All Classical Portland is excited to announce that Future Prairie is the recipient of the 2020 Rising Tide Grant, in support of Onry’s project Livin’ in the Light.
About the Rising Tide Grant: This grant is awarded annually by All Classical Portland to small arts organizations to support and promote creative projects that enrich the artistic landscape and strengthen the community.
About Livin’ in the Light: Directed by Emmanuel Henreid (also known as Onry) and produced by Portland nonprofit creative studio Future Prairie, Livin’ in the Light documents Onry’s experience as a Black, male, professional opera and crossover singer in Portland, OR. The documentary aims to shed light on the effects of the 2020 global health crisis and racial inequity and injustice.
Livin’ in the Light explores the joy, perseverance, and struggle of being a Black male artist in what is often called “the Whitest City in America,” while honoring the timeless art form of opera. Watch the new music video for Livin’ in the Light released on August 4th, 2020.
All Classical Portland President & CEO Suzanne Nance said: “All Classical Portland exists to amplify the voices of our artists and to inspire listeners in our region and beyond, through music and creativity. With millions of listeners locally and worldwide, All Classical Portland is proud to share its wide-reaching platform with Onry and to support this artist’s work as the 2020-2021 Rising Tide Grant recipient.”
Onry shared: “Being awarded the Rising Tide Grant is a huge honor and something that I hope is just the beginning of a long partnership with All Classical Portland. As someone who was born and raised in Portland and has been a member of many musical groups throughout the years, I’m blessed to be collaborating with one of the institutions that helped shape my musical upbringing. As a Black singer and composer, I seek to change the perception of classical music by bringing stories and narratives from my community to light. I encourage every artist to use their voice to continue to educate and raise awareness around issues of social justice.”
In “Coming to America: Composers Speak Out,” Theodore Wiprud interviewed a group of composers who had emigrated to America. When he asked composed Jin Hi Kim how “being a newcomer in America affected [her] career,” she discussed a unique opportunity for artists to share and collaborate in this multicultural country.
“It is only in America that it is possible to bring together artists with different voices and create a new aesthetic. There are many non-Western musicians spread throughout the country who perform their traditional music as well as create new pieces with others. It is an invaluable experience for a composer to meet so many different musicians in a single city like New York and to collaborate with them.”
This list represents just a small sampling of the “different voices and new aesthetics” that émigré composers have brought to the United States.
Jin Hi Kim
Jin Hi Kim
Jin Hi Kim (b. 1957) is both a composer and a virtuoso of the komungo, a historic Korean stringed instrument. She has received commissions from prestigious institutions such as the Kronos Quartet, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Composers’ Orchestra. She has also performed her own compositions throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in her adopted country of America.
Kim emigrated in 1980, after studying traditional historic court music in South Korea. In her own words, she traveled to the United States because,
“At that time Korea was becoming more interested in Western music than in its own traditions. It was my dream to balance out this attitude and combine Korean and Western instruments in a new kind of music. I need to learn Western music, so I came to the US in 1980. I stayed because of opportunities here to compose and perform.”
— Jin Hi Kim, interviewed in “Coming to America: Composers Speak Out” by Theodore Wiprud
Kim often performs on an innovative electric komungo (the “world’s only” one, as her professional biography notes). She plays it in this mesmerizing performance of her improvisational composition, Pale Blue Dot, with percussionist Gerry Hemingway.
“I have never attempted to be ‘new,’ but to be ‘true’ and to be human…Everything that has a soul, everything that has character, everything that is true is beautiful.”
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) was born in Switzerland and studied music in Geneva, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. He developed a personal style rooted both in the Impressionism modeled by his mentor Debussy, and in the expression of his deeply-felt Jewish identity. Bloch came to America in 1916 for a conducting performance, and soon emigrated with his family. He revisited his native country in the 1930s, but due to the the rising influence of Fascism in Europe, Bloch chose to return permanently to the United States. Bloch may be especially well-known to the Oregonian listeners of All Classical, because in 1939 he moved to Portland, and in 1941 he settled in Agate Beach, a coastal village near Newport, Oregon.
Bloch’s suite Poems of the Sea exemplifies his multicultural interests. He composed the suite in 1922 while he was living in Cleveland. He prefaced the work with a quotation from the iconic American poet Walt Whitman: the opening of “In Cabin’d Ships at Sea” from Leaves of Grass. With this American inspiration he weaves the sound of Debussy’s French musical Impressionism and of shtayger, traditional modes used in Ashkenazi synagogue music.
“I am a tango man, but my music makes people think, people who love tango and people who love good music. All ballet companies in the world are dancing my works. The jazz people love and enjoy what I do. Chamber groups that play classical repertoire are asking me to write for them.”
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was three years old when his family emigrated from Argentina in 1924. They settled in Greenwich Village, where he fell in love with jazz. Astor developed into a child prodigy on the bandoneón. As a teen, he returned to Argentina where he studied tango by playing in the cafés of Buenos Aires. He also studied with classical Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera.
In 1954, Piazzolla was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris with renowned composition pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. Initially, Piazzolla worried that he should hide his tango experience from Boulanger, but in fact she encouraged his work in that genre. Piazzolla’s mature tango style came to be known as nuevo tango, and its elements are as diverse as Piazzolla’s experience. He fuses jazz, Argentine tango, modernism and counterpoint into a language all his own.
Piazzolla begins to play his bandoneón about halfway through this electrifying performance of his Libertango (composed 1974).
“I came from one country into another…where my head can be erect, where kindness and cheerfulness is dominating, and where to live is a joy and to be an expatriate of another country is the grace of God…I was driven into paradise.”
In 1933, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) became one of many Jewish composers who fled Europe to escape the rising Nazi regime. In addition to Ernest Bloch, there was Kurt Weill who settled in New York, adapting brilliantly to American musical theater. Erich Wolfgang Korngold came to Los Angeles for good in 1938, becoming one of Hollywood’s most influential composers. Lukas Foss was fifteen when his family brought him to America to escape Nazism. Schoenberg ended up settling in Los Angeles like his friend Korngold.
Schoenberg initially felt somewhat out-of-place in his new country: the American music scene found his atonal style less accessible than Korngold’s neo-romantic music. However, Schoenberg did choose to become a naturalized citizen in 1941, and he influenced future generations of composers as a professor of music at UCLA. Schoenberg’s Kol nidre, Op. 39, is one of the most moving pieces he wrote after emigrating to the United States.
“Janis and I conversed about things that interested us and empathy came up right away, as did the need to really hear one another. I spoke about walking in someone else’s shoes – feeling wise – and how that impacts the strangeness in any relationship.”
—Svjetlana Bukvich, on the creative process behind her music for Janis Brenner’s Once You Are Not a Stranger, from a 2017 interview with Denise Marsa
In 1992, Svjetlana Bukvich received a scholarship to study electronic music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Bosnian War has been raging in her hometown of Sarajevo for three months, and had effectively destroyed her successful career as a composer and pianist. She brought her scholarship letter to a bus driver evacuating people from Sarajevo, and the driver took her aboard, allowing her to leave safely and emigrate to the United States. In her book In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States, Jennifer Kelly describes Bukvich’s music as “the result of an amalgamation of her experiences before the Bosnian War, her immigration to the United States during the war, and her subsequent time in the United States” (p. 195).
Esteemed as an educator and a leading electro-acoustic composer, Bukvich writes music with a unique blend of electronic, classical, rock and world influences, and she frequently collaborates in multimedia projects. In 2017 she wrote the score to Once You Are Not a Stranger, a multimedia dance work for the company Janis Brenner & Dancers, with art installations by Eva Petric. The company’s site explains,
“This interdisciplinary work looks at the ideas of empathy and “otherness” in a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious world and uses the dance company as a microcosm of this world.”
“String Quartet No. 5 is based on two very different musical motifs, like two strangers from different cultural backgrounds who meet and become fast lovers. Throughout their courtship, neither of them changes but they get to know and understand each other on a much deeper level. Most importantly, they learn to happily live with each other.”
—Bright Sheng, from his program notes for his String Quartet No. 5, “The Miraculous”
The musical training of composer Bright Sheng (b.1955) began with piano lessons from his mother in his native Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution, when Western arts education was suppressed in China, he studied folk music extensively in the province of Qinghai. After the Cultural Revolution, he attended the Shanghai Conservatory, then emigrated to America in 1982 to study in New York. Sheng met Leonard Bernstein in 1985 and became one of his final students.
An award-winning composer of orchestral music, chamber music, and opera, Sheng’s works have been commissioned and performed by major orchestras all over the world. He is particularly known for integrating Western and Chinese musical ideas in his concert works.
In his program notes for his String Quartet No. 5, “The Miraculous” (2007), Sheng states that part of the work’s inspiration was The Miraculous Mandarin by another émigré composer, Bela Bartók. Sheng explains that while he admires Bartók’s composition, he “[does] not agree with Bartok’s almost-racist interpretation of what he saw as a ‘miraculous Mandarin.’” In his String Quartet No. 5, Sheng chose to create his own sonic concept of the miraculous, built on two motifs that he compares to “strangers from different cultural backgrounds” who “get to know and understand each other.”
Photograph from BrightSheng.com
Tania León
“I have maintained an independent stand in the way I have syncretized my sounds, I have a blend that I feel very comfortable with and this is very hard to explain to anyone. The sounds emerge from me just the way that my pronunciation of English always has a touch of an accent.”
Composer, conductor and educator Tania Léon (b. 1943) emigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1967. She was the founding musical director of the Dance Theater of Harlem. In 2010 she founded Composers Now, an organization and music festival dedicated to encouraging new composers and promoting musical diversity. Léon is an award-winning composer, whose works range from music for dance, to chamber music, to her recent opera, The Little Rock Nine.
León’s Alma (Soul) for flute and piano was commissioned in 2007 by Maria Martin. In this wonderful video interview, León explains “what to listen for” in Alma. She compares the flute’s melody to that of a bird in the forest, flying through the piano’s texture like a bird flies through the leaves of a tree. She also explains that through the piece’s title, her image of flight can also reflect the meditative experience of the human soul.
“The term “immigrant” is just another way of labeling people, and though I am proud of my roots and my adopted homeland, I have been placed in so many categories in my life, that I am looking forward to the day I am introduced only as ‘Tania León’.”
—Tania Léon, interviewed in “Coming to America: Composers Speak Out” by Theodore Wiprud
LGBTQI+ pride in Oregon has a long history, dating back to 1975 when 200 people gathered in the South Park Blocks near Portland State University for what would be Oregon’s first Pride celebration. The creation of space for LGBTQI+ individuals has gone through countless evolutions both in Oregon and worldwide. In this article, we’re featuring nine different LGBTQI+ classical musical spaces right here in Oregon. Many of these groups are even non-audition and open to anyone who has a musical story to tell, so if you’ve been searching for a welcoming space to grow your musical talents, read on!
* This blog was originally published in June 2020. Some of the organizations mentioned may not be currently performing.
In this article, we highlight nineteen powerful voices in our musical community. Their voices and stories are essential parts of the tapestry of our musical lives. We invite you to carry their music and stories with you, today and every day.
In this article, we highlight three trans women of color who are turning the classical music world on its ear. May we learn from their stories and lift up their voices.
Some of classical music’s most charming repertoire has been music for, or about, children. Some classics, like Schumann’s Kinderszenen and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, are familiar favorites with audiences of all ages. In this list, we’ll explore a few familiar children’s pieces, as well as some lesser-known gems inspired by young people.
This piece is dedicated to the unsung champions of classical music: the friends and encouragers who have come together to help the arts thrive. In this list, we’ll meet arts patrons, composers’ roommates, community leaders, aunts, teachers, choir directors, and letter writers. Each, in their own way, gave the support that was needed for music to flourish.
Many people are at home right now – working from home, studying at home, isolating at home. Have you wondered what self-isolation would have looked like for classical composers? Let’s explore some historical images and meet some Composers at Home.
Today we call them art songs, but when this specific genre first appeared in the late 18th century, they were simply “songs,” nearly always scored for what is now a classic combination: piano and voice. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was helping to create a new class of music lovers. The new Middle Class was wealthy enough to want access to musical entertainment at home, but not wealthy enough to hire live-in court musicians like the aristocratic classes. What they could afford was the perfect new domestic instrument: the piano.
The ability to play the piano and sing became a status symbol for middle and upper-middle-class families, especially among women (as you might know from the novels of Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters). This made home music a lucrative market for composers. The earliest Lieder [pronounced “leader”], or German art songs, were written for voice and simple piano accompaniment, so that home musicians could accompany themselves or their friends at the piano.
Throughout the 19th century, the genre of art song developed into a sophisticated art form for the concert stage as well as for the home. However, in one sense, it’s never abandoned its domestic beginnings: most art songs are still scored for voice and piano. In this post, we’ll take a lightning tour of art song history, featuring a few of the countless great works in this genre. In addition to the videos, click on the text links to listen to a few more art songs.
Classical Lieder
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was one of the first composers to explore the expressive capabilities of the Lied [singular of Lieder, pronounced “leet”]. Many of Mozart’s Lieder were composed for the growing domestic song market. His Lieder offer the same natural vocal writing he brought to opera – and the same wide-ranging dramatic sense. For example, his “Abendemfindung” (Evening Thoughts) is a tender reflection on mortality; in contrast, his “Das Veilchen” K. 476 (The Violet) is a playful, rather snarky setting of a poem by Goethe about a dramatic violet’s tragic love for an oblivious shepherdess.
In 1816, Ludwig van Beethoven had the idea of writing a set of six Lieder with an overarching narrative: his An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). This new genre came to be known as a Liederkries, or in English, a song cycle. Some song cycles tell a story, some have a common theme, and some are merely meant to be sung in a series for aesthetic reasons. They’re a bit like the 19th century’s version of the record album.
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was a master of the Lied. He composed more than 900 Lieder, many of which had their premieres at musical home gatherings, which Schubert’s friends delightfully called Schubertiades. Schubert perfected the song cycle in works like his narrative cycle Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Miller Maid), as well as cycles linked by a common author, like his Op.52 settings from Sir Walther Scott’s Lady of the Lake. Perhaps his greatest song cycle is Winterreise D. 911 (Winter Journey), a psychologically profound exploration of loss.
As the 19th century progressed, composers like Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf added increasingly sophisticated song cycles and individual Lieder to the repertoire. Many Lieder became increasingly complex for the average home musician: the solo recital was becoming a popular style of performance, thanks to Franz Liszt, who invented the term, and composers were writing for the skills of professional recitalists as well as for amateurs.
However, the Lied was still an entrenched home music genre, and that gave a special edge to women composers in the 19th century. Many women who wrote symphonic music or chamber music in the Romantic period struggled to promote interest in their work, but since the Lied was considered a domestic genre, women faced fewer barriers to being accepted as composers of art song.
Women took advantage of this creative outlet to produce glorious art songs, many of which differ from the male-composed repertoire by examining love and life from a woman’s perspective. Some notable composers include Josephine Lang, Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847), whose “Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass” is an elegant example of the Romantic Lied.
“Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass” Op. 1 No. 3 by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
German-speaking composers did much of the early work developing the art song genre, but it spread among composers of many languages. For example, French art song is known as mélodie. Countless French composers made gorgeous additions to the genre through the 19th century and beyond, including Pauline Viardot, Henri Duparc, Ernest Chausson, Cécile Chaminade, and Claude Debussy.
If we were to crown a French Schubert, whose stature in mélodieresembles that of Schubert in Lieder, it might be Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). Fauré composed more than 100 art songs, including both individual songs and song cycles. His masterful, text-sensitive writing for both voice and piano makes his art songs perennially popular with singers.
Traditionally, art song is scored for voice and piano, but music genre rules have never been set in stone, especially during the experimental Romantic period. One early Lied-scoring exception is Schubert’s “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen“ D.965 (The Shepherd on the Rock), which is scored for voice, piano, and clarinet.
In the mid-1800s, orchestral songs began to grace the concert stage. Unlike opera or oratorio arias, these songs were not intended as part of a larger ensemble work, but were simply standalone art songs or song cycles using orchestral accompaniment instead of piano.
An early example of Romantic orchestral song was Hector Berlioz’s orchestration of his song cycle Les nuits d’ete Op. 7 (Summer Nights, pub. 1856). Many Romantic composers contributed to the genre of orchestral song, especially in the form of orchestral song cycles. Examples include Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder and Alma Mahler-Werfel’s Four Songs for Soprano and Orchestra (1915).
Perhaps the best-known composer of Romantic orchestral Lieder was Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), whose orchestral song cycles remain staples of the repertory. His Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn, pub. 1905) consists of orchestral songs for mezzo soprano and baritone. The texts are German folk poems that range from dark musings to cynical allegories to charming fairy tales.
“Wo die Schönen Trompeten blasen” from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler
Around the same time that German composers were diving into orchestral Lieder, English-speaking composers were starting to give special attention to art song. The rhapsodic songs of George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney helped singers give voice to the trauma surrounding the First World War. Ethel Smyth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, and many other English composers contributed to the 20th century’s flowering of English song.
One remarkable partnership in American art song was that between poet Langston Hughes and composer Florence Price (1887–1953). Both were pivotal figures in the Chicago Renaissance, and Price set Hughes’s poetry in several masterful art songs, which were championed by Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson, and other great Black singers.
“Songs to the Dark Virgin” (1941) by Florence Price
Art song is a rich and vibrant genre, and we’ve only scratched the surface in this article. Below are some resources to continue learning. Another wonderful way to experience art song is to attend university vocal recitals: they’re usually free, full of repertoire you’d rarely hear in a concert hall, and an excellent way to support the next generation of singers.
Classical music has stood the test of time for many reasons, its beauty, complexity, and the vastness of repertoire have inspired audiences for hundreds of years. Within classical music, there are several pieces that have become iconic through use in special events such as graduations, weddings, classic films, and even cartoons! In this list, we’ll take a closer look at just a handful of the many iconic pieces of classical music.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by J.S. Bach
This piece by Bach might not have the catchiest title, but we guarantee you’ll know the famous opening. It has become associated with intense or even scary moments in film and popular culture, perhaps because it famously made an appearance in the opening credits of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Bach’s extraordinary talent and powerful compositional voice are on full display in his Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the first on our list of some of the most iconic classical music compositions ever written.
Video Performance by Xaver Varnus.
Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, “Für Elise” by Ludwig Van Beethoven
This piece was never published during Beethoven’s lifetime. In fact, “Für Elise” wasn’t even discovered until forty years after his death in 1827. As a result, no one’s quite sure who the Elise of the title was. Some musicologists even think the title might have been copied incorrectly and it was originally called ”Für Therese.” But no matter the identity of the fortunate beneficiary of this work’s dedication, we can all agree that it’s one of the most charming compositions for piano ever written. With its simple yet catchy melody and timeless beauty, Beethoven’s Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor has inspired countless reinterpretations.
Video Performance by Georgii Cherkin.
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No.2, “Moonlight” by Ludwig Van Beethoven
In contrast to “Für Elise,” the Moonlight Sonata became a popular favorite during Beethoven’s lifetime and remains one of the most beloved compositions of his life’s work to this day. Beethoven wrote his Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor in his early thirties and dedicated it to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, who studied piano with the composer. If you’ve ever taken piano lessons, been with someone taking piano lessons, or even just tried your hand at the keys to make some familiar music, you probably know the opening to the Moonlight Sonata very well.
Video Performance by Andrea Romano.
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven
This symphony by Beethoven opens with perhaps the four most famous notes of all time – known to many simply as: da da da duuum!. Some critics have suggested that this opening represents the sound of Fate knocking at the door. We can’t know for sure what Beethoven had in mind when he wrote this timeless opening to his Symphony No. 5 in C minor – but what’s beyond a shadow of a doubt is that this piece easily ranks in the top 10 most iconic, reaching beyond its genre and making an appearance in films, advertising, and even pop songs.
Video Performance by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, “Choral” by Ludwig van Beethoven
This piece is Beethoven’s final complete symphony. It was first performed in Vienna in 1824 and continues to be performed all over the world. The 9th Symphony marked the first time a major composer added voices to a symphony, opening a new door for creative expression and giving the human voice new power and placement as an instrument that belongs among the finest orchestra members, in the grandest compositions. Lots of listeners feel Beethoven “saved the best for last”, with the symphony’s final movement based on the Ode to Joy. Whatever your favorite moment is, it’s clear that Beethoven’s Choral Symphony is groundbreaking, powerful, and truly iconic.
Video Performance by London Symphony Orchestra.
“Ave Maria” by Charles Gounod
When a thirty-something Charles Gounod decided to improvise a melody for the “Ave Maria” text, he designed it to be superimposed over a well-established keyboard piece: Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Written for solo voice and piano, Gounod’s “Ave Maria” is also frequently performed in a wide array of instrumental arrangements. We think this composition is a stunning example of how borrowing from one of the best, and repurposing with great talent and thoughtfulness, can result in something both new and familiar, and altogether extraordinary.
Video Performance by Maria Callas.
“Messiah” by George Frideric Handel
It is difficult to put into words just what makes Handel’s Messiah iconic. This Baroque oratorio, originally composed to be performed in celebration of the Christian Easter holiday, is now a near-permanent fixture during the Christmas season as well, and its artistic power expands well beyond any specific holiday or faith. From its memorable melodies to its celebrated choruses, Messiah is a grand and radiant display of the power of classical music to move humanity, and share stories as no other art form can.
Video performance by Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K 525, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The incandescently brilliant Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed music for 30 of his 35 years, and today his name is known by nearly everyone in the world. Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) is arguably his most recognizable work, especially its first movement. Outside of the concert hall and classical recordings, you’re likely to hear it pacifying phone users on hold and to sell a dizzying array of products. With his infamous sense of humor, the composer may have had quite a laugh at this!
Video performance by Slovak Chamber Orchestra.
“The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss II
Known even in his day as “The Waltz King”, Johann Strauss is a somewhat example of a classical composer who attained the equivalent of modern rock-star acclaim in his lifetime. The Blue Danube* is the best-known of his works—a significant ranking as Strauss’ written repertoire includes 500+ pieces of dance music (waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, etc.) plus several operettas and a ballet. But even casual listeners unfamiliar with the composer will recognize this piece as the epitome of a waltz—and so we also rank it among the top ten most iconic pieces.
* aka An der schönen, blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), Op. 314
Video performance by Zubin Mehta & the Vienna Philharmonic.
“Introduction, or Sunrise,” from Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 by Richard Strauss
Richard and Johann Strauss were not related, but they share a posthumous debt to Stanley Kubrick, who included Johann’s most famous piece (see above) and Richard Strauss’ Einleitung (Introduction) in the soundtrack of his now-iconic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since the film, The Einleitung* has been widely used in pop culture and advertising. It can’t be denied that this is some of the most compelling and engaging music ever written—but it is only the beginning of an astounding musical experience.
