Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Esther (class of 2025) which features some music for your Valentine’s Day enjoyment.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
While studying abroad, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a concert from the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world’s finest and most historic orchestras. Founded in 1548 by the Duke of Saxony, the Staatskapelle is now celebrating its 475th anniversary. The Staatskapelle plays in the famed Semperoper opera house, first built in 1841 in Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles. Numerous composers have been linked with the orchestra throughout the years (most notably Strauss and Wagner), and the orchestra has held countless world premieres.
In 2009, the orchestra announced that Christian Thielemann would take on the role of chief conductor, a position he still holds. Thielemann, winner of the Richard Wagner Award and recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, is renowned for his balance between technical precision and expressive interpretation. Under his leadership, the orchestra continues to shape classical music and fascinate its audiences.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Most people in the 21st century have forgotten the appeal of classical music. One of these includes operas and arias. A majority of people will have a general idea of Mozart but when asked to identify some of his works, they will only be able to associate him with only pieces that are played by just an orchestra. However, one of Mozart’s most well known works is Le nozze di Figaro.
Opera may seem very dry at first but in reality it is just a play but rather than the dialogue being spoken, it is sung. Le nozze di Figaro is very special to me because it was the first opera I got to see live, but not only that it was performed by my voice teacher in South Korea to whom I credit everything I know how to do today. And so I would like to recommend Le nozze di Figaro from our Music library.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Xipeng (class of 2024) and features works for two pianos performed by Argentinian classical concert pianist Martha Argerich and friends.
Music for Two Pianos from Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich has always been one of my favorite pianists, and it’s amazing how two pianos can produce the sound of an entire orchestra. Enjoy this exhilarating complete performance!
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we feature a collection of songs with a bit of new perspective on classical singing curated by student assistant Wonyoung (class of 2024).
Classical Singing Crossover
When we think of “Classical Singing” and “Opera”, it may be hard to approach because it may seem dry and far from modern day music. However, it does not always have to be so. Here is a playlist of Classical Singing Crossover into a more modern day style. It is on the upcoming in South Korea so here is a playlist that brings a new perspective.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 13 in Verona, 1770
When we first hear the term “classical music,” we often think of great composers like Beethoven and Mozart. Despite his relatively short life, Mozart is known and celebrated for his prodigious musicality and influential compositions even to this day. But what was Mozart like? You may know several of his pieces, but have you taken the time to consider the person behind these famous pieces?
There’s no better way of being first introduced to Mozart’s private life than Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life by Robert Spaethling. Spaethling, a scholar of German literature of the 19th and 20th centuries and Mozart, has carefully chosen and depicted a compilation of Mozart’s letters spanning twenty-two years of the young composer’s life. Spaethling’s most recent edit of these letters provides us with the most accurate translation to appropriately convey Mozart’s nuanced personality.
Through Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life, we are invited to explore Mozart’s innermost thoughts and raw perspective of life. In addition to the analysis of the different voices that shine through in Mozart’s candid letters, Spaethling includes information, such as various life events throughout the composer’s life, that encourages us to think deeply and have greater appreciation for the person behind these great works.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student assistant Xipeng (class of 2024) and features works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
A Mini Collection of Mozart
I have to say that my childhood was accompanied with Mozart’s music, and today’s playlist is all about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Emma R. (class of 2021) and features a study score edition of Mozart’s Requiem. Thanks, Emma!
What does it mean to compose a piece of music? Is it writing the notes on the page? Is it dictating the general musical idea? Writing the lyrics? What about the problem of orchestrations? If the composition is in the musical idea, can we know what a composer intended the piece to sound like? These kinds of questions can apply to many pieces by composers who do not work completely alone – both contemporary and long-dead. However, when considering a piece such as Mozart’s Requiem, these questions clearly take on greater than typical importance. As is commonly known, Mozart’s Requiem was left unfinished at the time of the composer’s death – a tale highly dramatized throughout the centuries since. But dramatization aside, this leaves serious questions for modern historically aware performers and listeners – questions which are not present when considering most other works. Who really wrote what parts of the Requiem? What did Mozart imagine when he conceived of the work?
Due to the unfinished nature of the work, the autograph does not contain all the answers. Portions of the autograph – the original handwritten version of the piece – are in Mozart’s hand and other portions are not. Significant portions were not completed at all. Orchestrations and – some scholars argue – entire sections, such as a hypothesized intended fugue – are missing. This doesn’t even begin to consider the lack of answers to many performance questions which impact the sound of the piece – articulation markings, dynamics, tempos, and more.
1st page of Mozart’s autograph manuscript of the Requiem Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=853665
Currently, the version completed by Mozart’s student Süßmayr is considered somewhat the standard. However, this is still a decision that must be made prior to every performance of the work, as other versions – completed by Mozart scholars – do exist. I myself am not informed enough about Mozart’s style nor his compositional process to make normative statements about the potential distance between the composer’s likeliest intentions and the accepted completed version today, however scholars such as Friedrich Blume and Nathan Broder have. In their article, “Requiem but No Peace,” these scholars argue, for example, “that flutes, oboes, clarinets, and horns are wholly absent in the complete Requiem is entirely unMozartean and must weaken Süssmeyer’s (sic) credit…” (Blume and Broder 1961, 161). Furthermore, these authors argue that since Mozart tended to compose orchestrations in three rounds – the above mentioned winds in the last round – that the lack of these instruments is more likely due to the unfortunate death of the composer than due to his intentions to leave them out (160).
Can we really say that the Requiem as we hear it performed – perhaps Mozart’s most well-known work today is really written by Mozart? Is the Requiem we know actually what the Mozart Requiem would have sounded like had the composer lived long enough to see it completed?
This study score at the Music Library shows all parts of the accepted Süßmayr completion – including markings which denote portions from the manuscript judged to be in Mozart’s vs Süßmayr’s handwriting. (It’s a miniature score – so it isn’t large and bulky). Take a listen and read along. No matter who wrote it, it really is a marvelous work.
Detail of a portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Johann Nepomuk della Croce – Unknown, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=449108
