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# Robert Greenberg

Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/blog/) - The latest posts from Robert Greenberg
- [Music History Monday: Our Kind of Musician](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-our-kind-of-musician-ferdinand-david/) - We mark the birth on June 19, 1810 – 213 years ago today – of the German virtuoso violinist and composer, Ferdinand David. Born in the exact same house in Hamburg that saw Felix Mendelssohn’s birth 16½ months before, David died while on vacation in Switzerland on July 18, 1873, at the age of 63. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Chick Corea, pianist and composer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-chick-corea-pianist-and-composer/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the birth of the American pianist and composer Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (1941-2021), in Chelsea, Massachusetts. A good bit of that post was spent discussing Corea’s stunning versatility as a pianist and composer: he could play the piano and compose for the piano in almost any conceivable style. This | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-armando-anthony-chick-corea/) - We mark the birth on June 12, 1941 – 82 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He died of cancer after a brief illness on February 9, 2021, at his home just outside of Tampa Bay, Florida, at the age of 79. Chick Corea’s spectacularly | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Martha Argerich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-martha-argerich/) - Yesterday – Monday, June 5 – marked Martha Argerich’s 82nd birthday. As promised in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, it is a birthday we will celebrate here, now, today, in Dr. Bob Prescribes! Over the course of her storied career, Martha Argerich has made people say the darndest things. I present for your reading pleasure | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Announcing New Trips With The Great Courses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/announcing-new-trips-with-the-great-courses/) - First — the nitty gritty details – Trip 1: The What: Great Music Masters of Vienna: The Romantics The When: May 4-10, 2025 The Where: Vienna, Austria The How: The trip is offered by The Great Courses Journeys, the travel brand for The Great Courses Plus! The How to Register: Click Here Pricing: Double Occupancy: ,795 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: An American in Paris](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-american-in-paris/) - We mark the London premiere on August 26, 1952 – 72 years ago today – of the film “An American in Paris.” With music by George Gershwin (1898-1937), directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant, the flick won six Academy Awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture. While the film | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Igor Stravinsky, Pulcinella Suite](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-igor-stravinsky-pulcinella-suite-2/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday marked the death of the Russian impresario and polymath Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929). Serge Diaghilev was a facilitator of genius. His special gift was for “creative administration.” He could spot talent from 100 miles away, then bring that talent together, all the while imposing his own taste, vision, artistic and aesthetic will on | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-serge-pavlovich-diaghilev/) - We mark the death on August 19, 1929 – 95 years ago today – of the Russian impresario, patron, art critic, and founder of the Ballets Russes Serge (or “Sergei”) Pavlovich Diaghilev, in Venice. Born in the village of Selishchi roughly 75 miles southeast of St. Petersburg on March 31, 1872, he was 57 years | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Giovanni Gabrieli](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giovanni-gabrieli/) - Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1555-1612) By the last years of the sixteenth century, the multi-choral/multi-ensemble (or just “polychoral”) religious music being composed for performance at the Basilica of San Marco (St. Mark’s) in Venice had virtually nothing to do with the sober spirit and musical dictates of the Counter Reformation. Rather, it had everything to do with the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The First Professional Composer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-first-professional-composer/) - Easy Times! We’ve been having a good time, an easy time here at Music History Monday these last few weeks. Five of our last six MHM posts have featured fairly recent musical events from the “popular” side of the musical aisle. Music History Monday for June 24 focused on Disco; on July 1, the invention and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Giovanni Gabrieli and the Miracle That is Venice!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-giovanni-gabrieli-and-the-miracle-that-is-venice/) - We mark the death on August 12, 1612 - 412 years ago today - of the composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Born in Venice circa 1555, he grew up and spent his professional life in that glorious city, and died there as a result of complications from a kidney stone. Gabrieli’s magnificent, soul-stirring music went a long | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Guillaume Du Fay](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-guillaume-du-fay/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the 627th birthday of Guillaume (“William”) Du Fay (1397-1474). He was, by every measure, one of the greatest composers yet to have lived, and was considered - in his lifetime, by his contemporaries - to be the greatest among them. Why, then, is he not TODAY a household name? Why, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Cass Elliot and the Making of an Urban Legend](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-cass-elliot-and-the-making-of-an-urban-legend/) - We mark the death of Cass Elliot on July 29, 1974 – 50 years ago today – in an apartment at No. 9 Curzon Street in London’s Mayfair District. Born on September 19, 1941, she was just 32 years old at the time of her death. Brief Biography Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr Bob Prescribes Georges Bizet, Carmen](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-georges-bizet-carmen/) - As often happens, the topic of a previous day’s Music History Monday post has become, here, the inspiration for today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes. As a reminder: yesterday’s Music History Monday – entitled “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” – focused on a pair of Taylor Swift concerts in Seattle that shook the ground beneath the stadium with such violence | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Shake, Rattle, and Roll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shake-rattle-and-roll/) - Only July 22, 2023 – one year ago today – Taylor Swift (born 1989; she has, according to Forbes, a present net worth of .3 billion) literally “shook up” Seattle: her concerts in that city shook the ground with such violence that it registered as a magnitude 2.3 earthquake. (As if to prove that the “Swiftquake” at | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Bill Evans: Alone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bill-evans-alone/) - As I know I’ve already mentioned, since I turned 70 this past April, I’ve decided to stop worrying about repeating myself. So here I go again. Asking me to name my favorite music, or favorite composer, or favorite performer is something of a waste of time, as I tend to be most in love | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: An Indispensable Person](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-indispensable-person/) - Indispensability The title of this blog - “An Indispensable Person” – might be considered controversial. That’s because any number of very smart people would argue that there is, in fact, so such thing as an “indispensable person.” According to both Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt: “There is no indispensable man.” Said President John | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Steve Lawrence: Entertainer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-steve-lawrence-entertainer/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post marked the birth on July 8, 1935, of the American Grammy and Emmy Award-winning pop singer, actor, and comedian Steve Lawrence. Maestro Lawrence’s birth name was Sidney Liebowitz, which I used as a point of departure for an extended riff on American Jewish musicians/entertainers who changed their named in order to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: What’s in a Name?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-whats-in-a-name/) - We mark the birth on July 8, 1935 – 89 years ago today - of the American Grammy and Emmy Award-winning singer, actor, and comedian Steve Lawrence, in Brooklyn, New York. He died just four months ago, on March 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. Steve Lawrence, one might ask? Have potential topics for Music History | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Frederic Rzewski, The People United Will Never Be Divided!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-frederic-rzewski-the-people-united-will-never-be-divided/) - Last week’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post dealt with the 1970s, the phenomenon that was disco, and the movie Saturday Night Fever of 1977. Likewise, yesterday’s Music History Monday post also dealt with the 1970s: the invention of the Walkman in 1979. As such, I’ve decided to stick with the 1970s in today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes as well, with | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Sony Walkman: A Triumph and a Tragedy!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-sony-walkman-a-triumph-and-a-tragedy/) - We mark the introduction on July 1, 1979 – 45 years ago today – of the Sony Walkman. The Walkman was the first entirely portable, high-fidelity (or at least fairly high-fidelity) audio cassette player, a revolutionary device that allowed a user to listen to entire albums anywhere, anytime. Introduced initially in Japan, the higher-ups at Sony expected | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Boogie Fever](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-boogie-fever-2/) - On June 24, 1374 – 650 years ago today – the men, women, and children of the Rhineland city of Aachen began to dash out of their houses and into the streets, where – inexplicably, compulsively, and uncontrollably - they began to twist and twirl, jump and shake, writhe and twitch until they dropped from | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde - Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-tristan-und-isolde-part-2/) - We began our examination of Tristan und Isolde in last week’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post. Our prescribed performance – as featured above – will continue to supply our video examples as we move through Acts II and III. As mentioned in last week’s post, our examination of Tristan und Isolde is focusing on Isolde, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde - Part 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-tristan-und-isolde-part-1/) - Sooner Than Later My Dr. Bob Prescribes post for May 14, 2024 (four weeks ago) was entitled “Fluids of Choice and Drinking Songs.” Among the featured “drinking songs” was the famous “quaff the presumed poison” scene from Act I of Tristan und Isolde. That May 14 post offered a video link to the scene, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Unsung Heroes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-unsung-heroes/) - We mark the death on June 17, 2014 – an even 10 years ago today – of the Grammy Award winning American record producer and Director of Columbia Masterworks Recordings John Taylor McClure. McClure was born in Rahway, New Jersey on June 28, 1929, and died in Belmont Vermont at the age of 84, 11 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Let Us Quaff from the Cup: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-let-us-quaff-from-the-cup-wagners-tristan-und-isolde/) - On June 10, 1865 – 159 years ago today - Richard Wagner’s magnificent and groundbreaking music drama Tristan und Isolde received its premiere in Munich under the baton of Hans von Bülow (whose wife, Cosima Liszt von Bülow, Wagner was enthusiastically shtupping at the same time). Oh Goodness; Did I Just Write That? I did. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Johann Joseph Fux](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-joseph-fux/) - Johann Joseph Fux? Yes, Johann Joseph Fux. And please, let us try to refrain from joking about Herr Fux’s fuxing name. There’s nothing we can say that hasn’t already been said by generations of young music composition students, including – to my enduring shame - yours truly. Yes: for generations of undergraduate music composition students, a thorough | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Ludwig von Köchel and the Seemingly Impossible Task](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ludwig-von-kochel-and-the-seemingly-impossible-task/) - We mark the death on June 3, 1877 - 147 years ago today – of the Austrian lawyer, botanist, geologist, teacher, writer, publisher, composer, and “musicologist” Ludwig Alois Friedrich Ritter (“Ritter” meaning “Knight”) von Köchel, of cancer, in Vienna. Born on January 14, 1800, he was 77 years old at the time of his death. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes - Wolfgang Mozart, Ein musikalischer Spaß, K. 522](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-ein-musikalischer-spas-k-522/) - Inappropriate Revisited Subtitled as being a “divertimento for two horns and string quartet” and generally (if rather inaccurately) translated as “A Musical Joke,” Ein musikalischer Spaß is, in my humble opinion, the single strangest work ever written by a major composer, particularly a major composer in his absolute prime who had not a minute to waste. It is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: “Inappropriate”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-inappropriate/) - There Must Be Something in the Air Have any of you done – or anticipate doing – anything particularly foolish today, anything particularly inappropriate? If you do, know that you will be in good company. Perhaps it’s the angle of the sun; perhaps it’s something in the air or water, because as dates go, May | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Music of Clara Wieck Schumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-music-of-clara-wieck-schumann/) - Friedrich Wieck could be a first-class creep. Nevertheless, we – meaning posterity, taken as widely as we please – owe him a debt of gratitude for the education he gave, the musical opportunities he afforded, and the professional contacts he made for his spectacularly gifted daughter, Clara (1819-1896). In 1815, the thirty-year-old Friedrich Wieck moved | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: A Difficult Life](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-difficult-life/) - Before we get to the principal topic of today’s post, we must note an operatic disaster that had nothing to do with singers or the opera being performed on stage. Rather, it was a disaster that inspired Gaston Leroux to write the novel The Phantom of the Opera, which was published in 1909. On May | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Fluids of Choice and Drinking Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-fluids-of-choice-and-drinking-songs/) - We pick up where we left off in yesterday’s Music History Monday. May 13th – yesterday’s date – has been designated by those fine people who designate such things as “World Cocktail Day” (as well as the first day of “American Craft Beer Week”). I used the occasions to begin a discussion about the drinking habits | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: What Day is Today?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-what-day-is-today/) - We recognize May 13th as being, among other “days” here in the United States, National Frog Jumping Day, Leprechaun Day, International Hummus Day, National Crouton Day, and – wait for it - World Cocktail Day! National Days, Weeks, and Months! Who creates these damned things? We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, let’s | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ella-fitzgerald-and-duke-ellington/) - My Music History Monday post back on June 15, 2020, marked the death on June 15, 1996, of the the “First Lady of Song,” the “Queen of Jazz,” “Lady Ella”: of Ella Jane Fitzgerald, at the age of 79. Music History Monday for April 29, 2024 (just last week!), marked the birth of “The | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Evolution of Western Pop Music: USA (1960-2010)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-evolution-of-western-pop-music-usa-1960-2010/) - We mark the public release, on May 6, 2015 – nine years ago today – of a scientific/statistical study published by The Royal Society Open Science Journal, a study entitled “The Evolution of Western Pop Music: USA (1960-2010).” Scoff not, my friends: this was, in fact, a high-end study conducted (and written up) by four | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Duke Ellington](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-duke-ellington/) - Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer, someone who led his eponymous jazz band (or “orchestra,” as he preferred to call it), for what was a record-making 51 years: from 1923 until his death in 1974. He was born and raised in Washington D.C. He moved permanently to New York | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Duke](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-duke/) - We mark the birth of The Duke on April 29, 1899 – 125 years ago today – in Washington D.C. By “The Duke,” we are not here referring to the actor John Wayne (who was born on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa), but rather, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, one of the greatest songwriters and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ludwig van Beethoven, Diabelli Variations for piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ludwig-van-beethoven-diabelli-variations-for-piano/) - The Project In early 1819, the Vienna-based music publisher Anton Diabelli (1781-1858) had what was a great idea for a charity project. He sent a brief waltz of his own composition to 50 composers living in Austria and invited each of them to compose a single variation on the waltz. Diabelli’s plan was to publish | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Yehudi Menuhin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-yehudi-menuhin/) - Monday’s Music History Monday post marked the birth – on April 22, 1916 – of the distinguished American-British violinist, conductor, and teacher Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999). During the course of that post, I wrote that Menuhin: “was a man of unwavering moral integrity and courage: a soft-spoken, kind, gentle, and elegant man, a role model for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: One of the Really Good Guys](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-the-really-good-guys/) - We mark the birth on April 22, 1916 – 108 years ago today - of one of the really good guys of twentieth century music: the American-British violinist, conductor, and teacher Yehudi Menuhin. A reminder: because of my trip to Vienna, I am still – for this week – posting abbreviated Music History Monday and Dr. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday Replay: “The Empress” - Bessie Smith](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-replay-the-empress-bessie-smith/) - I am writing this post from my hotel room in what is presently (but sadly, not for long) warm and sunny Vienna. As I mentioned last week, I will be here for eight days acting as “color commentator” for a musical tour of the city sponsored by Wondrium (a.k.a. The Teaching Company/The Great Courses). I | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Guy Who Wrote the “Waltz”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-guy-who-wrote-the-waltz/) - We mark the death on April 8, 1858 – 166 years ago today – of the Austrian composer, editor, and music publisher Anton Diabelli in Vienna, at the age of 76. Born on September 5, 1781, his enduring fame is based on a waltz of his composition that became the basis for Beethoven’s epic Diabelli | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Bob Dylan: the Television Commercials](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bob-dylan-the-television-commercials/) - For the second week in a row, I’m offering up a different sort of Dr. Bob Prescribes (DBP) post. Yesterday’s Music History Monday marked the private ceremony, held on April 1, 2017, during which Bob Dylan received his Novel Prize for Literature. Typically, if I were to follow my usual modus operandi in today’s DBP, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Bob Dylan: Nobel Laureate](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bob-dylan-nobel-laureate/) - On April 1, 2017 – 7 years ago today – Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, 1941) was awarded his Nobel Prize in Literature in a private ceremony held at an undisclosed location in Stockholm, Sweden. At the ceremony, Dylan received his gold Nobel Prize medal and his Nobel diploma. The cash prize of eight | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Arturo Toscanini](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-arturo-toscanini/) - Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post takes a different tack than usual. Rather than prescribing/recommending a particular CD (or DVD, or book), today’s post will feature a series of links to various video performances of Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony, interviews with people who knew him, and audio recordings of a very few of his | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Towering Inferno](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-towering-inferno/) - We mark the birth on March 25, 1867 – 157 years ago today – of the cellist and conductor Arturo Toscanini, in the city of Parma, in what was then the Kingdom of Italy. He died, at the age of 89, on January 16, 1957, at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-nikolai-rimsky-korsakov-scheherazade/) - We begin where we left off in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, with what was the closing statement: “It's a fact: the very history of twentieth century Russian, Russian expatriate, and Soviet composers starts with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), whose own roots trace back through The Five to Glinka and the awakening of Russian musical nationalism | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Fake It ‘til You Make It](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-fake-it-til-you-make-it/) - We mark the birth of the Russian composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov on March 18, 1844: 180 years ago today. Born in the Russian town of Tikhvin – roughly 120 miles east of St. Petersburg - Rimsky-Korsakov died at the age of 64, on June 21, 1908, on his estate near the Russian town of Luga, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giuseppe-verdi-rigoletto-2/) - A Lurid, Depraved Tale! Put in contemporary terms, the plot of Rigoletto is, frankly, revolting: a sixteenth century version of the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell story. The opera tells the tale of a rich, slimy, powerful, utterly amoral man (the Duke of Mantua/Epstein) who, among his many carnal sins, rapes and traffics in teenaged girls, abetted | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: An Opera Profane and Controversial: Verdi’s Rigoletto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-opera-profane-and-controversial-verdis-rigoletto/) - We mark the first performance on March 11, 1851 – 173 years ago today – of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto at Venice’s storied Teatro la Fenice: The Phoenix Theater. We set the scene. The year was 1849. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901) was - at the age of 36 - the most famous and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes “After the Ball”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-after-the-ball/) - Year of the Song As I’ve mentioned in previous Dr. Bob Prescribes posts, I’ve unilaterally designated this campaign and election year “The Year of the Song,” so desperate am I for the distraction and solace only the best popular American songs can provide. We began with Barbara Cook’s wonderful Disney Album on February 6, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Some Myths Debunked](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tchaikovskys-swan-lake-and-some-myths-debunked/) - We mark the first performance of the ballet Swan Lake on March 4, 1877: 147 years ago today. Premiered at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, with music by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), choreography by the Czech-born dance master Julius Reisinger (1828-1892), and its music performed by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, the first performance of Swan | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Carmen](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-carmen-saura/) - Reruns I don’t know about you, but personally, I have mixed feelings about reruns. On one hand, I will never tire of seeing of watching the original Star Trek, which ran for 79 episodes spread over three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. I have seen every one of those 79 episodes so many times that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Too Late to Matter for Georges Bizet, though Better Late Than Never for the Rest of Us](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-too-late-to-matter-for-georges-bizet-though-better-late-than-never-for-the-rest-of-us/) - We mark the premiere on February 26, 1935 – 89 years ago today – of Georges Bizet’s Symphony in C. The premiere took place in Basel, Switzerland, in a performance conducted by Felix Weingartner (1863-1942). Bizet (1838-1875) never heard the symphony performed; he had died in the Paris suburbs in 1875 at the age of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Sergei Nakariakov](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-sergei-nakariakov-2/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday focused on the crime of passion that was the murder of the be-bop trumpet player Lee Morgan (1938-1972), a crime committed on February 19, 1972, by his common-law wife, Helen Moore. Morgan was an extraordinary player, someone who recorded prodigiously and who – being only 33 years old when he was | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Frankie and Johnny, and Helen and Lee](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-frankie-and-johnny-and-helen-and-lee/) - I am aware that Valentine’s Day is already 5 days past, but darned if the romantic warm ‘n’ fuzzies aren’t still lingering with me like a rash from poison oak. As such, I will be excused for offering up what I will admit is a belated, but nevertheless Valentine’s Day-related post. Gratitude We should all | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Joseph Haydn: Six String Quartets, Op. 76](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-joseph-haydn-six-string-quartets-op-76/) - Haydn’s six string quartets published in 1799 as Opus 76 are his supreme works of chamber music, works that show him at the very peak of his craft and imagination. The quartets were composed between 1796-1797, soon after Haydn’s return from his second residency in London. Haydn dedicated the set to his patron, the Hungarian | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Unauthorized Use](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-unauthorized-use/) - February 12 is one of those remarkable days in music history, remarkable for all the notable events that took place on this day. So: before getting to our featured topic, let us acknowledge some of those events and share some links to previous Music History Monday and Dr. Bob Prescribes posts that dealt with those | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Barbara Cook](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-barbara-cook/) - Songs and Singers As I discussed in Dr. Bob Prescribes on January 16 of this year, I intend to make 2024 a “year of the song” here in Dr. Bob Prescribes, specifically, the year of the “popular song.” As I mentioned in January, I’m doing this out of emotional and spiritual self-preservation, as I expect | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Getting Back to Work!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-getting-back-to-work/) - On February 5, 1887 – 137 years ago today – Giuseppe Verdi’s 25th and second-to-last opera, Otello, received its premiere at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The premiere was the single greatest triumph in Verdi’s sensational career. But it was a premiere – and an opera – that was a long time coming. Background | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfang Mozart: Idomeneo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfang-mozart-idomeneo/) - Mozart’s Operas Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) composed 21 operas (three of them left incomplete) across the span of his all-too-brief life, from the modest Apollo et Hyacinthus (Apollo and Hyacinth, composed in 1767 when he was 11 years old) to La Clemenza di Tito (The Mercy of Titus, completed in August of 1791, some 3½ months | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Idomeneo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-idomeneo/) - We mark the premiere on January 29, 1781 – 243 years ago today – of Wolfgang Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, Re di Creta (“Idomeneo, King of Crete”). With a libretto by Giambattista Varesco (1735-1805), which was adapted from a French story by Antoine Danchet (1671-1748), itself based on a play written in 1705 by the French | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johannes-brahms-piano-concerto-no-1-in-d-minor/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post marked the premiere of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. Nearly five years in the writing, the concerto received its premiere on January 22, 1859, in the German city of Hanover. Brahms himself was the soloist, supported by the Hanover Court Orchestra and conducted by Brahms’ great | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-johannes-brahms-piano-concerto-no-1/) - We mark the premiere on January 22, 1859 – 165 years ago today - of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, in the German city of Hanover. No other work by Brahms caused him such effort; never before or after did he so agonize over a piece, working and reworking it over and over again. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: In Praise of Song](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-in-praise-of-song/) - I’ve always believed there are basically two kinds of music: the music you grow up listening to as a child and as an adolescent and everything else. An overly simple statement? No, I don’t believe it is. It’s been my experience that nothing impresses itself more powerfully (or permanently) on the relatively blank slates that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: American Pie](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-american-pie/) - On January 15, 1972 – 52 years ago today – Don McLean’s folk-rock song American Pie began what would eventually be a four-week stay at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song made the singer, songwriter, and guitarist Don McLean (born 1945) very famous and very rich, and it is considered by | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Hans von Bülow: A Life and Times](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-hans-von-bulow-a-life-and-times/) - Five years ago, my Dr. Bob Prescribes post for January 15, 2019 recommended Alan Walker’s epic (25 years in the research and writing!), three-volume biography of Franz Liszt. In that post, I mentioned – that our Maine Coon cat Teddy (who, sadly, kicked the Kibble on December 24, 2022) – was often paid the highest | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Pianist, Conductor, Composer, and a Cuckold for the Ages](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-pianist-conductor-composer-and-a-cuckold-for-the-ages/) - We mark the birth on January 8, 1830 – 196 years ago today – of the German pianist, conductor, composer, and cuckold, Hans Guido von Bülow. Born in the Saxon capital of Dresden, he died in a hotel in Cairo, Egypt, on February 12, 1894, at the age of 64. Poor Hans von Bülow. He | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Shostakovich Symphony No. 13](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shostakovich-symphony-no-13/) - On December 18, 1962 - 61 years ago today – Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 received its premiere in Moscow. The symphony stirred up a proverbial hornet’s nest of controversy, and we’re not talking here about your everyday hornet, but rather, those gnarly ‘n’ gnasty Asian Giant Hornets! It was a symphonic premiere that almost | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-2/) - According to one review, Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar is: “A disturbing book that screams to be read.” Truer words were never written. Despite its titular reference to the ravine in Kyiv known as Babi Yar, only the first part of the book deals with the murder of Kyiv’s Jewish population there on September 29 and 30, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-sebastian-bach-sonatas-and-partitas-for-solo-violin/) - We cannot (and will not!) talk about Sebastian Bach’s landmark Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin without first considering what is, to my mind, one of the most perfect examples of human ingenuity this side of cave painting, and that is the violin. The Violin The violin is a miracle of ingenuity and nature, of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The “Amusa”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-amusa/) - On December 11, 1721 – 302 years ago today – Johann Sebastian Bach’s employer, the 27-year-old Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen (1694-1728), married the 19-year-old Friederica Henrietta of Anhalt-Bernburg (1702-1723). She was the fourth daughter (and youngest child) of Charles Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg (1668-1721) and his first wife, Sophie Albertine of Solms-Sonnenwalde (1672-1708). We can | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Adolf von Henselt - Piano Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-adolf-von-henselt-piano-music/) - Unplayable? Yesterday’s Music History Monday post observed how two beloved concert staples by our great and good friend Pyotr (Peter) Ilych Tchaikovsky - his Piano Concerto No. 1 (of 1874) and his Violin Concerto in D major (of 1878) – were deemed unplayable by their initial dedicatees. Those “dedicatees” were, respectively, the pianist Nicolai Rubinstein | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Unplayable](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-unplayable/) - We mark the premiere on December 4, 1881 – 142 years ago today – of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s one-and-only violin concerto, his Violin Concerto in D major. It received its premiere in Vienna, where it was performed by the violinist Adolf Brodsky and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Hans Richter. The concerto is, in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Strauss: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Op. 30 (1896)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-strauss-thus-spoke-zarathustra-op-30-1896/) - As discussed in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, Richard Strauss’ orchestral tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra (in German, Also sprach Zarathustra, composed in 1896) is based on the “philosophical poem” of the same title by the German philologist (a type of linguist who studies the history of languages through their literature) and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Richard Strauss, Stanley Kubrick, Friedrich Nietzsche, and “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-richard-strauss-stanley-kubrick-friedrich-nietzsche-and-thus-spoke-zarathustra/) - On November 27, 1896 – 127 years ago today – Richard Strauss conducted the premiere performance of his sprawling orchestral tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra in the German city of Frankfurt. Requests A momentary and applicable (if gratuitous) diversion. Over the course of the first half of my musical life I played a lot of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Pianist Ray Bryant](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-pianist-ray-bryant/) - Oops! I’ve been writing these Dr. Bob Prescribes posts since August 6, 2018. I have only now realized that I have not yet featured the pianist Ray Bryant (1931-2011). OMG. It’s time to address and make good on that oversight! What made the light go off in my head regarding Ray Bryant was the act | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Great-Grandmother of All Concert Tours: Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-farewell-yellow-brick-road/) - We mark the conclusion on November 20, 2022 – one year ago today – of the North American leg of Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour.” The concert took place at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles; it was the third of three “farewell” concerts held at Dodgers Stadium. The three concerts (on | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Travel to Austria with Robert Greenberg for Great Music Masters of Vienna](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/travel-to-austria-with-robert-greenberg-for-great-music-masters-of-vienna/) - Wondrium Journeys by The Great Courses has announced “Great Music Masters of Vienna” with Robert Greenberg — A 7 day, 6 night trip to Austria! During the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony premiere, we'll explore the legacy of the city’s music masters. Follow the footsteps of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert to the homes | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Gioachino Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle (1863)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gioachino-rossini-petite-messe-solennelle-1863/) - Gioachino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792, in the Italian seaport city of Pesaro, on the Adriatic Sea. He was the only child of Giuseppe Rossini (1758-1839), a professional trumpet and horn player; and Anna Rossini (1771-1827), a seamstress and later, a professional operatic soprano (hers was, indeed, quite a career change!). In 1802, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Gioachino Rossini and the Comedic Mind](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-gioachino-rossini-and-the-comedic-mind/) - We mark the death on November 13, 1868 – 155 years ago today - of the opera composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini, in Paris, at the age of 76. He was one of the most famous and beloved artists of his time, and he remains no less so today. It is my humble opinion that anyone | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes John Philip Sousa Marches](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-john-philip-sousa-marches/) - Though he composed many other works – including six operettas - John Philip Sousa’s great and enduring fame rests on his 136 marches. His first march, Review, was published in 1873; his final march, Library of Congress, begun in 1931, was left incomplete at his death in 1932. It wasn’t completed until 2003, when the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The March King](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-march-king/) - We mark the birth on November 6, 1854 – 169 years ago today – of the American composer, conductor, and violinist John Philip Sousa. Born in Washington, D.C., Sousa died in Reading, Pennsylvania on March 6, 1932, at the age of 77. Timing, Location, Life Experience, and Talent We are told that talent - be | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Schubert, String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-schubert-string-quartet-no-14-in-d-minor-death-and-the-maiden/) - Today is Halloween. Surprise, right? As if you didn’t know. For today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes, I had considered recognizing the date by writing a post on “appropriately ghoulish concert works for your Halloween party.” I began assembling a list of the usual horrific suspects – Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, movements 4 and 5 (respectively entitled “March | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Franz Schubert: An Unfinished Symphony; An Unfinished Life](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-franz-schubert-an-unfinished-symphony-an-unfinished-life/) - We mark October 30, 1822 – 201 years ago today – as being the day on which Franz Schubert began what is now known as his Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the “Unfinished Symphony.” Lost just months after Schubert completed the two movements that make up the “Unfinished,” the symphony was heard for the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Jazz Singer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-jazz-singer/) - The First “Talking Picture”? For as long as I’ve been aware of the movie The Jazz Singer, its title has always been preceded or followed by the phrase, “the first talking picture,” meaning the first major, full-length commercial film to contain spoken dialogue. This is true but only just; in truth, the movie contains a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Al Jolson and the Painful Legacy of Blackface](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-al-jolson-and-the-painful-legacy-of-blackface/) - We mark the death on October 23, 1950 – 73 years ago today - of the Lithuanian-American singer and actor Al Jolson. Born “Asa Yoelson” on May 26, 1886, in the village of Srednik, in what was then the Russian Empire and what is today Lithuania, he died of a massive heart attack in his | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-arnold-schoenberg-pierrot-lunaire-op-21-1912/) - The crowning glory of Schoenberg’s “emancipation of dissonance” period is Pierrot Lunaire. In terms of its importance and influence on the literate music of the twentieth century, Pierrot Lunaire stands second only to Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which Stravinsky completed six months after Schoenberg (1874-1951) finished Pierrot. 1912 was, truly, a miraculous year | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Mathilde Made Him Do It!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mathilde-made-him-do-it/) - A few, necessary words before moving on to today’s post. Our hearts bleed for the events currently playing out in Israel and Gaza. Frankly, there are no words. Today is also the 14th anniversary of my wife Diane’s death; she died at the age of 35 on October 16, 2009. Again, there are no words. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3, “Organ Symphony” (1886)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-camille-saint-saens-symphony-no-3-organ-symphony-1886/) - Camille Saint-Saëns and the Organ Saint-Saëns was almost certainly the greatest organist of his time and among the greatest who has ever lived. From 1857 until 1877 – from the age of 22 to 42 - he held the extremely prestigious position of organist at Paris’ most chic La Madeleine (Catholic) Church: a huge, Greek | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Parrot](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-parrot/) - We mark the birth on October 9, 1835 – 188 years ago today – of Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, in Paris. He died in that magnificent city on Beethoven’s 151st birthday – on December 16, 1921 - at the age of 86. The Nose Physically, the adult Camille Saint-Saëns was – literally - an odd bird. The | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes – Mozart, Complete Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozart-complete-piano-sonatas/) - This is an admittedly odd post. I’m not recommending Gould’s complete Mozart Piano Sonatas as a “principal set”; it’s just too quirky. For principal sets, I would heartily recommend Ronald Brautigam’s, performed on a fortepiano (on BIS); or Mitsuko Uchida’s recorded on a modern Steinway (on Decca). Typical of pretty much any Glenn Gould performance, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: 710 Ashbury Street, San Francisco, California](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-710-ashbury-street-san-francisco-california/) - Before we get to the central topic of today’s post – that being a particular address in San Francisco - we would wish a most happy birthday to someone we only know by his nickname. Please: no looking ahead and peeking! Today we wish a happy 71st birthday to the English singer, songwriter, bassist, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Revisited, Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-lohengrin-revisited-part-two/) - As we observed in last week’s Dr. Bob Prescribes, Act I of Lohengrin is a “public” spectacle. As such, Act I is about “appearances”: that is, how the characters choose to portray themselves in public. For example, what’s-his-name – the knight in shiny armor (“Waffenschmuck” in German) - would “appear” to be a God-sent hero. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: In a Class by Himself](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-in-a-class-by-himself/) - We mark the birth on September 25, 1932 – 91 years ago today – of the pianist Glenn Herbert Gold, in Toronto, Canada. (Yes, the surname on “Glenn Gould’s” birth certificate is “Gold.” When the young guy was seven years old his family began informally using the surname “Gould,” though Glenn himself never formally changed | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner, Lohengrin revisited - Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-lohengrin-revisited-part-one/) - Both Music History Monday (for August 28) and Dr. Bob Prescribes (for August 29) were dedicated to Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. That Dr. Bob Prescribes post examined three traditional video performances of the opera, and ultimately recommended a Bayreuth Festival performance recorded in 1982, featuring Peter Hofmann as The Mystery Man in Silver (Lohengrin), Karan Armstrong | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Jimi Hendrix and the 27 Club](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-jimi-hendrix-and-the-27-club/) - We mark the death on September 18, 1970 – 53 years ago today – of the American guitarist, singer, and songwriter James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix, at St. Mary Abbots Hospital in London. He was born in Seattle, Washington on November 27, 1942, making him 27 years old at the time of his death, something we | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Charles-Valentin Alkan](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-charles-valentin-alkan-2/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post acknowledged the strange and by any measure, stupid death of Charles-Valentin Alkan on March 29, 1888. (You needn’t flip back to yesterday’s Music History Monday; we’ll recount Alkan’s “death by umbrella rack” later in this post.) By the time Charles-Valentin Alkan died in Paris on March 29, 1888, at the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: They Did Not Go Gently…](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-they-did-not-go-gently/) - 9-11; a somber day for us all. A day for reflection, contemplation and perhaps, still, after 22 years, a day to grieve. Far more often than not, Music History Monday is about celebrating the life and accomplishments of a musician or identifying and exploring some great (or small) event in music history. If | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 4](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-anton-bruckner-symphony-no-4/) - Bruckner, whose 199th birthday was celebrated in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, was born in the Austrian village of Ansfelden, near Linz. His father – Anton Senior – was the town schoolmaster and the church organist, and it was at the local Catholic Church that Bruckner heard his first music, sang as a choirboy, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: On the Spectrum](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-on-the-spectrum/) - We mark the birth on September 4, 1824 – 199 years ago today – of the composer and organist Josef Anton Bruckner, in the Austrian village of Ansfelden, which today is a suburb of the city of Linz. He died in the Austrian capital of Vienna on October 11, 1896, at the age of 72. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Music: Richard Wagner - Lohengrin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-music-richard-wagner-lohengrin/) - Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin received its premiere in the Thuringian (central German) city of Weimar on August 28, 1850: 173 years ago yesterday. Conducted by Weimar’s Kapellmeister – the extraordinary Franz Liszt (1811-1886) himself - the premiere was a smash and Lohengrinhas remained a pillar of the operatic repertoire since. As we observed in yesterday’s Music | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Lohengrin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-lohengrin/) - We mark the premiere performance on August 28, 1850 - 173 years ago today – of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, in the central German city of Weimar. The premiere was conducted by none-other-than Wagner’s friend and supporter (and future father-in-law!) Franz Liszt (1811-1886). Liszt had chosen the premiere date of August 28 in honor | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Switched-On Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-switched-on-bach/) - We pick back up where we left off in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, with the techno-wizard and American maverick-styled inventor Robert Moog’s education. Robert Moog (1934-2005), Continued Having graduated from Columbia and Queen’s College in 1957, Moog headed north to Cornell University, where he eventually received a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics in 1965. His | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Where is the “Sin” in “Synthesizer?: Robert Moog and “Synthetic” Sound](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-where-is-the-sin-in-synthesizer-robert-moog-and-synthetic-sound/) - We mark the death on August 21, 2005 – 18 years ago today – of the American engineer and electronic music pioneer Robert Moog. Born in New York City on May 23, 1934, he died of a brain tumor in Asheville, North Carolina, at the age of 71. First things first: let us pronounce this | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Worst. Timing. Ever](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-worst-timing-ever/) - On August 14, 1962 – 61 years ago today – the manager of the Beatles Brian Epstein made a phone call to the drummer Ringo Starr, inviting him to join the band. As I suspect we are all aware, Starr said “yes.” Two days later, on August 16, Epstein had the unenviable task of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Beatles 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-beatles-1/) - In Six, Short Years! Yesterday’s Music History monday post concluded by observing that in the six short years between 1964 and 1970, the Beatles amassed a total of 20 number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, a number that here, 53 years later, remains a record. As a public service, here are | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gustav-mahler-symphony-no-2-resurrection/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post was all about auctions; specifically, auctions of Elvis Presley memorabilia. As we observed yesterday, the most expensive piece of Elvis memorabilia sold to date that isn’t a gold Rolex watch is Presley’s 1942 Martin D-18 guitar, Serial Number 80221, which was auctioned off for ,320,000 August 1, 2020. As I | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: All Hail The King!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-all-hail-the-king/) - We mark an online auction that concluded on August 7, 2008 – 15 years ago today – at which Elvis Presley’s white, sweat-stained, high-collared, plunging V-necked jumpsuit, decorated with a dazzling, hand-embroidered blue and gold peacock – sold for 0,000. (Because I know you want to know, the jumpsuit is cinched at the waist by | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Buddy Rich Big Band](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-buddy-rich-big-band-2/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday was generally about nepo (as in “nepotism”) babies: “the children of celebrities who have succeeded in the same or adjacent career as their celebrity parents or other esteemed relatives. The implication is that, because their parents already had connections to an industry, the child was able to use those connections to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Nepo Babies](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-nepo-babies/) - Before we get to the actual date-related topic for today, I beg your indulgence, as I need to tell you a story. It’s a story that most of you know, at least in part. Again, indulge me. The Godfather III – the third film in the storied Godfather franchise, released in 1990 – was one | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Ernest Bloch](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ernest-bloch/) - We mark the birth on July 24, 1880 – 143 years ago today – of the Swiss-born American composer and educator Ernest Bloch, who was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He died in Portland, Oregon, on July 15, 1959, at the age of 78. Establishing a Genealogy People trace their family trees for all sorts of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ernest Bloch: Sacred Service](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ernest-bloch-sacred-service/) - The composer, conductor, pianist, violinist, watercolorist, photographer, and teacher Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) was born 143 years ago yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland. He grew up in a middle-class household; his father Maurice Bloch was a merchant and his mother Sophie (née Brunschwig) was a highly cultured, stay-at-home mother. The Bloch’s were Jewish, and both religious and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Elaine Stritch (1925-2014)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-elaine-stritch-1925-2014/) - Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post is a bit different from any other I’ve done to date. Instead of offering up a recommended recording, or a video, or a book, I’m prescribing a person: the indomitable Elaine Stritch (1924-2014). Love her or not, she was like a gorilla in your boudoir: impossible to ignore. She was | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Elaine Stritch: An Appreciation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-elaine-stritch-an-appreciation/) - We mark the death on July 17, 2014 – 9 years ago today - of the Broadway and television actress Elaine Stritch, in Birmingham, Michigan, at the age of 89. I personally have a soft spot in my heart for Ms. Stritch the size of Manitoba. She was your quintessential brassy, tart-tongued (a euphemism for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Pavel Haas, String Quartet No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-pavel-haas-string-quartet-no-3/) - The subject of today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post is doubly appropriate. Yesterday’s Music History Monday dealt with Carl Orff (1895-1982), a composer who thrived under the Nazi regime only to later claim (as did so many others in the post-war period) to have been a “victim” of the Nazis. Well, today’s composer was a victim | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: When You Dance with the Devil](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-when-you-dance-with-the-devil/) - We mark the birth on July 10, 1895 – 128 years ago today – of the German composer and educator Carl Heinrich Maria Orff. Born in Munich, he died in that city on March 29, 1982, at the age of 86. The Good News Orff lived a long and productive life. He was a composer | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Leoš Janáček, String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-leos-janacek-string-quartets/) - I am well aware that today is July 4 and that, perhaps, the patriotic thing for me to do today would be to celebrate the national anthem of the United States – The Star-Spangled Banner – and, perhaps, a famous arrangement of that very anthem. Sadly, no-can-do, because it has already-been-done: just last year, in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Leoš Janáček: Composer, Patriot, and Patriot Composer!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-leos-janacek-composer-patriot-and-patriot-composer-2/) - We mark the birth on July 3, 1854 – 169 years ago today - of the Moravian (meaning Czech) composer, music theorist, folklorist, and teacher Leoš Janáček. Born in the village of Hukvaldy in what today is the Czech Republic, he died on August 12, 1928 in the city of Ostrava, today the capital of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Wolfgang Mozart, Piano Quartets K. 478 (1785) and K. 493 (1786)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-piano-quartets-k-478-1785-and-k-493-1786/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post dealt with the incredulity we should all feel when faced with the astounding magnitude of Wolfgang Mozart’s talent and the beauty and quality of his music. It is appropriate, then, that today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post should celebrate at least some of Mozart’s astonishing music, and I have chosen his | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: You’ve Got to be Kidding](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-youve-got-to-be-kidding/) - ‘Fessing Up Okay: you’re going to have to bear with me for one of my idiotic tangents, one that nevertheless explains precisely how I feel about Mozart and his music at a gut level. What follows is a deep confession, something I’ve never shared before. Be forewarned though, that once you’ve read and/or heard this | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor (1944)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-dmitri-dmitriyevich-shostakovich-piano-trio-no-2-in-e-minor-1944/) - In my Dr. Bob Prescribes post of June 6, 2023, on Martha Argerich, I recommended an album containing two piano trios: Pyotr Tchaikovsky one-and-only piano trio of 1882, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s second piano trio, in E minor of 1944, as performed by Martha Argerich, piano; Gidon Kremer, violin; and Mischa Maisky, cello. In that post, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Never Eat Anything That Can Bite You Back!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-never-eat-anything-that-can-bite-you-back/) - On June 5, 1977 – 46 years ago today – the shock-rock superstar Alice Cooper’s pet boa constrictor and concert co-star, a creature rather cleverly named “Julius Squeezer,” suffered what turned out to be a fatal bite from a live rat it was eating for breakfast. No doubt: Julius probably should have ordered the scrambled | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Isaac Albéniz](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-isaac-albeniz/) - On May 29, 1860 – 163 years ago today - the composer and pianist Isaac Albéniz was born in Camprodón, Spain. Albéniz was a brilliant pianist and, as evidenced by his 12-movement suite for piano entitled Iberia (written between 1905-1909), a composer of genius. However, before we can get to Maestro Albéniz, I would | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E minor (1873)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giuseppe-verdi-string-quartet-in-e-minor-1873/) - I am doing something here in this post today that I have only done twice before in the storied history of Dr. Bob Prescribes: I am recommending a recording for the second time. The other two times I did so were a matter of expedience, as I reran two posts back in early March immediately | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Giuseppe Verdi and the Requiem for Alessandro Manzoni](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-giuseppe-verdi-and-the-requiem-for-alessandro-manzoni/) - We mark the first performance on May 22, 1874 – 149 years ago today – of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, written in memory of the Italian novelist, poet, and patriot Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1872).” Background In June of 1870, the 57-year-old Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) agreed to compose an opera for the brand-new Cairo Opera Theater. The Khedive | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Robert Johnson](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-robert-johnson/) - In choosing a topic for last week’s (May 8) Music History Monday post, I had a difficult choice: to either mark the birthday of the short-lived American composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) or the birthday of the even shorter-lived American blues songwriter, singer, and guitarist Robert Johnson (1911-1938). I chose to run with | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: All the Music That’s Fit to Print](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-all-the-music-thats-fit-to-print-2/) - On May 15, 1501 – 522 years ago today – the first polyphonic (that is, multi-part) music printed using moveable type was released to the public by the Venice-based publisher Ottaviano dei Petrucci. (The publication features a dedication dated May 15, 1501, so we assume that this corresponds with its release date.) The publication was | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Piano Music of Louis Morau Gottschalk](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-piano-music-of-louis-morau-gottschalk/) - The Prodigy and the Musical Venues of New Orleans Louis Moreau Gottschalk began playing the piano at around age 5, and by the time he was 7 he was one of those “child prodigies” of which every city could boast. However: Moreau (as he was called) lived in New Orleans, and for him, that made | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Louis Moreau Gottschalk, or What Happens in Oakland Does Not Stay in Oakland](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-louis-moreau-gottschalk-or-what-happens-in-oakland-does-not-stay-in-oakland/) - We mark the birth on May 8, 1829 - 194 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, in New Orleans. He died, all-too-young, on December 18, 1869 at the age of forty, in exile in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Events that occurred in September of 1865 in San Francisco, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozart-the-marriage-of-figaro/) - My Dr. Bob Prescribes post for February 21 of this year feature Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s superb video of Gioachino Rossini’s Barber of Seville. During the course of that post, I wrote: “Comedy requires deftness, speed, and timing, timing, and more timing. Ponnelle’s production has it all, and the opera crackles under his direction. I would like | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Enduring Miracle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-enduring-miracle-2/) - On May 1, 1786 – on what was also a Monday, 237 years ago today - a miracle was heard for the first time: Wolfgang Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro received its premiere at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Some 100 years later, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote this about The Marriage of Figaro: “Every | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Funny Girl](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-funny-girl/) - Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand, and the Critics The famed Pauline Kael spent much of her review of Funny Girl in The New Yorker identifying what she called the film’s “weaknesses.” Roger Ebert, writing in Chicago Sun-Times on October 18, 1968, thought that: “The film is perhaps the ultimate example of the roadshow musical gone overboard. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: A Voice Like Buttah!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-voice-like-buttah/) - We mark the birth on April 24, 1942 – 81 years ago today – of the American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker Barbara Joan “Barbra” Streisand, in Brooklyn, New York. But first, before we get to the magnificent Babs, a brief but spirited edition of “This Day In Music History . . .” okay, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-sebastian-bach-st-matthew-passion-2/) - The Easter Holiday has come and gone, but the melody lingers. The “melody” to which I specifically refer is Johann Sebastian Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion, which was first performed on Good Friday, April 11, 1727, at the St. Thomas Church (or Thomaskirche) in the Saxon city of Leipzig. Revised versions of the St Matthew | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: I Left My Nerve in San Francisco](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-i-left-my-nerve-in-san-francisco/) - We mark the final San Francisco performance - on the evening of Tuesday, April 17, 1906, 117 years ago today – of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1874-1921). That performance at the no longer extant Grand Opera House at No. 2 Mission Street (between 2nd and 3rd Streets) was not intended to have been | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johannes-brahms-a-german-requiem/) - Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was born and raised in the cold, dank, north German city of Hamburg. (As an adult, he habitually vacationed in the warmer climes of Italy; it would seem that it took him half a lifetime to warm his frozen bones!) Physically, Brahms matured very slowly. By the age of 20 – fully | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: A Mama’s Boy, and Proud of It!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-mamas-boy-and-proud-of-it/) - We mark the premiere on April 10, 1868 – 155 years ago today – of Johannes Brahms’ magnificent A German Requiem, for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Johannes Brahms, Again? I know I’ve been going heavy on Brahms (1833-1897) as of late. I would apologize if he wasn’t so fascinating a person and if his | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Dave McKenna, solo piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-dave-mckenna-solo-piano/) - It Happens Every Spring Five days ago, on March 30, 2023, something took place that hadn’t happened since 1968, 55 years ago: major league baseball’s Opening Day took place with all thirty teams starting their season on the same day. I am aware that this year, spring technically began on March 20, 2023. But let’s | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Death of Johannes Brahms](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-death-of-johannes-brahms/) - We mark the death on April 3, 1897 – 126 years ago today – of the German composer and pianist Johannes Brahms at the age of 63. One of the great ones and along with Sebastian Bach and Louis van Beethoven one of the three bees - the killer bees - Brahms was born in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Joseph Haydn, Mass in the Time of War](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-joseph-haydn-mass-in-the-time-of-war/) - Haydn’s Masses During the course of his career, Haydn composed a total of fourteen settings of the mass. This means he set the same words to music fourteen times. One might think that in doing so, Haydn could not possibly have avoided repeating himself, but one would be wrong to think so. Haydn was as | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Papa's Last Appearance](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-papas-last-appearance/) - A quick comment in reference to the title of today’s post, “Papa’s Last Appearance.” Not that you really need me to tell you, but by “Papa” we are not referring to Papa John Schnatter, who founded “Papa John’s Pizza” in 1984. Neither are we referring to the stand-up comedian Tom Papa, the sportscaster Greg Papa, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1912)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-igor-stravinsky-the-rite-of-spring-1912/) - “What Right Had He to Write This Thing?” A happy vernal equinox to everyone and sundry! Yes, technically the first day of spring in 2023 was yesterday, March 20. But I was taught that the first day of spring is usually March 21, and so we are honoring it today with its eponymous masterwork, Igor | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Why All the Hate?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-why-all-the-hate/) - We mark the wedding on March 20, 1969 – 54 years ago today – between the Liverpool-born Beatle John Lennon (1940-1980) and the Tokyo-born artist and musician Yoko Ono (born 1933). Their wedding took place in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of their | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Charles Ives, Three Places in New England](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-charles-ives-three-places-in-new-england/) - The Ultimate Hobbyist Yesterday’s Music History Monday post featured the non-musical hobbies of some of our favorite musicians, from Rod Stewart’s train set, to Courtney Love’s Liddle Kiddle dolls (made by Mattel in the late 1960s), to Arnold Schoenberg’s mania for tennis and ping pong, to Gioachino Rossini’s delight in all things food. The subject | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Everyone Should Have a Hobby!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-everyone-should-have-a-hobby/) - On February 27, 2018 – five years ago today – Barbra Streisand (born 1942) revealed that she had cloned her dying dog Samantha (nicknamed “Sammie”) twice. (No jokes here about Ms. Streisand singing “Send in the Clones.”) The revelation regarding the Samantha’s clones was made during an interview published in Variety five years ago | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Giacomo Rossini, The Barber of Seville](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giacomo-rossini-the-barber-of-seville/) - Italian Opera as an Industry From the moment the first public opera house – the Teatro San Cassiano - opened in Venice in 1637, opera has been a media industry in Italy. By the early nineteenth century, virtually every Italian city and many Italian towns as well had their own opera theaters; in the case | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The First Night: Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-first-night-gioachino-rossinis-the-barber-of-seville/) - We mark the premiere performance, on February 20, 1816 – 207 years ago today – of Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera masterwork, The Barber of Seville, at Rome’s famed Teatro Argentina. The Natural Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born on February 29 (bummer of a birthday!), 1792 in the Italian city of Pesaro, on the Adriatic Sea. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: Siegried Idyll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-siegried-idyll/) - The Giving of Gifts It is appropriate that today, on St. Valentine’s Day, we celebrate a piece of music given as a gift of love from a husband to his wife: Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyl, which was given as a birthday gift to his wife Cosima in 1870. Yesterday’s Music History Monday post marked the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: A Man for All Symptoms: The Death of Wagner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-man-for-all-symptoms-the-death-of-wagner/) - We mark the death, on February 13, 1883 – 140 years ago today – of the German composer Richard Wagner, in Venice, at the age of 69. He had been born in the Saxon city of Leipzig on May 22, 1813. Wagner’s Health Writing in Hektoen International – A Journal of Medical Humanities, George Dunea, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Last Waltz](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-last-waltz/) - The Band The group of five musicians that eventually became known as “The Band” began to gather in Toronto, Canada, in 1957. However, it wasn’t until 1968 - after working as the backup group for the Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan - that the band became “The Band.” As “The Band,” | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Johannes Ockeghem and the <em>Oltremontani</em>](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-johannes-ockeghem-and-the-oltremontani/) - We mark the death on February 6, 1497 – 526 years ago today – of the composer and singer Johannes Ockeghem, in Tours, France, at the age of 87 (or so). He was born circa 1410 in the French-speaking city of Saint-Ghislain in what today is Belgium, about 5 miles from the border with France. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Francis Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1932)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-francis-poulenc-concerto-for-two-pianos-and-orchestra-1932/) - The New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg offers this appraisal of the music of Francis Poulenc in third edition of his book, The Lives of the Great Composers (W. W. Norton, 1997): “It seems clear that Francis Poulenc has emerged as the strongest and most individual member of Les Six [that group of six | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Francis Poulenc: “a bit of monk and a bit of hooligan”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-francis-poulenc-a-bit-of-monk-and-a-bit-of-hooligan/) - We mark the death on January 30, 1963 – exactly sixty years ago today – of the French composer and pianist Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc, in Paris. A Parisian from head to toe, he was born in the tres chic 8th arrondisement in that magnificent city on January 7, 1899. He died of a heart attack not far from where he’d been born, in his flat opposite the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris’ 6th arrondisement.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Criterion Collection – Paul Robeson, Portrait of the Artist](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-criterion-collection-paul-robeson-portrait-of-the-artist/) - In 1965, the American writer James Baldwin wrote: “At a time when there seemed to be no hope at all, Paul Robeson [1898-1976] spoke out for all of us.” By “all of us,” Baldwin is, of course, referring to Black America. In 1998, the American scholar, historian, author, and social historian Lerone Bennett expanded on | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Paul Robeson: Truly Larger Than Life](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-paul-robeson-truly-larger-than-life/) - We mark the death on January 23, 1976 – 47 years ago today – of the American bass-baritone singer, stage and screen actor, civil rights activist, professional football player, and graduate of Columbia University Law School Paul Robeson at the age of 77, in Philadelphia.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-the-flying-dutchman/) - Had I not taken a necessary holiday respite from both Music History Monday and Dr. Bob Prescribes, my January 2 and 3, 2023, posts would have featured Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman, which received its premiere on January 2, 1843, in Dresden. The story of the opera, and the DVD I was going to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Blockhead - Anton Felix Schindler - and Beethoven’s Conversation Books](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-blockhead-anton-felix-schindler-and-beethovens-conversation-books/) - We mark the death on January 16, 1864 – 159 years ago today – of Anton Felix Schindler, in Frankfurt, at the age of 68. Born on June 13, 1795, in the town of Medlov in today’s Czech Republic, Schindler was, for a time, Beethoven’s “factotum”: his secretary and general assistant. He was also a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Memoirs of Sir Rudolf Bing](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-memoirs-of-sir-rudolf-bing/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the birth of the opera impresario Sir Rudolf Bing in 1902 and, using excerpts from his memoir 5000 Nights at the Opera, sketched his life and career up to 1950: the year he took over as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Bing was not the first, nor – | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: An Impresario for the Ages: Rudolf Bing](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-impresario-for-the-ages-rudolf-bing/) - We mark the birth on January 9, 1902 – 121 years ago today - of the opera impresario Rudolf Bing, in Vienna Austria. The general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972, Bing died in Yonkers, New York in September 1997 at the age of 95. His was a long | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes La Vie en Rose](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-la-vie-en-rose/) - No one could have made up the story of Piaf’s life, not Charles Palliser and not even the great master of the Victorian disaster novel, Charles Dickens himself.
- [Music History Monday: Getting Personal: Édith Piaf](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-getting-personal-edith-piaf/) - We mark the birth on December 19, 1915 – 107 years ago today – of the French singer and actress Édith Piaf in the Belleville district of Paris. Born Édith Giovanna Gassion, she came to be considered France’s national chanteuse, one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century, a French combination of Judy | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Joey DeFrancesco, organ](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-joey-defrancesco-organ/) - Live and Learn I have been known to make snide comments about the electric organ. This is an unfortunate artifact of my childhood in the 1950s and 60s, when toy organs made by “Emenee Industries Inc.” (of New York, N.Y.) were everywhere. They came in different sizes, though the ones I remember were the chord | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Garden State Hall of Fame](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-garden-state-hall-of-fame/) - December 12 is a crazy day in American jazz and popular music history, a day that saw the births of five – count ‘em, five – significant musicians, three of whom have something very special in common.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfgang Mozart: Requiem, K. 626 (1791)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-requiem-k-626-1791/) - The Commission During the summer of 1791 – some five months before his death – Mozart was anonymously commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass: a mass for the dead. More than any other single element, it was this anonymous commission that helped to later fuel the myth that Mozart had, in fact, been murdered. In | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Myths of Mayhem and Murder!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-myths-of-mayhem-and-murder/) - December 5, 1791, 231 years ago today: the day Wolfgang Mozart died in his Viennese flat at the age of 35 years, 10 months, and 9 days. Today we'll deal with…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Aaron Copland, Music for the Theatre (1925)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-aaron-copland-music-for-the-theatre-1925/) - Aaron Copland never went to college. But t’s hard to imagine how he could have gotten a better education than the one he actually received.
- [Music History Monday: Aaron Copland in New York](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-aaron-copland-in-new-york/) - We mark the New York premiere on November 28, 1925, of Aaron Copland’s Music for the Theater, at a League of Composers concert conducted by Serge Koussevitzky at New York’s Town Hall.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Henry Purcell](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-henry-purcell/) - When we think of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), if we think of him at all, what comes to mind are two of his operas and perhaps a few well-worn songs, this is like…
- [Music History Monday: Henry Purcell and British Music Restored!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-henry-purcell-and-british-music-restored/) - We mark the death on November 21, 1695 – 327 years ago today – of the English composer and organist Henry Purcell, in London. He lies buried in a place of honor
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Music of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-music-of-fanny-mendelssohn-hensel/) - As a child and then as an adolescent, Fanny Mendelssohn’s all-encompassing commitment to music as a pianist and as composer never wavered. Fanny was not quite 15-years-old when her father Abraham dropped the bomb and forbade her to pursue music as a career. She was, instead, to learn how to run a household and raise | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The <em>Other</em> Prodigious Mendelssohn: Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-other-prodigious-mendelssohn-fanny-mendelssohn-hensel/) - We mark the birth on November 14, 1805 – 217 years ago today - of the German composer, pianist, wife, mother, and hausfrau Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. She died on May 14, 1847, all-too-young at the age of 41, at her home in the Prussian capital of Berlin. Fanny Cäcille Mendelssohn | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Joan Sutherland](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-joan-sutherland/) - Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) had a preternaturally big voice, one that spanned three octaves and had the size and punching power of Sonny Listen. Yet she had the vocal “hand speed” of Sugar Ray Leonard and was consequently able to specialize in repertoire ordinarily sung by women with voices lighter, smaller, and presumably more flexible than | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Listening to the Thundah from Down Undah](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-listening-to-the-thundah-from-down-undah/) - We mark the birth on November 7, 1926 – 96 years ago today – of the dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, in Sydney, Australia. She died on October 10, 2010, in Montreux, Switzerland at the age of 83. I want you all to know upfront that Joan Sutherland was the first singer | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Classics for Pleasure?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-classics-for-pleasure/) - Classics for Pleasure and Music for Pleasure The British record label Classics for Pleasure was introduced in 1970 as a budget, “classical music” label. The majority of its releases are reissues from the EMI/His Master’s Voice (HMV) catalog. Classics for Pleasure is a subsidiary of the London-based Music for Pleasure Limited, a holding company for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Grandmother of All Drop Parties](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-grandmother-of-all-drop-parties/) - Before moving forward, the title of this post - “The Grandmother of All Drop Parties!” – demands an explanation-slash-definition. A “grandmother” is the mother of a parent, though in this usage, thank you, it is meant to indicate the ultimate example of what follows, as in “the grandmother of all drop parties.” I know | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Carl Ruggles: Sun-Treader](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-carl-ruggles-sun-treader/) - The backstory: in 1970, the 26-year-old Tilson-Thomas conducted Ruggles’ masterwork – Sun-Treader – in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (That performance was followed by Tilson-Thomas’ recording of Sun-Treader with the BSO recommended above.) At the time, Carl Ruggles was 94 years old and living in a nursing home in Bennington, Vermont (he died the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Carl Ruggles](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-carl-ruggles/) - We mark the death on October 24, 1971 – 51 years ago today – of the American composer, teacher, and painter Charles Sprague (“Carl”) Ruggles, in Bennington Vermont.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Selected Piano Music of Johann Nepomuk Hummel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-selected-piano-music-of-johann-nepomuk-hummel/) - Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) was, in his lifetime, considered Beethoven’s equal as a pianist and, if not his equal as a compositional innovator, then a rather more listenable alternative. The former head music critic for The New York Times, Harold Schonberg, put it this way: “He [Hummel] was a highly regarded composer in his day | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Name the Composer/Pianist](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-name-the-composer-pianist/) - Name the Composer/Pianist: he was a student of Wolfgang Mozart, Antonio Salieri, Muzio Clementi, and Joseph Haydn; friend to Franz Schubert and a friend (and rival!) of Ludwig van Beethoven; and teacher of - among many others - Carl Czerny, Ferdinand Hiller, Sigismond Thalberg, and Felix Mendelssohn; in his lifetime considered one of the greats | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Vernon Duke and Concert Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-vernon-duke-and-concert-works/) - Compositional Bipolarity Alec Wilder, in his classic study, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 (Oxford University Press, 1972), writes: “Vernon Duke was only one half of his musical self; the other half was Vladimir Dukelsky, a composer of concert works. Unfortunately for all of us, the concert, so-called ‘serious’ side of the man’s talent | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky, AKA “Vernon Duke”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-vladimir-aleksandrovich-dukelsky-aka-vernon-duke/) - We mark the birth on October 10, 1903 – 119 years ago today – of the Russian-American composer of concert music Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky. As a composer of popular music, and as a major contributor to the Great American Songbook, he is known as Vernon Duke. The Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook refers | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Carl Nielsen, Symphony No. 4, Op. 29](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-carl-nielsen-symphony-no-4-op-29/) - Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) composed six symphonies which are, outside of Denmark, his best-known works. His first symphony was completed 1892, when he was 27 years of age. As we would expect from a first symphony by a young composer, Nielsen’s influences are clearly in evidence: the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and the German-born, Viennese | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Carl Nielsen](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-carl-nielsen/) - We mark the death on October 3, 1931 – 91 years ago today – of the Danish composer and violinist Carl Nielsen in Copenhagen, at the age of 66.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bela-bartok-concerto-for-orchestra-2/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post marked the 77th anniversary of Bartók’s death in New York City, and the circumstances leading to what he himself called his “comfortable exile” in the United States between January 1940 and his death in September 1945. Among the works he composed while living in New York was his Concerto for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Béla Bartók’s American Exile](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bela-bartoks-american-exile/) - We mark the death on September 26, 1945 – 77 years ago today – of the pianist, composer, and Hungarian patriot Béla Bartók. Born in what was then the Hungarian town of Nagyszentmiklós(now Sînnicolau Mare in Romania) on March 25, 1881, Bartók died – during what he called his “comfortable exile” – in New York | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 10](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gustav-mahler-symphony-no-10/) - A Nice Hike In early September of 1940, Gustav Mahler’s widow Alma (1879-1964) – now married to the Jewish author Franz Werfel (1890-1945) – walked from France to Spain in order to escape the Nazi occupation of Europe. (Time out. We read constantly about those intrepid individuals who, in order to escape the Nazis, “walked | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Day Gigs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-day-gigs/) - “Don’t give up your day gig.” Along with “don’t eat yellow snow” and “fake it ‘til you make it”, “don’t give up your day gig” remains one of the oldest, hoariest, clichéd pieces of advice anyone can give or receive. But unless you were lucky/wise enough to heed the other greatest piece of advice any | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Robert Schumann: Kreisleriana](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-robert-schumann-kreisleriana/) - Romanticism The nineteenth century saw the emergence of a new sort of European literature. The cutting-edge writers of the time were consumed by a number of particular themes: the glorification of extreme emotion, particularly love; nostalgia for a distant, mystical, legendary past; and a passionate enthusiasm for nature wild and free, unspoiled by humanity and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Robert and Clara, Sittin’ in a Tree…](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-robert-and-clara-sittin-in-a-tree/) - We mark the marriage on September 12, 1840 – 182 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Clara Wieck to the composer and pianist Robert Schumann.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-sergei-prokofiev-piano-concerto-no-2/) - Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a prodigiously gifted pianist and composer. All in all, he composed 5½ piano concerti. (That was not a typo; an explanation will follow in a bit.) The first two of his piano concerti were composed while Prokofiev was still a student at the Petrograd/Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which he attended from 1904 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Fire](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-fire/) - We mark the premiere on September 5, 1913 – 109 years ago today - of Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed the piece while still a student at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory; it was completed in April of 1913. (For our information, Prokofiev still had another year to go at the Conservatory; | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Charlie Parker](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-charlie-parker/) - The Way He Lived and Played In the parlance of the sports world, Charlie Parker “left it all on the field.” The unstoppable, overwhelming intensity with which he played the saxophone was mirrored in the way he lived his life as well. When he died in the New York City apartment of Baroness Panonnica de | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Bird](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bird/) - We mark the birth on August 29, 1920 – 102 years ago today - of the alto saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker. Parker’s addictions put him in an early grave…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Claude Debussy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-claude-debussy/) - Picking Up from Where We Left Off from Monday’s Music History Monday . . . Claude Debussy (1862-1918), preternaturally talented little cocker that he was, entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1872 at the age of ten. He remained there for twelve years, until 1884, when at the age of 22 he won the vaunted Prix | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Debussy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-debussy/) - We celebrate the birth on August 22, 1862 – 160 years ago today - of the French composer and pianist Claude Debussy. Born in the Paris suburb of St. Germain-en-Laye, he died in Paris on March 25, 1918, at the age of 55. Let’s tell it like it is: Monsieur Debussy was one of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-woodstock-3-days-of-peace-and-music/) - It is all-too-easy for us “elderly” to write-off the spectacular idealism, optimism, and sheer, joyful enthusiasm of people 15, 18, 20, or even 25 years old.
- [Music History Monday: Woodstock: A Triumph of Locational Branding!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-woodstock-a-triumph-of-locational-branding/) - We mark the opening of the so-called “Woodstock Festival” on August 15, 1969 – 53 years ago today - “so-called” for the following reasons. “Woodstock.” Even without considering the original festival that bears its name, “Woodstock”, as a placename has a homey, countryside-like quality to it. And a beautiful, quaint town it is, with a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Miles Davis - Kind of Blue](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-miles-davis-kind-of-blue/) - Jazz is, by its very nature, a conversational and dynamic art form, in which performers improvise on a chord progression or on a series of scales…
- [Music History Monday: Abbey Road, and This and That](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-abbey-road-and-this-and-that/) - August 8 is a great day, a signal day, an epic day in the history of popular, rock, and jazz music, including the smost iconic album cover of all time…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wilhelm Friedemann Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wilhelm-friedemann-bach/) - On July 14, 1708, the newly appointed court organist Johann Sebastian Bach and his wife Maria Barbara Bach arrived in the Thuringian city of Weimar…
- [Music History Monday: The Wayward Bach, His Wayward Daughter, and the Bachs of Oklahoma](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-wayward-bach-his-wayward-daughter-and-the-bachs-of-oklahoma/) - We mark the death on August 1, 1784 – 238 years ago today – of the German composer and organist Wilhelm Friedemann Bach in Berlin at the age of 73.…
- [Music History Monday: Under the Covers](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-under-the-covers/) - We mark the death on July 25, 1984 – 38 years ago today – of the American Rhythm and Blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in Los Angeles, California.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Thomas Hampson](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-thomas-hampson/) - Back on June 21, in my Dr. Bob Prescribes post entitled “The Joys of Bassi”, I asserted that, in my experience, baritones, bass-baritones, and bass singers – like the people that play their instrumental equivalents, the string bass and low brass – are the salts of the earth of the vocal world. I observed that, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes – Lost and Found: Puccini at the Organ!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-lost-and-found-puccini-at-the-organ/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the premiere (on July 18, 2003) of a newly discovered piano work by Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Composed in late February/early March of 1917, Les Soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon (“the evenings lighted by the glow of the coals”) was, in fact, Debussy’s final piano work; he died of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: A Debussy Discovery!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-debussy-discovery/) - On July 18, 2003, 19 years ago today, a newly discovered work by the great French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was publicly performed for the first time
- [Doctor Bob Prescribes - Vocal Sampling](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/doctor-bob-prescribes-vocal-sampling/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post on the death of George Gershwin was, to my mind, painfully dark. Having examined and processed the dreadful events leading up to Gershwin’s tragic death at the age of 38, we turn here in today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post not just to the land of the living but to a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Death of George Gershwin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-death-of-george-gershwin/) - We mark the death on July 11, 1937 – 85 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist George Gershwin, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Star-Spangled Banner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-star-spangled-banner/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post focused first on Igor Stravinsky’s arrangement and orchestration of The Star-Spangled Banner and the circumstances surrounding its having been, literally, “banned in Boston.” The post then went on to explore the decidedly non-American origin of the music of The Star-Spangled Banner. During the course of yesterday’s Music History Monday post, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: As American as tarte aux pommes! Celebrating the Fourth with some Real American Music! or Tampering with National Property](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-as-american-as-tarte-aux-pommes-celebrating-the-fourth-with-some-real-american-music-or-tampering-with-national-property/) - We mark the completion on July 4, 1941 – 81 years ago today – of Igor Stravinsky’s reharmonization and orchestration of The Star-Spangled Banner.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes “Variations on Happy Birthday”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-variations-on-happy-birthday/) - Monday’s Music History Monday post marked the birth, on June 27, 1859, of Mildred Jane Hill, who wrote the music to Happy Birthday to You. Thus, today’s Happy Birthday to You-themed Dr. Bob Prescribes post! The “Book” I have not a clue as to where or when I bought (or was given) the book that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Fabulous Hill Sisters!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-fabulous-hill-sisters/) - We mark the birth on June 27, 1859, of the American songwriter, composer, organist, pianist, and musicologist Mildred Jane Hill, in Louisville, Kentucky.
- [Music History Monday: Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-fyodor-ignatyevich-stravinsky/) - We mark the birth on June 20, 1843 – 179 years ago today – of the Russia bass opera singer Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky, in the city of Minsk, which is today the capital of Belarus but was then part of the Russian Empire. Considered one of the greatest singers of his time, Fyodor Ignatyevich has | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Joys of Bassi: Matti Salminen and Samuel Ramey](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-joys-of-bassi-matti-salminen-and-samuel-ramey/) - The bass is the lowest male singing voice, the lowest vocal range of all voice types. Leading bass roles run a certain dramatic gamut…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner, facsimile full scores](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-wagner-facsimile-full-scores/) - If we want to own a facsimile of one of Wagner’s handwritten, manuscript scores, we’ve got limited options, because a great many of Wagner’s manuscripts have not survived. Their disappearance has everything to do with Wagner’s relationship with King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was the subject of yesterday’s Music History Monday post. We’ll get | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Ultimate Fanboy: The Mad King, Ludwig II](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-ultimate-fanboy-the-mad-king-ludwig-ii/) - We mark the death (the most suspicious death) on June 13, 1886 – 136 years ago today – of the ultimate Richard Wagner fanboy King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The Running Man Richard Wagner was among the least-athletic looking people to ever grace a composing studio or a conductor’s podium. Depending upon the source, he | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johann Strauss - Father and Sons](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-strauss-father-and-sons/) - In 2014, I was asked by The Great Courses/The Teaching Company to figure out a way to make a 24-lecture, 16-hour course that minimized the cost of licensing music for musical examples. Upfront: I thought then – as I do now – that this was a case of penny wise and pound foolish, as a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Siegfried Wagner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-siegfried-wagner/) - We mark the birth of Richard Wagner’s son Siegfried Wagner on June 6, 1869 – 163 years ago today – in Lucerne, Switzerland. Like the sons of so many great men groomed to follow in their fathers’ footsteps, he could never hope to measure up to or escape from his father’s shadow. Cliché We contemplate, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Benjamin Britten – War Requiem (1962)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-benjamin-britten-war-requiem-1962/) - Edward Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on the eastern coast of England, roughly 105 miles northeast of London.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ludwig van Beethoven - Fidelio](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ludwig-van-beethoven-fidelio/) - In referring to Fidelio as Beethoven’s only opera, we often overlook the fact that for all its preliminary versions it was also his first opera.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giuseppe-verdi-rigoletto/) - Among the many operatic premieres that the Fenice has seen on its boards are five by Giuseppe Verdi: Ernani, Attila, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Simon Boccanegra
- [Music History Monday: Benjamin Britten War Requiem](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-benjamin-britten-war-requiem/) - We mark the premiere performance on May 30, 1962 – 60 years ago today – of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Completed in early 1962, the War Requiem was commissioned to mark the consecration of the “new” Coventry Cathedral, which was built to replace the original fourteenth century cathedral that had been destroyed on the evening | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Beethoven and the Human Voice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-beethoven-and-the-human-voice/) - We mark the premiere on May 23, 1814 – 208 years ago today – of Ludwig van Beethoven’s one-and-only opera, Fidelio, at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna.
- [Music History Monday: The Phoenix Rises!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-phoenix-rises/) - We mark the opening on May 16, 1792 – 230 years ago today – of Venice’s principal opera house, the Teatro la Fenice, meaning the “The Phoenix Theater.”
- [Join me on Klatch on May 18, 2022](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/join-me-on-klatch-on-may-18-2022/) - I have joined up with a wonderful new operation called “Klatch,” for live 90-minute music presentations that include direct interaction and learning.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes El Amor Brujo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-el-amor-brujo/) - Celebrating Spanish director Carlos Saura’s spectacular “Flamenco Trilogy”—three movies in which the stories are told primarily through flamenco music and dance
- [Music History Monday: Little Richard: The King and Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-little-richard-the-king-and-queen-of-rock-n-roll/) - We mark the death on May 9, 2020, of the American musician, singer, and songwriter Richard Wayne Penniman, known universally by his stage name “Little Richard.”
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Thomas “Fats” Waller: “Ain't Misbehavin”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-thomas-fats-waller-aint-misbehavin/) - No matter the source, the word that keeps coming up in any description of Thomas “Fats” Waller is “irrepressible”. He was all of that, and lots more.
- [Music History Monday: Giacomo Meyerbeer and French PopOp](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-giacomo-meyerbeer-and-french-popop/) - We mark the death on May 2, 1864 – 158 years ago today – of the German-born opera composer Jacob Liebmann Beer, also known as Giacomo Meyerbeer.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Sal Mosca](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-sal-mosca/) - Let’s say it upfront: Salvatore (“Sal”) Joseph Mosca (1927–2007) is the greatest jazz musician you’ve likely never heard perform.
- [Music History Monday: Puccini’s Turandot: An Opera That Almost Wasn’t](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-puccinis-turandot-an-opera-that-almost-wasnt/) - We mark the premiere performance on April 25, 1926, of Giacomo Puccini’s twelfth and final opera, Turandot. The premiere took place at Milan’s storied La Scala…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Robert M. Greenberg — Collected Yiddish Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-robert-m-greenberg-collected-yiddish-songs/) - As begun in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, we will continue to trace what I think of as my compositional apprenticeship, and then on to some music!
- [Music History Monday: Charity Begins at Home](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-charity-begins-at-home/) - On April 18th, 1954 – 68 freaking years ago today – the American composer, pianist, music historian, and bloviator-par-excellence Robert Michael Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. The Teaching Company-slash-The Great Courses and My Favorite Things Since 1993, I have recorded 32 courses for The Teaching Company, rebranded as The Great Courses in 2006, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johann Sebastian Bach, St Matthew Passion](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-sebastian-bach-st-matthew-passion/) - Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion is a massive, roughly three-hour-long sacred oratorio that sets to music the story surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion…
- [Music History Monday: St. Matthew Passion](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-st-matthew-passion/) - We mark the first performance on April 11, 1727, of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the St. Thomas Church in the Saxon city of Leipzig.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Carmen](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-carmen/) - Continuing a series celebrating the Spanish director Carlos Saura’s spectacular “Flamenco Trilogy”, a set of three movies told through flamenco music and dance.
- [Music History Monday: McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mckinley-morganfield-a-k-a-muddy-waters/) - We mark the birth on April 4, 1913 – 109 years ago today – of the American blues singer, songwriter, and guitar and harmonica player McKinley Morganfield.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-rachmaninoff-symphony-no-2/) - On arriving in New York City in 1918, Rachmaninoff made his headquarters on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. His first long-term residence at 75th Street…
- [Music History Monday: Sergei Rachmaninoff in California](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-sergei-rachmaninoff-in-california/) - We mark the death on March 28, 1943 – 79 years ago today – of the composer, pianist, and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff, at his home in Beverly Hills, California
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The String Quartets of Beethoven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-string-quartets-of-beethoven/) - March 21 is the anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130 in 1826. A quartet that demonstrates the influence of Bach.
- [Music History Monday: Ludwig van Beethoven and the Legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ludwig-van-beethoven-and-the-legacy-of-johann-sebastian-bach/) - We mark the birth on March 21, 1685, of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Thuringian town of Eisenach, in what today is central Germany. And also on March 21, 1826…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerti per molte stromenti ](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-georg-philipp-telemann-concerti-per-molte-stromenti/) - In his lifetime, the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was considered the single greatest composer living and working in the German-speaking world.
- [Music History Monday: Georg Philipp Telemann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-georg-philipp-telemann/) - We mark the birth of March 14, 1681 (341 years ago today) of the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann, in the city Magdeburg, in what today is central Germany
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Bodas de Sangre (“Blood Wedding”)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bodas-de-sangre-blood-wedding/) - Celebrating Cristina Hoyos, and her dancing in Carlos Saura’s flamenco trilogy: the films Bodas de Sangre (1981); Carmen (1983), and El Amor Brujo (1986).
- [Music History Monday: Unexpected Warblers](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-unexpected-warblers/) - Today’s Music History Monday explores what happens when movie actors not known for being singers actually sing on film. The results are, as expected, mixed…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes John Alden Carpenter, Skyscrapers (1926)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-john-alden-carpenter-skyscrapers-1926/) - John Alden Carpenter was a lifelong Midwesterner: he was born in Chicago in 1876 and died there in 1951. He reached his compositional maturity in the twentieth century. He was a businessman and thus, a compositional amateur. (“Amateur” in the best sense: as a practitioner of something not for money but for love, which is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: John Alden Carpenter](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-john-alden-carpenter/) - We mark the birth on February 28, 1876 – 146 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist John Alden Carpenter, in Chicago, Illinois.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Blues Brothers](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-blues-brothers/) - The “Blues Brothers” – Jake (Belushi) and Elwood (Aykroyd) – made their debut on April 22, 1978, when they were introduced as that week's SNL musical guests.…
- [Music History Monday: Courage](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-courage/) - On February 21, 2012, five members of the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot staged an unauthorized performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Modest Mussorgsky: Complete Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-modest-mussorgsky-complete-songs/) - A sympathetic listener knows when they are in the presence of greatness. I would ask you to listen, to the first song Modest Mussorgsky ever composed…
- [Music History Monday: Worst Love Songs (A Few at Least!)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-worst-love-songs-a-few-at-least/) - It is Wayne’s World, and the fact that today is St. Valentine’s Day that have collectively provided the tortured path of today’s post: epically bad love songs…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfgang Mozart, Masses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-masses/) - Like so many other aspects of and lessons in his life, Wolfgang Mozart got his earliest exposure to religious piety from his father, Leopold…
- [Music History Monday: Gregorio Allegri, Allegri’s Miserere, and Wolfgang Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-gregorio-allegri-allegris-miserere-and-wolfgang-mozart/) - We mark the death on February 7, 1652, of Italian composer and Sistine Chapel singer Gregorio Allegri, in Rome. Allegri is remembered today for his “Miserere”.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-franz-schubert-symphony-no-5-in-b-flat-major-d-485/) - Franz Schubert was born, lived, and died in Vienna. Of all the great masters of “Viennese Classicism”, Schubert was the only native-born Viennese.
- [Music History Monday: With a Little Help from His Friends](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-with-a-little-help-from-his-friends/) - We mark the birth on January 31, 1797, of Franz Peter Schubert, in Vienna. He died in that city 31 years, 9 months, and 19 days later, on November 19, 1828.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Lennie Tristano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-lennie-tristano/) - Leonard Joseph Tristano was born in Chicago on March 19, 1919, and died in New York City on November 18, 1978. A master pianist and a master teacher…
- [Music History Monday: Conrad Paumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-conrad-paumann/) - We mark the death on January 24, 1473 – 549 years ago today – of the German organist, lutenist, and composer Conrad Paumann, in Munich at the age of 63.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Trombone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-trombone/) - Music History Monday featured the trumpet, trombone, and flugelhorn virtuoso Mic Gillette. Gillette could play virtually all modern brass instruments.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Strauss - Salome](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-strauss-salome/) - In the continuing “sex sells”, we transit from the ridiculous to the sublime, from Serge Gainsbourg’s Je t'aime... Moi nonplus to Richard Strauss’ opera Salome.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Brahms, Quartets for Four Solo Voices and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-brahms-quartets-for-four-solo-voices-and-piano/) - A Brahms trivia question: what was the only regular, paying job Brahms ever held? Answer: that of a choral conductor.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Vincenzo Bellini: Norma](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-vincenzo-bellini-norma/) - The three indispensable composers of bel canto opera are Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), and Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868).
- [Music History Monday: Benjamin Britten: The Making of a Composer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-benjamin-britten-the-making-of-a-composer/) - We mark the birth on November 22, 1913 – 108 years ago today - of the English composer, pianist, and conductor Edward Benjamin Britten in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Triumphs of Oriana](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-triumphs-of-oriana/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Triumphs of Oriana: English Madrigals in Celebration of Queen Elizabeth I — see the recording and history on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Why We Shouldn’t Bring Our Dogs to Work: A Cautionary Tale](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-why-we-shouldnt-bring-our-dogs-to-work-a-cautionary-tale/) - We mark the premiere on December 13, 1928 of George Gershwin’s orchestral work An American in Paris. The premiere took place in Carnegie Hall…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: “A Frenchman in Rio”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-a-frenchman-in-rio/) - We celebrate a work by the French composer Darius Milhaud inspired by an extended stay in Rio de Janeiro: Saudades do Brasil (Suite de Danses), Op. 67.
- [Music History Monday: Handel Ripped Off](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-handel-ripped-off/) - We mark the premiere on January 10, 1713 – 309 years ago today – of George Frederick Handel’s opera Teseo at the King’s/Queen’s Theater on Haymarket, in London.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-lambert-hendricks-and-ross/) - The vocal ensemble that is Lambert, Hendricks & Ross grew from a long and storied tradition of vocal ensembles, going back over 500 years.
- [Music History Monday: Mic Gillette, Tower of Power, and the Oaktown Sound](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mic-gillette-tower-of-power-and-the-oaktown-sound/) - We mark the death on January 17, 2016, of the American trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, and tuba player and teacher, Mic Gillette at the age of 64.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Beatles](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-beatles/) - No small number of outstanding performing groups fall apart the moment they walk into a recording studio. Then there are groups that love the recording studio…
- [Music History Monday: The Fifth Beatle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-fifth-beatle/) - We mark the birth on January 3, 1926 – 96 years ago today – of the English record producer, arranger, conductor, composer, audio engineer, and musician Sir George Martin, the putative “Fifth Beatle.” Martin produced 13 albums and 22 singles for the Beatles between 1962 and 1970. All told, it’s a body of work that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Aaron Copland, Symphony No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-aaron-copland-symphony-no-3/) - There are other possible artistic “reactions” to war, and provided that you’re on the winning side, among them hope, relief, celebration, and even triumphalism…
- [Music History Monday: Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-dmitri-shostakovich-symphony-no-7/) - We mark the completion on December 27, 1941 – an even 80 years ago today – of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, the so-called “Leningrad Symphony.”
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Frédéric Chopin: Nocturnes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-frederic-chopin-nocturnes/) - In Mozart’s day, a work designated as being “night music” – “nocturne” in French – was, like late-night talk shows, intended for performance at around 11 pm.
- [Music History Monday: Arthur Rubinstein: Fake It ‘Til You Make It](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-arthur-rubinstein-fake-it-til-you-make-it/) - We mark the death on December 20, 1982 – 39 years ago today – of the Polish-born American pianist Arthur Rubinstein, at the age of 95.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Music of Bright Sheng](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-music-of-bright-sheng/) - My Music History Monday post for November 29 focused on the composer Bright Sheng (born 1955), who made the unforgivable mistake of playing Laurence Olivier’s movie of Shakespeare’s Othello to an undergraduate class at the University of Michigan without first offering up a prophylactic explanation/apologia for Oliver’s makeup (the character of Othello being a dark-skinned | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Altamont](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-altamont/) - We mark the disastrous concert held on December 6, 1969 – 52 years ago today – at the Altamont Speedway here in Alameda Country in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over 300,000 people attended, four of whom died that day, one of them at the hands of the so-called “security personnel.” The word “Altamont” has | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: What to Do About Otello?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-what-to-do-about-otello/) - Before getting to the question that drives today’s post, we would recognize five date-worthy events: a tragedy; two notable cancellations, and two notable opera performances. First, the tragedy. On November 29, 2001 – 20 years ago today – George Harrison died in Los Angeles of lung cancer at the age of 58. Born in Liverpool | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, Show Boat (1927)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-show-boat-1927/) - World War One began on July 28, 1914. All of the warring parties – the Central Powers of principally Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Turkey and the Triple Entente of mainly France, the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, and Italy – believed they would be victorious and home by Christmas. They were all very, very wrong. Across | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Benjamin Britten, String Quartet No. 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-benjamin-britten-string-quartet-no-1/) - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears (1910-1986), left England in late April 1939 for North America.
- [Music History Monday: A Day of First Performances!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-day-of-first-performances/) - In today's Music History Monday, we observe the first performances that occurred on this date and contemplate the nature and reality of a “first performance”.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven's Three String Trios, Op. 9](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethovens-three-string-trios-op-9/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes the Beethoven String Trios, Op. 9 in a follow up to the introduction of Abbé Maximilian Stadler and as an introduction to the genre.
- [Music History Monday: Maximilian Stadler: Witness to History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-maximilian-stadler-witness-to-history/) - We mark the death on November 8, 1833 – 188 years ago today – of the Austrian pianist, composer, and Benedictine monk, Maximilian Stadler.
- [Music History Monday: La Divina in Chicago](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-la-divina-in-chicago/) - We mark the American operatic debut on November 1, 1954 – 67 years ago today – of “La Divina” – “the divine one”, Maria Callas at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
- [Music History Monday: Johannes Brahms and his Symphony No. 4](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-johannes-brahms-and-his-symphony-no-4/) - We mark the world premiere of Johannes Brahms’ fourth and final symphony. Performed by the superb Meiningen Court Orchestra, conducted by Brahms himself.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Viktor Ullman](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-viktor-ullman/) - On September 8, 1942, the composer and pianist Victor Ullmann was deported from Prague and sent to the concentration camp-slash-ghetto of Terezín…
- [Music History Monday: Viktor Ullman, the Musical Bard of Terezín](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-viktor-ullman-the-musical-bard-of-terezin/) - We mark the death on October 18, 1944, of the composer and pianist Viktor Ullmann at the concentration and death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
- [Music History Monday: Sex Sells](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-sex-sells/) - There was a time, in the not terribly distant past (in our days of relative musical innocence), when a little heavy breathing was all it took to get a recording banned from the airwaves. Today we celebrate just such an event. On October 11, 1969 – 52 years ago today – a song entitled Je | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: “V” for Victory!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-v-for-victory/) - On July 19, 1941, BBC World Service began using the first four notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 of 1808 as a “linking” device on its broadcasts into Europe.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Moritz Moszkowski, Piano Concerto in E Major, Op. 59 (1898)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-moritz-moszkowski-piano-concerto-in-e-major-op-59-1898/) - Near the conclusion of yesterday’s Music History Monday post, we heard from the former chief music critic of The New York Times Harold Schonberg, who wrote apropos of Moritz Moszkowski’s piano music that: “no better salon music has ever been composed, or any so gratefully conceived for the piano.” “Salon Music.” It’s a phrase often | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Composer is Always Right](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-composer-is-always-right/) - This weekend, we begin what I consider to be a great adventure: the serialization of my book The Composer is Always Right. (I will be forgiven for calling this a “great adventure”; given the current state of my life, I must take what adventure I can where I find it.) I am making the first | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Mozart in Prague](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mozart-in-prague/) - We mark the premiere on September 6, 1791 – 230 years ago today – of Wolfgang Mozart’s final opera La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Wurst of P.D.Q. Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-wurst-of-p-d-q-bach/) - It was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Like the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, Peter Schickele’s discovery of P.D.Q. Bach is the stuff of legend.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Antonin Dvořák in America](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-antonin-dvorak-in-america/) - Antonin Dvořák arrived in the United States (with most of his family in tow) on September 27, 1893. He had been offered and had accepted the Directorship of the National Conservatory of Music of America by the conservatory’s visionary founder, Jeanette Meyers Thurber. On his arrival, Dvořák hit the ground running. Along with his directorship, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Leopold Godowsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-leopold-godowsky/) - Leopold Godowsky’s “Study on Chopin’s ‘Black Key’ Etude”, completed when he was not quite 24 years old is but one of fifty-three studies on Chopin’s etudes.
- [Music History Monday: Lending a Hand](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-lending-a-hand/) - Before moving on to the main topic for today’s post, I would like to announce a new feature here on Music History Monday, something called “This Day in Musical Stupid.” I explain. As regular readers of this post know, I will, occasionally, dedicate a post to the shenanigans and sometimes plain old idiocy of musicians | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Dvořák in America](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-dvorak-in-america/) - We mark the arrival on September 27, 1892 – 129 years ago today - of the Bohemian-born Czech composer Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) to the United States.
- [Music History Monday: Finland, Jean Sibelius, and the Case of the Missing Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-finland-jean-sibelius-and-the-case-of-the-missing-symphony/) - We mark the death on September 20, 1957 – 64 years ago today – of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, in Järvenpää, Finland at the age of 91.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Complete Beethoven Sets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-complete-beethoven-sets/) - Spending Other People’s Money I’ve always had a talent for spending other people’s money. 35 years ago, when Berkeley California had more hi-fi/stereo shops then fleas on a feral dog, I used to take anyone who asked me stereo shopping. (I had a lot of requests as I was teaching adult extension classes for UC | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Leopold Stokowski](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-leopold-stokowski/) - We mark the death, on September 13, 1977 – 44 years ago today – of the British conductor Leopold Anthony Stokowski, in Nether Wallop, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfgang Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-la-clemenza-di-tito/) - On July 8, 1791, Domenico Guardasoni, the newly hired superintendent of the Estates Opera in Prague, was charged with producing an opera in just two months.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Heitor Villa-Lobos: 5 Preludes and 12 Etudes for Guitar](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-heitor-villa-lobos-5-preludes-and-12-etudes-for-guitar/) - The world of the guitar and guitar music goes far, far, far beyond the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll and the moronic top-ten culture of rankings we live in…
- [Music History Monday: Oh, Behave!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-oh-behave/) - Every now and again, circumstances force us to plum the tawdry here in Music History Monday. August 30th has had enough pop-world crazy to easily fill a post!
- [Music History Monday: Moritz Moszkowski](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-moritz-moszkowski/) - We mark the birth on August 23, 1854 – 167 years ago today – of the German-Polish composer, pianist, and teacher Moritz Moszkowski in Breslau.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Bill Evans: A Recorded Retrospective](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bill-evans-a-recorded-retrospective/) - There’s a harmonic richness and invention in Evans’ playing that goes beyond anything that preceded him and has become the model for every jazz pianist since…
- [Music History Monday: William John Evans](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-william-john-evans/) - We mark the birth on August 16, 1929 – 92 years ago today – of the jazz pianist and composer William John “Bill” Evans, in Plainfield, New Jersey.
- [Music History Monday: Shostakovich’s Death](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shostakovichs-death/) - We mark the death on August 9, 1975, of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich at the age of 68, in Moscow. He was born on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Shostakovich Sonata for Viola](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-shostakovich-sonata-for-viola/) - Today’s post is “about” Shostakovich and the viola in more ways than one, as we will hear extensively from the violist Fyodor Druzhinin.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Carlos Chávez: Complete Symphonies](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-carlos-chavez-complete-symphonies/) - Carlos Chávez’s emergence as a composer in 1920 – at the age of 21 - could not have been better timed. See the recommended recording of his complete symphonies.
- [Music History Monday: Carlos Chávez](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-carlos-chavez/) - We mark the death on August 2, 1978, of the Mexican composer, pianist, conductor, music educator, and journalist Carlos Chávez at the age of 79, in Mexico City.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfgang Mozart, Among Friends](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wolfgang-mozart-among-friends/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday was about Wolfgang Mozart’s youngest son, Franz Xaver Mozart, and his sadly underwhelming career as a pianist and composer…
- [Music History Monday: Franz Xaver Mozart and the Grandmother of All Shadows](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-franz-xaver-mozart-and-the-grandmother-of-all-shadows/) - We mark the birth on July 26, 1791, of composer, pianist, conductor and teacher Franz Xaver Mozart, in Vienna. He died in Karlsbad, Austria at the age of 53.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Rossini Overtures](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-rossini-overtures/) - To my mind, nothing creates the sort of emotional associations branding demands more effectively than music, be it a symphony by Beethoven or a jingle…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Johann Joachim (“J. J.”) Quantz](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johann-joachim-j-j-quantz/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes recordings of the music of Johann Joachim Quantz as well as his book, “On Playing the Flute”.
- [Music History Monday: Johann Joachim Quantz and his Most Famous Student](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-johann-joachim-quantz-and-his-most-famous-student/) - We mark the death on July 12, 1773 – 248 years ago today – of the German composer, flutist, and teacher Johann Joachim in Potsdam Germany, at the age of 76.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: George Rochberg, String Quartet No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-george-rochberg-string-quartet-no-3/) - George Rochberg is most famous for his string quartets, seven in number. We turn to his String Quartet No. 3 of 1972 for a Dr. Bob prescribed recording.
- [Music History Monday: George Rochberg and the Great Dilemma](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-george-rochberg-and-the-great-dilemma/) - We mark the birth on July 5, 1918 – 103 years ago today – of the American composer George Rochberg (pronounced ROCK-berg). He died at the age of 86 on May 29, 2005. Rochberg was of that generation of composers who, having served in the military during World War Two, found himself a radically changed | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Adolphe Sax](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-adolphe-sax/) - On June 28, 1846 – 175 years ago today – Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone family as a group of eight (not seven, as is often erroneously stated) instruments. Of these eight “saxophones”, four remain in common use today: the soprano and tenor saxophones, both pitched in B-flat, and the alto and baritone saxophones, both | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Adolphe Sax and the Saxophone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-adolphe-sax-and-the-saxophone/) - At a time when musical instrument design was a challenge and technology on par with automotive design today, Adolphe Sax was the master, an inventor of genius…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Tony Bennett and Bill Evans](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-tony-bennett-and-bill-evans/) - I’m altering my usual MO here. Usually, when my Music History Monday post celebrates the premiere of a piece of music, the next day’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post goes on the recommend a recording of that piece. As yesterday’s Music History Monday was about Richard Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, it would follow, then, that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-mastersingers-of-nuremberg/) - We mark the premiere performance on June 21, 1868 – 153 years ago today – of Richard Wagner’s music drama The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Henry Mancini](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-henry-mancini/) - Enrico Nicola “Henry” Mancini was born on April 16, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up in the Pennsylvanian town of West Aliquippa northwest of Pittsburgh
- [Music History Monday: Henry Mancini](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-henry-mancini/) - We mark the death on June 14, 1994, of the composer, songwriter, conductor, and arranger Enrico Nicola “Henry” Mancini in Beverly Hills, California at 70.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Florence Foster Jenkins](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-florence-foster-jenkins/) - “Pay-to-play” (aka “P2P”). It’s a fairly new term for something as old as the hills: paying (bribing?) others “for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities.” P2P is particularly big in the book and music publishing industry today, in which publishers require authors and composers to underwrite the costs of production (and not | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: When Opera Singers Misbehave](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-when-opera-singers-misbehave/) - On June 7, 1727 – 294 years ago today – a long-running feud between the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni broke out into open warfare – a screaming, hair-pulling, dress-ripping physical altercation on stage, in London – during a performance of Giovanni Bonancini’s opera Astianatte (of 1725). After pulling the “ladies” apart and dragging | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Hank Levy and Don Ellis](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-hank-levy-and-don-ellis/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes the music of Henry Jacob “Hank” Levy and trumpet player Don Ellis on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Haydn’s Death and His Final Road Trip](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-haydns-death-and-his-final-road-trip/) - We mark the death on May 31, 1809 – 212 years ago today – of the incomparable Joseph Haydn, at his home in Vienna at Kleine Steingasse 73 (today, Haydngasse 19)
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-complete-sonatas-for-violin-and-piano/) - The ten violin sonatas represent the third most works in a single instrumental genre Beethoven composed. The arc of the sonatas were an assault on the genre.
- [Music History Monday: George Bridgetower, Louis van Beethoven, Rodolphe Kreutzer, and a Sonata for Violin!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-george-bridgetower-louis-van-beethoven-rodolphe-kreutzer-and-a-sonata-for-violin/) - We mark the premiere on May 24, 1803, of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47. It was dedicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Eric Satie: Socrate](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-eric-satie-socrate/) - I am advocating that Satie not be introduced by invoking a future he could not have known, but rather, by the extraordinary creative leaps he took!
- [Music History Monday: The Making of an Eccentric: Erik Satie](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-making-of-an-eccentric-erik-satie/) - We mark the birth, on May 17, 1866 – 155 years ago today – of the French composer and provocateur Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Giuseppe Verdi: Ernani](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giuseppe-verdi-ernani/) - Ernani was Verdi’s fifth opera, and it followed on the heels of two great successes: Nabucco and I Lombardi alla prima crociata.
- [Music History Monday: The Riot at the Astor Place Opera House](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-riot-at-the-astor-place-opera-house/) - We mark the deadly riot on May 10, 1849 – 172 years ago today – that took place at the Astor Place Opera House in New York City.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Leonard Bernstein: Fancy Free and On the Town](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-leonard-bernstein-fancy-free-and-on-the-town/) - In terms of his prodigious musical range and versatility and tremendous cultural impact, Leonard Bernstein is the most gifted musician ever born in the U.S.
- [Music History Monday: The Word’s the Thing: Betty Comden and Adolph Green](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-words-the-thing-betty-comden-and-adolph-green/) - May 3 is a date rich in birthdays for American popular music including Pete Seeger, James Brown, Frankie Valli, and our main focus - Betty Comden.
- [Composers, Inc. News](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composers-inc-news/) - My interest in Composers, Inc. is both personal and professional and on May 1 of this year I was elected president of its Board of Directors
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Works Conducted in America](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-pyotr-ilyich-tchaikovsky-works-conducted-in-america/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Works Conducted in America - Festival Coronation March, the Suite No. 3 in G major, Op. 55, Piano Concerto No. 1
- [Music History Monday: Tchaikovsky in America](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tchaikovsky-in-america/) - We mark the arrival in New York City on April 26, 1891, of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He had come to America to conduct and to help inaugurate Carnegie Hall
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Dave Brubeck Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-dave-brubeck-quartet/) - Brubeck was born on December 6, 1920, in Concord, California, 16 miles to the northwest of where I am presently writing this blog.
- [Music History Monday: To the memory of an Angel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-to-the-memory-of-an-angel/) - We mark the posthumous premiere on April 19, 1936 of Alban Berg’s breathtaking Violin Concerto. Its score bears the dedication “To the Memory of an Angel”
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Samuil Feinberg Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-samuil-feinberg-piano-sonatas/) - By the 1860s, Odessa became famous for exporting more than just grain: it also became famous for exporting home-grown, world-class musicians…
- [Music History Monday: Dr. Burney](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-dr-burney/) - We mark the death on April 12, 1814 – 207 years ago today – of the English music historian and composer Charles Burney, in London.
- [Dr. Prescribes Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-prescribes-ludwig-van-beethoven-piano-concerto-no-3-in-c-minor-op-37/) - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 is the first of his “mature” piano concerti. Explore the history and Dr. Greenberg's recommended recordings.
- [Music History Monday: “Three’s the Charm”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-threes-the-charm/) - We mark the premiere on April 5, 1803, of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor at a public concert held at the Theater-an-der-Wien, in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven - Funeral Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-funeral-cantata-on-the-death-of-emperor-joseph-ii/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven - Funeral Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II - exploring the history leading to the work and the best recordings.
- [Music History Monday: Beethoven’s Funeral](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-beethovens-funeral/) - We mark the funeral of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) on March 29, 1827, in Vienna. It was a grand affair; tens of thousands of people lined the route.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Stephen Sondheim: The Making of a Theatrical Life, Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-stephen-sondheim-the-making-of-a-theatrical-life-part-two/) - We pick up where we left off in yesterday’s Music History Monday with part 2 of “Stephen Sondheim: The Making of a Theatrical Life.”
- [Music History Monday: Stephen Sondheim: The Making of a Theatrical Life, Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-stephen-sondheim-the-making-of-a-theatrical-life-part-one/) - We mark the birth on March 22, 1930 – 91 years ago today – and the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Alive and we trust well.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes My Fair Lady](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-my-fair-lady/) - My Fair Lady is a fifth-generation work: an adaption of an adaption of an adaption of an adaption, a musical that many believed could never be successfully written.
- [Music History Monday: My Fair Lady and the Making of a Partnership](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-my-fair-lady-and-the-making-of-a-partnership/) - We mark the opening performance on March 15, 1956 – 65 years ago today – of the Broadway musical My Fair Lady at the Mark Hellinger Theater in New York City.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Hector Berlioz: Requiem](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-hector-berlioz-requiem/) - The Requiem received its premiere on December 5, 1837 at Les Invalides, the massive military museum (and tomb of Napoleon) in Paris’ 7th arrondissement.
- [Music History Monday: Dressed to Kill](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-dressed-to-kill/) - We mark the death on March 8, 1869 – 152 years ago today – of the French composer and conductor Hector Berlioz at the age of 65.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes the Bill Evans Trio](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-bill-evans-trio/) - The jazz producer Orrin Keepnews insisted that his job as a jazz producer was not to shape the musical end result but rather, to act as a facilitator…
- [Music History Monday: Orrin Keepnews: With Great Respect and Appreciation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-orrin-keepnews/) - We mark the death on March 1, 2015 of the American jazz producer and founder of Riverside Records and Milestone Records Orrin Keepnews, in El Cerrito California
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-tchaikovsky-symphony-no-4/) - Dr. Bob prescribes his favorite recordings of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and explores the history that led to its creation - full post on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Tchaikovsky: Two Women and a Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tchaikovsky-two-women-and-a-symphony/) - We mark the premiere on February 22, 1878, of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor in a concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow.
- [Music History Monday: The Grandmother of them all: the Teatro alla Scala](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-grandmother-of-them-all-the-teatro-alla-scala/) - We mark the opening on August 3, 1778 of the Teatro alla Scala, or “La Scala.” The inaugural performance was the premiere of Antonio Salieri's Europe Rewarded.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Christopher Rouse: Trombone Concerto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-christopher-rouse-trombone-concerto/) - We consider the brass instruments: the trumpets, French horns, trombones, baritones and tubas. All which evolved from instruments meant to be played outdoors
- [Music History Monday: What a Day!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-what-a-day/) - February 15 is one of those days when so much happened in the world of music that we are de facto forced to wonder if there is some metaphysical explanation…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes John Williams](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-john-williams/) - Prescribing John Williams — We must never be ashamed of listening to or admitting to liking film music, it is lyric, joyful, glorious and often sublime music!
- [Music History Monday: John Williams](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-john-williams/) - We celebrate the birth on February 8, 1932, of American composer, conductor, pianist & trombonist John Towner Williams, in the New York City borough of Queens.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Music to Calm Hearts and Souls](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-music-to-calm-hearts-and-souls/) - As the best cure for the pepper’s capsaicin burn is vanilla ice cream, I am today offering up a musical antidote in the form of some glorious choral music.
- [Music History Monday: Pretty Much the Worst](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-pretty-much-the-worst/) - On February 1, 1979, Sid Vicious was released on bail after having attacked Todd Smith (the brother of the singer Patti Smith) at a Skafish concert.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Blame it on the Bossa Nova](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-blame-it-on-the-bossa-nova/) - Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes is a foray into the music of Brazil, samba, and bossa nova!
- [Music History Monday: When Richard Strauss was “Modernity”: ‘Salome’ and ‘Elektra’](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-when-richard-strauss-was-modernity-salome-and-elektra/) - We mark the world premiere on January 25, 1909, of Ricard Strauss’ opera Elektra at the Semperoper, the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Absurdity](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-absurdity/) - Envy and the desire to be something they are not will drive some people to do the darndest things. Which brings us to the prescribed recording at hand…
- [Music History Monday: Concerts I Would Like to Have Attended (and One I am Glad to have Missed!)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-concerts-i-would-like-to-have-attended-and-one-i-am-glad-to-have-missed/) - January 18th is notable for concerts that have taken place on this date, concerts that, with one exception, I personally would have been thrilled to attend.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-prokofiev-piano-sonata-no-7/) - Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes explores Prokofiev’s explosive and in all ways awesome Piano Sonata No. 7, one of the great masterworks of his “Soviet years.”
- [Music History Monday: Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, and the B***h Goddess](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-prokofiev-romeo-and-juliet-and-the-bh-goddess/) - We mark the first performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet on January 11, 1940, by the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, what today is St. Petersburg.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes George Gershwin, Concerto in F](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-george-gershwin-concerto-in-f/) - A statement I’ve made before and will gladly make again: George Gershwin is among the handful of greatest composers the United States has produced.
- [Music History Monday: A Rockin' Day](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-rockin-day/) - For fans of rock ‘n’ roll, January 4th is a day when so much stuff happened as to enshrine it as a major, rock ‘n’ roll holiday.
- [Dr Bob Prescribes: Maurice Ravel, ‘Valses nobles et sentimentales’](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-maurice-ravel-valses-nobles-et-sentimentales/) - Maurice Ravel composed “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” in 1911, three years before the beginning of World War One. See the history and prescribed recordings…
- [Music History Monday: Maurice Ravel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-maurice-ravel/) - We mark the death on December 28, 1937 – 83 years ago today – of the French composer and pianist Maurice Ravel, in Paris, at the age of 62.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes THE CONCERT and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-concert-and-beethovens-choral-fantasy/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes the most important concert of premieres in the history of Western music: the concert of December 22, 1808, at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien…
- [Music History Monday: The Top “ZZ’s” - Frank Zappa and Zdeněk Fibich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-top-zzs-frank-zappa-and-zdenek-fibich/) - We mark and celebrate two composers born on this date. Zdeněk Fibich was born on December 21, 1850; 170 years ago today. Frank Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, 80 years ago today. The two had more in common with each other than just a name that started with the letter “z”. They were | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob ‘Sort of’ Prescribes Beethoven - Der glorreiche Augenblick](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-sort-of-prescribes-beethoven-der-glorreiche-augenblick/) - Today, I’m offering up something a bit different from the usual Dr. Bob Prescribes post by dealing with a lesser-known and undeserving work by Beethoven.
- [Music History Monday: Wozzeck](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-wozzeck/) - We mark the premiere performance on December 14, 1925 – 95 years ago today – of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck in Berlin, conducted by Erich Kleiber.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Sergei Nakariakov](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-sergei-nakariakov/) - We routinely decry the death (or near death) of music education in public schools, slowly and incrementally over the last few decades. However, if my experience is any indication, I would suggest we temper our outcry in the unvarnished light of reality. Growing up in the South Jersey township of Willingboro and attending public schools | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Worthy and Unworthy, from High Taste to Low](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-worthy-and-unworthy-from-high-taste-to-low/) - Prince Josef Lobkowitz and Some Number One Songs That Will Live in Infamy! We have three items on our calendar-driven agenda today, which also happens to be the 79th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. One of these items is a birth; one of them is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Charles-Valentin Alkan](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-charles-valentin-alkan/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post acknowledged the anniversary of the birth of Charles-Valentin Alkan on November 30, 1813. A contemporary (and friend) of both Chopin and Liszt, Alkan was – in his lifetime – considered their equal as a pianist and by those (few) who knew his mature music, their near-equal as a composer. Like | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Furtwängler](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-furtwangler/) - We mark the death on November 30, 1954, of the German conductor and composer Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler. Born on January 25, 1886.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Manuel de Falla, El Amor Brujo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-manuel-de-falla-el-amor-brujo/) - Robert Greenberg recommends recordings of the Spanish composer and conductor Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu's “El Amor Brujo” on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Musicians Behaving Badly](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-musicians-behaving-badly/) - Musicians Behaving Badly: On November 23, 1956 – 64 years ago today - a sheet metal worker named Louis Balint was arrested after attacking Elvis Presley…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mahler Symphony No. 6](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mahler-symphony-no-6/) - Dr. Bob prescribes his favorite recordings of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 and lends some background to the work and its development.
- [Music History Monday: Chopin’s Last Concert](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-chopins-last-concert/) - It was on November 16, 1848, that Frédéric Chopin performed his final concert at a benefit ball held in London’s Guildhall to raise money for Polish exiles.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Rachmaninoff Piano Concerti](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-rachmaninoff-piano-concerti/) - Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was born on April 1, 1873 in the Russian village of Semyonovo, roughly 100 miles south of St. Petersburg.
- [Music History Monday: “You will write your concerto. . .”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-you-will-write-your-concerto/) - We mark the first complete performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on November 9, 1901 - 119 years ago today - in Moscow.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Dmitri Shostakovich, Complete String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-dmitri-shostakovich-complete-string-quartets/) - Can an ensemble only deliver a definitive performance by working directly with a composer? Dr. Bob answers in his prescription of Shostakovich's String Quartets
- [Music History Monday: Shostakovich and His String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shostakovich-and-his-string-quartet-no-8-in-c-minor-op-110/) - On October 2, 1960, Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor received its premiere. It's one of his greatest works and its story is absolutely fascinating
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Steve Reich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-steve-reich/) - The most extreme and lasting musical reaction to post-World War Two modernism is minimalism. The term does a disservice to the music it has come to represent…
- [Music History Monday: Musical Riots and Assorted Mayhem](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-musical-riots-and-assorted-mayhem/) - We mark the riot that occurred on October 26, 1958, when Bill Haley and his Comets played a concert at Berlin’s Sportpalast to an audience of some 7000 people.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes George Gershwin Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-george-gershwin-songs/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes recordings of the so-called American Songbook, that transcendent period of popular American song that stretched from (roughly) 1915 to 1955.
- [Franz Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/franz-schuberts-gretchen-am-spinnrade/) - On October 19, 1814, Franz Schubert composed his first masterwork, the song Gretchen am Spinnrade for solo voice and piano. Schubert was 17 years old.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ralph-vaughan-williams-symphony-no-5/) - Why is it that England produced not a single important composer between Henry Purcell - who died in 1695 - and Edward Elgar, who was born in 1857?
- [Music History Monday: And Please, Don’t Call Me “Ralph”!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-and-please-dont-call-me-ralph/) - We mark the birth on October 12, 1872, of the English composer, conductor, folksong collector and teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams in the village of Down Ampney.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Tommy Emmanuel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-tommy-emmanuel/) - My present pandemic/election-year-inspired state of mind requires that I dwell on something a tad more upbeat than another retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice…
- [Music History Monday: Gluck and Orfeo ed Euridice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-gluck-and-orfeo-ed-euridice/) - We mark the premiere performance on October 5, 1762, of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mozart: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozart-quintet-for-clarinet-and-strings/) - We mark the completion – on September 29, 1789, of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581. It remains one of Mozart's chamber music masterworks.
- [Music History Monday: The Planets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-planets/) - We mark the premiere performance - on September 28, 1918, of Gustav Holst’s The Planets in Queen’s Hall, London, under the baton of Adrian Boult.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Stravinsky's “Les Noces”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-stravinskys-les-noces/) - When discussing the long compositional life of Igor Stravinsky, his output is often divided into three large compositional “periods”; Russian, tonal, and serial
- [Music History Monday: The Prodigal Son Returns](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-prodigal-son-returns/) - On September 21, 1962, the composer Igor Stravinsky returned to Russia for the first time in 48 years: he had been gone since 1914.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Michael Haydn Symphonies](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-michael-haydn-symphonies/) - At the age of eight, Michael Haydn followed his brother to Vienna to become - as had Joseph - a student and choirboy at St. Stephen’s Cathedral…
- [Music History Monday: The “Other” Haydn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-other-haydn/) - We mark the birth on September 14, 1737, of the composer, organist, and violinist Johann Michael Haydn, in the western Austrian town of Rohrau.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Yiddish Song and Klezmer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-yiddish-song-and-klezmer/) - Nothing cuts to the essence of a culture like its language. A tribe’s, a people’s, a nation’s music is an outward extrapolation of its language…
- [Music History Monday: François-André Danican Philidor](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-francois-andre-danican-philidor/) - We mark the birth on September 7, 1726 – 294 years ago today – of the composer and chess master François-André Danican Philidor.
- [Celebrating an Anniversary and Some Changes on Patreon](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-an-anniversary-and-some-changes-on-patreon/) - My two-year anniversary on Patreon is here and changes are afoot. I will tell you all about them.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mahler Symphony No. 5](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mahler-symphony-no-5/) - Dr. Bob breaks down Mahler's Fifth Symphony and recommends his top recordings, including one "must-own"! See the intro here and the full post on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: I Want, I Need, I Must Have: Rock Stars and Their Riders](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-i-want-i-need-i-must-have-rock-stars-and-their-riders/) - On August 31, 2006, the Times of London ran an article on the sometimes outright whacko-crazy demands made by rock stars when on tour.
- [Music History Monday: Bohemian Rhapsody](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bohemian-rhapsody/) - It was on August 24, 1975, that Queen began recording Bohemian Rhapsody at Rockfield Studio No. 1 in Monmouth, Wales, and finished three weeks later…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Siegfried Idyll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-siegfried-idyll/) - In his maturity, Wagner (1813-1883) wrote very few self-standing, exclusively instrumental compositions, the most famous of which is his Siegfried Idyll of 1870
- [Music History Monday: The Miracle at Bayreuth!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-miracle-at-bayreuth/) - On August 17, 1876, Richard Wagner’s music drama Götterdämmerung received its premiere in his newly-opened “Festival Theater” in Bayreuth, Germany
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Mozart, Symphony in C major, “Jupiter”, K. 551](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozart-symphony-in-c-major-jupiter-k-551/) - Among the most appropriate nicknames ever given to a piece of music that was neither given nor sanctioned by its composer is “Jupiter”, Mozart’s final symphony.
- [Music History Monday: Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony and the Summer of 1788](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mozarts-jupiter-symphony-and-the-summer-of-1788/) - We mark the completion, on August 10, 1788 of Mozart’s Symphony in C major, cataloged by Ludwig Köchel as K. 551 and nicknamed the “Jupiter”.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Louise Farrenc](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-louise-farrenc/) - Louise Farrenc wrote symphonies of great power and pathos, dazzling piano music and, in particular, chamber music on par with her contemporary Felix Mendelssohn
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ferruccio Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntistica](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ferruccio-busoni-fantasia-contrappuntistica/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes Ferruccio Busoni's single most representative work: his massive, 30-plus minute-long Fantasia Contrappuntistica for piano.
- [Music History Monday: Ferruccio Busoni](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ferruccio-busoni/) - We mark the death on July 27, 1924 of the composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni, a figure unique in Western music, a man and musician impossible to pigeon-hole.
- [Music History Monday: Shostakovich: Time magazine, a String Quartet, and a Symphony!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shostakovich-time-magazine-a-string-quartet-and-a-symphony/) - July 20th was an important date in the life of Soviet composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich. On July 20, 1942 – he appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven Piano Concerto in D, Op. 61a](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-piano-concerto-in-d-op-61a/) - Compositionally, 1806 was a miraculous year for Herr Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s creative juices and ingenuity were running at an inconceivable level.
- [Music History Monday: Musicians and Paint](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-musicians-and-paint/) - Two disparate events on this date provide our framework - the 1951 death of Arnold Schoenberg and 1999 opening of Paul McCartney's painting gallery exhibition.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Louis Armstrong](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-louis-armstrong/) - The tale of Louis Armstrong’s early life has passed into American legend, an early twentieth century Horatio Alger-styled tale rising from humble beginnings…
- [Music History Monday: Pops: The Indispensable Man](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-pops-the-indispensable-man/) - We mark the death on July 6, 1971 of the jazz trumpet-player, singer, bandleader, and American icon Louis Armstrong: the “indispensable” man of jazz.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Paderewski: Piano Concerto in A minor, OP. 17 (1888)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-paderewski-piano-concerto-in-a-minor-op-17-1888/) - Early in his musical career, Paderewski aspired to a career as both a pianist and composer. And a composer of talent he was. Learn more on Dr. Bob Prescribes.
- [Music History Monday: I Left My Heart in Doylestown, Pennsylvania](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-i-left-my-heart-in-doylestown-pennsylvania/) - On June 29, 1941, the Polish pianist, composer, philanthropist, vintner, and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski died in New York City. He was 80 years old.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mahler, Symphony No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mahler-symphony-no-3/) - Mahler composed the great bulk of his Symphony No. 3 during the summers of 1895 and 1896. It is a huge, sprawling, 6-movement work, roughly 100 to 105 minutes.
- [Music History Monday: The Damrosch Dynasty: Where Would We Be Without Them?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-damrosch-dynasty-where-would-we-be-without-them/) - We mark the birth on June 22, 1859 – 161 years ago today – of the German-born American conductor and educator Frank Heino Damrosch.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Ella Fitzgerald](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-ella-fitzgerald/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg shares the story of Ella Fitzgerald's career and his favorite recordings for Patreon patrons in Dr. Bob Prescribes.
- [Music History Monday: Ella Fitzgerald: Singer and Musician](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ella-fitzgerald-singer-and-musician/) - We mark the death on June 15, 1996, of the singer and musician - the First Lady of Song, the Queen of Jazz, Lady Ella - Ella Jane Fitzgerald at the age of 78.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Flamenco](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-flamenco/) - Dr. Bob shares the history of Flamenco and prescribes a trio of his favorite recordings and a DVD on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: The One Who Doesn’t Want Me Can Lick My [expletive deleted]](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-one-who-doesnt-want-me-can-lick-my-expletive-deleted/) - We note the death on June 8, 1839 – 181 years ago today – of the German soprano Aloysia Weber Lange. Don’t know who she is? You will soon enough.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Robert Helps](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-robert-helps/) - I spent the weekend listening to the album and following along in the music. I had the place to myself and listened over and over again…
- [Music History Monday: Elvis Presley’s Birth House](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-elvis-presleys-birth-house/) - It was on June 1, 1971, that the two-room shotgun house in Tupelo Mississippi in which Elvis Presley was born was opened to the public as a tourist attraction.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven Piano Concerto WoO 4](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-piano-concerto-woo-4/) - Neither the full score nor the individual instrumental parts have survived of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in E-flat major, WoO 4. Dr. Bob Prescribes a recording.
- [Music History Monday: If a Building Could Speak, this One Would Sing: The Vienna State Opera House](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-if-a-building-could-speak-this-one-would-sing-the-vienna-state-opera-house/) - We mark the opening on May 25, 1869 of the Vienna Court Opera, which has been known since 1921 as the Vienna State Opera (or Wiener Staatsoper).
- [The Perfect Martini](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-perfect-martini/) - I am a slave to my fluids, my fluids in the morning and the evening. In the morning, coffee, like disco, is life. But in my evening fluid of choice is a martini
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Franz Liszt: ‘Transcendental Etudes’](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-franz-liszt-transcendental-etudes/) - When it comes to etudes for piano, at the highest, most technically challenging level are the aptly named Transcendental Etudes of Franz Liszt.
- [Music History Monday: Mahler’s Last Words](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mahlers-last-words/) - We mark the passing, on May 18, 1911 of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, who died all-too-young in Vienna, two months shy of his 51st birthday.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Songs of Irving Berlin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-songs-of-irving-berlin/) - Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter to live and work in North America. His songs capture the spirit and chronicle the first half of 20th century America.
- [Music History Monday: The Melody Lingers On: Irving Berlin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-melody-lingers-on-irving-berlin/) - We mark the birth on May 11, 1888, of the Russian-born American songwriter Irving Berlin (1888-1989). Berlin wrote the words and music to over 1500 songs.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mozart Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozart-piano-sonatas/) - The piano music of Mozart presents us with no conundrum for instrumentation; it is music gorgeously fit to the fortepianos of his time.
- [Music History Monday: Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bartolomeo-cristofori-and-the-invention-of-the-piano/) - We mark the birth on May 4, 1655 – 365 years ago today – of the inventor, musical instrument builder, and engineer extraordinaire Bartolomeo Cristofori.
- [Dr Bob Prescribes John Santos](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-john-santos/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes a recording by San Francisco Bay Area institution John Santos and his band "Machete".
- [Music History Monday: This is What Heroism Looks Like](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-this-is-what-heroism-looks-like/) - We mark the birth – on April 27, 1920, 100 years ago today – of the conductor Guido Cantelli, in Novara, Italy, some 30 miles west of Milan.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Mahler, Symphony No. 4](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mahler-symphony-no-4/) - Gustav Mahler was the greatest opera composer never to have composed an opera. Mahler’s concept of the “symphony” was a post-Beethoven’s Ninth vision…
- [Music History Monday: The Beloved Son Returns](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-beloved-son-returns/) - We mark the solo piano recital on April 20, 1986 – 34 years ago today – that saw Vladimir Horowitz perform at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
- [The Great Courses Facebook Live - Music List](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-great-courses-facebook-live-music-list/) - As promised on The Great Courses Facebook LIVE - here is my list of music guaranteed to raise our spirits, and render us susceptible to boogie fever:
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Messiah](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-messiah/) - Messiah received its premiere performance 278 years ago, and while the performing forces at the premiere were quite modest, it didn't stay that way for long…
- [Music History Monday: Hallelujah!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-hallelujah/) - We mark the first performance on April 13, 1742 – 278 years ago today – of George Frederick Handel’s “Messiah” in Dublin, Ireland.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Stravinsky - Requiem Canticles](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-stravinsky-requiem-canticles/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles, completed on August 13, 1966 and the must-own recording of the work. See it on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Defying the Odds](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-defying-the-odds/) - We mark the death on April 6, 1971 – 49 years ago today – of the composer Igor Stravinsky at the age of 88.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-an-die-ferne-geliebte/) - Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes is the third and final dedicated to Beethoven’s songs, which together constitute the most under-appreciated segment of his output.
- [Music History Monday: Be Nice to the People You Meet On the Way Up, ‘Cause You’re Going to Meet Them Again on the Way Back Down](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/mhm-be-nice-to-the-people-you-meet-on-the-way-up/) - March 30 is a good day for birthdays in the world of pop and rock but we're focusing today's Music History Monday on Stanley Kirk Burrell, aka MC Hammer.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Wagner - The Ring of the Nibelung](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-wagner-the-ring-of-the-nibelung/) - A look at the development of stereo recordings and playback as a primer for the prescribed recording of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung.
- [Music History Monday: A Bevy of Firsts and Number Ones!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-bevy-of-firsts-and-number-ones/) - On March 23, 1828, the Schuppanzigh String Quartet posthumously premiered Beethoven’s final string quartet: the F major, Op. 135 of 1826 in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Folk Revival](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-folk-revival/) - As Amazon is still delivering, and as so very many of us are housebound for the foreseeable future, we have the time and wherewithal to consume more music.
- [Music History Monday: Puff the Magic Dragon](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-puff-the-magic-dragon/) - We mark the first appearance on the Billboard charts on March 16, 1963 – 57 years ago today – of the song Puff, the Magic Dragon.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Verdi String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-verdi-string-quartets/) - Today's Dr. Bob Prescribes post deals with Verdi’s least-known masterwork: his String Quartet in E minor of 1873 and how its existence is owed only to luck!
- [Music History Monday: Unspeakable Catastrophe and Unqualified Triumph!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-unspeakable-catastrophe-and-unqualified-triumph/) - We mark the first performance on March 9, 1842 of Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera and first operatic masterwork, Nabucco, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes A Jazz Duo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-a-jazz-duo/) - I’m crazy about jazz piano duos. Such a duo allows a pianist to use the full range of the keyboard while conversing with and supporting another instrument.
- [Music History Monday: M’Lord Falstaff](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mlord-falstaff/) - We mark the death, in Vienna, on March 2, 1830 – 190 years ago today – of the violinist and conductor Ignaz Schuppanzigh.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes - Beethoven: Arrangements of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/beethoven-arrangements-of-irish-scottish-and-welsh-songs/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes a body of Beethoven’s work – a very large body of Beethoven’s work – that remains almost unknown: his folk song arrangements.
- [Music History Monday: The Game Changer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-game-changer/) - We mark the first performance on February 24, 1607 – 413 years ago today – of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, in Mantua, Italy.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Madama Butterfly](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-madama-butterfly/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg "prescribes" his favorite recording(s) of Puccini's Madama Butterfly and breaks down the premiere of the work after its 116th anniversary.
- [Music History Monday: The Case Against Madama Butterfly](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-case-against-madama-butterfly/) - We mark the world premiere performance on February 17, 1904, of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly at the storied La Scala, in the Italian city of Milan.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Luciano Pavarotti](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-luciano-pavarotti/) - Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated Luciano Pavarotti. So today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes features a Pavarotti recording - or two, or three, or four…
- [Music History Monday: It Ain’t Over Until the Fat Man Sings!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-it-aint-over-until-the-fat-man-sings/) - On February 10, 2006, Luciano Pavarotti concluded the opening ceremony of the XX Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy by singing his trademark aria “Nessun Dorma”.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-palestrinas-pope-marcellus-mass/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg examines the legend around Palestrina and his Pope Marcellus Mass while recommending his favorite recording of the work - fully on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: A Model of Utopian Perfection to this Day!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-model-of-utopian-perfection-to-this-day/) - We mark the presumed birth on February 3, 1525 – 495 years ago today – of the Rome-based Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Mozart's Piano Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mozarts-piano-quartets/) - Wolfgang Mozart was the greatest composer of chamber music to have yet lived and Mozart’s two piano quartets are among the greatest pieces of music ever written
- [Music History Monday: A Day That Can Mean Only One Thing!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-day-that-can-mean-only-one-thing/) - We mark the birth on January 27, 1756 – 264 years ago today – of Wolfgang Mozart. A gift without which our lives would be bereft.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes ‘Die Fledermaus’](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-die-fledermaus/) - There is a bat that every one of us should adore: the opera Die Fledermaus with a libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée and music by Johann Strauss Jr.
- [Music History Monday: Fine Dining](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-fine-dining/) - On January 20, 1982 – 38 years ago today - when the heavy metal musician Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat during a performance in Des Moines, Iowa.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes The Tango Project](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-tango-project/) - For reasons having to do with class politics and pure snobbery, the accordion is often looked down upon in concert music, but that's not the whole story…
- [Music History Monday: How to Identify a Gentleman](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-how-to-identify-a-gentleman/) - On January 13, 1854 – 166 years ago today - a Philadelphia-based inventor named Anthony Foss received a patent for the accordion. Foss did not invent the thing…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 5](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-scriabins-piano-sonata-no-5/) - Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5 is a work of “superlatives”. It is the most frequently recorded of his sonatas - explore it and Dr. Bob's prescribed recording!
- [Music History Monday: The Odd Person Out](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-odd-person-out/) - On January 6, 1872 – 148 years ago today – the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born in Moscow. He died in Moscow just 43 years later, on April 27, 1915.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Beethoven Lieder](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-lieder/) - Beethoven’s songs are among his least known and least appreciated works, and this must and will stop, at least here on the cyber-pages of Dr. Bob Prescribes!
- [Music History Monday: Richard Rodgers and the American Crucible](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-richard-rodgers-and-the-american-crucible/) - We mark the December 30, 1979 death of American composer Richard Rodgers at the age of 77. Rodgers was one of the most prolific American composers of all time.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Holiday Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-holiday-music/) - I will in today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes be offering up some “holiday music”, holiday music that will serve as an antidote to the seasonal treacle: Vince Guaraldi's iconic A Charlie Brown Christmas
- [Music History Monday: Is There Something Strange in the Air?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-is-there-something-strange-in-the-air/) - A gaggle of strange, even horrific musical events associated with December 23, make me wonder whether there is some genuine weirdness in the air on this date…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Life and Times of Beethoven - The First Angry Man](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-life-and-times-of-beethoven-the-first-angry-man/) - This February, I was asked to record for Amazon/Audible. The result is a 10-lecture biography titled The Life and Times of Beethoven: The First Angry Man.
- [Music History Monday: The Man](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-man/) - We mark the birth on December 16, 1770 – 249 years ago today – of Ludwig van Beethoven, in the Rhineland city of Bonn and ask why do we so adore his music?
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Nicolas Slonimsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-nicolas-slonimsky/) - Every music lover should own today's Prescribed Book by Nicolas Slonimsky, for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s a wonderful, even inspiring…
- [Music History Monday: A Life for the Tsar](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-life-for-the-tsar/) - On December 9, 1836, Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar received its premiere at the Imperial Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Olivier Messiaen's ‘Turangalîla’ Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-olivier-messiaens-turangalila-symphony/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes Olivier Messiaen's ‘Turangalîla’ Symphony - see his prescribed recording for this Messiaen work, only on Patreon.com
- [Music History Monday: Turangalîla](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-turangalila/) - We mark the premiere in Boston on December 2, 1949 of Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Virgil Thomson: Symphony on a Hymn Tune](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-virgil-thomson-symphony-on-a-hymn-tune/) - Thomson’s ability to employ musical Americana in a manner both naive and yet powerfully affecting is clearly demonstrated in his Symphony on a Hymn Tune.
- [Music History Monday: A Critical Voice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-critical-voice/) - We recognize the birth on November 25, 1896 – 123 years ago today – of the American composer and music critic Virgil Thomson in Kansas City, Missouri.
- [Music History Monday: The Grand Journey](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-grand-journey/) - On November 18, 1763 the Mozart family arrived in Paris in the midst of their “Grand Journey”, a 3½ year concert tour that changed the history of Western music.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Arnold Schoenberg, A Survivor from Warsaw](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-arnold-schoenberg-a-survivor-from-warsaw/) - Some art delves into very dark places, places most people generally prefer not to go… Dr. Bob takes a look at one of Schoenberg's pieces that does just that.
- [Music History Monday: Barbara Strozzi: Now You Know!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-barbara-strozzi-now-you-know/) - We mark the death on November 11, 1677, of the composer and singer Barbara Strozzi at the age of 58 with over six published volumes of compositions.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gabriel-faure-piano-quartet-no-1/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes his favorite recording of Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 and talks about the American music educational biases against French composers.
- [Music History Monday: All Too Soon: The Death of Mendelssohn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-all-too-soon-the-death-of-mendelssohn/) - On November 4, 1847 – 172 years ago today – Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn died all too soon; at the time of his death Mendelssohn was just 38 years old.
- [Music History Monday: His Own Requiem?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-his-own-requiem/) - We celebrate, on October 28, 1893, the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique” in St. Petersburg, with Tchaikovsky conducting.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Mahler, Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-mahler-symphony-no-2-resurrection/) - How much is enough? For orchestral oomph? You can never have enough - which brings us to Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and Dr. Bob's Prescribed recording.
- [Music History Monday: Disproportionate Numbers and “The Screaming Skull”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-disproportionate-numbers-and-the-screaming-skull/) - We mark the birth, on October 21, 1912 of the Hungarian-born pianist and conductor György Stern (better known as Sir Georg Solti) in Budapest, Hungary.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Emil Gilels](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-emil-gilels/) - This post continues the celebration of Beethoven’s upcoming semiquincentennial by featuring my favorite performance of my favorite Beethoven Piano Concerto.
- [Music History Monday: Der Bingle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-der-bingle/) - We mark the death on October 14, 1977, of the American singer and actor Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby of a so-called “widowmaker” while golfing.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Jessye Norman](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-jessye-norman/) - Death comes for us all, even the goddesses among us. Jessye Norman died on September 30, 2019 at the age of 74 and how can that be.
- [Music History Monday: The Bombs Bursting in Air: Bombing The Star-Spangled Banner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-bombs-bursting-in-air-bombing-the-star-spangled-banner/) - On October 7, 1968, the Puerto Rican-born singer and songwriter José Feliciano performed the Star-Spangled Banner in Detroit, before Game 5 of the World Series.
- [Celebrating ZOFO's 10th Anniversary](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-zofos-10th-anniversary/) - On this past September 15, the amazing/killer/epic-fine piano duo ZOFO celebrated its 10th anniversary. I was honored to be represented with my piece Exercised.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Robert Schumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-robert-schumann/) - I have been asked to write a program note for the Library of Congress, and it happens to feature one of my favorite ensembles performing some favorite music.
- [Music History Monday: Magic](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-magic/) - It was on September 30, 1791 that Wolfgang Mozart’s opera-slash-singspiel, The Magic Flute, received its premiere in Vienna, conducted by Mozart himself.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Felix Mendelssohn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-felix-mendelssohn/) - I didn’t become familiar with today's featured Mendelssohn work until this past summer. Learn about what of Mendelssohn's past and world shaped the piece.
- [Music History Monday: Paul is Dead!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-paul-is-dead/) - On September 23, 1969 – 50 years ago today – the venerable English tabloid the London Daily Mirror reported that Paul McCartney of the Beatles was dead.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Anne Rice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-anne-rice/) - This week's Dr. Bob Prescription is for a book that beautifully and brilliantly evokes 17th-century Venice and Venitian opera - and actually gets it right.
- [Music History Monday: Melding with the Geldings, or Balls to the Wall](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-melding-with-the-geldings-or-balls-to-the-wall/) - We note the September 16, 1782 death of one of the greatest opera singers to have ever lived, Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, better known as Farinelli
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Górecki: Symphony No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gorecki-symphony-no-3/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes his favorite recording of Henryk Górecki’s magnificent and heart-wrenching Symphony No. 3 and the history surrounding the work.
- [Music History Monday: Elvis and the Tube](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-elvis-and-the-tube/) - On September 9, 1956 – 63 years ago today – Elvis Presley made his first appearance, live, on The Ed Sullivan Show and marked the ascendance of rock 'n' roll…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-symphonic-dances-from-west-side-story/) - In my humble but not ill-informed opinion, West Side Story is very likely the greatest single work of musical theater thus far created in the United States.
- [Music History Monday: Light My Fire](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-light-my-fire/) - Robert Greenberg reminds us of how basic fire is to our existence, and appreciates how often fire has been memorialized in music in this Music History Monday.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Beethoven Piano Quartet No. 3, WoO 36](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-piano-quartet-no-3-woo-36/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg continues his exploration of lesser-known Beethoven works with the Beethoven Piano Quartet in C Major, WoO 36, No. 3 of 1785 on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Lotte Lehmann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-lotte-lehmann/) - On August 26, 1976, the German-born soprano, opera star, lieder singer, and much more, Lotte Lehmann died in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 88.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Buddy Rich Big Band](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-buddy-rich-big-band/) - When it comes to jazz bands, I generally dislike drum solos. There are exceptions, of course, and for me those exceptions are Tony Williams and Buddy Rich.
- [Music History Monday: The Gig of a Lifetime!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-gig-of-a-lifetime/) - On August 19, 1613 – 406 years ago today - Claudio Monteverdi was appointed Maestro di Capella di San MarcoI- it was the gig of a lifetime!
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Galina Ustvolskaya](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-galina-ustvolskaya/) - In working with The Phoenix Symphony this season, I've discovered some wonderful composers - like today's prescription of music by composer Galina Ustvolskaya.
- [Music History Monday: John Cage, we miss you](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-john-cage-we-miss-you/) - On August 12, 1992, American composer, inventor, philosopher, facilitator, agent provocateur, shaman, clown, and guru, John Cage died in New York City at 79.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Otello](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-otello/) - It came as a thunderbolt when, in late 1875, Verdi did the unthinkable: he informed his wife, friends, and publisher that as a composer he was retiring.
- [Music History Monday: One of the Great Ones!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-the-great-ones/) - We celebrate the birth on August 5, 1397 of composer Guillaume Du Fay. One of the greatest composers to have ever lived and admired as such in his own lifetime.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem for Manzoni](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-giuseppe-verdi-requiem-for-manzoni/) - Verdi’s gut-wrenching, soul-searing and soul-inspiring music, is completely and utterly different from any other setting of the Requiem liturgy…
- [Music History Monday: A Very Bad Ending](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-very-bad-ending/) - We mark the death on July 29, 1856 – 163 years ago today – of the German composer, pianist, and music critic Robert Schumann at the age of 46.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Beethoven, Mass in C, Op. 86](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-mass-in-c-op-86/) - Beethoven’s Mass in C was first performed on September 13, 1807, in Eisenstadt, Austria, by the musical establishment of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II.
- [Music History Monday: Can We Blame the Weather?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-can-we-blame-the-weather/) - On July 22, 1969 – 50 years ago today - Aretha Franklin was arrested for disorderly conduct in Highland Park, Michigan, but did the weather play a role?
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Béla Bartók - Piano Concerto No. 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bela-bartok-piano-concerto-no-2/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg “Prescribes” Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2: “one of the greatest and most viscerally exciting pieces of music ever written”
- [Music History Monday: What Would We Do Without Him?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-what-would-we-do-without-him/) - We mark the death on July 15, 1857 of the Austrian composer, pianist and teacher Carl Czerny. He was the most important piano teacher of the nineteenth century.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Alberto Ginastera](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-alberto-ginastera/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg recommends a work and recording by the brilliant Argentinian composer Alberto Evaristo Ginastera in this week's Dr. Bob Prescribes.
- [Music History Monday: The Futurist Terrible](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-futurist-terrible/) - We mark the birth on July 8, 1900 – 119 years ago today – of the composer, pianist, author, inventor and self-described “bad boy of music”, George Antheil.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-stravinsky-the-rite-of-spring/) - Igor Stravinsky composed The Rite of Spring in 1912, and to evoke a world no one had ever seen, Stravinsky wrote music the likes of which no one had ever heard
- [Music History Monday: Pierre Monteux: One of the Great Ones](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/pierre-monteux-one-of-the-great-ones/) - We acknowledge the death - on July 1, 1964 – of the French-American conductor and teacher Pierre Monteux, who passed away at his home in Maine at the age of 89.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Oscar Peterson](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-oscar-peterson/) - When I once asked Tony Williams if he had ever worked with the pianist Oscar Peterson, he told he was held in such esteem that he was known simply as Hercules…
- [Music History Monday: Boogie Fever](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-boogie-fever/) - June 24, 1374 the men, women, and children of the Rhineland city of Aachen began to twist, jump and shake until they dropped from exhaustion…St. John's Dance.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Paul Creston](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-paul-creston/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg gives the background to the composer Paul Creston and his prescribed work and recording that is “explosive fun”.
- [Music History Monday: Igor Stravinsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-igor-stravinsky/) - We offer up our very best birthday wishes to Igor Stravinsky, who was born 137 years ago today, on June 17, 1882.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Igor Stravinsky - Pulcinella Suite](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-igor-stravinsky-pulcinella-suite/) - This week on Dr. Bob Prescribes, we celebrate Igor Stravinsky’s spectacular and spectacularly influential Pulcinella in anticipation of his 139th birthday.
- [Music History Monday: Tristan und Isolde](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tristan-und-isolde/) - On June 10, 1865 Richard Wagner’s magnificent music drama Tristan und Isolde received its premiere in Munich under the baton of Hans von Bülow.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Amy Beach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-amy-beach/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes: Amy Beach - learn about this American composer, and Robert Greenberg's prescribed Amy Beach work and recording on Patreon.
- [Music History Monday: Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hope](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bizet/) - Marking the death of the French composer Georges Bizet, who passed on June 3, 1875. He was but 36 years, 7 months, and 9 days young when he passed.
- [Dr. Bob Recommends: Aaron Copland, Short Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-recommends-aaron-copland-short-symphony/) - The mid-century American composer who has come to overshadow them all is Aaron Copland, and today Dr. Bob Prescribes his “Short Symphony” (Symphony No. 2)
- [Music History Monday: The Little Pagan](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-little-pagan/) - We mark the death of the violinistic wizard, composer, and showman extraordinaire Niccolò Paganini, who died 179 years ago in the city of Nice on May 27, 1840.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: David Diamond](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-david-diamond/) - Celebrating and recognizing one of the greatest symphonic legacies in the repertoire - American composer David Diamond on Dr. Bob Prescribes.
- [Music History Monday: Battered but Unbroken](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-battered-but-unbroken/) - We mark the death – 123 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Clara Wieck Schumann, who died of a stroke at the age of 76 on May 20, 1896.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Henry Cowell](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-henry-cowell/) - Henry Cowell was an American iconoclast: a maverick composer who created his own most original musical language in response to a uniquely “American” experience.
- [Music History Monday: A Child (and a Man!) of the Theater](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-child-and-a-man-of-the-theater/) - May 13, 1767, Wolfgang Mozart’s first opera, “Apollo and Hyacinthus” received its premiere in Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg. The composer was 11 years old.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Schubert, String Quartet No. 14](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-schubert-string-quartet-no-14/) - Celebrating the Death and the Maiden String Quartet from single greatest songwriter of all time, composer of some 637 songs: Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828).
- [Music History Monday: How We Love Our Toys!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-how-we-love-our-toys/) - It was most likely sometime during the evening of May 6, 1965 that Keith Richards worked out the opening riff for the song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Samuel Barber - Symphony No. 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-samuel-barber-symphony-no-1/) - Samuel Barber is among the greatest composers born in the United States, so why has he been reduced to a one-hit wonder? Today, we celebrate his first Symphony.
- [Music History Monday: The Creation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-creation-2/) - On April 29, 1798, Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation was first performed before a star-studded, invitation-only audience at Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Peter Mennin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-peter-mennin/) - Peter Mennin was born on May 17, 1923 in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Italian immigrants. Peter Mennin was a symphonist: of his 26 works, 9 were symphonies.
- [Music History Monday: A Marriage of Convenience](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-marriage-of-convenience-bach-leipzig/) - On April 22, 1723 – 296 years ago today – the 38-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was elected music director and cantor of St. Thomas church in Leipzig.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes William Schumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-william-schumann/) - William Howard Schuman was born on the upper West Side of Manhattan Island, New York, New York on August 4, 1910 and taught himself to play the violin by ear.
- [Music History Monday: The Empress](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-empress/) - Today we celebrate the birth – on April 15, 1894, 125 years ago today, in Chattanooga, Tennessee – of the American contralto Bessie Smith.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Roy Harris](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-roy-harris/) - Featuring American composer Roy Harris as part of Robert Greenberg's a mini-mission to bring forward some of the most glorious mid-20th-century American music.
- [Music History Monday: The Daughters of Atlas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-daughters-of-atlas/) - Robert Greenberg shares the process of writing “The Daughters of Atlas” which will receive its premiere performance on Monday, April 8, 2019 by Trio Foss.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Scott Joplin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-scott-joplin/) - With his death began the big chill for Scott Joplin’s wonderful music. In the 50+ years that followed, a tiny coterie of disciples kept his name and music alive
- [Music History Monday: An American Original and an American Tragedy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-american-original-and-an-american-tragedy/) - On April 1, 1917, the American composer and pianist Scott Joplin died at 48 years old. Joplin composed 44 ragtime works, a ragtime ballet and two operas.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Walter Piston](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-walter-piston/) - Composer and music theorist Walter Piston was a professor of music at Harvard University and a compositional populist. See Dr. Bob's prescription on Patreon!
- [Music History Monday: Four Birthdays and a Painful Death](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-four-birthdays-and-a-painful-death/) - March 25 marks four major music birthdays - Arturo Toscanini, Bela Bartok, Elton John, and Aretha Franklin - and the death of composer Claude Debussy.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Howard Hanson, Symphony No. 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-howard-hanson-symphony-no-2/) - There was a time, not all that long ago, when everybody knew who Howard Hanson was and Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 was a concert staple and an American classic…
- [Music History Monday: Transfigured Night](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-transfigured-night/) - On March 18, 1902 – 117 years ago today – Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht for string sextet received its premiere in his native city of Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Erroll Garner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-erroll-garner/) - Erroll Louis Garner was a 5’2” miracle: a virtuoso jazz pianist whose performances created a style of playing that was and remains his and his alone.
- [Music History Monday: The “Revival” Begins](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-revival-begins/) - On March 11, 1829, Felix Mendelssohn conducted an edited version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred oratorio St. Matthew’s Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Piano Duets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-piano-duets/) - Today, we take for granted our ability to hear any music at any time, but in 1840, four-handed arrangements were the way to hear major works.
- [Music History Monday: The Red Priest](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-red-priest/) - On March 4, 1678 – 341 years ago today – the Italian composer, violinist, priest and rapscallion Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes - Rossini: The Barber of Seville](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-rossini-the-barber-of-seville/) - Oft’ have I moaned and groaned about the licensing contracts signed by The Teaching Company/Great Courses and various recording companies, contracts that precluded me from identifying the performers heard on the musical excerpts in my courses. Yes indeed, this is entirely counter-intuitive; one would think that the record companies would want me to name-names, the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Myra Hess](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-myra-hess/) - On February 25, 1890 – 129 years ago today – the pianist Julia Myra Hess was born in Hampstead in North West London.
- [Patron Forum: Olly Wilson and Nerdy Arcana](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/patron-forum-olly-wilson-and-nerdy-arcana/) - On February 16, I was honored to be the first speaker at a Memorial Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley for my friend and teacher, Olly Wilson.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Don Giovanni](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-don-giovanni/) - I’ve said it before, and here I am, saying it again: Wolfgang Mozart was the greatest composer of operas who ever lived.
- [Music History Monday: Appassionata](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-appassionata/) - On February 18, 1807 – 212 years ago today – Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, nicknamed by the publisher the “Appassionata”, was published in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Chick Corea and Béla Fleck](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-chick-corea-and-bela-fleck/) - Twice in the last 15 years I have been so knocked out by a recording that I have bought a pile of them to give them away as gifts and dinner favors…
- [Music History Monday: The Right Composer at the Right Time and the Right Place](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-right-composer-at-the-right-time-and-the-right-place/) - On February 11, 1843, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata” received its first performance at the Teatro La Scala in Milan.
- [Doctor Bob Prescribes: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/doctor-bob-prescribes-tchaikovsky-violin-concerto-in-d-major-op-35/) - Without any question whatsoever, I have heard Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto more times, probably by an order of magnitude, than any other orchestral work.…
- [Music History Monday: John, Yoko, and Strom](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-john-yoko-and-strom/) - On February 4, 1972 Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina sent a memo to the Attorney General of the United States, demanding that John Lennon be deported!
- [Patreon Patron Forum: Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/patreon-forum-mozart-concerto-25/) - A Patreon question that cuts to the heart of how we use verbal/written language to describe musical events; events that are not easily described using words.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-bela-bartok-concerto-for-orchestra/) - I am frequently asked “who is my favorite composer?” My typical response – flippant but not insincere – is that I love whomever I’m with at the moment. …
- [Music History Monday: Who Says There’s No Such Thing as a “Bad Review”?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-who-says-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-review/) - On January 28, 1936, “Muddle Instead of Music” appeared on page 3 of Pravda condemning Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Richard Strauss - Four Last Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-richard-strauss-four-last-songs/) - I have found that you can say pretty much anything about someone’s children, mother, pets, and car, but mess with that person’s favorite singer(s)?
- [Music History Monday: Disco Inferno!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-disco-inferno/) - On January 21, 1978 the soundtrack album for the movie Saturday Night Fever, which featured the Bee Gees, went to #1 on the Billboard Album Chart.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: A Franz Liszt Trilogy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-a-franz-liszt-trilogy/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes a trilogy of Franz Liszt biographies which read like an epic novel on the lines of War and Peace and Gone With the Wind.
- [Music History Monday: Tosca](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tosca/) - On January 14, 1900 – 119 years ago today – Giacomo Puccini’s three-act opera Tosca received its first performance at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Shostakovich Symphony No. 10](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-shostakovich-symphony-no-10/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg recommends his favorite recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 for Patreon patrons - as well as the history behind the work.
- [Music History Monday: Frances Poulenc: a votre santé!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-frances-poulenc-a-votre-sante/) - We celebrate the birth – on January 7, 1899, 120 years ago today – of the French composer and pianist Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc.
- [Phoenix Symphony Hall](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/phoenix-symphony-hall/) - But then there’s the moment. The moment when you step onto the stage and see the house: the seats sweeping upwards to the balcony; the lights; the color…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: A Book?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-a-book/) - This is my 21st Dr. Bob Prescribes, a post I began on August 6 of last year. Up to now, each of these DBP posts has recommended something musical…
- [Music History Monday: They Should Have Taken a Bus](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-they-should-have-taken-a-bus/) - Today we begin by marking a birth and a death, two anniversaries related to one another in tragedy. John Denver and the long list of musical flight tragedies.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes Dave McKenna](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-dave-mckenna/) - If you are among those who just said “Dave who?”, THIS IS YOUR LUCKY DAY! I am about to offer up a gift more lasting, more aesthetically pleasing and more spiritually enlightening than any you have likely received during this “season of getting”. That gift? The pianism of Dave McKenna. Indulge me some first-person info. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: One Tough Lady](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-tough-lady/) - We mark the birth on December 24, 1837 of Cosima Liszt von Bülow Wagner: daughter of Franz Liszt, and wife of pianist Hans von Bülow and Richard Wagner.
- [Dr Bob Prescribes: Gustav Holst - The Planets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-gustav-holst-the-planets/) - Robert Greenberg discusses the history of composer Gustav Holst, his composition, “The Planets”, and his favorite recording of the work on “Dr. Bob Prescribes”
- [Music History Monday: Buried Treasure](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-buried-treasure/) - On December 17, 1865, the two complete movements that make up Franz Schubert’s so-called “Unfinished Symphony” received their premiere in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Adventures in Geekdom](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-adventures-in-geekdom/) - Robert Greenberg explores his hi-fi history in order to recommend a new (and incredibly inexpensive) music playback system that has already changed his life.
- [Music History Monday: The Best of Intentions or With Friends Like These…](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-best-of-intentions-or-with-friends-like-these/) - On December 10, 1896 Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s rewritten and re-orchestrated version of Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov received its premiere.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Hummel: Piano Concertos Opp 89 & 85](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-hummel-piano-concertos-opp-89-85/) - Hummel was Beethoven’s only real pianistic rival during the first decade of the nineteenth century, as a composer, he was particularly notable for his concerti.
- [Music History Monday: A Concerto, by George!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-concerto-by-george/) - December 3, 1925, George Gershwin’s Concerto in F for piano and orchestra received its world premiere at Carnegie Hall, with Gershwin at the piano.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Superbo di me stesso](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-superbo-di-me-stesso/) - Antonio Vivaldi’s recitative and aria, “Tra le folle diverse/Siam navi all’ onde algenti” that has – by far – received the most requests for identification.
- [Music History Monday: That Infernal Beast!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-that-infernal-beast/) - We mark today the 258th anniversary of the marriage of Joseph Haydn to Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Vocal Sampling](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-vocal-sampling/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes an album that nearly made him drive off the road the first time he heard it. Introducing “Vocal Sampling”.
- [Music History Monday: Schubert's Death](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-schuberts-death/) - November 19, 1828 - 190 years ago today (2018) – Franz Schubert died in Vienna at his brother Ferdinand’s third floor flat at Kettenbrückengasse 6…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes (sort of): Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7, as “retouched” by Gustav Mahler](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-sort-of-beethoven-symphonies-nos-5-and-7-as-retouched-by-gustav-mahler/) - Dr. Bob Prescribes (sort of): Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7, as “retouched” by Gustav Mahler - documents which tell us more about Mahler than Beethoven.
- [Music History Monday: A Birthday, Some Critters, and a Fern!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-birthday-some-critters-and-a-fern/) - November 12, 1945 the singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, screenwriter, and environmentalist Neil Percival Young was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerti nos. 1-6](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-j-s-bach-brandenburg-concerti-nos-1-6/) - I have spent some time revisiting some of my favorite harpsichord recordings, particularly those of the Gustav Leonhardt, Kenneth Gilbert, and Trevor Pinnock…
- [Music History Monday: A Life Well Lived](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-life-well-lived/) - We mark the death of the American Composer Elliott Carter, who died six years ago today - on November 5, 2012 - one month shy of his 104th birthday.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johannes Brahms, Horn Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 40 (1865)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-johannes-brahms-horn-trio-in-e-flat-major-op-40-1865/) - Brahms’ Horn Trio is a towering masterwork, one of my very, very favorite works of music. Learn how the development of the horn shaped Brahms' music and find out my favorite recordings.
- [Music History Monday: Don Giovanni](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-don-giovanni/) - On October 29, 1787 – 221 years ago today – Wolfgang Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni received its world premiere in the Bohemian capital of Prague.
- [Jan Woloniecki: Opera Fanatic of the Decade](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/jan-woloniecki-opera-fanatic-of-the-decade/) - We ponder the nature of hobbies: those avocational pursuits that run the gamut from harmless amusement to life-dominating passions in honor of a great collection
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas - Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-the-complete-piano-sonatas-ronald-brautigam-fortepiano/) - I decided it was high time for me to reconcile my love of original instrument recordings with my general dislike for fortepiano recordings.…
- [Music History Monday: The First Rock Star](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-first-rock-star/) - Today we celebrate the birth of Ferencz (that’s Hungarian; Franz in German) Liszt - born on October 22, 1811 in the town of Doborján in the Kingdom of Hungary.
- [Behind the Scenes With The Phoenix Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/behind-the-scenes-with-the-phoenix-symphony/) - Robert Greenberg takes you behind the scenes to document the process: the set, the crew, and more for his 22 Phoenix Symphony video program notes.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Esa-Pekka Salonen: Concerto for Violin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-esa-pekka-salonen-concerto-for-violin/) - Among the great pleasures of working with The Phoenix Symphony is learning about works I did not know beforehand - like Esa-Pekka Salonen's Violin Concerto.
- [Music History Monday: You’re the Top!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-youre-the-top/) - Marking the death of the songwriter and bon vivant par excellence Cole Albert Porter. He was born on June 9, 1891, and died at the age of 73 on October 15, 1964
- [Tuning Systems and Key Selections](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/tuning-systems-and-key-selections/) - Why composers select certain keys - a look at issues of tuning systems, pitch levels and the nature and demands of musical instruments.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: My Parsifal Conductor - A play in two acts by Allan Leicht](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-my-parsifal-conductor-a-play-in-two-acts-by-allan-leicht/) - Three weeks ago, I received an email promoting a new, off-Broadway play entitled My Parsifal Conductor, written by Emmy and Writer’s Guild Winner Allan Leicht…
- [Music History Monday: “Ma: I got the Job!”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-ma-i-got-the-job/) - On October 8, 1897, Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Dual Monarchy of Austria and Hungary officially named Gustav Mahler Director of the Vienna Court Opera.
- [In Praise of South Korean Pianism](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/in-praise-of-south-korean-pianism/) - During the course of some correspondence, my Patron Cory-Paul Allen mentioned his love for the piano playing of Yeol Eum Son.…
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Florence Price: Symphony No. 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-florence-price-symphony-no-1/) - Meet composer Florence Beatrice Price, who wrote the first work by a black American woman to be performed by a major orchestra in the United States.
- [Music History Monday: Whoa](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-whoa/) - October 1 is so filled with notable musical anniversaries that the mind reels! John Blow, Henry Clay Work, Paul Dukas, John Philip Sousa, Vladimir Horowitz……
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 – 9, transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-beethoven-symphonies-nos-1-9-transcribed-for-piano-by-franz-liszt/) - Tempo and metronome markings in Beethoven’s symphonies; the piano, pianists, and the virtuosity of Franz Liszt – all intersect in this Dr. Bob Prescribes post.
- [Music History Monday: The Colonel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-colonel/) - On September 24, 1962, Elvis Presley received an invitation to appear at the Royal Variety Performance, and on the same day in 1957, Jailhouse Rock was released.
- [Exploring the Dissonant C-sharp in Beethoven's “Eroica”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/exploring-the-dissonant-c-sharp-in-beethovens-eroica/) - Exploring the C-sharp that appears out of nowhere in measure 7 of the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 on Patreon.
- [Further adventures in Paradise](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/further-adventures-in-paradise/) - Open to performers and non-musician auditors alike, this year’s Apollo Academy program was “String Quartet Masterpieces of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.”
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Tempo and Metronome Marks](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-tempo-and-metronome-marks/) - This week’s post is dedicated to tempo and metronome marks, which, since 1816, have been a way for composers to indicate how fast a piece should be performed.
- [Music History Monday: I Don’t Know About You But I’ve Always Wondered About That](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-i-dont-know-about-you-but-ive-always-wondered-about-that/) - Today we mark a technological event: it was September 17, 1931 that the RCA Victor Company demonstrated the first long-playing record to rotate at 33-1/3 rpm.
- [Talking Royalties on the Habeas Humor Podcast](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/talking-royalties-on-the-habeas-humor-podcast/) - I joined Charone Frankel's “Habeas Humor” podcast to talk about music royalties and licensing from both a composer and Great Courses professor perspective.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: John Eliot Gardiner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-john-eliot-gardiner/) - In the course of answering a question last week I invoked my affection for certain period instrument recordings, particularly those of John Eliot Gardiner.
- [Reporting from the Apollo Academy and Ratna Ling](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reporting-from-the-apollo-academy-and-ratna-ling/) - I returned on Sunday, September 9 from a four-day retreat called the “Apollo Academy for Health and Humanism.” Here's part one about the amazing setting…
- [Music History Monday: Still Number One in Our Hearts](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-still-number-one-in-our-hearts/) - Today we celebrate a Beatles milestone. 51 Years ago today - on September 10, 1967 - the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band hit number one on the UK Charts.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Well Tempered Clavier and Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-the-well-tempered-clavier-and-shostakovichs-preludes-and-fugues/) - Robert Greenberg prescribes his favorite recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87, which requires some background information from Bach!
- [Music History Monday: One of a Kind!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-a-kind-partch/) - Celebrating American experimenter, instrument builder, guru, high priest and “composer” – and that’s “composer” in scare quotes – Harry Partch.
- [Robert Greenberg's The Great Courses Available for Direct Download!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenbergs-the-great-courses-available-for-direct-download/) - The Robert Greenberg collection of The Great Courses are now available for direct video and audio download on RobertGreenbergMusic.com and include PDF companion guidebooks! From How To Listen to And Understand Great Music to Music as a Mirror of History and everything in between!
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: a Long Winded Contemplation of Pianists, the Talent Pool, and the Advisability (or Inadvisability) of Wearing Push-up Brassieres While Performing](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-a-long-winded-contemplation-of-pianists-the-talent-pool-and-the-advisability-or-inadvisability-of-wearing-push-up-brassieres-while-performing/) - Ruminating on the depth of the pianistic talent pool, the fickleness of fame, and yes, something having to do with brassieres…
- [Music History Monday: Joaquin and Lester](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-joaquin-and-lester/) - Recognizing the birth & the death of two musical masters on August 27th: saxophonist Lester “Prez” Young & Franco-Flemish composer Josquin “des Prez” Lebloitte.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Debussy's Preludes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-debussys-preludes/) - Dr. Robert Greenberg recommends his favorite recordings of Debussy's Préludes for Piano for his Patreon patrons.
- [Music History Monday: Firsts!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-firsts/) - Celebrating the first person to compose a complete opera, Jacopo Peri, who was born in Rome on August 20, 1561, 457 years ago today.
- [Looking back on the first edition of “How To Listen to and Understand Great Music”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/looking-back-on-the-first-edition-of-how-to-listen-to-and-understand-great-music/) - I have managed to dig up a television advertisement for the first edition of my The Great Courses survey “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” from 1993
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes: Schubert's Sonata in B-flat Major D960](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes-schuberts-sonata-in-b-flat-major-d960/) - The Schubert Sonata #21 in B-flat Major is a warm, expansive and lyric piece, composed in September of 1828, two months before Schubert’s death on November 19…
- [Coming Next on Patreon](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/coming-next-on-patreon/) - It has been a week since my roll out at Patreon, and I have been awed and no small bit humbled by the response. Here's whats coming next week:
- [Music History Monday: My Favorite Things!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-my-favorite-things/) - A birthday greeting to the extraordinary polymath Sir George Grove – creator of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - who was born on August 13, 1820.
- [Dr. Bob Prescribes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/dr-bob-prescribes/) - Welcome to my new series, “Dr. Bob Prescribes”, in which I will “prescribe” recordings, books, events, videos, websites, etc. on a weekly basis, with the intention of improving our musical health and thus raising our spirits and making happier our souls. In conversation with my Patreon patrons Jane Varkonyi and Frank Schmidt, I recommended Brahms’ | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Chubby Checker, Dick Clark, and the Power of the Tube!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-chubby-checker-dick-clark/) - On August 6, 1960, the 18-year-old singer and dancer Chubby Checker performed “The Twist” on American TV on the rock ‘n’ roll variety show “American Bandstand”.
- [Music History Monday: The Other Mozart Kid](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-other-mozart-kid/) - Today we mark the birth on July 30, 1751 – of the “other” surviving Mozart child, Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart; who went by the nickname of “Nannerl.”
- [Music History Monday: Domenico Scarlatti](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-domenico-scarlatti/) - We mark the death of the composer Domenico Scarlatti 261 years ago on July 23, 1757 in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Domenico Scarlatti was a great composer.
- [Music History Monday: There’s No Software Without the Hardware!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-theres-no-software-without-the-hardware/) - Today we celebrate the birthday of the piano builder and composer Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, who was born in Ruppertsthal, Austria on June 18, 1757.
- [Music History Monday: The Firebird](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-firebird/) - On June 25, 1910, Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird received its premiere at the Paris Opera House, in a ballet performance produced by Serge Diaghilev…
- [Music History Monday: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Enlightened Opera](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-jean-jacques-rousseau-and-enlightened-opera/) - On July 2, 1778, the Swiss-born philosopher, novelist, educator, music theorist and critic, and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau died at age 66…
- [Music History Monday: A Decidedly Politically-Incorrect Rant](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-decidedly-politically-incorrect-rant/) - Noting the birth of Italian composer Ottorino Respighi on July 9, 1879 and a rant against the idea that the bulk of the operatic repertoire should be rejected…
- [Music History Monday: Émigrés](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-emigres/) - We mark the birth – on July 16, 1901 – of the Austrian composer and conductor Fritz Mahler and the 1930s European exodus of talent unlike any other in history.
- [Music History Monday: Water Music, Fiction and Facts](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-water-music-fiction-and-facts/) - On July 17, 1717 George Frederich Handel’s “Water Music” suites received their premiere during a royal cruise down the River Thames from Whitehall to Chelsea.
- [Scandalous Overtures: Mozart: How Did Mozart Really Die?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-mozart/) - The cause of Mozart’s death at the tender age of 35 has been shrouded in mystery and occluded by conspiracy theories almost from the moment he died in Dec. 1791
- [Robert Greenberg Joins Cole Cuchna on the Break It Down Show](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-joins-cole-cuchna-on-the-break-it-down-show/) - Robert Greenberg joins Cole Cuchna of the Dissect Podcast on the Break It Down Show. Listen to the two-part interview now.
- [Music History Monday: Richard Strauss](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-richard-strauss/) - We celebrate the birth of the composer Richard Strauss, who was born on June 11, 1864. I will pull no punches here: in my humble (but happily expressed) opinion, Richard Strauss was one the greatest composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- [Music History Monday: Serge Koussevitzky and What it Takes to Be a Special Person!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-serge-koussevitzky/) - Robert Greenberg spotlights double-bassist, composer and conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who was born on July 26, 1874 in Vyshny Volochek, in Russia, and died 67 years ago today, on June 6, 1951, in Boston.
- [Music History Monday: A One Hit Wonder?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-one-hit-wonder/) - On May 21, 1892, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s two-act opera I Pagliacci (“The Clowns”) received its premiere at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. It was a phenomenal hit from the first and remains an A-list opera to this day.
- [Music History Monday: Leopold Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-leopold-mozart/) - Music History Monday Blog and Podcast - On May 28 in 1787, Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang Mozart, died in Salzburg at the age of 67. History may have forgotten Johann Georg Leopold Mozart almost entirely had he not fathered and trained his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- [Music History Monday: Leo Smit](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-leo-smit/) - Today we remember and honor the Dutch composer Leo Smit, who was born on May 14, 1900 in Amsterdam.
- [Music History Monday: Feast or Famine](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-feast-or-famine/) - Looking at three May 7th events in musical history: J.S. Bach visiting the King of Prussia at Potsdam in 1747, the 1824 premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Antonio Salieri's 1825 death in Vienna.
- [Music History Monday: Microphones](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-microphones/) - The impact of amplification on the performance of music, particularly the amplification of music performed by the human voice, and the impact on the most popular voice type as well.
- [Music History Monday: One of a Kind!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-a-kind-prokofiev/) - On April 23, 1891, the composer and pianist Sergei Prokofiev was born in the village of Sontsovka, in Ukraine. He was, very simply, one of a kind: a brilliant, tungsten-steel-fingered pianist; a great composer; and one of the most irksome and narcissistic artists ever to ply his trade…
- [Music History Monday: The Break It Down Show](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-break-it-down-show/) - I want to take this opportunity to tell you about an awesome musical podcast called “The Break It Down Show” (established in 2012; 250-plus shows to date) and the two fascinating renaissance dudes who created it, host it, and produce it: Jon Leon Guerrero and Pete Turner.
- [Music History Monday: Greatness](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-greatness/) - On April 9, 1939 the American contralto Marian Anderson performed before an audience of over 75,000 people on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was one of the most important and inspirational concerts ever to take place on American soil…
- [Music History Monday: First Firsts](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-first-firsts/) - On April 2, 1800 Ludwig van Beethoven staged his first public concert, a so-called “Akademie” or “benefit concert”, in which the financial beneficiary was to be one Ludwig van Beethoven…
- [Music History Monday: We Would Raise a Toast to Beethoven, But, Well, That Would Be Inappropriate](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-beethoven-death/) - On March 26, 1827, Ludwig van Beethoven died at the age of 56 years, 3 months, and 11 days. Robert Greenberg dispels the myths that surround Beethoven's death today.
- [Music History Monday: The Creation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-creation/) - It was on March 19, 1799 – that Joseph Haydn’s epic, one hour and forty-five minute long oratorio The Creation (Die Schöpfung) received its public premiere in Vienna…
- [A Most Successful Campaign of Misinformation, or Listen to the Birdie!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/a-most-successful-campaign-of-misinformation-or-listen-to-the-birdie/) - The story goes that Pope/Saint Gregory was sitting on his throne when a dove perched on his shoulder and sang chants into Gregory's ear, which he sings to his scribe, Deacon Peter. Explore the background of this misinformation campaign and the development of Gregorian chant…
- [Music History Monday: An American Success Story](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-american-success-story/) - On March 5, 1853, Steinway and Sons was founded in New York City by a German immigrant named Henry Steinway. Born Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, Henry Steinway’s life and accomplishments are a textbook example of the great American success story…
- [Music History Monday: An Auspicious Debut](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-auspicious-debut/) - 186 years ago – on February 26, 1832 – the not quite 22 year-old Frédéric Chopin - already a fully formed composer and one of the best pianists in the world - made his highly anticipated Paris debut at the Salons de Pleyel…
- [Music History Monday: A Model Citizen](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-model-citizen/) - February 19, 1727, the nearly 42 year-old Georg Friedrich Händel was transformed into George Frederick Handel when he was became a naturalized British subject by order of the crown. The story…
- [Music History Monday: An Anthem to Remember](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-anthem-to-remember/) - On February 12, 1797 – Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3 received its premiere. The quartet’s nickname – “Emperor” – stems from the theme of its second movement, a theme composed a few months before the string quartet. 
- [Music History Monday: The Opera that Almost Wasn’t](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-opera-that-almost-wasnt/) - February 5, 1887 – Giuseppe Verdi’s 25th and penultimate opera, Otello, received its premiere at the Teatro alla Scala (“La Scala”) in Milan. The premiere was the single greatest triumph in Verdi’s sensational career. But it was a premiere – and an opera – that almost didn’t happen.
- [Music History Monday: Death and the Maiden](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-death-and-the-maiden/) - 192 years ago today – on January 29, 1826 – Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, better known as “Death and the Maiden,” received its premiere at the home of Karl and Franz Hacker in Vienna.
- [Music History Monday: A Very Dangerous Opera](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-very-dangerous-opera/) - On January 22, 1934 – Dmitri Shostakovich’s second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, received its premiere in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and opened two days later in Moscow.
- [The String Quartet in Time of War: Dmitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 8 (1960)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-string-quartet-in-time-of-war-dmitri-shostakovich-string-quartet-no-8-1960/) - Shostakovich: the SOVIET Composer Art, politics, and current events make problematic bedfellows, but they are a Ménage à trois that cannot be avoided when talking about Dmitri Shostakovich and his music. Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, and died in Moscow on August 9, 1975, a few weeks shy of his | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Compositional Jag](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-compositional-jag/) - January 8, 1843, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 received its public premiere during Schumann's manic, three-year compositional jag. 
- [Music History Monday: A Gift to Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-gift-to-music/) - On Christmas day of 1870 – 147 years ago today – Richard Wagner’s twenty minute-long instrumental tone poem “Siegfried Idyll” received its premiere…
- [Music History Monday: Like Father, Like Son](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-like-father-like-son/) - January 1, 1782 – Johann Christian Bach, the youngest surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach, died in London at the age of 47, leaving a spectacular legacy.
- [Music History Monday: The Show Will Go On!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-show-will-go-on/) - On December 18, 1962 – Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 received its premiere in Moscow. It was a premiere that officially did not really take place!
- [Music History Monday: Not So Happily-Ever-After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-not-so-happily-ever-after/) - December 11, 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach’s employer, the 27 year-old Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen married 19 year-old Friederica Henrietta of Anhalt-Bernburg
- [Music History Monday: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-tchaikovskys-violin-concerto-in-d-major/) - December 4, 1881 – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major received its premiere in Vienna by violinist Adolf Brodsky and the Vienna Philharmonic.
- [Music History Monday: Strauss, Nietzsche, Zarathustra and Stanley](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-strauss-nietzsche-zarathustra-and-stanley/) - November 27, 1896 – Richard Strauss conducted the premiere performance of his sprawling orchestral tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra in Frankfurt.
- [Music History Monday: “The Song of the Earth”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-song-of-the-earth/) - November 20, 1911 - Gustav Mahler’s magnificent Das Lied von der Erde received its premiere in Munich under the baton of Mahler’s protégé, Bruno Walter.
- [Music History Monday: Rossini and the Soul of Wit](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-rossini-and-the-soul-of-wit/) - Remembering the wit of composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini, who died November 13, 1868. One of the most famous and respected artists of his time, and today.
- [Music History Monday: J.S. Bach, Jailbird](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-j-s-bach-jailbird/) - November 6, 1717 – Johann Sebastian Bach was tossed into jail and spent nearly a month cooling his heels courtesy of his boss, Prince Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar.
- [Music History Monday: An American Classic](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-american-classic/) - On October 30th, 1944, Aaron Copland's ballet “Appalachian Spring” was first performed by the Martha Graham Dance Company in Washington, DC.
- [Music History Monday: Justice Denied](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-justice-denied/) - Highlighting the composer, violinist, dancer and lacemaker Jean-Marie Leclair, born in Lyon, France in 1697 and murdered on October 22, 1764…
- [Music History Monday: Pierrot Lunaire](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-pierrot-lunaire/) - There are certain first performances that we celebrate as being among the seminal events in music history. For example (and we would do well to memorize these dates!), the first performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s groundbreaking opera Orfeo occurred at Florence’s Pitti Palace on Friday, February 24, 1607. Handel’s Messiah was first performed on Tuesday, April | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Tōru Takemitsu](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-toru-takemitsu/) - Music History Monday: Celebrating one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century: Tōru Takemitsu, born October 8, 1930.
- [Music History Monday: Spreading the Love](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-spreading-the-love/) - Music History Monday Oct. 2: Remembering composer Max Bruch, Gordon Sumner (aka Sting), the Summer of Love and the Grateful Dead, and Sir Neville Marriner.
- [Music History Monday: One of a Kind](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-a-kind/) - Today we celebrate the birth of the pianist Glenn Herbert Gould. (Born Glenn Gold) Born September 25, 1932 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- [Music History Monday: Uzeyir Hajibeyov](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-uzeyir-hajibeyov/) - With all due respect to the many "music days", the one we're exploring is National Azerbaijan Music Day, which is celebrated every year on September 18.
- [Music History Monday: What a Way to Go](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-what-a-way-to-go/) - Observing some particular deaths: stupid deaths, unnecessary and premature deaths. A grim topic but not an uninteresting one…
- [Music History Monday: A Rather Strange Fellow](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-rather-strange-fellow/) - Marking the 193rd anniversary of the birth of the Austrian composer and organist Anton Joseph Bruckner with tales of the fascinatingly strange man.
- [Music History Monday: Summer Break](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-summer-break/) - Circumstances now demand a brief hiatus for Music History Mondays. And it isn’t for lack of great topics. As a tease, here’s what I had planned to write about…
- [Music History Monday: To Dance With the Devil](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-to-dance-with-the-devil/) - Can we listen to Carl Orff's “Carmina Burana” without acknowledging its historical baggage? That is a decision that must be left to each one of us.
- [Music History Monday: Leoš Janáček: Composer, Patriot and Patriot Composer!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-leos-janacek-composer-patriot-and-patriot-composer/) - For Leoš Janáček the importance of the Czech language became the decisive influence on his music, believing folk melody was a reflection of a nation’s language.
- [Music History Monday: How Did He Do It?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-how-did-mozart-do-it/) - Mozart composed his works “in his head”. The act of actually notating the music on paper – “copying out” as Mozart called it – was simply a necessary last step.
- [Music History Monday: Our Kind of Musician](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-our-kind-of-musician/) - Ferdinand David was not just a ”musician’s musician” (meaning that other musicians respected him tremendously); he was, even more, a “composer’s musician”.
- [Music History Monday: György Ligeti: An Appreciation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-gyorgy-ligeti-an-appreciation/) - Eleven years ago today – on June 12, 2006 - the Hungarian-born composer György Sándor Ligeti died in Vienna. He was one of the greatest composers and teachers of the twentieth century; a man and composer who is not just a favorite of mine but something of a hero to me (and I am generally | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Futile Precaution](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-futile-precaution/) - Highlighting Italian opera composer Giovanni Paisiello and his most popular opera - the original “Barber of Seville” or “The Futile Precaution”
- [Music History Monday Blogs for San Francisco Performances](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-blogs/) - In my capacity as Music-Historian-in-Residence for San Francisco Performances (SFP), I will be writing a weekly blog called "Music History Monday" for the SFP Facebook page. Being a firm believer in doing double-duty, I will be posting these blogs on my page as well, though I would encourage to visit (and follow!) the SFP Facebook | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Mondays: Porgy and Bess](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-porgy-and-bess/) - 81 years ago today – on October 10, 1935 - George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opened at the Alvin Theater in New York City.
- [Music History Mondays: Porgy and Bess](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-porgy-and-bess-2/) - 81 years ago today – on October 10, 1935 - George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opened at the Alvin Theater in New York City.
- [Music History Mondays: George Crumb: A Birthday Appreciation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-george-crumb-a-birthday-appreciation/) - A most happy birthday to the iconic American composer George Crumb, who was born in Charleston, West Virginia 87 years ago today.
- [Music History Mondays: Good Advice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-good-advice/) - When you come to a fork in the road – or get good advice - you take it. Never stint on rehearsal time. Never. Ever. Not even if you are Franz Liszt.
- [Music History Mondays: Too Many Birthdays!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-too-many-birthdays/) - November 14 features four significant musical birthdays: those of Leopold Mozart, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, and Aaron Copland.
- [Music History Mondays: Mozart - A Diagnosis](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-mozart-a-diagnosis/) - December 5 is an important date in music history. On December 5, 1830 (which was a Sunday) Hector Berlioz’ ground-breaking Symphonie Fantastique received its premiere at a concert that began at 2 P.M. at the Paris Conservatoire, then located on the Rue Bergère - what today is called the Rue de Conservatoire – in the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-shostakovichs-symphony-no-13/) - The Premiere That Almost Wasn't: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13. Wednesday, December 19, 1962 was significant for something that didn’t happen.
- [Music History Monday: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-dmitri-dmitriyevich-shostakovich/) - No composer’s music mirrors both the world around the composer and the vicissitudes of that composer’s life better than that of Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich
- [Music History Monday: Mily Balakirev](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-mily-balakirev/) - A happy 180th birthday to Mily Balakirev, the man who became the Tsar of nineteenth century Russian music & established the Russian national composition style.
- [Music History Monday: Can't We Be Friends?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-cant-we-be-friends/) - On February 6, 1944 Arnold Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto received its premiere by pianist Eduard Steuermann and the NBC Symphony conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
- [Music History Monday: Movers and Shakers](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-movers-and-shakers/) - Robert Greenberg Music History Monday celebration of the birth – on February 20, 1749 – of the violinist, composer, and impresario Johann Peter Salomon.
- [Music History Monday: A Magnificent Fiasco!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-magnificent-fiasco/) - On March 6, 1853 – 164 years ago today – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata received its first performance at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Here's the story…
- [Music History Monday: A Very Tough Crowd](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-very-tough-crowd/) - 156 years ago today – on March 13, 1861 – Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre Imperial de l’Opéra.
- [Music History Monday: An Earth-Shaking Performance!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-an-earth-shaking-performance/) - April 17, 1907, The Metropolitan Opera Company performed Bizet's Carmen in San Franciscoc. Enrico Caruso recounts the next morning's events…
- [Music History Monday: Tchaikovsky: A Composer and Conductor in America!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/tchaikovsky-composer-conductor-in-america/) - Both the dates April 24 and 25 are bereft of significant musical events. As a result, this week’s “Music History Monday” is, in fact, “Music History Wednesday”, as we turn to April 26 for the event that powers todays post. The event: on April 26, 1891 - 126 years ago this coming Wednesday – the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Enduring Miracle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-enduring-miracle/) - On Monday, May 1, 1786, a miracle occured in Vienna: Wolfgang Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro received its premiere at the Burgtheater.
- [Music History Monday: We All Make Mistakes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-we-all-make-mistakes/) - Today we celebrate the 188th birthday of Louis Moreau Gottschalk…considered to be the greatest pianist and composer in the West, the “Chopin of the New World.”
- [Music History Monday: A Riotous Rite](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-riotous-rite/) - May 29 was an incredibly rich day in music history. So much to write about, so little space! Check it out. On May 29, 1801 – 216 years ago today – Joseph Haydn’s final masterwork, The Season, received its public premiere at the Redoutensaal: the still-extant great ballroom in the Imperial Palace (Hofburg) in central | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: The Wagner Conundrum](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-wagner-conundrum/) - Dealing with the Wagner conundrum - we cannot separate Richard Wagner the “man” from Wagner the “artist” - on the 204th anniversary of his birth.
- [Music History Monday: All the Music That’s Fit to Print](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-all-the-music-thats-fit-to-print/) - May 15, 1501 the first polyphonic (multi-part) music printed using moveable type was released to the public by the Venice-based publisher Ottaviano dei Petrucci
- [Music History Monday: One Talented Kid](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-talented-kid/) - On April 11, 1770, Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart witnessed the Papal Choir perform Allegri's Miserere in the Sistine Chapel. A 13-year-old Mozart wrote it down…
- [Music History Monday: The “Other” Bernstein](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-other-bernstein/) - Celebrating film-music composer Elmer Bernstein. You might not know his name, but you almost certainly know at least some his music.
- [Music History Monday: Papa’s Last Days](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-papas-last-days/) - On March 27, 1808, Joseph Haydn made his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio The Creation given in honor of his upcoming 76th birthday.
- [Music History Monday: Why Art Matters](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-why-art-matters/) - Music is not trivial or escapist; it is, like our families, friends, and spiritual beliefs, something we live for, something intrinsic to our humanity…
- [Music History Monday: A Cold War Miracle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-cold-war-miracle/) - Pianist and “Cold War Musical Envoy” Van Cliburn’s celebrity was shaped not just by his talent but also by what were–and remain–earth-shaking historical events.
- [Music History Monday: Immigrants and Immigration](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-immigrants-and-immigration/) - February 13, 1727 - 290 years ago – German-born Georg Friedrich Händel applied for British citizenship. A Music History Monday celebration of immigration.
- [Reporting from Vienna — Mozart Madness!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reporting-from-vienna-mozart-madness/) - UPDATE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLlWONviMc New Mozart In Vienna Webcourse! The extraordinary Joseph Haydn was born in the Austrian town of Rohrau on March 31, 1732. At the age of eight he moved to Vienna, where he became a chorister at St. Stephens Cathedral. He remained in Vienna, on and off, for the remainder of his long life, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Monday: Beethoven and Haydn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-beethoven-and-haydn/) - The plan: Beethoven would study with Haydn for a year or two; get some high-end Viennese caché and then return to Bonn, there to serve the Electoral Court.
- [Music History Monday: The Best Gig in the World!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-best-gig-in-the-world/) - We wish a spirited birthday to the composer and flutist Johann Joachim Quantz, who was born in Oberscheden, Hanover on January 30, 1697, 320 years ago today.
- [Music History Monday: The Mozart/Clementi Duel](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/mozart-clementi-duel/) - Wolfgang Mozart and Muzio Clementi's duel before the the Viennese Emperor on January 23, 1752 - 265 years ago today.
- [Music History Monday: Story Telling](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-story-telling/) - January 17, I will release for download the first of hopefully many “webcourses”. My philosophy of teaching is encapsulated in two words: “story telling”.
- [The Music of the Twentieth Century Preview](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-music-of-the-twentieth-century-preview/) - Your first official preview of the new "Music of the Twentieth Century" Webcourse from Robert Greenberg - available January 17, 2017!
- [Mozart In Vienna Preview!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/mozart-in-vienna-preview/) - Your first official preview of the new Mozart In Vienna Webcourse from Robert Greenberg - available January 17, 2017!
- [Music History Monday: John Knowles Paine](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-john-knowles-paine/) - It is with mixed feelings, then, that we bid you, Herr Professor Paine, a … a somewhat happy birthday.
- [Introducing Web Courses from Robert Greenberg!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/introducing-web-courses-from-robert-greenberg/) - A gratuitous though heart-felt description of (and plug for) Robert Greenberg's soon-to-be-released web courses!
- [Music History Monday: A Very Long Engagement!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-very-long-engagement/) - Exploring one of the most tortuous, profanity-inducing, potentially violent, legally drawn out courtships — the engagement of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck.
- [Music History Monday: A Blast Of Energy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-blast-of-energy/) - Listening in isolation is not the only or even best way to consume music. The best way is live, in a group. Buy some tickets! Have a blast, and love the energy.
- [Music History Monday: Béla Bartók - An Appreciation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-bela-bartok-an-appreciation/) - September 26, 1945 composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist and Hungarian patriot Béla Viktor Janos Bartók died at the age of 64 in New York City.
- [Music History Monday: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-a-marriage-not-made-in-heaven/) - On this date in 1833 the 29 year-old French composer Hector Berlioz married the 33 year-old Anglo-Irish actress Harriet Smithson.
- [Music History Monday: Chopin's Heart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-chopins-heart/) - 167 years ago today – on October 17, 1849 – the brilliant Polish-born composer Frédéric Chopin died in his apartment in Paris’ très chic Place Vendome. He was 39 years, 6 months, and 16 days old when he died and was attended by Dr. Jean Cruveilhier, France’s leading authority on tuberculosis. A few months before | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music History Mondays: Steinway Concert Hall](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-mondays-steinway-concert-hall/) - On October 31, 1866 – 150 years ago today – Steinway Hall opened on East 14th Street, between Fifth Avenue and University Place in New York.
- [Music History Monday: Go Figure](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-go-figure/) - On this day in 1928, Maurice Ravel’s one-movement orchestra work Boléro received its premiere at the Opera Comique in Paris with Ravel conducting.
- [Music History Monday: The Gnarly Demise of a Nasty Man](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-the-gnarly-demise-of-a-nasty-man/) - Jean-Baptiste Lully climbed to the pinnacle of Euro-music in his lifetime, but today is nearly unknown except for the way he died.
- [Audible.com Sponsor Since 2015](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/audible-com-sponsor-since-2015/) - Audible has taken on the sponsorship of “Scandalous Overtures” and I couldn’t be more pleased. Since the great majority of the 26 courses I’ve made for The Great Courses are available on Audible, this sponsorship is perfect, as in one fell swoop (swell foop?) it promotes my two favorite media organizations, Ora TV and The Great Courses.
- [Robert Greenberg Returns to the Break It Down Show](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-returns-to-the-break-it-down-show/) - Robert Greenberg Returns to the Break It Down Show after the recent launch of the new The Great Courses series “Music as a Mirror of History”.
- [Out Now: Music as a Mirror of History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/out-now-music-as-a-mirror-of-history/) - My thirtieth course for The Great Courses, “Music as a Mirror of History”, was released on Friday, July 22. Watch an excerpt that outlines the course on YouTube
- [On The Torch Live with Ed Leon](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/on-the-torch-live-with-ed-leon/) - Robert Greenberg did a Facebook Live interview with Ed Leon of The Great Courses, in which they discuss Robert Greenberg's new course Music as a Mirror.
- [Announcing New Courses!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/announcing-new-courses/) - Announcing the upcoming releases of my latest Great Courses survey and my first webcast courses, what I will now refer to as “webcourses”.
- [Celebrating With Eighth Blackbird](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-with-eighth-blackbird/) - The amazing Chicago-based new music group eighth blackbird played a concert in Berkeley’s Hertz Hall and Robert Greenberg sat in on the rehearsals.
- [Recording Music as a Mirror of History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/recording-music-as-a-mirror-of-history/) - Photos from the recording session from my upcoming course for The Great Courses — Music as a Mirror of History:
- [Ludwig van Beethoven, Commencement Address, Salzburg A & M, May 22, 1825](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/beethoven-commencement-address/) - I am honored to be with you today, although it might have occurred to someone at A & M to front me the money for the trip from Vienna. Generally speaking, I don’t do freebies, which is the first and best piece of advice I can give you. And for heaven’s sake, don’t fall for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Two Top Audible Best Sellers!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/two-audible-best-sellers/) - Two of my courses - The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works and A Brief History of Holiday Music - are both in Audible.com's Top 10 Best Sellers List for Nonfiction!
- [We are all Parisians](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/we-are-all-parisians/) - I wish I could be in Paris now, as for me the issue is one of solidarity: a desire to stand with the citizens of a city that represents so much of the best of who we are.
- [Unique Contest for Piano Composers and Arrangers](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/unique-contest-for-piano-composers-and-arrangers/) - Composers Inc., Sheet Music Plus and the Steinway Galleries of Walnut Creek and San Francisco partner in a new competition for piano composers and arrangers.
- [An Evening of Art and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/an-evening-of-art-and-music/) - The Alexander String Quartet and I are doing a benefit fundraiser for the Montclair Elementary School in Oakland on October 10. The Montclair Elementary School is a public K-5 school in the Oakland Hills. Founded in 1925, it numbers among its present students my daughter Lillian (a third grader) and my son Daniel (a first | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg on The Diane Rehm Show](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-on-the-diane-rehm-show/) - Robert Greenberg joined NPR's “The Diane Rehm Show” guest-hosted by Tamara Keith for a discussion on “Presidential Campaign Music.”
- [Murray Perahia — Beethoven: Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/murray-perahia-beethoven-piano-sonata-in-f-minor-op-57-appassionata/) - This fit of Beethovenian gratitude was triggered this morning by an email sent to me including a link to a video of Beethoven’s “Appassionata” by Murray Perahia.
- [Invasive Species Premiere Performance](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/invasive-species-premiere-performance/) - The premiere performance of Invasive Species for piano quintet, performed by pianist Roger Woodward and Alexander String Quartet in Berkeley, CA in March 2014.
- [Compositions Now Available on Sheet Music Plus!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/compositions-now-available-on-sheet-music-plus/) - My music is now being digitally published by Sheet Music Plus! By September 1, 18 pieces will be “live” with scores and parts available for digital download.
- [New Webcast Courses Coming 2016!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/new-webcast-courses-coming-2016/) - I have gone a long way towards formulating the nature and content of the online courses I will self publish and begin to release during the beginning of 2016.
- [T-Shirt Comedy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/t-shirt-comedy/) - I am not usually a laugh out-loud sort of guy but this has really tickled my funny bone. It could very well be the biggest musical mistake since Pol Pot's "Christmas Album".
- [Vote for Your Favorite Title](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/vote-for-your-favorite-title/) - Many thanks to everyone who proposed a title for my upcoming Great Courses survey. I have managed to reduce the number of potential titles to 11, now we vote!
- [It's Time To Start Teaching Again and I Want Your Advice](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/its-time-to-start-teaching-again-and-i-want-your-advice/) - It’s time for me to start teaching again, though technology has most certainly changed the equation. Instead of the public coming to me, I can go to you – anywhere – via the net.
- [New Course Coming Soon](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/new-course-coming-soon/) - Robert Greenberg has been writing a new, 24-lecture course for The Great Courses, and has only recently – this week, in fact – finished the first draft.
- [How To Listen And Understand Great Music at 37,000 Feet!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-listen-and-understand-great-music-at-37000-feet/) - As of February 1, Virgin America began offering a lecture of mine from my 48-lecture, 36-hour “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music.”
- [Scandalous Overtures: Tchaikovsky: Fear And Loathing In St. Petersburg](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-tchaikovsky/) - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a deeply neurotic man. His neurosis sprang from a personality so over-sensitive that his governess called him a “porcelain child”; from his inferiority complex as a composer; and from his sexuality. Tchaikovsky was a died-in-the-wool homosexual living and working in one of the most homophobic cultures of recent memory: Imperial Russia.
- [Scandalous Overtures: Haydn: Haydn Go Seek](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-haydn/) - Why would anyone want to hack the head off of Joseph Haydn’s corpse, scoop out its eyes and brain, boil off its hair and skin, bleach the skull, and then mount it on a black velvet pillow?
- [Scandalous Overtures: Beethoven's Death Wish](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-beethovens-death-wish/) - Where have we heard this before? A beloved, supremely gifted performing artist appears to be at the top of his game and on top of the world. However, unbeknownst to all but a few friends and relatives, he harbors a great darkness within him, a despair that motivates and inspires his art.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Carlo Gesualdo, Prince Of Venosa: Murderer At Large](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-carlo-gesualdo-murderer/) - Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo was one of the most innovative composers of the 16th century. He was also a serial murderer, as Prof. Robert Greenberg tells us
- [Scandalous Overtures — Jean-Baptiste Lully: The Gnarly Demise of a Nasty Man](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-jean-baptiste-lully/) - Jean-Baptiste Lully, the director of the Paris Opera in the 1600s and friend of Louis XIV, met an untimely death, as Prof. Robert Greenberg describes.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Franz Schubert: One Too Many Nights Out](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-franz-schubert-one-too-many-nights-out/) - Prolific composer Franz Schubert and his friend, the composer Franz Von Schober, liked to party – and that in the end is what did Schubert in, as Prof. Robert Greenberg explains.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Giuseppe Verdi: The Conspiracy to Get Him Back To Work](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-giuseppe-verdi/) - Scandalous Overtures — Verdi: The Conspiracy to Get Him Back To Work: 58-year-old Verdi threw in the towel and announced that he was DONE. But, in fact, he wasn’t …
- [Scandalous Overtures — Johannes Brahms & Clara Schumann: Did They Or Didn't They?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-brahms-clara-schumann/) - One of the greatest mysteries in music history is the relationship between Brahms and composer Robert Schumann’s wife, Clara. So, did they? Prof. Robert Greenberg investigates.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Rachmaninoff: Reborn Through Hypnosis](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-rachmaninoff-reborn-through-hypnosis/) - Ever had writer’s block? Rachmaninoff did, too – and tried to cure it through hypnosis back in the late 1800s, Prof. Robert Greenberg explains.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Hector Berlioz: Dressed To Kill](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-hector-berlioz-dressed-to-kill/) - Prof. Robert Greenberg introduces us to Symphonie Fantastique composer Hector Berlioz, who had a complicated relationship with his in-laws, to say the least.
- [Richard Wagner: What Ever Happened To Wagner's Manuscripts?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/richard-wagner-what-ever-happened-to-wagners-manuscripts/) - Are Richard Wagner’s opera manuscripts hiding in a Nazi bunker, along with the decaying corpse of Adolph Hitler? We may never know, as Prof. Robert Greenberg investigates.
- [Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Justin Bieber Of 1860s San Francisco](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/gottschalk-the-bieber-of-1860s/) - American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk had a thing for music, money, and sex – he was a pimp, as Prof. Robert Greenberg explains.
- [Scandalous Overtures — Brahms: The King of Practical Jokes](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scandalous-overtures-brahms-the-king-of-practical-jokes/) - Most guys mature past practical jokes, however, some men never get past this stage. Among those who don't was the composer and pianist Johannes Brahms.
- [Talking “Improvising” with the Break It Down Show](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/talking-improvising-with-the-break-it-down-show/) - Robert Greenberg talks about Scandalous Overtures, the Bay Area, technology and more with the “Break It Down Show” podcast.
- [Robert Greenberg on WXXI Connections With Evan Dawson](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/wxxi-connections/) - WXXI Connections welcomed Robert Greenberg to the program December 12th to talk about The Great Courses and Scandalous Overtures
- [Reddit AMA — December 19th](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reddit-ama-december-19th/) - I’m so looking forward to my Reddit AMA on December 19! Join me on reddit/r/music for musings and more this Friday at 12pm PT.
- [Robert Greenberg with Larry King and William Shatner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-with-larry-king-and-william-shatner/) - Robert Greenberg discusses his new OraTV show “Scandalous Overtures” on Larry King's “King's Things” and William Shatner's “Brown Bag Wine Tasting”
- [Coming Out of a Month of Anniversaries](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/coming-out-of-a-month-of-anniversaries/) - Coming Out of a Month of Anniversaries — This year I decided to begin a project I’ve been putting off for years: scanning family photos.
- [Explorations in Music, KALW, The Alexander String Quartet & Relationships](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/explorations-in-music-kalw-the-alexander-string-quartet-relationships/) - KALW interviews Robert Greenberg for it's “Explorations in Music ” broadcast of the Alexander String Quartet & Robert Greenberg's San Francisco Performances Saturday Series.
- [The Diane Elizabeth Clymer-Greenberg Memorial Concert — Next Week!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-diane-elizabeth-clymer-greenberg-memorial-concert-next-week/) - The October 7 Composers, Inc. concert will feature works composed within just the last few years, by Cindy Cox, Don Freund, Marty Rokeach, Andrew Sigler, and Robert Greenberg.
- [The Great Courses as a Curriculum](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-great-courses-as-a-curriculum/) - Among the questions I am most frequently asked is, if my 27 in-print courses should constitute a curriculum, in what order should they be consumed? …
- [OraTV: Scandalous Overtures — The Sizzle!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-scandalous-overtures-the-sizzle/) - Watch the “Sizzle” (promo) for the new Robert Greenberg series on OraTV, now re-entitled “Scandalous Overtures”
- [Shostakovich — His Life and Music Playlist](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/shostakovich-his-life-and-music-playlist/) - Enjoy five excerpts from the “Great Masters: Shostakovich — His Life and Music” course in a new playlist on the Robert Greenberg YouTube Channel
- [Robert Greenberg Recommends: Roger Kellaway](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-recommends-roger-kellaway/) - In fact, whether we’re aware of it or not, most of us have heard Kellaway play, as his performance of his song “Remembering You” concluded the classic Norman Lear-produced TV show “All in the Family”
- [Great Masters: Shostakovich — His Life and Music: Let the Controversy Begin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/great-masters-shostakovich-his-life-and-music-let-the-controversy-begin/) - If I was asked for which of my courses did I fight hardest to make, and which one tells the single most compelling, amazing, and heart-breaking story, the answers are easy: my Great Masters biography of Dmitri Shostakovich.
- [The New York Times Features The Great Courses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-new-york-times-features-the-great-courses/) - The Great Courses appeared in the New York Times, which focused on TGC as a video production company with slick, professional, high-end television programs.
- [“The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works” Wins a TELLY Award](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-23-greatest-solo-piano-works-wins-a-telly-award/) - “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works” Wins a TELLY Award!
- [South Bay Angle (A Twisted Tango)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/south-bay-angle-a-twisted-tango/) - On Sunday, March 17 a piece of mine for violin and piano will receive its rather long-awaited premiere under the auspices of “Sounds New” at 3 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley at 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. It should be a blast. My program reads as follows: South Bay Angle (A Twisted Tango) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music – Part Six](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-six/) - Suggestion number two for getting and keeping our kids interested in music: dance, conduct, and even play along with the music. A few preliminary observations. We perceive music by listening to it. We listen with our ears. Based on such obvious truisms, it was seem that the act of perceiving music involves only one of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi’s 200th — Life and Operas of Verdi: Otello](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-verdis-200th-life-and-operas-of-verdi-otello/) - During the first half of his professional life, Giuseppe Verdi worked like a proverbial dog. (An odd idiom, “worked like a dog”. Yes, I suppose some dogs do work, but most of them spend the bulk of their time sleeping, eating, scratching themselves and licking their privates. If the latter is what is really meant | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi’s 200th — Life and Operas of Verdi: Rigoletto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-verdis-200th-life-and-operas-of-verdi-rigoletto/) - Giuseppe Verdi’s first opera, “Oberto”, was produced at Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala in 1839 when Verdi was 26 years old. Oberto’s modest success was completely obscured by the domestic disasters Verdi suffered between 1838 and 1840 when, in the span of 22 months, he lost both his small children and he beloved wife Margherita | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi’s 200th — Life and Operas of Verdi: Nabucco](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-verdis-200th-life-and-operas-of-verdi-nabucco/) - We understand a “eureka moment” as being a revelatory, paradigm-shifting realization that has the power to change EVERYTHING. The word “eureka" comes from the ancient Greek word εὕρηκα, which means “I have found it!” The ancient Greco-dude credited with coining the exclamation “eureka!” was the mathematician, astronomer, physicist, engineer, inventor and Jeopardy!-freak Archimedes (circa 287 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi’s 200th — Life and Operas of Verdi: Macbeth](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-verdis-200th-life-and-operas-of-verdi-macbeth/) - Speaking of facial hair (which I did in my previous post), I would issue a challenge to all the techies out there. I would dearly love to have an app that allowed me to actually “see” what someone looked like – clean shaven – beneath his beard. Now, I completely understand that a full beard | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi's 200th — Life and Operas of Verdi: La bell'Italia](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/life-operas-verdi-la-bell-italia/) - We have a major composer birthday coming up: the great Italian opera composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi will be turning 200 years old on October 10, and he never sounded better. I am going to take a brief break from my jazz pianist postings in order to focus on my pal and yours, the esteemed | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greenberg Recommends — Lennie Tristano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greenberg-recommends-lennie-tristano/) - It was as a result of my lessons with Lee Konitz that I was first exposed to the music of Lennie Tristano (as well as Tristano’s teaching method, which Konitz employed pretty much verbatim). Along with my discovery of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”, Tristano’s compositions and style of playing was the great musical | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greenberg Recommends: Oscar Peterson](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greenberg-recommends-oscar-peterson/) - I was sixteen years old when I bought two record albums that changed my life. One was called “Oscar Peterson at the JATP” and the other “Oscar Peterson on Prestige”. “Oscar Peterson at the JATP” [‘Jazz at the Philharmonic’], the producer Norman Granz’ touring jazz mega-show] is available on a just-released, four-CD set called “Oscar | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Jim Patrick and Lee Konitz](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/jim-patrick-and-lee-konitz/) - Spring semester of my freshman year at college – this would have been 1973 – I took a jazz history class taught by a youngish (28 year-old) jazz scholar and graduate student named Jim Patrick. (In preparation for writing this blog, I Googled Jim to see what he was up to, expecting – foolishly – | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Schumann's Kinderscenen, Op. 15, No. 7 — Träumerei](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/schumanns-kinderscenen-op-15-no-7-traumerei/) - I’ve spent the last week editing the piano excerpts that will illustrate my upcoming The Great Courses survey, “The 23 Greatest Solo Works”. In honor of that poorly entitled and numerically challenged course (which will be available in early October), I offer up a brief piano masterwork, one with a story a mile long: Robert | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greenberg Recommends: Tony Williams](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greenberg-recommends-tony-williams/) - It was sometime in the spring of 1980. I was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, living in a studio apartment in a dilapidated old brown shingle house south of campus, across from a package store. I made my dollars as a teaching assistant in the music department and by giving private | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg Recommends: Erroll Garner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-recommends-erroll-garner/) - The jazz-inspired revelation that changed my life at the age of fourteen was foisted on me by none-other-than the Elf himself: Erroll Garner. My dad had a number of Garner LP’s among the various stacks in the record cabinet, most notably the albums “Concert by the Sea” and “Soliloquy”. These records literally drove me wild, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg Recommends — Chick Corea](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-recommends-chick-corea/) - It’s a standard question in a literary interview to ask an author “what books are on your bedside table.” We humans are, by our nature, voyeurs, and we can’t resist knowing what authors are themselves reading. (What we’ d REALLY like to know is what’s in their medicine cabinets and sock drawers, but that’s a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Comments on the Child Prodigy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/comments-on-the-child-prodigy/) - A friend sent me the video below of a “child prodigy” with a request that I “comment”. Here goes. I would begin with a rhetorical question: is there anything more tiresome, more irksome than a “child prodigy”? Prodigies: they stand as a reminder of our own mediocrity, and if we could, we’d squash ‘em like | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg Composition — Lemurs are Afraid of Fossas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/lemurs-are-afraid-of-fossas/) - With all my recent “talk” about composers and such, I thought it would be appropriate to “walk the walk” and post some more of my music, if only to verify that I am not completely full of cow chips when I presume to assert what composers “are” and “aren’t”. So I am taking the opportunity | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Behind a Composition – Technology Conversation Continues](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/behind-a-composition-technology-conversation-continues/) - I was pleased as punch by the discussion generated by my last post regarding digital technology, digital-shortcuts, the piano and composers. A number of correspondents argued that digital notational programs like Finale and Sibelius are simply “the next thing”, and that the limits placed on one’s creativity by actually composing on one of these programs | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How to Get and Keep Kids Interested in Concert Music - Progress Report](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-progress-report/) - A progress report on my daughter Lillian Patricia (LilyPat), who began piano lessons 9 weeks ago, on March 5. (The post that started it all) Readers of this blog will recall that at 6½ years of age, I was concerned that she might be a bit young to happily deal with the discipline required of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greenberg Recommends - Vocal Sampling](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greenberg-recommends-vocal-sampling/) - When I was a graduate student I had the opportunity to study with a wonderful composer (and teacher) named Olly Wilson. A piece of advice Olly gave his students (myself included) was to listen to and thus immerse yourself in whatever instrumental combination you were composing for in order to get (and keep) the “sound” | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Rarefied Air](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/rarefied-air/) - On November 13, 2012, a piece of mine entitled Rarefied Air was performed at Old First Church in San Francisco under the auspices of Composers, Inc. That performance – which featured Rob Bailis on clarinet, Michael Nicholas on violin, and Hadley McCarroll on piano - is now up on YouTube and thus available for your | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Revisiting "The Music of Richard Wagner" - The Ring - Part Two and Three](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/revisiting-the-music-of-richard-wagner-the-ring-part-two-and-three/) - I’m off to Berlin tomorrow to escort a group and attend Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle at the Staatsoper, to be conducted by the ageless Daniel Barenboim. In the spirit of “spreading the informational joy” for all who might be interested, I’ve posted two more excerpts from my The Great Courses survey “The Music of Richard | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Revisiting "The Music of Richard Wagner"](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/revisiting-the-music-of-richard-wagner/) - In honor of Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday (which falls on May 22), and in anticipation of my upcoming trip to Berlin to hear the Berlin Staatsoper and Daniel Barenboim perform The Ring (about which I will blog endlessly once on site), I offer a twelve minute introduction/teaser on the Ring Cycle drawn from Lecture 17 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [“The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works” Series to be shown for FREE in Chatham, NJ](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-23-greatest-solo-piano-works-series-to-be-shown-for-free-in-chatham-nj/) - Every now and then a friend sends along a link like this one, indicating that one of my The Teaching Company/Great Courses surveys is being publicly screened. According to the article, from the Chatham (New Jersey) Courier, my DVD series “The 23 Greatest Piano Solo Works” is being shown (free of charge) at the Senior | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greenberg Recommends — Vince Guaraldi](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greenberg-recommends-vince-guaraldi/) - Back in early autumn, I ran a series of blogs on my favorite jazz pianists. With your indulgence, I would resume with a wonderful – if somewhat under under-appreciated - pianist, whose name I will broach in due time (not that you haven’t just checked the bottom of the post). But first, a necessary screed. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Advice to Students I Never Gave](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/advice-to-students-i-never-gave/) - I have taken a brief but necessary hiatus from my Facebook blogging, but I’m back now, reinvigorated and prepared now to write about stuff you probably couldn’t care less about: growing up in New Jersey and then moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the video I’ve posted at the butt-end of this post | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Checking in from Italy — Mantua](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/checking-in-from-italy-mantua/) - If it’s Friday, it must be Mantua. The potential downside with a tour the likes of the one I am presently engaged in is that it IS a tour: we climb on a bus and thus cocooned, we journey forth to various locations. We must adhere to the almighty schedule lest people get lost and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Celebrating Verdi's 200th — Falstaff](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-verdis-200th-falstaff/) - I trust we all raised a glass last Thursday on the 10th of October in honor of Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th birthday. Now, I am aware that with the exception of “belated birthday cards” (“I really crapped up, I’m embarrassed to say; but I had better things to do than remember your day”), we generally do | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Great Courses Spring Warehouse Clearance Sale](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/great-courses-spring-warehouse-clearance-sale/) - Over FOURTEEN of my courses on sale during The Great Courses Spring Warehouse Clearance. Take advantage of courses up to 70% Off Today! On Sale Courses include: The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works How to Listen to and Understand Opera Bach and the High Baroque Concert Masterworks Music of Richard Wagner Life and Operas of Verdi Beethoven's | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Reporting from Vienna — Beethoven Sightings](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reporting-from-vienna-beethoven-sightings/) - Proud as I am to be a 36-year resident of Northern California, and proud as I am that all four of my children were born there, I myself grew in the ironically named “Garden State” of New Jersey. This bears mentioning (for the second time in two posts, no less) because one cannot urinate in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Reporting from Home — Vienna Wrap Up](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reporting-from-home-vienna-wrap-up/) - It’s hard to believe that it’s almost two weeks since we returned from our trip to Vienna, but there you go, time flies when you’re putting things away, doing laundry, and paying bills. I have always advocated – vainly – that we should all have the opportunity to “take a vacation from a vacation” by | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Reporting from Vienna — The Haydn House](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/reporting-from-vienna-the-haydn-house/) - For my two Euros, the best monument to a composer in Vienna is – by far – the house in which Joseph Haydn lived during the last twelve years of his life, from 1797 to 1809. Here’s the story: Between 1791 and 1795, Joseph Haydn twice visited England. The first of Haydn’s most excellent English | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [“Invasive Species” Kickstarter](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/invasive-species-kickstarter/) - Today’s post offers an invitation, a request, and a screed. Invitation Come one; come all; please: I have a premiere coming up on March 11 at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California; 8 PM. The concert will take place under the auspices of Composers, Inc., an organization dedicated to the performance of new American | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Invasive Species Update!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/invasive-species-update/) - Color me thrilled and grateful. Our Kickstarter campaign has raised its required 3k minimum, and will thus pay out on March 11, the day of the premiere for which the campaign was created. However, my dearest, darling, beneficent, generous-to-a-fault friends (was that treacly enough?), the cause of new American music is a good one, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Recording for OraTV — Just a few weeks away!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/recording-for-oratv-just-a-few-weeks-away/) - I spent the better part of last week working on background materials for my OraTV show “Conspiracies, Peccadilloes, and Dirty Little Secrets: Fun and Games With the Great Composers.” A chunk of time was spent finding and scanning visual images appropriate for the shows, images that will be projected behind me. The bulk of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One more from OraTV](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/one-more-from-oratv/) - I swear, I promise, I guarantee (as best as I can guarantee anything): after today, there will be no more gratuitous references to my trip to SoCal yesterday, where I appeared on talk shows already named. Having said all of that, I would offer up one more photo that my wife found on her iPhone | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [A Day with OraTV](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/a-day-with-oratv/) - Monday was a fantastic day. I would beg your indulgence as I describe it. I will be forgiven upfront for namedropping as yesterday was about meeting some very special people. First things first. My wife Nanci was my boon companion from moment one. Nanci’s presence was a wise choice for any number of reasons, aside | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Greetings from Vienna!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/greetings-from-vienna/) - Along with mass consumption of Viennese coffee, strudel, and schnitzel, our pilgrimages have begun. Today we visited he house in which Franz Schubert was born on January 31, 1797 at Nußdorfer Straße 54. To call the house “modest” is a bit of an understatement; at the time of Schubert’s birth its 16 apartments housed some | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Premiere of “180 Shift”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-premiere-of-180-shift/) - I had a premiere in Stockton, California on November 2 and now, with video in hand, I would take the opportunity of sharing it with you. The name of the piece is “180 Shift”; it is scored for violin, ‘cello, and piano. The piece was composed for and dedicated to a wonderful group called Trio | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg Named An Official Steinway Artist](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-steinway-artist/) - It has been a very good week. I distrust very good weeks. I would explain. By calling this a “good week” I am (obviously) asserting that good things have happened during the last seven (or so) days. And that is true. But saddled (as I am) with my particular psychoneuroses, such a positive assertion is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Announcing A New Series for Ora TV — “Conspiracies, Peccadilloes, and Dirty Little Secrets! Fun and Games with the Great Composers”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/announcing-a-new-series-for-ora-tv-conspiracies-peccadilloes-and-dirty-little-secrets-fun-and-games-with-the-great-composers/) - I have been busy with a new project that I am now in the position to share with you! I have been writing a series of fifteen eight-minute episodes (1100-1150 words each) for Ora TV, an on-demand digital television network founded in 2012 by Carlos Slim (Forbes Magazine’s 2013 “richest man in the world”) and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The OraTV adventure begins](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-oratv-adventure-begins/) - Yesterday I headed off to the OraTV studios in Southern California to record 15 episodes of what I hope will be an ongoing show, "Conspiracies, Peccadilloes, and Dirty Little Secrets! Fun and Games with the Great Composers”. As the show's title rather breathlessly indicates, each episode focuses on a conspiracy, or a peccadillo, or a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [OraTV Jon Housman Interview on Huffington Post](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-jon-housman-interview-on-huffington-post/) - A most interesting interview with Jon Housman, the CEO of OraTV who brought me into the Ora family after reading a blog about Mozart on this very Facebook page. Check it out below: | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [OraTV Day One Report](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv-day-one-report/) - First the good news. Today's recording session at Ora TV was a portrait in smooth. The crew is slick as snail slime on a bowling alley and incredibly easy to work with. I am working in front of a green screen (see below), which will allow my producer Jason Rovou (who was kind enough to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Ordering The Great Courses Surveys](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/ordering-the-great-courses-surveys/) - I receive all sorts of (usually lovely) mail and email from all sorts of folks asking all sorts of questions, mostly about music but not infrequently about other things as well. You will – I’m sure – be relieved to hear that for now I will focus on the former, reserving my advice on dating, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [HAPPY 243RD BIRTHDAY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/happy-243rd-birthday-ludwig-van-beethoven/) - In honor of the day I offer up a few Beethoven jokes. Beethoven himself loved a good joke. According to his pals, no one laughed louder at Beethoven’s jokes than Beethoven himself, who would throw his head back and howl with inappropriately loud laughter. (We are told that Beethoven’s friends invariably laughed along, not because | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [What Killed Mozart? The Real Story](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/what-killed-mozart-the-real-story/) - Mozart died 222 years ago today at the not-at-all ripe age of 35 years, 10 months, and 8 days. In yesterday’s post I described some of the conspiracy theories that have accumulated around Mozart’s death like guano on seaside rocks. Today we move on to some of the medical diagnoses that have been proposed to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozartian Conspiracy Theories](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/mozartian-conspiracy-theories/) - Tomorrow, December 5, marks the 222nd anniversary of the Death of Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, who died in Vienna at the age of 35 on December 5, 1791. Few historical events have been subjected to as much speculation as the cause of Mozart's death. So many different theories and stories have been suggested over | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Great Courses Professor Web-Chat Recap](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/great-courses-professor-web-chat-recap/) - Be it ever so humble . . . We returned home late in the day on Tuesday, October 29. Typical of extended trips, we needed a vacation following our vacation. (Admittedly, mine was a “working vacation”, a phrase as oxymoronic as “vacations with children”. In truth, hanging out in Italy with your wife and 40 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Checking in from Italy — Verdi Opera Tour](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/checking-in-from-italy-verdi-opera-tour/) - Hard to believe, it’s already a week since I/we left home in order to lead a Verdi opera tour in Italy. We arrived on Wednesday, October 16 and are staying in a renovated thirteenth-century castle in an ancient village called Tabiano Castello in Emilia-Romagna, about 30 minutes south-west of Parma. This is Verdi territory; he | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg Premieres —  “180 Shift” ](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-premieres-180-shift/) - I will have two works premiered this season. In the spirit of self-promotion I am posting the particulars and would then discuss the first of the premieres, coming up in November. Premiere One: “180 Shift” (2013) Place: Recital Hall, Conservatory of Music at University of the Pacific, 3515 Pacific Circle, Stockton, California Date: November 2, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [New Course Available — The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/23-greatest-solo-piano-works/) - Now Available: The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works Purchase Today! As a solo concert instrument, the piano enjoys an unrivaled popularity in Western music. Capable of a vast sonic range, from ethereal softness to thundering grandeur, its appeal is global and seemingly eternal. For nearly 200 years, audiences have packed concert halls and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [If music be the food of love, play on!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/if-music-be-the-food-of-love-play-on/) - “If music be the food of love, play on!” So spake Duke Orsino in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night of 1602. Taking our cue from the good Duke (to say nothing for his creator, the extraordinary Billy S.), I would observe that since this site is about music, it must also then be about love (and food, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [On Birthdays](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/on-birthdays/) - Among the top pick-up lines of my generation was the irksome “what’s your sign?”. I myself never used the line because one, I was too embarrassed to do so and two, I never gave much credence to the whole astrology trip, even as an ice-breaker. If you ask me (which you didn’t, but then you | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Lessons With Lee](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/lessons-with-lee-konitz/) - I studied jazz improvisation with the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz for the better part of a year between 1973 and ’74. As best as I recall, his apartment in New York City was on the East 30’s. He shared it with his wife and a two cats. Of the three, Konitz clearly had the better | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Marking the passing of Shostakovich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/marking-the-passing-of-shostakovich/) - August 9 marks the 38th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich. Never a particularly healthy man, what got Shostakovich in the end was lung cancer, the result of a lifetime of chain-smoking those foulest-of-foul “papirosi”: cardboard-tipped Soviet cigarettes. Please a moment of silence (and, if you’re a smoker, perhaps a tobacco-free day) for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [A salute to American Oboist John de Lancie](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/a-salute-to-john-de-lancie/) - I have spent the last four days writing up a calendar of events discussed in my twenty-six in-print The Great Courses/Teaching Company courses. (The calendar presently runs 70 pages in length. By the time I finish – with luck, tomorrow - it will run about 90 pages.) My intention is to choose one or two | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The String Quartet in a Time of War: Pavel Haas, String Quartet No. 3](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-string-quartet-in-a-time-of-war-pavel-haas-string-quartet-no-3/) - In March of 1936, Nazi Germany reoccupied the demilitarized Rhineland and by doing so abrogated the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact. The remilitarization of the Rhineland was driven by domestic politics, not unlike our own invasion of Iraq: Hitler needed to shore up his relationship with the army leadership and his right-wing power | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The String Quartet at a Time of War:  Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 6   ](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-string-quartet-at-a-time-of-war-bela-bartok-string-quartet-no-6/) - Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6 was written in early 1939, at a very dark time in his personal life and in history. Some background. Adolf Hitler came to power when he was appointed German Chancellor – the head of the government – on January 30, 1933. The fools that arranged Hitler’s appointment did so because | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The String Quartet in Time of War: Benjamin Britten, String Quartet No. 2 (1945)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-string-quartet-in-time-of-war-benjamin-britten-string-quartet-no-2-1945/) - “It” Benjamin Britten was born in 1913, on November 22: the feast day of St. Cecelia, Patron Saint of Music. Britten’s birth date pleased his mother Edith no end. Britten’s childhood friend Basil Reed recalled that: “[Britten’s mother was] determined that he should be a great musician. Quite often we would talk about the three | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [New Jazz Appreciation Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/new-jazz-appreciation-series/) - As a young’un, I played the usual instructional piano stuff, starting with the then ubiquitous pedagogic set by John Thompson, red-covered piano books beginning with a series called “Teaching Little Fingers to Play” and then moved on to “John Thompson’s Modern Course for the Piano.” By the time I was fourteen I could play a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [As American as tarte aux pommes! Celebrating the Fourth with some American Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/celebrating-the-fourth-american-music/) - I began blogging about a year-and-a-half ago. I was working with a publicist at the time that in turn worked with a vast number of sites. She would suggest topics to me and then place the blog with a subject-appropriate site. By far the majority of these pieces were “top ten” style pieces written for | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Behind a Composition - Technology](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/behind-a-composition-technology/) - I am fond of saying (overly fond, frankly) that “technology is our friend, except when it isn’t.” We all know that this is true although it is tiresome to repeat. Nevertheless I have repeated this truism as a reminder that our techno-toys often actually hinder progress and creativity. Technology. We were led to believe that | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Recording the Pianists at The Great Courses – Part Three - True Professionalism](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/recording-pianists-the-great-courses-professionalism/) - Ah, the idealized romance of the virtuoso pianist! A solitary figure sitting at a piano communing with her innermost thoughts and feelings through the medium of a repertoire second to none; wresting from the instrument its deepest secrets and sonorities while becoming one with the piano and the music. Yes! Yes! Yes, yes! (“I’ll have | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Recording the Pianists at The Great Courses – Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/recording-the-pianists-at-the-great-courses-part-two/) - Today we had the opportunity to meet and hear the third of our three pianists, Eun Joo Chung. She recorded the excerpts for two great and most virtuosic works: Johannes Brahms’ “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel” and Aaron Copland’s “Piano Variations”. She was absolutely stunning. Some logistical info. The studio in which | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Recording the Pianists at The Great Courses - Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/recording-the-pianists-at-the-great-courses-part-one/) - As anticipated in my previous post, I have travelled to Chantilly, Virginia – HQ of The Great Courses/The Teaching Company – to oversee the recording of the musical examples for my latest course, “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works.” The three professional concert pianists tasked with recording the excerpts are Magdalina Melkonyan, Woo Bin Park, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Ten](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-ten/) - Tuesday, May 28th I return to The Great Courses/Teaching Company studios in Virginia to complete work on my latest course: “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works.” We recorded the actual lectures back in January and early February, a process well-documented on this site (scroll down for the blogs I wrote during the recording process and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Let The Party Begin - 200th Birthday Celebrations for Verdi and Wagner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/200th-birthdays-wagner-verdi/) - Let the party begin! We are about to embark on the greatest one-two birthday punch in the history of opera. Tomorrow – May 22 – marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Richard Wagner. 151 days later – on October 10 – we will celebrate the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Wishing My Father a Happy Birthday and A Little Greenberg Family History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/wishing-my-father-a-happy-birthday-and-a-little-greenberg-family-history/) - A birthday greeting and appreciation to my father – Alvin R. Greenberg - who turned 88 today. More than anyone else, it is my dad who is responsible for my career in music, a fact that at one time might have given him some cause for regret but which, at this point, provides more pleasure | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Be Careful Who You Give Things To: A Cautionary Tale](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/be-careful-who-you-give-things-to-a-cautionary-tale/) - A composer’s most prized possessions are his/her autograph manuscripts: complete scores notated in pencil or ink. (We pause to rue the passing of such hand-written manuscripts. As a new generation of composers notates music using computer programs, the art of music calligraphy will go the way of the hand-copied illuminated manuscript, and technology will claim | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Ring in Berlin - Part Three](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-ring-in-berlin-part-three/) - The third installment of our Berlin Ring cycle – Siegfried – took place on Sunday, April 7 (by total coincidence, “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”). The curtain was particularly early that day – 4 PM – presumably to allow everyone to get home for a workday on the morrow. It would appear that everyone was aware | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Ring in Berlin - Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-ring-in-berlin-part-two/) - The permanent home of the Berlin State Theater (the “Staatsoper”) is a magnificent, traditionally arrayed 1300-seat theater on the Unter den Linden, Berlin’s equivalent to Paris’ Champs Elysées and New York’s Fifth Avenue. The theater has been closed for renovations since 2010, and will likely remain closed until 2015. Thus, performances have been transferred across | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Ring in Berlin Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-ring-in-berlin/) - Safely (and warmly) ensconced back in northern California, I will offer over the next few days a report of what was, by any measure, an extraordinary Ring cycle in Berlin. I would begin with the bad news. The supertitles were all in German! Arghh!!! Of all the nerve! Granted, I’ll be the first to admit | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music – Part Nine](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-nine/) - Suggestion number nine for getting and keeping our kids interested in music: acquire a piano. The medium-to-long-term denizens of his site have heard this particular song before, though I will repeat it, because like any good tune, repetition breeds familiarity and perhaps even affection, and I need us all to like what I’m about to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music – Part Eight](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-eight/) - Suggestion number four for getting and keeping our kids interested in music (FYI, suggestions numbers one through three were posted, respectively, on February 21, 24, and 25): introduce them to the unparalleled joy of live music, an experience is increasingly undervalued in our YouTubeocracy. The issue of consuming music “live” brings up two ginormous issues. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music – Part Seven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-seven/) - Suggestion number three for getting and keeping our kids interested in music: movies and videos. We are visual creatures, and while I am generally not in favor of increasing screen time in our children’s lives, there are some movies and videos that are worth watching. (FYI: I am not in any way an authority on | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music – Part Five](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-five/) - Suggestion number one for how to get and keep our kids interested in music: play a variety of music at home and in the car. As if you really needed me to tell you that. If we leave musical selection entirely up to the kids, it’ll be Raffi and Miley Cyrus until they are ten, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music - Part Three](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-three/) - It has always seemed to me that there are two essentially different kinds of music. The first is what we might call “generational music”: the contemporary music we hear and sing and play while we’re growing up - music that represents our childhood; our innocence; our coming of age; our sexual awakening; our friends and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music - Part Four](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-four/) - I am just naïve enough to believe that almost all music is accessible – on some level or another - to almost all people. Obviously I’ve hedged, because some musical genres – Extreme Gangsta Rap and White Power Rock/Nazi Punk, for example – are best avoided by most feeling human beings. But to the point: | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music - Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-two/) - In my previous entry I promised to hold forth on a subject of concern to many (if not most) of the visitors to this page, and that is how to get (and keep) our kids interested in concert music. Rather than dive right into the subject, I have been seized by the need to set | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Get and Keep Kids Interested In Concert Music - Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/how-to-get-and-keep-kids-interested-in-concert-music-part-one/) - My six year-old daughter Lillian is going to start piano lessons next week. Lily has been asking for lessons for a couple of years, but I am not a believer in starting kids too young, and to my mind four years old was way too young. (To my mind, no matter how good the teacher, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Gershwin and Copland: American Concert Music Comes of Age](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/gershwin-and-copland-american-concert-music-comes-of-age/) - A heads-up, hope-I-see-you-there: I will be doing a program on February 13 at Sinai Temple, at 10400 Wilshire Boulevard in what we, here in Northern California, call the “South Land” – the City of Angels, Los Angeles – at 7:30 P.M. My working title for the talk is “Gershwin and Copland: American Concert Music Comes | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Nine - The Wrap-up](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-nine-the-wrap-up/) - All-in-all, the recording of the lectures for “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works” was as smooth as a peeled onion. We’ve one more major task before us, and that will be the custom-recording of the musical examples by three superb professional pianists: Magdalina Melkonyan, Woobin Park, and Eun Joo Chung. That session will take place | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part 8](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-8/) - It's not unusual that in the course of recording a lecture, I find myself particularly inspired by the music I'm privileged to be talking about. That happened today in talking about (and listening to) Issac Albéniz astounding Iberia of 1909. Iberia consists of twelve separate movements, each illustrating some aspect of Spain or Spanish culture; | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Seven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-seven/) - We had a day off from recording today, though we were still busy little bees. I recorded a series of podcasts with Ed Leon, Senior VP of The Great Courses; the podcasts will go live in a few months. They were recorded on audio only, so I could wear jeans, tennis shirt, and sneakers, my | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Six](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-six/) - Making a Course, Part 6: The @#&%^! Piano For me, the biggest single challenge in making a course is playing musical excerpts at the piano. It would seem like a simply thing, really: you make a statement, you sit down at the piano and play an example of what you're talking about, you stand back | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Five](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-five/) - As I mentioned in an earlier entry, when I made my first Teaching Company/Great Courses course back in the spring of 1993 ("How to Listen to and Understand Great Music", first edition and mercifully no longer available), it was against a "blue screen" background. Blue and green screen backgrounds are the simplest and most commonly | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Four](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-four/) - Generally speaking, when you're self-employed - as I am - the concept of "weekend" doesn't mean a whole lot. Saturdays and Sundays are work days like any other; deadlines and the whip-hand of my merciless boss make it so. But every now and then there are exceptions, and this weekend is one of them. TGIS | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-one/) - In 1999, The Teaching Company/Great Courses began using teleprompters. Up to that point, all the instructors had worked from notes, as we do in the classroom. The result was – as it always is when one works from outline – uneven: grammar can slip, ideas are repeated, the speaker resorts to “um”, and “anyway”, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-two/) - We will begin a full recording schedule tomorrow (Thursday). Preliminaries today: making friends with the piano, technical rehearsal, catching up with colleagues and crew. One of the things that makes this course special is that instead of using pre-recorded musical examples, our musical examples will be custom-recorded by three professional concert pianists. Thus, we will | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Making of a Course - Part Three](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-making-of-a-course-part-three/) - Today I ran out of luck. After twenty years of recording courses and never having so much as a sniffle, I woke up this morning with the grandmother of all head colds. I got through the day thanks to the indulgence of my incredible crew, enough Sudafed to start a meth lab, and about 10 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Miracles: Franz Schubert and his String Quintet in C Major](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/miracles-franz-schubert-and-his-string-quintet-in-c-major/) - Franz Peter Schubert was born in the Habsburg capital of Vienna on January 31, 1797. He died there on November 19, 1828, having lived only 31 years, 9 months, and 19 days. In his all-too-brief life, Schubert created a body of music the size and quality of which leaves us shaking our heads in wonder. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Lady Gaga: Melding with Geldings and the Operatic Tradition](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/lady-gaga-melding-with-geldings-and-the-operatic-tradition-2/) - Lady Gaga, opera-like production values, and lots of tall, loose-limbed, castrated men. A description of her latest music video? No: it is a partial description of the artistic tradition from which she has grown. The singer/songwriter known as Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) is one in a long line of provocative, post-sixties performance artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Five Ways to Introduce Concert Music to Children](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/five-ways-to-introduce-concert-music-to-children/) - The standard repertoire of “Concert Music” is music written primarily by dead Euro-males between roughly 1650 and 1900, music typically heard in the rather formal environs of a concert hall. Yes, this music is often referred to as “classical music”, which is as useless a phrase as “real imitation margarine!” When we call something “classic”, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Viva la Fanfare!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/viva-la-fanfare/) - Ah, the Olympic medal ceremony. Young athletes stand proudly on the winners’ platform while in the background the flag of the gold medalist’s country is hoisted to the stirring sounds of her national anthem. During the summer games in Beijing in 2008, the home town fans had a lot to cheer about: they saw their | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Bedtime Music: Soothing Classical Pieces for Kids of Any Age](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/bedtime-music-soothing-classical-pieces-for-kids-of-any-age/) - Ah, bedtime. The kids’ teeth are brushed; their pj’s are on; the book has been read, and then read again. They have been kissed goodnight. At which point begins THE BIG STALL. “I’m hungry”; “I’m thirsty”; “I need to go to the bathroom”; “I need to call my broker”; etc. Dead Euro-composers to the rescue! | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Who Benefits?  Who Profits?](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/who-benefits-who-profits/) - So here we are. It’s almost 2013: roughly one-eighth of the way through the twenty-first century. The music of the twentieth century, which seemed so contemporary but a few years ago, is now the music of the last century. Which brings up a painful fact, one that I am frequently called on the carpet over, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Lies We Tell](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/the-lies-we-tell/) - Oh the little white lies we tell, purposely or not. From the tiniest exaggeration to the most outrageous whopper, it would seem to be human nature to stretch the truth. The examples are endless. “The Check is in the mail.” “No, those pants do not make your butt look big.” “I never got your | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian

## Pages

- [Home](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/) - Robert Greenberg — Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Robert Greenberg](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg/) - Greenberg has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994.
- [On Sale Now!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/sale/) - See all of the Robert Greenberg Great Courses currently on sale!
- [Subscribe to the Music History Monday Podcast](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/podcast-subscribe/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Compositions](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/compositions/) - Listen to Robert Greenberg compositions and read the program notes from works highlighted in Great Music of the 20th Century Course by The Great Courses.
- [Robert Greenberg Scores](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/scores/) - Download Robert Greenberg's original compositions in PDF format - original scores for purchase and download.
- [Robert Greenberg Music Courses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/courses/) - Robert Greenberg's The Great Courses surveys and independent web courses available for direct download in audio and video format. Explore the Robert Greenberg Music course catalogue.
- [The Robert Greenberg Store](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/shop/) - Robert Greenberg's 30 Teaching Company/The Great Courses surveys, independent webcourses, and original composition scores available for direct download.
- [Patreon Principals & Deities](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/patreon-principals/) - See Robert Greenberg's Patreon Principals and add your name to the list!
- [Phoenix Symphony Previews](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/phoenixsymphony/) - Robert Greenberg partners with the Phoenix Symphony to preview their symphonic concert series.
- [Upcoming Events](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/events/) - Upcoming Robert Greenberg Events
- [OraTV — Scandalous Overtures](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/oratv/) - Robert Greenberg's OraTV Series: Scandalous Overtures
- [Blues, Jazz and Rock & Roll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/blues-jazz-and-rock-roll/) - An extraordinary offshoot of the otherwise horrific institution of slavery was the synthesis of African and European music in the melting pot of the Americas.
- [Music as a Mirror: Session One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/music-as-a-mirror-session-one/) - This presentation examines concert music as a phenomenon that mirrors the social, political and economic elements of the society around it; participants come to understand changes in musical style and expressive content as a function of larger societal change.
- [Credo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/credo/) - Robert Greenberg explains why a deeper understanding of music is worthwhile.
- [Contact](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/contact/) - Contact Robert Greenberg
- [Robert Greenberg Compositions](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/robert-greenberg-works-list/) - Videos and Works list of compositions by Robert Greenberg.
- [Speaking](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/) - Dr. Greenberg has spoken extensively for both musical performance organizations and business organizations for over twenty years.
- [Let’s Play: Jazz and the Jazz Ensemble as a Model for Entrepreneurial and Collaborative Action](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/lets-play-jazz-and-the-jazz-ensemble-as-a-model-for-entrepreneurial-and-collaborative-action/) - “Let’s Play” is a multi-media, interactive program that frames the issues of entrepreneurial collaboration, coordinated improvisation, and workforce empowerment from the perspective of the jazz ensemble.
- [Conduct Becoming – the Orchestra as a Model of Leadership, Teamwork and Accountability](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/conduct-becoming-the-orchestra-as-a-model-of-leadership-teamwork-and-accountability/) - “Conduct Becoming” is a multi-media, interactive program that explores the issues of vertical institutional organization, role playing, leadership, charisma and accountability through the metaphor of the orchestra and orchestral conductor.
- [Composers Without Wigs: The Influence of Blues, Jazz and Rock & Roll on Twentieth Century Concert Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/composers-without-wigs-the-influence-of-blues-jazz-and-rock-roll-on-twentieth-century-concert-music/) - The synthesis of African and European music in the melting pot of the Americas saw the creation of entirely new musical genres. In North America, these include Blues, Jazz and Rock & Roll; in South America, Tango and Samba.
- [Music as a Mirror: Session Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/music-as-a-mirror-session-two/) - A second session can be added to “Music as a Mirror” that continues the discussion through the 19th century. This session focuses on the increasingly middle-class-oriented, self-expressive age of Romanticism.
- [Speaker Testimonials](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/testimonials/) - Testimonials for Robert Greenberg as a public speaker
- [Media Reviews](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/media-reviews/) - Media Reviews for lectures, courses, books, and more by Robert Greenberg
- [Press Articles](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/press-articles/) - Press articles for Robert Greenberg courses, lectures, compositions, and more
- [How to Listen to Great Music: A Guide to Its History, Culture, and Heart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/book/) - Robert Greenberg's “How to Listen to Great Music: A Guide to Its History, Culture, and Heart”
- [Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5: Innovation with Attitude](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/speaking/ludwig-van-beethovens-symphony-no-5-innovation-with-attitude/) - This program will explore Beethoven’s life and times in order to understand the environment of change and innovation in which he lived.

## Products

- [The Music of Richard Wagner](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/richard-wagner-music/) - Professor Robert Greenberg offers 24 multifaceted lectures exploring the Music of Richard Wagner, and the outsized life of this historically pivotal figure.
- [The Daughters of Atlas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/the-daughters-of-atlas/) - Robert Greenberg's 2018 composer “The Daughters of Atlas” for Violin, Cello, and Piano
- [Suite Revelation](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/suite-revelation/) - Robert Greenberg's “Suite Revelation” for Cello and Piano features Jewish/Yiddish/Hebrew folk songs and counter-melodies and is dedicated to Nina Flyer.
- [“Funny Like a Monkey” for Piano Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/funny-like-a-monkey-for-piano-quartet/) - “Funny Like a Monkey” is scored as a traditional piano quartet, but it is in reality composed for string trio PLUS piano. It is dedicated, with love, to Rachel Amy Greenberg.
- [Rarefied Air](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/rarefied-air/) - Rarefied Air For B-flat Clarinet, Violin and Piano was originally written for the ensemble Strata, who's name lent the inspiration.
- [On Trial: Concerto for Vibraphone and Chamber Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/on-trial-concerto-for-vibraphone-and-chamber-orchestra/) - In writing ON TRIAL (1994), Robert Greenberg creates a sort of big, heroic, virtuosic, instrument-defining concerto for the Vibraphone
- [Among Friends for String Quartet (String Quartet No. 3) (1995) (ca. 30’)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/among-friends-for-string-quartet/) - Robert Greenberg's String Quartet No. 3, "Among Friends" is, its liberties aside, about the four people behind the instruments of the Alexander String Quartet.
- [Piano Concerto No. 2 (1997)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/piano-concerto-no-2-1997/) - Robert Greenberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 was composed between January 1996 and July 1997. It is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to Mack McCray.
- [Iron Balconies and Lilies](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/iron-balconies-and-lilies/) - Robert Greenberg's 1992 composition Iron Balconies and Lilies for Soprano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano - nine poems originally in Yiddish
- [“It Don't Mean A Thing” for Percussion Sextet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/it-dont-mean-a-thing-for-percussion-sextet/) - Robert Greenberg's 1990 composition “It Don't Mean A Thing” for Percussion Sextet
- [In Shape Concerto for Two Pianos and Marimba](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/in-shape-concerto-for-two-pianos-and-marimba/) - Robert Greenberg's 1990 composition “In Shape” - Concerto for Two Pianos and Marimba
- [Mozart In Vienna](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/mozart-in-vienna/) - New web course from Robert Greenberg! Learn about Wolfgang Amadeus' time in Vienna accompanied by recordings by the Alexander String Quartet. Audio/Video download.
- [Child's Play for String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/childs-play-for-string-quartet/) - Robert Greenberg's String Quartet No. 2, "Child's Play" was commissioned by, and is dedicated to the Alexander String Quartet.
- [Great Music of the 20th Century](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-music-20th-century/) - In Great Music of the 20th Century, Professor Greenberg unfurls a huge spectrum of new works and material across the 20th century in its entirety, these 24 lectures present a major presentation and exploration of the incredible brilliance and diversity of musical art across a turbulent century.
- [The Chamber Music of Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/mozart-chamber-music/) - Study a variety of Mozart's chamber music written in 1781–1791 in Vienna with Professor Robert Greenberg, including the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn.
- [The Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/the-symphony/) - In 24, 45-minute lectures, Robert Greenberg guides the listener on a survey of the symphony with selections from the greatest symphonies of the past 300 years.
- [The Operas of Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/mozart-operas/) - Professor Robert Greenberg explores the height of Mozart's operatic achievement by closely analyzing Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute, and more over 24 lectures.
- [Great Masters: Shostakovich — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-shostakovich-life-music/) - Discover the extraordinary life, times, and art of Dmitri Shostakovich in this eight-lecture biographical study by Professor Robert Greenberg.
- [Great Masters: Mozart — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-mozart-life-music/) - This course is a biographical and musical study of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed more than 600 works of beauty and brilliance in just over 20 years.
- [Great Masters: Haydn — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-haydn-life-music/) - Professor Robert Greenberg explores what made Haydn one of the most original and influential composers of all time in this course on Haydn's life and music.
- [Great Masters: Brahms — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-brahms-life-music/) - Learn about Johannes Brahms chamber music, and his role in the “golden symphonic age” in this eight-lecture biographical study with Professor Robert Greenberg.
- [Bach and the High Baroque](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/bach-and-high-baroque/) - Professor Greenberg sets Bach in context by tracing the musical traditions and composers from whom he drew his inspiration over 32 45-minute lectures.
- [Great Masters: Tchaikovsky — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-tchaikovsky-life-music/) - Professor Robert Greenberg explores the well-known music of Tchaikovsky, as well as the under-appreciated chamber music by delving into Tchaikovsky's life.
- [The Life and Operas of Verdi](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/life-and-operas-of-verdi/) - Professor Robert Greenberg explores Verdi's operas, Requiem Mass of 1874; his early songs; and his very last composition, the Stabat Mater over 32 lectures.
- [The String Quartets of Beethoven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-string-quartets/) - Professor Robert Greenberg reveals the secrets of Beethoven's string quartets in twenty-four 45-minute lectures, aided by the Alexander String Quartet.
- [Great Masters: Stravinsky — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-stravinsky-life-music/) - Stravinsky, a master of creativity, presented as a one-man compendium of people, places, compositional styles, and techniques, from the 1890s to the 1960s. 
- [Concert Masterworks](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/concert-masterworks/) - In 32 lectures, Professor Robert Greenberg explores the intricacies of musical purpose, structure, and narrative content you can apply to any piece of music.
- [Music as a Mirror of History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/music-as-mirror-history/) - Professor Greenberg presents an in-depth survey of musical works written in direct response to historical events that shaped the composers’ lives and music.
- [Understanding the Fundamentals of Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/understanding-music-fundamentals/) - Professor Greenberg offers an introduction to musical language, a solid introduction to music theory's basics, and a substantial grounding in music fundamentals
- [Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann — Their Lives and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-schumanns-lives-music/) - In this biographical course by Professor Robert Greenberg you meet Robert and Clara Schumann—brilliant, gifted, troubled, and unique in the history of music.
- [The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/23-greatest-solo-piano-works/) - In The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works, Professor Robert Greenberg offers an in-depth exploration of the solo piano works he considers landmarks in the literature.
- [Great Masters: Mahler — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-mahler-life-music/) - This course offers a biographical and musical study of Mahler, who, along with being a composer, was the greatest opera conductor of his time.
- [Great Masters: Beethoven — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-beethoven-life-music/) - Professor Robert Greenberg explores the core features of some of Beethoven's greatest music in this this 8-lecture biographical study of Ludwig van Beethoven.
- [The Concerto](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/the-concerto/) - In this series of 24, 45-minute lectures, Professor Robert Greenberg gives you a guided tour of the concerto from its conception through in the 20th century.
- [Beethoven's Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-piano-sonatas/) - Explore Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, Beethoven's musical development, and the development of the piano and piano sonata with Professor Robert Greenberg.
- [How to Listen to and Understand Opera](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/how-to-listen-understand-opera/) - The history of opera traced from the early 17th century to 1924 over 32 lectures by Professor Robert Greenberg, helping your understanding of the world of opera
- [The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/30-greatest-orchestral-works/) - In 32 lectures with Robert Greenberg, you encounter symphonies, concerti, tone poems, symphonic poems, and suites, covering over 200 years of music history.
- [How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/listen-understand-great-music/) - Professor Robert Greenberg teaches the powerful influence of social context on musical creation over 48 lectures bringing to life nearly every major composer.
- [Great Masters: Liszt — His Life and Music](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/great-masters-liszt-life-music/) - Learn what “Lisztomania” is all about in this eight-lecture biographical study of Franz Liszt the composer and performer with Professor Robert Greenberg.
- [Invasive Species](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/invasive-species/) - Robert Greenberg's 2012 composition for piano quintet Invasive Species refers to non-native species of plants and animals that invade and colonize.
- [The Symphonies of Beethoven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-symphonies/) - Over 32 lectures on the history and analysis of Beethoven's nine symphonies, see how he revolutionized musical composition with works of unique beauty and depth
- [180 Shift](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/180-shift/) - Robert Greenberg's 2013 composition for Violin, Cello, and Piano, 180 Shift, is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to Trio 180
- [Snappy Rejoinder for String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/snappy-rejoinder-for-string-quartet/) - Robert Greenberg's 2005 composition “Snappy Rejoinder” for String Quartet (String Quartet No. 4). Written for the 25th anniversary of San Francisco Performances.
- [Festejo Episodios: A Divertimento for Five Players for Two Percussion, Piano, Flute and Trombone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/festejo-episodios-divertimento-five-players/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: “Festejo Episodios: A Divertimento for Five Players for Two Percussion, Piano, Flute and Trombone”
- [Prayer for the Great Family](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/prayer-for-the-great-family/) - Prayer for the Great Family for mixed chorus - texts by Gary Snyder (1981; revised 1985)
- [Breaths, Voices and Cadenze](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/breaths-voices-and-cadenze/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: Breaths, Voices and Cadenze for String Quartet (String Quartet No. 1) (1982)
- [Anything You Can Do…](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/anything-you-can-do/) - Robert Greenberg's 2006 composition “Anything You Can Do…” for Vibraphone and Violin is a confrontation between two musical opposites.
- [“It’s Snowing” for String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/its-snowing-for-string-quartet/) - Robert Greenberg's 2011 composition “It’s Snowing” for String Quartet is dedicated to Diane Elizabeth Clymer Greenberg, 1974-2009
- [South Bay Angle (A Twisted Tango)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/south-bay-angle-a-twisted-tango/) - Robert Greenberg's 2011 composition for violin and piano “South Bay Angle (A Twisted Tango)”.
- [Lemurs are Afraid of Fossas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/lemurs-are-afraid-of-fossas/) - Robert Greenberg's 2011 composition for cello and piano “Lemurs are Afraid of Fossas” - dedicated to pianist Hadley McCarroll and cellist Monica Scott.
- [“By Various Means” for Clarinet Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/by-various-means-for-clarinet-quartet/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: “By Various Means” for Clarinet Quartet is in three movements and draws its title from variational techniques and forms.
- [Exercised](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/exercised/) - Robert Greenberg's 2018 composition Exercised for Piano Four Hands
- [The Passing Years](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/the-passing-years/) - Robert Greenberg's "The Passing Years" composition is a cycle of five songs for baritone and piano, completed in June, 1989.
- [So Let Us Live – Really Live!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/so-let-us-live-really-live/) - Robert Greenberg's 2009 composition “So Let Us Live – Really Live!” features four love songs commissioned by John Goodman in honor of his wife Kerry King's birthday.
- [“O Sweet Spontaneous Earth” for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/o-sweet-spontaneous-earth-for-mezzo-soprano-and-piano/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: “O Sweet Spontaneous Earth” for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano - text by E.E. Cummings
- [Quasi Un Madrigale: Four Italian Songs](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/quasi-un-madrigale-four-italian-songs/) - Robert Greenberg's Quasi Un Madrigale: Four Italian Songs sets the poetry of three 20th century Italian poets: Salvatore Quasimodo, Aldo Palazzeschi and Corrado Govoni.
- [Tempus Fugit](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/tempus-fugit/) - Robert Greenberg's 2008 composition “Tempus Fugit” for Piano was written for – and is dedicated to – another dear friend, Lino Rivera.
- [Of a Single Mind](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/of-a-single-mind/) - Robert Greenberg's 2014 composition “Of a Single Mind” for Two Cellos
- [Behavioral Science for Trombone Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/behavioral-science-for-trombone-solo/) - Robert Greenberg's 1998 composition “Behavioral Science” for solo trombone, is "about" the trombone and, to a degree, trombone players themselves.
- [Pluck for Guitar Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/pluck-for-guitar-solo/) - Robert Greenberg's 1994 composition Pluck for guitar solo
- [“Crazy Levi” for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/crazy-levi-for-soprano-and-piano/) - “Crazy Levi” (1993) is the third of Robert Greenberg's works celebrating the rich, and today relatively unknown tradition of Yiddish language poetry.
- [Dude 'Tudes: Six Etudes for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/dude-tudes-six-etudes-for-piano/) - Robert Greenberg's “Dude 'Tudes - Six Short Etudes for Piano on a Short Subject: Samuel Mark Greenberg (age 22 months)” was completed in December of 1991.
- [Miracles for Piano Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/miracles-for-piano-solo/) - Robert Greenberg's composition - Miracles for Piano Solo
- [Songs and Dances for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/songs-and-dances-for-piano/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: Songs and Dances for Piano
- [And Goodness Lay Over the High Snow: Five Songs from the Yiddish for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/and-goodness-lay-over-the-high-snow/) - Robert Greenberg's composition: “And Goodness Lay Over the High Snow: Five Songs from the Yiddish for Soprano and Piano” - poems translated from Yiddish to English.

## Compositions

- [The Passing Years](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/the-passing-years/) - God Gave Me, Eliezer Greenberg East Broadway, Mani Leib The Passing Years, Reuben Eisland IV. Rabbi Elimelech, traditional At My Wedding, Jacob Isaac Segal "The Passing Years" is a cycle of five songs for baritone and piano, completed in June, 1989. The texts were written by immigrant Jewish poets around the turn of the century. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Exercised for Piano Four Hands](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/exercised-for-piano-four-hands/) - Black Key Inferno Angel’s Hair Redux Punishing Exercise (ca. 8’) The word “exercised” means two very different things, each meaning being operative in this piece. On one hand it means “to have gotten exercise and to have put into action or use”; the technical demands of the piece certainly do put ZOFO through their paces. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Daughters of Atlas for Violin, Cello, and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/the-daughters-of-atlas-for-violin-cello-and-piano/) - Prelude: Foss Amber Waves Siren’s Web Seven Sisters Foss Redux The trio takes its inspiration from the Icelandic name of its dedicatee – Trio Foss - and the surname of its Icelandic violinist, Hrabba Atladottir. “Foss”, in Icelandic, means “waterfall”, which is mirrored in the murmuring, misty music of the trio’s prelude and postlude, movements | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Suite Revelation for Cello and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/suite-revelation-for-cello-and-piano/) - Overture Nigun no. 9 Molad’ti Gilu Hagalilim Y’mey Hanoar The Gigue Is Up (ca. 12’) https://youtu.be/fquTXMos8GU My apologies upfront for all the first person pronouns in this program note! A few years back, Nina Flyer asked me to write for her a piece of music that would contain or make reference to Jewish/Yiddish/Hebrew dance music | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Of a Single Mind for Two Cellos](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/of-a-single-mind-for-two-cellos/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [180 Shift for Violin, Cello, and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/180-shift-for-violin-cello-and-piano/) - Elegy and Variations Song and Dance (Shake, Rattle, and Roll) Re-Invention (Toccatissima) (ca. 19’) https://youtu.be/BS8Sy5snTy0 Aside from being an obvious (if hackneyed) reference to the commissioning ensemble, Trio 180, the title 180 Shift well describes the large-scale dramatic action of the piece: from beginning to end, it traverses an expressive distance of 180 degrees, from | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Invasive Species for Piano Quintet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/invasive-species-for-piano-quintet/) - Three-Part Intention March of the Yellow Crazy Ants One-Part Incursion Pretty Pretty Poison Two-Part Ignition E. globules (10-20-1991) (ca. 15’) https://youtu.be/5eSNRkzpj8U The title Invasive Species refers to non-native species of plants and animals that, once introduced to a new environment, have an adverse affect on the habitats and bioregions they invade and colonize. Specifically this | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [South Bay Angle (A Twisted Tango) for Violin and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/south-bay-angle-a-twisted-tango-for-violin-and-piano/) - (1991; revised 2011) (ca. 6’) Titles, like mold-scum atop month-old cottage cheese, can take on a life of their own. South Bay Angle was originally composed in 1991 during an Astor Piazzolla-inspired fit of tango-madness. While a more appropriate title for the piece would have been something on the lines of “I Can Write One | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Lemurs are Afraid of Fossas for Cello and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/lemurs-are-afraid-of-fossas-for-cello-and-piano/) - Predating Game Things That Go Bump in the Night The Shadow Knows (ca. 13’) In a musical world filled with self-indulgent titles, Lemurs are Afraid of Fossas is right up there. I beg forgiveness and offer this explanation. My five year-old daughter Lillian and her three year-old brother Daniel are most partial to a kid’s | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [It’s Snowing (String Quartet No. 5)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/its-snowing-string-quartet-no-5/) - DECG Blue Skies (Inclement Weather) It’s Snowing To my wife, our angel, Diane Elizabeth Clymer Greenberg, 1974-2009 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [So Let Us Live – Really Live! for Baritone and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/so-let-us-live-really-live-for-baritone-and-piano/) - When I Was One-and-Twenty, A. E. Housman For an Amorous Lady, Theodore Roethke Love Me Not for Comely Grace, John Wilbye So Let Us Live – Really Live!, Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 8’) The four love songs that that constitute So Let Us Live – Really Live! were commissioned by John Goodman in honor of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Tempus Fugit for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/tempus-fugit-for-piano/) - (2008) (ca. 6’) Time does fly. It’s a fact made apparent by, among other things, anniversaries. Composers, Inc. turned twenty-five this season, and I for one can hardly believe it. To all the wonderful and dedicated people who have helped Composers, Inc. thrive over the years, and particularly to my dear colleagues - Frank, Jeff, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Anything You Can Do… for Vibraphone and Violin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/anything-you-can-do-for-vibraphone-and-violin/) - Identity Crisis Fine Motor Skills (Good Vibrations) Mano e Mano (ca. 12’) The mind searches for the oddest of couples. Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett. The violin and the vibraphone. Aside from the letter “V”, the two instruments have almost nothing in common. We consider: the violin is the most | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Pluck for Guitar Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/pluck-for-guitar-solo/) - Toccata/Hands of Steel Strum/Serenade Oh Tanenbaum Two-Part Contention Jon Doe True Pluck (ca. 19’) A number of years ago, the great English guitarist Julian Bream told David Tanenbaum - the dedicatee of tonight's premiere - not to premiere a guitar work unless he knew for a fact it was the composer's second guitar work. Sage | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Snappy Rejoinder (String Quartet No. 4)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/snappy-rejoinder-string-quartet-no-4/) - Walk Sub Buzz (ca. 13’) In 1941, Aaron Copland explained that he no longer used the jazz “idiom” because his music “could not possibly be confined to two dominant moods – the blues and the snappy number.” Well excuse us. In the spirit of respectful rebuttal, I offer my fourth string quartet, entitled Snappy Rejoinder. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Funny Like a Monkey for Piano Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/funny-like-a-monkey-for-piano-quartet/) - Knock Yourself Out Flutterby Morph (with apologies to J. B.) (ca. 16’) Funny Like a Monkey is one of the many phrases coined by my then 16 year-old daughter in order to address the actions and well-intended attempts at humor by both her younger brother and her hopelessly antiquated father. What I love about these | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Rarefied Air for Clarinet, Violin and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/rarefied-air-for-clarinet-violin-and-piano/) - Liftoff Creatures of the Night Fresh Aria Crystal Set (ca. 23’) Rarefied Air was originally written for the ensemble Strata. "Strata", according to my Webster's Collegiate, means "layers lain atop one another … regions of the atmosphere that are analogous to the strata of the earth." "Rarefied" air is that thin, clear, high layer of | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Behavioral Science for Trombone Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/behavioral-science-for-trombone-solo/) - 1998 (ca. 12’) Part 1: Misbehavior/Out of control Part 2: Vulgar Behavior/Gross stuff Part 3: Crisis of Confidence/Whining and whimpering Part 4: Behavior Becoming/Reflection and Introspection Part 5: With Flying Colors/Putting It All Together The initial inspiration for Behavioral Science was as follows: a few years ago, a trombonist friend of mine asked me if | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [On Trial: Concerto for Vibraphone and Chamber Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/on-trial/) - Trial by Fire Intermezzo 1 Trial by Water Intermezzo 2 Time Trials/Trial Run What the solo singer was to the eighteenth century and the pianist to the nineteenth, so the percussionist is to the second half of the twentieth century - the transcendent virtuoso, expanding both the instrumentation of the percussion ensemble and playing technique | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Iron Balconies and Lilies for soprano, piano and chamber ensemble](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/iron-balconies-lilies/) - A City By The Sea - Anna Margolin Hay Mowing - Moyshe Kulbak When Grandma, May She Rest In Peace, Died - Moyshe Kulbak Longing - Rachel Korn Ancient Murderess Night - Anna Margolin Lullaby - Traditional Toys - Abraham Sutskever Old Age - Jacob Gladstein Rest - Jacob Isaac Segal IRON BALCONIES AND LILIES | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Crazy Levi](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/crazy-levi/) - "Crazy Levi" is the third of my works celebrating the rich, and today relatively unknown tradition of Yiddish language poetry. The first set, "The Passing Years" for baritone and piano, set poems by turn-of-the-century immigrants to the new world. The second set, "Iron Balconies and Lilies" for soprano and chamber ensemble, traversed the life experiences | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [It Don't Mean A Thing for Percussion Sextet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/it-dont-mean-a-thing-for-percussion-sextet/) - (ca. 7’) The title and musical content of IT DON'T MEAN A THING . . . display a certain cultural schizophrenia. "It Don't Mean A Thing . . . If It Ain't Got That Swing" is the title of a popular/jazz tune written by Duke Ellington in 1932. By appropriating the first half of Ellington's | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Dude 'Tudes (Angelova)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/dude-tudes/) - “Dude 'Tudes - Six Short Etudes on a Short Subject: Samuel Mark Greenberg (age 22 months)” was completed in December of 1991. The designation "'tudes" of the title has a dual meaning, referring as it does to the study ("etude") nature of the movements and to the fact that, at a year and three-quarters, Samuel | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Miracles for Piano Solo](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/miracles-for-piano-solo/) - Prelude: My Feelings The Full Moon Whispered to the Wind The Scared Clouds Trees Thunder (perpetuum mobile) Rain Breeze (Gently as a Cat … Intermezzo) I Love the World (Finale) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Child's Play for String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/childs-play/) - String Quartet No. 2 Games (fast) Intermezzo: Sogni d'Oro (“Dreams of Gold”) (slow) Dances (very fast) Child's Play was completed in August 1988. In no way does the title refer to the technical demands of the piece, which are considerable. Rather, it refers to the endlessly imaginative, energized, and constantly changing play that might be | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Quasi Un Madrigale: Four Italian Songs for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/quasi-un-madrigale/) - Il Palatino/”The Palatine”; Aldo Palazzeschi Poesia d’Amore/ “Love Poem”; Salvatore Quasimodo La Trombettina/”The Little Trumpet”; Corrado Govoni Quasi un Madrigale/”Almost a Madrigal”; Salvatore Quasimodo Quasi Un Madrigale sets the poetry of three 20th century Italian poets: Salvatore Quasimodo, Aldo Palazzeschi and Corrado Govoni. These expressive, evocative poems deal variously with states of memory, nostalgia, and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Prayer for the Great Family](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/prayer-for-the-great-family/) - Mixed Choir Texts by Gary Snyder (ca. 11’) (1981; revised 1985) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Songs and Dances for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/songs-and-dances-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [By Various Means for Clarinet Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/by-various-means-for-clarinet-quartet/) - 1983 (ca. 16’) Passacaglia Theme and Variation Chaconne By Various Means was composed in 1983. The work is in three movements. The piece draws its title from the "various" variational techniques and forms employed in each movement. The composer begs the listeners' indulgence in differentiating between passacaglia and chaconne, a differentiation not generally recognized by | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Breaths, Voices and Cadenze (String Quartet No. 1)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/breaths-voices-and-cadenze-string-quartet-no-1/) - For String Quartet (ca. 15’) Breaths, Voices and Cadenze for string quartet was composed during the fall of 1981. The three large sections of the quartet correspond to the designations of the title. In Breaths, pitches, timbres and finally, motives slowly emerge from the quartet in long, breath-like phrases. In Voices, these motives combine to | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [O Sweet Spontaneous Earth](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/o-sweet-spontaneous-earth/) - Mezzo-Soprano and Piano Text by E.E. Cummings (ca. 6’) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Festejo Episodios: A Divertimento for Five Players](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/festejo-episodios-a-divertimento-for-five-players/) - For Two Percussion, Piano, Flute and Trombone (ca. 23’) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Fair Singer for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/the-fair-singer-for-soprano-and-piano/) - Text by Andrew Marvell | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [A Footnote Extended for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/a-footnote-extended-for-soprano-and-piano/) - Text by Dannie Abse | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [And Opposition of the Stars for Soprano and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/and-opposition-of-the-stars-for-soprano-and-piano/) - Text by Andrew Marvell | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Rise and Shine for Brass Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/rise-and-shine-for-brass-quartet/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Separate Rose: A Chamber Cantata for Soprano, Tenor and Mixed Chorus](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/the-separate-rose-a-chamber-cantata-for-soprano-tenor-and-mixed-chorus/) - Text by Pablo Neruda | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [New Time for Clarinet, Violin and Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/new-time-for-clarinet-violin-and-piano/) - Prelude Part One Part Two Part Three Postlude (ca. 20’) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Hear a Fractal, There a Fractal…](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/hear-a-fractal-there-a-fractal/) - Violin Solo | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Concerto in Three Movements for Piano and Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/concerto-in-three-movements-for-piano-and-orchestra/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Molad Ti': A Processional for String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/molad-ti-a-processional-for-string-quartet/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SIS BOOM BAH for Concert Band](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/sis-boom-bah-for-concert-band/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Fantasy Variations for Chamber Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/fantasy-variations-for-chamber-orchestra/) - (ca. 10’) | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Fanfare for Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/fanfare-for-orchestra/) - (ca. 4') | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Five Folk Settings for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/five-folk-settings-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Five Little Songs of Love, Death, Incest and Spring](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/five-little-songs-of-love-death-incest-and-spring/) - For Soprano and Piano Texts by E.E. Cummings | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Three Episodes for Piano Trio](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/three-episodes-for-piano-trio/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Pieces for the Holiday for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/pieces-for-the-holiday-for-piano-2/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Pieces for the Holiday for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/pieces-for-the-holiday-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Brass Quintet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/brass-quintet/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Three Pieces for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/three-pieces-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [String Quintet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/string-quintet/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Three Rondos for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/three-rondos-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Theme and Nine Variations for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/theme-and-nine-variations-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Five Pieces for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/five-pieces-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Three Easy Pieces for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/three-easy-pieces-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Prelude and Fantasy for Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/prelude-and-fantasy-for-piano/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Among Friends (String Quartet No. 3)](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/among-friends/) - With Friends Like These Inner Voices Little Hands and Little Feet Freund Barry Friendly Persuasion All For One and One For All I've known the Alexander String Quartet since 1987. More than just colleagues, they have become my friends: I've traveled with them, performed with them, watched them rehearse, dined with them in their homes | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Piano Concerto No. 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/piano-concerto-2/) - Throb Lyres and Smokers Silver Bullet Among the great philosophical questions of our time - has life meaning?, the chicken or the egg?, breath mint or candy mint? - surely one of the most profound concerns the nature of the piano. Is it a string instrument or a percussion instrument? Should the piano be treated, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [And Goodness Lay Over the High Snow: Five Songs on Yiddish Poetry](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/and-goodness-lay/) - The Circus Lady, Celia Dropkin Of Course I Know, Zishe Landau Widowhood, Malka Heifetz Tussman Poem, Malka Heifetz Tussman Winter, Jacob Isaac Segal The five poems that comprise And Goodness Lay Over The High Snow were all originally written in Yiddish. Though I’ve set them in English, they are heard here in superb translations by | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Fantasy Variations](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/fantasy-variations-1979/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [In Shape: Concerto in Three Movements for Two Pianos and Marimba](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/in-shape/) - Wedge Labyrinth Spike The title "In Shape" has a dual meaning; it refers to both the physical condition (of the players) demanded by the piece, and the thematic content that characterizes each movement. The first movement, "Wedge," is based on an expanding wedge-shaped motive. This first movement is rather heroic (bombastic!) in nature and is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [New Time for clarinet, violin and piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/composition/new-time/) - Prelude Part One Part Two Part Three Postlude NEW TIME was composed in 1986 in conjunction with choreographer Victoria Morgan for the Dancer's Stage Ballet Company of San Francisco. The choreography, for three mixed pairs of dancers, describes aspects of the changing relationships between men and women in our contemporary urban world. NEW TIME is | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian

## Events

- [The Phoenix Symphony: The First Angry Man: The Life of Beethoven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-first-angry-man-the-life-of-beethoven/) - The First Angry Man: The Life of Beethoven Symphony Hall January 5, 2020 – 12:00 pm -1:00 pm | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mondavi Center: Alexander String Quartet Shostakovich Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mondavi-center-alexander-string-quartet-shostakovich-series-3/) - Join the Alexander String Quartet as they explore the complete string quartets of Shostakovich over two seasons, performing Quartets 14 and 15 on this program. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mondavi Center: Alexander String Quartet Shostakovich Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mondavi-center-alexander-string-quartet-shostakovich-series-2/) - Join the Alexander String Quartet as they explore the complete string quartets of Shostakovich over two seasons, performing Quartets 12 and 13 on this program. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mondavi Center: Alexander String Quartet Shostakovich Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mondavi-center-alexander-string-quartet-shostakovich-series/) - Join the Alexander String Quartet as they explore the complete string quartets of Shostakovich over two seasons, performing Quartets 9, 10 and 11 on this program. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven and Shostakovich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethoven-and-shostakovich-2/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall Tito Muñoz, conductor Chloë Hanslip, violin Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Beethoven: Egmont Overture Thomas Adès: Violin Concerto, “Concentric Paths” Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven and Shostakovich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethoven-and-shostakovich/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall Tito Muñoz, conductor Chloë Hanslip, violin Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Beethoven: Egmont Overture Thomas Adès: Violin Concerto, “Concentric Paths” Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethovens-symphony-no-7-3/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall José Luis Gomez, conductor Steven Moeckel, violin Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Inocente Carreño: Margariteña Walton: Violin Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethovens-symphony-no-7/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall José Luis Gomez, conductor Steven Moeckel, violin Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Inocente Carreño: Margariteña Walton: Violin Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethovens-symphony-no-7-2/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall José Luis Gomez, conductor Steven Moeckel, violin Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Inocente Carreño: Margariteña Walton: Violin Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven, Haydn and Cerrone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethoven-haydn-and-cerrone-3/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall Tito Muñoz, conductor Shai Wosner, piano Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 Christopher Cerrone: The Air Suspended Haydn: Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven, Haydn and Cerrone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethoven-haydn-and-cerrone-2/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall Tito Muñoz, conductor Shai Wosner, piano Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 Christopher Cerrone: The Air Suspended Haydn: Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Phoenix Symphony: Beethoven, Haydn and Cerrone](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-phoenix-symphony-beethoven-haydn-and-cerrone/) - Classics Series - Symphony Hall Tito Muñoz, conductor Shai Wosner, piano Robert Greenberg, concert host and program annotator CONCERT REPERTOIRE Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 Christopher Cerrone: The Air Suspended Haydn: Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets-6/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets-5/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets-4/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets-3/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets-2/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [San Francisco Performances: Saturday Morning Series - Beethoven Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/san-francisco-performances-saturday-morning-series-beethoven-quartets/) - In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year in 2020, the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg survey Beethoven’s string quartets in this audience-favorite Saturday Morning Series. Combining full performances of the Quartets with Greenberg’s affable, informed and often humorous lectures about Beethoven, his world, his life and his music, these Saturday concerts are the perfect start | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Zofo Duo Performs Robert Greenberg's Exercised](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/zofo-duo-performs-robert-greenbergs-exercised/) - The ZOFO Piano Duo perform Robert Greenberg's piano duo Exercised, which was written for and dedicated to ZOFO. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Trio Foss Performs “The Daughters of Atlas”](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/trio-foss-performs-the-daughters-of-atlas/) - Trio Foss (Hrabba Altadottir, violin; Nina Flyer, cello; Miles Graber, piano) to perform the world premiere of Robert Greenberg's piano trio The Daughters of Atlas, written for and dedicated to Trio Foss. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Brahms and the Schumanns: A Love Triangle for the Ages](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/brahms-and-the-schumanns-a-love-triangle-for-the-ages-4/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Brahms and the Schumanns: A Love Triangle for the Ages](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/brahms-and-the-schumanns-a-love-triangle-for-the-ages-3/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Brahms and the Schumanns: A Love Triangle for the Ages](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/brahms-and-the-schumanns-a-love-triangle-for-the-ages-2/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Brahms and the Schumanns: A Love Triangle for the Ages](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/brahms-and-the-schumanns-a-love-triangle-for-the-ages/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-6/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-10/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-9/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-8/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-7/) - SF Performances was an early pioneer of presenting concerts at convenient, nontraditional times in a casual atmosphere that appeals to audiences and fosters a close connection to the artists. The flagship of this trailblazing continues to be the tremendously popular Saturday morning series with the Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg. Together, the five artists | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university/) - Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in musical style evident in Western music during the last millennia are a function of large-scale societal change | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Mütter Museum](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-mutter-museum/) - Ludwig van Beethoven: Innovation with ATTITUDE! The Bernard Behrend Lecture and Concerts at the College present an evening with Robert Greenberg Late in his career, Ludwig (my friends call me “Louis”) van Beethoven coined a phrase that had been his creative maxim since the beginning of his career: “Art demands that we never stand still.” | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mondavi Center: The Triangle](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mondavi-center-the-triangle/) - Alexander String Quartet: The Triangle Mondavi Center Presenting Program Schumann String Quartet in A Major, op. 41, no. 3 (1842) Brahms String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, op. 51, no. 2 (1873) Theirs was one of the great love triangles, one that has been memorialized in music, novels, and even in a movie. At | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Blues, Jazz, and Rock ‘n’ Roll](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/blues-jazz-and-rock-n-roll/) - An Evening With Robert Greenberg, The Erik Jekabson Quartet & John Santos In collaboration with Humanities West and the Berkeley-based CA Jazz Conservatory the only accredited, stand-alone conservatory devoted to jazz studies in the United States. Blues, Jazz, and Rock ‘n’ Roll / Robert Greenberg. An extraordinary offshoot of the otherwise horrific institution of slavery | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-5/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-4/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-3/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2-2/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 2](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-2/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-1-4/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-1-3/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-1-2/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets: Part 1](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-part-1/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Phoenix Symphony: Tchaikovsky and Mozart Part Three](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/phoenix-symphony-tchaikovsky-and-mozart-part-three/) - Be there for the final installment of this three-part series of exploration and conversation around the life and works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Join Robert M. Greenberg, an American composer, pianist, and musicologist as he leads these entertaining and engaging lectures to supplement The Phoenix Symphony Chamber Music Series. These intimate chats at the Musical | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Phoenix Symphony: Tchaikovsky and Mozart Part Two](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/phoenix-symphony-tchaikovsky-and-mozart-part-two/) - Don’t miss the second installment of this three-part series exploring the life and works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Join Robert M. Greenberg, an American composer, pianist, and musicologist as he leads these entertaining and engaging lectures to supplement The Phoenix Symphony Chamber Music Series. These intimate chats at the Musical Instrument Museum will leave you | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Phoenix Symphony: Tchaikovsky and Mozart Part One](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/phoenix-symphony-tchaikovsky-and-mozart-part-one/) - Experience the first of a three-part series exploring the life and works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Join Robert M. Greenberg, an American composer, pianist, and musicologist as he leads these entertaining and engaging lectures to supplement The Phoenix Symphony Chamber Music Series. These intimate chats at the Musical Instrument Museum will leave you with a | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - Sacramento](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-sacramento/) - One Day University with The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA) Mozart: the Man, the Musician, and the Myth Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances It is very possible that Johann Christian Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart (1756-1791) was the greatest genius ever born to our species. The most famous child prodigy in history, he developed into | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - Minneapolis](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-minneapolis/) - One Day University: 5000 Years of History (Minneapolis, MN) Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - Cleveland](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-cleveland/) - One Day University: 5000 Years of History (Cleveland, OH) Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - Los Angeles](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-los-angeles/) - One Day University: 5000 Years of History (Los Angeles, CA) Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Ludwig van Beethoven: Innovation with ATTITUDE!](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/ludwig-van-beethoven-innovation-with-attitude/) - A lecture by world-renowned historian, composer, pianist, speaker, author ROBERT GREENBERG talking about Herr Beethoven in a way you’ve never heard before! Beethoven’s views on creativity and personal expression were revolutionary, even heretical for his day. He was also a composer with a progressive hearing disability living at a time of violent and rapid change. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - New York City](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-new-york-city/) - One Day University: 5000 Years of History (Austin, TX) Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Alexander String Quartet: Their Finest Hour](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/alexander-string-quartet-their-finest-hour/) - The String Quartet in a Time of War: Benjamin Britten and His Contemporaries World War II, which in Europe began in 1939 and ended in 1945, was the single most devastating event of the 20th century. Framed by the string quartets of Benjamin Britten, whose centennial was celebrated in 2013, this series will explore works | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Alexander String Quartet: Triumph and Tragedy](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/alexander-string-quartet-triumph-and-tragedy/) - The String Quartet in a Time of War: Benjamin Britten and His Contemporaries World War II, which in Europe began in 1939 and ended in 1945, was the single most devastating event of the 20th century. Framed by the string quartets of Benjamin Britten, whose centennial was celebrated in 2013, this series will explore works | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Alexander String Quartet: The Hinge of Fate](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/alexander-string-quartet-the-hinge-of-fate/) - The String Quartet in a Time of War: Benjamin Britten and His Contemporaries World War II, which in Europe began in 1939 and ended in 1945, was the single most devastating event of the 20th century. Framed by the string quartets of Benjamin Britten, whose centennial was celebrated in 2013, this series will explore works | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [One Day University - Austin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/one-day-university-austin/) - One Day University: 5000 Years of History (Austin, TX) Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [ASQ Mondavi Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/asq-mondavi-series-2/) - Robert Greenberg provides commentary throughout the Alexander String Quartet Concert Series at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [ASQ Mondavi Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/asq-mondavi-series/) - Robert Greenberg provides commentary throughout the Alexander String Quartet Concert Series at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-5/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season One with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-6/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season One with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-7/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season One with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Performance of “180 Shift” for violin, cello, and piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/performance-of-180-shift-for-violin-cello-and-piano/) - Composers, Inc. guest ensemble Trio 180 (violin, cello and piano) performs recent works by Cindy Cox and Robert Greenberg. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-6/) - Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts Pre-concert Lecture for the Alexander String Quartet Program: Mozart Quartet in A Major, KV 464 Beethoven Quartet in A Major, Op. 18 No. 5 | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [ASQ Mondavi Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/asq-mondavi-series-3/) - Robert Greenberg provides commentary throughout the Alexander String Quartet Concert Series at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-2/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-3/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-4/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [SF Performances Saturday Morning Series](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/sf-performances-saturday-morning-series-8/) - Mozart in Vienna — Season One with the Alexander String Quartet | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Benjamin Britten and His Contemporaries](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/benjamin-britten-and-his-contemporaries/) - Alexander String Quartet: The Gathering Storm The String Quartet in a Time of War: Benjamin Britten and His Contemporaries World War II, which in Europe began in 1939 and ended in 1945, was the single most devastating event of the 20th century. Framed by the string quartets of Benjamin Britten, whose centennial was celebrated in | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Marching Off The Beat: Diane Clymer-Greenberg Memorial Concert](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/marching-off-the-beat-diane-clymer-greenberg-memorial-concert/) - Presented by Composers, Inc. Featuring Dana Lawton Dances Suite Revelation for cello and piano by Robert Greenberg | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mozart-in-vienna-season-two-mozart-transcendent/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Mornings in Berkeley: Mozart in Vienna — Season Two For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the Bay indulge | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mozart-in-vienna-season-two-mozart-transcendent-2/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Mornings in Berkeley: Mozart in Vienna — Season Two For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the Bay indulge | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mozart-in-vienna-season-two-mozart-transcendent-3/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Mornings in Berkeley: Mozart in Vienna — Season Two For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the Bay indulge | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozart in Vienna — Season Two: Mozart Transcendent](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/mozart-in-vienna-season-two-mozart-transcendent-4/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Mornings in Berkeley: Mozart in Vienna — Season Two For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the Bay indulge | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — Beethoven: Before, During and After For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-2/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — Beethoven: Before, During and After For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-3/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — Beethoven: Before, During and After For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-4/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — Beethoven: Before, During and After For two decades these five musicians, scholars and friends have brought together a devoted crowd of chamber music enthusiasts on Saturday mornings that are part concert, part lecture, part humor and all entertainment. Followers on both sides of the | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Late Beethoven Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-late-beethoven-piano-sonatas/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — The Late Beethoven Sonatas Roger Woodward performs the Late Beethoven Sonatas | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The Late Beethoven Piano Sonatas](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/the-late-beethoven-piano-sonatas-2/) - San Francisco Performances Presents: Saturday Morning Series in San Francisco — The Late Beethoven Sonatas Roger Woodward performs the Late Beethoven Sonatas | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before, During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-5/) - Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts Pre-concert Lecture for the Alexander String Quartet Program: Beethoven Piano Quartet in C Major, WoO 36 with pianist, Roger Woodward Greenberg Invasive Species with pianist, Roger Woodward | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Community Women's Orchestra: The Composer Is Dead](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/community-womens-orchestra-the-composer-is-dead/) - The Community Women’s Orchestra is pleased to announce Dr. Robert Greenberg as narrator for their season opening headliner, The Composer is Dead, by Nathaniel Stookey with text by Lemony Snicket. CWO opens their 31st season with a family concert that encourages families with small children to experience the richness of classical music in a fun, | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-4/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-3/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets-2/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Shostakovich String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/shostakovich-string-quartets/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Beethoven: Before During and After](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/event/beethoven-before-during-and-after-7/) - For over 20 years, thousands of audience members from the Bay Area and beyond have savored Saturday-morning musical conversations, exploring composers and concepts with the Alexander String Quartet and San Francisco Performances Music Historian-in-Residence Robert Greenberg. The series combines complete performances of string quartets with Greenberg’s witty profound takes on these works, their creators and | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian

## Teasers

- [Robert Greenberg Webcourses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/introduction/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Mozart In Vienna](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/mozart-in-vienna/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music of the Twentieth Century](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/music-twentieth/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [How To Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/how-to-listen-to-and-understand-great-music-3rd-edition/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/the-30-greatest-orchestral-works/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Music as a Mirror of History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/music-as-a-mirror-of-history/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian
- [Great Music of the 20th Century](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/teaser/great-music-of-the-20th-century/) - | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian

## Product categories

- [The Basics](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/basics/) - The full Professor Robert Greenberg Western music history survey from ancient Greece through the year 2000 and including the fundamentals of music.
- [Repertoire by Composer](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/repertoire/) - Bach and the High Baroque, Concert Masterworks, Symphonies of Beethoven, Chamber Music of Mozart, Piano Sonatas of Beethoven, and String Quartets of Beethoven.
- [General Repertoire](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/generalrep/) - Repertoire composed for specific musical genres: The Symphony, The Concerto, The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works, and The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works.
- [Great Masters](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/masters/) - Courses focusing on the lives and music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Mahler, and Shostakovich
- [Sets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/sets/) - Save when you purchase Robert Greenberg course sets in bundled pairings.
- [Opera Courses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/opera/) - Courses focused on the life, times, and works of three operatic masters: The Operas of Mozart, The Life and Music of Verdi, and The Music of Richard Wagner.
- [Webcourses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/webcourses/) - Robert Greenberg's supplementary and bonus webcourses featuring topics and highlights not offered by The Great Courses.
- [The Great Courses](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/thegreatcourses/)
- [Uncategorized](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/uncategorized/)
- [Scores](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/topics/scores/)

## Product tags

- [Chopin](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/chopin/)
- [Berlioz](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/berlioz/)
- [Haydn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/haydn/)
- [Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/mozart/)
- [Alexander String Quartet](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/alexander-string-quartet/)
- [Mozart In Vienna](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/mozart-in-vienna/)
- [Igor Stravinsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/igor-stravinsky/)
- [J.S. Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/j-s-bach/)
- [Bach](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/bach/)
- [Baroque](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/baroque/)
- [Repertoire](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/repertoire/)
- [Partita](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/partita/)
- [Opera](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/opera/)
- [Verdi](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/verdi/)
- [History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/history/)
- [Musicology](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/musicology/)
- [Music History](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/music-history/)
- [Beethoven](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/beethoven/)
- [String Quartets](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/string-quartets/)
- [Symphonies](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/symphonies/)
- [Symphony](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/symphony/)
- [Orchestral Works](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/orchestral-works/)
- [Orchestra](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/orchestra/)
- [Robert Schumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/robert-schumann/)
- [Clara Schumann](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/clara-schumann/)
- [Dmitri Shostakovich](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/dmitri-shostakovich/)
- [Johannes Brahms](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/johannes-brahms/)
- [Franz Liszt](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/franz-liszt/)
- [Great Masters](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/great-masters/)
- [Franz Joseph Haydn](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/franz-joseph-haydn/)
- [Wolgang Amadeus Mozart](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/wolgang-amadeus-mozart/)
- [Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/peter-ilyich-tchaikovsky/)
- [Tchaikovsky](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/tchaikovsky/)
- [fundamentals](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/fundamentals/)
- [theory](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/theory/)
- [Dvorak](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/dvorak/)
- [Piano](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/piano/)
- [Strauss](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/strauss/)
- [Brahms](https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/product-tag/brahms/)
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