Music

JOAQUIN RODRIGO, the Spanish composer who died July 6, 1999, at the age of 97, was a rarity among contemporary composers—a composer who was not only respected, but beloved. His compositions, with their bright instrumentation and vivid evocations of Spain, won the affections of music lovers all over the world, and one of them, the "Concierto de Aranjuez," became the most popular guitar concerto ever written.

Fourth of July concerts are a little like Thanksgiving dinners. The items on the bill of fare aren't always identical - some people go with Copland instead of Gershwin, rutabagas instead of mashed potatoes - but there's a strong family resemblance all the same. So if you're taking John Adams's advice (who said that Independence Day should be "solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and iluminations") and heading out to a Fourth of July concert, here's a look at some of the items you may well hear.

When Minnesota Orchestra performs a new composition by Thomas Adès later this month, it may not be a media event quite on the order of the Ricky Martin boom, or Queen Amidala's problems on the green planet Naboo. Still, it could turn out to be part of something just as noteworthy. In the world of classical composers right now, Adès is the bright young British star who has gone, in a very short time, from being a student at Cambridge to a sought-after composer whose works are performed all over the world.

Sometimes a conventional instrument just won't do. So composer Richard Johnson built his own - the winslaphones. Made from parts of a trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and a host of other instruments, the winslaphones produces an incredible array of sounds and tones.

The explosive popularity of the Maple Leaf Rag, like so many other seminal events in American history, was founded on fortuitous chance. The club that inspired the song functioned for only a year and a half. Scott Joplin, the composer, spent only a few years of his life in Sedalia before he moved on to St. Louis and New York. The music publisher met Joplin only by chance; one story has it that he liked the music he heard one day when he stopped off for a beer.

The Turn of the Screw was composed in 1954, based on the densely written Victorian ghost story by Henry James. With its 16 scenes plus prologue in two acts, it is definitely an opera to be seen, as well as heard. Britten intended, in fact, for the work to exist as a live opera, not to be listened to only for its music. Only three recordings of The Turn of the Screw even exist, one of which was conducted by Britten himself. As scenes from the Minnesota Opera's production demonstrate, the dramatically stunning visuals are a highlight of the opera.

You hear it all the time these days - Shakespeare is hip, Shakespeare is fashionable - but with composers, he’s hardly ever been unfashionable. And with his birthday upon us (April 23, by most accounts), it seems only fitting to celebrate some of the most famous classical works inspired by the Bard.

Classical-music comedy has a special place in the affections of music lovers and if there was a list of Frequently Asked Questions on this subject, these queries might be near the top.

Every month MPR's music department asks a different individual to give us a list of five compact discs of his or her choosing. The criteria are strictly personal, and the choices cover a pretty wide gamut. But several discs come up again and again: Carlos Kleiber conducting Beethoven symphonies; Miles Davis and colleagues on their album Kind of Blue; and Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

It's the old story: boy gets shot by Cupid's bow and arrow, boy falls in love with girl. So old, in fact, that it forms the story of the very first opera. History has not been gentle with Jacopo Peri's Daphne – most of the music is lost, and the date of the first performance is unclear. But the tradition which it began has been resilient, and of the thousands of operas written since then, most have had some version of boy-meets-girl at their center. Here we take a quick look at some of opera's most famous love duets – and wish you a Happy Valentine's Day.