Arnold Schoenberg – The Liberator of Dissonance
On a September evening in 1940, in Los Angeles, a gathering of émigré musicians and intellectuals sat in a modest house. Outside, the palms swayed in the Pacific breeze; inside, a frail man with…
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Modern
Episodes on Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich trace modern experiments in harmony, rhythm, orchestration, and musical form.
Dmitri Shostakovich – Witness of an Era
In the autumn of 1937, in Moscow, an orchestra sat poised to begin a new symphony. The composer, a thin, bespectacled man with nervous eyes, had been living under the shadow of fear for…
Igor Stravinsky – The Chameleon of the Century
It is the evening of May 29, 1913, in Paris. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is brand new, gleaming with modern lines, its audience filled with artists, aristocrats, and critics. The orchestra tunes, the lights…
Maurice Ravel – The Alchemist of Color
A hush falls over the Paris concert hall in 1928. On stage, a small, sharp-featured man adjusts his cuffs. He is impeccably dressed, with a precision that seems almost mechanical—every gesture neat, every line…
Sergei Prokofiev – Irony and Lyricism
In 1918, as Russia collapsed into revolution and civil war, a young composer boarded a train and set out across Siberia. He carried with him not only his luggage but also his scores, his…
Claude Debussy – Impressionist of Sound
The sun is setting over Paris, and through the open window of a small apartment drifts the sound of a piano—gentle chords, harmonies that blur like watercolors, melodies that seem to float rather than…