MusicTheoryWithAndre

Domenico Scarlatti was one of the most original and influential composers of the Baroque period, best known for his extraordinary keyboard music. Born on October 26, 1685, in Naples, he was the sixth child of the distinguished composer Alessandro Scarlatti, a leading figure in the development of Italian opera. Growing up in a highly musical environment, Domenico received extensive training and quickly demonstrated exceptional talent as both a composer and keyboard performer. Although he inherited many aspects of the Italian Baroque tradition from his father, he eventually developed a highly individual style that set him apart from his contemporaries. Early in his career, Scarlatti worked in several important musical centers throughout Europe. He served as an organist and composer in Naples before moving to Rome, where he came into contact with many of the leading musicians of the time. During his years in Rome, he worked for influential patrons, including members of the aristocracy and...

 Giovanni Pierluigi di Palestrina was one of the most important composers of the Renaissance and is widely regarded as a master of sacred music. Born in the town of Palestrina, near Rome, he spent most of his career working for churches and religious institutions in Rome. His music became closely associated with the ideals of the Roman Catholic Church during the period of the Counter-Reformation, when church leaders sought to ensure that sacred music remained clear, dignified, and spiritually uplifting. Palestrina is best known for his polyphonic choral works, in which multiple vocal lines intertwine in a balanced and harmonious manner. His compositions are admired for their smooth melodic flow, careful treatment of dissonance, and exceptional clarity of text. Among his most celebrated works is the Missa Papae Marcelli ("Mass of Pope Marcellus"), which later became associated with the idea that beautiful polyphonic music could coexist with the Church's desire for understa...

 Giuseppe Tartini was one of the most influential violinists and composers of the eighteenth century. Born in 1692 in the town of Piran, which is now part of Slovenia, Tartini spent much of his career in Italy during the height of the Baroque period. Although he originally studied law, his passion for music eventually led him to devote himself entirely to the violin. Over time, he became renowned not only for his technical brilliance as a performer but also for his expressive style and innovative teaching methods. Tartini is best remembered for his violin compositions, especially the famous sonata known as The Devil's Trill Sonata. According to legend, Tartini dreamed that the devil appeared at the foot of his bed and played a dazzling piece of music on the violin. When he awoke, he tried to recreate the music from memory, resulting in the dramatic and technically demanding sonata. The work remains one of the most celebrated pieces in the violin repertoire because of its emotional ...

 Dieterich Buxtehude was one of the most important composers of the late Baroque era, especially known for his organ music and influence on later composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach. Born around 1637, probably in what is now Denmark or northern Germany, Buxtehude spent most of his career in the city of Lübeck, where he served as organist at St. Mary’s Church. His reputation as a brilliant performer and composer spread widely throughout northern Europe. Buxtehude’s music combined technical brilliance with deep emotional and spiritual expression. He composed preludes, fugues, chorale settings, and sacred vocal works that demonstrated both imagination and mastery of counterpoint. His organ preludes were especially innovative, often shifting dramatically between free, improvisatory passages and tightly structured fugues. These works helped shape the North German organ tradition and laid important groundwork for the music of Bach. One of Buxtehude’s most famous contributions to musi...

 Arcangelo Corelli was one of the most influential composers of the Baroque era, remembered for shaping the development of violin music and instrumental composition in Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Born in 1653 in the small town of Fusignano in Italy, Corelli became famous not only as a composer but also as a virtuoso violinist and respected teacher. His music was admired for its elegance, balance, and clarity, qualities that helped establish the foundations of Baroque style for later composers. Corelli spent much of his career in Rome, where he worked under the patronage of powerful aristocrats and church leaders. He composed a relatively small body of work, but nearly all of it became highly influential. His collections of trio sonatas and concerti grossi were especially important because they helped standardize forms that other composers would later expand upon. In the concerto grosso form, Corelli contrasted a small group of solo instruments...

 Chevalier de Saint-Georges was one of the most remarkable figures of 18th-century Europe. Born Joseph Bologne in 1745 on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, he was the son of a wealthy French plantation owner and an enslaved African woman named Nanon. Despite the racial barriers of his time, he was brought to France as a child and received an elite education. There, he excelled not only in music but also in fencing, riding, and military training, becoming famous in Parisian society for his extraordinary talent and charisma. Saint-Georges became one of the leading musicians of pre-Revolutionary France. A gifted violinist and composer, he directed prestigious orchestras and composed symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and operas that were admired by audiences across Europe. His music reflected the elegant Classical style of the period, similar to composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn, though Saint-Georges developed a distinctive flair of his own, especially in vi...

 The Passacaglia for Violin and Viola, more commonly known as the Handel–Halvorsen Passacaglia, is one of the most dramatic and technically demanding works in the string duo repertoire. The piece was arranged in 1893 by the Norwegian composer and violinist Johan Halvorsen, who based it on a theme from a suite by the Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. Specifically, Halvorsen borrowed the bass line from Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in G minor and transformed it into a virtuosic showpiece for violin and viola. By combining Baroque structure with Romantic-era intensity and flair, Halvorsen created a work that feels both historical and thrillingly modern. A passacaglia is a musical form built on a repeating bass pattern over which variations unfold, and this piece uses that structure to remarkable effect. The opening statement of the theme is solemn and restrained, but each successive variation grows more elaborate and emotionally charged. The violin and viola engage in an increasin...

 The Romanesca progression is best understood not as a single fixed sequence but as a harmonic schema —a repeatable pattern of bass motion and implied chords that composers used as a foundation for elaboration. In Renaissance and early Baroque practice, it often involved a stepwise descending bass line paired with a cycle of harmonies that reinforced a sense of forward motion while ultimately returning to a stable tonic. What matters analytically is not just the specific chords, but the way the progression encodes expectations: it creates a predictable harmonic loop over which melodic invention can operate freely. This is one of the key historical mechanisms by which Western tonal music developed its reliance on repetition and variation rather than continuous harmonic invention. By the late 17th century, these schema-based patterns evolved into more systematized tonal progressions, and one of the most famous descendants of this tradition is found in Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. ...

The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach opens with the famous Prelude in C major, BWV 846, a deceptively simple keyboard work built from flowing broken chords and a serene harmonic progression. Composed in 1722 as part of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier , the prelude was originally intended as both a pedagogical exercise and a demonstration of the possibilities of the newly standardized tuning systems that allowed keyboard instruments to play convincingly in all major and minor keys. Although technically modest compared to some of Bach’s more intricate fugues, BWV 846 possesses an extraordinary sense of calm inevitability, with its continuous arpeggiated texture creating a meditative atmosphere that has captivated listeners for centuries. More than a century later, the French composer Charles Gounod encountered Bach’s prelude and recognized in it the perfect harmonic foundation for a lyrical melody. Around 1852, Gounod improvised a singing line over the accompaniment...

 Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” as it is most widely known today, occupies a similarly paradoxical position to many canonical works whose modern identity has drifted from their original context. What listeners typically encounter is a serene Latin prayer set within an unbroken, gently flowing vocal line over a quietly arpeggiated piano accompaniment. Yet this familiar form is not the product of Schubert’s direct engagement with the Catholic liturgical text, but rather the result of a later cultural convergence between his composition and a pre-existing devotional tradition. The work originates as “Ellens Gesang III” (D. 839), composed in 1825 as part of Schubert’s Op. 52 song cycle based on Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem The Lady of the Lake. Within this literary framework, the song is voiced by Ellen Douglas, a character who sings in a moment of refuge and emotional suspension. The text Schubert set was a German paraphrase by Adam Storck, beginning “Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,” wh...

 The Adagio in G minor is frequently presented to audiences as a rediscovered Baroque masterpiece by Tomaso Albinoni, but this description is almost certainly misleading. Although the piece is commonly associated with Albinoni and often marketed under his name, musicologists generally regard the Adagio as essentially a modern composition created by Remo Giazotto in the mid–twentieth century. Giazotto claimed that he based the work on a fragmentary manuscript by Albinoni discovered in the aftermath of World War II among the damaged archives of the Dresden State Library. According to his account, only a basso continuo line and a few melodic fragments survived, from which he reconstructed the complete composition. Yet no one outside Giazotto ever saw this supposed fragment, and no manuscript has ever surfaced to substantiate the claim. As a result, many scholars believe that the “fragment” either never existed or contributed very little to the finished work. This uncertainty matters b...

 Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1043, the Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, stands as one of the most admired and recognizable works of the Baroque period. Written around 1730 during Bach’s years in Leipzig, the concerto demonstrates his extraordinary ability to combine technical precision with deep emotional expression. At the time, Bach was serving as director of music at the Thomasschule and also leading the Collegium Musicum, a student and professional ensemble that performed public concerts in Leipzig. The concerto was likely composed for these performances, and it reflects both the influence of Italian composers such as Vivaldi and Bach’s own distinctive mastery of counterpoint and harmony. Scored for two solo violins, string orchestra, and continuo, the piece follows the traditional three-movement concerto structure of fast–slow–fast. Yet within this familiar format, Bach creates music of remarkable complexity and beauty, transforming the relationship between the soloists in...

The Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042 is one of the most admired instrumental works by Johann Sebastian Bach and stands as a defining example of the Baroque violin concerto. Probably composed during Bach’s years at the court of Köthen between 1717 and 1723, the concerto reflects a period in which he devoted much of his attention to secular instrumental music. Unlike his later years in Leipzig, where church cantatas dominated his output, Bach’s position at Köthen gave him the opportunity to write extensively for orchestra and solo instruments. The E major concerto emerged from this fertile creative period alongside other major instrumental works such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the solo violin sonatas and partitas. The concerto was written for solo violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo, following the three-movement fast–slow–fast structure typical of the Italian concerto tradition. During the early eighteenth century, composers such as Antonio Vivaldi had helped establish...

The Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 is one of the best-known instrumental works by Johann Sebastian Bach and a cornerstone of the Baroque violin repertoire. Composed sometime during Bach’s years in Köthen or early in Leipzig, the concerto reflects the vibrant Italian concerto style that deeply influenced him, particularly the music of composers such as Antonio Vivaldi. At the same time, the piece retains Bach’s unmistakable contrapuntal sophistication and structural clarity. Scored for solo violin, strings, and continuo, the concerto balances technical brilliance with lyrical elegance, making it both intellectually refined and emotionally engaging. The concerto is organized in the traditional three-movement fast–slow–fast structure common in Baroque concertos. The opening movement, which does not have a tempo indication but is usually played somewhere around Allegro moderato, introduces a lively and rhythmic theme that returns throughout the movement in ritornello form. The solo v...

 There’s a special kind of music that seems to move in sync with emotion itself — the kind that doesn’t just accompany a scene, but becomes the feeling of it. Flying Theme from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of the clearest examples. The melody begins with wonder and hesitation, then rises into something almost weightless, as if the orchestra itself is lifting off the ground. What makes it unforgettable is how perfectly it mirrors the scene: childhood awe, freedom, fear, and joy all swelling together at once. The music doesn’t tell you what to think — it opens the emotional space where those feelings can happen. Film music like this often works through motion. Composers build momentum with repeating rhythms, expanding harmonies, and melodies that climb higher and higher until they feel inevitable. When the bicycles soar across the moon in *E.T.*, the score surges upward too, making the scene feel larger than reality without losing its intimacy. That balance is difficult to achie...

 The Allegretto, the second movement of Symphony No. 7, is one of the purest musical embodiments of grief ever composed because it strips sorrow down to its most elemental form. From the opening measures, Beethoven establishes the unmistakable rhythm of a funeral procession. The lower strings advance with slow, measured inevitability, their repeated ostinato carrying the weight of mourners walking behind the dead. There is nothing decorative in the music, nothing excessive or theatrical. Beethoven avoids the dramatic outbursts that lesser expressions of sorrow often depend upon. Instead, the movement speaks with terrifying restraint. Its grief is too deep for hysteria. It has passed beyond crying into something colder, steadier, and more permanent. The opening theme feels almost imprisoned within itself. Built from repeated notes and narrow intervals, it seems unable to break free from the pulse beneath it. This creates the sensation that grief has narrowed the world, reducing emot...

 For a long time, it was easy to imagine that the great composers of classical music had already given up all their secrets. The symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach seemed thoroughly cataloged and endlessly studied. Yet new discoveries continue to emerge from archives, monasteries, private collections, and forgotten library vaults. Sometimes an unknown manuscript appears in a family estate; other times, scholars reexamine a piece long attributed to a student or copyist and realize that the master’s own hand is present throughout. Even in a field as exhaustively researched as classical music, the historical record remains incomplete. Many of these discoveries survive because music history is far messier than the polished concert canon suggests. Manuscripts were scattered by wars, inherited without documentation, or stored in church archives where they sat untouched for centuries. Composers often reused ...

 Today is the Ascension, the latest of 3 days this liturgical year (which runs from late November or early December of one year to the next, so Christmas is right at the beginning of “Q1”) for which Bach wrote an “oratorio.” As I’ve said in previous articles, what exactly an oratorio is isn’t really well defined, so both the Ascension Oratorio and the Easter Oratorio operate much more like regular Sunday cantatas that happen to be written for special days, whereas the Christmas Oratorio (and Handel’s Messiah, also an oratorio) are each about twice as long as the Ascension and Easter Oratorios combined. The title is “Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen” which means “Praise God in His Realms”—in contrast, for instance, to the Christmas Oratorio, whose collective title is actually “Christmas Oratorio” and only the parts have individual cantata names, because that’s what they are. The Ascension Oratorio makes heavy use of the specific combination of trumpet + timpani. As I’ve mentioned in...

 Popular music has long borrowed ideas from classical music, whether through melody, harmony, instrumentation, or formal structure. Although classical and popular traditions are often treated as separate musical worlds, the boundary between them has always been porous. Many pop and rock musicians have drawn inspiration from earlier composers in order to give their music greater sophistication, emotional depth, or stylistic distinction. One of the clearest and most famous examples comes from The Beatles, whose music frequently incorporated classical influences in subtle but meaningful ways. A particularly interesting example appears in the song “Blackbird,” written primarily by Paul McCartney. McCartney has explained that the guitar accompaniment was inspired by a bourrée from Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically the Bourrée in E minor from the Lute Suite in E minor, BWV 996. The original Bach piece features a characteristic contrapuntal texture in which bass notes and upper melodic ...

 One of the most important concepts in film music is the leitmotif, a short recurring musical idea associated with a particular character, place, emotion, or concept. The technique originated in nineteenth-century opera, especially in the works of Richard Wagner, whose massive music dramas used recurring themes to help audiences follow complex stories and emotional developments. In modern film scoring, leitmotifs serve a similar purpose: they create musical continuity, guide the audience’s emotional response, and deepen the storytelling without the need for dialogue. Few film franchises demonstrate the power of leitmotif more clearly than Star Wars, whose scores by John Williams have become some of the most recognizable music in cinematic history. In Star Wars, nearly every major character or idea is connected to a distinct musical theme. The “Imperial March,” for example, is associated with Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. Its heavy brass writing, minor mode, and relentless rh...

 The German folk song “Fuchs, du hast die Gans gestohlen” (“Fox, You Have Stolen the Goose”) is one of the best-known children’s songs in the German-speaking world. In the Suzuki Method violin curriculum, it appears under the gentler title “May Song,” a name that shifts attention away from the song’s comic narrative and toward its lyrical, pastoral character. Despite its simplicity, the melody is remarkably effective pedagogically: it introduces young players to graceful phrasing, balanced bow distribution, and clear tonal center while remaining immediately memorable. Musically, the tune is built from short, symmetrical phrases that make it ideal for beginners learning to internalize musical structure, and form the beginnings of teaching chordal harmony, as one of the key melodic elements is, for the first time, an octave-spanning tonic arpeggio. In early Suzuki study, pieces are carefully sequenced so that technical growth and musical expression develop together, and “May Song” ex...

 Today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter in Year A, so the Gospel includes John 14:15, the lyrical source of the motet under discussion, one of Thomas Tallis’s masterpieces. Tallis was active as a Catholic composer in Elizabethan England, the teacher and friend of the other very important Catholic composer of the period, William Byrd. (I came to know of Byrd much earlier than Tallis but now recognize how masterful they both were.) One of Tallis’s most enduring works is “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” drawing precisely from Jesus’s words to his apostles at the beginning of today’s Gospel. Characteristic of this style of English writing (really, of sacred writing from this period from any place), is the deep complexity of the counterpoint, so as you listen to it, pay attention to how well the lines fit together and work together with and around one another. Something else is worth mentioning, which I first realized thanks to Nick Higgs The Singer—you don’t have enough musical ...

"Illinois" is the official state song of Illinois. The song was written in 1890 by Charles H. Chamberlin, with music adapted from the melody of “Baby Mine,” a popular tune composed by Archibald Johnston. Although it was written in the late nineteenth century, Illinois officially adopted the song as its state song in 1925. The lyrics celebrate the state’s history, natural beauty, and important role in the growth of the United States. The song reflects a strong sense of pride in Illinois and highlights some of the qualities the state is known for, including its fertile farmland, rivers, and contributions to American progress. It also references notable historical figures associated with Illinois, especially Abraham Lincoln, whose legacy is deeply connected to the state. The lyrics are written in a patriotic and uplifting style that was common in many state songs of that era. For many years, “Illinois” was performed at official ceremonies, public schools, and civic events throug...

Today is May 8, so it's exactly 1 year since the world found out who Leo XIV was as white smoke rose from the special chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Today's selection, then, seems perfectly timed. The  Pontifical March , also known in Italian as the “Marcia Pontificale,” is the official anthem of Vatican City . The music was composed in 1869 by the French composer and musician Charles Gounod, who is best known for his opera Faust . Although the march was written in the nineteenth century, it did not become the official anthem of Vatican City until 1949, when it replaced an earlier anthem by Vittorino Hallmayr. The anthem is closely associated with ceremonies involving the pope and the Holy See. The Pontifical March has a grand and ceremonial style, reflecting the dignity and spiritual importance of the papacy. Unlike many national anthems that focus heavily on patriotism or military themes, the Pontifical March emphasizes reverence, faith, and unity within the Catholic Church....

 Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, completed in 1824 near the end of his so-called “late” period, stands not only as the culmination of his symphonic writing but as one of the decisive turning points in the history of Western music. While Beethoven’s earlier symphonies had already expanded the expressive and structural possibilities inherited from Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Ninth transforms the genre on an altogether different scale, reconceiving the symphony as a vehicle for philosophical, existential, and universal human expression. Its unprecedented integration of vocal soloists and chorus into the final movement shattered the formal expectations of the classical symphony, while the work’s immense temporal breadth and motivic interconnectedness gave it an architectural ambition unmatched in Beethoven’s earlier orchestral works. If the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica” had expanded the heroic dimensions of the symphony, an...