Springtime in Munich

Munich, the capital of Bavaria is a wonderful city famous for many things and dear to many people for their own reason, or two, or a dozen. "Munich loves you" is the city’s motto and that is indeed so. Apart from being the host city of the world-known beer festival called Oktoberfest, Munich has much more to offer.

The lovers of German cars would be delighted to visit this motherland of the renowned BMW car maker. Those who love history and museums would definitely enjoy walking a lot in the impressive center that has been kept pedestrian since the 1972 Olympics. Only here would you see office workers having a beer and getting some sun tan in the nudist area during the lunch break. Gourmets would start licking their fingers looking at the yummy white sausages with sweet mustard and pretzels. And if you consider moving to Germany, Munich would be the best destination as it is considered to be the most economically highly-developed German city with the lowest unemployment rate and the highest level of life. It simply tops the list of best places to live in in Germany. Getting back to the music theme, one cannot but mention the fact that Munich is the host town for numerous composers like the great Richard Wagner, Carl Maria von Webber, Strauss and others. Bavarian State Opera and Bavarian State Orchestra are situated here. So weighty is the city’s heritage that musicians from all over the world keep being inspired by it, dedicating their works to the heart of Germany.
One of such composers is Shao Suan Low who wrote her Springtime in Munich for Flute and Piano for it.
Although, according to the composer, she stayed there for two weeks in Autumn, the town’s atmosphere felt completely like spring. The soothing piece came out as a result and one more charmed heart was open for Munich.

Theremin: Music in the Air

When talking about the ‘rare’ in music, why not spot some curious music instruments. When asked to enumerate some music instruments most would mention the popular piano, violin, cello, flute, harp, organ, guitar and so on. Hardly would anyone’s list be headed by the curious name ‘theremin’. And this instrument does deserve some attention that I’m gonna pay to it today.

Theremin was invented in 1919 by the Russian physicist Lev Termen, who, on arriving to the USA was called Leon Theremin (thus the name of the invention).  The marvelous thing about the instrument is that its construction allows playing without actually touch the instrument itself: it consists of two antennae, one responsible for the pitch, and the other one – for the volume. You can play by ‘touching the air’ between those two and adjusting the melody with your vertical and horizontal moves. It’s quite challenging I should say – constant skill training is required.

Leon Theremin was forced back to the Soviet Union in 1938 having to leave behind his studio, work, family and friends. However, during those years he managed to leave tangible work for his disciples. One of his best students is Clara Rockmore – a violinist who after having some health problems with hands switched to theremin and became world’s most outstanding theremin player.

In the 1930-ies theremin was quite promoted. Theremin music could be heard in popular movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Lost Weekend, etc.), in music bands’ creativity (Led Zeppelin, Hand People, the Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band, etc.). Today, there is no that ‘boom’ in theremin’s fame but it is still produced, played and valued.

Largest Classical Piano Sonata Ever

When we are doing something that truly interests us, at some point there grows a wish to achieve some height in our favorite endeavor. There are different ways of estimation of this ‘height’, but since 1955 there has been published a book a listing in which can shout about your uniqueness – Guinness Book of World Records. The fun thing is that there is even a listing about the book itself there, as one with the biggest circulation.

But since we have a music blog here, why not have a look at the music records of Guinness, particularly those in classical music. Here are some of them:

• The most popular classical music album: “The Three Tenors In Concert”, recorded by Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti – 13 mln copies.
• The biggest concert audience: 800 00 thousand people, at the free concert by the NY Philharmonic in the Central Park.
• The most fruitful conductor: Richard Rodgers, with over 800 classical music recordings.
• The lowest and the highest note: both in works of Mozart, in opera “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and aria “Popolo di Tessaglia” respectively. 
• The oldest classical music: Chinese music, with a 3 000+ years history. 
• The most outstanding classical music teenager: Charlotte Church, double platinum album at the age of 12.

There are people who put many years of hard work in their pieces of music in order to create a most unique masterpiece in the end. One of such examples is Piano sonata No.5 by Maurice Verheul which had been composed during 9 years (!) and is likely to get in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “largest classical sonata ever”.

Would you dedicate so many years to a music piece?

Vltava for Solo Guitar (from Ma Vlast by Bedrich Smetana)

Bedrich Smetana is considered to be the Father of Czech music and is known for his exceptional love for the motherland, its beauties and independence. Smetana started his music career very early – as a pianist at the age of 6. But with age he became more and more concerned about the future of his homeland – Bohemia – and his started composing music with nationalistic features.

The river Vltava

Smetana’s late years of life were quite pathetic – the great composer gradually lost his hearing and ended his life in an asylum for mentally ill people. However, the heritage he left remained unsurpassed. Among composer’s most famous works are the opera The Bartered Bride, string quartet From My Life and of course the renowned symphonic cycle known as Ma Vlast.

The latter is actually a set of six individual works-movements that were recorded individually too. But the part of this tone poem – Vltava – stands even more aside. Its German name is “Die Moldau”, the work is dedicated to a country’s ‘blood’ – the rivers, particularly the majestic Vltava. The tone is painted in such a way that it brightly describes all the natural phenomena of the river – its current, streams, day and night niceties, life on its banks. This music piece involves one of Smetana’s famous tunes, and exactly the adopted melody of La Mantovana which is also known to be the base of the national anthem of Israel.

Below is a curious adaptation of Vltava for solo guitar:

Unique sheet music for children

Talking about RARE sheet music I’ve stumbled across something way beyond it. It’s not only rare but it’s so original and, most important, useful for the whole generation of musicians (or generationS, who knows). Okay, pompous world aside, let me share the idea with you.

Music book "Maestro-in-the-Making"

Right now out there online there is a nice campaign going on that is turning to crowds to find support and raise funds for a unique music project for children of the world – “Maestro-in-the-Making”. There is not that much time left but I hope guys will manage to reach their goal and get the necessary funds to proceed to the project’s stages. The idea is awesome. They are going to hold an international competition among contemporary composers and in this way issue a call for new original scores. The pieces should be easy and fun, something that would make music education for kids more diverse and engaging.

The best works then will be awarded and included into a special sheet music edition for children “Maestro-in-the-Making”. The book will be sent for free to numerous music schools all over the world. And all that – FOR FREE. Cool, huh?

The idea is pretty real and doable, if only people cared to make a little contribution of their own, the sooner the better... I believe the project is of real importance and it is something really worthy. Let’s help the guys to bring it to life!