piano

Tom Turpin (1871-1922) was a composer, saloon-owner, and powerful man in the black community of St. Louis at the turn of the century - even earning the nickname "Father of St. Louis Ragtime." Famously, his piano had to be raised on cement blocks for him to play as he was exceptionally tall and rotund, making his stomach an obstacle to...

Felix Arndt (1889-1918) was an unfortunately short lived American pianist and composer who was most known for his many popular songs and the rag Nola, but also dabbled in some light-hearted variations on classical music. This week we look at his An Operatic Nightmare. Arndt was the child of immigrants, though few immigrants of the time could claim Napolean III...

British composer Maria Hester Park (née Reynolds) was a classical era performer and composer of some renowned, a rarity for the time. Ms. Park performed a number of well received recitals as a pianist before her marriage, at which time she retreated to a life of teaching and composition. We're fortunate to have a number of her works that have...

Giselle Galos, a French composer whom we know little of, is someone we've covered works of before on Obscure Music Mondays, but today we look at her La Baie des Anges, a beautiful work for solo piano. Galos, sometimes listed as Galas, was a mysterious figure who little is known about. Her works were generally published as C. Galos, with...

Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945) was a talented pianist, composer, and teacher born in Scotland, though later became an American citizen after moving to the United States in 1897 to take on a teaching position at the New England Conservatory of Music. She traveled extensively during her career, touring Europe and America as a concert pianist and studying in diverse cities like...

Many of the composers we feature in Obscure Music Mondays come from the Romantic and Modern eras, simply as a result of wider publication of music during those times. Today we move back to a much lesser known composer of the Classical era, Maria Hester Park. Her Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 7 was first published in 1796 at...

Today we take a look at a longer waltz by Francis Popy (1874-1928), his Sphinx. This waltz for piano was believed to have been performed on the ill-fated journey of the RMS Titanic, earning it the nickname of the "Titanic Waltz." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k74oBvtOwO8 With a traditional format of Waltz-Trio-Waltz, this work is easily approachable and shows us some of the movement...

Agathe Ursula Backer Grøndahl (December 1, 1847 – June 4, 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer from a well-to-do family that supported the arts. Agathe and her three sisters all showed artistic talent. When Backer Grøndahl was 10, she moved with her family to the capital of Norway, Christiana (present-day Oslo) where she studied with Ludvig Mathias Lindeman and other...

Edward Alexander MaDowell (Dec. 18, 1860 - Jan. 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist, born in New York City. He was a part of the Second New England School, known more commonly as the Boston Six. MacDowell wasn't born in to a musical family, but he took music lessons from a Columbian violinist, Juan Buitrago, who lived with the MacDowell...

Clara Schumann (Sept. 13, 1819 - May 20, 1896) was a German composer and pianist, born to musical parents in Leipzig. Her father was well-known throughout Leipzig, where he sold and repaired pianos, and gave piano lessons. She took lessons from him, and he also made sure she was educated in music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. She had her first recital...