St. Paul's Girls' School in London has a sign that says: "Gustav Holst wrote The Planets and taught here." Holst composed his St. Paul's Suite for the student orchestra at St. Paul's Girls' School. Many other composers wrote music for students to perform.

Gustav Holst 3: Music for Students (2023)

Astronomy is the science that studies the sun, moon, planets, and other objects in the sky. Astrology is not a science – it tries to show how objects in the […]

Gustav Holst 2: The Planets (2023)

Born into a family of composers, Gustav Holst wanted to follow in their footsteps. His career included playing in orchestras and serving as head of music at St. Paul's Girls' School for almost thirty years while also composing.

He liked music by earlier English composers, folk music and poetry, especially poetry from ancient India. The success of The Planets thrust him into the spotlight and enabled him to focus more of his time on what he loved, composing.

Gustav Holst 1: About Gustav Holst (2023)

It’s December, and winter has officially begun. This is a program of music with wintery themes.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 5: Winter in Music

In celebration of the Christmas season, some classical compositions that have Christmas carols in them.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 4: Christmas Carols in Classical Music

Ralph Vaughan Williams arrived on the scene just as a definite English classical music sound was being established. His three main teachers at the Royal Academy of Music were Arthur […]

Ralph Vaughan Williams 3: Turn of the 20th Century English Composers

Originally, a musical fantasy was a piece that instrumentalists made up as they went along. Eventually, fantasies evolved into pieces that composers built out of various melodies they liked — […]

Ralph Vaughan Williams 2: Musical Fantasies

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the most important 20th century English composers. He spent years traveling the country collecting English folk songs, writing them down, and publishing them. Many […]

Ralph Vaughan Williams 1: About Ralph Vaughan Williams

Charles Ives loved to put hymns into his music. Several other composers borrowed hymn tunes; here are several examples from 20th Century American compositions.

Charles Ives 4: American Hymns in Classical Music

The Country Band March has 12 recognizable popular and folk tunes in it. But Ives was not the only composer to put borrowed tunes in his music. Many classical composers […]

Charles Ives 3: Folk Tunes in Classical Music

Charles Ives wrote the Country Band March about amateur musicians — people who make music for the love of it. In the Country Band March Ives combines a tune that […]

Charles Ives 2: Marching Through the Country Band March

The music that Charles Ives wrote was greatly influenced by his father, George. From the time he was a kid, Ives heard his father experiment with sound. George Ives always […]

Charles Ives 1: About Charles Ives

Appropriately spooky classical music for Halloween.

Igor Stravinsky 5: Halloween Music

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov spent years as a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Many of his students became famous composers themselves: Anatol Liadov, Alexander Glazunov, and Igor Stravinsky. A lot of […]

Igor Stravinsky 4: Composer Teachers and their Students

To go with this month’s music from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, some more music by composers who were playing with fire.

Igor Stravinsky 3: Fire Music

Igor Stravinsky based his ballet The Firebird on a Russian folk tale about an evil demon named Kashchei, who has thirteen princesses under his spell. A prince who wanders into […]

Igor Stravinsky 2: The Firebird

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky had a big hit with his first ballet, The Firebird. Stravinksy kept on writing ballets, followed by operas, and orchestral and choral music.

Igor Stravinsky 1: About Igor Stravinsky

“Gigue” is the French word for jig — a lively dance in triple time. The jig started out as folk dance in Ireland, Scotland, and northern England, before finding its […]

Georg Philipp Telemann 4: The “Gigue” is Up!

Georg Philipp Telemann never studied composition – he taught himself how to write music. There are quite a few composers who taught themselves, including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Edward Elgar, Francis Poulenc, […]

Georg Philipp Telemann 3: Self-Taught Composers

Georg Philipp Telemann composed during the Baroque period, which ran from about 1600 to 1750. Suzanne Bona, host of the National Public Radio program Sunday Baroque, talks with Naomi Lewin […]

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