Brandon Nelson

IMAGO DEI

Category: History

  • Fun With Counterpoint: Crafting a Two-Part Invention

    J.S. Bach composed his set of two-part inventions (click here to get a copy of them) as both instructional material for keyboard pedagogy as well as to embody basic contrapuntal principles. I’ve outlined here a process for composing a simple invention based on Bach’s model.  You will need knowledge of common practice harmony and basic…

  • Analytical Overview of Handel’s “Empiro, diro, tu sei”

    General Information In the aria “Empiro, dirò, tu sei” (from Giulio Cesare), Cesare condemns Ptolemy for his tyranny in beheading Cesare’s military rival. Instrumentation of This Aria Tutti violins in unison Continuo Voice (Cesare) Mood and General Structure of Text The text consists of two tercets.  The rhyme scheme (in Italian) is AAB.  The mood…

  • Hindemith: Our Musical Savior?

    In the midst of the Baroque, Johann Fux found himself in a troubling position.  He was a composer in a time when conventions of music were vague and composers were regarded as expendable.  That is why he took it upon himself to write a treatise on the craft of composition, for he felt that if…

  • The Critics vs. Beethoven

    Today, we think of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies as masterpieces.  But this mentality was not as widespread when these works were first performed nearly 200 years ago.  Indeed, the critics of the time generally panned Beethoven’s symphonies, sometimes rather harshly. Beethoven composed his First Symphony in 1800 and premiered it the same year on…

  • Echoes of the Ancients

    For composers, a sense of “newness” can often be obtained by digging into the past for raw materials.  Felix Mendelssohn, for example, looked back to the Baroque period and, in particular, to the music of J.S. Bach for inspiration.   Josquin de Prez, Giovanni da Palestrina, and other composers of the Renaissance frequently used Gregorian chant…