British conductor Daniel Harding is a busy man. As well as just being confirmed as the new director of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, a post he will initially hold alongside his commitments at Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Harding has a second career: as an airline pilot at Air France.
Being such a busy man, it must be challenging to find time to pick repertoire for his next concert. We are glad then to provide a few suggestions that will hopefully inspire him and
anyone else with an interest in flight in all its forms: insect and avian; mythological and man-made.
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"Giant Steps" is a famously challenging jazz track composed by saxophonist John Coltrane. Released on his 1960 album of the same name, the track became famous for its rapid-fire chord changes, where chords that are usually only distantly related rain down in quick succession.
Improvising over the Giant Steps chord progression has became something of a rite of passage for jazz musicians the world over. A challenge to see if you can master one of the trickiest series of chords ever created for the jazz improviser.
But another approach is to see if you can play Coltrane's own solo note-for-note on your own instrument.
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It can be played in less than two minutes, wasn’t even written as a conventional concert piece and only acquired its final title almost a decade after the death of the composer who wrote it. Unpublished for fifteen years, the piece existed in a single manuscript copy whose owner retained exclusive performance rights to the work, which he often played while hidden behind a curtain.
Despite its unusual history, Debussy’s Syrinx has gone on to establish itself as probably the most popular piece for unaccompanied woodwind instrument ever written. A key work in the flute repertoire, it’s also hugely popular with clarinet and sax players, and indeed many other performers — search YouTube and you’ll find transcriptions for just about every major instrument ranging from versions for piccolo and guitar to tuba and double bass.
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Most people have heard of J.S.Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, more recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber? But did you know that none of these were the only composer in the family? Some, indeed, were part of a line of musicians that lasted many generations. Here, then, are five of some of the most famous composing families, their most famous and not so famous members, as well as examples of their best works. When it comes to composing, it’s just in the blood.
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![King Charles III and commissioned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber [Source: Wikipedia]](/discover/charles_webber.jpg)
Buckingham Palace has revealed the names of the composers commissioned to write new pieces for the coronation of King Charles III.
The diverse list includes music from legendary theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who will write a new Coronation Anthem, and a new Coronation March from Patrick Doyle, best known for his works for film, including a number of collaborations with Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, Carlito's Way and Gosford Park).
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![Code breaker Alan Turing at the age of 16 and 1748 portrait of code maker J.S. Bach [Source:Wikipedia]](/discover/turing_bach.jpg)
Alan Turing played an important role in the breaking the the Nazi Enigma codes during World War 2. His life was made into the 2014 film, ‘The Imitation Game.’
It has now also been turned into an opera, ‘The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing’ by Justine F Chen to a libretto by David Simpatico, which will premiere on 23rd March in Chicago's Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
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A question often asked by first-time concert goers is—where were the saxophones? The saxophone is one of the most popular instruments. You see them everywhere. So why aren't they part of the standard orchestral line-up?
A common myth is that it doesn't blend with the other instruments. It's loud, abrasive and honky—it just sticks out too much.
But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The true reason the sax isn't a fully-fledged member of the orchestra is a story full of intrigue, politics and prejudice.
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The music of Frédéric Chopin is a pillar of the piano repertoire, including some of the most brilliant, and challenging, music ever written for the instrument ranging from showy polonaises through to whirlwind scherzos – not to mention his notoriously demanding collection of virtuoso etudes. Unlike the other great piano composers of the 19th century, however, Chopin also composed a surprisingly large number of works which can be tackled even by intermediate players (roughly equivalent to grades 5–6 according the UK’s ABRSM ranking system) – although bear in mind that even Chopin’s “easiest” pieces require plenty of musicality and interpretative finesse to bring off convincingly. We’ve chosen ten of our favourites below, ranked roughly in order from the easiest to most difficult.
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