The Good Musician

Image details: Mendelssohn served by picapp.com
Neighboring Georgetown is building a nationally recognized mega-festival of the arts. The Georgetown Festival of the Arts is an exemplar of community involvement producing a highly educational, thoroughly interactive, fun place to be for all ages. Kids can explore an instrumental petting zoo, learn the history of the dulcimer, and play along during a performance. Art in the Park ran May 31-June 1, and featured two days of fine arts shows and sales in the lovely San Gabriel Park. Georgetown even has it’s own Festival Pyrotechnician.
This coming weekend, June 5-8 is all about Mendelssohn in …read more

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If The Good Musician were to travel due north from Budapest, she would cross the Polish border and explore Warsaw, birthplace of Anton Rubenstein. I was privileged to hear him in a 1963 concert, a high school graduation gift from my parents.
Actually, I was thinking of Bo Diddley, saying a fond farewell to an icon of my pre-teen and teen years. His music always made me get up and dance.
Somehow that led me to Rubenstein, and my night at the concert. He did a Beethoven concerto, several fiery Latin composers, one of my faves, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and …read more

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The Good Musician travelog talked about Hungarian and Czech composers. Here are some of the astounding churches and cathedrals where those composers wrote and made music, and where Chorus Austin will perform this summer. I’ve been browsing the concert schedules, and it looks like there will be lots of fantastic music while we’re there.
Budapest is smaller than Prague, and sadly received more damage during World War II. This is a lovely church in Budapest.
Image details: A Church In Budapest served by picapp.com
Here’s a view of Budapest and the Danube–waltz, anyone?
Image details: Budapest and danube river served by picapp.com
This is …read more

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Next stop, Prague–capitol of the Czech Republic. Rich in ancient church music tradition, documented from the Sixth Century, this is a hotspot of Central European music. Bohuslav Martinu, Antonin Dvorak (sorry, don’t know diacritical marks yet), Leos Janacek, and Bedrich Smetana are composers you’ve likely run across, Romantic and 20th Century exemplars.
You can download Czech music mp3s here.
More about Czech music here.
From Radio Prague, an exceptionally well written piece on the history of music in general, and Czech music in particular.
Visit the Czech Music Information Centre to learn more about contemporary Czech music.
A really cool music festival site with tiny …read more

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Jacobi Handl (Lat. Jacobus Gallus Carniolus), 1550-1591, is perhaps the best known Slovenian composer. Writing primarily masses and motets (374 of those mamas), he worked with a printer in Prague to ensure his compositions were printed before his death. Pretty remarkable in any period.
Here is a fascinating Web site that gives a run-down on Slovenian church music during the Reformation and subsequently a run-in with the Communist regime.
Composers of that time made their living as many do today–writing secular pieces, forming secular instrumental and vocal groups, and teaching in addition to the court duties to produce masses for …read more

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