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International Holocaust Remembrance Day

In 2005, the United Nations declared that January 27 -- which is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau -- shall be commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This commemoration happens a few months before Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which takes place in the spring. In honor of those who suffered, the Milken Archive looks at David Stock's Yizkor, a single-movement elegy for string orchestra that pays tribute to all Holocaust victims. (Photo credit: slgckgc via Flickr)

Riddle Me This: National Puzzle Day

Here’s a bit of a tongue twister held over from Sunday’s National Puzzle Day: Meryerowitz's musical midrash. Try saying that five times fast. Or, simply sample German-born composer Jan Meyerowitz’s Symphony Midrash Esther, a tone poem on the biblical story of Esther, in which the imminent annihilation of the Jews of Persia is averted when the secretly Jewish queen reveals her identity. Here, Meyerowitz drew inspiration from the Talmud, the Midrash and other rabbinic sources for this musical reflection of traditional exegeses. (Photo credit: BMI Archives)

Reflecting on Philip Glass

American composer Philip Glass, who was born January 31, 1937, is one of the leading figures of the minimalist school. Glass’s setting of Psalm 126 – a prayer often sung as a prelude to the birkat hamazon (benedictions, or “grace” after meals) on Sabbaths and other holy days in many traditions – reflects his unmistakable style. Commissioned by the American Symphony Orchestra for a 1998 concert to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, the piece employs classic Glass techniques, including repeated sequences of diatonic harmonies, additive meter and juxtaposition of chorus and orchestra. (Photo credit: Markus Hirnigel)