Online Musical Salons
Online Edition
Not your typical music appreciation class! Moby Pearson (violinist, ensemble coach, and orchestra conductor) leads these informative virtual musical explorations. A brief overview of each topic is followed by comments and links to carefully selected, freely available, recordings. Listen to glorious music – from Early music to today’s compositions – And pick up new musical perspectives along the way!
Here begins a winter salon project with the intention of sharing some of the most beautiful and challenging music ever written. And much of it is not that well known. In the first installment we sample some of Mozart’s earlier concert arias.
I hope you enjoy! -Moby
Music of Protest
~We start with my own experience of protest going back to the Kent State massacre of May 4, 1970. This was the day four students were shockingly killed by National Guardsmen who were called in by the Ohio governor to quell protests against the US bombing invasion of Cambodia. I was a junior at nearby Oberlin Conservatory at the time. The night (Monday) of the killings the entire student body met in the concert hall
Composers of Color part l: Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) – There is no other composer quite like this one. Music is only part of his extraordinary life! Born in Guadeloupe to a planter and his mistress slave, Joseph was taken to Paris at age 7 to get the best education possible in high French society…
Composers of Color, part ll: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Named after the poet and referred to as the African Mahler by American musicians, Samuel was the son of an Englishwoman and a doctor from Sierra Leone. Brought up in a working class neighborhood with music all around him (his grandfather taught him violin), he entered the Royal College of Music at 15…
Composers of Color, part 111: Florence Price
In 2009 a couple was renovating a ramshackle house in St. Anne, Illinois, and uncovered 30 boxes of personal documents. It turned out that this home used to be the summer residence of Florence Price. Among the findings were manuscripts of two violin concertos and a symphony (her 4th and last). The discovery illuminates the tremendous resistance faced by women of color in the 20th century…
Composers of Color, part IV: William Grant Still
If you believe the tune ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’ originated with George Gershwin, think again! It was actually first heard by Gershwin in the highly successful 1921 show ‘Shuffle Along,’ the band of which included none other than our featured composer…
Composers of Color, part V: George Walker
Unlike the other composers in our series, George Walker does not have a signature element that defines his compositions. “I try not to duplicate what I have already done,” he says…
King of Choral Conductors: Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw’s work remains, to this day, the gold standard for choral repertory. Maestros Toscanini and Szell both handpicked him to be the choral conductor of their respective orchestras. Mr. Shaw’s choirs had a very special blend of sound and we will find out how he did it! Thankfully, he has left us a treasure trove of recordings and rehearsal videos from which to draw.
Music History 101, Part 1 (1400 – 1700)
The first in a series of programs walking through music’s timeline. We will start back in 1397 when the composer Guillaume DuFay was born, and leisurely work our way up to Bach and Handel, both born in the year 1685. It is fascinating to hear how music evolved over these three and a half centuries!
Music History 101, Part 2 (1700-1800)
The time around the early 1700s is an interesting mix of the old and new. The masters, Bach & Handel, were very much in their Baroque prime but the next generation was off to something different and experimental.
Music History 101, Part 3 (1700-1827) Beethoven
The incredible impact of an individual on the evolution of musical form
Music History 101, Part 4 – After Beethoven
The generation of composers after Beethoven takes on new and distinct styles.
Music History 101, part 5 – The early Romantics
Just a few words before we launch into the heart of Romantic music. There were generally two trends of composing during the 19th century: that of staying within a Classical structure while exploring new sounds and lush harmonies, and with a minimum of rocking the boat…
Music History 101, Part 6 – Late Romantic, Impressionism
Composers born in the late 1800s were going in all directions…
Music History 101, Part 7 – The Twentieth Century
Once we are in the heart of the 1900s pretty much anything goes.
It would be hard to attach any kind of ‘style’ to a particular composer. Rather each one attained a signature…
