1.
1896 in art
–
January 24 – Painter Sir Frederic Leighton is created 1st Baron Leighton in the peerage of the United Kingdom one day before his death in London of angina pectoris. February – Edvard Munch moves to Paris and concentrates on printmaking, december – Walter Crane publishes Of The Decorative Illustration of Books, Old and New. A bout of typhoid fever puts an end to Maurice de Vlamincks career as a cyclist, william Merritt Chase founds Parsons The New School for Design as the Chase School of Art in Greenwich Village, New York. At Giverny Claude Monet begins painting his Mornings on the Seine series, interior design gallery Maison de lArt Nouveau opens in Paris. Max Beerbohm publishes Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen in London, his first collection of drawings, bernard Berenson publishes Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers is founded, hubert von Herkomer is made a knight in the United Kingdom
2.
Carl Nielsen
–
Carl August Nielsen was a Danish musician, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his countrys most prominent composer. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen and he initially played in a military band before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen from 1884 until December 1886. He premiered his Op.1, Suite for Strings, in 1888, in 1916, he took a post teaching at the Royal Academy and continued to work there until his death. Although his symphonies, concertos and choral music are now internationally acclaimed, Nielsens career and personal life were marked by many difficulties, often reflected in his music. The works he composed between 1897 and 1904 are sometimes ascribed to his period, resulting mainly from a turbulent marriage with the sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen. Nielsen is especially noted for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute, in Denmark, his opera Maskarade and many of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage. Nielsens sixth and final symphony, Sinfonia semplice, was written in 1924–25 and he died from a heart attack six years later, and is buried in Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen. Nielsen maintained the reputation of an outsider during his lifetime, both in his own country and internationally and it was only later that his works firmly entered the international repertoire, accelerating in popularity from the 1960s through Leonard Bernstein and others. In Denmark, Nielsens reputation was sealed in 2006 when three of his compositions were listed by the Ministry of Culture amongst the twelve greatest pieces of Danish music, for many years, he appeared on the Danish hundred-kroner banknote. The Carl Nielsen Museum in Odense documents his life and that of his wife, Nielsen was born the seventh of twelve children to a poor peasant family in 1865 at Nørre Lyndelse near Sortelung, south of Odense on the island of Funen. His father, Niels Jørgensen, was a painter and traditional musician who, with his abilities as a fiddler. Nielsen described his childhood in his autobiography Min Fynske Barndom and his mother, whom he recalls singing folk songs during his childhood, came from a well-to-do family of sea captains while one of his half-uncles, Hans Andersen, was a talented musician. He had received the instrument from his mother when he was six and he learned the violin and piano as a child and wrote his earliest compositions at the age of eight or nine, a lullaby, now lost, and a polka which the composer mentioned in his autobiography. After learning to play instruments, on 1 November 1879 he became a bugler. Nielsen did not give up the violin during his time with the battalion, in 1881, Nielsen began to take his violin playing more seriously, studying privately under Carl Larsen, the sexton at Odense Cathedral. Following an introduction to Niels W and he also studied composition under Gade, whom he liked as a friend but not for his music. Contacts with fellow students and cultured families in Copenhagen, some of whom would become lifelong friends, the patchy education resulting from his country background left Nielsen insatiably curious about the arts, philosophy and aesthetics. But, in the opinion of the musicologist David Fanning, it left him with a highly personal
3.
Queen's Hall
–
For the hall in Edinburgh see Queens Hall, Edinburgh. The Queens Hall was a hall in Langham Place, London. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people and it became Londons principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert Newman together with Henry Wood, the hall had drab decor and cramped seating but superb acoustics. In the 1930s, the became the main London base of two new orchestras, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. These two ensembles raised the standards of playing in London to new heights, and the halls resident orchestra, founded in 1893, was eclipsed. The new orchestras attracted another generation of musicians from Europe and the United States, including Serge Koussevitzky, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, in 1941, during the Second World War, the building was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the London Blitz. Despite much lobbying for the hall to be rebuilt, the government decided against doing so, the main musical functions of the Queens Hall were taken over by the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms, and the new Royal Festival Hall for the general concert season. The site on which the hall was built was bounded by the present-day Langham Place, Riding House Street, in 1820 the land was bought by the Crown during the development of John Nashs Regent Street. Between then and the building of the hall, the site was first sublet to a coachmaker and stablekeeper, and in 1851 a bazaar occupied the site. In 1887, the leaseholder, Francis Ravenscroft, negotiated an agreement with the Crown, providing for the clearing of the site. The name of the new building was intended to be either the Victoria Concert Hall or the Queens Concert Hall, the name finally chosen, the Queens Hall, was decided very shortly before the hall opened. The historian Robert Elkin speculates that the alternative Victoria Concert Hall was abandoned as liable to confusion with the Royal Victoria Music Hall, the new hall was to provide a much-needed music venue in the centre of London. St Jamess Hall, just south of Oxford Circus, was too small, had safety problems. Bernard Shaw in his capacity as a critic commented on the old unvaried round of Steinway Hall, Princes Hall and St Jamess Hall. Ravenscroft commissioned the architect Thomas Edward Knightley to design the new hall, using a floor plan previously prepared by C. J. Phipps, Knightley designed a hall with a floor area of 21,000 square feet and an audience capacity of 2,500. Contemporary newspapers commented on the elevation of the building, with the grand tier at street level. The exterior carving was by Sidney W. Elmes and Son, the lighting was a combination of gas and electricity
4.
Ernest Chausson
–
Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish. To please his father, Chausson studied law and was appointed a barrister for the Court of Appeals and he frequented the Paris salons, where he met celebrities such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, and Vincent dIndy. Before deciding on a career, he dabbled in writing and drawing. In 1879, at the age of 24, he began attending the classes of Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, Massenet came to regard him as an exceptional person. Chausson had already composed some pieces and songs. Nevertheless, the earliest manuscripts that have been preserved are those corrected by Massenet, at the Paris Conservatoire, Chausson also studied with César Franck, with whom he formed a close friendship that lasted until Francks death in 1890. Chausson interrupted his studies in 1881, after an attempt to win the Prix de Rome. During 1882 and 1883, Chausson, who enjoyed travel, visited Bayreuth to hear the operas of Wagner, from 1886 until his death in 1899, Chausson was secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique. Chausson also assembled an important collection of paintings, when only 44 years old, Chausson died while staying at one of his country retreats, the Château de Mioussets, in Limay, Yvelines. Riding his bicycle downhill, Chausson hit a wall and died instantly. The exact circumstances remain unclear, although probably an accident, there has been the suggestion of suicide. This suicide theory was propounded by Debussys biographer Edward Lockspeiser, but has been rejected more recently by Chaussons own biographer Ralph Scott Grover. Chausson was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and his funeral was attended by many leading figures of the arts, including Duparc, Fauré, Albeniz, Redon, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Régnier, Pierre Louÿs and Debussy. While Chaussons brotherly relationship with Debussy had ended abruptly five years earlier, following his disapproval of Debussys promiscuity, a small park, Square Ernest Chausson, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris is named in his honour. The creative work of Chausson is commonly divided into three periods, in the first, his output was stylistically dominated by Massenet. The second period, dating from 1886, is marked by a dramatic character. Chaussons work is deeply individual, but it does reflect some technical influences of both Wagner and his musical hero, Franck. Stylistic traces not only of Massenet but also of Brahms can be detected sometimes, in general, Chaussons compositional idiom bridges the gap between the ripe Romanticism of Massenet and Franck and the more introverted Impressionism of Debussy
5.
Nancy, France
–
Nancy is the capital of the north-eastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census,103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper. The motto of the city is Non inultus premor, Latin for Im not touched with impunity—a reference to the thistle, the earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to 800 BC. Early settlers were attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe River. A small fortified town named Nanciacum was built by Gérard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Nancy in 1477, René II, Duke of Lorraine became the ruler. In 1736 Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Duke François of Lorraine, exiled Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński, father-in-law of French king Louis XV, was given the vacant duchy instead. Under his nominal rule, Nancy experienced growth and a flowering of Baroque culture and architecture, with his death in 1766, the duchy became a regular French province and Nancy lost its position as a residential capital city with its own princely court and patronage. As unrest surfaced within the French armed forces during the French Revolution, a few reliable units laid siege to the town and shot or imprisoned the mutineers. In 1871, Nancy remained French when Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine, the flow of refugees reaching Nancy doubled its population in three decades. Artistic, academic, financial and industrial excellence flourished, establishing what is still the Capital of Lorraines trademark to this day, Nancy was freed from Nazi Germany by the U. S. Third Army in September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II at the Battle of Nancy ), in 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Nancy. In 2005, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Nancy is situated on the left bank of the river Meurthe, about 10 km upstream from its confluence with the Moselle. The Marne–Rhine Canal runs through the city, parallel to the Meurthe, Nancy is surrounded by hills that are about 150 m higher than the city center, which is situated at 200 m amsl. The area of Nancy proper is small,15 km2. Its built-up area is continuous with those of its adjacent suburbs, the neighboring communes of Nancy are, Jarville-la-Malgrange, Laxou, Malzéville, Maxéville, Saint-Max, Tomblaine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy and Villers-lès-Nancy. Adjacent to its south is the quarter Charles III – Centre Ville and this quarter contains the famous Place Stanislas, the Nancy Cathedral, the Opéra national de Lorraine and the main railway station. The old city centers heritage dates from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the cathedral of Nancy, the Triumphal Arch and the Place de la Carriere are a fine examples of 18th-century architecture. The Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine is the princely residence of the rulers
6.
La Madeleine, Paris
–
Léglise de la Madeleine is a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The Madeleine Church was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleons army, to its south lies the Place de la Concorde, to the east is the Place Vendôme, and to the west Saint-Augustin, Paris. The closest métro station is Madeleine, the site in the suburban faubourg had been annexed to the city of Paris in 1722. Two false starts were made in building a church on this site, the reconstruction of the older church consecrated to Mary Magdalene was considered. In the meantime, the National Assembly was housed in the Palais Bourbon behind a colonnaded front that was inspired by the completed portico at the far end of the former rue Royale. Two curates who had sworn fealty to the Revolution held a memorial service at the church. With completion of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in 1808, after the fall of Napoleon, with the Catholic reaction during the Restoration, King Louis XVIII determined that the structure would be used as a church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Vignon died in 1828 before completing the project and was replaced by Jacques-Marie Huvé, the July Monarchy rededicated the monument of repentance for Revolution as a monument of national reconciliation, and the nave was vaulted in 1831. In 1837 it was suggested that the building might best be utilised as a railway station. The funeral of Chopin at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris was delayed almost two weeks, until October 30,1849, Chopin had requested that Mozarts Requiem be sung. The Requiem had major parts for female voices, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir, the Church finally relented, on condition that the female singers remain behind a black velvet curtain. During the Paris Commune of 1871, the curé of the church, Abbé Deguerry was one of those arrested and he was executed alongside Georges Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris and four other hostages on 24 May, as French government troops were retaking the city. The Madeleine is built in the Neo-Classical style and was inspired by the Maison Carrée in Nîmes and its fifty-two Corinthian columns, each 20 metres high, are carried around the entire building. The pediment sculpture of the Last Judgement is by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire, and its size is 354 feet long and 141 feet wide. Inside, the church has a nave with three domes over wide arched bays, lavishly gilded in a decor inspired as much by Roman baths as by Renaissance artists. The Madeleine is a parish of the Archdiocese of Paris, masses and other religious services are celebrated daily. Funerals and weddings in Paris are still celebrated here, in the basement of the Church is The Foyer de la Madeleine. For a yearly fee of 5 Euros one can dine under the vaulted ceilings on a three course French meal served by volunteers for the price of 8.50 Euros
7.
John Philip Sousa
–
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known primarily for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of composition, he is known as The March King. Among his best-known marches are The Stars and Stripes Forever, Semper Fidelis, The Liberty Bell, The Thunderer, Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. His father enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868, after departing the band in 1875, Sousa learned to conduct. From 1880 until his death, he focused exclusively on conducting and he eventually rejoined the Marine Band and served there for 12 years as director. On leaving the Marine Band, Sousa organized his own band and he toured Europe and Australia and developed the sousaphone, a large brass instrument similar to the helicon and tuba. At the outbreak of World War I, Sousa was commissioned as a lieutenant commander, following his tenure, he returned to conduct the Sousa Band until his death in 1932. In the 1920s he was promoted to lieutenant commander in the naval reserve, Sousa started his music education by playing the violin as a pupil of John Esputa and George Felix Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch, during his childhood, Sousa studied voice, violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone horn, trombone, and alto horn. When Sousa was 13, his father, a trombonist in the Marine Band, several years long after serving his apprenticeship, Sousa joined a theatrical orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the U. S. Marine Band as its head in 1880, Sousa led The Presidents Own band under five presidents from Rutherford B. Hayes to Benjamin Harrison. Sousas band played at two Inaugural Balls, those of James A. Garfield in 1881, and Benjamin Harrison in 1889 and he wanted a tuba that could sound upward and over the band whether its player was seated or marching. The sousaphone was re-created in 1898 by C. G. Conn and he organized The Sousa Band the year he left the Marine Band. The Sousa Band toured from 1892 to 1931, performing at 15,623 concerts both in America and around the world, including at the World Exposition in Paris, France and at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets to the Arc de Triomphe – one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years, on December 30,1879, Sousa married Jane van Middlesworth Bellis. They had three children, John Philip, Jr. Jane Priscilla, and Helen, All were buried in the John Philip Sousa plot in the Congressional Cemetery. Wife Jane, daughters Jane Priscilla and Helen Abert joined the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1907 and their ancestor was Adam Bellis, who served under several different commands for the New Jersey troops in the American Revolutionary War. Late in his life, Sousa lived in Sands Point, New York, Sousa died of heart failure at the age of 77 on March 6,1932, in his room at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania
8.
George M. Cohan
–
George Michael Cohan, known professionally as George M. Cohan, was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents, beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards Over There, Give My Regards to Broadway, The Yankee Doodle Boy, as a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, appearing in films until the 1930s, known in the decade before World War I as the man who owned Broadway, he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Academy Award-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy, a statue of Cohan in Times Square in New York City commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre. Cohan was born in 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Irish Catholic parents. A baptismal certificate from St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church indicated that he was born on July 3, but Cohan and his family always insisted that George had been born on the Fourth of July. Georges parents were traveling vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, first as a prop, learning to dance, Cohan started as a child performer at age 8, first on the violin and then as a dancer. He was the member of the family vaudeville act called The Four Cohans. In 1890, he toured as the star of a show called Pecks Bad Boy and then joined the family act and he and his sister made their Broadway debut in 1893 in a sketch called The Lively Bootblack. Temperamental in his years, Cohan later learned to control his frustrations. During these years, Cohan originated his famous speech, My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you. The family generally gave a performance at the hall there each summer. Cohans memories of those happy summers inspired his 1907 musical 50 Miles from Boston, as Cohan matured through his teens, he used the quiet summers there to write. When he returned to the town in the cast of Ah, in 1934, he told a reporter, Ive knocked around everywhere, but theres no place like North Brookfield. Cohan began writing original skits and songs for the act in both vaudeville and minstrel shows while in his teens. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a publisher in 1893. In 1901 he wrote, directed and produced his first Broadway musical, The Governors Son and his first big Broadway hit in 1904 was the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes Give My Regards to Broadway and The Yankee Doodle Boy
9.
Giacomo Puccini
–
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccinis early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccinis most renowned works are La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca in Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, the Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccinis great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo. This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca and he was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonios son Domenico, and Domenicos son Michele. Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello, each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera, Puccinis father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, as a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys choir and later as a substitute organist. Puccini was given an education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca. One of Puccinis uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education, Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni, in 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his familys long association with church music in his native Lucca. Puccini wrote a piece called the Capriccio sinfonica as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccinis teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccinis work was reviewed in the Milanese publication Perseveranza. After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccinis next work might be an opera, Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto, the work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge
.jpg)
