Wolfgang Birtel

Allenfalls die 'Air' von Johann Sebastian Bach kann es an Popularität mit seinem Satz 'Jesus bleibet meine Freude' aufnehmen: Der Schlusschor aus der Kantate BWV 147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'...

A tango written by Giacomo Puccini? Indeed! In 1942 'Piccolo Tango' by the Italian opera composer was published by an American music publisher. The question as to whether it was actually composed by P...

A tango written by Giacomo Puccini? Indeed! In 1942 'Piccolo Tango' by the Italian opera composer was published by an American music publisher. The question as to whether it was actually composed by P...

A 'Last Night of the Proms' without this march - unthinkable! 'Pomp and Circumstance Military March No. 1' with its middle section, the hymn-like 'Land of Hope and Glory' by Edward Elgar (1857-1934),...

Golliwogg's Cakewalk

Maurice Ravel's melancholy popular 'Pavane for a Dead Princess' composed in 1899 was originally written for piano before he arranged it for orchestra in 1910. Though dedicated to a real princess, the...

Maurice Ravel's melancholy popular 'Pavane for a Dead Princess' composed in 1899 was originally written for piano before he arranged it for orchestra in 1910. Though dedicated to a real princess, the...

A 'Last Night of the Proms' without this march - unthinkable! 'Pomp and Circumstance Military March No. 1' with its middle section, the hymn-like 'Land of Hope and Glory' by Edward Elgar (1857-1934),...

The 19th century was not only the era of great forms, monumental symphonies and melodious sonatas, no, the Romantic composers proved to be versatile and highly imaginative on the field of little music...

A wedding without a famous wedding march - unimaginable! Wagner's 'Bridal Chorus' from 'Lohengrin' and Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' from the incidental music of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' vie for th...

The music scene took notice of Erik Satie (1866-1925) all of a sudden: The world premiere of his ballet 'Parade' on 18 May 1917 [siehe dt. Text!] caused quite a scandal. The production which involved...

The music scene took notice of Erik Satie (1866-1925) all of a sudden: The world premiere of his ballet 'Parade' on 18 May 1917 [siehe dt. Text!] caused quite a scandal. The production which involved...

'Novelty of form, selected modulations, strange tone colours, the use of completely unexpected rhythms', this is how Camille Saint-Saëns praised the debut work of a young colleague and continued: 'Abo...

The famous Golliwogg's Cakewalk is the final piece from Debussy's cycle Children's Corner which consists of 6 miniatures for piano, written for his daughter in the years 1906-1908.The style correspond...

Born in the village of Brand in the Upper Palatinate, Max Reger (1873 1916) was taught by the renowned music theoretician Hugo Riemann. After finishing his studies and working as a freelance performer...

It is therefore quite wrong to place just mechanical or mediocre players at the viola', warned Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart in 1784/85 in his 'Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst'. Some disreg...