Velvet Waltz – Takashi Yoshimatsu

 

Takashi Yoshimatsu (吉松 隆 Yoshimatsu Takashi) (born 18th March, 1953) is a contemporary Japanese composer of classical music. He is well known for composing the 2003 remake of Astro Boy.
Takashi Yoshimatsu was born in Tokyo, Japan, and like Toru Takemitsu, the composer generally considered to be Japan’s greatest in the western classical style, did not receive formal musical training while growing up. He dropped out of Keio University in March 1974, and joined an amateur band named NOA as a keyboard player, emulating the music of Pink Floyd. He became interested in the jazz and progressive rock scenes, particularly in the possibilities being explored through electronic music.
He was a fan of the Walker Brothers and the Ventures when he was 13, but symphonies of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky fascinated him when he was 14. Since then he composed a number of pieces before making his name with the serialist ‘Threnody for Toki’ in 1981. Soon afterwards, he became disenchanted with atonal music, and began to compose in a free neo-romantic style with strong influences from jazz, rock and Japanese classical music, underscoring his reputation with his 1985 guitar concerto. As of 2007, Yoshimatsu has presented six symphonies, 12 concertos: one each for bassoon, cello, guitar, trombone, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, marimba, chamber orchestra, traditional Japanese instruments, and two for piano (one for the left hand only and one for both hands), a number of sonatas, and various shorter pieces for ensembles of various sizes. His ‘Atom Hearts Club Suites’ for string orchestra explicitly pay homage to the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
The majority of his work is triadic and contains simple, repeated progressions, or in some cases pandiatonicism. Often extended tertian harmonies are followed by whole tone harmonies (such as in the first movement of Symphony No. 5; or the first movement of his “Cyber Bird” Concerto for alto saxophone, which, in addition, makes use of free atonal jazz; or the final movement of his “Orion Machine” Concerto; or in his Saxophone Concerto “Albireo Mode”). His works for Japanese traditional instruments (such as Subaru, and Within Dreams, Without Dreams) make use of traditional Japanese scales and tunings.
He has published some essays and primers about classical music. He likes to draw pictures and has illustrated his own books.

El Sueño de la Muñeca – Agustín Barrios

 

Barrios reputedly composed the charming waltz El Sueño de la Muñeca (The Sleep of the Little Doll) in Uruguay in the 1920s. The story goes that he was visiting the home of an admirer. Wearing a new pair of leather shoes that squeaked loudly when he walked, he entered the house and was confronted by a little girl rocking her doll to sleep. Hearing the noise of his shoes, she admonished him: “Shh, señor, you are going to wake my dolly!” Moved by the sincerity of the child, he answered: “I will play soft music so that your dolly can sleep”. The result is a delicate and enchanting work where the melody in the second section is played entirely in harmonics.

—Rico Stover

Enrico Toselli (13th March 1883 – 15th January 1926)

 

Enrico Toselli, Count of Montignoso (13th March 1883 – 15th January 1926), was an Italian pianist and composer. Born in Florence, he studied piano with Giovanni Sgambati and composition with Giuseppe Martucci and Reginaldo Grazzini. He embarked on a career as a concert pianist, playing in Italy, European capital cities, Alexandria and North America.
His most popular composition is Serenata ‘Rimpianto’ Op.6 No.1. His other works include two operettas, La cattiva Francesca (1912) and La principessa bizzarra (1913).

José Ferrer (13th March 1835-7th March 1916)

 

José Ferrer Esteve de Fujadas (13th March 1835 – 7th March 1916) was a Spanish guitarist and composer.
Ferrer was born in Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, and studied guitar with his father, a guitarist and collector of sheet music, before continuing his studies with José Brocá. In 1882, he left Spain for Paris in order to teach at the Institut Rudy and at the Académie Internationale de Musique, also becoming the official guitarist of the Comédie Française, and remained in Paris for 16 years.
Ferrer gave regular performances as a soloist. He taught at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona from 1898 to 1901. Following a period of moving between Barcelona and Paris, he settled permanently in Barcelona in 1905, where he died.

Astor Piazzolla

 

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (11th March 1921 – 4th July 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.
In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as “the world’s foremost composer of tango music”.

Julia Florida – Agustin Barrios

 

Julia Florida was composed in 1938 the masterpiece of the Barrios, dedicated to the composers’ great friend and admirer Francisco Salazar’s niece, Julia Martinez whom studied guitar with the composer in her late teen.

Agustín Pío Barrios was a Paraguayan virtuoso classical guitarist and composer, largely regarded as one of the greatest performers and most prolific composers for the guitar.

Heitor Villa-Lobos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heitor Villa-Lobos (5th March 1887 – 17th November 1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as “the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music”. Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). His Etudes for guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia, while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. “Mindinha.” Both are important works in the guitar repertory.