John Williams is easily the most-performed living composer. In Art Music circles, you may see people turning their noses up at his music. Ignore those people. They are just jealous that there is an Art Music composer out there who is actually getting some attention. The truth of the matter is, you can’t get to where John Williams is without being awesome. So here’s the most popular and influential composer of our time, and his glorious music!
December 17 is a day that I get to mentally relive one of my favorite high school memories – Saturnalia! For those of us in Latin Club, this was a day of great celebration. We were excused from class, and would walk around the school shouting “Io Saturnalia!” while pelting underclassmen with candy. It was a day of great learning for all.
Gustav Holst’s most famous piece is undoubtedly The Planets, a multi-movement work which, despite the name, is more astrological than astronomical (think horoscopes or Roman gods). It’s a funny case of the large work titled after heavenly bodies, while the individual movements, like “Saturn – The Bringer of Old Age” bear mythological subtitles.
The music doesn’t tell a specific story, but instead paints a marvelous picture of gods, goddesses, and giant spheres of matter orbiting the sun. The work has practically defined what music about outer space should sound like, and its influence can be heard in any sci-fi or space themed movie.
This magical piece for piano by Claude Debussy should give you some good shivers as we approach the shortest day of the year and prepare for the deep winter season. Once you’ve read the title “The Snow is Dancing”, it’s nearly impossible not to hear the gentle flakes falling from the sky, layering on top of one another until your vision is obscured into a sea of white. If this makes you shiver, your heart will warm when you learn that the composer wrote this and other pieces in a set called Children’s Corner, which he dedicated to his infant daughter.
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