WI on Music Theory Print

Widens Pkolo Dorsainville

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

Widens Dorsainville, known professionally as Pkolo is a Haitian producer, actor and composer record executive and artist. His production work includes the movie A United Kingdom Early life Dorsainville developed an interest in music production during his time at Elizabeth High School class, where he experimented with creating beats, singing, and rapping. Following high school, he collaborated with his brother and others to establish a local recording studio, where he worked on music projects and collaborated with artists including Foushee and Kanis. In 2010, Dorsainville had the opportunity at a studio call Tainted Blue Studio located in Times Square, Manhattan to work on the song You Be Killin Em with Fabolous where he contributed as an engineer and co-producer on three tracks for Fabolous’s mixtape “rIP to the competition.’ Music career Dorsainville has worked in music production and composition, contributing to various projects in television and film. He has received industry certifications including gold certifications for his work. In interviews, he has discussed his approach to music and creative development. Awards Filmography TV and Film Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts

Wiktor Łabuński

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

Wiktor Łabuński (April 4, 1895 – January 26, 1974), was a Polish-American pianist, conductor and composer. He came to the United States in 1928, where he made his debut as a pianist at Carnegie Hall. He was head of the piano department of Kraków Conservatory of Music in Krakow, Poland; he taught at the Nashville Conservatory of Music; he was a professor and director at the Memphis College of Music; and was the director of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, where he eventually retired from. Well known for his lecture-recitals, he had a repertory of more than 1500 works. His own compositions are in a conventional style. Further reading ;Articles written by Lubonski * * External links *Łabuński talks about his relationship with Ignacy Jan Paderewski *Remembering Wiktor Łabuński at Polish Music Center Newsletter

Wila Frank

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

Wila Frank, ( ; born Wilhelmina Frankzerda; April 2, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer known for her ethereal and cinematic folk music. Her debut album, Black Cloud, has been lauded for its emotional depth and intricate compositions. Career Debut Album: Black Cloud Frank released her debut album, Black Cloud, in 2023. The album explores themes of loss, resilience, and human connection, combining lush instrumentation with poignant lyrics. Tracks such as “Black Cloud” and “Oh, Fate” have been highlighted for their haunting melodies and evocative storytelling. She cites nature as both a spiritual and artistic influence, often describing her creative process as a “religion of nature.” Paper Wings In addition to her solo work, Frank is one half of the Americana duo Paper Wings. The duo, blends modern and traditional folk influences, and has released multiple albums and been praised for honoring folk traditions while crafting a contemporary sound. Discography Solo *2023: Black Cloud *2024: Agua Verde EP Paper Wings *2017: Paper Wings *2019: Clementine *2024: Listen to the World Spin Critical reception Wila Frank’s debut album, Black Cloud, has garnered atten

Wilfred Bendall

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

Wilfred Ellington Bendall (22 April 1850–16 June 1920) was an English composer, pianist, conductor, arranger and teacher. After musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Leipzig Conservatoire, he pursued a varied career, based mainly in London. He composed several operettas, and a quantity of choral music and song. His other musical activities included conducting in the theatre and concert hall, playing piano accompaniments for recitals, serving as secretary to the composer Arthur Sullivan, and holding a professorship at the Guildhall School of Music. He died in London, aged seventy. Life and career Bendall was born at Watts’ Terrace, Old Kent Road, London, on 22 April 1850. He was the second son and fifth of nine children of Robert Smith Bendall and his wife, Elizabeth Kay, née Holmes. He was the only member of the family to pursue a musical career. and from January 1872 he spent two years at the Leipzig Conservatoire, where he was a student of Carl Reinecke, Oscar Paul and Salomon Jadassohn. After returning to London Bendall performed as accompanist to singers and instrumentalists, played in chamber ensembles, and conducted. By 1887 he was conducting for Ric

Wilfred Heaton

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

NOTOC John Wilfred Heaton (2 December 1918 – 20 May 2000) was an English composer, conductor and teacher, best known for his brass band music and for his long association with the Salvation Army. Early career Born in Sheffield into a Salvation Army family, Heaton began piano lessons at the age of eight, gaining his LRAM performance diploma at 19. He also learned the cornet. While working at Cocking & Pace, a brass instrument manufacturing and repair shop in Sheffield, he began composing music for brass bands. He married Olive Mary Fisher (also of the Salvation Army) in 1941 and there were three daughters. During the war Heaton served with the Royal Air Force. He composed music for the Salvation Army throughout his career, but their requirement for simple, practical music became somewhat at odds with his broader compositional ambitions. His initial studies were with the Salvation Army bandmaster and composer George Marshall. Later, in the 1950s, Heaton received tuition from Mátyás Seiber. Examples include the march Praise (which achieved some popularity) and Just as I am, in the form of hymn-based variations akin to a chorale prelude. After the war he began working in a more con

Wilfred Josephs

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

Wilfred Josephs (24 July 1927 – 17 November 1997) was an English composer. Life Born in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, the fourth and youngest son of Russian and South Shields Jewish parents, Wilfred Josephs had his first musical studies in Newcastle with Arthur Milner, and showed early promise, but was persuaded by his parents to take up a ‘sensible’ career. He subsequently became a dentist, qualifying as a Bachelor of Dental Surgery of the University of Durham in 1951. He later studied at the Guildhall School in London. In 1963 his Requiem, a complete setting of the Hebrew Kaddish, written in memory of the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, won the first International Composing Competition of the City of Milan and La Scala – then the biggest musical award in the world, after which he gave up dentistry and became a full-time composer. The Requiem was performed by Nino Sanzogno in Milan, Maurice Handford for the BBC, Max Rudolf in Cincinnati, and Giulini in Chicago. A recording was made by David Measham for Unicorn Kanchana. Josephs was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music of Newcastle University in 1978. In October 1996, a concert of his works was given at Newcastle Univer

Wilfrid Mellers

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

Wilfrid Howard Mellers (26 April 1914 – 17 May 2008) was an English music critic, musicologist and composer. Early life Born in Leamington, Warwickshire, Mellers was educated at the local Leamington College and later won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English under F. R. Leavis. He later lodged with the Leavises for three years while pursuing a Music degree. Mellers also took private composition lessons in Oxford from Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra. From 1938 he taught at Dartington Hall, and in September 1940 he married Vera Muriel Hobbs. He spent the Second World War working on the land as a conscientious objector. Career After writing many articles for Leavis’s journal Scrutiny since the September 1936 issue, he appeared on the editorial board of the January 1942 issue, and continued in that position until the December 1948 issue. Mellers also wrote regularly as a critic and reviewer for New Statesman, The Listener, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement and The Musical Times. From 1960 for two years he lived and worked in America as Andrew Mellon visiting professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh. His later books Bach and the Dance

Wilfrid Pelletier

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

Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier (sometimes spelled Wilfred), (20 June 1896 – 9 April 1982) was a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and arts administrator. He was instrumental in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, serving as the orchestra’s first artistic director and conductor from 1935 to 1941. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City that began with his appointment as a rehearsal accompanist in 1917; ultimately working there as one of the company’s conductors in mainly the French opera repertoire from 1929 to 1950. From 1951 to 1966, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He was also a featured conductor for a number of RCA Victor recordings, including an acclaimed reading of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem featuring baritone Mack Harrell and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and chorus. Pelletier was one of the most influential music educators in Canada during the 20th century. It was largely through his efforts that the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec (CMADQ), an organization which has established and oversees nine different schools of higher education in music and theatre in

Wilfrid Sanderson

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

Wilfrid Ernest Sanderson FRCO LRAM (23 December 1878 – 10 December 1935) was a composer and organist based in Doncaster. Life Sanderson was born in Ipswich. His father was Revd. Thomas Sanderson, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, born in Warrington in 1848. Wilfrid was one of eight children. His mother was Emily, born in Liverpool in 1848. Wilfrid was educated at St. Dunstan’s College, and the City of London School. He studied organ under Frederick Bridge as pupil and later assistant organist at Westminster Abbey from 1895 - 1904. During this time, Wilfrid was present in the organ loft during Queen Victoria’s funeral and memorial service held on 2 February 1901. He also sang tenor in the Westminster Abbey choir for the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on 26 June 1902. His musical studies gained him the Mus.Bac (Dunelm), FRCO and LRAM. His early appointments were: church organist at St Stephen’s, Walthamstow (1895 at the age of seventeen); organist at All Hallows’, Southwark (1897); organist at St James’s, West Hampstead (1899-1904). In 1904 he married Mary Elizabeth Petch and moved to Doncaster where he became organist of Doncaster Parish Church until 1923. He was als

Wilfrido Vargas

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

Wilfrido Radamés Vargas Martínez (; born 24 April 1949) is a Dominican musician, composer, arranger and band leader. He was surrounded by musical influences; namely, his father Ramón, an accordionist and guitarist, and his mother Bienvenida, a flute player and guitarist. Vargas began his musical studies early, attending the Municipal Academy of Music beginning at age 10. In 1976, Vargas and his band, Wilfrido Vargas y Sus Beduinos, performed at the Madison Square Garden alongside Los Hijos del Rey. In 1978, he released the song El Barbarazo which helped catapult his popularity in Latin America. It was also his first international hit. Alongside many Latin music artists, he performed during the 1979 music festival Havana Jam with the Fania All-Stars. 1980s During the 1980s, he formed and directed many successful merengue groups including Las Chicas Del Can, The New York Band and Altamira Banda Show. He had international commercial success with songs such as , , and . Vargas appeared in the 1989 film . 1990s He was nominated in 1991 for the 33rd Grammy Awards in the Best Tropical Latin Performance for his album Animation. In 1993, he was decorated by the Dominican president Joaquín B

Wilfried Hiller

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

Wilfried Hiller (born 15 March 1941) is a German composer. He became known above all for his stage works for families, children and young people. Life and work Hiller was born the son of the teacher August Hiller and his wife Josepha Hiller, née Hauser, in the Swabian town of Weißenhorn near Ulm. In 1944, the year of the war, his father was killed in Russia and Wilfried became a half-orphan at the age of three. Hiller himself described early childhood experiences in connection with his composition Alkor thus: Training After attending the , he took up piano studies with Wilhelm Heckmann at the Augsburg Leopold Mozart Centre in 1956. From 1958 to 1961, Hiller wrote his first play with music (Die Räuber von Hiller) as well as piano compositions and chamber music and worked as an organist and ballet répétiteur. From 1962, he took part in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse for Neue Musik and was a guest student of Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna and Karlheinz Stockhausen. During this time he also became acquainted with his later publisher Peter Hanser-Strecker and the composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann. At Hartmann’s suggestion, Hiller began studying music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Münc

Wilfried Krätzschmar

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

Wilfried Krätzschmar (born 23 March 1944) is a German composer. Life Born in Dresden, Krätzschmar received piano lessons from 1952. After his Abitur at the he studied composition with Johannes Paul Thilman from 1962 to 1968, piano with Wolfgang Plehn and conducting with Klaus Zoephel at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. In 1963 he conducted a trombone choir in Dresden. From 1968 to 1969 he took over the direction of incidental music at Theater Meiningen. After this time he returned to the Dresden Academy of Music as an aspirant of Fritz Geißler. In 1975 he took over artistically the Centre for the Promotion of Young Composers of the District of Dresden. In 1988 he was appointed extraordinary professor in Dresden. From 1991 to 2003 he was rector of the Dresden University of Music and from 1992 to 2009 full professor for musical composition. In 2003 he was appointed president of the . From 2011 to 2014 Krätzschmar was vice president and from 2014 to 2017 President of the Sächsische Akademie der Künste. Awards * 1971 Förderpreis des Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Wettbewerbes * 1972 and 1973 Mendelssohn Scholarship des Ministeriums für Kultur * 1979 Hans Stieber Prize of th

Wilhelm Adolph

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

Wilhelm Balthasar Adolph (1729 –1781) was a German composer of liturgical music in galant style, cantor and rector (schoolmaster) of catholic parish schools in Świebodzin and Góra. Biography Born a son of Andreas Joseph Adolph (Adolff), municipal treasury bookkeeper and salt merchant, later lay judge and associate judge in Góra (Guhrau), and Anna Catharina, daughter of Sebastian Gräbner, city surgeon and town councillor in Góra as well as treasurer of the town’s parish church. In 1748 he became cantor (and probably at the same time rector) of the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Świebodzin (Germ. Schwiebus). Soon afterwards he married Anna Rosina Lange (d. after 1781), daughter of Anton Frantz Lange, customs collector in Zielona Góra (Germ. Grünberg) and Cistercian nuns’ of Trzebnica (Germ. Trebnitz) estates’ administrator. They had five children. The earliest manuscript of his work (copy of Litaniae de BMV) dates back to this period of his life, from 1757. In 1766 the composer moved with his family to his own family town, Góra. Appointed conrector and cantor of the school by the Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine of Alexandria in Góra. Soon he became rect

Wilhelm Berger

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

Wilhelm Reinhard Berger (9 August 1861 – 16 January 1911) was a German composer, pianist and conductor. Life Berger’s father, originally a merchant from Bremen, worked in Boston (where Berger was born) as a music shopkeeper and made a name for himself as an author after the family had returned to Bremen in 1862. Early on, his son showed signs of musical interest and aptitude. By the time of his first concert, age fourteen, Wilhelm had already composed a large number of songs and works for the piano. Between 1878 and 1884, Berger studied at the Royal Conservatory in Berlin, under Ernst Rudorff (piano) and Friedrich Kiel (counterpoint). From 1888 to 1903, he was a teacher at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, a function that he combined, from 1899, with the chief conductorship of the Berlin Musical Society. In addition, he was very active as a concert pianist. In 1903, Berger was made a member of the German Royal Academy of Arts, and in the same year he was appointed ‘Hofkapellmeister’ in Meiningen as successor of Fritz Steinbach. In 1911 he died at Jena, aged 49, due to complications after a stomach operation. Musical style Like most of the composers from the circle of the ‘Ber

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen

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

Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Fitzenhagen (15 September 1848 – 14 February 1890) was a German cellist, composer and teacher, best known today as the dedicatee of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. Life Fitzenhagen was born in Seesen in the Duchy of Brunswick, where his father served as music director. Beginning at age five, he received lessons on the piano, the cello and the violin. Many times, he had to substitute for wind players absent due to various emergencies. At age 14, Fitzenhagen began advanced studies of the cello with Theodore Müller. Three years later, Fitzenhagen played for the Duke of Brunswick, who released him from all military service. In 1867, some noble patrons enabled him to study for a year with Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden, A year later he was appointed to the Dresden Hofkapelle, where he started his career as soloist. Fitzenhagen’s playing at the 1870 Beethoven Festival in Weimar attracted the attention of Franz Liszt, who had formerly served as music director there. Liszt attempted to talk Fitzenhagen into joining the court orchestra. Fitzenhagen, however, had already accepted a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. Fitzenhagen became

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

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

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (22 November 17101 July 1784) was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty. Life Wilhelm Friedemann (hereafter Friedemann) was born in Weimar, where his father was employed as organist and chamber musician to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. In July 1720, when Friedemann was nine, his mother Maria Barbara Bach died suddenly; Johann Sebastian Bach remarried in December 1721. J. S. Bach supervised Friedemann’s musical education and career with great attention. The graded course of keyboard studies and composition that J. S. Bach provided is documented in the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (modern spelling: Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach), with entries by both father and son. This education also included (parts of) the French Suites, (Two-Part) Inventions, (Three-Part) Sinfonias (popularly known as “Inventions”), the first volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the six Trio Sonatas for organ. At the age of 16 he went to Me

Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach

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

Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, also known as William Bach (24 May 1759 – 25 December 1845) was the eldest son of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and the only grandson of Johann Sebastian Bach to gain fame as a composer. He was music director to King Frederick William II of Prussia. Ernst Bach received training in music from his uncle Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and from another uncle in England, Johann Christian Bach. He was in London when Johann Christian died there on 1 January 1782. Ernst Bach remained in England until 1784, when he returned to Germany via Holland. He was Kapellmeister of Minden in 1786, and Kapellmeister in Berlin from 1788 to 1811, with Friedrich Wilhelm’s blessing. He retired after Prince Heinrich, the brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm III, granted him a pension. At the unveiling of the Bach Monument in Leipzig on 23 April 1843, Ernst Bach met Robert Schumann. Schumann later described Ernst Bach as “a very agile old gentleman of 84 years with snow-white hair and expressive features”. One of Ernst Bach’s most remarkable compositions was Dreyblatt, a concerto for piano involving six hands. It is to be performed by a man with a petite woman on either side of him.

Wilhelm Furtwängler

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

Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , ; ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major influence for many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretative styles. Furtwängler was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1922 and 1945, and from 1952 until 1954. He was also principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (1922–26), and was a guest conductor of other major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic. Although not an adherent of Nazism, he was the foremost conductor to remain in Germany during the Nazi era. Despite his open opposition to antisemitism and the ubiquity of Nazi symbolism, the regime did not seek to suppress him, at Joseph Goebbels’ insistence, for propaganda reasons. This situation caused lasting controversy, and the extent to which his presence lent prestige to Nazi Germany is still debated. Early life Wilhelm Furtwängler was born into a prominent family in Schöneberg, Germany (now a district/borough of Berlin). His father, Adolf Furtwängler, was an archaeo

Wilhelm Grosz

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

Wilhelm Grosz (11 August 1894 – 10 December 1939), sometimes credited as Hugh Williams, was an Austrian composer, pianist, and conductor, who from 1934, worked in the UK, before moving to the USA in 1938. Grosz composed both classical concert works and (from exile) internationally successful popular songs. Life Wilhelm Grosz was born in Vienna to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied music with Richard Robert (piano), Franz Schreker (composition) and Guido Adler (musicology). In 1921 he was appointed conductor of the Mannheim Opera, but returned to Vienna in 1922, where he worked as a pianist and composer. From 1927, he was the artistic manager of the Ultraphone Gramophone Company (Deutsche Ultraphon AG) in Berlin, where he was involved with more popular music forms. In 1933, he became conductor of the Kammerspiele Theater in Vienna. Forced to flee his native land because of the Nazi takeover, Grosz resettled in England in 1934. Finding little interest there for his avant garde musical style, he instead applied his talents to setting the lyrics of popular songs, some of which became international successes. Most of his most popular titles were written with lyricist Jimmy Kennedy: “Ha

Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel

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

Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel (baptized 29 August 1686 – 6 June 1764) was a German composer and organist, the elder son of Johann Pachelbel. Life He was born in Erfurt, Electorate of Mainz, and spent the first four years of his life there. The Pachelbel family moved to Stuttgart in 1690, then, fleeing from the War of the Grand Alliance, to Gotha in 1692, and finally to Nuremberg in 1695. Wilhelm Hieronymus almost certainly received his first music education from his father. By age 14 he was proficient enough on the keyboard to receive special commendation from the town council of Nuremberg. After leaving Nuremberg, he worked as organist at Fürth and his native Erfurt’s Predigerkirche, before returning and taking the position at St. Jakob in 1706, shortly before his father’s death. That same year J.S. Richter succeeded Johann Pachelbel at the city’s largest church, Sebalduskirche; Wilhelm Hieronymus took Richter’s former position at St. Egidienkirche. He remained in Nuremberg for the rest of his life, working at St. Egidien until 1719, when Richter died and Wilhelm Hieronymus was chosen to succeed him at Sebalduskirche. Only seven pieces by Wilhelm Hieronymus survive, all of them for

Wilhelm Hill

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

Johann Wilhelm Hill (28 March 1838 – 6 June 1902) was a German pianist and composer. Life and work Wilhelm Hill was born in Fulda. He began studying piano and violin with his father at 6 years old. He devoted himself tirelessly to composing at age 14. From May 1854 Hill lived in Frankfurt am Main, where he was pupil of Heinrich Henkel and Johann Christian Hauff. He gave his first public piano performance in Fulda the following year, and performed in Frankfurt in January 1858. In the 1880s, Hill taught at Lindner Institute and Julius Stockhausen’s Vocal School. His opera Alona was awarded second prize in the competition for the opening of the new Frankfurt Opera House in 1882. He married Maria (Mary) Möhring in 1887 and soon after contracted an eye disease which affected his ability to teach and compose. He composed two operas, a piano concerto, chamber music, piano compositions, choral and vocal works including numerous songs. Hill gained popularity through the song “Das Herz am Rhein” (“The Heart of the Rhine”; published in 1866), which was sung frequently by his friend, baritone Karl Hill. The song soon appeared in various vocal and instrumental arrangements and became standard r

Wilhelm Keilmann

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

Wilhelm Martin Keilmann (4 August 1908 – 14 November 1989) was a German pianist, Kapellmeister and composer. He composed 74 works, founded a chamber orchestra and was lecturer at the . Life Born in Würzburg, Keilmann received his first instructions in violin and piano playing from his father, Ferdinand Keilmann, a music teacher. He first studied at the Musikschule Aschaffenburg with director Hermann Kundigraber, Heinz Knettel and Valentin Härtl. After one semester at the Musikhochschule München he changed to the Konservatorium Würzburg, where he studied piano under Professor Heinz Knettel, violin and viola under Willy Schaller and conducting as well as composing under privy councillor Hermann Zilcher. Wilhelm Keilmann passed the Staatsexamen with distinction in all four subjects on July 13, 1937, and his commissioned work “Hymne an die Schönheit” after Christian Morgenstern for soprano, choir and orchestra (op. 4) was premiered by Tilla Briem and the Munich Philharmonic on July 15, 1937, in Bad Kissingen. After a year as Kapellmeister at the Mainz City Theatre he married the violinist Hertha Bulle (10 August 1916) and moved with her in 1939 at the outbreak of war as a music teacher

Wilhelm Kienzl

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

Wilhelm Kienzl (17 January 1857 – 3 October 1941) However, during the Nazi era there were calls for boycotting his music due to his part Jewish ancestry In 1936 he was placed in the black list of the RS Berlin. Kienzl’s first love was opera, then vocal music, and it was in these two genres that he made his name. For a while he was considered, along with Hugo Wolf, one of the finest composers of Lieder (art songs) since Schubert. His most famous work, Der Evangelimann, best known for its aria Selig sind, die Verfolgung leiden (Blessed are the persecuted), continues to be revived occasionally. It is a folk opera which has been compared to Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and contains elements of verismo. After Humperdinck and Siegfried Wagner, the composers of fairy-tale operas, Kienzl is the most important opera composer of the romantic post-Wagner era. However, Kienzl’s strengths actually lie in the depiction of everyday scenes. In his last years, his ample corpus of songs achieved prominence, though it has largely been neglected since then. Despite the fact that opera came first in his life, Kienzl by no means ignored instrumental music. He wrote three string quartets and a piano

Wilhelm Killmayer

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

Wilhelm Killmayer (21 August 1927 – 20 August 2017) was a German composer of classical music, a conductor and an academic teacher of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München from 1973 to 1992. He composed symphonies and song cycles on poems by Friedrich Hölderlin, Joseph von Eichendorff, Georg Trakl and Peter Härtling, among others. Early life Wilhelm Killmayer was born on 21 August 1927 in Munich, Germany. He studied conducting and composition from 1945 to 1951 in Munich at Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen’s Musikseminar. At the same time, he was enrolled at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München where he studied musicology with Rudolf von Ficker and Walter Riezler, and German studies. He was a private student of Carl Orff from 1951 and was admitted to his master class at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in 1953. He was a scholar at the Villa Massimo twice, in 1958 and 1965/66. Career Killmayer was a teacher of music theory and counterpoint at the Trappsches Konservatorium in Munich from 1955. He was a conductor of the Bavarian State Opera’s ballet from 1961 to 1964. From 1973 to 1992 he was a professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik. Lutz Landwe

Wilhelm Kuhe

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

Wilhelm Kuhe (10 December 1823 – 8 October 1912) was a Czech pianist and piano teacher, composer and administrator born in the city of Prague (modern-day Czech Republic), in the first half of the nineteenth century. Life He exhibited a precocious taste for music, and at the age of four picked out Paganini’s melodies on the pianoforte from memory. He was taught music by Václav Tomášek, having Julius Schulhoff as a fellow student. He lived in Upper Austria in 1843–44, studying music and preparing for a concert tour with great success in 1844 at Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Augsburg, Munich, and then at Stuttgart. He published his memoirs, My Musical Recollections, in 1896; the book preserves a number of anecdotes about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that Kuhe learned from Wenzel Swoboda, an elderly Prague double bass player who had performed under Mozart’s direction. List of works Fantasias *Fantasie on Sir Arthur Sullivan’s opera The Chieftain *Fantasie brilliante on motifs from Bizet’s Carmem *Fantasie on motifs from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino *Fantasie on Verdi’s opera La Traviata *Grande fantasie de concert on Flotow’s Martha *Fantasia on Austrian Anthem *Victoria Fantasia on National A

Wilhelm Mayer (composer)

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

Wilhelm Mayer (10 June 183122 January 1898) was an Austro-Bohemian composer who published his works under the name W. A. Rémy. He was also a noted teacher, whose pupils included Ferruccio Busoni and Felix Weingartner. His name sometimes appears as Wilhelm Mayer-Rémy. His overture to Eugène Sue’s drama Jean Cavalier was written when he was 17, but his parents required him to enter the legal profession. He graduated as a doctor of law in 1856, when he was 25. He then occupied various posts in the Austro-Hungarian civil service. Mayer focused on the music of Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach, but greatly disliked Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. Through his former pupil Wilhelm Kienzl’s intercession with Ferruccio Busoni’s father, Mayer taught Busoni that “the widest possible culture makes the artist”, a motto Busoni wrote on his 430-page treatise on composition he had written out in longhand during his studies with Mayer and later transmitted to his own pupils. Richard Heuberger, Emil von Reznicek, Richard Sahla, Marie Baumayer Josef Gauby and Friedrich von Hausegger. * Sardanapalus, overture * Helena, symphonic poem * Phantasiestuck, orchestra (given at the Vienna Philharmonic con

Wilhelm Middelschulte

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

Wilhelm Middelschulte (April 3, 1863, Werve, Kreis Hamm, now part of Kamen – May 4, 1943, Dortmund) was a German organist and composer who resided in America for most of his career. Life Middelschulte initially studied organ with August Knabe. He later attended the , where he studied organ and theory with August Haupt. After briefly holding a position at the Royal Institute and acquiring a post at the in Berlin, he moved to Chicago in 1891. In 1893, he gave three performances entirely from memory at the Columbian Exposition. From 1896 to 1918 he was organist for what would later become the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the 1920s, he regularly returned to his native Germany to give performances. He is regarded as one of the most significant organists of his time, and was critically acclaimed for his performances of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1939, after nearly fifty years in America, Middelschulte returned to Germany, where he died only four years later. His students included Virgil Fox and Cecilia Clare Bocard. Fox frequently used as an encore to his performances Middelschulte’s “Perpetuum Mobile”, an elaborate piece that builds from a subdued sound to, by the end, fortissimo a

Wilhelm Neuland

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

Wilhelm Neuland (14 July 1806 – 28 December 1889) was a German musician and composer of the Romantic era, with activities mainly in Bonn (Kingdom of Prussia), London (UK) and Calais (France). Life Neuland was born in Bonn, the son of a tailor named Johann Caspar Neuland and his wife Catharina, née Frings. He attended a local private boys school and studied harmony and some musical instruments with Johann Gottfried Klebs as well as piano and composition with Carl David Stegmann until 1824. He spent the years until 1826 as a military band musician, performing on several instruments, retiring mainly on health grounds, and established himself as a music teacher and composer in Bonn. From 1828 to 1871, Neuland was conductor of the Société Philharmonique (an orchestra and choral society) in Calais, France, a position that he was able to pursue for some months in a year only. He also conducted frequently in neighbouring Boulogne-sur-Mer. In addition, Neuland spent the years 1830 to 1835 mainly in London, where he was much in demand as a guitarist and composer for the guitar, following his contacts with other German-speaking guitarist-composers from Germany and Austria, including Ferdinand

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger

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

Olof Wilhelm Peterson-Berger ( 27 February 1867 – 3 December 1942) was a Swedish composer and music critic. As a composer, his main musical influences were Grieg, August Söderman and Wagner as well as Swedish folk idiom. The composer Peterson-Berger was born in Ullånger. He studied at the Stockholm Conservatory from 1886 to 1889 and then in Dresden for a year. He is best known for three albums of national romantic piano pieces entitled Frösöblomster I, II and III (Flowers of Frösö), which include the often performed Vid Frösö kyrka (At Frösö Church) and Sommarsång (Summer Song). The sets, which were composed over a period of 18 years (1896–1914) and brought together afterwards as a collection have gained a reputation of representing a quintessential “Swedishness” in the romantic, nationalistic vein of their time. The most famous of the pieces, Sommarsång (Summer Song) recalls the warm, calm, harmonious and bright pre-summer evenings where the sun in the north almost never goes down; they were the great breakthrough for Wilhelm. Sommarsång is still known to most Swedes, even to people generally uninterested in music: the majority of young piano students in the Nordic countries have

Wilhelm Ramsøe

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

Wilhelm Ramsøe (7 February 1837 – 15 April 1895) was a Danish composer, musician and conductor. Biography Emilio Wilhelm Ramsøe was born in Copenhagen, the second of five children. His father, Emilius Wilhelm Ramsøe (1807–1858), was a professional oboe-player; his mother was Anne (née Rasmussen) (1808–1889). He had four siblings, Kirstine (born 1833), Frederik (born 1840), Louis (born 1843), and Alvilda (born 1846). He was christened in 1837 at Garnison parish. Later, the family moved to the area of Nørregade in neighborhood of Nørre Kvarter in Copenhagen. Career Ramsøe began playing violin at a very young age. At 17 years old, he became a conductor at actors guild for traveling theater companies; he conducted concerts in Denmark and Norway. Between 1857 and 1864, he conducted several concerts and performances at the newly built 2,000-seat concert hall Alhambra which opened in 1857. It was during this time that Ramsøe established his reputation as a conductor and composer; this led to his appointment as music director at the then-popular Folketheateret. From 1864 to 1875 he continued to conduct, while also composing and arranging various comedies. However, after a difference of opi

Wilhelm Schröter

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

Wilhelm Schröter is a composer and pianist. Schröter was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 16, 1960. Biography Schröter was born into a family of musicians. His father, Harry, was a violinist and his mother, Maria Helena Didier Moniz de Aragão do Rego Maciel Schröter, was pianist and piano teacher. When he was just nine years old Wilhelm started to accompany his aunt Maria Schroeter, a soprano, on piano performing pieces by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. He wrote his first composition at age 12. Schröter began his career in 1975 performing piano recitals at age 15 in Brazil. He graduated with a degree in music in 1988. Schröter no longer tours and now concentrates on composing. He mainly composes classical music, but sometimes experiments with other music genres such as jazz with classical elements, pop, voice and movie themes. He also writes music electronically. He has written approximately 300 works. He is the cousin of Olga Maria Schröter, a soprano, who is also related to composers Johann Samuel Schröter, his sister Corona Schröter, Leonhart Schröte and Christoph Gottlieb Schröter. Awards Schröter received his first award at 16 years of age. His first solo performer

Wilhelm Stenhammar

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

Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar (February 7, 1871 – November 20, 1927) was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist. He is considered to be one of Sweden’s most important composers at the turn of the 20th century, and one of the finest Swedish pianists of his time, with a reputation as a fine interpreter of the piano music of Beethoven. Biography Wilhelm Stenhammar was born in Stockholm to and . His older brother was the architect Ernst Stenhammar. He demonstrated a talent for music at an early age, both as pianist and composer, writing piano sonatas and songs during his teenage years. The resultant critical acclaim led to invitations for concert performances in Denmark, England and Germany, effectively launching Stenhammar’s career as an internationally renowned concert pianist. He subsequently recorded five piano rolls for Welte-Mignon on 21 September 1905. As a composer, Stenhammar was initially influenced by German and Austrian music, especially that of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner. Stenhammar himself described the style of his First Symphony in F major as “idyllic Bruckner”. He subsequently sought to liberate himself from this influence, with the goal of writing in a more

Wilhelm Taubert

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

Carl Gottfried Wilhelm Taubert (23 March 1811 – 7 January 1891) was a German pianist, composer, and conductor, and the father of philologist and writer Emil Taubert. Life Born in Berlin, Taubert studied under Ludwig Berger (piano) and Bernhard Klein (composition). In 1831, he became assistant conductor and accompanist for Berlin court concerts. Between 1845 and 1848, he was music director of the Berlin Royal Opera and was also court conductor in Berlin from 1845 to 1869. From 1865, he taught music at the Prussian Academy of Arts; Theodor Kullak was one of his pupils. His compositions include six operas, incidental music, four symphonies, concertos for piano and cello, four string quartets, other orchestral, choral, and piano works, and more than 300 songs. His early compositions were praised by the composer Felix Mendelssohn, who had also studied piano with Berger. Taubert died in Berlin. His grave is preserved in the Protestant “Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde” (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem’s Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor. Operas * Die Kirmes, comic opera, libretto by Eduard Devrient, 23 January 1832, B

Wilhelm Weismann

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

Wilhelm Weismann (20 September 1900 – 14 May 1980) was a German composer and musicologist. Life On 20 September, Weismann was born in Alfdorf/Württemberg on the plateau of Welzheim forest. His parents ran a general store. His mother, sister of the renowned musicologist Alfred Heuß, encouraged his artistic inclinations and he received his first piano and music lessons. At an early age the son of a merchant showed his musical interest by composing small choral pieces. After a long struggle for his father’s permission, he studied composition (with Sigfrid Karg-Elert) and musicology (with Hermann Abert and Arnold Schering) at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart from 1919 to 1921 and then in Leipzig from 1921 to 1923. After completing his studies, he embarked on a momentous trip to Italy in 1924, visiting Sicily, Rome, Naples and Florence, during which he was greatly impressed by Italian architecture and painting. In the Uffizi he could see original compositions by Carlo Gesualdo. They inspired him to “Four Italian Madrigals”, which were performed in 1925 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage and made him suddenly famous. From 1924 he was editor and correspondent of th

Wilhelm Würfel

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

Wilhelm Würfel, aka Wenzel Würfel (, ; May 6, 1790 - March 23, 1832) was a Czech composer, pianist and conductor. Life He was born in 1790 in Plaňany near Kolín in central Bohemia. His father was a schoolteacher. He studied piano with his mother. In 1807 he went to Prague where he studied with Václav Jan Tomášek. In 1815 he went to Warsaw where he was appointed a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory. He gave piano performances in Poland, Bohemia, Germany and Russia. In 1824 he returned to Prague and conducted his opera Rübezahl. From 1826 he stayed as a conductor in Vienna. He had a meeting with Beethoven just before he died in 1827. Wurfel died in Vienna, aged 41. His most famous pupil is said to be the Polish-French romantic composer Frédéric Chopin, who it is claimed studied with him at the Warsaw High School of Music between 1823-26. However, although Würfel was a friend of the Chopin family and may have given Chopin some guidance, he returned to his native Prague in 1824 and did not encounter Chopin thereafter. According to Jonathan Bellman in his book Chopin’s Polish Ballade (45), one of Wurfel’s programmatic pieces that Chopin must have known is the Grande fantaisie lugubre

Wilhelmina Koch

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

Wilhelmina (Mina or Minna) Amalie Koch (22 February 1845 – 6 March 1924) was a German composer of sacred and secular song melodies, biblical motets and choral and instrumental music. She is one of only four women that have had compositions included in the Protestant hymnal. Biography Mina Koch was born in Waldböckelheim. She was the second of six children of Waldböckelheim pastor Karl August Schapper (1815–1898). She spent her childhood in Münster am Stein and in Koblenz. When she was eleven years old her mother Schapper Amalie née Weinrich (1816–1856) died. In 1860 her father became the Professor and Director of the Royal Theological Seminary and Superintendent for Wittenberg. The family moved there to a big house at the parish church square where Johann Bugenhagen had lived and where Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon had met. Mina Koch spent the first years there in a girls’ school in Droyßig at Zeitz, where her Confirmation was celebrated. The Wittenberg church music director and organist Carl Stein (1824–1902) gave her music theory and harmony lessons. On 27 April 1865 she was married to August Koch (1836–1910) in the Wittenberg church with her father officiating. Mina Koch

Wilhelmine von Troschke und Rosenwehrt

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

Wilhelmine Auguste Charlotte Helene Apollonia von Troschke und Rosenwerth (1775-1830) was born in Lower Silesia and is considered to be a German composer. She published piano music under the name Wilhelmine von Troschke und Rosenwerth. Wilhelmine married Ernst Christoph Gunther von Bronsart and they had two children: Rosaline Louise Adele Antoinette von Bronsart in 1807, and Karl August Johann Georg Ludwig Adolf von Bronsart in 1808. She later married Karl Ludwig Hasenwinkel. Her works include: *4 Themes with Variations for Piano or Harpsichord (1801): **Theme and 6 Variations **8 Variations on ‘Die Milch ist gesünder’ for Harp or Piano *Variations on ‘Ein Männchen oder Weibchen’ for Piano (1801) Download free sheet music by Wilhelmine von Troschke und Rosenwerth References

Wilhelmine, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

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

Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia (Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine; 3 July 170914 October 1758) was a Prussian princess and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, and a granddaughter of George I of Great Britain. She was the older sister of Frederick the Great. In 1731, she married Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. The baroque buildings and parks built during her tenure shape much of the present appearance of the town of Bayreuth, Germany. Early life Born in Berlin, Wilhelmine shared the unhappy childhood of her brother, Frederick the Great, whose friend and confidante she remained all her life, with the exception of one short interval. She was fiercely beaten and abused by her governess during her childhood. Wilhelmine later wrote: “Not a day passed that she the governess did not prove upon me the fearful power of her fists.” The mistreatment continued until the prince’s governess finally said to their mother, who had been oblivious to the abuse, that she would not be surprised if Wilhelmine was eventually beaten until she was crippled. After this, the governess was promptly replaced. Being the eldest daughter i

Will C. Macfarlane

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

William Charles Macfarlane, generally referred to as Will C. Macfarlane, While he predominantly composed sacred music, he also wrote the music to the operettas Little Almond Eyes (1917) and Swords and Scissors (1918). Life and career The son of Duncan Macfarlane, He was a student of composer, conductor, and organist Samuel Prowse Warren who was his primary instructor in organ and music theory. Partial list of compositions *Three Pieces, Op. 27 (1888) *Hymns (1893) *Romanza (1905) *Scherzo (1905) *Cantilena in D (1907) *Reverie (1909) *Spring Song (1909) *Caprice (1910) *Meditation (1910) *Evening Bells (1912) *Cradle Song (1912) *Lullaby (1914) *Elegy (1915) *Scotch Fantasia on National Airs *Folk Songs (1915) *Serenade (1917) *March: America the Beautiful (1918) *In Memoriam (1923) *Chanson Joyeuse (1930) *Adoration (1934) *Ad ecclesiae gloriam *Fantasy (1945) *Marche Pontificale (1945) *Pastorale (1945) Source References Citations Bibliography * * * * External links *

Will Eisenmann

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

Will Eisenmann (3 March 1906 in Stuttgart – 20 August 1992 in Canton of Lucerne) was a German-Swiss composer. His opera Der König der dunklen Kammer, based on a work by Rabindranath Tagore, won the Emil Hertzka Prize. Selected works ;Stage * Der König der dunklen Kammer, Opera in 13 Scenes, op. 12 (1934–1935); words by Rabindranath Tagore * Bethsabé, Drama-Pantomime-Oratorio in 3 scenes for tenor, baritone, speaking voices, actors, pantomimists and orchestra, op. 17 (1936); libretto by André Gide * Leonce und Lena, Lyric Comedy in 3 acts for 7 soloists, 5 speaking parts and a large orchestra, op. 36 (1943–1945); libretto by Georg Büchner ;Orchestral * Die Stadt for string orchestra, op. 7 (1932–1933) * Primavera española, op. 10 (1934) * Die gläserne Wand (Davoser Impressionen) for small orchestra, op. 11 (1934) * Musique en forme de spirale for small orchestra, op. 18 (1937) * Trauermusik (Epitaphe pour Maurice Ravel), op. 21 (1938) * Sieben Bilder nach Vincent van Gogh, op. 22 (1938) * Symphony for string orchestra, op. 42 (1947) * Musica concertante, op. 96 (1977–1978) ;Concertante * Concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra, op. 24 (1938) * Concerto da camera for alto saxophone

Will Gay Bottje

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

Will Gay Bottje (June 30, 1925; Grand Rapids, Michigan - January 7, 2018; Grand Rapids, Michigan ) was an American composer known for his contributions to electronic music. Bottje was a graduate of the Juilliard School (Bachelor of Music in flute performance and Master of Music in composition) where he studied composition with Vittorio Giannini. He went on to pursue studies at the Eastman School of Music where he was a pupil of Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. From Eastman he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition, the second such degree to be awarded to a student from any institution. He also studied composition privately with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and was a pupil of Henk Badings at the University of Utrecht’s electronic music studio. From 1957 to 1981 Bottje taught on the music faculty at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. There he founded and directed SIU’s electronic music studio. One of his notable pupils at SIU was composer Larry Lake. During 21-23 October 1965, Bottje was also a SIU featured Vision ‘65 speaker/presenter. Selected compositions Orchestral * Commentaries for Guitar & Small Orchestra (also piano reduction) * Concertino for Piccolo

Will Ogdon

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

Wilbur Lee “Will’ Ogdon (April 19, 1921 – October 6, 2013) was an American composer. He long taught at the University of California, San Diego, from 1966 to 1991. Life and career Will Ogdon was born on April 19, 1921, originally from Redlands, California. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music in 1942 with a Bachelor of Arts in music. He graduated from Hamline University in 1947 with a Master of Arts. He studied composition with Ernst Krenek, Roger Sessions, and René Leibowitz. He acquired a doctorate in music theory from Indiana University School of Music. He served for years in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946. He was in the signal corps stationed in Belgium and became a sergeant. He taught at the University of California, San Diego beginning in 1966, and retiring in 1991. ) His students included composer Louise Spizizen. He lived in Del Mar, California. He has collaborated with the singer Carol Plantamura. Discography *1997 - The Music Of Will Ogdon. Composers Recordings, Inc. References Citations Sources *Négyesy, János, and Garrett Bowles, collectors and compilers. A Festschrift for Will Ogdon. . *Négyesy, János, and Garrett Bowles, colle

Will Schaefer

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

Willis H. Schaefer (November 23, 1928 – June 30, 2007) was an American composer nominated for an Emmy Award for his work. He wrote background music for a number of popular television shows and composed over 700 commercials. His most famous track, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” was used in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as the backing track to “Now That We’re Men.” Early life and career Schaefer was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1928. His father, Helmut Schaefer, was a founder of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra. Schaefer was educated at Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha, De Paul University (B.M.), and Northwestern University (M.A. and some work toward a Doctor of Music degree). His first credits as a film and television composer date from 1948. He served during the Korean War with the United States Fifth Army Band as an arranger and assistant conductor writing music for Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. Composer and arranger Schaefer returned to composing themes for television after the Korean War with Gunsmoke and The Phil Silvers Show. In following decades, he would compose background music for many popular television programs including I Dream of Jeannie, The Flintstones,

Willem Andriessen

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

Willem Andriessen (Haarlem, October 25, 1887 – Amsterdam, March 29, 1964) was a Dutch pianist and composer. His compositional output was small due to the demands of performance and teaching, but he was nonetheless awarded a number of compositional prizes in Belgium and the Netherlands. He was the older brother of composer and organist Hendrik Andriessen and the uncle of Louis Andriessen and Jurriaan Andriessen, who followed in his footsteps as composers. Biography Andriessen studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory, completing his studies in 1906, and was awarded the school’s Outstanding Achievement Prize for piano. He appeared frequently in concert performances in the Netherlands, and was noted for his interpretations of J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Robert Schumann, though he also played piano pieces from contemporaries such as Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and Pijper. Andriessen taught at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (1910–18) and following this at the Muziekschool in Rotterdam after 1924. He was appointed director of the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1937 to 1953. He also gave radio broadcasts of performances which included analyses of compositions. In 1942, following the Nazi oc

Willem Breuker

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

Willem Breuker (4 November 1944 – 23 July 2010) was a Dutch bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist. Career During the mid-1960s, he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, with which he regularly performed until 1973. He was a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and the Gunter Hampel Group. In 1974, he began leading the 10-piece Willem Breuker Kollektief, With the group, he toured Western Europe, Russia, Australia, India, China, Japan, the United States, and Canada. In 1974, he founded the record label BV Haast. Awards and honors In 1998, Breuker was knighted with the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 2017, the Willem Breuker Prijs was awarded for the first time to . A bi-annual prize for contemporary composers, it was last awarded in 2019 to . References External links *Willem Breuker biography *Willem Breuker Kollektief site *Willem Breuker interview *FMP releases *Obituary in Elsevier retrieved on July 29th, 2010

Willem de Fesch

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

Willem de Fesch (; 1687 in Alkmaar – 3 January 1761) was a virtuoso Dutch violinist and composer. The pupil of Karel Rosier, who was a Vice-Kapellmeister at Bonn, de Fesch later married his daughter, Maria Anna Rosier. De Fesch was active in Amsterdam between 1710 and 1725. From 1725 to 1731 he served as Kapellmeister at Antwerp Cathedral. Thereafter he moved to London where he gave concerts and played the violin in Handel’s orchestra in 1746. In 1748 and 1749 he conducted at Marylebone Gardens. He apparently made no public appearances after 1750. His works included the oratorios Judith (1732) and Joseph (1746), as well as chamber duets, solo and trio sonatas, concertos and part songs. Both oratorios were thought lost until 1980 when a copy of a manuscript of Joseph was found in London’s Royal Academy of Music. De Fesch’s music was influenced by the Italians, particularly Vivaldi, as well as Handel. Works *Op. 1: 6 Sonate per 2 Violini e 6 Sonate per due Cioloncelli (Roger/Amsterdam 1715) *Op. 2: Molti Concerti e Concerti grossi (Roger/Amsterdam 1717) *Op. 3: Molti Concerti e Concerti grossi (Roger/Amsterdam 1718) *Op. 4: 6 Sonate per Violino e Basso continuo (B. c.), 6 Sonate per

Willem Kes

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

Willem Kes (Dordrecht, 16 February 1856 – München, 22 February 1934, was a Dutch conductor, composer, violist, and violinist. He was the first principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, holding that position from 1888 to 1895. Life Early life and education Willem Kes was the son of the dairy trader Adrianus Stoffel Kes and Cornelia Maria Krekelenbrug. He received his initial training as a violist and composer in Dordrecht with Ferdinand Böhme (harmony), Theodorus Thijssens (violin) and Friedrich Wilhelm Nothdurft (piano). At the time, he also performed with the local orchestra. Admitted to the Leipzig conservatory, Kes studied with the composers Ferdinand David and Carl Reinecke. During his stay in Leipzig, he married Bertha Auguste Elise Koch. He completed his studies at the Brussels Conservatory with violinist-composer Henryk Wieniawski In 1877, he was appointed leader of the first Amsterdam Park Orchestra and the Amsterdamsche Orkest-Vereeniging. A year later, in 1878 he became director of the Dordrecht division of the Rotterdam Music Society (Maatschappij ter Bevordering der Toonkunst), followed by the conductorship of the newly formed Park Orchestra (Park

Willi Vogl

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

Willi Vogl (born 3 December 1961) is a German composer, clarinetist and college scholar. Life Vogl was born in Reichertshofen and grew up in Karlskron. From 1983 to 1989 he studied musical composition with Alfred Koerppen and clarinette with Hans Deinzer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. Afterwards he studied composition for two years with Heinz Winbeck at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. From 1992 to 2008 he worked as a teacher for composition, music theory, ear training, clarinette and chamber music at . In addition, he held teaching positions at the and at the Music Pedagogical Institute of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. In 2004 he was Composer in Residence at the International Merz Society. Since 2008 Vogl has been active as a freelance composer. Further focal points of his work are the conception and management of musical-literary projects and composition competitions as well as teaching activities in composition and chamber music courses in Germany and abroad. So far he has composed more than 70 works, which have been performed by the Staatskapelle Halle, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the , the Ensemble Sortisatio and the . Work Ballet mu

William Albright (musician)

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

William Hugh Albright (October 20, 1944 – September 17, 1998) was an American composer, pianist and organist. Biography Albright was born in Gary, Indiana, and began learning the piano at the age of five. He attended the Juilliard Preparatory Department (1959–62), the Eastman School of Music (1962–63) and the University of Michigan (1962–70), where he studied composition with Ross Lee Finney and George Rochberg, and organ with Marilyn Mason. He interrupted his studies for the 1968–69 academic year when he received a Fulbright scholarship to study with Olivier Messiaen in Paris. Upon his graduation in 1970 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he taught composition and directed the electronic music studio until his death from liver failure in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1998. Career His music combined elements of tonal and non-tonal classical music (in particular the influence of Messiaen) with American popular music and non-Western music, in what has been described as “polystylistic” or “quaquaversal” music—which makes the definition of an overall style difficult. Albright’s approach to some of his music has been considered to be surrealistic. He was an e

William Alwyn

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

William Alwyn (born William Alwyn Smith; 7 November 1905 – 11 September 1985), was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher who composed over 200 cinematic scores, of which some 70 were for full-length features, as well as number of operas, concertos and symphonies. Alwyn’s wartime work in particular was to lead him to be placed on a Nazi death list. Life and music William Alwyn was born William Alwyn Smith in Northampton, England, the son of Ada Tyler (Tompkins) and William James Smith. He showed an early interest in music and began to learn to play the piccolo. At the age of 15, he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied flute, piano and composition. For a time he was a flautist with the London Symphony Orchestra. Alwyn served as professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1926 to 1955. Alwyn was a polyglot, poet, and artist, as well as musician. He was also sometime Director of the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, a Vice-President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) and Director of the Performing Right Society. For many years he was one of the panel engaged by the BBC to read new scores to help assess wheth

William Axt

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

William Axt (April 19, 1888 – February 13, 1959) was an American composer of nearly two hundred film scores. Life and career Born in New York City, Axt graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx and studied at the National Conservatory of Music of America. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1922. He studied in Berlin under Xaver Scharwenka. Axt made his American debut as a conductor on December 28, 1910. Selected filmography * Theodora (1921; with Erno Rapee) * The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) * Greed (1924) * The Big Parade (1925; with David Mendoza) * Ben-Hur (1925; with David Mendoza) * The Merry Widow (1925) * La Bohème (1926) * The Scarlet Letter (1926) * Our Dancing Daughters (1928) * Show People (1928) * The Washington Masquerade (1932) * Dinner at Eight (1933) * Eskimo (1933) * Gabriel Over the White House (1933) * Penthouse (1933) * Beg, Borrow or Steal (1937) * London by Night (1937) * Parnell (1937) * Under Cover of Night (1937) * Everybody Sing (1938) * Woman Against Woman (1938) * Yellow Jack (1938) * Sergeant Madden (1939) * Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939) * Tell No Tales (1939) * Untamed (1940) * Little Nellie Kelly (1940)

William Babell

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

William Babell (or Babel) (c. 1690 – 23 September 1723) was an English musician, composer and prolific arranger of vocal music for harpsichord. Life He received his musical training from his father, Charles Babel, a bassoonist in the Drury Lane orchestra, Johann Christoph Pepusch and possibly George Frideric Handel. He played violin in the private band of George I and appeared as a harpsichordist from 1711, often appearing with William Corbett, James Paisible and later Matthew Dubourg. He was associated with Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre. From November 1718 until his death, he was organist at All Hallows, Bread Street, and was succeeded by John Stanley. He wrote numerous keyboard arrangements of arias from popular operas of his time. These were published in France, the Netherlands and Germany as well as in England, and formed the basis of his musical reputation. His style was strongly influenced by his close acquaintance with Handel. Johann Mattheson thought he surpassed Handel as an organ virtuoso, but music historian Charles Burney criticised his manner of playing arrangements, charging that he: Despite Burney’s criticism, fellow music historian Sir John Hawkins thought they ‘succ

William Basinski

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

William James Basinski (born June 25, 1958) is an American avant-garde composer based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a clarinetist, saxophonist, sound artist, and video artist. Basinski is best known for his four-volume album The Disintegration Loops (2002–2003), constructed from gradually decaying twenty-year-old tapes of his earlier music. Biography Early life William James Basinski was born in 1958 in Houston, Texas. He was raised in a Catholic family, and states that he had his first “really mystical, wonderful, magical” musical experiences as an infant at Houston’s St. Anne Church. he began developing his own vocabulary using tape loops and old reel-to-reel tape decks. He developed his meditative, melancholy style experimenting with short looped melodies played against themselves creating feedback loops. On one occasion, he opened for David Bowie, playing saxophone with rockabilly band The Rockats. In August and September 2001 he set to work on what would become his most recognizable piece, the four-volume album The Disintegration Loops. The recordings were based on old tape loops which had degraded in quality. While attempting to salvage the recordings in a digital fo

William Beatton Moonie

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

William Beatton Moonie (1883–1961) was a British composer. He gives his name to the Moonie Collection, a collection of music held by Glasgow University. Life He was born somewhat prematurely at the station master’s house at Stobo railway station on 29 May 1883 while his parents were taking a brief holiday from their usual home in Edinburgh. His father James Anderson Moonie (d.1923) was a music teacher living at 33 Oxford Street, a flat in the Newington district of Edinburgh. His mother, Clementina Greenaway, had been a secretary. James was a member of the Hope Park United Presbyterian Church and founded the Hope Park Musical Association in 1886. He also ran several choirs, most famously “Mr Moonie’s Choir” founded in 1896. William was educated at Daniel Stewart’s College (where his father became Music Master in 1887) then studied History of Music at Edinburgh University. There he studied under Frederick Niecks and graduated BMus in 1902 also winning the Bucher Scholarship, which enabled him to do postgraduate studies at the University of Frankfurt under Iwan Knorr, Lazzaro Uzielli and Willi Rehberg (father of Walter Rehberg). On his return to Britain in 1908 he had further tuition

William Beauvais

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

William Eugene Beauvais (born October 9, 1956) is a Canadian classical guitarist and composer who has performed in the United States, Europe, and across Canada. Early life Beauvais completed a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance at the University of Toronto. Shortly after graduation he won first prize both at the Canadian Music Competition and in the Carrefour Mondial de Guitare in Martinque. Career Beauvais is best known for his work as a teacher at York University, The Royal Conservatory of Music, Queen’s University and the University of Windsor, and for his recordings, most notably, his 1991 recording of The Bulgarian Dances on the Musica Viva 1071 . In over three decades, Beauvais has accumulated many diverse performing and recording credits. The artists he has worked with include: Brian Katz, The Evergreen Club, Arraymusic, New Music Concerts, Alan Hetherington, The Canadian Chamber Ensemble and Les Amis Concerts. He has also worked with choreographers Terrill Maguire and Hedy Minton, as well as poets Steven McCabe, Richard Truhlar and Wayne Keon. He has given many premier performances, including works George Crumb, Elliott Carter, Jon Siddall, Stephen Wingfield, Ronald Bru

William Bergsma

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

William Laurence Bergsma (April 1, 1921 – March 18, 1994) was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music school until 1971. Life Bergsma was born in Oakland, California. After studying piano (with his mother, a former opera singer) and then the viola, he moved on to study composition. Bergsma attended Stanford University for two years (1938–40) before moving to the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees; his most significant teachers there were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. In 1946 he accepted a position at Juilliard, where he remained until 1963, eventually holding such positions as chair of composition and from 1961 to 1963, associate dean. In 1963 he moved on to the University of Washington, heading the music school until 1971, remaining a professor from then on after stepping down from the administrative post. In 1966 Bergsma founded the Contemporary Group at the University of Washington, an organization of composers and musicians who stage performances of new musical works and educate students and the

William Berwald

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

William Henry Berwald (1864–1948) was an American composer and conductor of German origin. He published some 400 compositions and won numerous prizes, including the Manuscript Music Society in 1901, the Clemson Gold Medal in 1913, the Prosser Etude prize in 1915, and the Estey Organ Prize in 1928. Among his works are pedagogical pieces for piano. Biography Born in Schwerin, Mecklenburg on December 26, 1864, Berwald studied counterpoint with Josef Rheinberger. He worked as a teacher in Stuttgart before emigrating to the United States. He taught at Syracuse University for 52 years, and his papers are held in the school’s archives. From 1922 to 1925 he served as conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He died in Loma Linda, California on May 8, 1948. One of his notable pupils was Halsey Stevens. See also * List of music students by teacher: A to B § William Berwald References * External links *

William Billings

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

William Billings (October 7, 1746 – September 26, 1800) was an American composer and is regarded as the first American choral composer and leading member of the First New England School. Life William Billings was born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay. At the age of 14, the death of his father stopped Billings’ formal schooling. In order to help support his family, young Billings trained as a tanner. He possibly received musical instruction from John Barry, one of the choir members at the New South Church, but for the most part he was self-taught. Billings had an unusual appearance and a strong addiction to snuff. His contemporary wrote that Billings “was a singular man, of moderate size, short of one leg, with one eye, without any address & with an uncommon negligence of person. Still, he spake & sung & thought as a man above the common abilities.” Billings’ wife died on March 26, 1795, leaving him with six children under the age of 18. He died in poverty in Boston on September 26, 1800. His funeral was announced in the Columbian Centinel: “Died- Mr. William Billings, the celebrated music composer. His funeral will be tomorrow at 4 o’clock, PM from the house of Mrs. Amos Pe

William Blezard

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

William Blezard (10 March 1921 in Padiham, Lancashire – 2 March 2003 in Barnes, London) was a pianist and composer who was musical director to Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich and Joyce Grenfell. Personal life Blezard’s parents worked in one of Padiham’s many cotton mills as weavers. Like many other local children, as a child he wore clogs, traditional for the area and not a sign of poverty. His tenor father sang semi-professionally. In 1954 he married musical conductor Joan Kemp-Potter, whom he met at the Royal College. She was the conductor of the Leatherhead Choral Society and the Sutton Symphony Orchestra (1974-1992) as well as a teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and the London College of Music and an artist. She died in 2001, aged 80. He had cared for her after she had had a severe stroke in 1994. They had a son and daughter, known as Paul and Pookie. in 1950 starring Celia Johnson. Another was Beau Brummell, 1954, starring Stewart Granger, Peter Ustinov, Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Morley. In 1954 Blezard had arranged a performance for two pianos with Donald Swann and Sydney Carter. Swann introduced him to Joyce Grenfell, and she engaged him as her musical director. Durin

William Bolcom

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

William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, and the Detroit Music Award, and was named Composer of the Year by Musical America in 2007. He taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 2008 and was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in 2006. He is married to mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Early life and education Bolcom was born in Seattle, Washington. At age 11, he studied under faculty at University of Washington, including composition with professors George Frederick McKay and John Verrall and piano with Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, with Leland Smith at Stanford University, and with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2ème Prix de Composition. Career Bolcom was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1964 and 1968. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for 12 New Etudes for Piano. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music in 1973. In 1994, he was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of C

William Boyce (composer)

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

William Boyce (baptised 11 September 1711 – 7 February 1779) was an English composer and organist. Like Beethoven later on, he became deaf but continued to compose. He knew Handel, Arne, Gluck, J. C. Bach, Abel, and a very young Mozart, all of whom respected his work. Life Boyce was born in London, at Joiners’ Hall, then in Lower Thames Street, to John Boyce, at the time a joiner and cabinet-maker, and beadle of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, and his wife Elizabeth Cordwell. He was baptised on 11 September 1711 and was admitted by his father as a choirboy at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1719. After his voice broke in 1727, he studied music with Maurice Greene. His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he was employed as an organist at the Oxford Chapel in central London. He went on to take a number of similar posts before being appointed Master of the King’s Musick in 1757 (he had applied for the post on the death of Maurice Greene in 1755) and becoming one of the organists at the Chapel Royal in 1758. He also gave lessons, his daughter telling the composer R. J. S. Stevens that both Thomas Linley the elder and Thomas Linley the younger had been his pupils in c

William Brade

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

William Brade (1560 – 26 February 1630) was an English composer, violinist, and viol player of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, mainly active in northern Germany. He was the first Englishman to write a canzona, an Italian form, and probably the first to write a piece for solo violin. Biography Little is known about his early life. Around 1590 he left England to pursue a musical career in Germany, as did several other prominent English musicians, sensing better job opportunities abroad. He switched employments often between the various courts in north Germany and Denmark. Between his arrival in Germany, sometime around 1590, and 1594 he worked for the Brandenburg court; between 1594 and 1596 he worked for Christian IV of Denmark in Copenhagen; then until 1599 he was back in Brandenburg. He returned that year to Copenhagen, where he stayed until 1606. From 1606 to 1608 he worked at Bückeburg in Brunswick-Lüneburg. From 1608 to 1610 he was employed in Hamburg, but he returned to Bückeburg in 1610. Evidently by 1612 he was again planning on switching jobs, for a letter surviving from that year, written by the count at Bückeburg, tells the Hamburg court pithily that he was a

William Bradley Strickland

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

William Bradley Strickland, also known as Willie Strickland, (August 21, 1929 – April 9, 1990) was an American composer, music educator, and music publisher. In his early career he worked as a public school music teacher for Hempstead Union Free School District and Rockville Centre Union Free School District. He later worked as a composer, orchestrator, and arranger for television and Broadway musicals, and also wrote band music repertoire used for education purposes. He was the founder of the music publishing house Consort Music. He ended his career teaching on the music faculties of Hofstra University and Adelphi University. Early life and education William Bradley Strickland was born in Manhattan on August 21, 1929. While in high school he was instructed in the Schillinger System of Musical Composition by composer and conductor Rudolf Schramm (1902–1981). Following his undergraduate studies, Strickland joined the 25th Infantry Division of the United States Army where he served as a trumpeter in the infantry’s band. He was discharged in 1953 at which time he began his career as a music teacher. In 1956 he pursued graduate studies in music composition at the Juilliard School where

William Burton Walbert

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

William Burton Walbert (May 18, 1886 – December 2, 1959) was an American Southern gospel songwriter, singer, composer, and editor. He (co-)wrote many songs, and he was the director of the Vaughan School of Music in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Early life Walbert was born in Barren County, Kentucky on May 18, 1886. He attended the Vaughan School of Music in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Career Walbert worked for the James D. Vaughan Music Company, where he taught shape note singing schools. After James D. Vaughan’s death, Walbert took charge of the school. From 1923 to the 1930s, Walbert was a member of the Vaughan Radio Quartet, a band whose members included Pace, Hilman Barnard, and Otis Leon McCoy. Personal life and death Walbert married Mable Grace Vaughan, James David Vaughan’s daughter, in 1915. They had a son, James D. Walbert, Walbert died of a stroke on December 2, 1959, in Birmingham, Alabama, at age 72. His funeral was held in Lawrenceburg. He was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1959. References

William Busch

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

William Busch (24 June 1901 – 30 January 1945) was a British composer and musician. Busch studied music in London, Berlin and the United States. His composition teachers included John Ireland and Bernard van Dieren. He worked as a concert pianist before devoting himself more to music composition. But his pacifism during World War II resulted in decreased reception for his works during this time. Busch died in 1945 in Woolacombe, North Devon, England. Music critic John Amis wrote that his works would have a lasting legacy due to their value. Early life and education William Busch was born on 24 June 1901 in London. His parents were originally from Germany, and later went through the naturalization process to become citizens of the United Kingdom. His musical studies took him to London, Berlin and the United States. His piano skills were further honed by Leonid Kreutzer, Wilhelm Backhaus and Egon Petri. Busch composed a piano concerto for the BBC Contemporary Music concert which he himself performed in 1938, and wrote a piano quartet in 1939. Their letters mainly focused on the sanctions imposed on Jews at the time in Germany by Adolf Hitler, with Finzi arguing staunchly against segr

William Byrd

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

William Byrd (; c. 15404 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continent. He is often considered along with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell as one of England’s most important composers of early music. Byrd wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music. He produced sacred music for Anglican services, but during the 1570s became a Roman Catholic, and wrote Catholic sacred music later in his life. Life Birth and background Richard Byrd of Ingatestone, Essex, the paternal grandfather of Thomas Byrd, most likely moved to London in the 15th century. Thereafter succeeding generations of the Byrd family are described as gentlemen. William Byrd was born in London, the third surviving son of Thomas Byrd and his wife, Margery. No record of his birth has survived, and the year of his birth is not known for certain, but a document dated 2 October 1598, and written by William Byrd, states that he is “58 yeares or th

William C. K. Irwin

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

William C. K. Irwin (3 January 1907 – 23 October 1998) was an American pianist, conductor, and songwriter. Irwin was born in San Francisco, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. With Australian composer Percy Grainger, Irwin studied composition before joining the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. The musical theatre composer Vernon Duke introduced Irwin to composer and songwriter George Gershwin in the 1920s. Irwin would subsequently join Gershwin and pianist Oscar Levant in piano improvisations at Gershwin’s apartment. Irwin began a six-year professional relationship with songwriter and composer Irving Berlin, after being introduced to him by Gershwin. As Berlin could not read or write music Irwin would write down music as Berlin composed, often writing music down for Berlin in the middle of the night. Irwin was professionally engaged as the musical director of touring productions of the musicals Oklahoma!, South Pacific and The King and I in the 1940s. In the 1960s Irwin became the choral director for Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall and later the halls staff composer and musical director. Irwin retired in 1979, and his wife Helen, died in 1984. They had a son, Dean, who

William Carter (composer)

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

William Carter (7 December 1838 – 1917) was an English composer, conductor, and organist. He began a lengthy career as an organist at mainly churches in London at the age of nine. In 1859 and 1860 he spent one year in Canada as the organist at Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec, during which time he staged what was possibly the largest Handel Festival in Canada at that time. As a composer he is known for his liturgical anthems for chorus and organ, sacred works for organ, the oratorio Placida, the Christian Martyr (1872), and Cantata Domino in E (1891). His father John Carter (1802-????) worked as an organist at St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green and married Anne Leach on 10 April 1831. Three of his brothers were also composers and organists: John Carter (1832–1916), George Carter (1835–1890) and Henry Carter (1837–1901). Like his brothers, William Carter was trained as an organist and pianist by his father and by the Austrian pianist and composer Ernst Pauer. William Carter died in London in 1917. References

William Christian Sellé

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

William Christian Sellé (1813–1898) was a Victorian doctor of music, composer and for forty years Musician in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Biography Early life William Christian Sellé was born in Benhall, Suffolk in 1813. His parents were Elizabeth Underwood, from a farming family in Suffolk, and Christian Sellé (1781–1867), a musician who had left Hanover with Viotti, a celebrated violinist, to join the private band of the 15th Light Dragoons of Ernest Augustus Duke of Cumberland (1771 – 1851) who was then living at the royal residence in Kew and was forming a band of mainly German musicians. Sellé was bilingual from an early age. Sellé began his musical education at a young age. He was placed under the tutelage of another of the Duke of Cumberland’s musicians, a Mr Platt. At fifteen he became a pupil of Cipriani Potter, at that time the principal of the Royal Academy of Music where he specialised in pianoforte. Early on, while he was under tutelage, Sellé demonstrated the ability to teach music and Potter trusted him enough to allow him to teach the other pupils. He was at the academy for about two years and then started a 70-year career as a teacher. He was primarily a teacher of

William Corbett (composer)

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

William Corbett (18 June 1680 – 7 March 1748) was an English composer, violinist, and concert performer. The Director of New Theatre (Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London) from 1700, Corbett was appointed orchestra director of King’s Theatre, The Haymarket in 1705 and became a member of the Royal Orchestra in 1709. In 1716, he was appointed Director of the King’s Band. From 1715 to 1726, Corbett lived in Italy, returning to London in 1727. It has been speculated that while abroad, Corbett was possibly acting as an agent for the Crown. Extant works *Henry VI by Betterton (1699) *Twelve Sonatas a tre for 2 violins and b.c op. 1 (1700) *As You Find It (1703) *Love Betray’d, or The Agreeable Disappointment (1703) *The Instrumental Musick for January, February and March, for 2 flutes and b.c (1703) *Six Sonatas for 2 flutes and b.c op. 2 (1705) *British Enchanters, or No Magick Like Love (1706) *Six Sonatas a 3 for Two Flutes or German Flutes and a Bass. Consisting of Preludes, Allemands, Corants, Sarabands, Gavots & Jiggs. Dedicated to ye … Earle of Portland … Opera Quarta. Libro Primo. Separate Parts. London : L. Pippard, for ye Author, 1712. A copy is in the British Library: music collec

William Cornysh

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

William Cornysh the Younger (also spelled Cornyshe, Cornishe or Cornish) (1465 – October 1523) was an English composer, dramatist, actor, and poet. Life In his only surviving poem, which was written in Fleet Prison, he claims that he has been convicted by false information and thus wrongly accused, though it is not known what the accusation was. He may not be the composer of the music found in the Eton Choirbook, which may alternatively be by his father, also named William Cornysh, who died c. 1502. The younger Cornysh had a prestigious employment at court, as Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal; and being responsible for the musical and dramatic entertainments at court and during important diplomatic events such as at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; and visits to and from the courts of France and the Holy Roman Empire, which he fulfilled until his death. He died in 1523, his birth date unknown. Musical works The Eton Choirbook (compiled c. 1490–1502) contains several works by Cornysh: Salve Regina (found in several other sources as well), Stabat mater, Ave Maria mater Dei, Gaude virgo mater Christi, and a lost Gaude flore virginali. The Caius Choirbook (c. 1518–1520

William Croft

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

William Croft (baptised 30 December 1678 – 14 August 1727) was an English composer and organist. Life Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of John Blow, and remained there until 1698. Two years after this departure, he became organist of St. Anne’s Church, Soho and he became an organist and ‘Gentleman extraordinary’ at the Chapel Royal. In 1700, Croft, in collaboration with “an Italian Master”, probably Gottfried Finger, published six sonatas for violin, flute, harpsichord and viol, in the newly fashionable Italian style. In 1707, he took over the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal post, which had been left vacant by the suicide of Jeremiah Clarke. Shortly afterwards his health deteriorated, and he died while visiting Bath aged 48. A fragment of music attributed to Croft, Ground in C minor (D221), has been used by contemporary composer Michael Nyman as the source of his piece An Eye for an Optical Theory. St Anne One of Croft’s most enduring pieces is the hymn tune “St Anne” written to the poem Our God, Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts. Other composers subsequently incorporated the t

William Crotch

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

William Crotch (5 July 177529 December 1847) was an English composer and organist. According to the British musicologist Nicholas Temperley, Crotch was “a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music”, and was certainly the most distinguished English musician in his day. Crotch was later to observe that this experience led him to become a rather spoiled child, excessively indulged so that he would perform. Adult life Crotch was for a time organist at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he was later to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree. His first attempt at an oratorio, The Captivity of Judah, was played at Trinity Hall, Cambridge on 4 June 1789 when he was 14. His most successful—and largest scale—composition was the oratorio Palestine (1812), after which he mainly returned to smaller scale works. He may have composed the Westminster Chimes in 1793, which are played by Big Ben each time it strikes the hour. In 1797, Crotch became Heather Professor of Music at Oxford University, and in 1799 he acquired a doctorate in music. While at Oxford, he became acquainted with the musician and artist John Malchair, and took up sketching. He followed Malchair’s style in recording

William Daman

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

William Daman (or William Damon; died 1591) was a musician in England in the royal household of Elizabeth I. His few surviving compositions include an early setting of the Psalms to part-music. Life Daman is thought to have been born in Liège (modern-day Belgium) around 1540 and came to England as a servant of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset on his return from Rome in 1566. In November of that year Daman married Anne Derifield at St James Garlickhythe in London, and the parish register of St Peter le Poer shows entries for baptisms or burials of eight of their children from 1572 to 1585. From 1576 until his death he was in the royal household of Elizabeth I, where he was one of six musicians in a recorder consort that played dance music. He died in 1591, and was buried at St Peter le Poer on 26 March. An adaptation of the tune for Psalm 45 from ‘The Psalmes in English Metre’ 1579 is set to the hymn ‘Lord Jesus, think on me’ by A W Chatfield translated from the Greek of Synesius of Cyrene 375-430 (New English Hymnal #70a). In 1591 another version of Daman’s Psalms appeared from Thomas East’s press. This work was published by William Swayne, and by him dedicated to Lord Burghley

William Dayas

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

William Humphreys Dayas (12 September 1863, New York – 3 May 1903, Manchester) was an American pianist, pedagogue and composer, one of the last pupils of Franz Liszt. Dayas parents died when he was young. He took church organist appointments and piano pupils as a teen to earn a living, while also studying piano with S. B. Mills and Rafael Joseffy and organ with Samuel P. Warren. In 1881 he moved to Berlin to pursue musical education, studying with Franz Kullak, Ehrlich, and Haupt. He then travelled to Weimar, where he was among many in Liszt’s circle in the 1880s. From 1890 to 1893 he succeeded Busoni as professor of piano at the Helsinki conservatory. He subsequently taught in Wiesbaden and, at Franz Wüllner’s invitation, to the Cologne Conservatorium (where he was succeeded by Rudolph Niemann ). From 1896 until his death he taught at Royal Manchester College of Music, succeeding Charles Hallé, and succeeded by Arthur Friedheim. The Royal Northern College of Music awards a Dayas Prize for Composition. Personal life William Dayas was married to Margaret (Margarethe) Vocke, a fellow pupil of Liszt, in 1891. Their daughter Karin Dayas, a noted pianist and pedagogue, was born in Helsi

William Denis Browne

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

William Charles Denis Browne (3 November 1888 – 4 June 1915), primarily known as Billy to family and as Denis to his friends, was a British composer, pianist, organist and music critic of the early 20th century. He and his close friend, poet Rupert Brooke, were commissioned into the Royal Naval Division together shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Denis Browne was killed in action during the Gallipoli Campaign. Early life Denis Browne was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, on 3 November 1888; his parents were of Anglo-Irish descent. His father, William Denis Browne (1836–1916), had been a land agent and had served as a juror in the Phoenix Park Murders trial. His paternal grandfather, Denis Browne, had been Dean of Emly Cathedral (the cathedral was demolished in 1877), and a great-grandfather, Denis Browne (1763–1828), was Member of Parliament for Mayo and younger brother of the 1st Marquess of Sligo. University In 1907 Denis Browne proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge, having again obtained a scholarship, and following Brooke who had gone up to King’s the previous year. Denis Browne had stayed in touch with Brooke, and through him met Edward Marsh. Deni

William Doppmann

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

William Doppmann (Springfield, Massachusetts, October 10, 1934 — Honokaa, Hawaii, January 27, 2013) was an American concert pianist and composer. At the University of Michigan he was the only musician to ever win both the Walter W. Naumburg Award and the Michaels Memorial Award in a single season. As a composer, Doppmann was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships. Early life William Doppmann started his piano lessons at the age of 5. His first major show was when he was 10 years old, in which he performed with the Cincinnati Orchestra. He studied piano with Robert Goldsand at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music. By the time he entered college he had been in over 500 performances. Doppmann moved to Michigan and attended University of Michigan studying composition with Homer Kelly and Ross Lee Finney, and later studied with Carl Hugo Grimm at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music. During his second year in college, Doppmann won his first awards, the Walter W. Naumburg Award and the Michaels Memorial Award as a young artist. Career William Doppmann moved to New York City after college, where he spent time studying and performing for

William Duckworth (composer)

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

William Duckworth (January 13, 1943 – September 13, 2012) was an American composer, author, educator, and Internet pioneer. He wrote more than 200 pieces of music and is credited with the composition of the first postminimal piece of music, The Time Curve Preludes (1977–78), for piano. Duckworth was a Professor of Music at Bucknell University. Together with Nora Farrell, his wife, he ran Monroe Street Music, the publisher of many Duckworth’s pieces. Biography Duckworth was born in North Carolina in 1943. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in music from East Carolina University, then master’s and doctorates in music education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied composition under composer Ben Johnston and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the notation of composer John Cage. Duckworth received a 2002 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1977. Duckworth collaborated with his future wife, Nora Farrell, on his internet projects before marrying her. Over the years Duckworth enjoyed a close collaboration with James Jordan who frequently performs Duckworth’s music with his world-renow

William Duncombe (composer)

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

William Duncombe (ca. 1736-1738 – 30 November 1818, or 1819) was an English composer. He was an organist in Kensington. He is mainly known by a few small piano pieces (especially a Sonatina in C Major and the Fanfare or Fanfare Minuet) that are still reprinted in pedagogical collections. They are probably excerpts of the Progressive lessons for the harpsichord and piano forte, published in 1778 (or 1785). Duncombe is frequently confused with the writer William Duncombe (1690 – 1769). Works *First Book of Progressive Lessons for the Harpsichord and Piano Forte – London : J. Bland, n.d. 1778 *Second Book of Twelve Progressive Lessons for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte – London : J. Bland, n.d. 1778 *The Favorite Air, of God save the King, with variations for two performers on one piano forte, or harpsichord – London, 1792 *An hymn to be sung by the charity children of Kensington, at their parish church, on Sunday, 15 December 1793, after a sermon preached in the Morning by the Rev. Archer Thompson, A.B. Chaplain to the Bishop of Bristol, Joint Morning Preacher of Portman Chapel and St. James’s Chapel, Tottenham-Court-Road, and Vicar of Thatcham, Berks. The Music by Mr. Duncombe − Lon

William Edwin Haesche

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

William Edwin Haesche (April 11, 1867 – January 26, 1929 ) was an American composer. Haesche was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Henry W. Haesche, a German immigrant, and his wife, the former Rosian Gaffney, an Irish immigrant. In the 1894 New Haven city directory, he is listed as being a violin teacher. He wrote a number of works for orchestra, as well as some chamber music and songs; he also composed some pieces for choir. Haesche composed the piece “Marguerite Waltz” for viola and piano. His works include: As stated on his death certificate, Haesche died in Roanoke, Virginia, of carcinoma of the rectum after two operations. References * External links *

William Ennis Thomson

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

William Ennis Thomson (May 24, 1927 – May 17, 2019) was an American music educator at the collegiate level, music theorist, composer, former Music School Dean and professor at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California from 1980 to 1992. His interest in research centered around the cognitive and perceptual foundation of music, insight for which is found in his 2006 article, “Pitch Frames as Melodic Archetypes”, Empirical Musicology Review, 1.2, 1–18. Thomson had served the faculties of SUNY Buffalo (1975–80) (Chair of Music and Albert Ziegle Professor); University of Arizona (Director of Graduate Studies) (1972–75); Case Western Reserve University (Fynette Hill Kulas Professor) (1969–72); Indiana University School of Music (1961–69) (Professor of Music Theory; Chair Music Theory Department); University of Hawaii Scholar in Residence (1967–68); Sul Ross State University (1951–60), and Ford Foundation composer in residence (1960–61). He chaired the ETS Advanced Placement in Music Test Committee (1975–79); served as music panel member and examiner for the National Endowment for the Arts (1971–75, while Nancy Hanks was chairman); fellow and policy committee member

William Erskine, Lord Kinneder

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

William Erskine, Lord Kinneder (1768–1822), was a friend and confidant of Sir Walter Scott, and a scholar and songwriter. Early life and education Erskine was the son of the Rev. William Erskine, episcopalian minister of Muthill, Perthshire. He was baptized at Muthill on 29 August 1768. He was educated at the University of Glasgow; while there he boarded in the house of Andrew Macdonald, episcopalian clergyman and author of Vimonda, from whom, according to Lockhart, he derived a strong passion for old English literature. Career He passed advocate at the Scottish bar on 3 July 1790, and became the close friend and literary confidant of Scott. In 1792 Erskine, with Scott and other young advocates, formed a class for the study of German. According to Scott’s biographer John Gibson Lockhart, the companionship of Erskine, owing to his special accomplishments as a classical scholar and acquaintance with the “severe models of antiquity”, was highly serviceable to Scott as a student of German drama and romance. Lockhart represents him as being mercilessly severe on “the mingled absurdities and vulgarities of German detail”. It was Erskine who negotiated for Scott’s translation of Lenore in

William F. Hanson

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

William Frederick Hanson (October 23, 1887 – June 22, 1969) was an American composer and music teacher who served as professor of music at Brigham Young University who specialized in Native American music. He studied, composed, and taught music. He is most well known for working with Zitkala-Sa on The Sun Dance Opera, an opera based on the sacred ritual of the Lakota Sun Dance. Biography Hanson was born in Vernal, Utah. He grew up in Utah near the Sioux and the Utes of the White Rocks and Fort Duchesne, with whom he became friends. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Brigham Young University (BYU) and then attended the Chicago Music College and Columbia University. He returned to Provo to teach at BYU in 1924 and was on the faculty for thirty-three years. Later, he was an instructor of music at Uintah academy. He lived with the Utes on the Uintah reservation and he would attend their religious festivities. Hanson’s main passions in life were music and learning about Native American cultures. His Native American friends gave him the name Ampa-O-Luta, meaning “the first tint of red in the east at dawn.” His master’s thesis is called The Lure of Tam-Man Nacup Springtime F

William Faulkes

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

George William Henry Faulkes (1863–1933) – known professionally as William Faulkes – was an English musician now best known as the composer of organ music. Early life Faulkes was a native of Liverpool, where he spent most of his working life. His early general education was under the aegis of his mother and older sister assisted by William Dawson, another Liverpool organist. At the age of 10 William joined the choir of St Margaret’s church, Anfield, and his music education continued under the church’s organist Henry Ditton Newman. Church organist Faulkes’s first appointment as church organist was at St John the Baptist Tuebrook (1881–86). He then returned to St Margaret’s Anfield as organist in 1886, Some have been recorded on CD. Further resources CD:William Faulkes (1863–1933): An Edwardian concert with England’s organ composer, performed by Duncan Ferguson. CD: ‘William Faulkes: Rhapsodie on Old French Carols’. Die Welte-Philharmonie-Orgel/The Britannic Organ. William Faulkes. Idylll (1902). Andrew Pink (2021) Exordia ad missam. References

William Felton (composer)

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

William Felton (1715 – 6 December 1769) was an English composer. He gained an M.A. at St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1745 and was a chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales. He composed three sets of six concertos, modelled on Handel’s and composed the glee, “Fill, fill, fill the glass”. Biography William Felton was born in Market Drayton, Shropshire. He was educated in Manchester and at St. John’s, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1738 and M.A. in 1745. He was vicar-choral in the choir of Hereford Cathedral in 1741, custos of the vicars-choral in 1769, and chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales (Augusta of Saxe-Gotha). During a time when, according to Charles Burney, players of the harpsichord had little choice of good music; several of Felton’s three sets of six concertos for organ or harpsichord and of his eight suites of easy lessons became the “pride of every incipient player in town and country.” Felton’s gavotte, attained great popularity; it was introduced in Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi’s opera Bertoldo in 1672. However, it “was too common and vulgar for an opera audience”. Felton’s concertos were modelled on those of Handel, whom the amateur held in admiration. Bu

William Flackton

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

William Flackton (bap. 27 March 1709 – 5 January 1798) was an 18th-century bookseller, publisher, amateur organist, viola player and composer. He is perhaps best known today for his compositions for the viola. Flackton was born in Canterbury and was the eldest surviving son of John Flackton and Catharine Sharp. He demonstrated a talent for music from an early age and at the age of nine he was admitted as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He was apprenticed to the Canterbury bookseller Edward Burges until 1730 when he set up his own business as a stationer and bookseller specialising in the second-hand and antiquarian book trade. He was in partnership with his brother John from 1738 and later traded in partnership with two of his former apprentices, first as Flackton and Marrable from 1774 and as Flackton, Marrable and Claris from 1784. The ESTC Database records over 60 books published by the firm. In 1770, he published his Six Solos, Three for a Violoncello and Three for a Tenor, Accompanied Either with a Violoncello or Harpsichord, dedicated to Sir William Young, Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica. In the Preface, Flackton shows that he wanted to promote music for the viola. Flack

William Foden

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

William Foden (23 March 1860 – 9 April 1947) was an American composer, musician, and teacher. Foden is considered America’s premiere classical guitarist during the 1890s and the first decades of the twentieth century. Life Foden was born in St. Louis, Missouri and initially started with the violin at age 7, changing from age 16 to the mandolin and classical guitar. He studied guitar with William O. Bateman (1825–1883), “a successful lawyer, music engraver, guitarist, and nationally recognized guitar composer” By the age of sixteen, he became the head of the local mandolin orchestra. His professional career began in the 1880s, gaining national notoriety from the early 1890s. “Having an aversion to traveling and leaving his family, he did not fully capitalize on his growing fame” near New York City, after a successful eight-month tour of the United States and British Columbia together with Giuseppe Pettine (mandolin) and Frederick Bacon (banjo), with newspapers referring to them as “The Big Trio”. However, he began ordering Martin guitars for himself and his students at the beginning of the century. “Foden Special” models were designed between the years of 1912 and 1917, through the

William G. James

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

William Garnet James (28 August 1892 – 10 March 1977) was an Australian pianist and composer and a pioneer of music broadcasting in Australia. Early years James was born in Ballarat in 1892. He studied piano at the Melbourne University Conservatorium, graduating in 1912. On the recommendation of the visiting pianist Teresa Carreño, he headed overseas to study in London and Brussels with Arthur De Greef, a former pupil of Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns. It is around this period that James composed his Six Australian Bush Songs, which were dedicated to, and performed by, Dame Nellie Melba. After being rejected for military service, James worked for the British Red Cross during the World War I. In 1915, he made his public debut as a pianist with the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. By this time he had begun to publish his compositions, and in 1916 his ballet music By Candlelight was performed in concert at the Savoy Theatre, London. ABC career In 1923 James returned to Australia, in company with Stella Power, eventually taking up a teaching position at the Melbourne University Conservatorium. In the late 1920s, he joined the newly formed Australian Broadcasting Company, the forerunner of

William G. Whittaker

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

William Gillies Whittaker (Newcastle upon Tyne, July 23, 1876 – Orkney Islands, July 5, 1944) was an English composer, pedagogue, conductor, musicologist, Bach scholar, publisher and writer. He spent his life promoting music. The University of Durham, where he once studied and taught, called him one of “Britain’s most influential musicians during the first half of the twentieth century”. An autodidact, he was a prodigious creator of Gebrauchsmusik. Early life and education in Newcastle Whittaker was born into a Methodist family in the Shieldfield district of Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, John Whittaker, the illegitimate son of a farm labourer’s daughter, came from Little Corby in Cumberland. His mother, Ellen Gillies, was an orphan from a respected family in Hexham in Northumberland. From an early age Whittaker showed an interest in music: he learnt to play the flute and his father bought him a piccolo; and he played as a schoolboy organist at St George’s Church in Jesmond. His father encouraged him to follow a career in science, which led to Whittaker initially studying mathematics—without great success—at Armstrong College, at that time part of the University of Durham (it lat

William Gardiner (English composer)

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

William Gardiner (15 March 1770, in Leicester – 16 November 1853) was an English composer who is best known for his hymns. He published two collections of his works: Sacred Melodies (1808) and Music and Friends (1838). Gardiner’s promotion of Ludwig van Beethoven led to the first performances of Beethoven’s music in England in 1794. In his Music and Friends, Gardiner told the story of how the first work of Beethoven became known in Britain after arriving in a violin case of a priest fleeing the French Revolutionary army. Vegetarianism Gardiner was a teetotaller and vegetarian. He lived on a milk and vegetable diet for several years but gave it up after a life-changing experience. Gardiner stated that on one occasion he was dining with a “Mr. Brooke” an eccentric who placed a beef-steak on the table. He was offended that Gardiner refused to eat meat. Mr. Brooke put a horse pistol to Gardiner’s head and declared he would shoot him if he did not eat the beef-steak. After this experience Gardiner gave up his vegetarian diet and resumed his former mode of living. Selected publications *Music and Friends (3 volumes, 1838-1853) *The Music of Nature (1849) References *

William Goldstein

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

William Goldstein (born February 25, 1942) is an American composer, recording artist, arts philosopher and improvisational pianist. Goldstein has received three Emmy nominations and one Grammy nomination for his scores Fame, Hello Again, and Shocker. He has been signed as a recording artist to Motown Records and CBS Masterworks. Goldstein has written arts commentary for public media including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and CBS News. Biography Early life and career Raised in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, Goldstein graduated from Lakewood High School. Goldstein is Jewish. While in high school, Goldstein learned to play trumpet to join the high school band. Upon graduating, he continued on a joint program with Trenton State College in New Jersey for music education and the Juilliard School once a week to study trumpet. During the draft years of the Vietnam War, he became composer in residence for the United States Army Band. Career Goldstein was signed to Columbia Picture Screen Gems. He was discovered by Berry Gordy, who brought Goldstein to Los Angeles, as a Motown recording artist, composer and producer. Goldstein has composed soundtracks for film and television, notab

William Grant Still

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

William Grant Still Jr. (May 11, 1895 – December 3, 1978) was an American composer of nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works. Born in Mississippi and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, He is known primarily for his first symphony, Afro-American Symphony (1930), which, until 1950, was the most widely performed symphony composed by an American. Still often is referred to as the “Dean of Afro-American Composers”. He was able to become a leading figure in the field of American classical music as the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, have an opera performed by a major opera company, and have an opera performed on national television. The papers of Still and his second wife, the librettist and writer Verna Arvey, are currently held by the University of Arkansas. He was the son of two teachers, Carrie Lena Fambro Still Shepperson (1872–1927) and William Grant Still Sr. His maternal grandmother, Anne Fambro, Still showed a great interest in music and started violin lessons in Little Rock at

William Harper (composer)

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

William Harper (born October 10, 1949) is a Chicago photographer and composer. His photography is concerned with natural form and line and his music is theatrical, technology-based work sourced from liturgical and folk traditions. Harper first earned critical acclaim for his work defining a Chicago style of new music theater and opera as the creator and producer of many full-length original works for the American Ritual Theater Company (ARTCO). Concurrent with these projects, and subsequently, Harper’s opera, music theater, dance, orchestra, chorus, and electro-acoustic works have been commissioned and performed by companies including The Minnesota Opera Company, The New Music Theater Ensemble of Minneapolis, INTAR Hispanic American Cultural Center, The Goodman Theater, Hartford Stage and The Music Theatre Group. Harper’s recently completed Unquiet Myths, a suite of electro-acoustic pieces was commissioned by The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company for Spill Out!, which premiered in 2006 and is scheduled to begin a national tour this year. William Harper received a PhD in music composition from the Eastman School of Music, and has received support from many foundations including the Natio

William Hawte

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

Sir William Hawte (also Haute or Haut) (c. 1430 – 2 July 1497) was a prominent member of a Kentish gentry family of long standing in royal service, which, through its near connections to the Woodville family, became closely and dangerously embroiled in the last phases of the Wars of the Roses. It is claimed that he is the same Sir William Hawte who was a composer of liturgical and devotional choral music (who flourished c. 1460–1470), represented in a number of manuscript choirbooks that survive to this day. Two settings of the Benedicamus Domino are found in the Pepys Manuscript, and another work attributed to him, a Stella coeli, extirpavit (a Latin prayer to the Virgin, for protection from plague ) exists in the Ritson Manuscript. Family Hawte the composer is identified as a son of William Haute of Bishopsbourne, Kent, M.P., by his second wife, Joan Wydeville, daughter of Richard Wydeville, M.P. (1385–1441), of Grafton, Northamptonshire and Maidstone, Kent, who married c. 1429. William the father did have a child by his first wife, and there is mention of a young William Haute seeking a novitiate at Christ Church priory in Canterbury around 1430. However the weight of evidence i

William Hayes (composer)

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

William Hayes (1706 – 27 July 1777) was an English composer, organist, singer and conductor. Life Hayes was born in Gloucester. He trained at Gloucester Cathedral where the cathedral account books record his name amongst the choristers from 1717. He spent the early part of his working life as organist of St Mary’s, Shrewsbury (1729) and Worcester Cathedral (1731). The majority of his career was spent at the University of Oxford where he was appointed organist of Magdalen College in 1734, and established his credentials with the degrees of B.Mus in 1735 and D.Mus in 1749. (He was painted by John Cornish in his doctoral robes around 1749.) In 1741 he was unanimously elected Heather Professor of Music and organist of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. He presided over Oxford’s concert life for the next 30 years, and was instrumental in the building of the Holywell Music Room in 1748, the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe. He was one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Musicians, and in 1765 was elected a “privileged member” of the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club. He died in Oxford, aged 69. Music style William Hayes was an enthusiastic Handelian, and

William Heinesen

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

Andreas William Heinesen (15 January 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a poet, writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands. His writing The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen’s writing, and he is famous for having once called Tórshavn “The Navel of the World”. His writing focuses on contrasts between darkness and light, between destruction and creativity. Then following is the existential struggle of man to take sides. This is not always easy, however, and the lines between good and bad are not always clearly defined. Heinesen was captivated by the mysterious part of life, calling himself religious in the broadest sense of the word. His life could be described as a struggle against defeatism with one oft-quoted aphorism of his is that “life is not despair, and death shall not rule”. Publications As he was born and raised before the Faroese language was taught in the schools, he wrote mainly in Danish but his spoken language was Faroese. All his books were later translated into his native Faroese. He published his first collection of poetry when he was 21 and he had three more published before he wrote his first novel Blæsende gry (Stormy Dawn) in 1934. He rea

William Henry Bell

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

William Henry Bell, known largely by his initials, W H Bell (20 August 1873 – 13 April 1946), was an English composer, conductor and lecturer. Biography Bell was born in St Albans and was a chorister at St Albans Cathedral. He studied organ, violin and piano in London at the Royal Academy of Music along with composition under Frederick Corder, and modal counterpoint privately with Charles Villiers Stanford. He won the Goss Scholarship in 1899. He mainly made his living as an organist and lecturer; he was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music where he taught from 1909 to 1912. In 1912, Bell went to South Africa to direct the South African College of Music in Cape Town. He was Principal until 1935 and is credited with a significant expansion of the school. In 1920, Bell became Professor of Music at the University of Cape Town, where he held classes for degree courses. The South African College of Music was incorporated into the University in 1923 and Professor Bell became Dean of the Faculty of Music. Bell founded the Little Theatre, a training center for opera, and occasionally directed the Cape Town Music Society. He was also responsible for founding the Speech and Dra

William Henry Harris

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

Sir William Henry Harris (28 March 1883 – 6 September 1973) was an English organist, choral trainer and composer. Early life and education Harris was born in Fulham, London and became a chorister at Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill. At the age of 14, he took up a “flexible” position as assistant organist at St David’s Cathedral in Wales under Herbert Morris, followed at 16 by a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where his teachers were Sir Walter Parratt, Charles Wood, and Henry Walford Davies. Career Harris was organist at St Augustine’s Church, Edgbaston from 1911 to 1919 and concurrently assistant organist at Lichfield Cathedral. During this time he also taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in collaboration with Granville Bantock. A move to Oxford in 1919 saw him take up organist positions successively at New College and in 1929 Christ Church, Oxford. While at Oxford, he conducted the Oxford Bach Choir (1925–1933) and was instrumental in founding and conducting the Opera Club, which put on the pioneering production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo staged by Jack Westrup in 1925. In 1933 he was appointed organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in succession to Charles Hylton Stewart

William Henry Kearns

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

William Henry Kearns (1794 – 28 December 1846) was an Irish violinist, conductor and composer active mainly in England. Biography Kearns was born in Dublin and, like many of his Irish contemporaries, emigrated to England where he settled at least since 1817. Nothing is known about his musical education, but in London he was employed as a violinist in the orchestra of the Covent Garden opera house (principal first violin for the season 1818–9) and as organist at the Verulam Episcopal Chapel, Lambeth. On 16 July 1817 his operetta Bachelor’s Wives, or The British at Brussels received its first performance at the English Opera House (EOH) and “enjoyed a substantial run”. Kearns did not compose any further operas, but was later employed at the EOH as musical advisor to the directors, Samuel James Arnold and William Hawes. He also conducted noteworthy performances of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz, Louis Spohr’s Zemire und Azor and Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. Weber’s original copy of the overture to Oberon was given to Kearns by William Hawes in 1827 “as a token of regard and friendship”. He also didn’t give up the violin; among other events he played at the Royal Musica

William Henry Longhurst

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

William Henry Longhurst (6 October 1819 – 17 June 1904) was an English organist at Canterbury Cathedral, and a composer. Life He was born in Lambeth in 1819, son of James Longhurst, an organ-builder. In 1821 his father started business in Canterbury, and Longhurst began his seventy years’ service for the cathedral there when he was admitted as a chorister in January 1828. He had lessons from the cathedral organist, Highmore Skeats, and afterwards from Skeats’s successor, Thomas Evance Jones. In 1836 he was appointed under-master of the choristers, assistant organist and lay clerk. He was the thirteenth successful candidate for the fellowship diploma of the College of Organists, founded in 1864. In 1873 he succeeded Jones as organist of Canterbury Cathedral, and held the post until 1898. His services were recognised by the dean and chapter in granting him, on his retirement, his full stipend, together with the use of his house in the cathedral precincts. The degree of DMus was conferred on him by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1875. He died in Harbledown, Canterbury, on 17 June 1904. Works As a composer Longhurst devoted himself chiefly to church music. His published works include

William Herschel

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

Frederick William Herschel ( ; ; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German–British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover, he followed his father into the military band of Hanover, before emigrating to Britain in 1757 at the age of 19. Taking an interest in astronomy in 1766, Herschel constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and in 1820 (5,000 objects). The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier catalogue were actually clusters of stars. On 13 March 1781 while making observations he made note of a new object in the constellation of Gemini. This would, after several weeks of verification and consultation with other astronomers, be confirmed to be a new planet, eventually given the name of Uranus. This was the first planet to be discovered since antiquity, and Herschel became famous overnight. As a result of this discovery, George III appointed him Court

William Hine

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

William Hine (1687–1730) was an English organist and composer. Hine was born at Brightwell, Oxfordshire. Career He was a chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1694, and a clerk in 1705. Coming to London, he studied music under Jeremiah Clarke, whose executive style he closely imitated. In 1711 or 1712. Hine became organist of Gloucester Cathedral, and shortly afterwards married Alicia, the daughter of Abraham Rudhall, the bellfounder. The dean and chapter of Gloucester showed their appreciation of Hine’s services by voluntarily increasing his yearly salary by 20 pounds, as is recorded in the mural tablet over his grave in the cloisters. Hine’s chief pupils were Richard Church and William Hayes, whose son, Dr. Philip Hayes, presented a portrait of Hine to the Oxford Music School. Death He died on 28 August 1730, aged 43. After Hine’s death, his widow published by subscription Harmonia Sacra Glocestriensis, or Select Anthems for 1, 2, and 3 Voices, &c. The volume contains the anthems Save me, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, I will magnify Thee, and the Jubilate (with Hall’s Te Deum). His wife died on 28 June 1735. References

William Horsley

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

William Horsley (18 November 177412 June 1858) was an English composer, organist and teacher. Career In 1790, Horsley became the pupil of the pianist and composer Theodore Smith (c. 1740–1810), who taught him sufficiently well to obtain the position of organist at Ely Chapel, Holborn, in 1794. He resigned this post in 1798 to become the organist at the Asylum for Female Orphans as well as the assistant to John Wall Callcott, with whom he had long been on terms of personal and artistic intimacy, and whose eldest daughter, Elizabeth Hutchins Callcott, he married. Callcott encouraged his interest in vocal music. In 1802 he became his friend’s successor upon the latter’s resignation. Besides holding this appointment he became the organist of Belgrave Chapel, Halkin Street, in 1812 and of London Charterhouse in 1838. More important are his glees, of which he published five books (1801–1807) besides contributing many detached glees and part songs to various collections. His glees include “By Celia’s Arbour,” “O, Nightingale,” and “Now the storm begins to lower”. His ballads, particularly Gentle Lyre and The Sailor’s Adieu enjoyed popularity in his lifetime. Two of his hymn tunes, ‘Belgra

William Horwood (composer)

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

William Horwood, also Horewud, was an English polyphonic vocal composer in the late-medieval period ( 1430 – 1484). He was an early proponent of the English votive style and represents the first stage of its development in the Eton Choirbook, contributing three complete pieces and one fragment to the document. In 1470, he was a singer at Lincoln Cathedral, in 1476, he was a vicar choral at Lincoln, and from 1477 until 1484, he was the Cathedral choirmaster. There is also one incomplete piece attributed to Horwood in the fragmentary York mass manuscript, Borthwick Institute MS Mus.1; however, Theodor Dumitrescu in his edition of the mass manuscript suggests this may be a different composer with the same surname. The survival of these large-scale pieces makes Horwood the most important representative we have of the period between Dunstaple and early Tudor composers such as Fayrfax and William Cornysh. Horwood’s “Magnificat secundi toni a 5” bears a strong resemblance to compositions of his near contemporary Josquin des Prez (c. 1440–1521), so much so that he might easily be mistaken for Josquin upon first audition. No mention is made of Horwood among the listing of Josquin’s contempo

William Hunnis

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

William Hunnis (died 6 June 1597) was an English Protestant poet, dramatist, and composer. Biography Hunnis was as early as 1549 in the service of William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke. His friend Thomas Newton, in a poem prefixed to The Hive of Hunnye (1578), says: “In prime of youth thy pleasant Penne depaincted Sonets sweete”, and mentions his interludes, gallant lays, rondelets and songs, explaining that it was in the winter of his age that he turned to sacred lore and high philosophy. In 1550 he published Certayne Psalms … in Englishe metre, and shortly afterward was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Edward VI. At Mary I’s accession he retained his appointment, but in 1555 he is said to have been one of a party of twelve conspirators who had determined to take Mary’s life. Although nothing came of the first plot, shortly afterward he was party to the Dudley conspiracy to dethrone Mary in favour of her sister Elizabeth. Hunnis, having some knowledge of alchemy, was to go abroad to coin the necessary gold, but this doubtful mission was exchanged for the task of making false keys to the treasury in London, which he was able to do because of his friendship with Nicholas

William Hurlstone

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

William Yeates Hurlstone (7 January 1876 – 30 May 1906) was an English composer. Showing brilliant musical talent from an early age, he died young, before his full potential could be realized. Nevertheless, he left behind an exquisite, albeit small, body of work. His teacher Sir Charles Villiers Stanford considered him the most talented of his pupils, above Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Career Born at 12 Richmond Gardens (now Empress Place), Fulham, on 7 January 1876, Hurlstone was the grandson of Frederick Yeates Hurlstone, president of the Royal Society of British Artists, and only son of the four children of Martin de Galway Hurlstone, a surgeon, by his wife Maria Bessy Styche, a piano teacher. Hurlstone’s earliest musical education was with his mother. In 1883 the family moved to Bemerton, a village near Salisbury where he became chorister in the local church, until his asthma prevented him from carrying on singing. The vicar was so impressed with him that he invited Hubert Parry and George Grove from the Royal College of Music to meet him. Parry told his parents that he was taken more by their son’s grasp of the subject than by his abilities as an executant. Grove w

William Inglott

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

William Inglott or Inglot (1553/4buried 31 December 1621) was an English organist and composer of the Elizabethan era, who is mostly associated with the cathedral in the English city of Norwich. Inglott moved from Norwich to Hereford Cathedral, returning in 1611 to replace the composer Thomas Morley as the cathedral organist. His memorial plaque at Norwich Cathedral was restored 90 years after his death. Amongst the few surviving works by Ingott are two keyboard pieces by Ingott in the collection of keyboard music known as the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and a Short Service for four voices, reconstructed in 1989. Biography William Inglott’s father Edmund (d. 1583) was the organist at Norwich Cathedral. William retained a strong connection to the cathedral during his career, first as a chorister under his father (15671568), as a lay clerk (from 1576), and as the cathedral’s organist (15871591). He was paid in 1582 for teaching the boys in the choir during a period when his father was too ill to work. Inglott moved to Hereford Cathedral as Master of the Choristers from 1597 until some time after 1610, but returned to Norwich as organist in 1611, replacing the composer Thomas Morley. No

William J. Marsh

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

William John Marsh (June 24, 1880 – February 1, 1971) was an American composer, organist, choir director, and educator most notable for composing “Texas, Our Texas,” the official state song for the U.S. state of Texas. He was a longtime figure in the Dallas–Fort Worth arts community, working as a composer, choir director, music professor, and music critic. He published over 100 original compositions, including the official mass of the Texas Centennial and The Flower Fair at Peking, the first opera written and produced in the state of Texas. a suburb of Liverpool, England. In the 1870s, Liverpool native James Marsh had worked for the Texas and Pacific Railway in Dallas, where he met Mary Cecilia McCormick, originally from Kentucky. James and Mary both met at Sacred Heart Cathedral, where they enjoyed singing. They married in 1877 and returned to Liverpool shortly afterward; James ultimately became the mayor of Woolton. Compositions During his career, Marsh composed over 100 original musical works, mostly religious in nature. He is best known for the following compositions: * “Sunset” (1913) – Marsh’s first published composition, for women’s chorus and violin, written for Fort Worth'

William J. McCoy (composer)

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

William J. McCoy (March 15, 1848 – 1926) was an American composer, music theorist, and music educator. Primarily active as composer and teacher of music in California, he was trained as a musician in New York City and at the Leipzig Conservatory (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig). He was for many years the head of the composition and harmony departments at Mills College. Life and career Born in Crestline, Ohio, McCoy grew up in California where he moved with his family at a young age. He started composing music at the age of 12, and later began his formal training as a composer with William Mason in New York City. He pursued further studies at the Leipzig Conservatory where he was a pupil of Carl Reinecke and Moritz Hauptmann. Reinecke conducted the premiere of his Symphony in F in Leipzig in 1872. He was the author of the music theory textbook Cumulative Harmony. McCoy died in Oakland, California on October 15, 1926. References

William Jackson (Scottish composer)

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

William Jackson (born 14 September 1955) is a Scottish harpist and composer. William Jackson was born in Cambuslang, near Glasgow. As his grandparents came from County Donegal, he visited Ireland many times, throughout his childhood, and still has a home there. He trained as a music therapist at the Guildhall School of Music in 1992/93, and from 1998 - 2009 he headed the Music therapy department at Mission Children’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1969 he formed the Scottish folk group Contraband, who released an album in 1974, then disbanded in 1975. Jackson’s brother George (died 1998) was also a member. He became a founding member of Ossian in 1976. He has lived in Ireland since 2009 and works as a music therapist there, while also continuing his concert and teaching work in the US for part of the year. Ossian disbanded in about 1989, and he continued as a solo artist both as a performer and composer. He became one of the first to compose using both traditional and classical musicians, and his “Wellpark Suite” in 1985 was generally acclaimed as a milestone in Scottish music. From 1989 William Jackson released a series of albums on his own label Mill Records, sometimes

William Johnson (organist)

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

William Johnson (1811–1866) was an English-born organist, conductor, composer, organ builder and music publisher based in Sydney. Early life Johnson was born in London, the son of a watchmaker, Richard Johnson (1774–1844) and Elizabeth Phillips (1780–1861). It is said that his grand-uncle was Rev Richard Johnson (1753–1827), the first Church of England chaplain in Sydney. Arrival in Australia Several members of his family came out to New South Wales from the early 1830s including his father and mother, and his brothers James Johnson (1803–1860) - who was also a talented musician - and Robert Ebenezer Johnson (1812–1866) - who became a barrister and a Member of the NSW Legislative Council. Johnson arrived in Sydney, with his brother James, in January 1836 and immediately advertised himself as a professor of music and tuner of organs and piano-fortes. In 1838, he married Eliza Harris Tompson (1817–1879) at St Matthew’s Windsor. Career Two years after his marriage, together with John Kinloch (1795–1870), he built Australia’s first “finger” organ, which still stands in St Matthew’s, Windsor. The partnership with Kinloch did not last long, and he built a number of organs under his own n

William Kraft

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

William Kraft (September 6, 1923 – February 12, 2022) was an American composer, conductor, teacher, timpanist, and percussionist. Biography Early life and education (1923–1954) Kraft was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was awarded two Anton Seidl Fellowships at Columbia University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree cum laude in 1951 and a master’s degree in 1954. He studied composition with Jack Beeson and Henry Cowell, orchestration with Henry Brant, percussion with Morris Goldenberg, timpani from Saul Goodman, and conducting with Rudolph Thomas and Fritz Zweig. While in New York City, Kraft worked as a freelance musician and was an extra percussionist at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1954, Kraft joined the Dallas Symphony. After one season, he accepted a position as percussionist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1955–1985) Kraft began as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s percussion section, before being promoted to the orchestra’s principal timpanist. From 1968 to 1972, he also served as the orchestra’s assistant conductor, under then music director Zubin Mehta. From 1981 to 1985, Kraft was Composer-in-Residence for the orchestra; during t

William L. Dawson (composer)

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

William Levi Dawson (September 26, 1899 – May 2, 1990) was an American composer, choir director, professor, and musicologist. Early life and education William Levi Dawson was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1899, Dawson paid his tuition by working as a music librarian and a manual laborer in the school’s Agricultural Division. He also participated as a member of Tuskegee’s choir, band and orchestra, playing several instruments, composing scores, and traveling with the Tuskegee Singers for five years. Dawson graduated from Tuskegee in 1921. Dawson’s goal was to write a symphony in the Negro Folk Idiom, and in the symphonic form used by European composers of the Romantic-Nationalist School (Dawson). He was greatly inspired by Dvorak and his views on nationalism in music. The entire work mirrors the Negro Spiritual. The symphony was a huge success and it garnered a great deal of attention from many critics. The success was however short lived. After four back-to-back performances in November, Dawson receded from the headlines, and the symphony was put to rest for 18 years. The symphony was revised in 1952 with added African rhythms inspired by the composer’s trip to West Africa. This new

William Lawes

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

William Lawes (April 1602 – 24 September 1645) was an English composer and musician known for his innovative and experimental style of early Baroque music. Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, he wrote sacred and secular music at the court of Charles I of England. His best known compositions are consort suites for viols, including the Royal Consort collection (completed 1635). He joined Royalist forces during the English Civil War and was honored with the title “Father of Musick” after being killed at the Battle of Rowton Heath. Life and career Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and brother to Henry Lawes, a very successful composer in his own right. It is possible the young William was a member of the cathedral choir there. His patron, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I. William was appointed as “musician in ordinary for lut

William Lawrence Hanson

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

William Lawrence Hanson (born 1905), was a composer of a variety of songs and was the composer/co-composer of the waltz “Dreaming of My Indiana Sweetheart”. They were two U.S. copyrights which are the following: Performances for “Dreaming of My Indiana Sweetheart” Career After composing “Dreaming of My Indiana Sweetheart”, Hansen had also composed a variety of songs under his name and under his pseudonym of Dale Wood. As Dale Wood, had a written a variety of songs with several notable composers and lyricists. Examples include Clay Boland, jazz musician Jack Lathrop, Murray Grand, and Michael Grace. As William Lawrence Hansen, his music experience was in the compilation and editing of music and text for song books and teleplays in the film and television industry for publication to the public. One such book was the 1951 release of the song book for the music for the 1942 film Bambi, and related entertainment industry song books. An exception was of having produced the University of Pennsylvania Songbook as Bill Hansen. Entertainment industry intellectual properties The Catalogue of the U.S. Copyright Records lists Hansen in the category of film scores for the Walt Disney Animation S

William Leighton

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

Sir William Leighton ( ; – buried 31 July 1622) was an English Jacobean composer and editor who published The Teares and Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule (1614). He was also a politician. Family Leighton was first son of William Leighton (died 1607) of Plaish Hall, Cardington, Shropshire, who was Chief Justice of North Wales, and of his wife Isabella, daughter of Thomas Onslow of London. Leighton married Winifred, daughter of Simon Harcourt, of Ellenhall, Staffordshire, by whom he had one son and two daughters. His wife died in 1616. Leighton seems to have been in poor standing with his own father, who in the latter’s will divided his property between William’s half-brother and William’s then infant son. William was not allowed use of his son’s portion unless he gave “good and sufficient sureties”. Leighton’s biographer ‘J.J.C.’ suggests it was probably because Leighton had been a follower of Elizabeth I’s disgraced favourite the Earl of Essex, to whom Leighton had written letters in 1600. Career For education, Leighton recordedly attended Shrewsbury School in 1577, followed by admission as a law student to the Inner Temple in 1580. Leighton served as MP for Much Wenlock in the l

William Lewarne Harris

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

William Lewarne Harris (23 May 1929 - 17 August 2013) was an English composer and teacher. Harris was born in Birkenhead. He was educated at the King’s School, Canterbury until the war saw him evacuated to St Austell in Cornwall. He performed National Service with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Afterwards he studied at the Royal College of Music with Patrick Hadley and later Herbert Howells. While there he won the Lionel Tertis prize for his folk-song influenced Suite for viola and piano (1952). It was later broadcast on BBC Radio by Watson Forbes. Harris was married in 1956 and the couple had two sons and a daughter. But the marriage ended in divorce and Harris became a single parent of three children, working as a music and piano teacher in various London and Kent schools. He maintained his Cornish roots from his mother’s side of the family, frequently returning to Cornwall and becoming friendly with another Cornish composer of operas, Inglis Gundry. He was made a Cornish bard in 2002 in recognition of his support for Cornish music. He died in a London nursing home on 17 August 2013, aged 84. His memoirs, Knocking on a Bolted Door, were edited by his son Steven and publis

William Lloyd Webber

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

William Southcombe Lloyd Webber (11 March 1914 – 29 October 1982) was an English organist and composer, as a part of the modern classical music movement. Besides his long career, composing works ranging from choral pieces to instrumental items and more, he is known for being the father of his fellow composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. He also served as a music educator, teaching students in harmony and counterpoint at the Royal College of Music, and was director of the London College of Music, as well as music director and organist at Methodist Central Hall for many years until his sudden death in 1982. Early years and education Webber was born into a respectable, but relatively poor family in Chelsea in 1914, as the first of two children of William Charles Henry Webber (28 August 1886 – 1 November 1962), a self-employed plumber, and his wife, Winifred Mary Gittins (30 November 1888 – unknown death date). Their second child, Winifred Margaret Webber, was born on 27 November 1920 and died in September 1984 at age 63. According to Jean Lloyd Webber, her father-in-law was a semi-professional musician, who sang in several Anglican churches in London and a

William Marsey

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

William Marsey (born 29 September 1989) is a British composer. He studied music at the University of Cambridge and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was Manson Fellow. He is also one of three artistic directors of Listenpony, a London-based concert series, record label and commissioning body. Marsey’s piece Belmont Chill (from Dutch Indoor Subjects) for solo piano was nominated for the British Composer Awards in 2018. He also composed music for Hofesh Shechter’s East Wall in the same year. Marsey received an Ivor Novello Award nomination at The Ivors Classical Awards 2023. Why Do You Grieve, for chamber ensemble, was nominated for Best Chamber Ensemble Composition. Notable works Orchestra *The Sea (2019), premiered by the Royal Northern Sinfonia conducted by Lars Vogt *Man with Limp Wrist (2023), for orchestra, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; premiered by The Hallé in Manchester, UK, October 2023 Ensemble *Dances of Travel (2018) for 13 players, premiered by the Royal Academy Manson Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen *Why Do You Grieve (2022) for 11 players, premiered by Ozero Ensemble conducted by Oliver Zeffman Voices *The Beauty of Sexuality (20

William Mason (composer)

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

William Mason (January 24, 1829 – July 14, 1908) was an American composer and pianist and a member of a musical family. His father was composer Lowell Mason, a leading figure in American church music, and his younger brother, Henry Mason, was a co-founder of the piano manufacturers Mason & Hamlin. Career Mason was born in Boston. After a successful debut at the Boston Academy of Music, he went to Europe in 1849; there he was the first American piano student of Franz Liszt and Ignaz Moscheles. He became the leader of a chamber ensemble based in New York that introduced many works of Robert Schumann and other famous Europeans to Americans during the Civil War era and beyond, at a time when classical music still had little specifically American identity. Mason published numerous pedagogical works for the piano student, but is remembered above all for his Chopinesque compositions for piano. The American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) dedicated his second piano sonata, Op. 50 Sonata Eroica (1895), to William Mason. He died in New York City, aged 79. His notable students included pianist and conductor William Rogers Chapman, and organist, conductor and composer Edward

William Mayer (composer)

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

William Mayer (November 18, 1925 – November 17, 2017) was an American composer, best known for his prize-winning opera A Death in the Family. Life and career Mayer was born in New York City, the son of Dorothy (née Ehrich) and John C. Mayer. His great-grandfather was Emanuel Lehman, co-founder of Lehman Brothers. His father worked in finance and played the violin as an amateur; his mother was a writer. He entered Yale University in 1944, but his college years were interrupted by military service (he served as a counter-intelligence agent in US-occupied Japan). Upon his discharge he re-entered Yale and graduated in 1949, then trained at the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music, studying with Roger Sessions and Felix Salzer, and later with Otto Luening, Emanuel Balaban and Izler Solomon. The composer wrote three stage works in addition to his prize-winning A Death in the Family, and a variety of orchestral, chamber, choral and vocal works. John Rockwell of The New York Times has pointed out that Mayer was “especially known for his operas and songs … his work sings out with real beauty, both in the vocal writing and the instrumental settings.” Distinguished artists have

William McKie (musician)

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

Sir William Neil McKie (22 May 19011 December 1984) was an Australian organist, conductor, and composer. He was Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey 1941–1963 and noted for his direction of the music for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth in 1947, and later her Coronation in 1953. Birth and studies William McKie was born in the suburb of Collingwood, Melbourne, the son of William McKie, who was vicar of Collingwood at the time; his brother was John McKie, Bishop of Geelong (coadjutor bishop in Melbourne). He studied the organ at Melbourne Grammar School under Dr Arthur Nickson (1876–1964), and in 1919 won the prestigious Clarke Scholarship from the University of Melbourne which enabled him to study at the Royal College of Music, London. Following this he became Organ Scholar of Worcester College, Oxford, where he gained his MA and BMus degrees. Early career In 1926 McKie took up his first professional appointment as Director of Music of Clifton College, Bristol, and is now perhaps the most famous of all Cliftonian organists. In 1930 he was selected by the Melbourne City Council to succeed W. G. Price as Melbourne City Organist and Musical Advisor to the City C

William Merrigan Daly

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

William Merrigan Daly Jr. (1 September 1887 – 3 December 1936) was an American pianist, composer, songwriter, orchestrator, musical director and conductor. Life and career William Daly was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a successful song-and-dance man. He attended Harvard University receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. By 1911 he was a writer, editor, and eventually general manager for Everybody’s Magazine in New York. Daly left the company in 1914 to pursue a show business career. He married in 1915 settling in New York City. Daly died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1936. Works ;Operetta * Western Stuff, Operetta in 1 reel (1917); libretto by James Montgomery Flagg ;Broadway musical contributions (songs and numbers) * Betty (1916) :: Spilling the Beans, Fox-trot * Everything (1918) :: “You’re the Very Girl I’ve Looked For” :: “Sunshine Alley” :: “Come to the Land of Romance” :: “Roll Along” * Kissing Time (1920); earlier version staged in London :: “The Nicest Sort of Feeling” * For Goodness’ Sake (1922); co-composed with Paul Lannin; additional songs by George Gershwin :: “All to Myself” :: “When You’re in Rome” :: “Every Day” :: “Twilight” :: “Greatest Team

William Mesnik

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

William Mesnik (born May 21, 1953) is an American character actor, musician and playwright who appeared in numerous films and television series of the 1990s and 2000s. He started his career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1970s, playing in such Greenwich Village coffee houses as Paul Colby’s The Other End. He honed his playwriting skills as a regular contributor to The West Bank Downstairs Theater Bar repertory during the 1980s, then went on to create several genre-bending musical theater pieces, including his music-drama about folk singers during the blacklist Three Songs (Fremont Centre Theatre, 1997, revived in 2002), garnering “Critic’s Choice” in the Los Angeles Times and a “Best Ensemble” nomination (LA Weekly Theater Awards). In 2000, he released an album, Campaign Songs, as an accompaniment to his drama Muckrakers: an evening of presidential campaign songs and family dysfunction, which debuted at FCT on the eve of the 2000 United States presidential election. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Mesnik’s theatrical resume encompasses the Broadway theatre (La Bute; Oh! Calcutta!), Off-Broadway theatre (Modigliani; A Weekend Near Madison; Smoke on the Mountain; The Good

William Mineard Bennett

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

William Mineard Bennet (1778–1858), was an English miniature-painter, singer and composer. Life Bennett was born at Exeter in 1778. While apprenticed to the engraver Abraham Ezekiel in the city, he learned Hebrew and became enthusiastic about music. The Monthly Review continued: Mr. Bennett had long determined to make trial of the stage; and, towards the end of the season, made his debut in the character of Prince Orlando, in the comic opera of The Cabinet. His reception here was more flattering than at the concerts, and he made an engagement with the managers to play a few nights; which he did, in the following characters: Don Carlos, in the Duenna; Young Meadows, in Love in a Village; Don Alphonso, in The Castle of Andalusia; Lord William, in the Haunted Tower; Paul, in Paul and Virginia; and Patrick, in The Poor Soldier—in all of which he gave much satisfaction. Just before the opening of the Hay-market theatre, in the same season, he received an offer to play six nights there, which he accepted; but to get up an opera was deemed impracticable, and he played the six nights in musical after-pieces. His first appearance before a London audience was in the character of Paul, in Pau

William Mundy (composer)

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

William Mundy (c. 1529–1591) was a Renaissance English composer of sacred music and father of composer John Mundy. Life Mundy was the son of Thomas Mundy, a musician and sexton of the London church St Mary-at-Hill. William Mundy married Mary Alcock and had two sons, John Mundy, an organist and composer, and Stephen Mundy, a gentleman of the household to James I and Charles I. In 1543, William Mundy was head chorister of Westminster Abbey, until his voice broke. He was appointed deputy to St Martin, Ludgate in 1547, and from 1548 to 1558 Mundy served as Parish Clerk for the church of St Mary-at-Hill in London (his father Thomas’ employer). Mundy was appointed Vicar choral to the Chapel Royal in 1559, and as a Gentleman of the Chapel in 1564, Works Overview Coming of age during the reign of Henry VIII, Mundy’s career spanned much of England’s Tudor Dynasty, and reflected the changes in church music that accompanied the religious turmoil of that period. Mundy’s extant body of sacred music consists of the two masses above, six Anglican service settings, the single Kyrie, twenty-two motets (in Latin), thirteen anthems, and a large number of musical settings for specific Psalms. These se

William Oliver (songwriter)

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

William Oliver (5 February 1800 29 October 1848) was a Tyneside poet, singer and songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne. He is arguably best known for the song “Newcassel Props”, an example of the Geordie dialect. Career Oliver became a draper and hatter, working for a Mr.Bowes of The Bridge End, Gateshead, where he stayed there for many years. For a short time, he ran his own business as a hatter, but this was unsuccessful. He eventually left the business around 1830 and joined his brother Timothy working in his grocery shop situated at the corner of Cloth Market and High Bridge, and there he stayed until his death. Music Oliver was popular as both singer and songwriter in his time. His 1829 collection of songs was dedicated to Robert Bill, Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne. Arthur’s Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne. Works His works include: * “The Bonassus” – the tale of a buffalo in a wild animal show; to the tune of “Jemmy Joneson’s Whurry” * “The Clock Face” to the tune “Bold Dragoon” * “England Awake” – a political song * “The Lament” to the tune “The Bold Dragoon” * “The New Markets” – to the tune “Canny Newcassel” * “Newcassel Props” – in which we remember the passing of local characters,

William Owen (composer)

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

William Owen, also known by his Welsh name Prysgol, (December 1813 – 20 July 1893) was a Welsh hymn writer. Born at Bangor, he composed the Welsh hymn tune Bryn Calfaria and other works, among his best known being the anthem Ffynnon Ddisglair and the hymns Alma and Deemster. Life and career William Owen, widely known in Wales as William Owen Prysgol, was the son of William and Ellen Owen. His father was a stone mason in a quarry. He had music instruction in classes run by Robert Williams at Carneddi, and from William Roberts. He later worked at the Dorothea Slate Quarry, and is said to have composed his most famous work, the hymn Bryn Calfaria (Calvary Hill), on slate at his place of work. Owen was involved with the temperance movement, composing several temperance pieces, some of which were performed at events at Caernarfon Castle. Among his best known works, after Bryn Calfaria, are the anthem Ffynnon Ddisglair (Bright Well) and the hymns Alma and Deemster. He married a woman from Prysgol, a farmhouse near Caeathro, a few kilometers inland from Caernarfon, where he lived thereafter. He died on 20 July 1893, aged 79, and is buried in Caeathro chapel burial ground. Footnotes Refere

William P. Perry

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

William P. Perry (born 1930 in Elmira, New York) is an American composer and producer of television and film. His music has been performed by the Chicago Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Detroit Symphony and the symphonic orchestras of Cincinnati, Minnesota, Montreal, Calgary and Hartford as well as the Vienna Symphony, the Rome Philharmonic, the Slovak Philharmonic, the RTÉ National Symphony of Ireland and other orchestras in Europe. Biography Born in Elmira, New York in 1930, he attended Harvard University and studied with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson. For twelve years, Perry was the music director and composer-in-residence at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he composed and performed as a pianist more than two hundred scores for the Museum’s silent film collection. TV work After working at MOMA, he produced a PBS television series, The Silent Years (1971, 1975) hosted by Orson Welles and Lillian Gish, which won an Emmy Award. Perry is often credited with having played a major role in the revival of interest in classic silent films. For three years (1976–1978) he produced a national poetry series for PBS, Anyone for Tennyson, starring Henr

William Parsons (composer and musician)

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

Sir William Parsons (1745/6–1817) was an English composer and musician who was Master of the King’s Musick under George III between 1786 and 1817. Originally a chorister at Westminster Abbey as a pupil of Benjamin Cooke, he developed a reputation as a fine tenor, but was passed over for another musician at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and thus went to Europe to seek employment. Returning to England, he was an assistant director at the George Frideric Handel commemorations in Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon in 1784, and composed a number of anthems for royal usage. He was knighted by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Jeffreys Pratt, second Earl Camden in 1795, thus becoming the first British musician honoured with a knighthood. An unremarkable composer and musician, he gained the title more through tutoring the king’s family and his contacts than any merit, being a friend of several members of the royal family and composers such as Joseph Haydn. Few of his compositions survive. References

William Ralph Driffill

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

William Ralph Driffill (8 December 1870, Dunstable – 24 April 1922, Barnet) was an English organist and composer. Personal life Driffill was the son of William Driffill, a plumber who ran his own business in Dunstable, and Maria (née Potter). In 1908 he married Kate Prior (1879–1947). Their first child was Helen Elsbeth (1914–96). Their second child was Kathleen Rosemary (1922–2008); she was born 6 months after her father’s sudden death from pneumonia in 1922. Student days In 1890, Driffill enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music. During his time there he gained prizes for his playing and composition. In 1891, he is recorded as gaining the status of ‘Certificated Pianist’ of Trinity College of Music in their ‘35th Half-Yearly Higher Examinations’. Performing Conductor * 1900: Barnet: Mr. W. R. Driffill’s Choral Society gave a highly satisfactory performance, on the 8th ult., of Franco Leoni’s “Gate of Life,” preceded by Mendelssohn’s “Hymn of Praise” … The singing of the choir gave evidence of careful and efficient training, which reflected great credit on the conductor, Mr. Driffill. Organist * n.d.: organist at St. Mary the Virgin, in Monken Hadley, Hertfordshire. * 1896–? : org

William Raskin

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

William Raskin, sometimes given as Willie Raskin, (November 3, 1896 – April 8, 1942) was an American songwriter and lyricist. After beginning his career as a journalist in New York, he became first a clerk and then a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley. He also wrote material for vaudeville. In the late 1920s he relocated to California at the time of the beginning of sound films; becoming one of the first songwriters to work in Hollywood in that newly created medium. Recordings of his work are catalogued in the Discography of American Historical Recordings by the University of California, Santa Barbara, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Packard Humanities Institute. Life and career William Raskin was born in New York City on November 3, 1896. He was educated at New York Public School 83 in Morris Park, Bronx, and began his career writing for the New York Morning Telegraph. He then worked as a clerk in various Tin Pan Alley music publishing firms before transitioning into a career as songwriter. In 1921 he co-authored the song “I Found a Rose in the Devil’s Garden” with Fred Fisher. It was made into a popular piano roll by pianist and composer Pete Wendling who also arranged

William Reed (English composer)

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

William Leonard Reed (known as Will Reed) (16 October 1910 – 15 April 2002) was an English classical composer and pianist. Life Reed was educated at Dulwich College and Jesus College, Oxford, obtaining a degree in literae humaniores in 1933 and a diploma in education in 1934. Whilst still at Oxford, he won a composition prize for a sonata for violin and piano, and Sir Hugh Allen (professor of music at Oxford) recommended that he should study at the Royal College of Music. Reed studied composition with Herbert Howells and conducting with Constant Lambert. He travelled to Scandinavia on a scholarship in 1936, meeting the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and lectured in Scandinavia on behalf of the British Council in 1936 and 1937. In 1939, he obtained a D Mus degree from the University of Oxford. References

William Rimmer (music)

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

William Rimmer (1862–1936) was a Lancashire composer and conductor of brass band music who was particularly well known for his marches. Rimmer was born in Southport in 1862 into a musical family. His father was bandmaster of the Lancashire Volunteer Rifles and encouraged both Rimmer and his brother Robert in their musical studies. At the age of 15 Rimmer joined the Southport Rifle band as a side-drummer and then moved on to the cornet, eventually becoming the band’s principal cornet soloist. As a young man he made himself into one of the finest cornet players in the country under the eye of Alexander Owen at Besses o’ th’ Barn Band. His prowess on the instrument became well known, and he was engaged as a soloist by many of the best bands of the day. He eventually gave up playing to concentrate on training and conducting bands. He started his conducting career with the Skelmersdale Old Band and the Skelmersdale Temperance Band where he saw excellent success at local contests from 1891 to 1895. Then like most of the top brass band conductors of his generation, he became associated with many different bands in the Lancashire area. At the height of his fame conducted every winning band

William Rogers Chapman

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

William Rogers Chapman (August 4, 1855 – March 27, 1935) was an American conductor, organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. He is best known as the founding director of two choruses in New York City (the men’s chorus Musurgia Society and the women’s chorus the Rubinstein Club), and for establishing the Maine Music Festival. Early life and education William Rogers Chapman was born August 4, 1855, in Hanover, Massachusetts. He was named after his father, the Reverend William Rogers Chapman, who died not long after his birth on October 25, 1855, at the age of 43. Chapman was christened on top of his father’s coffin when he was three months old. He grew up in Bethel, Maine, where he was raised by his mother, Emily Irene Bishop Chapman. He was educated at Gould Academy in Bethel. In 1868 William’s mother married a second time, to William Jacob Valentine, a New York banker, and the family moved to Fordham, New York. Soon after William was sent to a school in New York City operated by the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church with the aim of being trained as a minister. At the age of 14 he was sticken with sudden blindness and spent a year recuperating with bandaged eyes in

William Ross (composer)

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

William Ross (born July 20, 1948) is an American composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor and music director. Ross is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards (in 2007 and 2009), one Daytime Emmy Award (in 1991), and has been nominated for one Annie Award (in 2008). He has been nominated twice for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s). Ross is the arranger for Andrea Bocelli’s version of “Amazing Grace” performed during his concert Andrea Bocelli: Music for Hope - Live From Duomo di Milano, broadcast live on YouTube to over 25 million viewers on April 12, 2020. Career Ross has worked with artists and musicians ranging from Hollywood composers John Williams, Alan Silvestri, John Powell, Michael Giacchino, Klaus Badelt and Michael Kamen, to pop music artists including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Laura Pausini, Whitney Houston, Kenny G, Michael Jackson, David Foster, Quincy Jones, Babyface and Sting. He has arranged the music for multiple Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies from 1998 to 2010. Ross composed the soundtrack for assorted films, including Tuck Everlasting, My Dog Skip, The Young Black Sta

William Russell (organist)

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

William Russell (6 October 1777 – 21 November 1813) was an English organist and composer. Life He was the son of William Russell, an organ-builder, and was born in London on 6 October 1777. From age seven Russell was taught by the organists William Cope, William Shrubsole, and John Groombridge. Between 1789 and 1793 he was deputy to his father, who was organist to St. Mary’s, Aldermanbury. In 1793, Russell was appointed organist to the Great Queen Street chapel; cathedral services were performed there until 1798, when the chapel became a Wesleyan meeting-house. On 2 September 1798 he was elected organist at St. Anne’s, Limehouse. In 1801 he was elected to a similar post at the Foundling Hospital. About the same time he resumed musical studies under Samuel Arnold. In 1808, Russell graduated Mus. Bac. at Oxford. He died on 21 November 1813 at Cobham Row, Coldbath Fields, in Clerkenwell. Works Russell’s organ voluntaries were in suite form. He published Twelve Voluntaries for the Organ or Pianoforte (1805), and a Second Book (1812). Job was an oratorio adaptation for organ or pianoforte, from Samuel Wesley, issued in 1826. He also composed music to Christopher Smart’s Ode on St. Cecil

William S. Pitts

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

William S. Pitts (1830 – 1918) was an American physician and composer who wrote the well-known song “The Church in the Wildwood” in 1857. Early life in upstate New York William Savage Pitts was born at Lums Corners within the town of Yates in Orleans County, New York on August 18, 1830 to Charles Pitts and Polly Green Smith Pitts who were descended from New England Puritans of English and Scottish ancestry. Pitts was the eighth of nine children and had musical ability from an early age, taking formal music lessons from a graduate of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. Move to Wisconsin and Iowa At age nineteen Pitts traveled with his family to Rock County, Wisconsin where he worked as a rural schoolteacher. Pitts found particular beauty in a wooded valley formed by the Cedar River. While viewing the spot, Pitts envisioned a church building there and could not seem to ease the vision from his mind. Returning to his home in Wisconsin, he wrote “The Church in the Wildwood” for his own sake, eventually saying of its completion, “only then was I at peace with myself.” By 1862 Pitts was married in Union, Wisconsin, and he and his wife moved to Fredericksburg to be near her elderly paren

William Savage

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

William Savage (1720 – 27 July 1789) was an English composer, organist, and singer of the 18th century. He sang as a boy treble and alto, a countertenor, and as a bass. He is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose oratorios Savage sang. Life and career Savage married Mary Bolt (1718–1788), and together they had three children. William died young in the West Indies, and Rev. George Savage died in 1816. Their daughter Jane Savage was also a composer. Mary published two volumes of Poems on Various Subjects and Occasions in 1777. Singer Savage first came to prominence as a boy treble in 1735, singing in a revival of Handel’s Athalia and in Alcina during the composer’s Covent Garden season. After his voice had broken, he initially continued his career singing as an alto (countertenor), and later turned into a bass. As a countertenor he performed possibly the small roles of La Fortuna and Childerico in Handel’s operas, Giustino (1737) and Faramondo (1738), and also appeared in the first performance of Israel in Egypt (1739), as well as in revivals of other Handel oratorios. As a bass, he created the title role in Imeneo (1740), the role of

William Schuman

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

William Howard Schuman (August 4, 1910 – February 15, 1992) was an American composer and arts administrator. Life Schuman was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, son of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. He was named after the 27th U.S. president, William Howard Taft, though his family preferred to call him Bill. Schuman played the violin and banjo as a child, but his overwhelming passion was baseball. He attended Temple Shaaray Tefila as a child. While still in high school, he formed a dance band, “Billy Schuman and his Alamo Society Orchestra”, that played local weddings and bar mitzvahs in which Schuman played string bass. In 1928 he entered New York University’s School of Commerce to pursue a business degree, at the same time working for an advertising agency. He also wrote popular songs with E. B. Marks Jr, a friend he had met long before at summer camp. Around that time, Schuman met lyricist Frank Loesser and wrote some forty songs with him. Loesser’s first published song, “In Love with a Memory of You”, credits the music to William H. Schuman. On April 13, 1930, Schuman attended a Carnegie Hall concert of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Acco

William Sethares

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

William A. Sethares (born April 19, 1955) is an American professor of electrical engineering and music theorist at the University of Wisconsin. In music, he has contributed to the theory of dynamic tonality and provided a formalization of consonance. Consonance and dissonance In the 1980s, Sethares began exploring microtonality. In 1990, he realized traditional definitions of consonance and dissonance can be reoriented when the harmonics of an interval are expanded, such as an octave that is slightly larger than its normal 2:1 ratio. Sethares also wrote a BASIC program to calculate dissonance curves, which measure the dissonance of any given interval in a scale. He felt the work demonstrated the possibility of synthesizing non-harmonic instruments that could play consonant music. Sethares developed his ideas into the book Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale (1998), which explores the close relationship between timbre and tuning. When discussing Thai and Indonesian tuning systems, Sethares further explores how sensory consonance is compatible with microtonality. He frequently refers to Wendy Carlos’ work and cites her demonstration that the consonance of any given interval is dependent

William Shield

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

William Shield (5 March 1748 – 25 January 1829) was an English composer, violinist and violist. His music earned the respect of Haydn and Beethoven. Life and musical career Shield was born in Swalwell near Gateshead, County Durham, the son of William Shield and his wife, Mary, née Cash. He was first taught music by his father but, after both he and his mother died while Shield was still a child, he was apprenticed to a shipbuilder in South Shields, continuing however to study music with Charles Avison in Newcastle upon Tyne. He became a noted violinist in Newcastle’s subscription concerts before moving to Scarborough to lead a theatre orchestra. In 1772, he was appointed by Felice Giardini to play violin in the opera at Covent Garden (now the Royal Opera House), and from 1773 he was principal violist there. In 1778 he provided the music for the comic opera The Flitch of Bacon to a libretto by Henry Bate. On 21 February 1776 he was in Durham, where he attended the meeting of the city’s masonic lodge at the Marquis of Granby tavern. The lodge Minutes indicate that he was by this date already a member of the St. John’s lodge in Newcastle. He later also became a member of the Sunderlan

William Smethergell

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

William Smethergell (6 January 1751 - before March 1836) was an English composer and musician who lived and worked in London. Christened in the church of St Peter le Poer, after an apprenticeship of seven years (with the organist and composer Thomas Curtis), He was also the principal viola player at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. His surviving works include two published sets of overture-symphonies (Op. 2 and Op. 5), six harpsichord sonatas, seven keyboard concertos and a number of works for smaller forces. Both sets have been recorded by Douglas Bostock with the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim. References External links *

William Stanley (composer)

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

William Stanley (1820–1902) was an English-born Australian classical music composer, conductor and performer. Early life Stanley was born in Egham, near Windsor, England, the son of William Sexton and Ann Stanley. Sexton, who was the organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle (1801–1824), married Ann in 1819. After Sexton’s death, Ann married William Best (1803–1880) in 1827. Best was an oboist or trumpeter with the King’s Band (under the control of the Master of the King’s Musick). Ann died on 14 May 1828, one month after giving birth to Stanley’s half-sister, Emma. This left Stanley and two younger sisters in Best’s care. Stanley, under the name of Sexton, was a member of the choir of St George’s Chapel, and is said to have sung at the funeral of King George IV there in 1830. Recognised as a musical prodigy at an early age (he could play complex compositions on the piano at sight), his step-father provided some instruction but, having a large family to support, could not afford the training Stanley required. By the age of 9 he composed a series of variations on “God Save the King”. His step-father’s connections with the Royal Household no doubt got him the opportunity to perf

William Sterndale Bennett

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

Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 18161 February 1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the London Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he remained for ten years. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. Among those impressed by Bennett was the German composer Felix Mendelssohn, who invited him to Leipzig. There Bennett became friendly with Robert Schumann, who shared Mendelssohn’s admiration for his compositions. Bennett spent three winters composing and performing in Leipzig. In 1837 Bennett began to teach at the RAM, with which he was associated for most of the rest of his life. For twenty years he taught there, later also teaching at Queen’s College, London. Among his pupils during this period were Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, and Tobias Matthay. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s he composed little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. He also actively promoted concerts of chamber music. From 1848 onward, his career was punctuated by antagonism between himself and the condu

William Stuckenholz

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

William Stuckenholz (c. 1840, Germany – died July 18, 1884, New Orleans His songs include galops, polka, schottisches, valses, and quadrilles. Many of his works were published by the San Francisco music publisher Matthias Gray. He also had songs published by Boston music publishers White & Goullaud and the Oliver Ditson and Company. By August 1876 he had moved to Sacramento, California where he worked as a pianist and teacher of piano and singing. By 1880 at the latest, he had moved to San Francisco where he continued to work as a music teacher. The Harmonie Maennerchor (founded 1874), a well known choir and singing society in Reading, Pennsylvania, programmed Stuckenholz’s waltz “Blumenstrauss” in 1880. The Eighth Army United States Infantry Band programed Stuckenholz’s waltz, “The Dance of Death”, for a concert at the Pavilion of the State Agricultural Society in Sacramento, California in 1881. The band of the University of California, Berkeley performed his schottische “Cassandra” at the university’s commencement ceremony in 1883 while diplomas were being dispensed. His waltz “The Billets Doux” was performed in concerts in Oakland, California by the Columbia Orchestra in 1895. I

William Sweeney (composer)

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

William John Sweeney (born 5 January 1950) is a Scottish composer. Biography Born in Glasgow, he attended Knightswood Secondary School. He studied the clarinet and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1967 to 1970, and at the Royal Academy of Music from 1970 to 1973, where his teachers included Alan Hacker and Harrison Birtwistle. He went on to teach woodwind instruments, and then composition at the University of Glasgow. An early influence was the European avant-garde, particularly Karlheinz Stockhausen, though he returned to tonal composition in the mid-1970s. His work is strongly influenced by traditional Scottish folk music; in particular, he has utilised the heterophonic style of Gaelic psalm-singing, and the piobaireachd form; he varies melodies through ornamentation, as in traditional pibroch, and in their contour; he modifies instruments’ tone-colours through alternative fingerings. He has a strong regard for the music of Leoš Janáček. He has also addressed the reconciliation of classical and traditional music with jazz, using improvisational techniques and sometimes combining the two idioms. He has been influenced by ancient Greek poetry, and I

William Thomas McKinley

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

William Thomas McKinley (December 9, 1938 – February 3, 2015) was an American composer and jazz pianist born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. He wrote more than 300 musical compositions in what he called a neo-tonal style, of which Margalit Fox writes, for The New York Times, “were known for their lyricism, rhythmic propulsion and accessibility” and adds that his music “could recall not only jazz and blues but also Bach, Debussy, Ravel and Vaughan Williams.”. Many of these works have been recorded by such ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Seattle Symphony. McKinley was the recipient of numerous honors, including an award and citation from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and eight National Endowment for the Arts grants. He is also among the founders of the label MMC Recordings. His son Elliott Miles McKinley is also a composer. Early life McKinley was born in New Kensington, PA to a working-class Irish-American family distantly related to his namesake twenty-fifth President of the United States. Through their

William Thomas Parke

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

William Thomas Parke (15 February 1761 – 26 August 1847) The oboe especially attracted him; in 1777 he was second oboe at Drury Lane theatre and in 1779 appeared as an oboist at Vauxhall Gardens. He appeared at the Ladies’ Concerts and the Professional Concerts; his playing at the Noblemen’s Subscription Concerts won the admiration of the Duke of Cumberland, who became his patron, and commanded his presence at his musical parties in town and country. The Prince of Wales made Parke one of his band at Carlton House, where he met Joseph Haydn. Parke was one of the original members of a glee club founded in 1793, and he belonged to the Anacreontic Society. He made provincial tours, visiting Birmingham in 1794, Dublin in 1796, Cheltenham in 1800, Portsmouth, Worcester, and other towns. He was principal oboist and concerto player at Vauxhall Gardens from 1800 until 1821. The Dictionary of National Biography noted that “Parke’s tone on the oboe was sweet, his execution brilliant”. He extended the compass of the oboe upwards to G, a third higher than former performers had reached. Parke retired in 1825, and died in London on 24 August 1847. In 1830 he published Musical Memoirs, a valuable

William Turner (composer)

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

William Turner (1651/2–13 January 1740, London) was a composer and countertenor of the Baroque era. A contemporary of John Blow and Henry Purcell, he is best remembered for his verse anthems, of which over forty survive. As a singer, he was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1669 until his death. Life Turner’s association with the Chapel Royal began in the early 1660s, when he joined the choir there as a boy soprano. In 1666 his voice broke, but the year after he became master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral. In 1669, however, he rejoined the Chapel Royal as a countertenor, and upon the death (1672) of Henry Cooke (who had earlier cared for Turner in the year between his voice breaking and his appointment at Lincoln) became a member of the King’s Private Musick. His career as a court singer continued to prosper, and he sang in works by Blow and Purcell, including the solo alto parts in the St Cecilia’s Day performances of 1687 (ode by G. B. Draghi), 1692 (ode by Henry Purcell), and 1695 (ode by John Blow). An appointment as vicar-choral of St Paul’s Cathedral (1687) led to another as lay vicar of the choir of Westminster Abbey (1699). After 1696 he was normally referred to

William Vincent Wallace

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

William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his day, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Nowadays, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer of note, with key works such as Maritana (1845) and Lurline (1847/60), but he also wrote a large amount of piano music (including some virtuoso pieces) that was much in vogue in the 19th century. His more modest output of songs and ballads, equally wide-ranging in style and difficulty, was also popular in his day, some numbers being associated with famous singers of the time. Early life Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both of his parents were Irish; his father, Spencer Wallace of County Mayo, one of four children, who was born in Killala, County Mayo in 1789, became a regimental bandmaster with the North Mayo Militia based in Ballina. William was born while the regiment was stationed for one year in Waterford, one of several successive postings in Ireland and the UK. The family returned to Ballina some four years later, in 1816, and William spent his formative years there, taking an active part in his father’s band and already

William Walker (composer)

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

William Walker (May 6, 1809 – September 24, 1875) was an American Baptist song leader, shape note “singing master”, and compiler of four shape note tunebooks, most notable of which are the influential The Southern Harmony and The Christian Harmony, which has been in continuous use (republished 2010). Life Walker was born in Martin’s Mills (near Cross Keys), South Carolina, and grew up near Spartanburg. From an early age he became deeply involved in music and became a song leader in the Baptist church. To distinguish him from other William Walkers in Spartanburg, he was nicknamed Singing Billy. In 1842 the Whites moved from Spartanburg District, SC to Harris County, Georgia, and in 1844 B. F. White, in concert with Elisha J. King published The Sacred Harp. Walker died in Spartanburg in 1875. Walker is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Tunebooks Walker learned shape note music in singing schools; it had been used by Baptist and Methodist preachers in the Second Great Awakening to help spread Christianity in the South. Because the music could be read and sung by amateurs, hymns in shape note annotation became the centerpiece of many revivals

William Walton

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

Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre. Born in Lancashire, the son of a classical musician, Walton was a chorister and then an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. On leaving the university, he was taken up by the literary Sitwell siblings, who provided him with a home and a cultural education. His earliest work of note was a collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Façade, which at first brought him notoriety as a modernist, but later became a popular ballet score. In middle age, Walton left England and set up home with his young wife Susana on the Italian island of Ischia. By this time, he had ceased to be regarded as a modernist, and some of his compositions of the 1950s were criticised as old-fashioned. His only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida, was among the works to be so labelled and has made little impact in opera houses. In his last years, his wo

William Wolstenholme

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

William Wolstenholme (24 February 186523 July 1931) was an English composer and organist. He was blind from birth. Biography William Wolstenholm was born in Blackburn, Lancashire on 24 February 1865. From the age of 9 he attended Worcester College for the Blind, where he first met and was encouraged by Edward Elgar. His primary musical training came from the organsist William Done. While in Worcester he played the Mendelssohn G minor piano concerto at a Worcester Philharmonic Society concert. At Oxford from 1877 he was the first blind musician to take the degree since John Stanley. In 1888, Wolstenholme returned to Blackburn as the organist of St Paul’s Church (closed in 1954 and demolished). He stayed until 1902 when he became the organist at the Congregationalist Chapel, King’s Weigh House in Mayfair, London. Wolstenholme was a close friend of the other noted blind organist Alfred Hollins and was also well known as a recitalist. His devoted sister Maud acted as his secretary and amanuensis for most of his life, accompanying him on an extensive and very successful tour of the US in 1908. This led to his popularity as a teacher for American students visiting London. In 1921 Wolsten

William Wordsworth (composer)

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

William Brocklesby Wordsworth (17 December 1908 – 10 March 1988) was an English composer. His works, which number over 100, were tonal and romantic in style in the widest sense and include eight symphonies and six string quartets. Life Wordsworth was born in London, the son of a clergyman and a descendant of the poet Wordsworth’s brother. He studied harmony and counterpoint under George Oldroyd at St Michael’s Church, Croydon from 1921 to 1931, continuing his study with Donald Tovey at Edinburgh University from 1934 to 1936. In anticipation of conscientious objection, he was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union, and voluntarily began work on the land in 1939, a role that was later made a condition of exemption from military service by his tribunal. He lived in Hindhead, Surrey until 1961 when he moved to Inverness-shire; in 1966, he helped found the Scottish Composers’ Guild. He also helped form the Society of Scottish Composers. Wordsworth died at Kingussie in Scotland, aged 79. Compositions Wordsworth’s first acknowledged and published piece was the Three Hymn Preludes for organ, Op. 1 of 1932. The following year his Phantasy Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 3, attracted th

William Young (composer)

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

William Young (died 23 April 1662) was an English viol player and composer of the Baroque era, who worked at the court of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria in Innsbruck. The sonatas which he published in 1653 were some of the earliest sonatas produced by an English composer. Biography The details of Young’s origins are unknown. By 1652 he was a chamber musician at the Innsbruck court, where “the Englishman”, as he was called, was a highly regarded viol player and composer. The design of his English-made viol influenced that of some of the viols built by Jakob Stainer, the Austrian luthier. In 1660 Ferdinand Charles granted permission for Young to visit England, but there are no traces of his reappearance there. He is not to be confused with William Young (died 1671), another musician, who played violin and flute at the court of Charles II of England from 1661. Young died on 23 April 1662 and was buried at Innsbruck’s parish church, St Jakob, which has since become Innsbruck Cathedral. Works Young and Henry Butler, an English viol player working at the Spanish court, were the first English composers to call their works sonatas. However, Butler died in 1652 with his three sonata

Willie Eckstein

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

William “Willie” Eckstein (6 December 1888 – 23 September 1963), a.k.a. the Boy Paderewski and Mr. Fingers, was a Canadian pianist and composer. Life and career William Eckstein was born in Pointe St. Charles, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is said that he began showing signs of prodigious musical talent at the early age of 3 when he played by ear the melody to Home! Sweet Home! on the piano after hearing it performed the day before. At age 6, Eckstein studied with Moretzky Upton of McGill University, and various other music teachers, who taught him piano, theory and harmony, and at age 12 was offered a piano scholarship to the school. Due to his small stature, standing under 5 feet, Eckstein first attracted attention dressed as a boy performer and billed as the “Swedish Boy Wonder” while employed for the Bell Piano Company at the Canadian National Exhibition. *“You are my all in all” *“In sunny summertime” *“Good bye sunshine, hello moon!” *“Beautiful thoughts : a reverie” *“To the King and Queen : from over there” : “A Toast to the King and Queen” (from over there) by Harold Moon *“Lest you forget” (a song inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame) *“S’Nice” (also inducte

Willson Osborne

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

Willson Osborne (1906–1979) was an American composer. After completing the undergraduate program in composition and music theory at the University of Michigan (studying with Ross Lee Finney), Osborne was a student of Paul Hindemith at Yale University. Osborne was, like his mentor, a neoclassical composer. He taught music theory and composition at Philadelphia’s New School of Music (now part of the Boyer College of Music at Temple University). Osborne’s work remains little-known except for his Rhapsody, which is the most frequently-performed work in the literature for unaccompanied bassoon, and in an adapted version is also popular as a recital piece for the clarinet. The Rhapsody, originally written in 1952 as “Study for Bassoon”, came into the public notice after being recorded by noted Philadelphia Orchestra bassoonist Sol Schoenbach and broadcast on WNYC during a special contemporary American music feature. Despite the success of this piece, little has been written about Osborne or his work. In addition to the Rhapsody, Osborne wrote several solo piano pieces (including a set entitled Six Pieces for the Young Pianist), chamber pieces for brass ensembles, and works for a cappella

Willy Albimoor

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

Willy Albimoor, sometimes also William Albimoor (pseudonym: Willy Noël De Moor; born on December 28, 1924, Wevelgem, Belgium – died on December 11, 2004, Borgworm, Belgium) was a Belgian composer and pianist. Sometimes he also used Bill Ador as a pseudonym. Biography As pianist De Moor began as a jazz pianist and was part of Roger Vanhaverbeke’s trio since the 1950s. He collaborated with well-known jazz musicians such as Jack Sels, Etienne Verschueren, Herman Sandy, David Bee, Sadi Lallemand and Fud Candrix (especially in the period 1969–1971). He collaborated on Sadi Lallemand’s big band album Swing a little and the 1958 album Jazz in little Belgium. Furthermore, in the lighter genre, he accompanied such well-known names as Chuck Berry, Josephine Baker, Fud Leclerc, Johan Verminnen and many others. He also accompanied all the revues of the Compagnie des Galeries at the Théâtre Royal des Galeries from its inception in 1953 until 1992. As composer Albimoor wrote music for Louis Neefs, Ann Christy, Etta Cameron, Will Tura, Bobbejaan Schoepen, The Cousins and many others. He also composed 4 mini concertos for piano and orchestra. These works were performed regularly between 1972 and 1

Willy Berking

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

Willy Berking (22 June 1910 – 21 May 1979) was a German orchestra conductor, trombonist, and composer. Career Berking studied music (piano and composition) in Düsseldorf and then in Berlin, where he formed his first big band at the age of 18 in 1928, writing jazz arrangements for the ensemble. In the 1930s he played trombone with various dance and entertainment orchestras including the Goldene Sieben and the Telefunken Swing Orchestra under Heinz Wehner, with whom he went to Berlin in 1934. Towards the end of 1943 he became director of the studio orchestra for Imperial records, known as the “Berking-top series,” which were excellent, swinging sides, despite the Nazi party ban on swing music. At the same time he directed the propaganda big band, “Charlie and His Orchestra”. After the end of World War II continued leading bands, which included Benny de Weille and Louis Freichel as sidemen. Berking was musical director for the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 held in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. As well as conducting the German ensemble, he also conducted the Flemish, Luxembourg and Swiss orchestras. Berking conducted the German ensemble for the Eurovision Song Contest four times 1957

Willy Burkhard

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

Willy Burkhard (17 April 1900 – 18 June 1955) was a Swiss composer and academic teacher, influential in both capacities. He taught music theory at the Berne Conservatory and the Zürich Conservatory. His works include an opera, oratorios, cantatas, and many instrumental genres from piano pieces to symphonies. Life Burkhard was born in Evilard, Canton of Bern. * Lob der Musik, cantata, Op. 54, solo vv, chorus, orch, c1939 * Cantate Domino, Op. 61/2, S, chorus, str, timp, 1940 * Heimatliche Kantate, text by Gottfried Keller, Op. 61/3, Mez/Bar, unison vv ad lib, orch, 1940 * Kreuzvolk der Schweiz, text by Meyer, Op. 61/4, chorus, org, 1941 * Das Jahr, oratorio, text by H. Hiltbrunner, Op. 62, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1942 * Christi Leidensverkündigung, cantata, Op. 65, T, small chorus, org, 1942 * Cantique de notre terre, text by J. P. Zimmermann, Op. 67, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1943 * Mass, Op. 85, soprano, bass, choir and orchestra, 1951 * Psalmen-Kantate, Op. 90, S, chorus, org, chbr orch, 1952 * Ps clxviii, Op. 96, Psalm ?, unison vv, insts, 1954 Unaccompanied choral works * 2 Choruses, Op. 2, 1923 * Cantata, text from the Bible, Op. 3, tenor and choir, 1923 * Motets, Op. 10, boys’ ch

Willy Ostijn

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

William (Willy) Ostijn, also seen as Ostyn (13 July 1913 in Kachtem – 30 March 1993 in Roeselare), was a classical Belgian composer of the 20th century. Biography At the age of sixteen, Willy Ostijn entered the Lemmensinstituut of Malines to study the piano with Marinus de Jong and the organ with Flor Peeters. He got a pedagogical diploma at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, and first prizes of counterpoint, piano, chamber music and composition. Willy Ostijn becomes the second organist of the St Rumoldus’ Cathedral of Malines. From 1938 until his retirement, he was also a professor of musical education at the Royal Atheneum of Roeselare, a function that did not prevent him from giving lectures at the Music Academy of Izegem from 1939 to 1949. Before the Second World War, Ostijn had a reputation with the Trio Willy Ostijn which played the great works of the repertory and Ostijn’s own compositions. Between 1950 and 1960 his symphonic music and concertante pieces, written in a romantic style, were performed by many orchestras in Belgium and broadcast abroad. Conductors Paul Doulliez, Leonce Graz, , and Jozef Verhelst were the most active ones to publicize his works. From 1960, the disi

Wilma Alba Cal

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

Wilma Alba Cal (May 16, 1988) is a Cuban composer of contemporary classical music. Her work has been recognized in several competitions in Cuba organized by National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Instituto Superior de Arte, Asociación Hermanos Saíz and Instituto Cubano de la Música. Her catalog includes chamber, choir, electroacoustic and orchestral music, in addition to soundtracks for theatre and audiovisual works. Life Wilma Alba Cal was born on May 16, 1988, in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. Since childhood she had the musical influence of her family and her diverse environment which made her start studies in music at the age of 10. In 2007 she graduated as Choir Conductor at Guillermo Tomás Conservatory. The following year she begins to study composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte guided by the professor Juan Piñera. She graduated in Musical Composition in 2012; she was selected one of the best graduates of the institution. After that, taking part of an exchange in spring 2012, she continues studies at the Academy of Music and Drama of the University of Goteborg, Sweden. She has a Diploma in Creación Sonora con Nuevas Tecnologías of the Centro Mexicano para l

Wilson Marion Cooper

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

Wilson Marion Cooper (December 17, 1850 – July 17, 1916) of Dothan, Alabama, was a notable musician and music teacher within the Sacred Harp tradition. Marion Cooper was born in Henry County, Alabama, the son of W. S. and Elizabeth Ann (Oates) Cooper. He was a cousin of Alabama governor William C. Oates. Overview W. M. Cooper prepared a revision of B. F. White’s tune book The Sacred Harp in 1902. In the revision, some songs were transposed to a different key, and some of the old tune names changed to descriptive titles based on the words of the hymns. Some old songs were removed and new songs added in their places. Perhaps the most significant contribution of his book was adding alto parts to the songs, the majority of which were originally written with three vocal lines (treble, tenor, bass). Cooper wrote most of the alto lines himself, though his daughter Anna Blackshear and other individuals made important contributions. Believing this was significant and unique, Cooper sued J. S. James after James in 1911 released an edition of The Sacred Harp also including alto parts. James’ alto parts (many of which were written by S. M. Denson) were very close to those supplied to the songs

Wim Franken

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

Wim Franken (7 January 1922, Assen – 21 April 2012, Deventer) was a Dutch composer, pianist, and carillonneur. Life and work Franken studied piano with J. Wilderbeek and T. Hart Nibbrig-de Graaf, theory with Hugo Godron and Karel Mengelberg, carillon with Leen ’t Hart and Peter Bakker. He taught piano at the music schools in Hilversum and Amersfoort and was carillonneur in the city of Weesp and at the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam. Franken composed operas, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, piano and organ works, choral music, song cycles, film scores and electronic music. He is a noted composer of music for carillon, making exceptional contributions to the repertoire, including the Torenmuziek series for carillon and brass instruments. Selected works :Franken’s music is published by Donemus, Amsterdam. ;Stage * De keizer en de nachtegaal, School Opera in 3 acts (`1961–1963); after the story by Hans Christian Andersen * Roxelane en de beren, Ballet (1964–1965) * Il sacro furto, Church Opera (2001); libretto by the composer ;Orchestral * Sinfonietta (1956) * Concerto for String Orchestra (without double bass) (1958) * Circo for chamber orchestra (1952–1961) * Rapsodie over vijf Eur

Wim Henderickx

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

Wim Henderickx (; 17 March 196218 December 2022) was a Belgian composer of contemporary classical music. He was composer in residence at Muziektheater Transparant and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, writing operas and other stage works. His music was influenced by oriental music and philosophy. He taught composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Life and career Henderickx was born in Lier and began his music career as a jazz and rock drummer. In the 1990s he also attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Henderickx was a professor of analysis, harmony and counterpoint at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp from 1986 to 1995. He taught composition, harmony and counterpoint at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven from 1989 to 2002. From 1995, he was professor of composition and analysis in Antwerp, and from 2002, also professor of composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Music and style Henderickx composed operas, orchestral and choral works, works for wind bands, and chamber music. He used electronics in his works. and Dawn (1992) for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and instrumental ensemble. His opera (2000) was commissioned by Muziektheater

Wim Mertens

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

Wim Mertens (; born 14 May 1953) is a Flemish Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist. Life and work Mertens was born in Neerpelt, Belgium. He studied social and political science at the University of Leuven (graduating in 1975) and musicology at Ghent University; he also studied music theory and piano at the Ghent Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 1978, he became a producer at the BRT (Belgian Radio and Television, now called Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep). For Radio 2 (Radio Brabant) he produced concerts by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, Urban Sax and others, and hosted a program called Funky Town together with Gust De Meyer (with whom he recorded the experimental album For Amusement Only). Known primarily as a composer since the early 1980s, Mertens began developing a reputation after releasing “Struggle for Pleasure”, under the name of his early ensemble Soft Verdict, and for “Maximizing the Audience”, which was composed for Jan Fabre’s play The Power of Theatrical Madness, which premiered in 1984 in Venice, Italy. Mertens’ style has continually evolved during the course of his prolific care

Winfried Heurich

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

Winfried Heurich (born 13 February 1940) is a German organist and composer. He was director of church music at Liebfrauen, Frankfurt from 1966 to 2000 and composed music for more than 400 songs. External links * Songs by Winfried Heurich (in German) evangeliums.net/

Winfried Michel

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

Winfried Michel (born 1948) is a German recorder, player, composer, and editor of music. Michel studied with Ingetraud Drescher, Nikolaus Delius, and Frans Brüggen. He is lecturer for the recorder at the Staatliche Hochschule Münster and at the Musikakademie Kassel. In addition to compositions published under his own name, he has written numerous pieces in the style of the early 18th century under the pseudonym Giovanni Paolo Simonetti. In 1993 he succeeded in convincing noted Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon and the pianist/scholars Paul and Eva Badura-Skoda that six piano sonatas he had composed were long-lost works by Joseph Haydn. Based on the opening few bars of six lost Haydn works, found in an old thematic index, these sonatas were published in 1995 as works by Haydn, “supplemented and edited by Winfried Michel.” He has similarly completed the Viola Sonata left as a two-movement fragment by Mikhail Glinka with a menuet as third movement, even though Glinka would have—according to his autobiography—put a rondo. Compositions As Winfried Michel *Aceto e vino, for harpsichord (1991) *, for two violins (archive from 9 October 2007, accessed 14 September 2014) *Il flauto da gamb

Winfried Zillig

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

Winfried Zillig (1 April 1905 – 18 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, and conductor. Biography Zillig was born in Würzburg to the teacher . After leaving school, Zillig studied law and music. One of his teachers there was Hermann Zilcher. In Vienna he was a private pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, later following him to Berlin. His first compositions date from this time. In 1927 he became the assistant of Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera. A short time later he became repetiteur to the Oldenburg Opera. In the years 1932 to 1937, he acted as repetiteur and Kapellmeister at the Düsseldorf Opera. Positions followed as Kapellmeister in Essen and at the beginning of the 1940s as the musical leader of the Posen Opera. After the end of World War II he became the first Kapellmeister of the Düsseldorfer Oper. In the years 1947 to 1951 he occupied the position of conductor at the hr-Sinfonieorchester. He also acted as guest conductor of the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra in the early months of 1953. After 1959 he led the musical division of Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Zillig died in 1963 in Hamburg. Winfried Zillig was very productive as a composer. His output includes oper

Winifred Emily Rees

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

Winifred Emily Rees (née Davis) (16 May 1900 - 23 May 1976) was a British author, composer, organist and teacher who later moved to Canada. Her students included Paul Anka. Rees was born in London, where she studied with Edwin Crusha, Mabel Floyd, Frank Griggs, and Greta Harrison. She attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for six years, and the University of London for one year, Rees moved to Ottawa, Canada, where she taught piano and served as a church organist for ten years. Vocal *“Blessed Jesus Answers Prayer” *“Thee We Praise” *“Winds Through the Olive Trees” References External links *Listen to Winds Through the Olive Trees by Winifred E. Rees

Wintter Watts

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

Wintter Haynes Watts (March 14, 1884 – November 1, 1962) was an American composer of art songs. Life and musical career Watts was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his early studies were in painting, architecture, voice, and organ. He later studied at the Academy of Musical Art in New York City and in Florence, Italy. He won the Morris Loeb Prize in 1919 for his symphony Young Blood and the Prix de Rome in 1923. He returned to Italy a few years later and stayed until 1931, when he returned to the United States. Watts died aged 78 in Brooklyn, New York. Musical works Watts composed around 70 songs for voice and piano in the years between 1906 and 1924. Most were published individually by Oliver Ditson or G. Schirmer. The songs were highly esteemed in their day, and Upton praised them for their distinctly ‘American’ sound. His most important song cycle is his Vignettes of Italy, nine songs from 1919, settings of poems by Sara Teasdale reflecting on various Italian locations and their associated emotional recollections. Many important singers performed his songs in concert, most notably Kirsten Flagstad and John McCormack, to whom Watts dedicated several songs. None of his other music was

Wipo of Burgundy

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

Wipo of Burgundy (also Wippo or Wigbert; c. 995 – c. 1050), often simply Wipo, was a priest, poet and chronicler. He was a chaplain to the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II and may have acted as a tutor to his son Henry III, to whom he dedicated a number of works. His biography of Conrad II, entitled Gesta Chuonradi II imperatoris, is a key source for Conrad’s reign. The well-known musical sequence, Victimae paschali laudes is often attributed to him, though its authenticity remains uncertain. Life Information on Wipo’s life is chiefly available from his writings. His name, sometimes spelled “Wippo”, is a shortened form of “Wigbert”. It is believed that he was born in the Swabian German-speaking portion of the Burgundy, because his name is Swabian. He shows a close interest in Burgundian affairs in his writings, and claims to have personally known , Bishop of Lausanne (985–1018). In the course of his education he gained close familiarity with the Vulgate Bible and with a classical Latin texts. He does not refer to any patristic texts. Volker Huth argues that the prologue of the Gesta Chuonradi shows philosophical affinities with the 9th-century theologian , who was based at the Abbey of

Witold Friemann

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

Witold Friemann (20 August 1889 in Konin – 22 March 1977 in Laski) was a Polish composer, pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was very prolific and composed more than 350 Opuses, most of which remain inedited. Compositions Stage * Giewont, musical drama (dramat muzyczny; libretto by Kazimierz Brończyk; 1927–1929, 1934) * Kain, opera (1952) * Kasia, baśń operowa (1955) * Bazyliszek (legenda warszawska), vaudeville (1958) Vocal * Psalm VIII for soloists, chorus and orchestra, text by Jan Kochanowski (1910) * Psalm XXX for soloists, chorus and orchestra, text by Jan Kochanowski (1921) * Psalm XC for chorus, text by Jan Kochanowski (1922) * Suita podhalańska for baryton solo and string orchestra (1946/1950) * Polskie misterium ludowe for soloists, mixed chorus and piano, text by Maria Konopnicka (1946) * 4 suity mazowieckie for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra (1948–51) * Spod Warszawy for soloist, mixed chorus and orchestra (1949) * Cień Chopina for baryton, piano and orchestra, text by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1949) * Rapsod mazowiecki for soloist, mixed chorus and orchestra (1950) * Pacem in terris (pro memoria Joannes XXIII, Op.253, for mixed chorus and orchestra (1963) * C

Witold Lutoslawski

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

Early years (1913–1938)#

Witold Roman Lutosławski was born on 25 January 1913, in Warsaw, Poland. His parents were both born into the Polish landed nobility; they owned estates in the area of Drozdowo. His father Józef was involved in the Polish National Democratic Party (“Endecja”), and the Lutosławski family became intimate with its founder, Roman Dmowski (Witold Lutosławski’s middle name was Roman). Józef Lutosławski studied in Zürich, where in 1904 he met and married a fellow student, Maria Olszewska, who later became Lutosławski’s mother. Józef pursued his studies in London, where he acted as correspondent for the National-Democratic newspaper, Goniec. He continued to be involved in National Democracy politics after returning to Warsaw in 1905, and took over the management of the family estates in 1908. Witold Roman Lutosławski, the youngest of three brothers, was born in Warsaw shortly before the outbreak of World War I. In 1915, with Russia at war with Germany, Prussian forces drove towards Warsaw. The Lutosławskis travelled east to Moscow, where Józef remained politically active, organising Polish Legions ready for any action that might liberate Poland (which had been divided over a century earlier—Warsaw was part of Tsarist Russia). Dmowski’s strategy was for Russia to guarantee security for a new Polish state. In 1917, the February Revolution forced the Tsar to abdicate, and the October Revolution started a new Soviet government that made peace with Germany. Józef’s activities were now in conflict with the Bolsheviks, who arrested him and his brother Marian. Thus, although fighting stopped on the Eastern Front in 1917, the Lutosławskis were prevented from returning home. The brothers were interned in Butyrskaya prison in central Moscow, where Witold—by then aged five—visited his father. Józef and Marian were executed by a firing squad in September 1918, some days before their scheduled trial. After the war, the family returned to the newly independent Poland, only to find their estates ruined. After his father’s death, other members of the family played an important part in Witold’s early life, especially Józef’s half-brother Kazimierz Lutosławski, a priest and politician. At age six, Lutosławski started two years of piano lessons in Warsaw. After the Polish-Soviet War the family left Warsaw to return to Drozdowo, but after a few years of running the estates with limited success, his mother returned to Warsaw. She worked as a physician, and translated books for children from English. In 1931, he enrolled at Warsaw University to study mathematics, and in 1932 he formally joined the composition classes at the Conservatory. His only composition teacher was Witold Maliszewski, a renowned Polish composer who had been a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Lutosławski was given a strong grounding in musical structures, particularly movements in sonata form. In 1932, he gave up the violin, and in 1933 he discontinued his mathematics studies to concentrate on the piano and composition. As a student of Jerzy Lefeld, he gained a diploma for piano performance from the Conservatory in 1936, after presenting a virtuoso program including Schumann’s Toccata and Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto. His diploma for composition was awarded by the same institution in 1937.

Witold Silewicz

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

Witold Silewicz (18 May 1921 in Rajsko, Poland – 26 January 2007 in Vienna) was a Polish-Austrian composer and Double bass player, probably best known for his instrumental arrangement of the Happy Birthday to You tune for Woodwind Quintet. Biography He was born in Rajsko nr. Oświęcim, on the estate of his maternal grandparents, the youngest of three children of Warsaw architect, Zdzisław Silewicz and his wife Stefania née Zwilling. While still a child he was infected with Tuberculosis which affected his bones. As a result, he spent much time in treatment in sanatoria as was prescribed at the time, missing out on school. The illness left him lame in one leg for the rest of his life. When he was eight years old he lost his father who had died on a trip to Nice in 1930. In spite of his early trials, a striking musical talent became discernible. Through family connections on his mother’s side, and at great risk after the outbreak of World War II, he was able to move to Vienna, then annexed to the Third Reich. In 1943 he was accepted by the Vienna Music Academy where he studied composition with Joseph Marx, conducting with Joseph Krips and Hans Swarowsky, a pupil of Richard Strauss. He

Witold Szalonek

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

Witold Szalonek (born in 1927 in Czechowice-Dziedzice, died in 2001 in Berlin) was a Polish composer. In 1949-56 he studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. Following his first successes at international composers’ competitions, he received a grant from Kranichsteiner Musikinstitut in Darmstadt (1960). In 1962-63 he continued his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1967 he began to teach composition at the Katowice School and in 1970-74 was in charge of the Department of Composition and Theory. In the early 1970s he was invited by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst to work as artist in residence at West Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste. In 1973 he won the competition to succeed Boris Blacher as Professor of Composition there. He has conducted numerous seminars and courses in composition in Poland, Denmark, Germany, Finland and Slovakia. In 1990 he received an honorary doctor’s degree from the Wilhelmian University in Münster. In 1963 Szalonek discovered and classified the so-called ‘combined sounds’ generated by the woodwind instruments. He is also the author of theoretical studies on a wide range of subjects, including combined sounds, sonorism, Chopin

WizzyPro

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

Nifu Haruna, also known by his stage name WizzyPro is a Nigerian record producer and sound engineer. Best known for his single titled “Emergency”, WizzyPro is credited as the producer of Patoranking’s first official single titled “Alubarika” which brought him to the limelight. WizzyPro is signed to BeatBox and is currently working on his debut studio album titled Lord of the Sound. Production discography Awards and nominations References