Composers Archive

More than two hundred years ago, a 17-year-old kid from Vienna wrote a song that would change the way composers thought about songwriting. That young man was Franz Schubert, and his song “Gretchen am Spinnrade” …

Completed in 1919, the Cello Concerto was Edward Elgar’s last major work for orchestra. In spite of fleeting moments of idyllic release, it’s dominated by disillusionment, by a sense of suffering that at times cries …

Sergei Rachmaninov composed the concerto in 1909 – a full nine years after the premiere of his Piano Concerto No.2. The third is grander, fuller, and more expansive in tone and style – with the …

With its simple melody, haunting harmonies, and space for liberal use of tempo rubato, the Prelude in E Minor is one of Chopin’s most beautiful compositions—one that gives the student a wonderful work to perform, …

Mozart loved the clarinet and was one of the first composers to include it in the standard orchestral configuration of his symphonic works. The expressive warmth of its middle and low registers, its wide range, …