VE on Music Theory Print

Veena Kuppayyar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Veena Kuppayyar (1798–1860) was an exponent of Veena and a composer of Carnatic music. He was a student of the famous composer Tyagaraja. Kuppayar composed his songs in Telugu language and has left behind a number of popular kritis. Early life Veena Kuppayya was born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Tiruvottiyur, near Chennai. His father Sambamoorti Sastri was a famous vocalist as well as a veena player. Kuppayyar had his initial training from his father. Later he continued his musical training under Tyagaraja and learnt the art of music composition from him. Following the steps of his guru, Kuppaiyer has composed two groups of Pancharathnams – Kālahasti Pancharathna kritis and Vénkatésha Pancharathna kritis. The Panchrathna kritis are in Telugu and bears his nom de plume “Gópāla-dāsa” – his family deity, Sri Venugopala Swamy. These Panchrathna kritis also have been bedecked with beautiful Chittaswarams - solfa passages. Kuppayyar later moved to Chennai and sought the patronage of the local ruler Kovur Sundara Mudaliar. Kuppayyar trained a lot of disciples, who carried forward the legacy of Tyagaraja, helping to spread his krithis. Veena Kuppayar was a talented veena player. He also le

Vehnee Saturno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Venancio Saturno (born April 1, 1954), better known as Vehnee Saturno, is a Filipino composer, songwriter and record producer. He found success in 1982 by winning first place at the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival for the song “Isang Dakot”. Early life Saturno was born in Iloilo City on April 1, 1954, to a carpenter and a housewife who struggled together with his nine siblings with poverty which inspired him to write songs. His dream was to be a journalist, but due to his family’s financial situation he was not able to finish his studies. He trained at the Philippine Air Force after high school Music career In 1982, his composition “Isang Dakot” was interpreted by Sonia Singson which won the Grand Prize at the Metropop. In 1983, “Be My Lady” was interpreted by Pedrito Montaire and became a finalist at the Metropop; this song was his first major big hit when it was recorded by Martin Nievera and was released under Vicor Music. His songs “Be My Lady”, “Sana Kahit Minsan”, “Mula sa Puso” and “‘Till My Heartaches End”, “Nag-iisang Ikaw”, “Sana Kahit Minsan” became hits in the Philippines. In the late 1990s, Saturno produced hits for female artists Jessa Zaragoza (for her album Just

Veljo Tormis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Veljo Tormis (7 August 1930 – 21 January 2017) was an Estonian composer, regarded as one of the great contemporary choral composers and one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Estonia. Internationally, his fame arises chiefly from his extensive body of choral music, which exceeds 500 individual choral songs, most of it a cappella. The great majority of these pieces are based on traditional ancient Estonian folksongs (regilaulud), either textually, melodically, or merely stylistically. His composition most often performed outside Estonia, Curse Upon Iron (Raua needmine, 1972), invokes ancient Shamanistic traditions to construct an allegory about the evils of war. Some of his works were banned by the Soviet government, but because folk music was fundamental to his style most of his compositions were accepted by the censors. More recently, Tormis’ works have been performed and recorded by Tõnu Kaljuste with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and others. In the 1990s, Tormis began to receive commissions from some a cappella groups as the King’s Singers and the Hilliard Ensemble. Tormis famously said of his settings of traditional melodies and verse: “It is not

Venanzio Rauzzini

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Venanzio Rauzzini (19 December 1746 – 8 April 1810) was an Italian castrato, composer, pianist, singing teacher and concert impresario. He is said to have first studied singing under a member of the Sistine Chapel Choir. He was a cantante soprano at the Socio Accademico of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He studied with Giuseppe Santarelli in Rome. Though unlikely, it has been suggested that Rauzzini may not in fact have been a castrato, but rather had an endocrine condition that prevented his voice from breaking, hence his many affairs as he was thought to be “safe”. That said, scholars such as Paul Rice and Brianna Robertson-Kirkland reject this idea. Life Rauzzini was born in Camerino. He made his opera debut in 1765 at the Teatro Valle in Rome portraying one of the female characters in Niccolò Piccinni’s opera Il finto astrologo. He sang at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice in 1766, after which he performed at the Munich Hofoper in 1766–1767. He next sang at the court at Vienna in 1767 where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “reacted with delight when he heard Rauzzini singing and offered him the role of primo uomo in his Lucio Silla (1772), in Milan, before composing the motet Ex

Veniamin Basner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Veniamin Efimovich Basner (, 1 January 1925 in Yaroslavl – 3 September 1996 in St Petersburg) was a Russian composer. He was recognized by the Soviet Union as a People’s Artist of Russia and a State prize-winner. An asteroid called 4267 Basner, discovered in 1971, was named in his honour. He was a member of the St Petersburg Union of Composers. Early life and initial success Veniamin Basner had been playing the violin from the age of six and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1949 with the violin as his principal instrument. Basner made his first experiments in composition at the age of fifteen. In 1955 he was a prize-winner, for his Second String Quartet, at the International Composers’ Competition in Warsaw. Basner and Shostakovich Veniamin Basner, while still a student, met Dmitri Shostakovich, under whose advice his formation as a professional composer was furthered. They became personal friends. Much later, Basner and Weinberg were amongst the six friends of Shostakovich (the others being Kara Karayev, Yury Levitin, Karen Khachaturian, and Boris Tishchenko) who rejected the controversial Testimony (Свидетельство), said to be the “authenticated memoirs of Dmitri Shost

Vera Baeva

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vera Baeva (; 18 March 1930 − 16 June 2017) was a Bulgarian writer and composer. She was born in Burgas and studied at the Sofia State Academy of Music with Dimiter Nenov, Marin Goleminov and Lyubomir Pipkov. After graduating in 1953, Baeva worked as a choral conductor for Radio Sofia and as a pianist, performing with various ensembles and also the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She taught voice from 1982 to 1988 at the State Academy of Music and chamber music at the Open Society Foundation from 1993. Baeva wrote two books of short stories. Works Baeva composed over 200 vocal, instrumental and orchestras works. Selected compositions include: *Mothers’ Prayer for soprano, flute, trumpet, snare-drum, violoncello, double bass and piano *Pirin, cantata (1954) *I Bow for soloist, reader, mixed choir and orchestra (1975) *My Homeland for choir and orchestra (1985) *Butterflies, ritual music based on traditional tunes for female voices choir, flute, double bass, piano, organ and percussion *Revelation, cycle of four songs for female voices choir, flute and piano after lyrics by St. Pencheva (1981) *Tangra, ritual dance for male voices choir, flute, double bass, piano and per

Vera Brady Shipman

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vera Brady Shipman (May 26, 1889 – February 11, 1932) was an American composer, journalist, talent manager, and concert promoter, based in Kansas and Chicago. Early life Vera Corinne Brady was born in Salina, Kansas, the daughter of John Leeford Brady and Julia Mary Simons Hoinville. Her father was a newspaper editor in Kansas, and later in Oregon and Idaho. He also served in both houses of the Kansas Legislature, between 1904 and 1913. Her uncle was James H. Brady, Governor of Idaho. Her mother lived in Chicago. Vera Brady attended Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago, and the Cosmopolitan School of Music. Career Shipman taught music and played in churches as a young woman. She played piano accompaniment for various vocalists and instrumentalists, including singer Permelia Gale and cellist Vera Poppe. She wrote music, including a setting of “Po’ Li’l Lamb” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, a song sung by her client Rosa Olitzka in concerts. She composed the music for Twenty Little Songs for Children (1914), with lyrics by Francesca de Capdevila (who later married cellist Pablo Casals). Shipman was an arts journalist. She wrote for Radio Digest, Social Progress, Musical America, and was

Vera McKenna Clayton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vera McKenna Clayton (née Vera McKenna; February 18, 1896 – October 6, 1978) was an American music teacher, clubwoman, and community member in Santa Cruz from the 1920s to the 1950s. Early life Vera McKenna was born in Oakland, California, on February 18, 1896, the daughter of James J. McKenna (1870–1909) and Nancy Ann Laughton (1871–1940). She was a member of the Monday Musical Club and the Santa Cruz Woman’s Club. Legacy The Vera McKenna Clayton Scrapbook Collection is at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. References

Verdi Karns

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Verdi Karns (April 30, 1882 – April 5, 1925), after 1908 Verdi Karns Sturgis, was an American composer of popular tunes. Early life Verdi Karns was born in Bluffton, Indiana, the daughter of Lewis Henry Karns and Olive Covert Karns. She was named for the composer Giuseppe Verdi. Her father was a marble cutter. Her mother died in 1884, when Verdi Karns was a small child. She was raised by an aunt and uncle after her father remarried and moved to Kansas. Karns graduated from Bluffton High School in 1901. She attended a music conservatory in Indianapolis; she played piano and violin. Career Karns began publishing her own compositions while she was still in high school. Works by Karns included “Giuseppe March” (1898), “Kentucky Rag” (1898), “Bluffton Carnival Rag” (1899), “Ragamuffin” (1899), “Blufftonian Waltzes” (1900), and “Yo’ Got to Hab a License or Yo’ Can’t Get In” (1905, lyrics by Laverne Brown). Personal life Verdi Karns married her neighbor, lawyer Raymond R. Sturgis, in 1908. They had a daughter Olive Diana Sturgis, born in 1912. The couple moved to the American Southwest for health reasons, settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then in Phoenix, Arizona. Verdi Karns Sturg

Verdina Shlonsky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Verdina Shlonsky (; January 22, 1905 – February 20, 1990) was an Israeli composer, pianist, publicist and painter. Biography Verdina (Rosa) Shlonsky was born to a Hasidic Jewish family in Kremenchuk in the Russian Empire, the youngest of six children. (The Hebrew root of the name Verdina is וורד “vered” or “rose”.) The family immigrated to Palestine in 1923, but she remained in Vienna to continue her music education. From there, she moved to Berlin, where she studied with pianists Egon Petri and Artur Schnabel. In Paris, she studied composition with Nadia Boulanger, Edgard Varèse and Max Deutsch. In 1925, she and her sister a successful opera singer Judith Shlonsky (Nina Valery), who had returned to Europe, married two brothers: Sigmund and Alexander Sternik. Both couples soon divorced. Her own date of immigration to Palestine is not clear; evidence suggests that she visited Palestine several times since 1929, before finally settling in 1944 or 1945. Upon settling in Palestine, she joined the faculty of the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. Among her noted compositions were “Hebrew Poem” (1931) and “Quartet for Strings”, which won an award at the 1948 Béla Bartók Competition in Budapest.

Veronika Krausas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Veronika Judita Krausas (born 1963) is a Canadian composer who lives and works in the United States. Biography She was born in Sydney, Australia but grew up in Canada after the age of four. Her diplomas in music education and performance were completed at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario. She also completed a Bachelor of Commerce (marketing) degree at the University of Calgary (1985), a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Toronto (1991), a master’s degree at McGill University in Montreal (1995), and a doctorate from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (2001), where she received the outstanding DMA in Composition award. In 2004 she won the Theodore Front Prize for her Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, one of the “Search for New Music awards” presented by The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California at the Thornton School of Music. She is also the Assistant Director of Undergraduate music theory at USC, on the advisory board of Jacaranda Music, an associate director of The Industry, a pre-concert lecturer at the Los Angeles Philharmoni

Verse Simmonds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maurice “Verse” Simmonds is a Virgin Islander singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. Based in Los Angeles and raised in the Virgin Islands, he moved to the United States after high school and formed the production duo the Jugganauts (with Shama “Sak Pase” Joseph) in the 1990s. The duo has since co-written and produced songs such as “Man Down” by Rihanna and “Who Gon Stop Me” by Kanye West and Jay-Z, both of which charted prominently on Billboard. Simmonds began recording as a lead artist in 2007, and signed with Def Jam to release his 2011 single “Boo Thang” (featuring Kelly Rowland), which peaked at number 44 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. He has also released several full-length mixtapes, which contain guest appearances from Young Jeezy, Akon, Snoop Dogg, and Travis Porter. Under his birth name or as Verse Simmonds he has co-written several hit R&B songs, such as “Confident” by Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper, and “New Flame” by Chris Brown, Usher and Rick Ross. The latter earned Simmonds his first Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Song in 2015. Early life and music Maurice Simmonds was born in Puerto Rico. Raised in the Virgin Is

Vesna Cáceres

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vesna Vaško (born 5 May 1971), known by the stage name Vesna Cáceres, is a Czech composer, singer, and accordionist. Background Vesna Vaško was born in Croatia in a Czech-Slovenian family. She has lived in Prague since 1990. Education She studied the accordion in Croatia. In 1990, she came to study musicology at Charles University in Prague. In addition to musicology, she studied singing at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, sang in the vocal sextet Prestissimo with Big Band of Radio Prague. In 1993, she represented the Czech Republic in the World Youth Choir. , Nextera, 2004 * Aquarela do Brasil, Vesna, 2008 * Vzpomínky na Jadran, 2008 * Le bal des fleurs, Vesna, 2013 Theatre * Nepřerušená píseň (2004) * Tonka Šibenice (2004) – Divadlo v Řeznické * Manželské vraždění (2005) – Divadlo Na Jezerce * Zlomatka (2006) – Divadlo v Řeznické * Čtyři polohy a jedna Vesna (2006) – Klub Lávka * Krvavá svatba (2010) – Divadlo Rokoko References

Vexi Salmi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Veikko Olavi “Vexi” Salmi (; 21 September 1942 – 8 September 2020) was a Finnish lyricist. He wrote the lyrics to numerous popular songs for several prominent artists, including Irwin Goodman, Jari Sillanpää, and Katri Helena. His career as a lyricist began in the 1960s, and continued until his death. During his prolific career, he wrote the lyrics for over 4,000 songs, more than 2,400 of which have been recorded. He was 77 years old at the time. Popular lyrical works During his career, Salmi has written and translated lyrics for hundreds of songs, including several popular hits, some of which are listed below. * “Seine” (Tarja Lunnas) * “Rentun ruusu” (Irwin Goodman) * “Surun pyyhit silmistäni” (Kirka) * “Elämän valttikortit” (Ahti Lampi) * “Ruusu joka vuodesta” (Reijo Taipale) * “Sydämeeni joulun teen” (Vesa-Matti Loiri) * “Kaduilla tuulee” (Jari Sillanpää) * “Ei tippa tapa” (Goodman) * “St. Pauli ja Reeperbahn” (Goodman) * “Poing poing poing” (Goodman) * “Ryysyranta” (Goodman) * “Lievestuoreen Liisa” (Goodman) * “Huilumies” (Loiri) * “Eviva Espanja” (Marion Rung) * “Mahtava peräsin ja pulleat purjeet” (Solistiyhtye Suomi) * “Vaskikellot” (Antti Huovila) * “Yksinäinen pitkä tie”