The term descant hearkens back to my youth as a choir boy, when my musical experiences were dominated by music of the church. We sang a number of hymns and psalms, and our director would often select a small group of us to sing a descant — known to me then only as an aria-like soprano part above the rest of the choir. It forced us to exercise the upper range of our voices and was very unforgiving of even the slightest deviations in pitch....
This last Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto. I don’t know if there were any performances anywhere to commemorate the piece, but then again, we don’t often commemorate pieces. Usually, it’s the life of the composer we celebrate. Still, I like to think about the significance of a musical work coming into existence, to fill an ethereal space where once there existed a musical void. Before November 28th, 1909, no one knew what the third concerto by Rachmaninoff sounded like, save the composer himself....