Song Without Words for Cello and Piano, Mendelssohn

Don't judge a book by its cover and a series of piano works by its – in this case, quite undistinguished, – title. No matter what one might think, Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words is anything but yet another collection of instrumental music. Quite the opposite, there definitely is something special about these lyrical pieces: a composer was working in this, invented by himself, genre throughout all his life in attempt to express the inexpressible. For this reason an idea – even though it was his friends', – of setting words to this music was declined. Additionally, this set of pieces inspired such composers as Edward Grieg, Gabriel Fauré, and Anton Rubinstein to compose their own series under the same name.

As I already mentioned, Mendelssohn was writing songs without words exclusively for piano. However, once he made an exception and composed a piece also for cello, and it is as good as you would expect it to be. If you happen to play cello, don't miss this one: Song without Words for Cello and Piano, Op.109.

Gymnopédie No.1 in D Major

True innovator, Eric Satie perhaps didn't even expected that his works would be so important not only for development of classical music, but music in its other instances too, and even in very minor, different to notice, aspects of it. Considered a godfather of minimalism and very likely ambient, Satie is particularly known for giving very intricate and ironic titles to his works. Perhaps if it wasn't for his influence, it would be more uncommon to find an offbeat bandname these days ("...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead" is one such), but now there are quite a few. And, acknowledging the truth, neither now nor ever there were many works titled Desiccated embryos in academic (or nearly academic) music. At that, derisive or obscure titles don't make Satie's works less splendid – it is obvious that he was composing from the heart and indeed liked what he was doing. His Gymnopédie No.1 in D Major is one of the most notable piano pieces ever created – enjoy.

Bridal Waltz by Niels Gade

A Folk Tale is a 1854 ballet created by August Bournonville, Niels Gade, and Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann. It isn't any surprising that together they created something as magnificient as it is – of them two (Gade and Bournonville) were sharing the passion at folklore. As a composer, Gade had a primary interest in folk music and wasn't very much concerned about its mythological side, and Bournonville, being an amateur of Hans Christian Andersen and Grimm brothers, pretty much outdone himself writing the plot – A Folk Tale is almost as captivating as works of storytellers he himself was inspired by.

Once I noticed that Camille Saint-Saëns considered Carnival of Animals to be a joke – talking about a given ballet, Niels Gade was thinking the same about a piece he composed for the final scene. Nevertheless, now this composition (called Bridal Waltz) accompanies almost every Danish wedding and is a favorite among both newlyweds and amateurs of classical music. Download a piece here: Waltz from Ballet 'Et Folkesagn'.

On the Beautiful Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II

In a recent post I was writing about good lyrics and lack thereof. As far as is known, many classical composers were getting themselves out of the situation by cooperating with great contemporary poets. However, there is another way: if no text is good enough, go all instrumental – unless you are composing operas, this usually works. What is curious, though, is that some works we are used to hear without any words whatsoever were originally featuring voice parts.

One such is The Blue Danube, a waltz written by Johann Strauss II. Chances are, if you would find this piece in a program of a concert you're going to attend, it would be performed in all its symphonic glory yet you wouldn't find any singers (at least on stage, in audience a few occasional ones may make an appearance). At that, lyrics for The Blue Danube were written shortly after the work was completed, and there is even an alternate text available. Find an arrangement for choir and piano here: On the Beautiful Blue Danube, and those of you who are used to what you are used to – watch a classic instrumental version below:

Christmas Sheet Music

There are certain moments in our lives when we get amused by how fast time passes by. For me, it happened today – I understood that it's been only a day after this year's thanksgiving celebration (and hey, I still remember the previous year's one!). Thinking about that, I realized that soon are coming Christmas and New Year's Eve too. In relation to classical music Christmas is perhaps a holiday like no other – a number of carols and hymns never fails to impress, and even nowadays this wonderful holiday still inspires songwriters and composers from all over the world.

What is so special and hard to define yet easy to feel about Christmas is well, its "spirit." Spirit of the Christmas is what makes us look at the things differently – more positive, if you like, – and also what literally clears away any despair and boredom. From my experience, music does almost exactly the same, and when it Christmas music, it truly is an antidote to melancholy. Considering the transience of time, it's never too early to replenish your collection of Christmas classics – enjoy this amazing archive of christmas sheet music.

Les nuits d’été – Hector Berlioz

There is an obvious problem with lyrics in the modern music – not only anyone searching for deep observations and irony in context of philosophical topics won't likely find those in it, but overall it isn't particularly diverse, mostly dealing with cobwebs of romantic love or other random empty gibberish. A common workaround to avoid that was setting someone's poem to music - poets deal with words on a regular basis and quite obviously their texts are of higher quality.

These days we don't have a whole lot of poets hence the problem. However, in times when classical music was composed it was simpler: take for example Berlioz's Les nuits d'été – it is a setting of poems by Théophile Gautier. Written in French, they indeed sound very beautiful and are anything but meaningless. I sincerely recommend L'île inconnue included in this song cycle – download it here: Les nuits d’été, Op.7 H 81 No.6.

Into a New Life – Josef Suk

I thought the time has come to write about another piece, and why don't we talk about really strange things today? I mean, yes, it says the man who periodically comes up with facts like J.S. Bach sentenced to prison or Anton Bruckner opening the door naked (wait, or I didn't mention this on the pages of the blog? If so, it was an inexcusable omission! Well, at least now you all know more about an Austrian composer's habits).

So, what I'm going to talk about today is Art Competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Yes, you got it right: at that date not only freerunners and biathlonists could participate in Olympics, composers, painters, sculptors, and architects were eligible too. As if it isn't strange enough already on its own, there is a documentary evidence that Czech composer Josef Suk took second place silver medal in music – and no one was awarded gold and bronze, at that! Why didn't they give him gold then, you may ask. The answer is...I don't know. (I already mentioned this post is all about strangeness, didn't I?..)

If you are interested to hear a piece that brought him fame – and who isn't? – it is available by the link below:

V nový život (Toward a New Life) Sokol March, Op.35c.

Enjoy!