Classical Music

Don Giovanni (1787) is an opera written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The opera focuses on a sexually promiscuous young prince whose demise is brought about by his own arrogance. This is the overture, the musical introduction, to the opera as a whole; this piece would be the very first thing audience members would hear. Needless to say, the piece would need to set the mood for the rest of the play. In this opera, Mozart also chose to call back the overture at the very end of the opera, creating a cyclical feeling of the music and the play.

Perhaps to some listeners, this piece is quite familiar. Not much is known of the history of Canon in D, but it is know that the piece was written in the late 17th century by German composer Johann Pachelbel. The name comes from the musical technique used in the song known as canon where melodies imitate each other (songs like Row, Row, Row Your Boat are canons where the melodies are identical rather than similar).

The exact year that Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote this piece is not known, but it is assumed that it was written in the later part of Vivaldi's career, or around the early 18th century. This particular piece is an example of a cantata (literally "sung"). Vivaldi was known as an exuberant composer who put great emotion in his musical pieces. He is a contemporary of Bach and, in fact, Bach transcribed a few of Vivaldi's pieces for his own concerti.