Für Elise by L. van Beethoven

This is undoubtedly the most popular piece for piano ever composed. I have been playing Für Elise (For Elise) since I was 5. At that time I played only the first part with that beautiful theme everyone knows. And though now I am widely smiling, I should admit I did start piano lessons to be able to play Für Elise. I always thought there should be some magic in the Bagatelle WoO 59 in A minor, composed by Ludvig van Beethoven that makes it absolute favorite piece of my students and I am sure of many piano players around the globe. And though musicologists are not sure who that Elise was, I am so grateful to her – who ever she was – for her being in Beethoven’s life. And I believe Beethoven would have been named the greatest composer if he had composed just one this piece, the most famous classical piano music – Für Elise. Download the high quality sheet music of Für Elise, Ludvig van Beethoven’s Bagatelle WoO 59 in A minor.

The Musical Instruments of the Renaissance

The musical art of the Renaissance epoch is characterized by a keen interest in the values of the antique heritage of Greece and Rome. It becomes fashionable to be able to sing, play musical instruments, and sing. The fashion dictates its conditions: common people familiarize themselves with music and noble people keep choirs, orchestras, and sponsor composers’ creative work. On the rising tide of universal love for music musical instruments develop intensively and gain immense popularity. The instruments easy to play on without having particular skills become called for and loved. The viol, flute, lute and horn are found among the most widespread and popular with public. The organ, harpsichord, and virginal stand out due to their venerable nature; one had to have certain expertise to handle them and having high performing skills was a must. However, the music played on any of these instruments was clear and accessible to perceive for it conveyed emotions and feelings and exposed human nature.

Bach vs. Händel

One never knows what to expect from destiny that whimsically rules our life. Take two renowned composers of the 18th century – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Born in the same year and in the same country they lived diverse earthly and musical lives without ever meeting each other.

Handel as a secular person was fond of publicity, success and recognition while Bach was a devout man who created for the sake of creativity. Handel was a devoted traveller who sojourned in different countries while Bach due to certain circumstances never left his homeland. Each of them followed his own way in creative work: Bach preferred religious themes in his works which were permeated by glorification of God whilst Handel was inclined to compose secular music. Bach received acclamation from public as an organ player and performer in the first place and then as a composer, Handel, on the other hand, purely wrote music.

On the whole, these two unique musicians have one thing in common – they won fame and respect as the greatest composers of the Baroque Era.

Lascia Ch'io Pianga from Opera Rinaldo. Georg Friedrich Händel

THE GROUP OF SIX (“LES SIX”)

The musical culture of the 20th century’s France was substantially formed by a group of six French composers dubbed by music critic Henry Collet the creative group of “Les Six” (1917 -1922).The group was comprised of six innovative composers: Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre. They proclaimed their desire to stand up for the national peculiarity of the musical language and fight against foreign trends (for instance Schoenberg’s atonality). Though they were different in their creative developments, one distinguishing feature made them a unity – their strive for novelty and simplicity at the same time.

The music by Stravinsky along with new timbres and rhythms of the American jazz had a profound impact on them. All members of “The Group of Six” took a great interest in the urbanism and constructivism (Honegger’s Pacific, Milhaud’s Les Machines Agricoles). This explains the desire to find images for their creations in the sounds of the modern city as well as in the new musical forms. Nevertheless, each of them could boast his own original style. Despite sharing the same ideas, in their creative work they often moved in the opposite directions. Durey, for instance, seceded from the group and pursued a career of a public figure, while Honegger, Milhaud and Poulenc continued to work successfully in the field of music.

The young men were devoted to one basic principle i.e. to the creation of works possessing a clear musical language, lacking affectedness, based on real life with all its simplicity.