Felix Mendelssohn was, like Frederic Chopin, a composer who was cut down in the prime of his life. Chopin lived for thirty-nine years; Mendelssohn for thirty-eight. Born in 1819, the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, a philosopher and Jewish patriot, he…
Read More »American classical composer George Rochberg
“It was empty of expressive emotion and was inadequate to express my grief….it is finished, hollow, meaningless.” Thus the words of George Rochberg about serialism in 1963 when his son Paul succumbed to the ravages of a brain tumor. His…
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