Music Decor and the Unusual

The unusual things we learn about music can shed new light on what we display, and how. Learning more about music and its great music composers can often have a huge impact in selecting music decor. A little bit of history, especially with a story to tell, can make your music decor even more interesting.

The famous song AVE MARIA lists two names, Bach-Gounod, as its composer. Bach and Gounod lived about one hundred years apart. How could these two men who never met write the same composition?

The story goes that Bach wrote a composition based upon broken chords -- chords sounding like they were played on a harp. About a hundred years later, Gounod heard it and thought it would make a great accompaniment for a melody. Gounod wrote the tune in which he set the words of AVE MARIA to music.

Bach is considered to be one of the three greatest music composers who ever lived, but for nearly one hundred years after his death, his works were not sung or played much. As other fine musicians like Gounod and Mendelssohn discovered his work and included them in their own programs, Bach's name reached the height in music that we know it today.

One evening while Ludwig van Beethoven was taking a stroll through the poorer section of Vienna, he heard the sounds of his famous MOONLIGHT SONATA coming from an attic window. It was being played different than he intended when he wrote it. There was an occasional wrong note and the player would play to one point and then seem to get mixed up. He listened for a while and then curiosity got the best of him. He climbed the stairs to the attic, knocked on the door, and a little girl greeted him and invited him in. The pianist was her brother and his blindness was the reason for the mistakes. When Beethoven played the piano for her brother, he knew it had to be Beethoven because no one else could play the beautiful music so well.

When you think of Handel, did you know his father did not want him to be interested in music?   He was told he must not perform music. They even moved the harpsichord away so he could not play it. There is a painting that shows Handel playing the clavier (like a piano)in his night clothes and in the background are his mother and father holding a lighted candle. They are gazing into the dark trying to see who is playing in the middle of the night. Handel would tip-toe to practice when no one was around.

When you select music decor, don't overlook possible history and/or the rest of the story that your guests will be sure to enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Music Decor and More. Your comments are welcome.