Lady Gaga (2010)

“Fold em let em hit me raise it baby stay with me.”

Lady Gaga’s song, “Poker Face,” is one of the best selling and most down-loaded singles ever produced. The song, written and composed by Nadir Khayat, has a robotic hook and a clever use of the love-as-card-game theme, and after considering all of its charms, and those of the performer, we might also notice that it points us to an important historical relationship. Gambling and music have always been … Continue Reading

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)

Today I’d like to list (quite arbitrarily and subjectively) the ten greatest operas out of the many inspired by the plays of William Shakespeare.

Why Shakespeare? Because he has proven irresistible to so many great composers and librettists. He offers them, after all, a compendium of readymade, popularly known plots, characters, and images. Thus, invoking Shakespeare will serve us as an organizing principle to look at the development of opera as an art form over … Continue Reading

Most of you know who the lead singer of your favorite band is and the lead guitar player. Lead singers get a lot of attention and are often viewed as the most important member. Vocals are essential, but if your bass player or drummer can’t keep time, your band won’t get far in the long run. All the musicians are crucial to the success of the group.

The guitar players, especially the lead one, is arguably more important as the lead singer or any other member of the band. They are responsible for many of the … Continue Reading

Mick Jagger

Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger

By Christopher Andersen

Gallery Books, New York, 2012.

384 pages, $27

Mick Jagger was of course one of the central figures of popular music in the final third of the 20th century. In the 21st, he remains the dynamic and it seems everlasting force behind the Rolling Stones: complemented, of course, by Keith Richards.

One of the many gossipy revelations (or claims) of this gossipy book is that Jagger and another central figure in recent … Continue Reading

Born 7 November 1905. William Alwyn was an English composer, music teacher and conductor.  Beside his musical talent he was also a polyglot, poet and artist.

In 1920 William Alwyn started studying the flute and compositions at the  Royal Academy of Music in London and after this study he served there as professor of composition until 1955.

From 1941 till 1962 he wrote over 70 sheet music titles for films, some of those are.

• Desert Victory (1943),
• Fires Were Started (1943)
• Odd Man Out (1947)
• The History of Mr Polly (1949) By … Continue Reading
  

Robert Louis ‘Bob’ Fosse (June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987)

Susan’s thoughts on Michael Jackson have got me thinking about 20th century dance and choreography, and it hasn’t taken long for my thoughts in this line to land upon Robert Louis Fosse, a/k/a Bob Fosse, a man whose dance style: sexual, stylized, cynical, exciting, has had and continues to have an incalculable influence on the worlds of dance, of music, and of pop-culture generally.

Fosse, famed as a director as well as a choreographer, … Continue Reading

Dave Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012)

Dave Brubeck, a great American jazz pianist, passed away on December 5th.

Brubeck was just one day short of 92 years old when he died, having lasted long enough so that his death became subject for commentary in formats he could not have imagined in the’ fifties and ‘sixties of the last century, his productive peak: his death in 2012 became fodder for the twittersphere.

Quincy Jones, for example, tweeted that Brubeck was “one of the great … Continue Reading

Source: Pexels

If you have a music lover in your life, you probably know how much music can affect people. It can bring great joy, creative expression, and positivity to people of all kinds. When a special day comes around, be it a birthday, anniversary, or Christmas, you want to make sure you get them something that speaks to them in a way similar to the way music does. If you are hunting for the perfect … Continue Reading

Indeed, there are many famous American composers whose work is popular globally. We have heard their music in TV shows, films, and festivals. They also create works at an early age which is later performed by orchestras or symphonies.

These famous American composers tend to work for Universities across the world. They also partner with other groups and individuals.

  1. Jay Greenberg

Greenberg is a famous American composer from New Haven, Connecticut. He … Continue Reading

Sight reading is an essential technique in learning how to play piano and it will improve your piano playing skills by leaps and bounds. Learning to sight read piano pieces will help you start to understand music theory and will improve your ability to read notes and pieces just by playing it one time. All-in-all, it will make you a more well-rounded piano player.

However, what is sight reading? Sight reading is being able to look at a piece of music and play the notes and rhythms the whole way through, without … Continue Reading