Vivaldi was a pioneer of the concerto. He is one of the most popular and greatest composers. Early in the 1700's Vivaldi began to write his concertos that were widely spread in manuscript. Vivaldi is known for changing the nature of the concerto. Earlier concertos were relatively different; Vivaldi was able to mark change concertos from what they once were, to what they are now.
He explored new ways of composing solo instrumental passages to be placed in between sections of orchestral music. This created contrasts in the sound and gave the soloist a chance to impress the audience. His most famous concertos aren't especially distinctive. His concertos interested many not just because of the song itself but because of the way the songs were played, how the instruments worked together and how they all became such an amazing and unique work of art. Many of Vivaldi's concertos feature one or more violins.
Many of Vivaldi's works have also included the flute, oboe bassoon and cello. Some include the guitar and mandolin, horns and trumpets and several works included unusual combinations of solo or single instruments. Today, Vivaldi is particularly founded on his 500 concertos.
Vivaldi was the first composer to regularly use the ritornello form in fast movements. He is also known to standardize the movement scheme; fast, slow, fast of the classical concerto. Vivaldi probably had no idea that he was making musical history. He wrote music very quickly and efficiently. He has many concertos that are known today however, there are many more to be discovered.
Mozart in 1777, the year of the concerto. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We all know that Mozart was an amazing pianist and composer who started his work at a very tender young age. Most of us also know that the Mozart sonata is a very important piece of musical history. However, do you know very much about these pieces? For example, did you know that these were not all pieces that he wrote specifically to play as a performer but also pieces that he wrote for the purpose of teaching his work to others? Taken as a whole, the sonatas represent a lifetime of creative work from one of the most amazing musical geniuses to have ever lived.
For those who don't know much about Mozart, what you really need to know is that he was a genius and a prodigy. He was a classical composer from the late eighteenth century who played both violin and piano. He began composing music at an age when most children are barely about to enter kindergarten. Although he died young (at the age of 35) his early start allowed him to have a lengthy career. The music that he composed throughout this career is a testament to the talent that this man held within him.
Sonate pour piano nº 6 de Mozart, « 'Durnitz' », dans Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke (1878) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The most famous thing that Mozart wrote was the Mozart sonata. This is not a single piece of composition. Instead it is a series of works known as sonatas that are each numbered sequentially. What we can hear when we listen to them is that he developed his musical abilities throughout his brief lifetime, always bringing new twists and turns to the work. Some of them are simple, light and airy whereas others are dark, dramatic and difficult to play. The circumstances that Mozart was experiencing as he went through his life are played out in the different styles that he composed within the pieces.
The majority of the reason that Mozart composed his work was because he wanted to perform it. He started performing music at a very young age and was proficient at playing multiple instruments. The music that he created was his art. The purpose of creating it was to find self-expression and then to share that expression with others by playing it on his own musical instruments. He created his music because it was his passion and his life's work to do so. He created it in order to play it. And one can assume that he was driven by an inner need to create this art; he would have probably created it even if no one would listen to it but himself.
However, the Mozart sonata was not only created so that Mozart could perform his art for others. He was also someone who was interested in teaching musical skills to other people who were interested in learning it. There are some that he wrote for the express purpose of using them as teaching tools. It takes different skills to compose a classical masterpiece than it does to compose a piece that you can use to teach music to someone. That he was able to do this so successfully says even more about Mozart's genius than does the fact that he started composing at such a young age.
The Mozart sonata is an important piece of work for a number of different reasons. It shows how much can be done with one type of musical form. The series of sonatas can be viewed together to show us the ups and downs in Mozart's personal and professional lives. And students can use the pieces individually to learn how to play the violin or piano with much of the same skill that Mozart had himself. No other body of work says as much about the artist and still provides so much function to others as do the Mozart pieces.
By Andy West
Andy West is a writer on a variety of topics, including music. Mozart was one of the greatest composer's that has ever lived, and he has left us with a large library of unforgettable pieces, including the Mozart sonata.
Antonio Vivaldi is an Italian composer and violinist. He was born March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy. He is major figure in baroque music and exercised a considerable influence on the development of the concerto. Antonio Vivaldi was the first child of his family. He was born with chest illness and wasn't expected to live long. He survived, but remained very weak throughout his life.
Antonio grew up in Venice. His father Giovanni realized that his son was very musical and taught him to play the violin at a young age. Antonio Vivaldi was trained in the priesthood in 1693 and was ordained in 1703. His first known performance was in 1696. Within a year after Vivaldi's ordination, he stopped practicing Mass. He claimed this was because of his poor health, while others believed he quit because he was forced into becoming a priest at such a young age.
Six months after he was ordained in 1703, Vivaldi was appointed as the maestro de violin at theOspedale Della Pieta, an orphanage in Venice. Their purpose at the Pieta was to give shelter and to provide education and musical training. The Pieta was famous for its music. During Vivaldi's time many girls were described as the best in Italy. The girls would put on performances to raise money for the Pieta. Vivaldi soon became well-known in Venice as a promising young composer. He spent many years at the Pieta however; in 1709 he was asked to leave. Vivaldi returned to the Pieta as a violin teacher in September of 1711. He worked for the Pieta on and off for the next 40 years.
Throughout the years he changed positions from a violin teacher, to a church composer and all the way to the director of music. Vivaldi's music was new and exciting. It was also unique in style. He liked to created vigorous rhythms. This gave his work a feeling of freshness and energy. Vivaldi was by now a great virtuoso violinist and admired among many. He began to compose different kinds of music that was becoming more popular in Venice. This music was opera.
When Vivaldi wasn't working at the Pieta, he was composing music for the theater. Vivaldi realized that he could make more money composing operas. He then decided to take a month's leave and start composing one. His first opera produced great success. From then on, Vivaldi became important in the Venetian opera world.
In 1718, Vivaldi was offered a job in the city of Mantua. For three years, Vivaldi worked as one of the Prince Philip's court musicians, composing many secular instrumental works. He left Mantua in 1720, but continued to write music for the prince. During his time in Mantua, he produced more operas. He fame had now spread beyond Venice, and was asked to compose operas for other popular cities such as Milan and Florence. Vivaldi also became popular in Rome for his violin playing and opera. He was invited to the Vatican to perform for the pope. At this time he was still working for the Pieta however; they were upset that there maestro was not there. They agreed that Vivaldi would have to write two works for them each month.
Throughout the next few centuries Vivaldi published many musical works. His goal was to entertain audiences rather than express himself in some deep personal way. However, as time went on, he grew more and more out of touch with Venice. The musical taste had changed and the people focused on other composers. Vivaldi became less popular. He did not write another opera for over four years. Audiences abroad still enjoyed Vivaldi's work, which is why he traveled so much. In 1740, Vivaldi had one final triumph at the Pieta with a grand gala concert. He then decided to leave Venice for good. He began raising money for his last journey.
Vivaldi shortly became a forgotten composer. New composers quickly took his place in the music world. Vivaldi was however, rediscovered later by J.S Bach, who composed numbers of his songs for the keyboard. Vivaldi died of internal inflammation and was buried on July 28, 1741. He suffered all his life with a chest illness. This did not stop him from composing a vast amount of music. He claimed to have written 94 operas. He also wrote secular cantatas and many church works for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. His instrumental, however, is the most admired, nearly 500 concertos. "He is known for fast movements with vigorous, tuneful themes and impassioned, lyrical slow movements."
The ending scene of Ocean's Eleven is one that is quite well-known indeed, and Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" (or, at least, one of the orchestrations of "Clair de Lune" - but we'll get there soon enough) is a piece that is instantly recognizable - not just from this movie, of course, but in just about anything where a feeling of languid reverie is desired. Not too shabby for a man who was never really seen as more than a bizarre little composer by Those That Know More About Music Than You in his time.
Photograph of Claude Debussy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Claude-Achille Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, in 1862 to a family who was non-musical but supportive of their son's burgeoning talents. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 7, and enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire at 10. As a student, he was that kid - instead of just sitting back, learning the fundamentals of harmony The Way They Were Always Taught and then futzing with them later, he insisted on adding odd harmonies and dissonances into his exercises. Even so, he did manage to win the Prix de Rome (for those who have forgotten, a competition for young composers in which the first prize was a musical education in Rome) in 1884, and studied there for three years.
In 1888, Debussy traveled to Bayreuth in what appeared to be a rite of passage for young composers by this time, and was floored by what he saw there. Though his music never featured the extreme emotional highs and lows of Wagner, he was still influenced by his unusual harmonic progressions (though in a particularly sassy moment, he did turn the beginning of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde into a big ol' joke - to great effect, no less, even including a bout of the giggles played by the piano accompaniment immediately after the quote). Around this time, he met and became friends with Erik Satie, another French composer who shared Debussy's somewhat iconoclastic musical tastes. He had several tumultuous love affairs, but as a personality, was never particularly well-known during his own lifetime (though he was able to afford a rather comfortable lifestyle). In what he saw as a rather grave insult, he was given the adjective "impressionist" as a way to describe his music; however, the similarities between his music and impressionist art can't be denied (for one, his lack of orthodox harmony leads to a sort of blurred-around-the-edges quality to his music). His music ended up being incredibly important in the grand scheme of music history exactly because of that lack of orthodox harmony - he ran with what Wagner did in terms of breaking away from classical harmonic theory and introducing things like the whole-tone and pentatonic scales, as well as bringing back the medieval modes.
Very quickly: the major and minor scales (the ones used in most music heard on a daily basis) are comprised of a pattern of whole and semitones. For instance, in C major, because there is a note in between C and D (C sharp or D flat, depending on whether your glass is half full or empty), the interval between C and D is a whole tone. There is nothing in between E and F, so that is considered a semitone. For the record, the difference between a minor scale (a natural minor scale, anyway) and a major scale is simply the placement of the semitones - in major scales, the first semitone is between the third and fourth notes and the second is between the seventh and first notes, and in minor scales, the first semitone is between the second and third notes and the second is between the fifth and sixth notes. It's this combination of whole and semitones that makes those lovely major and minor chords that almost every pop song ever uses (with the notable and distinct exception of "Single Ladies" by Beyonce, but that's an entirely different story...). The whole-tone scale, true to its name, has no semitones, and if it started on C, the rest of the scale would follow as D-E-F#-G#-A# (or Bb)-C. It has no tonal center, so to speak, and so is often used in dream sequences in movies as well as underwater scenes.
The set of medieval modes is yet another way of creating harmony. Instead of 'major' and 'minor,' there are seven modes (each named after an ethnic group that lived around ancient Greece). The names of the modes are the same now as they were then, but they have been shuffled around a bit so that the Dorian of today was not the Dorian of 300 B.C. The easiest way of visualizing the modes is to - once again - take our trusty C major scale. Conveniently enough, the C major scale is also the first mode, called Ionian. To get the other modes, all you need to do is take the C major scale - C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C - and start it on a different note in that scale. The next mode, Dorian, starts on D (unfortunately, that is the only one whose name matches its starting note), and is then D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D, and it goes on for every note in the scale. For the record, the names of the modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian (a favorite of folk singers and the 1960s in general), Aeolian, and Locrian - in that order.
Hah. "Very quickly," indeed. Hey - it's not my fault that Debussy was into all this weird musical stuff.
"Clair de Lune" itself is, like most pieces featured on this blog, part of a larger work - in this case, the Suite Bergamasque, a piano suite written in 1890 but revised and not published until 1905. A suite of music, for our purposes, is simply a collection of pieces that can each be performed alone but has some sort of unifying theme. In the case of the Suite Bergamasque, each piece is a musical illustration of a poem by Paul Verlaine - sort of like a symphonic poem minus the orchestra. "Clair de Lune" means "moon shine" (without the alcoholic connotation, of course), and the piece does really sound like a moonlit night. Much like our man Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, the piece is most well-known in its orchestrated form - having that dripping harmony played by strings oozing with pathos is much more conducive to big cinematic scenes at the Bellagio, of course - one orchestrator being Leopold Stokowski (among other things, he was the conductor in Fantasia).
So there you have it - a piece that represents quite a lot in the theory world. I hope I didn't get too pedantic with the theory; I know that's really not the most interesting thing in the world to read. But hey, the school year's starting again, and perhaps someone will Google "just how the hell do modes make sense?" and this entry will help them out. Debussy might even be a little proud of that, but then again, he was always a little bizarre.
No other work has contributed to the fame of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) like his oratorio "The Creation", however, no other expresses the inner wealth of the composer, the greatness of his art, in such an outright manner. To establish Haydn's immortality his symphonies and quartets would have already been enough, however, without "The Creation" we would not able to estimate the whole scope of his talent, because this composition does not only exceed his usual range of instrumental music, but it led the composer to entirely new ways of the musical development of thought and structure.
Haydn was one of the first composers to write a pitch change as well as a written out solo for the timpani in a symphonic movement. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The poetic voyage in "The Creation" from pole to pole of the visible and invisible world makes it an especially complex oratorio, Haydn has solved the challenging demands he had to face with incomparable confidence and added unexpected and peculiar characteristics to the poetic representation, in which also humour has its place. In Haydn's interpretation the psychic and mysterious character of the act of creation steps back behind the joyous gratitude to the creator. The music unfolds an unsurpassable inventiveness.
The composition is especially admired for its form. Only a composer like Haydn could join the immense plenitude of the subjects and scenes so clearly arranged, comprehensively and, nevertheless, impressively. The artistic freedom and beauty of "The Creation", which have inspired many artists since its first performance, will be continually considered exemplary for music.
As can be proven by his early oratorio "Il ritorno di Tobia", Haydn was mainly influenced by the Italian school, he had already encountered Händel's new art in Vienna, "The Creation" owes, but in London it had effected him with all its splendour. During his second stay, Haydn received the text for "The Creation", which a poet, unknown in the history of literature called Lidley (more recent research claims it was written anonymously) allegedly had written for Händel, who had probably rejected the text because of its length, however, it was composed in the three act order typical to Händel's oratorios. Not until his return to Vienna did Haydn decide on the composition, at the instigation of the well-known Händel-admirer Baron van Swieten, who amateurishly translated the English original himself. The composition took the three years from 1795-98, a strenuous endeavour of which he complained over and over again, both orally and in writing.
The success of the, at first, privately performed oratorio - on the 29th and 30th April at the Schwartzenberg palace, then on the 19th January and 19th March at the Viennese Burgtheater - was unequalled. "The Creation" brought to the composer constant honour, within and outside Germany it was performed over and over again and highly celebrated. Church music took over single choir parts, German "Kurrenden" (boys choirs) sang them until well over the middle of the 19-th century. Another remarkable effect is also of special interest: "The Creation" inspired the founding of many choir clubs and music institutes, among them the "Allgemeine Schweizer Musikgesellschaft". Haydn's composition entailed an increase in the performance of the oratorios by Händel, an independent German oratorio school evolved, which could finally overcome the rule of the Italian style.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) was a legendary Dutch Master organist, composer, and pedagogue of the 17th century. He is most renown for not only for his great polyphonic choral writing but also for being a founder of the North German Organ School. He is also frequently called "Maker of German organists" because of his influential teaching activities that helped propel and flourish the renown North German Organ School. His most famous students include Samuel Scheidt, Heinrich Scheidemann, Melchior Schildt, Jacob Praetorius II, and Anders Duben among many others.
Sweelinck's keyboard style was influenced mostly by two major trends: Italian vocal polyphony and English virginal composers. From Italians the composer inherited beautiful linear counterpoint writing with mostly constant number of parts in the composition. From the English virginalists, he took over their virtuosic figurational writing which consisted of frequent passages, runs, arpeggios, flourishes, diminutions and various other types of figuration.
Ballo del Granduca is one of today's favorites pieces by Sweelinck. Its authenticity is doubtful as it might have been composed by Samuel Scheidt. The title of the piece refers to the Balleto (or little dance of joyful character of the Renaissance) of the Great Duke. It is a set of theme on a dance tune and 4 variations, although the opening section is called variation 1. Variation 1 consists of many colourful and joyfully sounding chords with a characteristic long-short-short rhythms. It contains 5 sections each one with a duration of 4 measures and ends with strong closed cadences at the end of each phrase. The cadences are in G major (the tonic key of the piece), C major, A minor, G major, and G major. The first and the fifth phrases are repeated.
The second variation features many passages and runs in the right hand part with eighth or sixteenth notes rhythms while the left hand plays chordal accompaniment in two or three voices. In variation 3, the hands switch: eight note diminutions are transferred to the left hand part and the accompanimental role is given to the right hand part. The 4th variation contains most of the virtuosic sixteenth note passages and diminutions in the right hand part which are so characteristic of Sweelinck's style. The variation cycle ends (variation 5) with eight note motion in the right hand part (in double thirds and sixths). Technically speaking, this is the most challenging variation and therefore a culmination of the entire set of variations.
Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was born in a house on the Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria, on 27th January 1756, the feast of St John Chryostom. His parents were Leopold Mozart and Maria Anna Pertl. He was the last of seven children but only himself and his elder sister Nannerl, survived into adulthood.
Mozart in 1777, the year of the concerto. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Later in life the boy would choose to adopt the latin 'Amadeus' in place of the Greek Theophilus.
Wolfgang's older sister (whose was called Maria Anna but always known as 'Nannerl') showed musical promise from an early age and began to learn the harpsichord in 1758 at the age of seven. Wolfgang seemed interested in her lessons and began to learn the instrument himself at the age of four and soon picked up some of her pieces. Incredibly he had, by the time he was five, managed to compose a few simple pieces of his own with the help of his father.
Leopold Mozart was at that time Court Composer to the Archbishop of Salzburg and was an accomplished composer and well respected teacher. However he realized that Wolfgang's talents were exceptional and decided to concentrate on the musical development of his two children. He arranged for Wolfgang to perform publicly at the University in Salzburg in 1761 and over the next few years undertook a number of lengthy tours of European cities where the young Wolfgang and Nannerl would perform for the entertainment of the Royal Courts.These trips had their hazards. They could be lucrative but also highly expensive. Both Wolfgang and Nannerl were seriously ill on more than one occasion contracting both Typhoid Fever and smallpox.
Mozart's first opera, La Finta Semplice, was performed in 1769, when he was just thirteen, in the Archbishop of Salzburg's Palace.
When they finally returned to Salzburg Wolfgang spent time composing and was also appointed to the post of konzertmeister. However things changed when the old Archbishop, who was tolerant of the Mozarts extended absences,died. The new Archbishop was not so amenable.
In 1777, at Mozart's request,the Archbishop released him from his post. He also took the opportunity to dismiss Leopold at the same time, although he was fairly quickly re-instated.
Mozart set off on tour again but this time with his mother. It turned out to be disastrous. Without his fathers strict discipline Wolfgang, now 21, was more interested in enjoying himself than working. At one stage they were almost penniless and had had to sell some possessions in order to continue their journey. In July Frau Mozart became ill and died. Mozart returned to Salzburg and returned to his former position which his father had managed to secure. This didn't last long - the Archbishop dismissed Wolfgang during a trip to Vienna where they attended the celebrations of the accession of the new Emperor, Joseph II. Leopold was horrified but Wolfgang regarded it as a golden opportunity to stay in Vienna. He did reasonably well there teaching and composing. Then he shocked his father again -by announcing he was to marry. Leopold protested but to no avail and the marriage between Wolfgang and Constanze Weber took place on 4th August in St Stephens Cathedral.
The couple enjoyed relative success for a few years with Mozart's music being popular and there being no shortage of pupils. However they had an expensive lifestyle to maintain and some jealousies began to emerge from other composers. A huge blow came when on 28th May 1787, Mozart's father died.
Mozart's financial situation became worse and by 1789 he was regularly requesting loans from friends. He toured again but had little success. He was working hard and earning money but their outgoings were such that they had constant financial worries.
Emmanuel Schikanader, was an actor,singer,writer and an old friend of Mozart's.He was the manager of the Theater auf der Weiden in the suburbs of Vienna and he suggested to Mozart that he write a pantomime type opera in German which would have mass appeal and, most importantly, be profitable. Mozart agreed, probably in desperation for money and worked on it ( The Magic Flute) through the summer of 1791. It was a huge success and brought temporary relief financially.
During this time Mozart received an anonymous letter asking him to compose a requiem mass. Although it was a strange request he decided to accept as there was a significant fee offered. However Mozart became overworked and his health began to decline. He was desperate to complete the commission but was becoming exhausted and on 20th November his condition worsened so much that he took to his bed. With the help of his pupil Sussmayr he attempted in vain to finish the Requiem but got only as far as the Lachrymosa.
As Mozart's condition deteriorated he suffered from fever, vomiting and swelling. On 4th December Mozart went into a coma. In the early hours of 5th December 1791, the greatest composer the world has ever known, died.
In a final ironic twist to the tale, the emperor confirmed Mozart's appointment to the post of Kapellmeister at St Stephens, a position which would finally have given the Mozarts lasting financial security.
Despite the increasing appeal of popular music, orchestral music has flourished in the modern era, often looking to alternative influences and stylisms. Here are some of the most famous modern composers.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) drew on his Hungarian folk roots to revolutionise opera, chamber music and ballet. Regarded as a great thinker as well as a musician, his influence will remain for years to come.
Philip Glass (1937- ) started out as a minimalist with works such as 'Strung Out' but later expanded his oeuvre into symphony with operas like Satyagraha, based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Glass is active in the Free Tibet cause.
Noted for his great leaps forward in total serialism, Pierre Boulez (1925- ) is one of France's most famous modern composers. Although he hasn't composed much in recent years, his greatest work is considered to be 'Pli Selon Pli', based on the verse of the poet Mallarmé.
Most famous for his opera 'Peter Grimes', Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was the leading light of Britain's classical music scene in the twentieth century. He was above all a deeply moral artist, expressing an enmity towards violence with his acclaimed 'War Requiem'.
The most important exponent of the postmodern movement, Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), simultaneously delighted and outraged the public with operas such as 'Light' in which the members of a string quartet were suspended by helicopters above the venue they were performing at. The conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was once famously asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen. He replied that he hadn't, but he might well have trodden in some.
Another of the world's most famous composers was Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) who turned his back on Romanticism in favour of a more avant-garde, irregular style epitomised by the ballet 'Firebird'. He then reworked a number of classic compositions in a modernist, experimental manner. He is roday regarded as highly influential on French and American classical music.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) embraced the broadening media-music sphere to become a TV star, a great pianist and a conductor as well as arguably the finest American classical artist of his time. As well as writing ballets and operas he turned his hand to popular musicals, creating such hits as 'West Side Story'.
Like Bernstein, George Gershwin (1888-1937) also expanded his horizons by composing Broadway musicals such as 'Oh Kay', 'Strike Up the Band' and 'Girl Crazy'. He also absorbed the influence of the jazz that was popular in his time to write the iconic 'Rhapsody in Blue'. Gershwin's last notable composition was 'Porgy and bess' which incorporated the music and experience of African-Americans in a wholly unprecedented way. Along with the others in the list, Gershwin can truly be one of the greatest and most famous modern composers to have blessed the world.
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about famous modern composers, please visit Classical Musics Greatest Composers Site [http://classicalmusicsgreatestcomposerssite.info] for current articles and discussions.
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The Brahms clarinet quintet is one of the most popular pieces of music in the clarinet repertoire, but the connection between Brahms and the clarinet goes well beyond this one piece of music. Brahms is recognized as one of the greatest composers for the clarinet, and it was the clarinet that lured this great composer out of early retirement.
Brahms wrote for the clarinet in his earlier orchestral pieces, such as the two Serenades and his Symphonies, but his interest in the clarinet was to be expanded once he met a virtuosic clarinetist named Richard Mülfeld. Beginning his musical career as a violinist, Mülfeld soon rose to be the leading clarinet player of his generation. Becoming friends soon after being introduced, Brahms and Mülfeld would discuss the possibilities of the clarinet, with Mülfeld often playing pieces of the repertoire in his own style for Brahms.
Brahms had decided to retire from composing in the late 1880s, however he was so inspired by Mülfeld's playing that he gave up these plans, and composed the Clarinet Quintet (Op. 115) and Trio (Op. 114) in 1891, as well as two Clarinet Sonatas in F minor and E flat (Op. 120) in 1894.
The Clarinet Quintet was premiered by Mülfeld and the Joachim Quartet on December 12th, 1891. It has been considered a pinnacle of music written for clarinet ever since.
Most clarinetists will incorporate at least one of Brahms pieces for clarinet into their repertoire, with many clarinetists choosing to learn all Brahms wrote for the clarinet.
By Marc Hofkens
Written by Marc Hofkens. Please find hundreds of articles about the clarinet at 1st-clarinet-music
Lots of sheet music for the clarinet to download!
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Liszt was born in Raiding, near Sopron, on Oct. 22, 1811. While still a boy, his prodigious talents won the patronage of local Hungarian aristocrats, and his family took him to Vienna in 1821. There he studied piano with Carl Czerny and composition witdh Antonio Salieri. In 1823 Liszt was refused admission to the Paris Conservatory because of a regulation barring foreign students, but he stayed in Paris and took composition lessons from Anton Reicha. Liszt's one-act operetta Don Sanche was performed at the Academie Royale de Musique when he was only 14.
Franz Liszt, portrait by Miklós Barabás, a Hungarian painter, 1847 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After a number of dazzling European concert tours, Liszt again settled in Paris and became a well-known member of the highest social and intellectual circles. He abandoned a passing thought of becoming a priest to remain a musician, evolving a style of virtuoso piano technique and composing music to serve it. From 1835 to 1839 he lived with the Comtesse Marie d'Agoult, who wrote historical and philosophical works under the name Daniel Stern. They had one son and two daughters. One daughter, Cosima, became the wife first of pianist-conductor Hans von Bulow and later of Richard Wagner.
From 1839 Liszt again traveled throughout Europe, having become-with violinist Niccolo Paganini, with whom he was often compared-the most sought-after of all performing musicians. From 1848 he was kapellmeister to the ducal court at Weimar, where he performed and staged many new musical works-especially those of his friend and future son-in-law, Richard Wagner-and generously helped fellow musicians. When his tenure at Weimar was disturbed, in part by scandal connecting his name with that of Princess Karoline Sayn-Wittgenstein, he gave up piano playing almost completely to devote himself to composition and teaching. From 1859 to 1870 he lived chiefly in Rome, where Pope Pius IX in 1866 made him an abbe.
In 1870 Liszt returned to Weimar to conduct the music festival honoring the centennial of Beethoven's birth. In 1875 he accepted the presidency of the Hungarian Academy of Music at Budapest. His later years were spent in Weimar, Rome, and Budapest and were occupied largely with composition and with numerous pupils and hangers-on. He died in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on July 31, 1886, while attending a Wagner festival.
Works
Liszt's compositions comprise original works and transcriptions of other composers' music. His most popular original compositions are the 20 Hungarian Rhapsodies, which are in part Gypsy rather than truly Hungarian. Although written for the piano, many of the rhapsodies have been orchestrated.
Notable among Liszt's piano works are numerous Etudes; three Liebestraume (originally composed as songs); the Sonata in B Minor; three albums of short pieces called Annees de pelerinages; three Valses oubliees; and the Legends, entitled St. Francois d'Assise predicant aux oiseaux and St. Francois de Paul marchant sur les flots. His organ music includes the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H (1855) and Variations on Bach's Weinen, Klagen (1862). For solo voices, chorus, and orchestra in varying combinations, Liszt composed Hungaria, Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth, psalms, several Masses, and over 60 songs.
Liszt wrote several books on musical subjects, the best known of which are Des Bohemiens et de leur musique en Hongrie (1859; Eng. tr., The Gipsy in Music), and the partly ghostwritten Frederic Chopin (1852).
Evaluation
Although the artistic quality of much of Liszt's enormous body of compositions remains the subject of argument, his importance is unquestioned in the development of modern piano technique; in the introduction into music of the Mephistophelian element of eerie, mischievous, and elusive tempi called diablerie; in the evolution of harmony and of musical forms; and in the formation of the high romantic musical idioms of the era. He shared with Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann domination over the composition of specifically pianistic music, inventing many techniques directly related to the keyboard. He developed for orchestra the single-movement, semiprogrammatic form that he called symphonic poem, thus assisting other composers in solving problems raised by music inspired by extramusical materials.
Liszt's harmonic innovations were of prime importance as leading away from the Viennese rococo-classic style of the 18th century to the Romanticism of the 19th and the breakdown of tonality in the 20th century. He prefigured not only the whole-tone scale but also both atonality and polytonality. With Wagner he incarnated and preached the "music of the future" and advocated an almost religiously intended synthesis of the arts. Liszt left scarcely an established musical usage unquestioned or unchanged.
"True Love" was written by Cole Porter and performed by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in the 1955 film, "High Society," which also starred Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. "True Love" was the first and only gold record for Grace Kelly and was the 21st gold record for Bing Crosby. The song stayed on the charts for 22 weeks, rising as high as number 3. "True Love" was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Song in 1956, although it lost to Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera."
Cole Porter was a highly experienced songwriter when he wrote "True Love." The decades of the 1930's and 1940's were full of Cole Porter hit musicals. During the 1930's alone, Porter wrote music and lyrics for ten Broadway musicals for New York and two film musicals for Hollywood.
Cole Porter was born in Indiana in 1891 to parents who were wealthy. He received an extensive musical education, learning the piano and the violin by age six. His favorite of the two was the piano which he practiced two hours daily. By age ten he was writing words and music to original songs, and by age seventeen he published his first song.
Porter also received an impressive academic education which carried him through Yale and into Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Music. While at Yale, Porter became the president of the Glee Club and a cheer leader, and, among the 300 songs he wrote while at Yale, he wrote two football fight songs that are still played today. Despite being the roommate of Dean Acheson, the future Secretary of State under President Truman, Porter dropped out of Harvard Law School to continue with his music education.
After World War I, Porter moved to Europe where he met and married Linda Lee Thomas, a beautiful and rich divorcee and a descendant of the Lees of Virginia. Their relationship was a loving, supportive, lifelong partnership. Cole Porter was gay and had numerous male interests which Linda had agreed to allow. However, the marriage was at times unstable when Porter's gay interests threatened the couple's carefully maintained social appearances.
Following their marriage in 1919 in Paris, the Porters lived an extravagant lifestyle in Europe through the 1920's. Their palatial home in Paris had floor to ceiling mirrors and zebra skin upholstery. Later, they moved into a famous palace in Venice where their lush parties included fifty gondoliers, circus acrobats, and a ballet company. They also built a night club outside their palace which accommodated 100 guests.
Back in New York, Porter's first few contributions to Broadway musicals were poorly received. However, by the end of the 1920's Porter gained recognition, and through the 1930's and 1940's he was one of the brightest stars on Broadway. He worked excessively and tirelessly on his musical productions and spent time in both New York and Hollywood.
In 1937 a terrible horse riding accident crushed both of Porter's legs. As the story goes, while waiting for hours for help to arrive he composed the lyrics to a verse of his song, "At Long Last Love." The accident left him crippled and in pain for the rest of his life. He underwent more than 30 leg operations until his right leg was finally amputated in 1958. Following his leg amputation, Cole Porter dropped out of music production until his death in 1964.
In 1955 Cole Porter wrote the lyrics and music for "High Society," starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong. The film was a musical remake of the classic 1940 award winning movie, "The Philadelphia Story," which won a Best Actor Oscar for James Stewart and which also starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. "High Society" featured nine musical numbers, plus there were five additional songs written by Porter which were not included in the movie.
"High Society" was one of MGM's greatest musicals. Grace Kelly was the movie's luminous star, and the romantic exchange with Bing Crosby in "True Love" was one of the movie's highlights.
Here are the lyrics to Cole Porter's "True Love."
Sometimes wind blows
a new moon moves at last alone
feeling far above her
oh how lucky we are
while I give to you
would you give to me
true love true love
so on and on it will always be
true love true love
for you and I have a guardian angel
on high with nothing to do
but to give to you as you give to me
love forever true
love forever true
for you and I have a guardian angel
on high with nothing to do
but to give you as you give to me
love forever true
love forever true
give me more true love oh yeah
true love true love
true love true love
got to give me your oh yeah oh yeah
true love true love
true love true love
for you and I have a guardian angel
on high with nothing to do
but to give to you as you give to me
love forever true
love forever true
love forever true love.
By Garry Gamber
Garry Gamber is a public school teacher and entrepreneur. He writes articles about politics, real estate, health and nutrition, and internet dating service
Article Source: EzineArticles
Haydn was one of the first composers to write a pitch change as well as a written out solo for the timpani in a symphonic movement. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Austrian world, to which Haydn was born, in 1732, was beginning a new life, free from foreign Turkish oppressors, full of religious zeal, and expanding boundaries, living under the talented rule of the Habsburgs. Charles VI, reigning emperor, was a fine violinist, harpsichordist, and operatic composer.
The class system especially poignant at this time, gave little opportunity for poor peasants to rise in stature and riches. However, Joseph Haydn, born to a peasant family, achieved recognition and wealth uncommon, not only to those of his social rank, but also of composers and musicians of the time. Haydn's father, Mathias, was a wheelwright and his mother, Anna Maria Koller, had been a cook in the Harrach Castle. Haydn was the second of twelve children born to the wheelwright and his wife. Two of Haydn's brothers, Johann Michael and Johann Evangelist also became musicians.
As a young boy, Haydn was taught to love music; his father played the harp and had been granted the gift of a beautiful tenor voice, and his mother also enjoyed singing. Haydn went to the school rector at Haimburg and there studied for two years reading and writing, catechism, singing, wind and string instruments. At the age of eight he was enlisted to become a pupil in the Choir School at St. Stephen's Cathedral, where he continued his musical studies, though no instruction in musical theory was given. At sixteen his voice began to break, and one of Haydn's practical jokes, cutting off the pigtails of a fellow classmate, served as an excuse for the director to dismiss him from the choir. Thus without food, money, clothing, or home, Haydn was forced into the world to work as a freelance musician.
As a freelance musician, Haydn played for dances, arranged compositions for a variety of instruments, taught music for a meager amount, served as an accompanist, composed, and took part in serenades. "Like Italy, old Austria had a great fondness for open-air music at night, and many musicians were needed to fill the continuous demand. Haydn made the best use of this fashion. He earned a little money this way and drew from the rich well of Viennese fold music."
House of Joseph Haydn in Vienna, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Through the money he earned as a freelance performer and through the graciousness of Anton Buchholz, who lent him unconditionally one hundred-fifty florins, Haydn was able to take a room and set about filling in the gaps in his theoretical knowledge. He studied Johann Josheph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum, Johann Mattheson's Der vollkommene Kapellmeister, David Kellner's Unterricht im Generalbass, and works by Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach.
In 1758, Haydn became Kammer-compositeur to the Bohemian Count, Karl Joseph Franz von Morzin. This was a social and financial step forward, he was now regularly paid, a sum of two hundred florins a year, besides receiving free board and lodging. Haydn's great fortune was not over, as an offer was given to become vice-conductor, and later becoming head conductor, at the court of Gregorius Joseph Werner, Prince Esterhazy, in Einstadt. Haydn readily accepted this new post.
The Esterhazy's stood at the head of Hungary's powerful nobility. Haydn's duties included not only composing nearly all the music presented at the court, be he was also in charge of the orchestral members, making sure they wore clean, white stockings and tidy uniforms, and seeing that they did not get into mischief. This orchestra consisted, in the beginning, of five violins, one cello, one double bass, one flute, two oboes, two bassoons, and two horns. While under the service of Esterhazy court, Haydn was given freedom to experiment with new musical ideas of form and harmony. He developed a style of motivic development, tone painting, independence of instrumental lines, and use of "daring keys," such as B Major, F-sharp Major, and C-sharp Major.
Haydn was a prolific composer with 83 string quartets, 104 symphonies; 52 piano sonatas; many concertos for piano (15), violin (13), horn (2), trumpet (1), flute (1), and cello (2); 35 piano trios; more than 175 divertimentos; 19 operas; 14 masses; part songs and canons for voice; and 5 oratorios. Haydn's oratorios have been a subject discussed, dissected, and speculated upon by many scholars, most particularly The Seasons and The Creation.
Haydn's compositions were some of the most beautiful written during the Golden Age of Music.
