Free Republic

A few notes scribbled in his notebook are all the German composer left of his symphony before his death in 1827. Now, a team of musicologists and programmers is racing to complete a version of the piece using sophisticated computer software to predict what Beethoven had planned.

I am writing this column to inform readers of some good news. The sustained efforts of individuals, organizations and the media who oppose everything people like me stand for -- America as an exceptional nation among the nations of the world; the unique contribution of the Judeo-Christian value system in shaping America and the best of Western civilization; sustaining Western civilization as a moral imperative; preserving the American Trinity of liberty, In God We Trust and e pluribus unum; promulgating the American and Judeo-Christian belief that race is insignificant; and an openness to all points of view -- to shut...

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra sent a representative to Iran this week as part of an exploratory trip aimed at arranging the first official U.S. orchestra concert in Iran since the fall of the Shah. The concert tour is being considered for later this year, and the PSO, the American Middle East Institute (AMEI), Iranian officials, and the U.S. State Department are hammering out details, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettefirst reported in January. Representatives for the PSO and AMEI visited the Islamic Republic on a preliminary trip on Sunday, the groups confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon. If the effort moves forward, the...

Free Republic Symphony of The Day: Barenboim -"El Amor Brujo" Daniel Barenboim conducts Manuel de Falla's "El Amor Brujo" (Danza ritual del fuego) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from the Kölner Philharmonie (Germany) I don't know why but part of it would make for a great time-travel sequence.

Soviet-born conductor Semyon Bychkov leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8.

The San Francisco Symphony said on Sunday that it has canceled its upcoming East Coast tour as its musicians continue to strike over compensation. **SNIP** Orchestra management said in a statement that musicians rejected a "cooling off" period that would have allowed concerts to resume. Musicians went on strike on Wednesday after contract negotiations fell through. The orchestra said on Sunday that musicians have rejected a number of proposals, including one that offered increases in musician compensation to achieve a new annual minimum salary of $145,979 with annual increases of 1% and 2%.

It gets so quiet during the second movement of the Brahms Symphony No. 2, you could almost hear a pin drop. Or a sneeze. Or a fist hitting a face. Such was the case Thursday night at Orchestra Hall in a ruckus the Chicago Symphony Orchestra officially described as “an incident” between “two patrons.” But shocked concert-goers and police called it a fist fight in one of the boxes — where the elite typically sit and expect a more refined experience. Just as the second movement was drawing to a gentle close — with Music Director Riccardo Muti at the...

Pope Benedict XVI minces no words when he describes the medieval judges who interrogated and sentenced St. Joan of Arc to death 580 years ago. The French clergymen were aligned with St. Joan’s political opponents, the pope said in a Jan. 26 general audience, and they “lacked charity and the humility to see God’s action in this young woman.” “Joan’s judges were radically incapable of understanding her or of perceiving the beauty of her soul,” Pope Benedict XVI said. “They did not know that they were condemning a saint.” As the world prepares to celebrate the 600th anniversary of St....

What would happen if a leading British-based music magazine ranked the world's leading orchestras and the "winning" U.S. ensemble didn't care? That's basically what's happened when leaders of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra shrugged their collective shoulders over the London monthly the Gramophone saying that it's the top classical outfit in the United States. "I think it is safe to say that we are not advocates or necessarily firm believers in lists of this sort, given the subjective nature of these types of rankings," said CSO President Deborah Rutter, using the sort of language that one usually hears from someone who's...

Karim Wasfi, age 36, arrives driving a white Range Rover and dressed in a blazer, vest and ascot. [...] Mr. Wasfi has held that post at the Iraq National Symphony Orchestra since 2004, through the darkest of times [...] "In the car, I also listen to the Saint-Saëns requiem and the Mozart requiem -- that's usually the right mood for Baghdad," says Mr. Wasfi, in his cultivated English, as the checkpoint militias gape incredulously and wave us on. He has lost count of the times he has just missed being caught in a bomb blast or a firefight. "I vary...

Joseph Haydn His Life Born in Rohrau in 1732, the son of a wheelwright, he was trained as a chorister at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he made his early living, before appointment to the small musical establishment of Count Morzin in 1759. In 1760 he entered the service of the Esterházy Princes, and succeeded to the position of Kapellmeister on the death of his predecessor and immediate superior Gregorius Werner in 1766. Much of Haydn's life now centred on the magnificent palace and estate at Esterháza, where his employer Prince Nikolaus Esterházy had moved his entourage for...

Back in the 1980s when I was on Active Duty in the Tidewater area of Virgina, I was a dedicated listener to WNOR FM radio in Norfolk. They had a bunch of insane DJs in those days, like Henry "The Bull" del Toro, who did all kinds of memorable things like: **The "Hiney Winery" commercials..."Located in beautiful Butts Station, in Chesapeake"; that had people calling the station for directions constantly... ** Coverage of the Lorena Bobbit trial, where Henry tried to broadcast live from the steps of the Courthouse in Manassass, while handing out tee shirts carrying a portrait of...

For a century, the moment was nothing more than a scribbled entry on a long forgotten studio ledger. Four trombonists, billed as the Boston Symphony Orchestra Trombone Quartet, gathered in Camden, N.J., in the winter of 1906. Huddled over a large, metal horn, they recorded a short pop ditty, ``The Kerry Dance." Tomorrow, thanks to a Florida record collector and a serendipitous turn of events, that song -- believed to be the earliest known recording featuring members of the BSO -- will be played on the radio for the first time. After WGBH found out about it earlier this week,...

With two more changes announced yesterday, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concludes a turnover of upper management that began with the sudden resignation of President and Chief Executive Officer James Glicker in January. Philip D. English, chairman of the board of directors, who played a major role in hiring Glicker and the BSO's next music director, Marin Alsop, will not stand for re-election in June after a single, three-year term. (His predecessor, Buddy Zamoiski, served 15 years as chairman). Vice president and general manager Karen Swanson, who is responsible for day-to-day operations of the orchestra, has resigned effective June 30. "I...

Composing can be a lonely job. Hour after hour, the composer sits at a piano, trying to bring out the music in his head. But for Aaron Copland, composition was about the people. Working with people, learning from them, befriending them, organizing and mentoring them. His enthusiasm for combining music with humanity assured his place in music history almost as much as his compositions. "As organizer, teacher, propagandist, critic, lecturer and expositor, he has been by far the most voluble, articulate and respected American musician of his time," wrote Harold Schonberg in The New York Times in 1970. His ballets...

CHICAGO, July 9 (UPI) -- The first time famed composer Arnold Schoenberg heard Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 2" back in the late 19th century, he said he felt "overwhelmed, completely overwhelmed." Last month, when Californian Lisa Mirza Grotts and her husband heard that same, masterful work at the San Francisco Symphony, they were overcome, too -- but for a completely different reason. "Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, at the start of the performance, said that he was going to tape it," Grotts told United Press International. An exceptionally crass person seated nearby did not seem to take the message to...

A manuscript of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, scheduled to be auctioned by Sotheby's in London next month with an estimated sale price of $3 million to $4 million, may have been used at the premiere of the work in May 1824. Sotheby's London is prepared to sell a musical manuscript — the musical manuscript, one is tempted to say, given the few items that are likely to become available nowadays and the importance of the work involved — Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In three bound volumes of 465 pages, the offering includes virtually the complete score of that symphony in manuscript....

Mozart has brought a dramatic improvement to maths lessons at a primary school. Teachers have also noted better behaviour, motivation and speed of learning amongst four- to 11-year-olds in a year-long pilot scheme to assess whether listening to music stimulates the brain in an academic context. As one test, one Year 6 class was played Mozart during maths lessons for a term while another was taught normally. Pupils subjected to the background music performed 10 per cent better than their counterparts. Doulla Simon, the head teacher, said: "We have found that Mozart symphonies which have complicated note patterns stimulate mathematical...