This week, we’re listening to Ottorino Respighi, an Italian composer from the 20th century. A pianist, violinist, and violist, he liked to compose in dance styles with romantic harmonies and textures.
Italy
Italian Composers Week 8
This week, we’re listening to Puccini, who is well known for his operas. Instead of focusing on his output, however, we’re going to focus on opera itself. Opera is not incredibly popular to a lot of people because of the big voices with thick vibrato and heavy vowels. This, however, is a misconception due to […]
Italian Composers Week 7
This week, we’re looking at two more Italian composers – Sacchini and Rossini. Antonio Sacchini was a Classical period composer. This overture, from Dardanus is very classical, with its very in-line, orderly harmonics. Sacchini was considered a great melody writer, during his time, and was much admired by Queen Marie Antoinette,
Italian Composers Week 6
This week, we will be comparing Italian composers: Giuseppe Torelli and Domenico Dragonetti. Torelli was a Baroque composer and known for his compositions for trumpet. Dragonetti was a Classical period composer known for his double bass compositions.
Italian Composers Week 5
This week we’re looking at one of the best known choral pieces from the Classical Period. This piece was famously transcribed by 14 year old Mozart after two listenings (which, after considering it’s one basic section repeated over and over, isn’t all that impressive). The lyrics are from the Latin Psalm 51, which translates as […]
Italian Composers Week 4
This week we’re looking at a work by the composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi. This Italian aria is sung by soprano Perrine Dellivers, who studied clarinet at the Conservatiore de Paris and now teaches that instrument and sings as a soloist and choir member in France and Basel. You can see her singing in this video accompanied […]
Italian Composers Week 3
This week we are going to look at a piece by probably the best known of Italian composers during the Renaissance period: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina was musically raised in the Catholic church. He started as a chorister and, by means of teachers and the right people hearing his music, he music director of […]
Italian Composers Week 2
This week, we’re looking at a vocal Renaissance piece composed by Bartolino da Padova. Very little is known about the composer – we aren’t even sure where he was born. This piece is from one of his madrigals. This was another of the kinds of secular music of the period. Madrigals were performed with two […]
Italian Composers Week 1
This week, we’ll be looking at Gherardello da Firenze. He was a middle ages composer and, more specifically, he composed “Music of the Trecento,” which means he was a part of a surge of artistic growth in Italy. This involved all the arts, including music, painting, and literature, and architecture.