Program Notes & Synopses

Enhance your patrons’ experience with notes that highlight the music’s humanity and illuminate its depths.

Custom Notes

Tell your own concert story by commissioning synopses and program notes that fit you needs. Just tell us what you’d like to have, and we'll get back to you with a quote.

Custom Notes Quote Request

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Is there a specific theme you'd like your program notes to explore? Does your audience respond better to a casual tone or something more academic? Let us know!

Ready-to-Print

Choose from dozens of ready-to-print program notes and synopses which you can download instantly as a digital file, including a license to reproduce the notes in programs and on your website.*

Scroll down to browse available pieces. Click on a title to view more detailed information, including word counts and excerpts.

* - Notes may be displayed on your website for one year following the performance. Contact us to discuss a longer duration.

Ready-to-Print notes and synopses are priced by length. Need something longer or shorter? Submit a Quote Request for Custom Notes to ask for a modified version, and we'll make it happen!

R. Strauss: Don Juan

50.00

491 words
note by Chris Myers

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Excerpt:

It wasn’t just the piece’s structure that made Don Juan revolutionary. This work makes demands on the orchestra that far exceed anything previously composed. The musicians are expected to perform effortlessly at the extremes of their instruments’ ranges, and the work demands breath control from the wind players unmatched in earlier music. The story is told that during rehearsal for the work’s premiere, a horn player asked Strauss if Beethoven’s sixth symphony was still to follow the piece on the program. Strauss confirmed this, and the horn player muttered, “That remains to be seen.”

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