1.
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
2.
Virtuoso
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A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, music, singing, playing a musical instrument, or composition. This word also refers to a person who has cultivated appreciation of artistic excellence, the plural form of virtuoso is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine forms are virtuosa and virtuose. According to Music in the Western civilization by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, the defining element of virtuosity is the performance ability of the musician in question, who is capable of displaying feats of skill well above the average performer. Especially in music, both critics and musicians have mixed opinions on virtuosity, while the skill implied is clearly positive, musicians focused on virtuosity have been criticized for overlooking substance and emotion in favor of raw technical prowess. For instance, Ken Jennings initial success on Jeopardy was described as a virtuoso performance, the meaning of virtuoso has its roots in the Italian usage of the 16th and 17th centuries, signifying an honorific term reserved for a person distinguished in any intellectual or artistic field. The term evolved with time, simultaneously broadening and narrowing in scope as interpretations went in and out of fashion, originally a musician was honored the classification by being a composer, theorist or famous maestro, more importantly than being a skilled performer. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the word shifted in meaning, sébastien de Brossard in his Dictionnaire de Musique approached the word virtuoso by its Latin root virtu emphasizing exceptional training, especially in theory. This position was defended in Johann Gottfried Walthers Musicalisches Lexicon favoring the theorist over the performer. Johan Matthensons Der brauchbare Virtuoso maintained the respect for the traditional theoretische Virtuosen, in the late 18th century, people began to use the term to describe a instrumentalist or vocalist who pursued a career as a soloist. The tension about the merit of practical virtuosity started to grow at the time and intensified in the 19th century. Franz Liszt, considered one of the greatest of all virtuosos, declared that virtuosity is not an outgrowth, media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons
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.
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
5.
Romantic music
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Romantic music is an era of Western classical music that began in the late 18th or early 19th century. In the Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional, expanding to encompass literary, artistic, famous early Romantic composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini, and Berlioz. The late 19th century saw an expansion in the size of the orchestra and in the dynamic range. Also, public concerts became a key part of middle class society, in contrast to earlier periods. Famous composers from the half of the century include Johann Strauss II, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi. A prominent mark of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by such figures as Dvořák, Sibelius, other prominent late-century figures include Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Rachmaninoff and Franck. The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the half of the 18th century in Europe. In part, it was a revolt against social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography and education. One of the first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry, in the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Haydn and Mozart. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music was brought to the centre of musical Romanticism, the attributes have also been criticized for being too vague. For example, features of the ghostly and supernatural could apply equally to Mozarts Don Giovanni from 1787, events and changes that happen in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events always affect music. For example, the Industrial Revolution was in effect by the late 18th century. This event had a profound effect on music, there were major improvements in the mechanical valves. The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease, another development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived on the patronage of the aristocracy, many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composers, on the hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers. Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be no segregation of musical tastes, during the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose
6.
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
7.
Johannes Brahms
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. Brahms composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works and he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished, Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahmss works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs, Brahmss father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was sometimes spelt Brahmst or Brams, and derives from Bram. Against the familys will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he work as a jobbing musician. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress 17 years older than he was, in the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a player in the Hamburg Stadttheater and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, his sister Elisabeth had been born in 1831, Fritz also became a pianist, overshadowed by his brother he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training, Johannes also learnt to play the violin, from 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms could be such a good player, at the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethovens quintet for piano and winds Op.16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz, by 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor
8.
Carl Tausig
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Carl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer. He is considered by scholars to be Franz Liszts greatest pupil. Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig and his father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar at the age of 14. He quickly became a pupil of Liszts, travelling with him on concert tours and studying counterpoint. At the age of 16 he met Richard Wagner, of whom he became a devoted follower and he also became a great admirer and friend of Johannes Brahms. Tausig made piano arrangements of many of Wagners operas and he also introduced to Wagner his friend Peter Cornelius, another Wagner devotee. In 1858 Tausig made his debut in Berlin at a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow, while some critics admired his technical feats at the keyboard, others found his playing noisy and overbearing. Even some who were more accommodating of Tausigs Lisztian eccentricities felt he would play better as he matured, Tausig toured through various German towns in 1859–60, making Dresden his base. He moved to Vienna in 1862, there he gave concerts of orchestral music. These concerts were partially successful artistically and a failure financially. Tausig settled in Germany and opened a school in Berlin in 1865 which, however. He toured throughout Europe, but the strain of travelling weakened his health and he died in Leipzig from typhoid at the age of 29. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Tausig was considered by some critics to be the greatest of Liszts pupils, pianistically speaking, and to carry pure virtuosity to heights only suggested by Liszt. Anton Rubinstein called him the infallible, where Tausig differed from his teacher was in his lack of flamboyant gestures while playing. Tausig sat motionless at the piano and abhorred what he called Spektakel, while his fingers were working miracles at the keyboard without any digital errors, the only sign of tension from Tausig would be a slight tightening of one corner of his mouth. Another Liszt pupil, Eugen dAlbert, compared Tausig very favorably with their teacher and he said that while Liszts musical conceptions were grander, Tausig possessed a better and more accurate technique coupled with a good deal of poetry. Tausigs repertory was extensive, he could play from memory works ranging from Scarlatti to Liszt and he was especially noted for his interpretations of Chopin, Weber and Beethoven, both for pianistic finish and intensity of emotion. Carl Tausigs output as composer is quite small and it is recorded by the composer, as well as entirely original works, he arranged for piano music of a number of composers, and wrote a number of pedagogic works
9.
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
10.
Sonata in B minor (Liszt)
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The Sonata in B minor, S.178, is a sonata for solo piano by Franz Liszt. It was completed in 1853 and published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann, Liszt noted on the sonatas manuscript that it was completed on February 2,1853, but he had composed an earlier version by 1849. Liszts life was established in Weimar and he was living a lifestyle, composing. The sonata was dedicated to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumanns dedication of his Fantasie in C major, a copy of the sonata arrived at Schumanns house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. His wife Clara Schumann did not perform the sonata, according to scholar Alan Walker she found it merely a blind noise, the sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on January 27,1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bülow. It was attacked by Eduard Hanslick who said anyone who has heard it, johannes Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853, and it was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. However, the sonata drew enthusiasm from Richard Wagner following a performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5,1855. Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as an invitation to hissing and stomping and it took a long time for the Sonata to become commonplace in concert repertoire both because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music. No other work of Liszt has attracted anything like the amount of scholarly attention as the B minor Sonata. The number of divergent theories it has provoked from those of its admirers who feel constrained to search for hidden meanings are many, the sonata is a musical portrait of the Faust legend, with Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles themes symbolizing the main characters. The sonata is autobiographical, its musical contrasts spring from the conflicts within Liszts own personality, the sonata is about the divine and the diabolical, it is based on the Bible and on John Miltons Paradise Lost. The sonata is a set in the Garden of Eden, it deals with the Fall of Man and contains God, Lucifer, Serpent, Adam. The sonata has no allusions, it is a piece of expressive form with no meaning beyond itself— a meaning that probably runs all the deeper because of that fact. It is widely believed that Liszts piece still fits the mold of a traditional four-movement sonata within the mold of one long sonata form. Walker claims the quiet ending of the sonata was an afterthought, the sonata unfolds in approximately 30 minutes of unbroken music. While its four movements are rolled into one, the entire work is encompassed within the traditional Classical sonata scheme — exposition, development. Liszt has effectively composed a sonata within a sonata, which is part of the works uniqueness, Liszt was very economical with his thematic material, indeed, the very first page contains the three motivic ideas that provide the content, transformed throughout, for nearly all that follows. The sonata has four movements although there is no gap between them, the first theme is a descending scale marked sotto voce, full of ominous undertow, it reappears at crucial points in the works structure
Media related to Hans von Bülow at Wikimedia Commons
