Miklos Rozsa led what he called his “double life.” Millions of people who have never attended a concert of classical music heard his music when they watched films such as “The Thief of Baghdad” “The Lost Weekend,” “Ben-Hur”, “El Cid,” and “King of Kings.” The academic world knew him as Dr. Miklos Rozsa, a renowned [...]

After Debussy died, Maurice Ravel became known as France’s greatest living composer. The careers of the two men overlapped and, at a superficial level, their music is often considered quite similar. Some critics at the time, in fact, accused Ravel of copying Debussy’s style – even plagiarizing his music. Ravel vehemently denied these charges. Writers [...]

To celebrate the 400th birthday of North Carolina, Governor James Hunt asked noted North Carolinians to “create something.” CBS news correspondent Charles Kuralt and his friend, composer, Loonis McGlohon, turned out a remarkable combination of words and music called “North Carolina is My Home.” No one was more devoted to his state than McGlohon: a [...]

I have just returned from my bank. Whenever I walk through the mouse maze that seems to be a permanent fixture at my savings institution, I always think of the “Seinfeld” episode that featured this self-same maze. In this sequence, Jerry is making his way, in an empty bank, directly towards the teller who then [...]

The world’s most eminent composers once called Erich Wolfgang Korngold the most brilliant musical prodigy since Mozart. (His fan club included Puccini, Mahler, Richard Strauss, and the widow of Johann Strauss, Jr., the “Waltz King.”) Korngold produced a treasure trove of music, including operas, chamber music, and orchestral works, as well as scores for films [...]

Modest Mussorgsky was one of the “Mighty Five” Russian composers. The other four were Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Caesar Cui, Alexander Borodin and Mily Balakirev. This was a group of Russian nationalist composers who eschewed western (German, French, Italian) musical forms and styles. Mussorgsky was thought by musicologists and musical historians to be the greatest of the [...]

If by chance you read the last column I posted, you know how I got on an airplane and into a middle seat. Rather than tell you it was a miserable flight, let me describe it to you and you make the decision. The guy seated on my left was a youth pastor. He was [...]

When one thinks of composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the names Mozart and Beethoven are likely to come to mind. A little more thought brings Franz Joseph Haydn into the picture. Haydn was not a child prodigy, but he was a true musical genius. Recognition came later, and it is said [...]