Franz von Suppé: Poet and Peasant Overture

Why ‘All By Myself’ sounds uncannily like Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2

By Siena Linton

 

How did Sergei Rachmaninov snag a songwriting credit for a pop ballad written decades after his death? The answer lies in his enduringly popular Piano Concerto No.2...

Eric Carmen’s 1975 smash hit, ‘All By Myself’, features an unlikely collaborator on its list of songwriters. The great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov, better known for his devilish piano works and rapturous symphonic writing, seemingly also turned his hand to power ballads, according to the record’s liner notes.

The catch? Rachmaninov had been dead for more than 30 years by the time the song was released.

A classically trained pianist, Carmen had been working on a new solo, writing four bars at a time. After roughly two months, he had a complete piano interlude – he just needed a song to put it in.

During his writing process, Carmen had been listening to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2, and as he heard the evocative Romanticism of the second movement, inspiration struck.

Eric Carmen’s 1975 pop power ballad ‘All By Myself’ was inspired by Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto. Picture: Getty

Rachmaninov’s melody is passed between the piano, flute, and clarinet in his piano concerto, and Carmen used it as the basis for the tune of his verse for ‘All By Myself’.

Using Rachmaninov’s harmonically meandering theme also meant Carmen had to incorporate similar chord patterns beneath his pop melody. It’s an unusual musical feature to hear in a pop song, and one that requires a skilled songwriter, such as Eric Carmen or Sergei Rachmaninov, to pull off. 

The trouble was that although Rachmaninov’s music was in the public domain (meaning that copyright laws no longer applied to it) in the United States, that wasn’t necessarily the case in other parts of the world.

After the album’s release, Carmen was contacted by the Rachmaninov estate and together they agreed that, alongside a songwriter credit for Rachmaninov himself, the estate would also receive a 12 percent share of the royalties made from the song.

And so it was that the great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov came to add ‘chart-topping power ballad’ songwriter to his CV – and had one of his works performed by the one and only Celine Dion.

TOP 5 Touching Songs - The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra

The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra

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72,085 views Feb 11, 2023

Have a look at our beautiful live video performances from productions filmed worldwide, some of our other clips and community. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube fan Channel! ___________________________________________________________________________________ YouTube Channel Wendy Kokkelkoren:    / @wendykokkelkoren...   Website: https://www.themaestro.nl Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ovOi... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMaestroAn... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themaestro_... TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themaestro_guido Linktree: https://linktr.ee/TheMaestroAndOrchestra About Guido Dieteren (The Maestro): Guido Dieteren (1974) an orchestra leader, violin soloist, arranger, and composer. He grew up in a special musical Limburg family in The Netherlands. Guido his great-grandparents, grandfather, and father were all conductors and with that his great musical examples. At an early age, he established his name as a concertmaster and soloist, before continuing his career as a conductor, violinist, and soloist on tours throughout Europe and around the world. During his conservatory studies in Maastricht, Guido approached his childhood friend and pop keyboard player Falco Borsboom to compose and arrange together for a new smashing orchestra production. The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra was born! Since then, Guido founded The European Pop Orchestra. Together with his musicians, Maestro Guido has provided worldwide concerts, composed and arranged music for commercials such as McDonald's, Rabobank, WWF, Dela, and AllSecur, played many TV shows, released several gold CDs and DVDs, produced large TV specials in many world languages and performed live for more than 2.7 million visitors. Guido collaborated artistically and as musical director with many international stars such as Lionel Richie, Andrea Bocelli, Diana Ross, VoXXclub, DJ AfroJack, Simply Red, André Rieu, Caro Emerald, Alessandro Safina, Marco Borsato, Og3ne, Doe Maar, Anouk, Jan Smit, Nick and Simon, Paul de Leeuw and many others. The Maestro is available for performances worldwide, including and excluding the Orchestra. Guido is also completely private with The European Pop Orchestra. Guido got married in 2006 to the solo singer of the orchestra, Wendy Kokkelkoren. After the first concert together, the spark broke and their romance started, since then they are inseparable. Together Guido and Wendy form a happy musical family with their daughters Emma-Sophie and Annabel. Both daughters love to be on stage and perform together with their parents.

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) -His Music and His Life

 

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)

Biography

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. Mascagni’s first masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana, written in 1890, unfortunately overshadows his later works.

Life and Music
Mascagni’s father, a baker, wanted him to become a lawyer, but his uncle enabled him to study music.

Mascgani’s wife can take credit for ensuring the success of Cavalleria Rusticana early on – she entered it into a competition for a one-act opera held by the publisher Sonzogno in 1888. It won and, following a production in Rome, it was soon performed all over the world.

Mascagni enjoyed considerable success during his lifetime, but unfortunately today he is known almost solely for Cavalleria Rusticana.

In fact he wrote 15 operas, an operetta, orchestral, vocal and piano music.
Mascagni conducted orchestral music and opera, and conducted at La Scala for a while in the 1930s.

Did you know?
Cavalleria Rusticana is short, and so today it is usually performed with Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci.

MASCAGNI CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA INTERMEZZO - Lucca Philharmonic

PIETRO MASCAGNI from CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA intermezzo LUCCA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA con.ANDREA COLOMBINI LIVE RECORDING DEC 2014 - VIENNA MUSIKVEREIN GOLDEN HALL

TOP FILIPINO AUDITIONS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD | UNBELIEVABLE

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Here is the compilations of TOP FILIPINO AUDITIONS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD . Hope you liked & enjoyed it. Don't forget to like & subscribe for more :) - WE do not own anything. This is just for entertainment purposes and the rights, and the monetary gains go to the original owners. No copyright intended. This Channel pulls Best Talented Singers /Artist, Best of X Factor, Got Talent & The Voice from around the world! From the most amazing to some of the funniest auditions and performances, we've ever seen! Watch them all here on! Never miss any video so subscribe today! Share if you enjoyed it! :) Subscribe – The Voice -    / nbcthevoice   The X Factor -    / thexfactoruk   AGT -    / americasgottalent   BGT-    / britainsgottalent09   -- Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

Rachel Portman (The Music of) Suite ~

Music/Artist: Rachel PORTMAN (11 December 1960) Rachel Portman was born in West Sussex, England. She began composing at the age of 14 and read music at Oxford University. Whilst there, she became interested in writing music for student films and theatre productions. She gained experience writing music for drama in BBC and Channel 4 films such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Mike Leigh's Four Days In July and Jim Henson's Storyteller series, however the majority of her work has been in film. Rachel won an Academy award for her score for Emma and Academy nominations for Chocolat and The Cider House Rules. She has been fortunate to work with directors Roman Polanski (Oliver Twist), Norman Jewison (Only You), Jonathan Demme (Beloved, Truth About Charlie, Manchurian Candidate), Robert Redford (Legend of Bagger Vance), Mike Leigh (Life is Sweet), as well as countless others. Her list of film scores includes Never Let Me Go, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Grey Gardens (HBO), The Duchess, Infamous, Lake House, Hart's War, Human Stain, Marvin's Room, Benny and Joon, Joy Luck Club, Smoke, Nicholas Nickleby and Where Angels Fear to Tread. She has written a musical of Little House on the Prairie as well as an opera of Saint Exupery's The Little Prince for Houston Grand Opera and The Water Diviner, a dramatic choral symphony commissioned for the BBC Proms concerts. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.