July/August
100-day Challenge
Keep working on your practice charts. You can still do this challenge.
Start at any time! Download this chart or make your own.
Students who have completed the 100-day practice chart
Composer of the month
Gustav Holst
1874-1934
St. Paul’s Suite
This 4-movement work was written for the girls’ school where Holst taught. Notice how the first movement (Jig) has a bouncy feel with its 6/8 and 9/8 meters.
Second Suite in F
This is a very famous work for band.
Nocturne from Two Pieces for Piano
Lyric Movement for Viola and Chamber Orchestra
The Planets
Mars
Venus
Mercury
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Mars arranged for two pianos
This was how Holst originally wrote the work before he made the orchestral version. (Performed by Richard Markham and David Nettle.)
Imogen Holst
1907-1984
Hallo my fancy, whither wilt thou go?
Phantasy String Quartet
Instrument of the Month
The Harp
Harp feature in Saturn from The Planets.
Beauty and the Beast performed on harp
Jazz harp playing by Dorothy Ashby
How a harp works with Ruth Holden (Philharmonia Orchestra London)
The March
The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa
Rondo Alla Turca (The Turkish March) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pomp and Circumstance (graduation march) by Edward Elgar
Wedding March from the Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite by Felix Mendelssohn
July/August Musical Birthdays
July
4 - Louis Armstrong (1900-1971) American jazz trumpeter
4 - Stephen Foster (1826-1864) American song composer
6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937) Russian-born pianist
7 - Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Austrian late-Romantic composer and conductor
7 - Gian Carlo Menotti (1911- 2007) Italian American opera composer
12 - Van Cliburn (1934-2013) American concert pianist
17 - Peter Schickele (b. 1935) American composer and arranger, the inventor of P.D.Q. Bach
26 - Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012) Bulgarian pianist
August
13 - Kathleen Battle (b. 1948) American opera singer (soprano)
22 - Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French composer
25 - Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) American composer, pianist, and conductor
31 - Itzhak Perlman (b. 1945) Israeli-American violinist