Free Republic

On December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas aired on TV screens across America and instantly captured the hearts and ears of a generation. Bolstering the animated special, based on Charles M. Schulz's immensely popular PEANUTS comic strip, was an engaging score from Bay Area jazz artist Vince Guaraldi, who brought characters like Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy to life through his evocative cues... Guaraldi's soundtrack, meanwhile, has since become one of the best-selling jazz albums in history, second only to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, and regularly ranks among America's top-selling holiday albums every December.Vince Guaraldi Trio - Christmas...

Well.. since Walz fell flat yesterday, here's the Wal(t)z in A Flat, by Brahms.

Excerpt - KUALA LUMPUR : US top diplomat Condoleezza Rice won rave reviews Thursday for her musical performance at Asian security talks, despite skipping the traditional rowdy skits in favour of a sombre piano recital. With North Korea firing off missiles, carnage in Lebanon, rockets raining on Israel and killings convulsing Iraq, Rice was in no mood for the kind of frivolity staged in previous years. In keeping with her "serious" mood the Secretary of State performed two pieces from the brooding repertoire of Johannes Brahms -- a solo Intermezzo number two, and Brahms Sonata for violin and piano, opus...

Original manuscripts by Bach, Mozart and Brahms form part of a 139-item collection of sheet music donated to the Juilliard School in New York. The artefacts - donated by collector Bruce Kovner, chairman of the music acedemy's board - will be housed in a reading room from September 2009. Highlights include working manuscripts of Beethoven's only opera Fidelio and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 9. School president Joseph Polisi said it was "by its very definition priceless". A lifelong music lover, Kovner began collecting manuscripts more than 10 years ago when he noticed a flow of rare artefacts coming onto the...