Pop songs often have a “hook,” or a repeated idea that gets stuck in the head. Among songwriters, it’s an important element of writing a hit. Classical music can also have that earworm quality, but those hooks are more often overlooked as part of what makes some pieces especially memorable and beautiful.
Martinů’s Les rondes glides between second-hand bits of Harlem, memories of Moravia, and interwar Paris.
Olivier Messiaen composed his evening-length piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus in 1944 in occupied Paris.
Ein Heldenleben might be the most egotistical piece in the orchestral repertoire—a musical depiction of one Richard Strauss battling villainous music critics, romancing a lady, reminiscing over past triumphs, and settling into a happy ending.
“You are to imagine, then, an American, visiting Paris, swinging down the Champs-Elysees on a mild, sunny morning in May or June.”
At the 1961 New York Philharmonic gala, probably the entire Carnegie Hall audience had seen West Side Story, owned the LP, and could hum its tunes. But Bernstein wanted to do more than a medley of hits for this special concert.
Citizens of Leipzig who attended the 1724 Good Friday Vespers service at St. Nicholas Church would have heard the first performance of St. John Passion, written by the town’s new director of religious music, J.S. Bach.
Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott open their recital with a lyrical set of five pieces, most of which could be mistaken for folksongs.
The style of the early 18th century would soon seem antiquated, and nearly irrelevant to the modern orchestra of the mid-19th century and beyond. But none of it would have been possible without the innovations of the Baroque era.
Before the symphony gained prestige in the second half of the 18th century, concertos and arias were the star genres of the Baroque era.