1.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
2.
Conducting
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Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
3.
Pianist
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A pianist is an individual musician who plays the piano. Most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, consequently, pianists have a wide variety of repertoire and styles to choose from, including traditionally classical music, Jazz, blues and all sorts of popular music, including rock music. Most pianists can, to an extent, play other keyboard-related instruments such as the synthesizer, harpsichord, celesta. Perhaps the greatest pianist of all time was Franz Liszt, whose mastery was described by Anton Rubinstein, In comparison with Liszt. Modern classical pianists dedicate their careers to performing, recording, teaching, researching as well as learning new works/expanding their repertoire and they generally do not write or transcribe music as pianists did in the 19th century. Some classical pianists might specialize in accompaniment and chamber music while others perform as full-time piano soloists. Mozart could be considered the first concert pianist as he performed widely on the piano, composers Beethoven and Clementi from the classical era were also famed for their playing, as were, from the romantic era, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff. From that era, leading performers less known as composers were Clara Schumann, however, as we do not have modern audio recordings of most of these pianists, we rely mainly on written commentary to give us an account of their technique and style. Jazz pianists almost always perform with other musicians and their playing is freer than that of classical pianists and they create an air of spontaneity in their performances. They generally do not write down their compositions, improvisation is a significant part of their work, well known Jazz pianists include Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell. Popular pianists might work as performers, session musicians, arrangers most likely feel at home with synthesizers. A single listing of pianists in all genres would be impractical, the following is an incomplete list of such musicians. As a result, there are prominent communities of amateur pianists all over the world play at quite a high level and give concerts just because of their love to music. The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, held annually in Paris and it was only after the competition that he started pursuing a career as a classical pianist. The German pianist Davide Martello is known for traveling around conflict zones to play his moving piano, Martello has previously been recognised by the European parliament for his “outstanding contribution to European cooperation and the promotion of common values”
4.
Guitarist
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A guitarist is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar by singing or playing the harmonica, the correctness of techniques that a guitarist acquires depends on the quality of training. Learning how to play correctly is crucial for any guitarist no matter which guitar he/she plays, the guitarist may also employ various methods for selecting notes and chords, including fingering, thumbing, the barre, and bottleneck or steel-guitar slides, usually made of glass or metal. These left- and right-hand techniques may be intermixed in performance, while music is an art form in itself, playing an instrument such as the guitar has long been a popular subject for painters. Despite perceived tendencies in mainstream music diffusion, to Rock music and electric guitar, notable guitarists arrived from other genres, Rolling Stone In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine published a list called The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. This list included 100 guitarists whom the magazine editor David Fricke considered the best, the first in this list is the American guitarist Jimi Hendrix introduced by Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, who was, in his turn, ranked at #50 in the list. Artists who had not been included in the previous list were added, rory Gallagher, for example, was ranked in 57th place. The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is mentioned in many biographies about artists who appear in the list, despite the appearance in other magazines like Billboard, this publication by Guitar World was criticized for including no female musicians within its selection. However, Guitar World recently published a list of Eight Amazing Female Acoustic Players, including Kaki King, TIME and others Following the death of Les Paul, TIME website presented their list of 10 greatest artists in electric guitar. As in Rolling Stone magazines list, Jimi Hendrix was chosen as the greatest guitarist followed by Slash from Guns N Roses, B. B. King, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. Gigwise. com, a music magazine, also ranks Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist ever, followed by Jimmy Page, B. B. King, Keith Richards. There are many classical guitarists listed as notable in their respective epochs, media related to Guitarists at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Critic
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A critic is a professional who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their social or government policy. They may also include a positive or negative personal response, characteristics of a good critic are articulateness, preferably having the ability to use language with a high level of appeal and skill. Sympathy, sensitivity and insight are important too, form, style and medium are all considered by the critic. In architecture and food criticism, the function, value. Formally, the word is applied to persons who are accepted and, to a significant degree. Influential critics of art, music, theatre and architecture often present their arguments in complete books, one very famous example is John Ruskins Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice. Critics may base their assessment on a range of theoretical positions, for instance, they may take a Feminist or Freudian perspective. Critics are themselves subject to competing critics, since the critical judgment always entails some subjectivity. An established critic can play a role as a public arbiter of taste or opinion. Also, critics or a group of critics, may award symbols of recognition. Early English meaning of criticism was based mainly on the criticism of literature, schonberg was the first music critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Daniel Mendelsohn described the equation of criticism for critics as knowledge + taste = meaningful judgement, social and political critics have used various forms of art to express their criticism, including literature and music. Pierre Beaumarchais, for example, prior to the French Revolution, a critics influence is enhanced by subsequent reworkings such as the operatic versions of Beaumarchaiss play by Rossini and by Mozart. Among the most famous social/political criticism in literary form are Jonathan Swifts satire Gullivers Travels, some political critics, such as Ai Weiwei use visual art as their medium. Throughout history, political critics have faced higher risks, including the risk of imprisonment or death, several websites have developed for the purpose of compiling or publishing original critical reviews. Examples include BlogCritics Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, and Yelp, according to A. O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times, everyone on the Internet is a critic. Some critics like Roger Ebert achieve iconic status in pop culture, people whose work is the subject of criticism have a full range of responses to it
6.
Romanticism
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
7.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
8.
Euryanthe
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Euryanthe is a German grand, heroic, romantic opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna on 25 October 1823. Though acknowledged as one of Webers most important operas, the work is rarely staged because of the libretto by Helmina von Chézy. Euryanthe is based on the 13th-century romance LHistoire du très-noble et chevalereux prince Gérard, comte de Nevers et la très-virtueuse et très chaste princesse Euriant de Savoye, only the overture, an outstanding example of the early German Romantic style, is regularly played today. Euryanthe premiered on 25 October 1823, in a marked by Viennas interest in Italian operas. Although the initial reception was enthusiastic, the opera lasted only 20 performances, with complaints about the libretto, franz Schubert commented that, This is not music. In spite of this, the opera has since had several champions, victor Hugo in Les Misérables calls the huntsmans chorus in Act 3 perhaps the most beautiful piece of music ever composed. During his term as director of the Vienna State Opera, Gustav Mahler mounted a new production of Euryanthe in 1903, despite amendments in the libretto by Mahler himself and Max Kalbeck and a few changes in the score by Mahler, there were only five performances. Leo Slezak played Adolar, Leopold Demuth played Lysiart, carlo Maria Giulini conducted a performance in May 1954 at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and a recording is available, along with other historic live recordings. Euryanthe has also been staged frequently in recent years. Grove notes Webers use of chromaticism to depict the characters, the fine orchestration. Time,1110 Place, Prémery and Nevers, France Euryanthe is betrothed to Count Adolar, in a hall of the palace of King Louis of France in Prémery, the count sings the praises of his promised bride. Lysiart, Count of Forest and Beaujolais, challenges the fidelity of the maiden, Adolar stakes his lands and fortune on the faithfulness of Euryanthe and demands that his friend shall show some proof of his victory should he win one. In her castle at Nevers, Euryanthe has given refuge to Eglantine de Puiset, Eglantine is enamoured of Adolar, and under the pretence of friendship for her benefactor, she secretly determines to effect Euryanthes downfall and rupture her attachment to Adolar. Lysiart, who has attempted to gain the favor of Euryanthe. After questioning by Eglantine, Euryanthe confides a secret given to her by Adolar to Eglantine, the latters sister Emma had lost her lover in battle, and had killed herself by drinking poison from a ring. Her soul can find no rest until the ring, lying in her tomb, should be moistened with the tears of an injured and innocent maiden. Euryanthe, who has been praying each night at Emmas tomb, had promised Adolar to keep this secret, after Euryanthe leaves, Eglantine sings how she will denounce Euryanthe to Adolar, Lysiart arrives in order to take Euryanthe to the palace. At night, Lysiart sings both of his guilt and his love, Eglantine visits the tomb, abstracts the ring, and gives it to Lysiart, who had almost given up on his wager with Adolar
9.
Oberon (Weber)
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Oberon, or The Elf Kings Oath is a 3-act romantic opera in English with spoken dialogue and music by Carl Maria von Weber. The libretto by James Robinson Planche was based on a German poem, Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, against his doctors advice, Weber undertook the project commissioned by the actor-impresario Charles Kemble for financial reasons. However, the pressure of rehearsals, social engagements and composing extra numbers destroyed his health, first performed at Covent Garden, London on 12 April 1826, with Miss Paton as Reiza, Mme. Vestris as Fatima, Braham as Huon, Bland as Oberon and the composer conducting, it was a triumph with many encores, the libretto was later translated into German by Theodor Hell, and it is in this German translation that the opera is most frequently performed. Weber was dissatisfied by the structure of the opera as it was produced in London, and intended to revise the work on his return to Germany, franz Liszt made an arrangement of the overture in 1846 for solo piano. The first performance of Oberon in America took place in New York at the Park Theatre on 20 September 1826 and it was first seen in Paris in 1830 at the Théâtre Italien. A lavish production was mounted in French at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on February 27,1857, conducted by Adolphe Deloffre, and was praised by Berlioz. In the 20th century, the Metropolitan Opera premiere was on 28 December 1918 with Rosa Ponselle as Reiza, conducted Artur Bodanzky, although the opera has been staged intermittently in the 20th century, it has been often been performed successfully in concert. The opera is scored for 2 flutes,2 clarinets,2 oboes,2 bassoons,4 horns,2 trumpets,3 trombones, strings, the tunings for clarinets, horns and trumpets are from the overture. For instance, Act I opens with horn in D, fairies sing around the sleeping Oberon in his bower. Puck has ventured everywhere to find such couples, but in vain, awakening, Oberon curses the rash vow he made. Puck tells him that the knight Sir Huon has been ordered by Emperor Charlemagne to go to Baghdad, slay the man on the Caliphs right hand, then kiss and wed the Caliphs daughter. Oberon decides that this knight and the princess will be the ones to assist him in his reconciliation with his queen, a vision of Reiza is conjured for Huon and his squire Sherasmin, and they are given a magic horn to summon aid from Oberon if needed. Fairies are called in to carry Huon on his mission, on the banks of the Tigris Prince Babekan is rescued from a lion by Huon and Sherasmin. Babekan is actually the betrothed of Reiza but when he attacks Huon and Sherasmin they put the prince, next, Namouna, an old woman tells Huon that Reiza is to be married the next day, but has also had a vision which has drawn her to Huon. In the splendid court of Haroun al Rachid a chorus sing praises to their ruler, Reiza is led in to wed Prince Babekan, seated on the caliph’s right, but Huon and Sherasmin burst in, kill Babekan and flee with the princess and Fatima. A ship is to them to Greece. The two couples express their love as they depart, Puck invokes the spirits of the elements to wreck Huon’s ship
10.
Leitmotif
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A leitmotif or leitmotiv /ˌlaɪtmoʊˈtiːf/ is a short, constantly recurring musical phrase associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the concepts of idée fixe or motto-theme. The spelling leitmotif is an anglicization of the German Leitmotiv, literally meaning leading motif, or perhaps more accurately, a musical motif has been defined as a short musical idea. It may also be combined with other leitmotifs to suggest a new dramatic condition or development, although usually a short melody, it can also be a chord progression or even a simple rhythm. Leitmotifs can help to bind a work together into a coherent whole, by association, the word has also been used to mean any sort of recurring theme, in literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person. It is sometimes used in discussion of other musical genres, such as instrumental pieces, cinema. The use of characteristic, short, recurring motives in orchestral music can be traced back to the seventeenth century. In French opera of the eighteenth century, reminiscence motif can be identified. Their use, however, is not extensive or systematic, indeed, the first use of the word leitmotif in print was by the critic Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns in describing Webers work, although this was not until 1871. Motives also figured occasionally in purely instrumental music of the romantic period, the related idea of the musical idée fixe was coined by Hector Berlioz in reference to his Symphonie fantastique. This purely instrumental, programmatic work features a recurring melody representing the object of the artists obsessive affection and depicting her presence in various real, in La forza del destino, the opening theme of the overture recurs whenever Leonora feels guilt or fear. In Il Trovatore, the theme of the first aria by Azucena is repeated whenever she invokes the horror of how her mother was burnt alive, Richard Wagner is the earliest composer most specifically associated with the concept of leitmotif. His cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen, uses hundreds of leitmotifs, often related to characters, things. While some of these occur in only one of the operas. Wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a drama in his essay Opera and Drama. Some controversy surrounded the use of the word in Wagners own circle, Wagner never authorised the use of the leitmotiv, using words such as Grundthema. His preferred name for the technique was Hauptmotiv, which he first used in 1877, the word gained currency with the overly literal interpretations of Wagners music by Hans von Wolzogen, who in 1876 published a Leitfaden to the Ring. In it he claimed to have isolated and named all of the motifs in the cycle
11.
Felix Mendelssohn
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family and he was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a prodigy, but his parents were cautious. Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Leipzig Conservatoire, which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook, Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions and he is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Mendelssohns father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was the second of four children, his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional, the family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn banks role in breaking Napoleons Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul, Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer, originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a career until it became clear that he seriously intended to dedicate himself to it. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment, Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that Europe came to their living room. Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion, he and his wife decided not to have Felix circumcised. Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, Abraham and his wife Lea were themselves baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy for themselves and their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Leas brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, in 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of Bartholdy this name that we all dislike. Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy and he began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, from at least May 1819 Felix studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This was an important influence on his future career, Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach
12.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)
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At two separate times, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeares play, A Midsummer Nights Dream. First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture, later, in 1842, only a few years before his death, he wrote incidental music for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing Overture. The incidental music includes the world-famous Wedding March, the German title reads Ein Sommernachtstraum. The Overture in E major, Op.21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old, contemporary music scholar George Grove called it the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music. It was written as an overture, not associated with any performance of the play. The Overture was written after Mendelssohn had read a German translation of the play in 1826, the translation was by August Wilhelm Schlegel, with help from Ludwig Tieck. There was a connection as well, Schlegels brother Friedrich married Felix Mendelssohns Aunt Dorothea. While a romantic piece in atmosphere, the Overture incorporates many elements, being cast in sonata form and shaped by regular phrasings. The piece is noted for its striking instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering fairy feet at the beginning. Heinrich Eduard Jacob, in his biography of the composer, said that Mendelssohn had scribbled the chords after hearing an evening breeze rustle the leaves in the garden of the familys home, the overture begins with four chords in the winds. Following the first theme in the parallel minor representing the dancing fairies, a transition leads to a second theme and this is followed by the braying of Bottom with the hee-hawing being evoked by the strings. A final group of themes, reminiscent of craftsmen and hunting calls, the fairies dominate most of the development section, while the Lovers theme is played in a minor key. The recapitulation begins with the opening four chords in the winds, followed by the Fairies theme. The fairies return, and ultimately have the word in the coda. The overture ends once again with the opening four chords by the winds. The Overture was premiered in Stettin on 20 February 1827, at a concert conducted by Carl Loewe, Mendelssohn had turned 18 just over two weeks earlier. He had to travel 80 miles through a snowstorm to get to the concert. After the intermission, he joined the first violins for a performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music, Op.61, for A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1842,16 years after he wrote the Overture
13.
Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
14.
Carlo Gozzi
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Carlo, Count Gozzi was an Italian playwright and defender of Commedia dellArte. Gozzi was born and died in Venice, he came from an family of minor Venetian aristocracy, at a young age, his parents were no longer able to support him financially, so he joined the army in Dalmatia. Three years later, he had returned to Venice and joined the Granelleschi Society, pietro Chiari and Carlo Goldoni, two Venetian writers, were moving away from the old style of Italian theatre, which threatened the work of the Granelleschi Society. While some have called Gozzi the savior of Commedia dellArte there has been much debate due to the fact that Gozzi wrote out all his scripts and these were hugely popular, but after Sacchis company disbanded, they were unjustly neglected. Gozzis fairy tales drew influence from Commedia dellArte, and the popularity of them caused a revival of Commedia dellArte in Italy, Gozzi was acclaimed throughout most of Europe, but was less esteemed in his own country. In the last years of Gozzis life he had begun to experiment by producing tragedies with largely comical influences and he then began to work in Spanish drama, and found minor success before his death. He was buried in the church of San Cassiano in Venice and his brother, Gasparo Gozzi, was also a well-known writer of the time. His collected works were published under his own superintendence at Venice in 1792, a number of twentieth-century stage works were inspired by Gozzis plays. org This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Works by Carlo Gozzi at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Carlo Gozzi at Internet Archive
15.
Turandot (Gozzi)
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Turandot is a commedia dellarte play by Carlo Gozzi after a supposedly Persian story from the collection Les Mille et un jours by François Pétis de la Croix. Gozzis Turandot was first performed at the Teatro San Samuele, Venice, Turandot was deliberately written in the Commedia delarte style by Gozzi, as part of a campaign in his literary war against the bourgeois, realistic works of Pietro Chiari and Carlo Goldoni. Gozzi was intimate with the out-of work theatre troupe of Antonio Sacchi and it was first performed by Sacchis troupe at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice on 22 January 1762, and received seven subsequent performances. The choice of theatre itself was an attack on Goldoni. In the end, Gozzi won his war, according to his Memoirs. Goldoni went to Paris, to seek his fortune there, whereof we shall be informed in his Memoirs. The poet and playwright Friedrich Werthes made a translation of Gozzis complete plays, Schillers Turandot is partly based on Werthes version. In 1801 Friedrich Schiller translated Gozzis Commedia delarte play, at the same time re-interpreting it in the Romantic style and it was first produced in 1802 by at the old Weimar Hoftheater by Johann von Goethe, who had been the theatres director since its inception in 1791. Schiller had begun a friendship with Goethe in 1794 which lasted until Schillers death in 1805, after which Goethe forsook ballads. Comparison of Gozzis and Schillers versions Gozzis play has a light, Gozzi, although he also uses both elements of drama and comedy, puts them side by side as independent parts, Schiller combines them and makes them the result of each other. This interaction of dramatic and comical, their interdependence and the fact of their being equally matched, Gozzis main character, the princess Turandot, seems to act out of a mood and cruelty whereas Schillers Turandot is a person who resolutely follows her moral and ethical attitude. Also prince Calàf, who is a kind of lost soul and philanderer in Gozzis version, becomes a lover who surrenders to his deep. Carl Maria von Weber based his 1805 Chinese Ouverture on a Chinese theme found in Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Dictionnaire de musique, the result was his 1809 Incidental music for Turandot, J.37 which incorporated the Chinese Ouverture. Franz Danzi later wrote his own singspiel Turandot based on Schiller in 1816, the lawyer and composer Johann Vesque von Püttlingen was a friend of Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn. Born in the Lubomirski Palace, near Lublin, West Galicia, he grew up in Vienna and trained as a lawyer, rising to section director in the Austrian Foreign Ministry under Metternich. Under the pseudonym J. Hoven he composed over 300 songs and 8 operas, among which was Turandot, Princess of Shiraz, libretto after Schiller, Schillers play was re-translated into Italian by his friend Andrea Maffei in 1863. Antonio Bazzinis opera Turanda, with a libretto by Antonio Gazzoletti, was first performed at La Scala, bazzini later taught composition to Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni at the Milan Conservatory. A free English translation from Schiller by Sabilla Novello was published in 1872, after reading Gozzis play, Ferruccio Busoni began sketching out some incidental music to accompany it
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Orientalism
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In particular, Orientalist painting, representing the Middle East, was a genre of Academic art in the 19th century. Orientalism refers to the Orient, in reference and opposition to the Occident, the East, the word Orient entered the English language as the Middle French orient. In the “Monks Tale”, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, “That they conquered many regnes grete / In the orient, with many a fair citee. ”The term “orient” refers to countries east of the Mediterranean Sea and Southern Europe. In Place of Fear, Aneurin Bevan used an expanded denotation of the Orient that comprehended East Asia, “the awakening of the Orient under the impact of Western ideas”. Edward Said said that Orientalism “enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present. ”In art history, the term Orientalism refers to the works of the Western artists who specialized in Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia, during the 19th century. In that time, artists and scholars were described as Orientalists, especially in France, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the term Orientalist identified a scholar who specialized in the languages and literatures of the Eastern world. Among such scholars is the philologist William Jones, whose studies of Indo-European languages established modern philology, additionally, Hebraism and Jewish studies gained popularity among British and German scholars in the 18th and 19th century. The academic field of Oriental studies, which comprehended the cultures of the Near East, the thesis of Orientalism develops Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony, and Michel Foucaults theorisation of discourse to criticise the scholarly tradition of Oriental studies. Said criticised contemporary scholars who perpetuated the tradition of outsider-interpretation of Arabo-Islamic cultures, especially Bernard Lewis, the analyses are of Orientalism in European literature, especially French literature, and do not analyse visual art and Orientalist painting. In that vein, the art historian Linda Nochlin applied Said’s methods of analysis to art. In the academy, the book Orientalism became a text of post-colonial cultural studies. Early architectural use of motifs lifted from the Indian subcontinent is known as Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, one of the earliest examples is the façade of Guildhall, London. The style gained momentum in the west with the publication of views of India by William Hodges, examples of Hindoo architecture are Sezincote House in Gloucestershire, built for a nabob returned from Bengal, and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Venice, the trading partner of the Ottomans, was the earliest centre. Chinoiserie is the term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success, Early hints of Chinoiserie appeared in the 17th century in nations with active East India companies, England, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine Ming-era blue, Early ceramic wares made at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares. Pleasure pavilions in Chinese taste appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, Thomas Chippendales mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca 1753–70
17.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood, already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, while visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame, during his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons and he composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote, posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl and this was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy and his elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Ruperts Cathedral in Salzburg, the baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult, Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as fourth violinist in the establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg, Leopold became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his sons birth, Leopold published a textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. When Nannerl was 7, she began lessons with her father. Years later, after her brothers death, she reminisced, He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and he could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, he was composing little pieces
18.
Piano sonata
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A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement. The first movement is composed in sonata form. In the Baroque era, the use of the term generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa or sonata da camera. The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers, the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlattis lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form, both sections being in the tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity, the influence of Spanish folk music is evident in Scarlattis sonatas. Other composers of keyboard sonatas include Marcello, Giustini, Durante, all the well-known Classical era composers, especially Joseph Haydn, Muzio Clementi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, wrote many piano sonatas. Muzio Clementi wrote more than 110 piano sonatas and he is well known as The Father of the Pianoforte. Clementis Opus 2 was the first real piano sonata composed, the much younger Franz Schubert also wrote many. The 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven, including the well-known Pathétique Sonata, Franz Liszts comprehensive three-movements-in-one Sonata in B minor draws on the concept of thematic transformation first introduced by Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasie of 1822. Piano sonatas have been throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Württemberg Sonata No.1 in A minor, H.30, 49/1 Prussian Sonata No.4 in C minor, Wq. 1840-60 Janáček, Leoš Piano Sonata 1. X.1905 Liebermann, Lowell Piano Sonata No
19.
Concerto
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A concerto is a musical composition, whose characteristics have changed over time. In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, J. S. Bach was thus reflecting a long-standing tradition when he used the title concerto for many of the works that we know as cantatas. But in recent centuries, up to the present, a concerto is a piece composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band. The popularity of the concerto grosso form declined after the Baroque period, the solo concerto, however, has remained a vital musical force from its inception to this day. Examples of this form of concerto include Giovanni Gabrielis In Ecclesiis or Heinrich Schützs Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich. The concerto began to take its shape in the late Baroque period. Corellis concertino group was two violins and a cello, in J. S. Bachs Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, for example, the concertino is a flute, a violin, and a harpsichord, the harpsichord sometimes plays with the ripieno. Later the concerto approached its modern form in which the concertino usually reduces to a solo instrument playing with/against an orchestra. The concerto was intended as a typical of the Italian style of the time. The baroque concerto was mainly for an instrument or a wind instrument. Bach also wrote a concerto for two violins and orchestra, during the baroque period, before the invention of the piano, keyboard concertos were comparatively rare, with the exception of the organ and some harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. Cello concertos have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier, among the works from that period, those by Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Tartini are still part of the standard repertoire today. The concerti of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, such as CPE Bach, are perhaps the best links between those of the Baroque period and those of the Classical era. It is conventional to state that the first movements of concerti from the Classical period onwards follow the structure of sonata form, final movements are often in rondo form, as in J. S. Mozart wrote five violin concertos, all in 1775 and they show a number of influences, notably Italian and Austrian. Several passages have leanings towards folk music, as manifested in Austrian serenades, mozart also wrote the highly regarded Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra. Beethoven wrote only one violin concerto, under-appreciated until revealed as a masterpiece in a performance by violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, Haydn wrote at least two cello concertos which are the most important works in that genre of the classical era. Bachs three cello concertos and Boccherinis are also noteworthy, Bachs keyboard concertos contain some brilliant soloistic writing
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Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School and he left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22,1811, in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Liszts father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel, at age six, Franz began listening attentively to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight and he appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pressburg in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franzs musical education in Vienna, There Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, then director of the Viennese court. Liszts public debut in Vienna on December 1,1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal, was a great success and he was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when his one-year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Princes services. At the end of April 1823, the returned to Hungary for the last time. At the end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again, towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszts first composition to be published, his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli, appeared as Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Liszts inclusion in the Diabelli project—he was described in it as an 11 year old boy, born in Hungary—was almost certainly at the instigation of Czerny, his teacher, Liszt was the only child composer in the anthology. After his fathers death in 1827, Liszt moved to Paris, to earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking, the following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles Xs minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off, Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother and he had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists
21.
Igor Stravinsky
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Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, Stravinskys compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. His Russian phase which continued with such as Renard, The Soldiers Tale. The works from this tended to make use of traditional musical forms, drawing on earlier styles. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures, Stravinsky was born on 17 June 1882 in Oranienbaum, a suburb of Saint Petersburg, the Russian imperial capital, and was brought up in Saint Petersburg. It is believed that Stravinsky’s ancestry is traceable back to the 17th and 18th centuries, to the bearers of the Soulima, ivan Sulima, was a famous Ukrainian hetman 1628–1635. Stravinskys family branch most likely came from Stravinskas, polonized Lithuanian land owners and it is still unclear to when exactly the Soulima part of the surname was dropped. Stravinsky recalled his schooldays as being lonely, later saying that I never came across anyone who had any attraction for me. Stravinsky began piano lessons as a boy, studying music theory. In 1890, he saw a performance of Tchaikovskys ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre, despite his enthusiasm for music, his parents expected him to study law. Stravinsky enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg in 1901, Stravinskys father died of cancer that year, by which time his son had already begun spending more time on his musical studies than on law. Thereafter, he concentrated on studying music, in 1905, he began to take twice-weekly private lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he came to regard as a second father. These lessons continued until Rimsky-Korsakovs death in 1908, in 1905 Stravinsky was betrothed to his cousin Katherine Gavrylivna Nosenko, whom he had known since early childhood. Diaghilev was sufficiently impressed by Fireworks to commission Stravinsky to carry out some orchestrations and then to compose a ballet score. The early period of Igor Stravinsky’s work would be incomplete without a research of his life while in Ukraine. From approximately 1890 till 1914 the composer was frequently visiting Ustyluh, town in Volyn Oblast and he spent most of his summers there and that’s where he met his cousin, Katherine Nosenko who he married in 1906. In 1907 Stravinsky designed and built his own house in Ustyluh where his own family stayed often during summer times until 1914 and his new Ukrainian home he called “My heavenly place”. In this house Igor Stravinsky worked on his seventeen early compositions, among which were orchestral fantasy Fireworks, ballets Firebird, Petrushka, currently, after its renovation this house is the only composers house-museum opened to the public
22.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
23.
Clarinet
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The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist, the word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette, or from Provençal clarin, oboe. It would seem however that its roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance. Clarion, clarin and the Italian clarino are all derived from the medieval term claro which referred to a form of trumpet. This is probably the origin of the Italian clarinetto, itself a diminutive of clarino, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet. The English form clarinet is found as early as 1733, while the similarity in sound between the earliest clarinets and the trumpet may hold a clue to its name, other factors may have been involved. The trumpet parts that required this speciality were known by the term clarino, Johann Christoph Denner is generally believed to have invented the clarinet in Germany around the year 1700 by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve the tone and these days the most popular clarinet is the B♭ clarinet. However, the clarinet in A, just a lower, is commonly used in orchestral music. Since the middle of the 19th century the clarinet has become an essential addition to the orchestra. The clarinet family ranges from the BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ piccolo clarinet, the clarinet has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument, equally at home in the classical repertoire as in concert bands, military bands, marching bands, klezmer, and jazz. The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinets distinctive timbre, the tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school, the latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available, the modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of acceptable tone qualities to choose from. The A clarinet and B♭ clarinet have nearly the same bore, orchestral players using the A and B♭ instruments in the same concert could use the same mouthpiece for both. The A and the B♭ instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, the tone of the E♭ clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral or concert band textures. The bass clarinet has a deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass
24.
Bassoon
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The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor clefs, and occasionally the treble. Appearing in its form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band. The bassoon is an instrument known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, variety of character. Listeners often compare its warm, dark, reedy timbre to that of a baritone voice. Someone who plays the bassoon is called a bassoonist, the word bassoon comes from French basson and from Italian bassone. However, the Italian name for the instrument is fagotto. B♭1–C5 The range of the bassoon begins at B♭1 and extends upward over three octaves, roughly to the G above the treble staff, higher notes are possible but difficult to produce, and rarely called for, orchestral and concert band parts rarely go higher than C5 or D5. Even Stravinskys famously difficult opening solo in The Rite of Spring only ascends to D5, a1 is possible with a special extension to the instrument—see Extended techniques below. The bassoon disassembles into six pieces, including the reed. Bassoons are double reed instruments like the oboe and the English horn, a modern beginners bassoon is generally made of maple, with medium-hardness types such as sycamore maple and sugar maple preferred. Both bore and tone holes are precision-machined, and each instrument is finished by hand for proper tuning and this ensures coverage by the fingers of the average adult hand. Wooden instruments are lined with hard rubber along the interior of the wing and boot joints to prevent damage from moisture, the end of the bell is usually fitted with a ring, either of metal, plastic or ivory. The joints between sections consist of a tenon fitting into a socket, the tenons are wrapped in either cork or string as a seal against air leaks. The bocal connects the reed to the rest of the instrument and is inserted into a socket at the top of the wing joint, bocals come in many different lengths and styles, depending on the desired tuning and playing characteristics. Folded upon itself, the bassoon stands 1.34 m tall, there are also short-reach bassoons made for the benefit of young or petite players. The origins of the dulcian are obscure, but by the century it was available in as many as eight different sizes. Otherwise, dulcian technique was rather primitive, with eight finger holes, the dulcian came to be known as fagotto in Italy. However, the etymology that equates fagotto with bundle of sticks is somewhat misleading
25.
Horn (instrument)
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In horns, unlike some other brass instruments such as the trumpet, the bore gradually increases in width through most of its length—that is to say, it is conical rather than cylindrical. Variations include, As the name indicates, people used to blow on the actual horns of animals before starting to emulate them in metal or other materials. This original usage survives in the shofar, a rams horn, the genus of animal-horn instruments to which the shofar belongs is called קרן in Hebrew, qarnu in Akkadian, and κέρας in Greek. The olifant or oliphant was the name applied in the Middle Ages to ivory hunting or signalling horns made from elephants tusks. Apparently of Asian origin, they reached Europe from Byzantium in the tenth or eleventh century, in Europe they came to be symbols of royalty. From late antiquity there are mentions of alpine horns, but the earliest secure description of the instrument now called an alphorn dates from the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, one authority says that at the time it was a straight instrument eleven feet long. The more familiar form, with a bell, was developed in Switzerland in the eighteenth century. The practice of making these instruments in different sizes, to be played together in part music, similar wooden instruments, used by shepherds for signalling, are known in Romania by the name bucium. They are made in straight, hooked, and S-shaped forms, a variant of the straight version is called tulnic. Metal instruments modelled on animal horns survive from as early as the 10th century BC, nearly fifty of these curved bronze horns have been excavated from burial sites, mostly in Scandinavia, since the first was discovered in 1797. Many are in pairs, curved in opposite directions. Because their makers left no written histories, their use and manner of playing is unknown, depictions of these instruments are found from the 5th century BC onward on Etruscan funerary monuments. The Etruscan name for them is unknown, but the Romans called them buccina, the latter name is the Latin word for horn, and the source of the name of the musical instrument in many Romance languages, French cor, Italian corno, Provençal corn. Early metal horns were less complex than modern horns, marin Mersenne calls these trompe, made in a crescent shape, and the cor à plusieurs tours, a tightly coiled instrument in spiral form. The tightly coiled form of horn was never popular in France. The earliest surviving horn of the tightly spiralled type, dating from about 1570, is by Valentin Springer, around the middle of the seventeenth century instruments began to appear in the form of brass tubes wound into a single open hoop, with a flared exit opening. Although these came to be associated especially with France, the first known example was made in 1667 by the German maker Starck, in French, they were most often called trompe de chasse, though cor de chasse is also frequently found
26.
Silvana (opera)
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Silvana, J.87, is an opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed in Frankfurt am Main on 16 September 1810. The libretto, by Franz Carl Hiemer, is a reworking of an earlier, unsuccessful opera by Weber, Weber also reused music from the same piece in Silvana. Weber used a melody from an aria for the opera to compose the popular Seven Variations on a Theme from Silvana for clarinet. He used the melody for the theme-and-variations first movement of his Sonata No.5 in A major. Krips, Rudolfs squire, offers some relief as he stumbles on the scene. This is followed by another huntsmens chorus which would not be out of place in Der Freischütz, Count Rudolph now sings an melancholy aria about seeking solitude in the wilderness and seeking the love of a woman. Count Adelharts daughter, Mechthilde, is promised to him, the aria concludes with the idea that he will seek the trumpets of battle to find rest from his lack of love. Musically the aria is similar to that of Huons in Oberon, Krips tries to cheer him up with another comic aria, where Krips advocates a fear of the supernatural and Rudolf proposes courage at all times. Krips thinks he has seen a wood-spirit or devil in a cave nearby, as Krips hides, his aria describes his feelings and the action as Rudolf goes into the cave and then leads a girl, Silvana, out. She is mute and dressed only in skins and leaves, Rudolf falls in love with her. Rudolf sings to Silvana and she reciprocates his advances, the orchestra acting very cleverly as the partner to her mute duet with Rudolf. She does not wish to leave the cave and her forest home, the huntsmen return and sing of the joys brought by the Rhine and the wine it produces. Silvana falls asleep and Rudolf has his men quietly carry her to Count Adelharts castle nearby where he is staying as a guest, in the opening duet Count Adelhart is quarreling with his daughter about the arranged marriage with Count Rudolf that he demands of her. Count Adelhart believes that Hanns von Cleeburg robbed him of his second daughter Ottilie, after he leaves Mechthilde sings an aria about her love for Albert von Cleeburg, son of her fathers enemy. Her maid Klärchen manages to arrange a meeting between the couple, she plans on going along since she is loved by Alberts squire. In a quartet the four lovers express their desire for happiness together. Albert hopes that Count Rudolf will be a man and stand aside for true love. After an orchestral interlude the scene opens as Silvana awakens in the castle to Rudolfs pleas for her to stay with someone who loves her
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Multiphonic
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A multiphonic is an extended technique on a monophonic musical instrument in which several notes are produced at once. This includes wind, reed, and brass instruments, as well as the human voice, multiphonic-like sounds on string instruments, both bowed and hammered, have also been called multiphonics, for lack of better terminology and scarcity of research. Commonly, no more than four notes will be produced at once, there have been numerous fingering guides published for the woodwind player to achieve harmonics. Multiphonics on reed instruments can also be produced in the manners described below for brass instruments and it is said to be impossible to recreate exactly the conditions between one player and the next, due to minute differences in instruments, reeds, embouchure, and other things. A multiphonic fingering that works for one player may not work for that player on a different instrument, or a different player on the same instrument. This often results from different construction of two instruments from different makers. In brass instruments, the most common method of producing multiphonics is by playing the instrument. This technique is called horn chords. The tone sung doesnt necessarily have to be in the played tones harmonic series, the tone quality of brass multiphonics is influenced strongly by the voice of the player. Another method is referred to as lip multiphonics, in which a brass player alters the airflow to blow between partials, in the series of the slide position/valve. The outcome is just as stable as any multiphonic and perfectly structured, when the frequencies add together or subtract from each other, the fundamental is recreated. For example, A440 and A220 and this would combine to make 660, creating a new fundamental of the second lowest B of the piano. A third method, known as split tones or double buzz, the most common result is a perfect interval, but the range of intervals produced can vary broadly. String instruments can also produce multiphonic tones when strings are bowed or hammered between the harmonic nodes and this works best on larger instruments like double bass and cello. Other multiphonic extended techniques used are prepared piano, prepared guitar, the technique of producing multiphonics with the voice is called Overtone singing. There is another technique done in whistling, where the whistler hums in their throat while whistling with the front parts of their mouth, normally, we perceive only the fundamental pitch as being played. By controlling the air flow through the instrument and the shape of the column, Multiphonics may be notated in score in a variety of ways. When exact pitches are specified, one method of notation is simply to indicate a chord, approximate pitches may be specified by wavy lines or in cluster notation to designate acceptable ranges of sound
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Viola
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The viola is a string instrument that is bowed or played with varying techniques. It is slightly larger than a violin and has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century it has been the middle or alto voice of the family, between the violin and the cello. The strings from low to high are generally tuned to C3, G3, D4. In the past, the viola varied in size and style as did its names, the Italians often used the term, viola da braccio meaning literally, of the arm. Brazzo was another Italian word referring to the viola which the Germans adopted in the form, the French had their own names, Cinquiesme was a small viola, Haute Contre was a large viola and Taile meant Tenor. In the modern era, the French use the term Alto, the viola had enjoyed popularity in the heyday of five-part harmony up until the eighteenth century, taking three lines of the harmony and occasionally playing the melody line. Music that is written for the viola differs from that of most other instruments in that it uses the alto clef. Viola music switches to the treble clef when there are sections of music written in a higher register to make the notes easier to read. The viola often plays the voices in string quartets and symphonic writing. The viola occasionally plays a major, soloistic role in orchestral music, examples include Don Quixote by Richard Strauss and Harold en Italie by Hector Berlioz. In the earlier part of the 20th century, more composers began to write for the viola, encouraged by the emergence of specialized soloists such as Lionel Tertis and William Primrose. English composers Arthur Bliss, York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams all wrote substantial chamber, many of these pieces were commissioned by, or written for Lionel Tertis. William Walton, Bohuslav Martinů, Toru Takemitsu, Tibor Serly, Alfred Schnittke, Paul Hindemith wrote a substantial amount of music for viola, including the concerto Der Schwanendreher. The concerti by Paul Hindemith, Béla Bartók, and William Walton are the big three of viola repertoire, the viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size violas body is between 25 mm and 100 mm longer than the body of a violin, with an average length of 41 cm. Small violas typically made for children typically start at 30 cm, for a child who needs a smaller size, a fractional-sized violin is often strung with the strings of a viola. Unlike the violin, the viola does not have a full size. The body of a viola would need to measure about 51 cm long to match the acoustics of a violin, there have been several experiments intended to increase the size of the viola, in the interest of improving the instruments sound
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Claude Debussy
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Achille-Claude Debussy, known since the 1890s as Claude-Achille Debussy or Claude Debussy, was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music and he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Debussys music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, Debussy, the oldest of five children, was born Achille-Claude Debussy on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a shop there, his mother. The family moved to Paris in 1867, but in 1870 Debussys pregnant mother fled with Claude to his aunts home in Cannes to escape the Franco-Prussian War. At the age of seven, he began lessons with an Italian violinist in his early 40s named Jean Cerutti. In 1871 he drew the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville, Debussy always believed her, although there is no independent evidence to support her claim. His talents soon became evident, and in 1872, at age ten, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire and he also became a lifelong friend of fellow student and distinguished pianist Isidor Philipp. After Debussys death, many pianists sought Philipps advice on playing his works, Debussy was experimental from the outset, favouring dissonances and intervals that were not taught at the Academy. Like Georges Bizet, he was a brilliant pianist and a sight reader. However, Debussy never once won a competition, and his personal opinion on competitions are that it is rather. The rules are taught in places called Conservatories, Art Schools, the contests, preceded by strict training, take place once a year and the umpires of the game are members of the institute —Monsieur Croche. The pieces he played in public at this time included sonata movements by Beethoven, Schumann and Weber,2, a movement from the Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Allegro de concert, during the summers of 1880,1881, and 1882, he accompanied Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as she travelled with her family in Europe. Despite von Mecks closeness to Tchaikovsky, the Russian master appears to have had effect on Debussy. In September 1880 she sent his Danse bohémienne for Tchaikovskys perusal, a month later Tchaikovsky wrote back to her, It is a pretty piece. Not a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shriveled, Debussy did not publish the piece, and the manuscript remained in the von Meck family, it was eventually sold to B
30.
Heinrich Marschner
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Heinrich August Marschner was the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner. Marschner was born in Zittau and was intended for a legal career. After a meeting with Beethoven around 1815–16, he decided to devote himself to music, Marschner was widely regarded as one of the most important composers in Europe from about 1830 until the end of the 19th century. He was a rival of Weber and friend of Beethoven and Mendelssohn and his operas often contain thematic material based on folksong, and this folk-influenced genre had begun with Webers Der Freischütz. The last of his operas, Austin, was first staged in 1852 and it was not very well received, and later the increasingly renowned Wagner overshadowed him. Schumann praised Marschners piano trios lavishly, Marschner did not just toss off these works as an afterthought, but clearly devoted considerable time and effort to writing them. He gave the title Grand Trio to each of his works for piano, violin and cello, in these pieces, one finds all of the emotions prevalent in the Romantic movement during the mid-19th century. To the extent that Marschner is still remembered, it is largely for his operas Hans Heiling, Der Vampyr and Der Templer und die Jüdin, extremely popular in his lifetime. Marschners ability to depict supernatural horror by musical means is especially evident in the first two operas as well as in some of his ballads, such as Die Monduhr, next to his operas, Marschners most significant musical contribution is to the Lied. The best of his works in form are comparable with those by Carl Loewe. He also wrote a considerable amount of music, including seven piano trios. Marschners Bagatelles for guitar have been taken up lately by some guitarists, among his operas, Hans Heiling and especially Der Vampyr have been adapted and revived in recent years with considerable success. Wie die Hans Heilings, Weber, Marschner, and Thomas Manns Doktor Faustus, Marschners Villains, Monomania, and the Fantasy of Deviance. Berlin, Harmonie, Verlagsgesellschaft für Literatur und Kunst, palmer, Allen Dean, Heinrich August Marschner, 1795–1861. Ann Arbor 1980 Weber, Brigitta, Heinrich Marschner, ISBN 3-931266-01-X Von der Lucretia zum Vampyr. Dokumente zur Entstehung und Rezeption der Lucretia, vollständige Edition des Reise-Tagebuchs von 1826 bis 1828. Und kommentiert von Till Gerrit Waidelich, ein Symposium des Instituts für Kulturelle Infrastruktur Sachsen. Hrsg. von Allmuth Behrendt und Matthias Theodor Vogt
31.
Giacomo Meyerbeer
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Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character, Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra and they set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation and he was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots and Le prophète, his last opera was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. He was a supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latters opera. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. Meyerbeers works are infrequently performed today. Meyerbeers birthname was Jacob Liebmann Beer, he was born in Tasdorf, near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, to a Jewish family. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia Wulff, to whom he was particularly devoted. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer and he was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817. Judah Beer was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community and maintained a synagogue in his house which leaned towards reformist views. Jacob Beer wrote a cantata for performance at this synagogue. The brothers Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned naturalist, geographer and explorer, beers first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementis pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, the boy made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozarts D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. Beer, as he named himself, studied with Antonio Salieri. Louis Spohr organised a concert for Beer at Berlin in 1804 and continued his acquaintance with the lad later in Vienna, beers first stage work, the ballet Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was produced in March 1810 at the Court Opera in Berlin
32.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
33.
Mikhail Glinka
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Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the fountainhead of Russian classical music. Glinkas compositions were an important influence on future Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, Mikhail Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the Smolensk Governorate of the Russian Empire. His great-great-grandfather was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman, Wiktoryn Władysław Glinka of the Trzaska coat of arms, the only music he heard in his youthful confinement was the sounds of the village church bells and the folk songs of passing peasant choirs. The church bells were tuned to a dissonant chord and so his ears became used to strident harmony, at the age of about ten he heard them play a clarinet quartet by the Finnish composer Bernhard Henrik Crusell. It had an effect upon him. Music is my soul, he many years later, recalling this experience. While his governess taught him Russian, German, French, and geography, he received instruction on the piano. At the age of 13, Glinka went to the capital, Saint Petersburg, here he learned Latin, English, and Persian, studied mathematics and zoology, and considerably widened his musical experience. He had three piano lessons from John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg and he then continued his piano lessons with Charles Mayer and began composing. When he left school his father wanted him to join the Foreign Office, the work was light, which allowed Glinka to settle into the life of a musical dilettante, frequenting the drawing rooms and social gatherings of the city. He was already composing a large amount of music, such as melancholy romances which amused the rich amateurs and his songs are among the most interesting part of his output from this period. In 1830, at the recommendation of a physician, Glinka decided to travel to Italy with the tenor Nikolai Kuzmich Ivanov, the journey took a leisurely pace, ambling uneventfully through Germany and Switzerland, before they settled in Milan. There, Glinka took lessons at the conservatory with Francesco Basili, although he struggled with counterpoint and he realized that his mission in life was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. His return route took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna and he stayed for another five months in Berlin, during which time he studied composition under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn. A Capriccio on Russian themes for piano duet and an unfinished Symphony on two Russian themes were important products of this period, when word reached Glinka of his fathers death in 1834, he left Berlin and returned to Novospasskoye. While in Berlin, Glinka had become enamored with a beautiful and talented singer, there he reunited with his mother, and made the acquaintance of Maria Petrovna Ivanova. After he courted her for a period, the two married. The marriage was short-lived, as Maria was tactless and uninterested in his music, Glinka moved in with his mother, and later with his sister, Lyudmila Shestakova
34.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
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