The top 10 one-hit wonders in classical music

 

Classical music's one-hit wonders. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

From Pachelbel and his Canon, to Orff and his Carmina, here are the most iconic “one-hit wonders” of the classical music world.

Some of classical music’s greatest contributors – think of the biggies, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven – wrote countless pages of music, that we still play and enjoy today.

But some composers haven’t quite enjoyed the same full-blown, century-crossing success. Here are, without further ado, the most famous and beloved one-hit wonder composers in classical music, and their most famous piece.

1. Pachelbel – Canon

   Johann Pachelbel is the original one-hit wonder guy. While he wrote lots of music in the 17th century, only his Canon in D remains popular today – especially at weddings.

   The canon is grounded by a basso continuo line, played by one poor cellist who repeats eight notes throughout the entire piece with no variation. Musically speaking, it’s not super interesting for musicians. But it remains a fundamental work from the Baroque era and has even inspired pop songs in 2020.

   'Pachelbel's Nightmare': sequel to Pachelbel's Canon in D

   YouTuber musicalbasics made a sequel to one of the most famous pieces of all time.

2. Mascagni – Intermezzo (Cavalleria Rusticana)

   The Italian composer Pietro Mascagni was most noted for his operas – but it’s his first masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana, written in 1890, that overshadows all his later works. Its best-known tune is the orchestral ‘Intermezzo’, an indulgent, sumptuous melody that speaks of a summer under the sun in Sicily.

3. Carl Orff – O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)

   Carl Orff hit the jackpot when he came across the Carmina Burana, a collection of 13th-century songs and poems, and decided to set them all to music. Of them, the 20th-century German’s setting of ‘O Fortuna’ has gone above and beyond surviving the test of time, its stately intro lending itself to countless film and TV themes – most famously, The X Factor.

   Read more: What are the lyrics to ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana? >

   O, Fortuna (Cello Craziness)

   Credit: YouTube / James McGonigle

4. Lehár – The Merry Widow

   A joyous fanfare opening, the ‘Vilja Song’ and the titular ‘Waltz’ – The Merry Widow is packed with great melodies. And its composer, Austro-Hungarian Franz Lehár, is recognised as one of the most significant writers of operetta. But history, as it does, has only really remembered him for one of them.

5. Smetana – ‘Vltava’ (The Moldau), Má Vlast

   ‘Vltava’ from Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s symphonic poem Má Vlast is an evocative musical painting of the rolling river that passes through Prague. Also known as ‘The Moldau’, the movement is one passage in a monumental achievement by the composer. But its central, sweeping melody has taken the cake as by far the best-known tune in Smetana’s musical stock.

6. Giordani – Andrea Chénier

   Andrea Chénier is a cracker of an opera, but very much all Italian composer Umberto Giordani is known for. The pinnacle aria ‘La mamma morta’, sung exquisitely by Maria Callas, features in a key scene in the movie Philadelphia where Tom Hanks’ character delivers an affecting monologue about how Callas’ soprano notes get him all teary.

7. Pergolesi – Stabat Mater

   Near the end of his tragically short life, Pergolesi composed his celebrated ‘Stabat Mater’, a sacred piece opening with two voices which occasionally overlap in pitch, creating a temporary and haunting dissonance. While famous in the 18th century as a comic-opera composer, Pergolesi is now known for little else than this eye-wateringly beautiful setting.

8. Charpentier – Te Deum

   If this French Baroque composer were to see how his stately, polyphonic motet is being used today, he might find his jaw somewhere around the region of the floor.

   ‘Te Deum’, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s brassy, warlike rondo, was supposedly premiered in celebration of a French battle victory in 1692. But today, it is most recognisably the main theme for Eurovision, the world’s international song contestant. And it really works…

9. Dukas – Sorcerer’s Apprentice

   Paul Dukas is pretty much only known these days for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – but, certainly in our books, it measures up to an entire catalogue. The enchanting work for orchestra was made famous by Disney’s Fantasia, and is the only piece of music that featured in both the 1940 and 2000 versions. In the remake, Dukas’ music plays while Mickey Mouse, as a sorcerer’s apprentice, battles a living army of broomsticks.

10. Gruber – Silent Night

    A beloved Christmas melody, heard every year in churches, cathedrals and on doorsteps all over the world… but who has heard of any of the composer’s other work?

    So the story goes, Franz Xaver Gruber’s classic carol was first performed on Christmas Eve in 1818 – but, in the end rather poignantly, on the guitar, because the church’s organ was broken. Some things work out for the best...

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(C) 2020 ClassicFM London

Artie Shaw - Beguin The Beguine ( Cole Porter )

Niño Tiro - his music and his life

 

Niño Tiro (*1980)

Niño Tiro's music is anachronistic, eccentric, and outright melodic. Born in Cagayan de

Oro City, Philippines, he started piano lessons at the age of five. During his High-School

days, he then explored Rock and played electric bass in a band. Realizing his passion

for music regardless of genre, he pursued playing the piano for his Bachelor's degree in

music while playing Jazz and Rock during his spare time. He also taught piano in a

family-owned studio while pursuing his Bachelor's degree. After he graduated, he was

faculty of the Lourdes College School of Music for 13 years, where he became a

prestigious piano pedagogue and an avant-garde music teacher. He also plays Jazz,

Blues, and Rock as a professional session player in various local bands. In 2004, his

band's song was a radio hit and was #1 for eight weeks on the local airwaves. He

worked in the United States as The Life Teen Music Director in Santa Barbara Catholic

Church. He is currently pursuing a second Bachelor's degree in Music, majoring in

Composition under the tutelage of Horst-Hans Bäcker. He is presently faculty of The

Conservatory of Music, Theater, and Dance of Liceo de Cagayan University, the

Principal Double bass player of the Cagayan De Oro Symphony Orchestra, continuing his passion for 

teaching  and making music.

"Phantasie für Ludwig"; by Philippine composer Niño Tiro (*1980) is dedicated to Susanne

Kessel.

It is part of Vol. 9 of Susanne Kessel's global composition project "250 piano pieces for

Beethoven".

Susanne Kessel invited 250 composers worldwide to write new piano pieces for Beethoven's

250th anniversary in the year 2020. All pieces refer to Beethoven's music and his life.

Susanne Kessel played the world premieres of all the piano pieces in Beethoven's birth town,

Bonn. There will be more performances also in other cities and countries by the pianist herself.

All pieces are published within a high-quality sheet music edition by EDITIONS MUSICA

FERRUM / London.

The sheet music of this piece will be in Vol. 9 of the project's edition.

All information about the project - and SHOP:

www.250-piano-pieces-for-beethoven.com

"Phantasie für Ludwig"; is a Sturm und Drang piece in A minor based on the Beethoven style of

Classical Romantic composition. There are a few nods here and there from the Meister's

monumental works. The dissonance and melodic and harmonic tension in this piece conveys the

ups and downs of a composer's life and depicts the life of Ludwig succumbing to the frailty of

the human mind and body. The work ends in A, neither major and minor, symbolizing the

continuing struggles that everyone, especially Ludwig, faced in life.

Scientists find the amazing reason your favorite music gives you ‘chills’

Why does music give you 'chills'? Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

Now we know why our favorite music sends shivers down our spine.

Scientists say they have discovered why the melodies we love give us goosebumps.

A team of French researchers found that when we listen to our favourite music, the areas of the brain which handle emotion, movement, and processing music and sound work together to create a surge in dopamine levels – our ‘feel good’ chemical.

According to the study, our brains also try to anticipate what happens next in the song. And when we guess correctly, we get a reward.

Thibault Chabin, a PhD student at the University Burgundy Franche-Comté who led the study, said: “What is most intriguing is that music seems to have no biological benefit to us. However, the implication of dopamine and of the reward system in processing of musical pleasure suggests an ancestral function for music.

“This ancestral function may lie in the period of time we spend in anticipation of the ‘chill-inducing’ part of the music. As we wait, our brains are busy predicting the future and release dopamine.

“Evolutionarily speaking, being able to predict what will happen next is essential for survival.”

Read more: Music takes 13 minutes to ‘release sadness’ and 9 to make you happy >

The team of researchers, whose study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, carried out the experiment on 18 music-lovers with a range of musical abilities, who had all experienced chills when listening to music.

“Participants of our study were able to precisely indicate ‘chill-producing’ moments in the songs, but most musical chills occurred in many parts of the extracts and not only in the predicted moments,” says Chabin.

Side note, interestingly – or tragically, depending on your take! – only about half of people get chills when listening to music. Those who do, are considered to have an “enhanced ability to experience intense emotions”.

For Chabin’s study, the participants were hooked up to machines that record electrical activity in the brain, and they were played 90-second clips of their favourite songs.

While they were listening, the scientists watched what happened in their brains whenever the music gave them ‘chills’.

These regions work together to process music and release the ‘feel-good’ hormone, dopamine. Combined with the anticipation that triggers those pleasurable ‘reward systems’, this produces the tingly chill participants felt while listening.

“This represents a good perspective for musical emotion research,” Chabin said.

“Musical pleasure is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves to be investigated further, in order to understand why music is rewarding and unlock why music is essential in human lives.”

(C) 2020 by ClassicFM London

Fantasia on Smoke on the Water

HORST-HANS BÄCKER born in Bucharest (Romania) in 1959. The composer and conductor Horst-Hans Bäcker took his first piano lessons at the age of five with Tamas Vesmas. In the summer of 1973 Bäcker left Romania with his parents and came to Germany where he studied composition from 1981 with Professor Ludwig Werner Weiand at the conservatory in Wuppertal. 

Bäcker continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he studied composition with Professor Gyula Horvath, ensemble direction with Professor Kurt Prestel and performance practice of early music with Professor Nikolaus Harnoncourt from 1983 to 1986. 

In 1984 Bäcker founded the SALZBURGER VOKALENSEMBEL and directed this chamber choir until his departure from Salzburg. Bäcker completed his training in composition from 1986 to 1989 under Professor Jürg Baur at the Rhineland Academy of Music in Cologne. Since his studies in Cologne Bäcker has been commissioned to compose music by musicians and chamber ensembles from all over the world. 

In addition, he has been commissioned to compose music for special occasion by various European cities. With his composition “From the Depth I Cry Out to You Lord” Bäcker won the prize of the De Profundis Composers Competition in Cologne. 

He completed his formation as a conductor in Master Classes with Jorma Panula. In the year 1996 Horst-Hans Bäcker founded a symphony orchestra, out of which the INTERNATIONALE PHILHARMONIE was founded two years later and for which he was appointed Principal Conductor at the same time. He has been a regular guest conductor for the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Banatul Philharmonic Orchestra in Timisoara, Moldova Philharmonic Orchestra in Iasi, and Oradea, Sibiu and Craiova Philharmonic Orchestras in Romania, the Northern Hungarian Symphony Orchestra in Hungary and for the choir and orchestra of Camerata Antiqua de Curitiba (Brazil).

 Among the numerous soloists he has worked with, Bäcker has established some long-term musical partnerships, among others with the panpipes players Gheorghe Zamfir and Matthias Schlubeck, with the violinists Christina Anghelescu, Bogdan Dragus, Sophie Moser and Sebastian Casleanu, with the Canadian guitarist Dale Kavanagh, the German-Canadian Amadeus Guitar Duo and the British Eden-Stell Guitar Duo, as well as with the pianists Katja Huhn, Ekaterina Litvintseva, Mihai Ungureanu and Tamas Vesmas. 

Since 2003 Horst-Hans Bäcker is permanent guest conductor of Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra and the State Philharmonic Orchestra “Oltenia” in Craiova. Since 2006 he is also permanent guest conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra “Banat” in Timisoara and was commissioned by the orchestra to compose a work for Choir and Orchestra for the Celebration of 60 years as Romanian State Orchestra. 

The composition “Rapsodia Timisoreana” including tribute to the most important Romanian Composer George Enescu and the most important Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu, was enthusiastically received by the members of the choir and the orchestra as well as by the audience. Horst-Hans Bäcker’s first CD SPANISH NIGHT including Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concertos for 1, 2 and 4 Guitars and Orchestra was enthusiastically received by the critics. Also the following recordings SPANISH NIGHT II with the guitarist Dale Kavanagh, Amadeus Guitar Duo, panpipes player Gheorghe Zamfir and the State Philharmonic Arad; including an orchestral work by Bäcker “Rapsodia Mallorquina” the CD Berühmte Opernarien – Panflöte und Orchester with soloist Gheorghe Zamfir and State Philharmonic Arad, as well as the CD ZauberPANflöte with panpipes player Matthias Schlubeck and the State Philharmonic Transylvania were very successful and full of tribute. 

Beside his compositions Horst-Hans Bäcker, since 2006, is delighting the audience with his Arrangements for Symphonic Orchestra and some for Choir and Orchestra of works by the Bands such as Beatles, Queen, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Supertramp and others. Each time these concerts are sold out and Highlights were some Open Air Concerts with each about 25,000 enthusiastic spectators. Another positive effect of this kind of concerts is to bring young people closer to Symphony Orchestras and Choirs.

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19

 

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM

A University of Minnesota study discovers the wind instruments that emit the most aerosols, and are therefore “riskiest” in the transmission of COVID-19.

Trumpets and oboes, as well as bass trombones, were found to be “high risk” compared to other brass and woodwind instruments, in new research into coronavirus transmission in orchestras.

Bass clarinet and tuba were found to be “lower risk”.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that while trumpets and oboes were the “riskiest” instruments for transmitting airborne diseases, none of the examined wind instruments were found to spread aerosols further than one foot.

Published last month in the Journal of Aerosol Science, the study investigated 15 musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra in an effort to help them return to live music-making in a COVID-secure way.

Researchers say their findings could provide “valuable insights into the risk assessment of airborne disease transmission and the corresponding mitigation strategies for different musical activities involving the usage of wind instruments”.

Read more: UK government’s latest guidance for live music-making >

Minnesota Orchestra plays for the first since the pandemic shutdown. Picture: Getty

In the study, researchers tracked the aerosols emitted from 10 orchestral woodwind and brass instruments: the flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, oboe and bassoon; tuba, French horn, trumpet, trombone and bass trombone.

The concentration of aerosols – tiny air particles that can contain viruses and lead to the transmission of airborne diseases like COVID-19 – produced from instruments, was then compared with the amount produced by players when simply breathing or speaking.

Read more: Singing ‘no riskier than talking’, UK study says >

“As higher aerosol concentration leads to an increased risk of airborne disease transmission, we categorise these instruments into low, intermediate, and high-risk levels,” researchers said.

The aerosols coming from instruments ranged from 20 to 2,400 particles per litre of air. When players were tested when breathing or speaking, they produced an average of just 90 and 230 particles per litre respectively. 

Trumpet, oboe and bass trombone players, in particular, were likely to produce more aerosols when playing, than while speaking and breathing. The researches termed these instruments “high risk” for transmitting airborne diseases.

The bassoon, piccolo, flute, bass clarinet and French horn were considered an “intermediate risk”.

Perhaps due to the tube length of the instrument, the tuba was termed “low risk”.

Scientists said mouthpiece designs could also affect the level of aerosols produced.

“All of this information I think is very useful for planning,” said Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Jiarong Hong, who led the team. “Once we understand the risk level of different instruments, we can actually target the higher risk instruments. You certainly don’t want to have a group of trumpet players playing in a confined room because that will be a very high-risk activity.”

Osmo Vanska rehearses with the Minnesota Orchestra, of whom 15 members participated in the coronavirus study. Picture: Getty

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the study could influence orchestral seating arrangements going forward, as the arts world looks for ways to perform live safely in pandemic times.

“Those wearing masks could sit closer, while those who can’t wear masks should sit further apart,” Ho said, adding that a distance of 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) between unmasked players would be safer.

Ho said plastic screens between players could help block some big droplets, but attested that good ventilation is still crucial in reducing the risk of transmission through tiny particles.

Researchers also recommended social distancing, putting masks over instruments and using portable filters. They found that a single-layer mask blocks 60 percent of the particles without significantly reducing sound quality. Two layers block 75 percent with a slight drop in sound quality, while three layers block 92 percent but cause a substantial dip in sound quality.

Minnesota Orchestra is currently performing for online audiences only, in small groups of no more than 25 musicians. The full orchestra consists of around 90 musicians.

Read more: Minnesota Orchestra breaks with Minneapolis Police, ‘will no longer use for concert security’ >

President and CEO Michelle Miller Burns said the orchestra is now planning “a multi-layered approach to safety onstage and backstage that involves COVID testing, light quarantining, wearing masks, maintaining distance between musicians, and investigating bell barriers and air purifiers – all in the interest of mitigating as many risks as possible”.

She added: “This important research will benefit organisations beyond ours, and we are pleased that the University’s findings can now be shared with school groups and other ensembles to help inform and guide their decisions and safety strategies.”