The month of March is named for the Roman god of war – Mars. And of course, Mars is the planet where the aliens in “War of the Worlds” came from. Don’t worry, though, we’ll conquer those aliens and colonize Mars soon enough.

Mars is awesome. There, I said it. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) must have thought so, too, because he wrote a kick-ass piece of music about it. This selection comes from a larger work called “The Planets” (what a bizarre name for a suite of pieces about Roman gods.) Seriously though, despite the astronomical name, the piece is more about astrological matters – think horoscopes. Each planet, er, god, has its own personality.[/twocol_one_last]

And I’m pretty sure that the great composer John Williams stole borrowed from this piece when he wrote the film score to Star Wars.

Hiawatha is an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It’s lengthy, but worth the read; the mythic story is fascinating and the rhythm of the verse will put you in a trance.

Once again I return to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. His three-part oratorio “The Song of Hiawatha” was such a hit in England that when it premiered, it was conducted by no less than C. V. Stanford, and attended by the great C. H. H. Parry and Arthur Sullivan, who practically had to be carried there because he was on his death-bed – but absolutely insisted on going to hear the performance. In the four years that followed, the work received over 200 performances in England alone.

No BBQ here. Just a really stupid joke.

All the Bach children were musical, and probably not by choice. Most musicians agree that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the best composer among them. After all, when Mozart said “Bach is the father, and we are his children,” he was not referring to J.S., but C.P.E.

C.P.E.’s music is a perfect midpoint between the Baroque and Classical musical eras, combining the ornateness and richness of the baroque with the transparency and grace of the classic. This isn’t the heavy, confusing sound of his father’s late compositions, nor is it the mindless, simple noodling of Scarlatti.