Concerto

A concerto (from the Italian: concerto, plural concerti or, often, the anglicised form concertos) is a musical composition, whose characteristics have changed over time. In the 17th century, "sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos." J. S. Bach "was thus reflecting a long-standing tradition when he used the title `concerto' for many of the works that we know as cantatas.". But in recent centuries, up to the present, a concerto is a piece usually composed in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band.

The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words conserere (meaning to tie, to join, to weave) and certamen (competition, fight): the idea is that the two parts in a concerto, the soloist and the orchestra or concert band, alternate episodes of opposition, cooperation, and independence in the creation of the music flow.

Concertos (Michael Nyman album)

Concertos is the 31st album by Michael Nyman, released in 1997. It contains three concerti commissioned from Nyman, the Mazda-sponsored Double Concerto for Saxophone and Cello, featuring John Harle and Julian Lloyd Webber, the Harpsichord Concerto for Elisabeth Chojnacka, and the Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra for Christian Lindberg.

The album was intended as the first in a series of Nyman recordings, as it reads "NYMAN EDITION No1: Concertos" on the EMI label, but Nyman's only other release on EMI (until The Actors in 2003), The Suit and the Photograph does not have such designation.

The album appeared just as completely clear jewel cases were being introduced, and the inside back cover is colored solid red, with the series designation in the left area that was previously hidden by the tray. The Suit and the Photograph, however, was packaged in a standard grey-black tray.

Nyman said of EMI, "I didn't excite them, and they didn't excite me."

References

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms (German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other composers. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

Brahms (disambiguation)

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist.

Brahms may also refer to:

See also

Brahms (surname)

Brahms is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Fictional characters: