Music History Monday: Still Number One in Our Hearts
September
10th,
2018
The Beatles during the Sgt. Pepper’s cover shoot. I was just two years old – and therefore too young to notice or remember – when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 9, 1956. More that sixty million people tuned in to watch, a number that dazzles to this…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Well Tempered Clavier and Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues
September
4th,
2018
Background Johann Sebastian Bach: Well Tempered Clavier What is referred to as the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC) is actually two separate sets of compositions, arrayed as Book One and Book Two. Each “book” contains 24 sets of preludes and fugues: one prelude and fugue in each major and minor key. Book One is a mix-and-match collection…
Music History Monday: One of a Kind!
September
3rd,
2018
The phrase “one of a kind” would seem fairly useless when applied to the arts in general or music specifically. Really, aren’t all great musical artists – by definition - “one of a kind?” Monteverdi, Purcell, Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Stravinsky, Springsteen, Weird Al? Yes: these good folks (and many, many, MANY more) are…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: a Long Winded Contemplation of Pianists, the Talent Pool, and the Advisability (or Inadvisability) of Wearing Push-up Brassieres While Performing
August
28th,
2018
Pianist Roger Woodward Last week, in the process of recommending recordings of Claude Debussy’s Préludes for Piano, I brought up the pianist Roger Woodward, whose recording of the Préludes I adore. The response I received from many of you was not unexpected but still shivered my timbers: “Roger WHO?” Yes: when I introduced Roger Woodward…
Music History Monday: Joaquin and Lester
August
27th,
2018
Today we recognize the birth and the death of two musical masters from entirely different times and places who nevertheless, by the most extraordinary of coincidences, share the same nickname: the jazz tenor saxophonist Lester “Prez” Young and the Franco-Flemish composer Josquin “des Prez” Lebloitte. Lester “Prez” Young Lester “Prez” Young Lester Willis Young was…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Debussy’s Preludes
August
21st,
2018
Last week, Patreon Patron Renato inquired: “So, what is Dr. Bob's prescription for Schubert's Sonata in B-flat Major D960 (I listen to Richter's in Praga 1972) and for Debussy's Prelude Book I (Michelangeli DG is my choice)? Thanks a lot. Cheers.” As we observed last week, both of these works are featured in my Great…
Music History Monday: Firsts!
August
20th,
2018
Jacopo Peri, costumed as Arion in a production of La Pellegrina (1589) There are “firsts” and then there are firsts. The first person to eat sliced bread? No big deal. But the first person to eat an artichoke (which is, let’s be honest, a giant freaking thorn)? That took guts; that’s a first. The first person to…
Looking back on the first edition of “How To Listen to and Understand Great Music”
August
15th,
2018
Now available in the 3rd Edition I have managed to dig up and digitize a television advertisement for the first edition of my Teaching Company/The Great Courses survey “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” from 1993. It’s a bit painful for me to watch: I weighed 30 pounds less than I do now;…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major D960
August
14th,
2018
Earlier this week, my patron Renato inquired: “So, what is Dr. Bob's prescription for Schubert's Sonata in B-flat Major D960 (I listen to Richter's in Praga 1972) and for Debussy's Prelude Book I (Michelangeli DG is my choice)? Thanks a lot. Cheers.” These works were featured in my absurdly entitled but well-intentioned Great Courses survey…
Music History Monday: My Favorite Things!
August
13th,
2018
A little inside information about me. Since I was a kid, I have loved architecture and home design magazines: house porn, to be honest. The one constant in my reading has been Architectural Digest, to which I’ve been addicted since I was a teenager. Other mags have floated in and out of my consciousness over…