Something Beautiful

Archduke Trio, by Beethoven

This afternoon I am listening to Beethoven's Archduke Trio for the first time.  Marvelous!

Who is the Archduke?   Rudolf Johann Joseph Rainer Habsburg, that's who -- better known as Archduke Rudolf.  Beethoven dedicated more compositions to Rudolf than to any other person.  Those works inclue the Triple Concerto, the Grosse Fugue, the Missa Solemnis, two piano concertos, two piano sonatas, one violin sonata, and the eponymous "Archduke" Trio.  Archduke Rudolf was a wealthy patron, but also a friend and student, a musically talented young nobleman who accepted Beethoven and his compositions despite the eccentricities of both.   (So, at rate, I have read.) 

Medieval musical instruments

A great site on medieval musical instruments.   

String instruments --

Cithare

Citole

Guitare mauresque

Lute

Lyre

Mandore (mandolin?)

Psalterium

Zittern (guiterne?) 

Bowed instruments

Cello

Crwth

Rebec

Trompette marine

Baroque Music

The Baroque music site has lots of marvelous information, including pictures and music clips.

Have a look, for example, at Bach's life in pictures.  With some musical samples as well. 

There is a lovely clip of Albinoni's Oboe Concerto.   

Major composers of the Baroque era --

Tomaso Albinoni

Johann Sebastian Bach

Arcangelo Corelli

Francois Couperin

Georg Friederich Handel

Henry Purcell

Alessandro Scarlatti (father)

Domenico Scarlatti (son)

Georg Philipp Telemann

Antonio Vivaldi

There is a marvelous Baroque music sampler as well.

On music

I found these three great quotes on music at The Quotations Page:

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary." Martin Luther (1483-1546)

"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music." George Eliot (1819-1880)

"Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body." Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

The benefits of music

The benefits of music -- there are so many!

Music and the Brain

Music and the Brain, a report from Scientific American.