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Music of the Great Composers
Music can be a wonderful shorthand in introducing and reminding us of an emotion, a character or a picture. The more thought, the writer gives to it, the more the director has to build upon. It can swing you instantaneously from one mood to another. It can - as subtly as a raised eyebrow - give to a phrase an extra, and possibly contradictory, level of meaning. It can provide unity, where unity may otherwise be difficult to achieve.
As a director I have particularly found classical and movie music helpful in this regard; and it has been a great joy and privilege to employ such music.
The Life and Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach is frequently referred to as the Fifth Evangelist for his devoted interpretation of Biblical sources. In 1929 the Swedish bishop Nathan Söderblom called Bach's cantatas the Fifth Gospel..
Music was never just music to Bach. Nearly three-fourths of his 1,000 compositions were written for use in worship.
Part 1: Eisenach and Ohrdruf: 1685-1700
Part 2: Lüneburg, Weimar, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen 1700 - 1708
Part 3: Weimar and Cðthen 1708 - 1723
Part 4: Leipzig 1723 - 1750
"The aim and final end of all music should be the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. Where this is not observed there will be no music, but only a devilish hubbub."
Bach
The Life and Music of Ludwig van Beethoven
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus, who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.."
Beethoven
Part 1: Background and Early Life. 1770 - 1792
Part 2: Taking Vienna by storm. 1792 - 1803
Part 3: The Heroic Years. 1803 - 1811
Part 4: The Last Years. 1812 - 1827
"He opens the realms of the colossal and immeasurable. Radiant beams shoot through the deep night. His music evokes terror and pain, and awakens that endless longing that is the essence of romanticism."
Ernst Hoffmann
The Life and Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
Mozart
Part 1: Family and Early Years. 1756 - 1762
Part 3: The early Vienna Years 1779 - 1786
Part 2: Italy, Salzburg and Paris 1769 - 1779
Part 4: Later Vienna Years, Illness and Death 1786 - 1791
"If I had to marry all the women I've laughed with, I'd have at least 200 wives.."
Mozart
The Life and Music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
"Music is the most beautiful of all Heaven’s gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls. It is a true friend, refuge, and comforter, for whose sake life is worth living."
Part 1: His Early Life 1840 – 1867
Part 2: The Women in His Life 1867 – 1877
Part 3: The Years of Wandering 1877 - 1885
Part 4: The Final Years 1885 - 1893
"Truly there would be reason to go mad, were it not for music."
Tchaikovsky
The Life and Music of Gabriel Saint-Saens
"The artist who does not feel competely satisfied by elegant lines, by harmonious colors, and by a beautiful succession of chords does not understand the art of music."
Part 1: His Brilliant Early Years 1835 – 1878
Part 2: Some of His Most Popular Works 1878 – 1921
"I produce music as an apple tree produces apples."
Saint-Saens
Siegfried Sassoon
Gerard Manley Hopkins