Composers
Name two facts about Franz Liszt.
Born in Hungary.
Studied in Vienna where he met Franz Schubert and Beethoven.
At the age of 19, Liszt was already considered to be a virtuoso piano player.
He followed the work on Paganini and was overwhelmed by his virtuosity as a violin player.
Liszt was determined to be the Paganini for piano.
He left the stage for some time and practiced 8-12 hours a day.
He was considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.
Name two facts about Hector Berlioz.
1803-1869
French romantic composer
Creator of new orchestral sounds
Studied at the Paris Conservatory
Analyzed musical scores, haunted the opera house, and composed.
He memorized many operas and became furious if a conductor tampered with the orchestration.
The fiery young fanatic would stand during a performance and shout, “Not two flutes you scoundrels! Two piccolos! Two piccolos!
Fell in love with Shakespeare's plays and fell in love with a Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson.
Composed Symphonie Fantastique
Name two facts about Gustav Mahler
1860-1911
Austrian composer
Open new realms of orchestral sound that influenced composers of the early 20th century.
Born in Bohemia.
His musical environment included Bohemian peasant songs and dances and marches played by a local military band. This influence later had an impact on his style.
At the age of 20, he became a conductor and directed musical comedies.
At the age of 28, he became the conductor of the Budapest Orchestra.
His ambition was to become the conductor of the Vienna Opera, but he was Jewish. He converted to Roman Catholicism and became the director of the orchestra.
Name two facts about Franz Schubert.
Died at an early age.
Composed over 600 pieces
One of his most famous pieces was Erlkonig (The Erlking, 1815):
Name two facts about Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
1840-1893
Considered to be the most famous Russian composer.
Came from a small town of Votkinsk and later his family moved to St. Petersburg.
After he graduated college, he became a government clerk and studied music theory when he was twenty-one.
He finally went to the St. Petersburg Conservatory-First college level music school in Russia.
He became a professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory for twelve years.
He composed a symphony, an opera, and a tone poem.
By the age of thirty he composed his first orchestral work, Romeo and Juliet.
Name two facts about Clara Schumann.
One of the earliest women composers.
Child prodigy of piano.
Married to Robert Schumann.
She was good friends with Johannes Brahms.
She later edited Schumann’s works and performed them: “I feel I have a mission to perform beautiful works, Robert’s above all.”
Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty, 1841)
Name to facts about Antonin Dvorak.
1841-1904
One of the leading composers of Czech national music.
He infused his symphonies and chamber music with the spirit of Bohemian folk song and dance.
His father was a poor innkeeper in a small town near Prague.
After working for his father, he left home at the age of sixteen to study music in Prague.
He was not a well known composer until the German composer Brahms recognized his works and talked highly of him.
From this time on, he became a famous composer and his fame spread.
In 1892, he went to New York and became the director of the National Convention of Music.
He encouraged Americans to write nationalistic music and had become interested in Native American melodies and African American spirituals. He learned about this type of music from Henry T. Burleigh, an African American composer and baritone.
“Found a secure basis for a new national musical school. America can have her own music, a fine music growing up from her own soil and having its own character-the natural voice of a free and great nation.”
Name two facts about Fredric Chopin.
Called the poet of the piano.
He was one of the only composers that mostly composed for piano.
Grew up in Warsaw and had a Polish mother and French Father.
After graduating from Warsaw University, he traveled to Austria and Germany playing his own compositions.
He expressed his love of Poland in Mazurkas(A lively Polish dance) and polonaises (Type of slow polish dance)
Name two facts about Johannes Brahms.
1833-1897
He was considered to be a romantic composer that breathed new life into classical form.
Born in Hamburg, Germany where his father made a living as a string bass player.
At 13, he studied music theory, composition, and piano during the day and played dance music in cafes.
Brahms had his first tour when he was 20 and this led him to meet two of the greatest composers-Liszt and Schumann.
Liszt was not a very helpful contact for him. Brahms, a product of a conservative musical education, was repelled by what he considered the bombast and lack of form in Liszt’s music.
Schumann was a very helpful contact. He was to shape the course of Brahms artistic and personal life.
Name two facts about Felix Mendelssohn.
1809-1847
Born in Germany
Romantic composer whose music was deeply rooted in classical tradition.
Child prodigy of piano. At the age of nine he was an amazing pianist; by thirteen he had composed symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and vocal works.
At the age of seventeen, he composed an overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare.
Name two facts about Richard Wagner.
1813-1883
Powerful impact on music during his time.
During the last few decades of the 19th century, his operas and artistic philosophy influenced not only musicians, but poets, painters, and playwrights.
He had such a big influence that he built his own opera house in Germany solely for performances of his music and operas.
At 15, he was overpowered by the power of Beethoven's music and decided to become a composer.
He never played an instrument.
When he was 17, he attended Leipzig University. While he was there, he got in trouble with drinking, gambling, and debt.
He ran up so many bills that he was confined in a debt prison for some time.
Wagner returned to Germany and wrote his opera Rienzi which became a huge success.
He spent 6 years with the Dresden Orchestra becoming a famous composer and conductor. “When he conducts, he is almost beside himself with excitement. Every sinew in his body speaks. His whole appearance is of arrogance and despotism personified. He demanded his orchestra to play with enormous dynamics and rhythmic freedom.
In 1848, Wagner’s life became increasingly difficult, he picked up gambling again and owed more than his annual salary.