by Barry Lenson | Nov 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Have you ever wondered why western music sounds the way it does?It was a question that was on my mind in my early days as a conservatory student. And I will never forget a class that took place one day, when my theory instructor sat at a piano to demonstrate how...
by Barry Lenson | Oct 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
Is there any possible reason why an opera with this power and deeply moral message should be protested?Protests raged the other night when the opera The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. It is good to protest operas that...
by Barry Lenson | Oct 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
Carl Nielsen I always feel a little suspicious when the works of a particular composer need “promotion,” don’t you? The first such composer who comes to mind is Paul Hindemith. Back in the 1940s, my parents attended some meetings of a Hindemith Society in New...
by Barry Lenson | Sep 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
Dolora Zajic – Are you going to tell me that anybody sang this aria better than this in years gone by?In case you missed it, the title of today’s post is a joke. But it is a joke with a point, because just when you think you have heard the dumbest thing ever said...
by Barry Lenson | Sep 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
I recently wrote an article “Twelve Musical Works that Every Student Should Know,” for the Classical Archives Newsletter. In the weeks since then, I’ve been thinking about cultural literacy, which can be roughly defined as a person’s knowledge about the most important...
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