Blog archives for July, 2010

Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec) is a Canadian singer, and occasional songwriter and actress.

Dion had first gained international recognition in the 1980s by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.

Dion’s music has been influenced by genres ranging from rock and R&B to gospel and classical, and while her releases have often received mixed critical reception, she is renowned for her technically skilled and powerful vocals.

• Celine Dion – The Prayer
• Celine Dion – Nature Boy

More free Celine Dion sheets

Frédéric Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as the greatest Polish composer, and ranks as one of music’s greatest tone poets.

He was born in the village of Å»elazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father, and in his early life was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In November 1830, at the age of 20, Chopin went abroad; following the suppression of the Polish November Uprising of 1830–31, he became one of many expatriates of the Polish “Great Emigration.”

In Paris, he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. A Polish patriot,

Chopin’s extant compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument. Though technically demanding, Chopin’s style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth rather than virtuosity. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballade and was responsible for major innovations in forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude. His works are mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music.

• Chopin – Nocturne Op.9 No. 2
• Chopin – Nocturne in e-flat major op. 9 no. 2

More free Chopin sheets

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”), was a Venetian priest and Baroque music composer, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist; he was born and raised in the Republic of Venice. The Four Seasons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece.

Many of Vivaldi’s compositions reflect a flamboyant, almost playful, exuberance. Most of Vivaldi’s repertoire was rediscovered only in the first half of the 20th century in Turin and Genoa and was published in the second half. Vivaldi’s music is innovative, breaking a consolidated tradition in schemes; he gave brightness to the formal and the rhythmic structure of the concerto, repeatedly looking for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes. Moreover, Vivaldi was able to compose nonacademic music, particularly meant to be appreciated by the wide public and not only by an intellectual minority. The joyful appearance of his music reveals in this regard a transmissible joy of composing; these are among the causes of the vast popularity of his music. This popularity soon made him famous in other countries such as France which was, at the time, very independent concerning its musical taste.

Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi’s concertos and arias (recalled in his Johannes Passion, Matthäuspassion, and cantatas). Bach transcribed a number of Vivaldi’s concerti for solo keyboard, along with a number for orchestra, including the famous Concerto for Four Violins and Violoncello, Strings and Continuo (RV 580).

• Vivaldi – summer
• Vivaldi – the for seasons

More free Vivaldi sheets

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”), was a Venetian priest and Baroque music composer, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist; he was born and raised in the Republic of Venice. The Four Seasons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece.

Many of Vivaldi’s compositions reflect a flamboyant, almost playful, exuberance. Most of Vivaldi’s repertoire was rediscovered only in the first half of the 20th century in Turin and Genoa and was published in the second half. Vivaldi’s music is innovative, breaking a consolidated tradition in schemes; he gave brightness to the formal and the rhythmic structure of the concerto, repeatedly looking for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes. Moreover, Vivaldi was able to compose nonacademic music, particularly meant to be appreciated by the wide public and not only by an intellectual minority. The joyful appearance of his music reveals in this regard a transmissible joy of composing; these are among the causes of the vast popularity of his music. This popularity soon made him famous in other countries such as France which was, at the time, very independent concerning its musical taste.

Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi’s concertos and arias (recalled in his Johannes Passion, Matthäuspassion, and cantatas). Bach transcribed a number of Vivaldi’s concerti for solo keyboard, along with a number for orchestra, including the famous Concerto for Four Violins and Violoncello, Strings and Continuo (RV 580).

• Vivaldi – Spring from Four Seasons
• Vivaldi – Spring [Four Seasons]
• Vivaldi – Spring

More free
Vivaldi sheets

The Beatles were a pop and rock group from Liverpool, England formed in 1960. Primarily consisting of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals) throughout their career, The Beatles are recognised for leading the mid-1960s musical “British Invasion” into the United States. Although their initial musical style was rooted in 1950s rock and roll and homegrown skiffle, the group explored genres ranging from Tin Pan Alley to psychedelic rock. Their clothes, styles, and statements made them trend-setters, while their growing social awareness saw their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. After the band broke up in 1970, all four members embarked upon solo careers.

The Beatles are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music, selling over a billion records internationally. In the United Kingdom, The Beatles released more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one, earning more number one albums (15) than any other group in UK chart history. This commercial success was repeated in many other countries; their record company, EMI, estimated that by 1985 they had sold over one billion records worldwide. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles have sold more albums in the United States than any other band. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles number one on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to that same magazine, The Beatles’ innovative music and cultural impact helped define the 1960s, and their influence on pop culture is still evident today. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of top-selling
Hot 100 artists to celebrate the chart’s fiftieth anniversary; The Beatles reached #1 again.

• The Beatles – In My Life
• The Beatles – And I Love Her
• The Beatles – Eleanor Rigby

More free The Beatles sheets

Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous “Unfinished Symphony”), liturgical music, operas, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.

While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl), wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert’s work increased dramatically in the decades following his death and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata forms of Beethoven and Mozart (his early works, among them notably the 5th Symphony, are particularly Mozartean), his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic development than of harmonic drama. This combination of Classical form and long-breathed Romantic melody sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by Robert Schumann as running to “heavenly lengths”. His harmonic innovations include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant rather than the dominant (as in the last movement of the Trout Quintet). Schubert’s practice here was a forerunner of the common Romantic technique of relaxing, rather than raising, tension in the middle of a movement, with final resolution postponed to the very end.

• Schubert – the bee
• Schubert – Phantasee
• Schubert – Serenade

More free Schubert sheets

Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as “a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane,” he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat’s Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.

• Michael Brecker – Delta city blues

More free Michael Brecker sheets

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, full name Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. His over 600 compositions include works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire.

Mozart’s music, like Haydn’s, stands as an archetypal example of the Classical style. His works spanned the period during which that style transformed from one exemplified by the style galant to one that began to incorporate some of the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque, complexities against which the galant style had been a reaction. Mozart’s own stylistic development closely paralleled the development of the classical style as a whole. In addition, he was a versatile composer and wrote in almost every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. While none of these genres were new, the piano concerto was almost single-handedly developed and popularized by Mozart. He also wrote a great deal of religious music, including masses; and he composed many dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.

The central traits of the classical style can be identified in Mozart’s music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are hallmarks of his work.

• Mozart – The Magic Flute
• Mozart – Duetto di Papageno-Papagena
• Mozart – Concerto No. 4 in D for Violin, Musical score/partition

More free Mozart sheets

Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer-songwriter, and winner of the first Australian Idol television talent quest in 2003. Between December 2003 and November 2007 he released four top 4 albums including a #1 and #2, which all achieved either platinum or multi platinum accreditation. His fifth album Like It Like That features several tracks with John Mayer playing guitar and singing backing vocals, and also a duet with Jordin Sparks. The album was released on October 23, 2009, and debuted at #6, achieving gold accreditation in its third week on the ARIA chart.

Sebastian has also released six top 10 singles which includes four #1′s, and three other top 15 and one top 40 single. His most recent #1 is “Like it Like That” the title track from his latest album. It was released as the first single in Australia on August 7, 2009 and reached #1 in its 4th week and spent 12 weeks in the ARIA Top 10 and has achieved 2x platinum accreditation. “Art of Love”, the song featuring Jordin Sparks, was officially released as the second single on November 20, 2009 and has reached #10 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
During his career Sebastian has been awarded 10 platinum and 1 gold accreditation for albums, and 8 platinum and 2 gold accreditations for singles, the highest album and single accreditations of any Australian Idol contestant according to official Australian Recording Industry Association records. In total Sebastian has sold over 1.45 million cds in Australia alone, including more than 800,000 albums. Three of his albums have been nominated as highest selling album at the annual ARIA Music Awards, Just As I Am in 2004, Beautiful Life in 2005, and The Memphis Album in 2008. His debut single “Angels Brought Me Here” although only released in late November 2003 placed #1 on the End of Year Top 100 ARIA Singles Chart in 2003, and was awarded the ARIA for highest selling single at the 2004 ARIA Awards.

Sebastian is third on the list of Australian performers with #1 singles this decade, ahead of him being Kylie Minogue with six and Delta Goodrem with eight. His four #1 singles also places him second in Australian chart history for most #1 singles by an Australian solo male act. Ahead of him with five is John Farnham. Sebastian’s are ARIA #1′s. Farnham’s were achieved over three decades, with four Go-Set Australian National Chart/Kent Music Report #1′s between 1968 and 1986 and one ARIA Chart #1 single in 1988 Sebastian has received a number of awards including Channel V’s Artist Of The Year in 2004, and Urban Music Awards for Best Male Artist in 2006 and Best R&B Album for his third album Closer To The Sun in 2007.

Early in his career Sebastian had some success overseas with his first single reaching #1 in New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. His success outside Australia is most evident in New Zealand, where his first single “Angels Brought Me Here” was accredited platinum. It spent 3 weeks at #1, and remained in the NZ Top 50 chart for 22 weeks during 2003/2004. His debut album Just As I Am reached #3 on the NZ charts, and gained 2xplatinum accreditation. His second single “All I Need Is You” peaked at #5, and spent 14 weeks in their Top 50. Despite Sebastian’s success in these countries his record label did not release his follow up albums there. In 2008 Sebastian was signed to Victor/Sony to release an album in the US. The album is currently set for release there in 2010.

• Guy Sebastian – Receive The Power

More free Guy Sebastian sheets

Johann Pachelbel (baptized September 1, 1653 – buried March 9, 1706) was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.

Pachelbel’s work enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best known for the Canon in D, the only canon he wrote. In addition to the canon, his most well-known works include the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations.

Pachelbel’s music was influenced by southern German composers, such as Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Kaspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French composers, and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition. Pachelbel preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude, although, like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features exceptionally rich instrumentation. Pachelbel explored many variation forms and associated techniques, which manifest themselves in various diverse pieces, from sacred concertos to harpsichord suites.

• Pachelbel – Canon in D
• Pachelbel – Cannon in D

More free Pachelbel sheets