Showing posts with label Composer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Composer. Show all posts

Sunday, May 22, 2022

May 22: Richard Wagner, German composer

BORN MAY 22:

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer mainly known for his operas. Thanks to Bugs Bunny and others, when most people think of opera they think of large women with horned helmets: that's a parody of Wagner. Much of his work centers on German legends and folklore; the complexity of his music is exhibited in his Tristan und Isolde (about ill-fated lovers), sometimes considered the beginning of modern music. His other works include Tannhauser, about a knight and minstrel whose music violates the rules of courtly (Platonic) love; Lohengrin, about another knight, a mysterious one, who arrives in a boat drawn by a swan to save a damsel in distress; Parsifal, based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's 13th-century account of that knight's quest for the Holy Grail; and above all his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungs), a masterful blending of stories from Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied ("Song of the Nibelungs," the adventures of one Siegfried). Wagner's last years were turbulent, but his influence can be seen in many of the arts of the 20th century, including philosophy, literature, the visual arts, and theater. Wagner's most important stage works continue to be performed at a festival run by his descendants.

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Saturday, May 7, 2022

May 7: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer

BORN MAY 7:

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a--some would say the--Russian composer. He suffered from depression and experienced a number of personal crises: his mother's early death; the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein; and the loss of his patron of 13 years. He was a closeted homosexual, which may also have added to the tensions of his life in Russia of the 19th century. He is supposed to have died suddenly of cholera at 53; some see a greater likelihood of an intentional death. His unmistakably Russian style is expressed in one of my personal favorites, The 1812 Overture. There are also the ballets Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty; the opera Eugene Onegin; and shorter pieces Marche Slave and Capriccio Italien in A.

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Friday, April 29, 2022

Apr. 29: Duke Ellington, American jazz composer and performer

BORN APRIL 29:

(Edward Kennedy) "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974) was an American jazz composer and performer who fronted his own jazz orchestra for half a century. Some of jazz's biggest names were associated with his work, including singers Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, saxophonist Johnny Hodges, composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, trumpeter Cootie Williams, and many more. He performed on radio, in film ,and on TV, touring Europe and crossing color lines. His compositions (too many to number) include "Take the "A" Train"; "In a Sentimental Mood"; "Mood Indigo"; "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"; "Cocktails for Two"; "Black and Tan Fantasy"; " Solitude"; and many more. Nearly 80 of his performances hit the charts, and he earned 14 Grammy awards between 1959 and 2000 (three of them posthumous) out of a total 24 nominations. One of these was a Lifetime Achievement Award, and nine of his recordings (seven singles and two albums) are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

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Monday, March 21, 2022

Mar. 21: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer

BORN MARCH 21:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) German Baroque composer and musician. In "Top Ten" lists of the greatest composers of classical music, either Beethoven or Bach will likely be in the #1 slot. (If not, look to Mozart.) Composing for orchestra, keyboard, or voice, J. S. Bach (there were many other Bachs) was born in a musical family and orphaned at age 10. In the manner of a true genius, he often found it difficult to get along with his employers. He died of complications from eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Among his more popular shorter pieces are "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," Air on the G String, "Sheep May Safely Graze"; for longer listening try The Brandenburg Concertos; The Goldberg Variations; St. Matthew Passion; and The Well-Tempered Clavier. On the organ, the best is Toccata and Fugue in D minor. A true giant.

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Monday, March 7, 2022

Mar. 7: Maurice Ravel, French composer

BORN MARCH 7:

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor who shot to popular acclaim when his Bolero was used as the soundtrack for the Blake Edwards comedy 10 (which also bought Bo Derek her 15 minutes of fame). The piece was still under copyright at the time, and generated an estimated $1 million in royalties for Ravel's estate, making him the best-selling classical composer 40 years after his death. Among his other notable works is the orchestration for Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, originally a piano suite. He was also among the first composers to recognize the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public, and was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Friday, March 4, 2022

Mar. 4: Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer

BORN MARCH 4:

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher, impresario, and Roman Catholic priest (active for only 18 months, perhaps due to poor health, but he remained ordained the rest of his life). Born in Venice, and regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, he was influential across Europe during his lifetime, influencing among others Johann Sebastian Bach. His best-known piece is a suite of four violin concertos called the Four Seasons. Within a year of his death he moved to Vienna; his patron died shortly after his arrival, and he shortly after that, in poverty. His works are still being rediscovered, literally, one as recently as 2006.

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Friday, December 17, 2021

Dec. 17: Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer

BORN DECEMBER 17:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) prototypical German composer best known for his Fifth and Ninth Symphonies (the other seven are pretty good, too); Concertos (Emperor); sonatas (Moonlight, Pathetique); opera Fidelio; "Fur Elise." In art, there's Picasso; in science, Einstein; in music, it's Beethoven.

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Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Nov. 24: Scott Joplin, American musician and composer

BORN NOVEMBER 24:

Scott Joplin (1868-1917) African-American composer and pianist known as the "King of Ragtime" for writing over 100 ragtime pieces. He was brought out of relative obscurity by new recordings of his work in the early 1970s, and also partially due to the use of his "The Entertainer" and other pieces by composer Marvin Hamlisch for the 1973 film The Sting. His opera Treemonisha was produced in full for the first time in 1972, leading to a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

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