Unconscious bursts of creativity that engender significant artistic endeavors are not necessarily inspired by passionate romantic love alone. Greek mythology believed that this kind of stimulus came from nine muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Muses were long considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs and ancient myths. Throughout the history of Western art, artists, writers and musicians have prayed to the muses, or alternately, drawn inspiration from personified muses that conceptually reside beyond the borders of earthly love. True to life, however, composer inspiration has emerged from the entire spectrums of existence and being. Nature has always played a decidedly important role in the inspiration of various classical composers, as did exotic cities, landscapes or rituals. Composer inspiration is also found in poetry, the visual arts, and mythological stories and tales. Artistic, historical or cultural expressions of the past are just as inspirational as is the everyday: the third Punic War or the contrapuntal mastery of Bach is inspirationally just as relevant as are the virulent bat and camel. Composer inspiration is delightfully drawn from heroes and villains, scientific advances, a pet, or something as mundane as a hangover. Discover what fires the imagination of people who never stop asking questions.
As the weather draws in and our friends in northern countries report SNOW, we were looking for some good snow music. Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998) was born in Kursk, about 100 miles north of Ukraine, and after starting his musical studies
Classical music lovers don’t always like acknowledging it, but every idolised canonical composer has been deeply inspired by the people who surrounded him. And in many cases, one of the most inspirational people in any artist’s life is their spouse.
Classical music lovers don’t always like acknowledging it, but every idolised canonical composer has been deeply inspired by the people who surrounded him. And in many cases, one of the most inspirational people in any artist’s life is their spouse.
It is always fascinating to look at the dedication page of a music score: who a composer dedicates his or her music to, and what it says about the composer, society, and the dedicatees. Today, we’re looking at seven of
Classical music lovers don’t always like acknowledging it, but every idolised canonical composer has been deeply inspired by the people who surrounded him. And in many cases, one of the most inspirational people in any artist’s life is their spouse.
The summer’s last green leaves the trees, and the winds of autumn start to make their way through the branches. The leaves start to turn colours and, as the wind catches them, they tumble to the ground. How can we
Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang (b. 1955) has been writing an extended series of musical pieces based on plants. His Tropic Plants series includes works such as Scent of Green Mango, December Chrysanthemum, Hibiscus, Gardenia, Enchanted Bamboo, Datura, The Silence of
Ukrainian composer Alexey Shor (b. 1970) takes Giuseppe Verdi to South America! In his 2015 work, Verdiana, Shor took advantage of a tour of South America to recast familiar melodies from three operas by Giuseppe Verdi using three different South
