The other day, a student and I were looking at a piece with a l-o-n-g crescendo marking on it and she wondered how long the longest crescendo was in any piece.
For those who don’t remember, crescendo means to get louder and decrescendo means to get softer. The sample below gets louder, then softer.
But I got a bit off-track. While my student was trying her hand (no pun intended!) and the long crescendo, I looked up how long the longest one might be and found…
The longest crescendo in music is probably Ravel’s “Bolero,” which is, in fact, one long crescendo. Another very long crescendo occurs in the first movement of Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. … “Rossini crescendos” are much shorter but quite effective. Jul 26, 2013
Most everyone, including my student, knows that this is possibly my least favorite piece of music but I still played a bit of it for her anyway.
Although not really a piano piece
From Russia
I like this flashmob version best
In a video that looks just like a segment of Disney’s Silly Symphonies or Fantasia, artist Simon Brethé animates the pentagram, making the notes of Ravel’s Bolero do feats ranging from charming a snake (the oboe) to serenading a girl at her window (the saxophone). At one point of the performance, one member of the string ensemble gets his bow tangled in the pentagram, a distraction that, subsequently, wreaks havoc in the entire orchestra.
• 1941 ~ Shirley Owens Alston, Singer with The Shirelles
• 1946 ~ Matthew Fisher, English keyboardist with Procol Harum
• 1954 ~ Will Rossiter, Composer, died at the age of 87
• 1964 ~ Louis Gruenberg, Composer, died at the age of 79
• 1964 ~ Rolling Stones recorded their 12×5 album at Chess Studios Chicago
• 1966 ~ The BeatlesPaperback Writer was released in England
• 1966 ~ The Beatles recorded Rain, first to use reverse tapes
• 1966 ~ Janis Joplin’s first live concert in the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco
• 1966 ~ The Mamas and The Papas won a gold record for Monday, Monday
• 1968 ~ Yury Sergeyevich Milyutin, Composer, died at the age of 65
• 1972 ~ Elvis Presley recorded a live album at NY’s Madison Square Garden
• 1972 ~ The Rolling Stones double album Exile On Main Street went to No.1 on the UK chart, the band’s seventh UK No.1 album. In 2010, the re-released album entered the UK chart at No.1, almost 38 years to the week after it first occupied that position. The Rolling Stones are the first act to ever have a studio album return to No.1 after it was first released.
• 1972 ~ Sammy Davis, Jr. earned his place at the top of the popular music charts for the first time, after years in the entertainment business. His number one song, The Candy Man, stayed at the top for three consecutive weeks. The Candy Man was truly a song of fate for Sammy. He openly did not want to record the song, but did so as a favor to MGM Records head Mike Curb, since it was to be used in the film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Davis said he would give the tune one take, “and that’s it!” Sure enough, in that one-time recording, Sammy nailed it. The Candy Man stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks. The best the legendary performer had done before was 12 weeks for Love Me or Leave Me in 1955 and 11 weeks for I’ve Gotta Be Me (from Golden Rainbow) in 1969. After The Candy Man became a hit, Davis included it in his stage shows and concerts — and collected huge royalties from it.
• 1976 ~ Paul McCartney and Wings set a record for an indoor concert crowd as 67,100 fans gathered in Seattle, WA to hear the former Beatle and his new group.
• 1982 ~ Addie “Micki” Harris, American singer with the Shirelles, died at the age of 42
• 1985 ~ Nineteenth Music City News Country Awards: Statler Brothers, Barbara Mandrell
• 1990 ~ “Meet Me St Louis” closed at Gershwin Theater NYC after 253 performances
• 1992 ~ Hachidal Nakamura, Composer, died at the age of 61 of heart failure
• 1996 ~ Thirtyth Music City News Country Awards: Alan Jackson
• 2001 ~ Pianist Yaltah Menuhin, last of three famous siblings whose musical talents brought them fame at an early age, died at the age of 79. Yaltah, the youngest, and her sister Hepzibah, also a pianist, did not achieve the international renown of their brother, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. But they often appeared with him in concerts around the world, including the Bath Festival in Britain, where Yehudi was artistic director in the 1960s. Yaltah Menuhin was born in San Francisco, to Russian-Jewish parents. Like her siblings, she began studying music as a child, and moved about the world performing. Her brother was astonishing audiences with his virtuosity by the age of 7. Yaltah Menuhin and her husband, pianist Joel Ryce, often performed together as a duo in the United States, and she also performed with violist Michael Mann.
• 2001 ~ Harold S. Grossbardt, a founder of Colony Records, the famed record collector’s store in Manhattan, died at the age of 85. Grossbardt founded the store in 1948 with his partner, Sidney Turk, and the shop quickly became popular with music lovers. Hundreds of musicians, including Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and Michael Jackson, shopped at the store. Grossbardt worked at Colony Records until his retirement in 1988.
• 2004 ~ US singer, songwriter Ray Charles died aged 73. Glaucoma rendered Charles blind at the age of six. He scored the 1962 UK & US No.1 single ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ plus over 30 other US Top 40 singles and the 2005 US No.1 album ‘Genius Loves Company.’ Charles who was married twice and fathered twelve children by nine different women appeared in the 1980 hit movie, The Blues Brothers was also the winner of 17 Grammy Awards.
It’s wedding season! Today and tomorrow, we’ll be looking at, and listening to, the music most associated with weddings.
The “Bridal Chorus” from the 1850 opera Lohengrin by German composer Richard Wagner is a march played for the bride’s entrance at many formal weddings throughout the Western world.
The piece was made popular when it was used as the processional at the wedding of Victoria the Princess Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858.
This piece is available in Keyboard Kickoff, Movement 2 and Piano Maestro.
The original from the opera
A piano version (this book is available for loan, if interested)
• 1361 ~ Philippe de Vitry, French Composer and poet, died at the age of at 69
• 1656 ~ Thomas Tomkins, Composer, died
• 1717 ~ Louis Le Quointe, Composer, died at the age of 64
• 1810 ~ (Carl) Otto (Ehrenfried) Nicolai, Composer
More information about Nicolai
• 1828 ~ Carlo Marsili, Composer
• 1829 ~ Gaetano Braga, Composer
• 1832 ~ Manuel Garcia, Composer, died at the age of 57
• 1849 ~ Joseph Vezina, Composer
• 1849 ~ The term recital used for the first time to describe a solo performance by an instrumental player. The first recitalist was Franz Liszt
• 1865 ~ Carl Nielsen, Danish composer and conductor
More information about Nielsen
• 1865 ~ Alberic Magnard, Composer
• 1870 ~ Erik Drake, Composer, died at the age of 82
• 1879 ~ Oscar Back, Austrian-Dutch viola player
• 1886 ~ Kusaku Yamada, Composer
• 1888 ~ Hugo Kauder, Composer
• 1890 ~ The opera “Robin Hood” premiered in Chicago
• 1891 ~ Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist for the musical theater. His many famous musicals include “Anything Goes”, “Kiss Me Kate” and “Can Can”.
More information about Porter
• 1892 ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Langhans, Composer, died at the age of 59
• 1900 ~ Fred Waring, Musician, conductor and inventor of the Waring Blender
• 1972 ~ Bruce Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia
• 1975 ~ David Frederick Barlow, Composer, died at the age of 48
• 1975 ~ Tony Orlando and Dawn received gold record for He Don’t Love You
• 1980 ~ Fourteenth Music City News Country Awards, Statler Brothers & Loretta Lynn
• 1984 ~ Cyndi Lauper’s first #1 Time After Times
• 1986 ~ Twentieth Music City News Country Awards, Statler Brothers & Loretta Lynn
• 1990 ~ Michael Jackson was hospitalized with inflamed rib cartilage
• 1991 ~ Claudio Arrau, Chilian/American pianist and composer, died at the age of 88
• 1991 ~ Bruce Springsteen wed his backup singer Patty Scialfa
• 1991 ~ Max van Praag, Dutch singer, died at the age of 77
• 1992 ~ Clarence Miller, Blues/jazz vocalist, died at the age of 69 of a heart attack
• 1993 ~ Arthur Alexander, Singer/songwriter, died at the age of 53
• 1995 ~ Frank Chacksfield, Conductor/arranger, died at the age of 81
• 2000 ~ Jazz bassist Burgher “Buddy” Jones, who played in big bands behind Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra and toured with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, died at the age of 76.
A native of Hope, Ark., Jones was a childhood friend of the late Virginia Kelley, mother of President Clinton. At 17, Jones went to the University of Kansas City, where he met and befriended saxophonist Charlie Parker. Jones later introduced Parker to his wife, Chan. Jones played in the Elliot Lawrence band, when its arrangers included Al Cohn, Tiny Kahn and Johnny Mandel. As a staff musician for CBS in New York in the 1950s and 1960s,
Jones played for the Jack Sterling radio show and in bands behind Lee and Sinatra. In 1996, Jones was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame.
Joseph Haydn’s music contains many jokes, and the Surprise Symphony includes probably the most famous of all: a sudden very loud (fortissimo chord) at the end of the otherwise soft (piano) opening theme in the variation-form second movement. The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic, as if nothing had happened, and the ensuing variations do not repeat the joke. (In German it is commonly referred to as the Symphony “mit dem Paukenschlag”—”with the kettledrum stroke”).
In Haydn’s old age, his biographer George August Griesinger asked him whether he wrote this “surprise” to awaken the audience. Haydn replied:
No, but I was interested in surprising the public with something new, and in making a brilliant debut, so that my student Pleyel, who was at that time engaged by an orchestra in London (in 1792) and whose concerts had opened a week before mine, should not outdo me. The first Allegro of my symphony had already met with countless Bravos, but the enthusiasm reached its highest peak at the Andante with the Drum Stroke. Encore! Encore! sounded in every throat, and Pleyel himself complimented me on my idea.
The first time I saw this video during a piano lesson, both my students and I were surprised, too!
The melody is pretty basic and sometimes used to teach skips. I remember having it in one of my first books with words similar to See the Happy Little Frog, Hopping now from Log to Log.
Here’s a piano version.
Can you find the “surprise” indicated by the sforzando? Hint. It looks like this: Sforzando is one of those Italian words you get to learn in music and means a strong, sudden accent on a note or chord. Sforzando literally means subito forzando (fz), which translates to “suddenly with force.”
There’s some information about Haydn and this symphony in this video.
and this one
Beethoven’s Wig added some words
For 2 pianos, 8 hands. They’ve added their own surprise around minute 3.
• 1742 ~ Omobono Stradivari, Italian viol maker, son of Antonio, died at the age of 62
• 1753 ~ Nicolas-Marie Dalayrac, Composer
• 1783 ~ Joseph Lincke, Composer
• 1796 ~ Felice de Giardini, Composer, died at the age of 80
• 1805 ~ Luigi Ricci, Composer
• 1810 ~ Robert Schumann, German composer best known for his song cycles and piano music.
Read quotes by and about Schumann
More information about Schumann
• 1812 ~ Spyridon Xyndas, Composer
• 1814 ~ Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, Composer, died at the age of 48
• 1834 ~ George Garrett, Composer
• 1837 ~ Jan Kleczynski, Composer
• 1856 ~ Natalia Janotha, Composer
• 1858 ~ Antonio Nicolau, Spanish Composer and conductor
• 1876 ~ George Sand (Armandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin), French author and romantic companion of the composer of Chopin, died at the age of 71
• 1881 ~ Prospero Bisquertt, Composer
• 1884 ~ Henry Clay Work, Composer, died at the age of 51
• 1888 ~ Poul Julius Ouscher Schierbeck, Composer
• 1906 ~ Christian Frederik Emil Horneman, Composer, died at the age of 65
• 1908 ~ Johan Lindegren, Composer, died at the age of 66
• 1913 ~ Janos Jagamas, Composer
• 1918 ~ Robert Preston [Meservey], American actor
• 1919 ~ Jacob Fabricius, Composer, died at the age of 78
• 1923 ~ Karel Goeyvaerts, Flemish Composer of Summer Games
• 1926 ~ Anatol Vieru, Composer
• 1927 ~ Paul Whiteman and his orchestra recorded When Day is Done on Victor Records.
• 1928 ~ Jiri Dvoracek, Composer
• 1930 ~ Yannis Ioannidis, Composer
• 1932 ~ Hans Gunter Helms, Composer
• 1936 ~ James Darren (Ercolani), Singer
• 1940 ~ Frederick Shepherd Converse, American Composer, died at the age of 69
• 1940 ~ Sherman Garnes, Rock vocalist with Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
• 1940 ~ Nancy Sinatra, Singer
• 1942 ~ Chuck Negron, Singer with Three Dog Night
This is a more advanced piece but I really like it. Some students may have heard this since it’s an alarm tone on my phone. My dog, Mimi, recognizes this music as her signal to go out for a walk!
I just love Zez Confrey’s music. It’s not overplayed like some of Scott Joplin’s works but it’s just as much fun.
This is a piece I have often played in recitals and just for fun.
If any of my students are interested in tackling this piece, just let me know and we’ll start learning!
In 1921 Confrey wrote his novelty piano solo “Kitten on the Keys”, inspired by hearing his grandmother’s cat walk on the keyboard of her piano. It became a hit, and he went on to compose many other pieces in the genre.
Considered to be one of the fastest and most challenging of all “novelty” piano solos, “Dizzy Fingers” was composed in 1923. and was Confrey’s other biggest seller.
He left behind more than a hundred piano works, songs and miniature operas, and numerous piano rolls, music publications and sound recordings.
Not surprisingly, this piece is not available on Piano Maestro!
“This collection represents a cross-section of Confrey’s works and encompasses the broad range of his styles. Besides his famous 1920s novelty works (including Kitten on the Keys), there are many wonderful, lesser-known gems of remarkable quality included here from later in his career. Appearing for the first time in print are transcriptions of one of his disc recordings (Poor Buttermilk) and two of his player piano roll arrangements (My Pet and Humorestless). Many of Confrey’s later works have long been out of print and are included here for the first time in decades.”
• 1571 ~ Pier Francesco Corteccia, Composer, died at the age of 68
• 1730 ~ Georg von Pasterwiz, Composer
• 1736 ~ Karl Frieberth, Composer
• 1778 ~ Johann Georg Zechner, Composer, died at the age of 62
• 1784 ~ Jean-Baptiste Canavas, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1789 ~ Vaclav Jan Kopriva, Composer, died at the age of 81
• 1863 ~ Franz Xavier Gruber, Composer, died at the age of 75
• 1833 ~ Alexander Ritter, Composer
• 1846 ~ Wladyslaw Gorski, Composer
• 1865 ~ Guido Gasperini, Composer
• 1867 ~ Luigi Maurizio Tedeschi, Composer
• 1873 ~ Landon Ronald, British composer, pianist and teacher
• 1874 ~ Theodor Streicher, Composer
• 1885 ~ Percy Brier, Composer
• 1891 ~ Athos Palma, Composer
• 1893 ~ Johann Schrammel, Composer, died at the age of 43
• 1897 ~ George Szell, Hungarian-born American conductor
• 1909 ~ Actress Mary Pickford made her motion picture debut in “The Violin Maker of Cremona”.
• 1911 ~ Franz Reizenstein, Composer
• 1911 ~ Silas Roy Crain, Singer/arranger/songwriter
• 1915 ~ Benjamin Lambord, Composer, died at the age of 35
• 1917 ~ Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti), Singer
• 1922 ~ Hubert Du Plessis, Composer
• 1926 ~ Dick Williams, Choral director of the Andy Williams Show
• 1926 ~ Henry Charles Tonking, Composer, died at the age of 63
• 1928 ~ Charles Strouse, American of popular music
• 1931 ~ Henry Weinberg, Composer
• 1932 ~ Emil Pauer, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1934 ~ Phillip Entremont, Pianist
• 1934 ~ Samuel Lipman, Music critic
• 1934 ~ Wynn Stewart, Singer
• 1939 ~ Larry Clinton and his orchestra recorded In a Persian Market (by Ketelbey) on Victor Records.
• 1940 ~ Tom Jones, Grammy Award-winning singer
• 1941 ~ Jaime Laredo, Bolivian-born American violinist Clarence White (1944) Guitarist with the Byrds
• 1945 ~ Ruben Marcos Campos, Composer, died at the age of 69
• 1945 ~ The opera “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten, premiered in London, at Sadler’s Wells Theater.
• 1948 ~ Georges Adolphe Hue, Composer, died at the age of 90
• 1949 ~ Due to an impending lawsuit that stemmed from Milton Berle’s TV show, comedienne Cathy Mastice held the first musical press conference. She sang her way into announcing the court action. Due to the publicity she received, Ms. Mastice became an overnight success.
• 1953 ~ Kukla, Fran (Allison) and Ollie, along with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler, were featured on the first network telecast in ‘compatible color’. The program was broadcast from Boston, MA.
• 1958 ~ Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson), Singer
• 1963 ~ First Rolling Stones TV appearance (Thank Your Lucky Stars)
• 1965 ~ Pierre Cardevielle, French Composer/conductor, died at the age of 59
• 1993 ~ Prince celebrated his birthday by changing his name to a symbol and calling himself The Artist Previously Known as Prince. He went back to “Prince” in 2000
Today, we’ll be listening to the end of the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. This piece, originally the overture to an opera, has been arranged for piano and is in several method books, including Piano Pronto Movements 1 and 2. It’s also in Bastien Book 4 and Piano Maestro.
The original story
Maybe your grandparents watched the original Lone Ranger
Or you saw the newer Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp
Here’s the entire William Tell Overture played by an orchestra
Piano Solo
Franz Liszt made a really hard version for piano solo. See if you can follow along!
Piano Duet (1 piano, 4 hands)
Piano Duet arranged by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Piano Duo (2 pianos, 8 hands)
Piano Quartet (4 pianos, 16 hands)
For pipe organ
For synthesizer
And then things get nuts with cartoons. Lots of cartoons used this music. Here are Mickey Mouse and friends
And Spike Jones
Handbells…
Poor Rossini – I think he’d have a fit if he knew how is music was being used.
• 1955 ~ Bill Haley and Comets, Rock Around the Clock hit #1
• 1958 ~ Lily Theresa Strickland, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1962 ~ The Beatles met their producer George Martin for first time. After listening to a playback of the audition tapes, Martin said, “They’re pretty awful.” He changed his mind after meeting the group, however.
• 1966 ~ Claudette Orbison, wife of singer Roy, died in a motorcyle crash
• 1971 ~ Arnold Elston, Composer, died at the age of 63
• 1971 ~ John Lennon and Yoko Ono unannounced appearance at Fillmore East in NYC
• 1971 ~ For the last time, we saw Polish dancing bears, a little mouse named Topo Gigio, remembered The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, the comedy of Jackie Mason, John Byner, Rich Little, Richard Pryor and so many more, as The Ed Sullivan Show left CBS-TV. Gladys Knight and The Pips and singer Jerry Vale appeared on the final show. The Ed Sullivan Show had been a showcase for more than 20 years for artists who ranged from Ethel Merman to Ella Fitzgerald, from Steve (Lawrence) and Eydie (Gorme) to The Beatles. The Ed Sullivan Show was the longest-running variety show on TV ~ a “rillly big sheeeew.”
• 1991 ~ Stan Getz, Jazz saxophonist (Girl from Impanima), died at the age of 64
• 1994 ~ Willie Humphrey, Jazz clarinetist, died at the age of 93
• 1995 ~ Imam Elissa, Singer, died at the age of 76
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