The Piano Histories Podcast

Henriëtte Bosmans was a Dutch-born composer who toured all across Europe. Her country, the Netherlands, has an interesting history, one of war, defeat, and victory. The people of the Netherlands wanted greater individual rights and freedoms, and fought to battle their government’s abuse of power. And years after this battle would conclude, Bosmans wrote her original composition, Impressions. The date of composition is currently unk...

On July 20, 1925, Time magazine featured composer George Gershwin on its cover. At the time, Gershwin was redefining the American musical with smashing successes like his musical Lady Be Good! But musicals aren’t the only works Gershwin crafted. In the 1920’s, he began writing his piano preludes, which showcased the jazz-inspired elements of his compositional style. And that same decade would mark the beginning of the Prohibition i...

Ernest Bloch is known as an America composer, but despite this, he was not actually born in America. Bloch was born in Switzerland, and he became a United States citizen in the early 20th century. But shortly after Bloch came to America, things would begin to change. The government would pas new immigration acts, which greatly limited the immigrants allowed to come to America. While it would not affect Bloch directly, it is importa...

Edward MacDowell was an American composer—and yet, his talent took him to places across Europe. He would go to France and Germany, and thus became a composer who was very well-traveled. He would return to America in 1896, and his return would align with important moments in American history. The People’s Party, a political party that aimed to help to American people, was founded by 2 very important individuals during this time, and...

Composer Florence Price was the first black woman to be recognized as a major composer. And she lived during a time when black people were artistically flourishing. The Harlem Renaissance had begun, and it caused the advancement of many talented African American people. Many other important moments in African American history also came about before and during this time, including the Pan-African Conferences and the Great Migration....

Composer Igor Stravinsky, born in Russia, would settle in America in 1940. But before that, there were his multiple United States tours. The first would take place in 1925, and during this tour, he would travel to New York City, the place where he would come to settle in 1940. The second tour would take place in 1935, and the third in 1937. And his tours would coincide with a very important time in American history: the Great Depre...

Enrique Granados was born in Lleida, a city in Catalonia, Spain, but the journey of his musical career would take him all the way to New York City in the United States. The city, and indeed, places around America, were experiencing great changes due to the rise of the Progressivism, which changed the country for years to come. And World War I would also begin during this time, which affected Europe greatly. Tied to Granados’ eventu...

Cécile Chaminade was a female composer who had the chance to tour the New World, America. Her career was an illustrious and notable one, and she had success all across Europe. And her time in America happened to coincide with a very important time for the history of America. The Progressive Era had begun, and the early 20th century was full of American women fighting for their rights, and making a difference in the lives of those a...

In the midst of the time of Stalin’s Russia, composer Dmitri Shostakovich, unlike many of his contemporaries, was still living in Russia. And as a result, he would experience hardship and musical censorship within Stalin’s Russia. This is tied to the history of Shostakovich’s Piano Sonata No. 2, and its representation as an act of compliance against the music of Stalin’s Russia. Today, The Piano Histories Podcast will finish our sa...

Ella Adayevskaya is a Russian composer who lived in an uncertain time—the time of the Russian Revolution. It was a time when peasants refused to give their crops to the government, soldiers mutinied from the fields of battle, and one man and his ideals would rise up to rule over all. This man, Vladimir Lenin, would cause Russia to be thrown into a new age of terror, one that would resonate for years to come. Today, The Piano Histor...