Composer's name is listed where notable (i.e. Classical Performance, Jazz Performance).
For more information on any of the rock, pop and Jazz music featured on this program, I frequently utilize AllMusic , an excellent free database holding a huge plethora of information about music and the artists that make it.
| Composer | Performer | Title | Genre | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Killswitch Engage |
Take This Oath |
Metal, Alternative Metal |
Roadrunner, 2004 |
Grammy nominee for Best Metal Performance from 2004/2005. They are at it again, as several rock and metal publications have named their 2006 album As Daylight Dies one of the top metal albums of the past year | |
The End of Heartache |
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Rose of Sharyn |
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Life to Lifeless |
Roadrunner, 2005 |
These three live performances were issued on the 2005 special edition of their 2004 album The End of Heartache. | |||
Fixation on the Darkness |
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My Last Serenade |
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Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643 |
Colin Tilney, harpsichord |
Cento Partite sopra Passacagli |
Classical, late Rennaisance, early Baroque eras, music for solo keyboard |
Dorian, 1990 |
One of the most important composers for keyboard, and a significant influence on keyboardists who followed (Bach is known to have owned a copy of one of Frescobaldi's works). Frescobaldi is considered one of the inventors of what we now call tempo, one of the first composers to call for slower and faster performance, and also one of the first to specify a tempo fitting to the mood of the piece. This piece was written in 1637, and is a fine example of a passacaglia in its early form. |
Louis Couperin (c. 1626 - 1661) |
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord |
Pièces de clavecin (Suite in D minor) |
Classical, late Rennaisance, early Baroque eras, music for solo keyboard |
Phillips, 1987 |
Louis Couperin was the first of a large family of musicians, eventually numbering 12, that occupied important musical positions in 17th and 18th century France. Louis was the first of the Couperins to establish himself, achieving an appointment at the important St. Gervais cathedral. None of his works (numbering over 200) were published during his lifetime, but were copied by contemporaries. As such, the authorship of some of his works are not completely certain; some organ works credited to him may actually be by his brother Charles. But there is fair certainty about these works, a set of dance pieces. Like Frescobaldi, Couperin intended for the tempos of his pieces to be flexible, but rather than give tempo directions, Couperin wrote in an unmeasured style that had previously been used for the lute, and was the first to apply this technique to the harpsichord. |
François Couperin (1668 - 1773) |
L'art de Toucher le Clavecin |
Classical, Baroque era, music for solo keyboard |
François, the son of the aforementioned Charles, and commonly referred to as "Le Grand", might be one of the most influential French composers from the baroque era. Appointed court organist at the Chapelle Royalle by Louis XIV (the Sun King), François is considered an important influence to Bach, Brahms, Richard Strauss and Ravel (who even named a piece after him, Le Tombeau de Couperin). | ||
Jean-Phillippe Rameau (1683 - 1764) |
Albert Fuller, harpsichord |
Suite in A |
Reference Recordings, 1988 |
Rameau succeeded Couperin as the preeminent French composer upon Couperin's death, and was also a prominent theorist who established the notion of root notes and that tonality remains the same when inverted. He is well known for his achievements in opera, and was a siginficant influence on numerous composers who followed, including Brahms (who used one of Rameau's themes as the subject of one of his chamber works), Berlioz (who called Rameau's work "one of the most sublime conceptions of dramatic music"), Debussy and Stravinski. | |
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Last Update: January 29th, 2007
Email: saxman@siu.edu