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Piano Concerto No. 15 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 15 in B major, KV. 450 is a concertante work for piano and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The concerto is scored for solo piano, flute (third movement only), two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. History Mozart composed the concerto for performance at a series of concerts at the Vienna venues of the Trattnerhof and the Burgtheater in the first quarter of 1784, where he was himself the soloist in March 1784. In a letter to his father, Mozart compared this concerto with the 16th concerto in D: "I consider them both to be concertos which make one sweat; but the B flat one beats the one in D for difficulty." Many pianists consider this to be one of the most difficult of Mozart's piano concertos. The concerto is primarily difficult from its many quick scale patterns which must be played perfectly and also from its many fast chord patterns moving up and down. Beginning with this concerto, Mozart began to use the term "grand" to describe hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Andreas Stein
Johann (Georg) Andreas Stein (16 May 1728 in Heidelsheim – 29 February 1792 in Augsburg) was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano. He was primarily responsible for the design of the so-called German hammer action. Pianos with this hammer action, or its more developed form known as the Viennese action, may be said to be appropriate for the performance of the piano music of Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven.Grove, "Stein" Life Stein was born in 1728 in Heidelsheim in the Upper Palatinate. He died in Augsburg in 1792. He learned his trade as an organ builder from his father in Heidelsheim and from August 1748 to January 1749 as a journeyman at two workshops, those of Johann Andreas Silbermann in Strasbourg and of Frantz Jacob Spath in Regensburg. Johann Andreas Silbermann was the eldest of the four sons of Andreas Silbermann, the elder brother of Gottfried Silbermann. Stein settled in Augsburg, probably in 175 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often using conventional Italian terms) and is usually measured in beats per minute (or bpm). In modern classical compositions, a " metronome mark" in beats per minute may supplement or replace the normal tempo marking, while in modern genres like electronic dance music, tempo will typically simply be stated in BPM. Tempo may be separated from articulation and meter, or these aspects may be indicated along with tempo, all contributing to the overall texture. While the ability to hold a steady tempo is a vital skill for a musical performer, tempo is changeable. Depending on the genre of a piece of music and the performers' interpretation, a piece may be played with slight tempo rubato or drastic variances. In ensembles, the tempo is ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Concertos By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's concertos for piano and orchestra are numbered from 1 to 27. The first four numbered concertos and three unnumbered concertos are early works that are arrangements of keyboard sonatas by various contemporary composers. Concertos 7 and 10 are compositions for three and two pianos respectively. The remaining twenty-one are original compositions for solo piano and orchestra. These works, many of which Mozart composed for himself to play in the Vienna concert series of 1784–86, held special importance for him . For a long time relatively neglected, Mozart's piano concertos are recognised as among his greatest achievements. They were championed by Donald Francis Tovey in his ''Essay on the Classical Concerto'' in 1903, and later by Cuthbert Girdlestone and Arthur Hutchings in 1940 (originally published in French) and 1948, respectively. Hans Tischler published a structural and thematic analysis of the concertos in 1966, followed by the works by Charles R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Steinberg (music Critic)
Carl Michael Alfred Steinberg (4 October 1928 – 26 July 2009) was an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. He was best known, according to ''San Francisco Chronicle'' music critic Joshua Kosman, for "the illuminating, witty and often deeply personal notes he wrote for the San Francisco Symphony's program booklets, beginning in 1979." He contributed several entries to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', wrote articles for music journals and magazine, notes for CDs, and published a number of books on music, both collected published annotations and new writings. Life and career Born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), Steinberg left Germany in 1939 as one of the '' Kindertransport'' child refugees and spent four years in England. He immigrated to the United States in 1943 with his brother and mother and earned a degree in musicology from Princeton University (the classical-music scholar and pianist Charles Rosen was his r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the elder brother of composer Michael Haydn. Biography Early life Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section ( violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Keefe
Simon Patrick Keefe (born 24 December 1968) is a musicologist, author, and Mozart expert. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, Boston University and Columbia University. After being awarded his PhD in 1997, he was appointed to a lectureship at Christ Church, Oxford, and then lectured at Queen's University Belfast in 1999. In 2003, he took up a post at City, University of London, where he became a professor of music. In 2008, he was appointed to the James Rossiter Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield. Keefe specialises in Mozart, and is the only British member of the Salzburg-based Akademie für Mozart-Forschung of the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, as of 2005. Keefe has also written on other composers such as Haydn and Beethoven, and has also studied Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tremolo
In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single note, particularly used on bowed string instruments, by rapidly moving the bow back and forth; plucked strings such as on a harp, where it is called '' bisbigliando'' () or "whispering". Tremolo picking, on traditionally plucked string instruments including guitar and mandolin, is the rapid articulation of single notes or a group of notes with a plectrum (pick) or with fingers. Tremolo playing sustains notes that would otherwise rapidly decay (fade to silence). * Between two notes or chords in alternation, an imitation (not to be confused with a trill) of the preceding that is more common on keyboard instruments. Mallet instruments such as the marimba are capable of either method. * A roll on any percussion instrument, whether tuned or untuned. A second type of tremolo is a variation in amplitude: * As produced on organs b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semiquavers
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the duration of an eighth note (quaver), hence the names. It is the equivalent of the semifusa in mensural notation, first found in 15th-century notation. Sixteenth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with two flags (see Figure 1). A single sixteenth note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups. A corresponding symbol is the sixteenth rest (or semiquaver rest), which denotes a silence for the same duration. As with all notes with stems, sixteenth notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the musical staff (or on the middle line, in vocal music). When they are on the middle line (in instrumental music) or a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arpeggio
A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in a rising or descending order. An arpeggio may also span more than one octave. Being an Italian noun, its plural is ''arpeggi''. The word ''arpeggio'' comes from the Italian word ''arpeggiare'', which means ''to play on a harp''. Even though the notes of an arpeggio are not played or sung all together at the same time, listeners hear the sequence of notes as forming a chord. When an arpeggio also contains passing tones that are not part of the chord, different music theorists may analyze the same musical excerpt differently. Arpeggios enable composers writing for monophonic instruments that play one note at a time (e.g., flute, saxophone, trumpet), to voice chords and chord progressions in musical pieces. Arpeggios and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonata Rondo Form
Sonata rondo form is a musical form often used during the Classical music era. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata and rondo forms. Structure Sonata and rondo forms Rondo form involves the repeated use of a theme (sometimes called the "refrain") set in the tonic key, alternating with episodes, resulting in forms such as ABACA (the five-part rondo) or ABACADA (the seven-part rondo). In a rondo, the refrain (A) may be varied slightly. The episodes (B, C, D, etc.) are normally in a different key than the tonic. Sonata form a classical form composed of three main sections, named exposition, development, and recapitulation. A sonata may begin with an introduction, which is commonly slower than the remainder of the movement. After that, there is an exposition, whose purpose is to present the movement's main thematic material. This takes the form of one or two themes or theme groups, the second of which is commonly in a related key. The exposition may conclude with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theme And Variations
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these. Variation techniques Mozart's Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" (1785), known in the English-speaking world as " Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" exemplifies a number of common variation techniques. Here are the first eight bars of the theme: Melodic variation Mozart's first variation decorates and elaborates the plain melodic line: Rhythmic variation The fifth variation breaks up the steady pulse and creates syncopated off-beats: Harmonic variation The seventh variation introduces powerful new chords, which replace the simple harmonies originally implied by the theme with a prolongational series of descending fifths: Minor mode In the elaborate eighth variation, Mozart changes from the major to the parallel minor mode, while combining three techniques: coun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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