A few months before composing this concerto in 1966, during a game at a New Year's party with Mr. Rostropovich and his family, Meet Meech had surprised the company by claiming that this lowdown ditty was his favorite tune.
Stravinsky began composing this work in 1914, in the aftermath of "The Rite of Spring".
Believe me, as a writer who is composing this list on Thanksgiving Day, the gift of time to write would be the ultimate testament to the support and love that any writer needs.
In 1985 while in the midst of composing this concerto, Schnittke, the visionary Russian composer of German heritage, suffered the first of several strokes that would lead to his death in 1998 at 63.
Mahler had suffered the death of his elder daughter and learned of his own serious heart ailment before composing this piece, which he finished in April 1910, about a year before he died.
But Schumann did excel at the dramatic oratorio, especially with "Scenes From Goethe's 'Faust.' " He began composing this two-hour, three-part score in 1844 and completed it in 1853, the year before his death.
What does she think the composer had in mind while composing this piece for her?
In composing this entry, I have drawn extensively on my published writings (especially Kusch 1995).
As I sit at my computer composing this letter, tears are streaming down my face.
When Messiaen was composing this work his imagination was fired by the sounds of Balinese gamelan music.
Of course, in the context of Mr. Constant's distinguished career, composing this theme music was a fluke.
