic, Yuri Arnold, wrote: “As soon as I reached home, I pulled off my coat, flung myself on the sofa, and wept the bitterest, sweetest tears.”
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Coffee Chat with Kati Falk-Flores, Hollywood Composer (Bonus Interview Episode)
00:38:11
Description The world of trailer music evolved composer Kati Falk-Flores’ skills beyond her classical training into writing the larger-than-life, cinematic music needed for the promotion of Hollywood’s biggest films.
From the heartwarming piece used for advertising Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns to the dark exploration of humanity used for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Kati’s music resonates with audiences for its “powerful role in storytelling” and has won both CLIO and Golden Trailer Awards.
While trailer music has given Kati well-earned skill in writing orchestral-hybrid music, emotive storytelling takes the front seat for both her concert works and music for media, just as it did in the violin-feature orchestral work Awakening, commissioned in 2015.
Currently, Kati balances composing trailer music with writing music for indie film projects. Join me for this bonus episode coffee chat!
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Celebrating The 40th Anniversary Of The Compact Disk (CD)
00:01:00
Description This year marks the 40th anniversary of the compact disk. It’s worth giving a nod to this period in our music recording history because for many of us it was a brave new world. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact A BBC programme called Tomorrow’s World introduced British audiences to the CD in 1981 – the presenter Kieran Prendiville was skeptical about “whether there’s a market for this kind of disc”. There was indeed a huge market for this shiny little miracle worker, but alas, it wouldn’t last.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Johann Strauss Jr. found the perfect formula for engaging with the masses. He made a killing money-wise and was considered the biggest pop star of his time. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Strauss Jr. had a passion for accumulating an awe-inspiring array of medals, decorations and honours from the world’s sovereigns. As such, the titles and dedicatees of his compositions, as has been suggested, “may be viewed as a musically illustrated guide to about 50 years of European history.”
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Who was "Elise" in Beethoven's Piano Piece, Für Elise?
00:01:00
Description Nowadays, ‘Für Elise’ is undoubtedly one of Beethoven’s most famous works. It seems almost strange then that, at the time it was composed, the piece was relatively incidental. It certainly didn’t provoke much of a reaction and apparently, Beethoven himself was never fully satisfied with the work, returning to it some years later and trying, unsuccessfully in his eyes, to revise and refine it. Ultimately, ‘Für Elise’ wasn’t even published until 1865, nearly forty years after Beethoven’s death on 26 March 1827. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Beethoven composed the piece on 27 April 1810. At this stage, Beethoven’s hearing was getting gradually weaker. The composer could apparently still hear some speech and music until 1812. But by the age of 44 (four years after he composed ‘Für Elise’), he was almost totally deaf and unable to hear voices. As he got progressively deafer, his pieces got higher and higher. This might account for the relatively high pitch of ‘Für Elise’, which reaches an E7 – two Es above a top soprano C.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Some thought that the virtuoso violinist Paganini was a metaphorical musical God, others thought he literally got his virtuosity from a deal with the Devil. But what was the real story behind Niccolò Paganini’s genius? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Known particularly for his fiendish 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Paganini helped popularise certain string techniques such as bow bounces – spiccato – as well as left-hand pizzicato and harmonics. He also purposely mistuned strings to make certain pieces easier to play. It is said he could play 12 notes per second – a feat later achieved by violinist David Garrett, who plays Paganini in The Devil’s Violinist, a 2013 film based on the composer’s life story.
It is now believed that Paganini’s unusual finger length, which allowed him to play three octaves in one hand span, was due to Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder. Equally, his ability to play at incredible speed could be attributed to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disorder which causes increased flexibility and a lack of coordination.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description King Frederick II of Prussia aka Frederick The Great was passionate about music. He particularly loved to play the flute, which he initially learned in secret due to his father being a straight-laced military man. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact King Frederick II loved operas but never wrote one himself – he did, however, contribute arias for operas by Carl Graun, and wrote the libretto for Graun’s opera Montezuma. His flute sonatas make virtuosic demands on the performer and are excellent at conveying different ranges of emotion, expressing both soulful and spirited feelings.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Sturm und Drang: The German Music Of Storm & Stress
00:01:00
Description In my past episode about Frederick The Great, I mentioned Sturm und Drang aka "storm and stress". This movement occurred in German literature and music between the late 1760s and early 1780s. It was a style of composition that evoked emotions of stress, fear, horror and anxiety. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The clearest musical connections to the self-styled Sturm und Drang movement can be found in opera and the early predecessors of program music, such as Haydn's Farewell Symphony. Beethoven, Weber, and even Schubert also have elements of Sturm und Drang.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description The tale of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 45 in F♯ minor, known as the "Farewell" Symphony was told in Haydn’s later life to his biographers Albert Christoph Dies and Georg August Griesinger. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The symphony could not be performed without the purchase of some special equipment. Haydn signed an order for two special half-step slides for use by the horn players. These slightly lengthened the horn's tubing, permitting the instrument to be used to play in keys a semitone lower than usual. The horn of the time was the valveless natural horn, which needed to be adjusted with inserted crooks to play in different keys.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description What was Neoclassicism in music? And which composers utilized this aesthetic form? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 (1917) is sometimes cited as a precursor of Neoclassicism. Prokofiev himself thought that his composition was a "passing phase" whereas Stravinsky's neoclassicism was by the 1920s "becoming the basic line of his music".
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Igor Stravinsky was a huge proponent of Neoclassicism in music—much to the shock and dismay of some listeners and critics. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact A pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov in his native St. Petersburg, Stravinsky had inherited the style of the Russian nationalist group, the so-called kuchka or Mighty Handful, and the ballets he wrote for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes before and during the First World War – The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Noces – are post-kuchka works, based on folk tales or rituals, using folk music or poetry, and largely ignoring the orthodox procedures of traditional classical music.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description John Gay wrote The Beggar's Opera as an anti-opera rather than an opera, lampooning the Italian opera style and the English public's fascination with it. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Facts Fact 1 Lavinia Fenton, the first Polly Peachum, became an overnight success. Her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her. After appearing in several comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of The Beggar's Opera, she ran away with her married lover, Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton.
Fact 2 Bertolt Brecht adapted the work into Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) in 1928, sticking closely to the original plot and characters but with a new libretto, and mostly new music by Kurt Weill.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description One of my favorite pieces of all time is Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major. This episode is dedicated to this breathtaking composition. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact One day during the summer of 1911, Sergei Taneyev, the revered composer, asked the young Prokofiev a question that undoubtedly puzzled many musicians of his generation: “Where, Sergei Sergeyevich, do you think your predilection for dissonances comes from?”
Prokofiev responded: “Well, you know, Sergei Ivanovich, when I was eleven years old and I brought you my first symphony [an unpublished student work], you listened to it and said with a smile, ‘Very good, very good; except the harmony is painfully primitive…’ Those words burned themselves into my brain, I became ashamed of my primitive harmony, and tried in every possible way to make it more interesting.
This ambition has never left me, and as my musical powers developed I was always aiming at ever more complex harmony […]” Laughing, Taneyev replied, “Well, imagine that! I never knew it was I who had set you off on that path…!”
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description John Williams is of course known for his Hollywood blockbuster orchestral music. But has also composed many incredible works, including his cello concerto for famed cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Williams has composed for a staggering number of critically acclaimed and popular movies, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the first two Home Alone films, the Indiana Jones films, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, Seven Years In Tibet, and the first three Harry Potter films.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Coffee Chat w/ Spanish Concert Pianist, Juan Pérez Floristán, “The Art & Business Of Performance” (Bonus Ep)
00:47:26
Description Recently I came across a fabulous Spanish Concert Pianist on YouTube, by the name of Juan Pérez Floristán. He was playing the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1—one of my favourites. Watching him play had me literally jumping out of my seat. So, I decided that I’ve really got to chat with him. And I did, from his home in Spain.
Juan’s YouTube Channel Tócala otra vez Juan (Play it again, Juan) My Note: I checked it out and watched (with subs) his analysis of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto. It was fun and informative. 🤓
Here’s a little more about Juan, in his own words:
“I was born in 1993, in Seville, a city in the south of Spain, which in itself is in the south of Europe. My father, Juan Luis Pérez, is an orchestra director, and I learned how to conduct from him. My mother, María Floristán, is a pianist and pedagogue, and I learned to play the piano from her.
My orchestral activity also began when I was very young, playing Mozart's Concerto 12 with my father Juan Luis Pérez at the baton. Since then, I have played with ensembles such as the RTVE Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Camerata, the Monterey Symphony Orchestra (USA), the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra, & the Barcelona Orchestra.
I have also conducted Beethoven and Mozart concerts from the piano.
As for the venues I have had the privilege of playing in, I cannot forget the Royal Albert Hall (together with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms), the Wigmore Hall, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Tonhalle in Zürich , the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the Béla Bartók Hall in Budapest, & the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
Probably the greatest milestones of my professional life have been winning in 2015 the International Piano Competition "Paloma O'Shea" in Santander and in 2021 the International Piano Competition "Arthur Rubinstein" in Tel Aviv. In both I also won the public award, and to all this we must add the Gold Medal of the City of Seville and the First Prize in the Berlin Steinway Competition in 2015. But I never forget the saying that "Winning a prize does not depend on you. Deserve it, yes."
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Fun Fact L'Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) was premiered in Lausanne on 28 September 1918, conducted by Ernest Ansermet. The British conductor Edward Clark was a friend and champion of Stravinsky and a former assistant conductor to Ansermet at the Ballets Russes. He conducted the British premiere of L'Histoire du soldat in 1926 in Newcastle upon Tyne, and gave three further fully staged performances in London in July 1927.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description What is the oldest known instrument to exist today? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The Paleolithic, also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek palaios - old, lithos - stone), is a period in prehistory, distinguished by the original development of stone tools, that covers 99% of the period of human technological prehistory. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene c. 11,650 cal BP.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Alma Mahler was an Austrian composer and socialite. First, wife to Gustav Mahler and then after his death re-marrying twice. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In 1938, after the Anschluss, Werfel and Alma were forced to flee Austria as it was unsafe for Jews. Eventually the couple settled in Los Angeles. In later years, her salon became part of the artistic scene, first in Vienna, then in Los Angeles and in New York.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description The majority of modern music we hear today would not have been possible without the development of Polyphony in the 12th and 13th centuries. Much of this was accomplished through the innovation of The Notre Dame School in Paris. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The earliest motets are the Notre-Dame motets, written by composers such as Leonin and Perotin during the 13th century. These motets were polyphonic, with a different text in each voice, and employed the rhythmic modes. An example of a Notre-Dame motet is Salve, salus hominum/O radians stella/nostrum by Perotin, composed between 1180 and 1238.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description The holiday season wouldn’t be marked without a rousing rendition of Handel’s Messiah. But was that its original intent? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In the 1730s, the emotional and financial toll of producing operas, as well as changing audience tastes, contributed to Handel's growing interest in sacred oratorios—which required neither elaborate scenery nor foreign stars—including, eventually, Messiah. "With oratorios, Handel could be more his own master," says Keates.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Coffee Chat w/ Jamie Jones from Classical 95.9-FM, “A Family Legacy” (Bonus Episode)
00:16:46
Description This episode I have something special for you, I chatted with Vice-President and Co-Owner of Classical 95.9-FM WCRI situated in Rhode Island. Come January 4th 2023 they will be airing The Classical Music Minute just prior to Noon every Wednesday. But the station also has a really interesting history and approach. Take a listen.
About Classical 95.9-FM WCRI Classical 95.9-FM WCRI & Billboard Connection Providence are owned by Judson Group, Inc., a company that includes the son and grandsons of broadcasting pioneer Ted Jones, founder of Charles River Broadcasting Company and Boston’s legendary classical music station, WCRB. Judson Group acquired Classical 95.9-FM WCRI from Charles River Broadcasting in 2006 and is committed to carrying on the Ted Jones tradition of radio excellence.
Classical 95.9-FM WCRI is the only classical music station exclusively serving southern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut. Tune in to Classical 95.9-FM WCRI.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Classical Music Minute Is Coming To Classical 95.9-FM WCRI In 2023!!!
00:00:30
Description Beginning January 4th 2023, Classical 95.9-FM WCRI will be airing The Classical Music Minute just prior to Noon every Wednesday. Catch it live!
About Classical 95.9-FM WCRI Classical 95.9-FM WCRI & Billboard Connection Providence are owned by Judson Group, Inc., a company that includes the son and grandsons of broadcasting pioneer Ted Jones, founder of Charles River Broadcasting Company and Boston’s legendary classical music station, WCRB. Judson Group acquired Classical 95.9-FM WCRI from Charles River Broadcasting in 2006 and is committed to carrying on the Ted Jones tradition of radio excellence.
Classical 95.9-FM WCRI is the only classical music station exclusively serving southern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut. Tune in to Classical 95.9-FM WCRI.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description As we usher in the New Year, many around the world sing "Auld Lang Syne" to bid farewell to the year gone by. But where did this tune come from and how did it come to be so popular? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Guy Lombardo’s orchestra played at the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 1929 to 1959, and from then until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Live broadcasts (and later telecasts) of their performances were a large part of New Year's celebrations across North America; millions of people watched the show with friends at house parties.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Addressing Childhood Trauma Through Music in Rwanda w/Patrick Rutikanga (Bonus Episode)
00:32:54
Description This holiday season I had the priviledge to talk with Patrick Rutikanga, Executive Director of the Gisimba Memorial Center in Rwanda. They run an after school program for children, part of which introduces music into their lives. The purpose of the program is to build strong relationships, heal families, restore dignity, and create hope in vulnerable East African communities. Take a listen.
About Gisimba Using a holistic, trauma-informed approach Gisimba provides art and academic enrichment, family education, and therapeutic services to communities recovering from conflict or neglect. Every Child has the potential to acquiring and develop skills not only to give them a sense of meaning and identity but also empowering them to become fully active citizens in the development of Rwanda.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Frédéric Chopin loved his food and was afforded great opportunities to develop his rather expensive tastes. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Chopin’s favorite restaurant was “Au Rocher de Cancale,” and that particular eatery is still located at rue Montorgueil, Paris 75002. The composer also liked to eat at the “Café de Foy” when it was actually called Café Tortoni.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description The Bach Six Solo Cello Suites are considered a staple for every budding cellist. But in Bach’s day, the cello was not considered a solo instrument and these works were shelved for decades. Not until Pablo Casals came along. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Since the earliest manuscripts copied by his wife Anna Magdalena Bach contain no markings as to the bowings, tempo, character, or articulation of the pieces, the suites have been reinterpreted in myriad ways by cellists around the world. One has to admire how the music speaks no matter how varied the approach. Nonetheless, certain cellists stand out for their Bach’s music.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Though Felix Mendelssohn was one of the most beloved composers of the Romantic period, 270 of his works remained unpublished until recent years. But why? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Thanks to the work of The Mendelssohn Project many of his pieces are now being shared along with his story, letters and artworks. The project aims to establish itself as the world's central resource point for all matters pertaining to the prominent Mendelssohn family.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Mozart's Piano Music: Complexity Masked In Simplicity
00:01:00
Description At first glance, Mozart’s piano music may look simple. Yet for many pianists, the music’s greatest challenge lies in that seeming simplicity. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Another challenge for the pianist is Mozart’s complete mastery of orchestration. Many of the piano sonatas have a symphonic sweep and soundworld in their opening and closing movements, while the slow movements are soprano arias with dramatic interludes. Such piano writing demands that the pianist harnesses his/her imagination to evoke these instruments and sounds within the scope of two staves and just two hands.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description To celebrate the 100th episode of this podcast, I thought we could travel back in time to the dynamic public concerts of London’s Hanover Square Rooms during the early 1790s and the presentation of Joseph Haydn’s Military Symphony No 100 in G Major. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact At the time, Joseph Haydn was taking the city by storm, conducting his final twelve symphonies (Nos. 93-104) from a seat at the harpsichord. Haydn remained on the payroll of the Esterházy court during this time. But it was London where he was regarded as a rockstar, thanks to an invitation from the prominent impresario, Johann Peter Salomon.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description It may not be to everyone’s taste, yet Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one of the most famous pieces of classical music of all time. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Pachelbel wrote more than 500 pieces over his lifetime. He was a prolific organist in his hometown of Nuremberg, and even taught the man who became Bach’s teacher. Despite the sheer volume of his output, there’s still no system to number all of his works.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Floating Down the River Thames with Handel's Water Music
00:01:00
Description Handel's Water Music was composed around 1717 and first performed after George I requested a concert on the River Thames. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The first performance of the Water Music is recorded in The Daily Courant, the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 July 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge, provided by the City of London, transported about 50 musicians who performed Handel's music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture: A Paradox in the Making
00:01:00
Description Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is considered one of his greatest masterpieces. Why then, did he not appreciate the accolades that came with its success? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact That infamous assessment of it as “very loud and noisy and completely without artistic merit, obviously written without warmth or love,” was penned by Tchaikovsky himself. The overture’s popularity was a source of deep frustration to this sensitive, serious-minded symphonist whose imaginative fantasy and whimsical, melodic turn of phrase had also managed to transform the art of composing ballet music to a high calling.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Eine kleine Nachtmusik: A Little Light Entertainment
00:01:00
Description Eine kleine Nachtmusik or “A Little Night Music” aka Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K 525, is admired for its lively, joyful quality and memorable melodies. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The four-movement work opens with a bright allegro in sonata form, and a slow, lyrical second movement follows. The third movement is a light minuet, and the finale is a brisk rondo. Originally, the piece contained a second minuet, but that movement has been lost. The specific occasion, if any, for which Eine kleine Nachtmusik was composed has never been determined.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Fun Fact The Blue Danube premiered in the United States in its instrumental version on 1 July 1867 in New York, and in the UK in its choral version on 21 September 1867 in London at the promenade concerts at Covent Garden.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Beethoven, Symphony No.5 in C minor — “Fate Knocking At The Door”
00:01:00
Description Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, became a standard against which many other symphonies were measured. It is best known by the ominous four-note opening motif. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In the mid-1970s, American musician Walter Murphy released “A Fifth of Beethoven,” a popular disco recording based on the signature motif and other elements of the symphony’s first movement. The “fate” figure has also been featured in many films and has been used in television commercials to promote a range of products and services from liquor to convenience stores to an Internet browser. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Ravel had long toyed with the idea of building a composition from a single theme which would grow simply through harmonic and instrumental ingenuity. And thus was born, Boléro. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Boléro was given its first performance at the Paris Opéra on November 20, 1928. The premiere was acclaimed by a shouting, stamping, cheering audience in the midst of which a woman was heard screaming: “Au fou, au fou!” (“The madman! The madman!”). When Ravel was told of this, he reportedly replied: “That lady… she understood.” __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Moonlight Sonata aka Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, was completed in 1801, published the following year, and premiered by the composer himself, whose hearing was still adequate but already deteriorating at the time. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The subtitle—“Sonata in the manner of a fantasia”—reminds listeners that the piece, although technically a sonata, is suggestive of a free-flowing, improvised fantasia. Indeed, arpeggios—playing of the notes of a chord sequentially, which remains a common improvisational device in the 21st century—permeate all three movements of the Moonlight Sonata and ultimately generate the themes and motifs that form the foundation of the work. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Elgar composed the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in 1901 as part of a series of five marches. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact At its publication the march was dedicated to English conductor A.E. Rodewald and the Liverpool Orchestral Society, who gave the first performance. The piece was an immediate success; at the London premiere later that year the audience demanded two encores of it. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Elgar’s Enigma Variations: Dedicated “...to my friends pictured within.”
00:01:00
Description On 21 October 1898, Edward Elgar returned to his wife and their home in Malvern after a long day teaching. He finished dinner, lit a cigar and sat down at the piano to doodle. Hence his Enigma Variations was born. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The first performance, conducted in London by Hans Richter, took place on 19 June 1899 in a concert that concluded with Mozart’s ‘Prague’ Symphony. It was not until 13 September in Worcester, however, that the Variations were heard in their final form after Elgar had added a further 100 bars to the end of “E.D.U.” to make a more powerful conclusion. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Fun Fact The sackbut was used extensively across Europe, from its appearance in the 15th century to a decline in most places by the mid-late 17th century. It was used in outdoor events, in concert, and in liturgical settings. With trumpeters, trombonists in German city-states were employed as civil officials. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, A Truly Original Creation
00:01:00
Description What was the genesis of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, one of the most frequently performed choral work of the 21st century? Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Of the 315 profane songs contained in the Codex Buranus, Orff chose just 24, organising them into five sections in what he called a “scenic cantata”. They covered themes such as the joys and pains of love, the beauty of nature in springtime, and drinking’s guilty pleasures. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt, The (Not So) Incidental Music
00:01:00
Description Grieg was first approached by the playwright Henrik Ibsen in Italy, 1866. Ibsen asked if Grieg could write incidental music for his drama Peer Gynt. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt is usually heard in the form of two orchestral suites (Op. 46 and Op. 55), each featuring four movements selected from his score. The best-known movements include “Morning Mood,” in which a serene melody for flute and oboe depicts a calm dawn; “Anitra’s Dance,” a nimble and seductive dance for strings; and “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” in which a short, mysterious theme gains speed and volume as it is repeated, building toward a frenetic climax. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Samuel Osmond Barber II was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator. He’s also considered one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. One of his best known works is Adagio for Strings. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The music critic Donal Henahan said of Barber, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Chopin Nocturne, Op. 9, No.2 (Press 2 for Chopin! )
00:01:00
Description Chopin’s Nocturnes were brief piano works that were inspired by the night. The Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, was written when Chopin was only 20. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The Nocturnes, Op. 9 are a set of three nocturnes for solo piano written by Frédéric Chopin between 1831 and 1832, published in 1832, and dedicated to Madame Marie Pleyel. These were Chopin's first published set of nocturnes. The second nocturne of the work is often regarded as Chopin's most famous piece. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten
00:01:00
Description The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, aka The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34, was written by British composer Benjamin Britten. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact In the last portion of the work, Britten combines all the sections of the orchestra in an intricate fugue on a new, dancelike theme derived from the original. Thus, the piece not only allows listeners to hear the contrasting voices of the instruments but also offers a peek into musical techniques of earlier centuries, showing how a melody can bounce from one instrument to another in sequence while other melodic ideas occupy the background. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals (Not just a piece of fun!)
00:01:00
Description The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnaval des animaux) is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by Camille Saint-Saëns. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The first public performance of The Carnival of the Animals was given on 25 February 1922 by the Concerts Colonne, conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It was rapturously received. Le Figaro reported: “We cannot describe the cries of admiring joy let loose by an enthusiastic public. In the immense oeuvre of Camille Saint-Saëns, The Carnival of the Animals is certainly one of his magnificent masterpieces…” __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Prokofiev's Peter & The Wolf, A "Symphonic Fairy Tale For Children"
00:01:00
Description Peter and the Wolf Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", was written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936, as a means of introducing children to the instruments of the orchestra. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Typically, prior to a performance of Peter and the Wolf, the instruments are shown to the children in the audience, so that they may become familiar. They learn not only the themes presented in the work but learn to distinguish the sounds of each the instruments. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
“Mozart In Motion” Reveals A Musician In Dialogue With Culture At Its Most Sweepingly Progressive
00:52:12
Join me as I chat with author Patrick Mackie about his book, “Mozart In Motion: His Work And His World In Pieces”. This biography is a fabulous deep-dive into Mozart—his inner psychology as both performer and composer and how he interacts with external forces such as society and family.
To order a copy of the book please visit the publisher.
Patrick Mackie is a poet whose work has appeared in The White Review, New Statesman, and The Paris Review. A former visiting fellow at Harvard, he is the author of Excerpts from the Memoirs of a Fool. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Gustav Holst: A Holiday, Astrology, & “The Planets”
00:01:00
Description The Planets, Op. 32, by Gustav Holst, was written after a holiday in Spain that sparked an acute interest in astrology. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The first movement of The Planets to be written was Mars in mid-1914, followed by Venus and Jupiter in the latter part of the year, Saturn and Uranus in mid-1915, Neptune later in 1915 and Mercury in early 1916. Holst completed the orchestration during 1917. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra (Breaking The Tonal Norm)
00:01:00
Description Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909 much to the dismay of British audiences of the time. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Even Arnold Schoenberg admitted in his letters to Richard Strauss: “The greatest difficulty in performing these pieces is that...it is really impossible to read the score. It would be almost imperative to perform them through blind faith. I can promise you something really colossal, especially in sound and mood. For that is what they are all about – completely unsymphonic, devoid of architecture or construction, just an uninterrupted changing of colours, rhythms, and moods.” __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (Madman or Genius?)
00:01:00
Description The Rite of Spring composed by Igor Stravinsky premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913—it created quite an uproar with the audience claiming that Stravinsky was no composer but a madman. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Like Stravinsky’s earlier works for the Ballet Russes, The Rite of Spring was inspired by Russian culture, but, unlike them, The Rite of Spring challenged the audience with its chaotic percussive momentum. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Sensuous Soundscape Of Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé
00:01:00
Description Daphnis et Chloé by Maurice Ravel is considered by many to be a true masterpiece. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Diaghilev had originally intended Daphnis et Chloé to form the centrepiece of the 1910 season, and although the first piano draft was ready by the beginning of May, this was already far too late, leaving the door wide open for Igor Stravinsky to score his first great success with The Firebird. This seems to have inspired Ravel to get a move on and by the end of the summer he was hard at work on the orchestration. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
"The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop" by Judith Grohmann (Bonus Interview Ep)
00:44:08
Recently, I chatted with author Judith Grohmann about her book, "The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop". This biography dives headfirst into the psychological workings of Mozart, as he navigates the explosive times of Viennese society during the enlightenment; his romantic and familial relationships, especially with his father Leopold; as well as, balancing the mundane task of earning money versus musical experimentation and expression.
I will also holding a draw for a free copy of the book. Just give the podcast a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and send a screenshot to TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com and you will be entered into the draw to win.
I will announce the winner at the end of July. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is one where the composer began to contemplate his own mortality. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Bruno Walter, who conducted the work’s posthumous premiere on June 26, 1912, with the Vienna Philharmonic, had never seen the score of the Ninth during Mahler’s lifetime; he only received it when Mahler’s widow Alma approached him about giving the premiere. He went on to become one of the work’s most eloquent exponents. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Bruckner's Third Symphony & First Performance Debacle
00:01:00
Description Bruckner’s third symphony did not make the splash that he had hoped. Many factors came into play to cause a complete flop of a premier. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Stunned by this debacle, Bruckner made several revisions of his work, leaving out significant amounts of music including most quotations from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre. The original 1873 score was not published until 1977. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, known as the Unfinished Symphony, has always been mired in mystery as to why it was never completed by the composer. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Third & fourth movements: The fragment of the scherzo intended as the third movement returns to the tonic B minor, with a G major trio. The first 30 measures are preserved in full score, but the entire rest of the scherzo proper (both strains) only in short score. Only the first strain of the trio exists, and that as a mere unadorned, unharmonized single melodic line. The second strain is entirely absent. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, originally titled ‘Six concertos for several instruments’, were composed for the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg—yet were never performed in Brandenburg. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Each concerto was written for a different combination of instruments and demonstrates a musical style that was popular in Bach’s lifetime. It’s thought that this variation was intended to show off the instrumental strength of the Cöthen Court Orchestra, giving each musician a chance to demonstrate their virtuosity. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
"The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop" | Announcing Our Book Draw Winner!
00:00:39
I am so pleased to announce the winner of our draw to receive a copy of "The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop". If you didn't catch my interview with author Judith Grohmann, please check it out HERE.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann | The Bad Luck Opera
00:01:00
Description The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach certainly got off to a rocky start—with the death of the composer before its premiere and then disaster striking its first Vienna performance. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The Royal Family of Austria arrived at the theatre as the disaster was ending and immediately began collecting relief funds for the victims and their families. Crown Prince Rudolf was particularly emotional, crying upon seeing the hundreds of lifeless bodies. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
The Barber of Seville: A Comic Masterpiece By Rossini
00:01:00
Description The Barber of Seville is an opera by Rossini and ‘perhaps the greatest of all comic operas’. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Rossini's Barber of Seville is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
Description Rather than just disappearing for a few weeks—I thought I'd let you know that I am taking a rest until mid-September. Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Fun Fact When Steven isn't recording podcast episodes, he is auditioning for tv commercials and series/film or feeding his cats milk. 🐱 __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
“Finlandia” by Sibelius & The Finnish People’s Struggle
00:01:00
Description Jean Sibelius was thought to be a hero of Finland, as his music reflected the struggle of the people against the Russian Empire. This is most evident in his work, Finlandia. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland. It has been repeatedly suggested to be the official national anthem of Finland. Today, during modern performances of the full-length Finlandia, a choir is sometimes involved, singing the Finnish lyrics with the hymn section.
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
It's thirsty work creating content for TCMM. Many sleepless nights spent crafting that perfect one-minute episode or editing my latest fab interview as a bonus episode for your listening pleasure. 🎙🤔📚 But a cup of coffee is always welcome to keep my creativity flowing. 🎼☕️✍🏽🙏 __________________________________________________________________
A Note To Music Students et al. All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.
“Mental Illness & Music” Interview with Acclaimed Canadian Composer & Pianist, Frank Horvat
00:38:49
It was my privilege to be joined for this episode by acclaimed Canadian Composer and Pianist, Frank Horvat to discuss his own journey with mental illness; the effects it's had on him personally, as well as professionally; and now his advocacy work reaching out to young musicians to discuss their own struggles.
Over the centuries, many of the composers that we know all too well, were also battling mental health issues. It’s only recently that the stigma surrounding this is beginning to lift and people can have an open dialogue without being judged. But what is the link between creativity and mental health? How does it affect a composer's output or a performer’s interpretation of music? Please join me for this very special episode.
Frank's Bio
Frank explores a wide array of themes in his music from love to the environment, mental health and social justice issues. He gives his audiences time and space to reflect in this fast-paced world. Frank’s compositions tell deeply personal stories while permitting audiences to ponder their own.
His works have been featured on over twenty albums on labels including ATMA Classique, Really Records, and Centrediscs. With composition premieres on four continents, his music has been showcased internationally in theatre, feature films, and radio/TV networks including BBC Radio 3, Bravo, CBC, CBS, Discovery, HBO, Vice, and featured in publications such as Gramophone, The Strad, BBC Music Magazine, Toronto Star and Vancouver Sun.
Frank’s 2021 album, Music for Self-Isolation, was listed in the top 5 classical albums of the year by CBC Classical, plus, Frank’s other 2021 album, Project Dovetail, was included in CBC Music’s ‘must hear’ Fall albums.
Piano Therapy Virtual Tour: https://frankhorvat.com/ptvt __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Description There is little doubt that Mozart was a genius. But what was extraordinary was his abilities from such a young age. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact While Wolfgang was young, his family made several European journeys in which he and his sister Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the court of Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Courts in Vienna and Prague. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一) & Japanese Contemporary Music
00:01:00
Description Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28, 2023. He was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Ryuichi Sakamoto was born on January 17, 1952, in Tokyo. His father, Kazuki Sakamoto, was a well-known literary editor, and his mother, Keiko (Shimomura) Sakamoto, designed women’s hats. He began piano lessons at age 6, and started to compose soon after. His early influences included Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy — whom he once called “the door to all 20th century music”. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Description With the passing of Dame Angela Lansbury in 2022, it reminded me of one of my favourite Sondeim musicals, Sweeney Todd. She played the first Mrs Lovett in 1979. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact The original production of Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway March 1, 1979, at the Uris Theatre (now the Gershwin). The show, featuring music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Wheeler, was directed by Harold Prince and starred Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. The production received eight Tony Awards in 1979—including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score—as well as 11 Drama Desk Awards and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. It went on to be revived twice on Broadway and adapted into a 2007 film, in addition to the recent Off-Broadway production. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Martha Argerich: The Dazzling Pianist From Argentina
00:01:00
Description Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1941. She is a pianist [and one of my favourites] known for her recordings and performances of chamber music, particularly works by Messiaen, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Martha Argerich made her first recording in 1960, aged just 19. The recording featured works by Chopin, Brahms, Ravel, Prokofiev, and Liszt, and was a critical success. Over the decades since, Martha Argerich has recorded works by a wide range of composers, with the Romantic era a speciality. Indeed, her recordings of the piano works of Robert Schumann, such as the Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana and Fantasia, arguably represent the pianist at her expressive, emotional and virtuosic peak. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Description Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major was composed in the summer of 1777, for his colleague the oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis. But shortly after that, went missing. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Composed when Mozart was twenty-one, this oboe concerto is a delightful, untroubled, and relatively straightforward composition, cast in the usual three movements. The solo oboe throughout the movement entertains with a delightful variety of virtuosic figurations, and after a brief, almost perfunctory, middle "developmental" section, regales us with a cadenza. After which the movement quickly moves through familiar themes to the end. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Description The young virtuoso, Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl, was quickly overshadowed by her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, five years her junior. But she was nonetheless a child prodigy. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact As a trusted friend, family member and intimate music-making partner, Nannerl could have been exactly what Wolfgang needed to make the leap from sonatas to symphonies. As one scholar put it, “They probably had lots of discussion about what he was doing. I’ll bet she not only reminded him about the horns but also suggested some things for the horns and for other parts of the composition as well.” __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Description Well, it’s nearly Halloween 🎃 and there are many works of music that depict the spookiness, darkness and morbidity of this annual tradition. 😱 But one jumps out at me, Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. Take a minute to get the scoop!
Fun Fact Like all great music, this work was imitated by many over the years. The re-tuning of the violin for the tri-tone interval was used by many composers, with my personal favorites being Béla Bartók’s Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano, and James Newton Howard’s chilling score to the 2002 film, Signs. But notable occurrences include Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff, “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim, and “Into the Unknown” by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez from Frozen II. Rachmaninoff actually quoted the “Dies Irae” theme in a dozen of his works. __________________________________________________________________
About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers. __________________________________________________________________
Enhance your understanding of The Classical Music Minute with My Podcast Data
At My Podcast Data, we strive to provide in-depth, data-driven insights into the world of podcasts. Whether you're an avid listener, a podcast creator, or a researcher, the detailed statistics and analyses we offer can help you better understand the performance and trends of The Classical Music Minute. From episode frequency and shared links to RSS feed health, our goal is to empower you with the knowledge you need to stay informed and make the most of your podcasting experience. Explore more shows and discover the data that drives the podcast industry.
