Romantic on Music Theory Print

A. J. Turner

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Augustus John Turner (October 12, 1818 – May 14, 1905), known as “A. J. Turner”, was an American composer, band leader and music professor. He was the first director of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton, Virginia, the oldest continuous community band funded by tax moneys in the United States. They were mustered into the Stonewall Brigade under Stonewall Jackson of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Turner served through the Valley Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, and was at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. Turner was a professor of music at the Wesleyan Female Institute, the Staunton Male Academy, and the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute. He also played a part in the temperance movement. Ancestry and early years Augustus John Turner was born on October 12, 1818, in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, to Samuel M. Turner and Mahala Johnson Chapman. His father Samuel was a farmer living near the site of Fort Prince. Both Turner’s grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War. His father Samuel’s father was James Turner, who settled in South Carolina near Coulter’s Ford on the Pacolet River with his father George Henry Turner, after the death of his mother Hannah Middleton in Virg

Abby Hutchinson Patton

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Abby Hutchinson Patton (August 29, 1829 – November 24, 1892) was an American singer and poet. She performed with siblings as part of a family group, the Hutchinson Family Singers. Early life Abby Hutchinson was born in Milford, New Hampshire, on August 29, 1829. She was the fourth daughter and the sixteenth and youngest child of Jesse Hutchinson (1778–1851) and Mary Hastings Leavitt (1783–1868), descendants of the Pilgrims. Thirteen of those children lived to adult age, but in 1892, only John and Abby were living. References External links * *

Abraham Baer

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Abraham Baer (born in Filehne, Prussia, December 26, 1834; died at Gothenburg, Sweden, March 7, 1894) was a German cantor, musician, and composer. His father destined him for the rabbinate; but his love for music and the song of the synagogue caused him to choose to become a Cantor (Hazzan). At an early age he emigrated to Germany, and there under the tutelage of eminent ḥazanim prepared himself for his sacred calling. He officiated for a time at Pakosh and Schwetz in West Prussia, and at the age of twenty-three (in 1857) was called to Gothenburg. Well equipped with Hebrew and Talmudic learning, he applied himself to the acquisition of secular knowledge and the science and art of music. His researches were especially directed to the field of Jewish traditional melodies, then but little explored. In 1871, after fifteen years of hard work, he published his work, Bā’al Tefillah, oder der Practische Vorbeter — an almost complete collection of Jewish traditional melodies, of which a second revised and enlarged edition (358 pp. folio) appeared in 1883. The work contains fifteen hundred and five melodies, in German, Polish, and Portuguese (Sephardic) versions, and is divided into four par

Achille Campisiano

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Achille Domenico Campisiano (12 November 1837 – 17 April 1908) was an Italian-born French pianist and composer. Also known under the pseudonym Achille de Campisiano, he composed opéras comiques, operettas and opéras bouffes. Biography Born in Naro, in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, he was the son of Salvatore Campisiano, a jeweller, and Maria Carolina Rochia from a family of Sicilian origin who lived in Marseille. It was in Marseille that Achille Campisiano received his first tuition in musical composition, between 1850 and 1857. In 1866 he was hired by the Café de la Renaissance in Montargis. Around 1867 Campisiano replaced a Monsieur Batifort at the Cheval-Blanc, pianist and composer for the Érard concerts, around 1893. Campisiano directed comic operas and operettas for touring companies before becoming director of the Théâtre Déjazet around 1885, where he resumed the vaudeville tradition that had once made the theatre’s fortune. He attached importance to the quality of the music and entrusted parts of the production to Léon Schlesinger, Isaac Strauss’s grandson. He died in Paris aged 70 and is buried in the cemetery at Donzy. Selected works Achille de Campisiano wrote more t

Achilles Alferaki

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Achilles Nikolayevich Alferaki (; 3 July 1846 – 27 December 1919) was a Russian composer and politician of Greek descent. His brother was Sergei Alphéraky. He served as the mayor of Taganrog from 1880 to 1888. Biography Alferaki was born in Kharkov in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), to Nikos and Maria Alferakis. He spent his childhood in Taganrog, present-day Rostov Oblast, in the Alferaki Palace on Catholic Street (now Frunze Street) designed by the architect Andrei Stackenschneider. Alferaki was educated at home before attending the historical and philological faculty at Moscow University. There he also studied music theory. In 1870, he returned to Taganrog due to family matters. In 1873, following the death of Lev Kulchitsky, the governor of Taganrog, Alferaki briefly served as acting governor. Between 1880 and 1888, he served as mayor of Taganrog. He then moved to Saint Petersburg. There, he became the chancellor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1891 and later the director of the Russian Telegraph Agency. Alferaki died in Saint Petersburg in 1919. One of his family’s descendants was Anna Marly, a Russian-born French singer and songwriter, author of Chant des Par

Adam Darr

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Adam Darr (29 September 1811 – 2 October 1866) was a German classical guitarist, singer, zither player and composer. Biography Adam Darr was born in Schweinfurt, Kingdom of Bavaria, and started playing the guitar as a youth. Sometime after the age of 23, he left his hometown of Schweinfurt, performing abroad. Although secondary sources state that he performed for royal courts, no primary sources have been discovered to verify this claim. The first known performance of Darr is in April 1837 as a guitarist/vocalist in an ensemble known as the Bavaria Nature-Singers. It is known that he traveled with this ensemble in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. According to Bone (1914), he spent three years in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1836 to 1839, after which he returned to Germany, where, in Würzburg, he became the private tutor of an English family resident there named Whitbread. It is believed that he performed in Paris, and it has been verified that he performed in Berlin. In Würzburg he met fellow-guitarist Friedrich Brand. Together they formed a duo and for a year or two, they traveled through southern Germany, performing in Munich, Weimar, and elsewhere. At Munich, Darr

Adélard Joseph Boucher

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Adélard Joseph François-Arthur Boucher (28 June 1835 – 16 November 1912) was a Canadian publisher, importer, choirmaster, organist, conductor, writer on music, composer and numismatist. In 1865 he founded the A.J. Boucher Co. in Montreal which published the works of Canadian and foreign composers until it closed in 1975. In 1862, he founded the Société de numismatique de Montréal, serving as the organization’s first president. He composed several works for solo piano, of which his most well known are Coecilia, a mazurka caprice; Les Canotiers du St-Laurent, a ‘quadrille canadien’; Jolly Dogs Galop; and Souvenir de Sabatier, a suite of waltzes. Most of his compositions were written and published before 1866. Early life and education Born in Maskinongé, then in Lower Canada, Boucher’s parents died in 1845 when he was 10 years old. He spent the next six years living and studying at the St. Joseph’s College and Mother Seton Shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was particularly influenced by his music teacher at the school, Henry Dielman, who instructed him in the organ, piano, flute, violin, and singing. He then was a pupil at the Séminaire d’Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris where his fost

Adolf Jensen

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Adolf Jensen (12 January 1837 – 23 January 1879) was a German pianist, composer and music teacher. Biography Jensen was born in Königsberg to a family of musicians. Although largely self-taught, he also had instruction from Louis Ehlert, Louis Köhler and Friedrich Marpurg (1825–1884). Marpurg was the director of the Königsberg Theater and the great-grandson of the music theorist Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg. In 1856, Jensen went to Russia to teach in the hope of earning enough money to take lessons with Robert Schumann with whom he had been in correspondence. However, Schumann had died in the interim. In 1857, he became was the music director of the Posen municipal theatre. From 1858 until 1860, he lived in Copenhagen and befriended Niels Gade. He returned to Königsberg and composed much of his music during that time. He taught advanced piano at Carl Tausig’s Schule des höheren Clavierspiels in Berlin from 1866 until 1868 when serious illness forced him to retire. He went to Dresden, then to Graz in 1870, and finally to Baden-Baden where he died of tuberculosis at the age of 42. His brother was Gustav Jensen (1843–1895), a violinist and composer. Works Jensen wrote about 160 art songs

Adolf Reichel

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Adolf Reichel (30 August 1816 – 5 March 1896) was a German-Swiss orchestral conductor and composer. Life Adolf Reichel was a son of an East Elbian German landowning family in Tursnitz, West Prussia (now Turznice in Poland). He studied composition with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin, piano with Ludwig Berger and instrumentation with Carl Gottlieb Reissiger in Dresden. He found his first job as music teacher to the young hereditary prince Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen. He travelled to Vienna, Bern and Brussels and made a living as a piano teacher in Paris from 1844, where he associated with George Sand and Frédéric Chopin. In 1842, he met the professional revolutionary and anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in Dresden, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. In his circle in Paris he met opposition figures such as Georg Herwegh, Gottfried Kinkel, Karl Marx, Georg Weber, Vasily Petrovich Botkin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Richard Wagner, without himself taking an active part in the 1848 Revolution. In 1850, he and Mariya Kasparovna Ern (1823–1916), whom he had met as an associate of Alexander Herzen, married. They had four sons, one of whom was the later Swiss judge and politician Alexander Reichel. I

Adolf von Henselt

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Georg Martin Adolf von Henselt (9 May 181410 October 1889) was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. Life Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josepha von Fladt (1778–1843), who had trained in composition with Franz Danzi, Abbé (George Joseph) Vogler, Joseph Graetz and studied piano with Franz Lauska (who later coached Meyerbeer, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn). His concert debut was at the Odeon in Munich, where he played the opening Allegro to one of Mozart’s C major concertos, a free fantasy with variations on a theme from Weber’s Der Freischütz, and a rondo by Kalkbrenner. It was through Fladt’s influence with King Ludwig I of Bavaria that Henselt was provided the financial means to undertake further study with Johann Nepomuk Hummel in Weimar in 1832 for some months. Later that year, he went to Vienna, where, besides studying composition under Simon Sechter (the later teacher of Anton Bruckner), he was successful as a concert pianist. In 1836, to improve his health, he made a prolonged tour through the chief German towns. In 1837, he settled at Breslau, where he had married Rosalie Vogel—but the

Adolfo Fumagalli

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Adolfo Fumagalli (19 October 18283 May 1856) was a 19th-century Italian virtuoso pianist and composer, known today primarily for his virtuosic compositions for the left hand alone. Life Born in Inzago, Italy, he grew up in a very musically oriented environment. He had three brothers who also became musicians and composers, these being Carlo (1822–1907), Luca (1837–1908), Disma (1826–1893) and Polibio (1830–1901). Fumagalli stuided from 23 November 1837 to 7 September 1847 at the Milan Conservatory under Pietro Ray for counterpoint and Angeleri for piano. Afterwards in 1848, at the age of 20, made his Milan debut with some success. He had a series of popular concert tours throughout the major cities of Italy, France and Belgium until 1854. His greatest sensation when he began performing his compositions for left hand alone. He was among the first to make piano pieces for one hand, along with Alexander Dreyschoc. Although he looked rather frail, as is evident from paintings of him, he had a phenomenal technique and strong fingers that astonished everyone. In 1854 he returned to Italy, where he alternated between concert tours and composing. In 1856 he was given an Erard grand piano f

Adolphe Danhauser

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Adolphe-Léopold Danhauser (26 February 1835 – 9 June 1896) was a French musician, educator, music theorist and composer. Life and career Adolphe Danhauser was born in Paris and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with François Bazin, Fromental Halévy and Napoléon Henri Reber. He won the Second Prix de Rome in 1863 and began to develop an interest in early music education while still at the Conservatoire. In 1872 he published Theory of Music which is still printed and considered authoritative. In 1875, Danhauser was appointed chief inspector of instruction in singing in the schools of Paris. Later he took the position of professor of solfeggio at the Paris Conservatoire. He conducted a tour through the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland to survey systems of music pedagogy. Danhauser died in Paris. Notable students include Charles Malherbe. Works Selected compositions include: *Maures et Castillans, opera in three acts (unproduced) *Le Proscrit, one-act musical drama with chorus, 1866 *Orphéoniques evenings, collection *Mélodies Vocales Danhauser books on music theory and teaching have been reprinted, translated, and reviewed. These include: *Music theory, Paris, H. Lemoine, 1872 *M

Adolphe Deslandres

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Adolphe Édouard Marie Deslandres (22 January 1840 – 30 July 1911) was a French composer and organist. Life Born in the former village of , Adolphe Deslandres was the son of Laurent Deslandres, who was for a long time the Maître de chapelle and organist of . At the Conservatoire de Paris, he studied counterpoint and fugue with Aimé Leborne and pipe organ with François Benoist. In 1860, he won the Second Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata Ivan IV. In 1862, he succeeded his father as organist of the Sainte-Marie church. He played on an organ of the Stoltz Frères company, and on a choir organ of the Merklin firm. In addition to his extensive works of sacred music such as the Messe de Saint-André, premiered at Notre Dame de Paris, and his Messe solennelle, Deslandres composed several successful opéras comiques. In 1872, his opera Dimanche et Lundi was premiered at the Opéra-Comique and received the praise of Gounod. The premiere of Le Baiser took place in 1884. His other operas were performed at the Alcazar. Deslandres also composed some works for organ, piano (an Air de ballet and Études in staccato), a Scherzo for orchestra, and four Méditations for violin, cello, French horn, harp,

Adolphe Gutmann

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Adolphe Gutmann (originally Wilhelm Adolf Gutmann) (12 January 1819 – 27 October 1882) was a German pianist and composer who was a pupil and friend of Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Life Gutmann was born in Heidelberg. He came to Paris in 1834, at the age of 15, to study with Chopin, becoming one of the composer’s favourites. He performed in concert with Chopin, Liszt, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Pierre-Joseph Zimmerman, Alkan’s transcription of part of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony at a concert of 1838. Gutmann was also the dedicatee of Chopin’s Scherzo, Op. 39, published in 1839. Gutmann acted as copyist for a number of Chopin’s works, and acted as a courier to take Chopin’s letters to his family in Warsaw. Gutmann’s own set of Etudes (his Op. 12) is dedicated to Chopin. He was present at Chopin’s death bed and preserved the glass from which Chopin took his last drink of water. Both he and Alkan were bequeathed the notes that Chopin had compiled in preparation for a piano teaching method. Gutmann died in La Spezia. Works Inspired by the style of his master, Gutmann is the author of several nocturnes, and twelve studies, studies characteristics that seem to announce the coming of

Agatha Rosenius

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Agatha Rosenius (10 September 1814 – 29 August 1874) was a Swedish hymnwriter. Biography She was born Agatha Ulrika Lindberg to county official Erik Lindberg and Elisabeth Catharina (née Nordlund) in Grisbacka, today part of Umeå. She found an active Christian faith at a young age – a belief not shared by her parents and which led to conflict in the home. Preacher Carl Olof Rosenius later visited her hometown, encouraging her in her faith. They both described feeling that God had brought them their future spouse. After corresponding for a time, and after eventually receiving her parents’ approval, the two were married on 2 August 1843 in Umeå by priest A. A. Grafström. She was described by her husband as being satisfied with simple living and not caring for worldly interests, and by others as shy but unforgettable. They had seven children, including painter and , who became a liberal journalist in Karl Staaff and Hjalmar Branting’s circles. The couple was known for their hospitality, often inviting fellow revivalists who were traveling to stay with them. Charlotte af Tibell wrote: Rosenius herself composed a number of songs with religious themes, some of which were published in the

Agathe Backer Grøndahl

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Agathe Ursula Backer Grøndahl (1 December 1847 – 4 June 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. Her son Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl (1885–1959) was also a pianist and composer, who promoted his mother’s compositions in his concerts. Biography Early life Agathe Ursula Backer was born in Holmestrand in 1847, in a wealthy and art-loving home, as the second youngest of four sisters, all gifted in drawing and music. In 1857, she moved with her family to Christiania, where she studied with Otto Winther-Hjelm, Halfdan Kjerulf and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. She won fame there with her interpretation of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Her parents heavily discouraged her performance career, believing it was unsuitable for a woman. They believed she was better suited to life as a house-wife. In a letter to Kjerrulf, she wrote, “I do not understand how both you and my parents could object to the fact that I want to become what one calls a female artist… It seems to me that a beautiful, independent future for a woman can be found in the simple act of striving, if possible, to be able to present an enjoyable experience to people, especially if that future included a way to travel and see a little

Agnes Tyrrell

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Agnes Tyrrell (20 September 1846 – 18 April 1883) was a composer and pianist of English and Czech descent. Life Agnes Tyrrell was born in Brno, the regional capital of Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was the daughter of English teacher Henry Foster Tyrrell, who had established himself among the German-speaking community of Brno, and his Czech wife Josefína Kotulánová. Agnes Tyrrell grew up speaking English, German, and Czech fluently. A child prodigy, she performed in her first piano recital at nine, and attended the Vienna Conservatory at sixteen. She studied piano with Adalbert Pacher in Vienna and composition with Anton Bruckner’s teacher Otto Kitzler in Brno. She had to give up an active career as a pianist due to failing health (heart problems), and instead devoted her short life to composition Oeuvre Tyrrell was a prolific composer. During her fairly short life (she was 36 when she died), she composed 39 compositions for piano solo, 55 vocal compositions ranging from songs to choral music, oratorio and opera, and several major orchestral works. Tyrrell was one of the few women to compose a symphony before 1900. In 2018, her Overture in C Minor received a world pre

Agnes Zimmermann

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Agnes Marie Jacobina Zimmermann (5 July 1847 14 November 1925) was a German concert pianist and composer who lived and worked in England, where she enjoyed a fifty-year performance career, one of the longest unbroken spans before the public. From the 1870s through to the 1890s in particular she was a central figure in British musical life. Biography Agnes Marie Jacobina Zimmermann was born in Cologne, Germany. Her family moved to England, and she was enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of nine, where her teachers were Charles Steggall and Cipriani Potter. Later she studied under Ernst Pauer and Sir George Macfarren. Zimmermann received the Kings Scholarship from 1860 to 1862 and made her public debut in 1863, aged 16, at The Crystal Palace, playing two movements from Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. In 1868 she gave the first of a series of two-piano recitals with Clara Schumann: they often performed Robert Schumann’s Andante und Variationen, Op. 46 together. After ending her studies, Zimmermann went on a tour of Germany, followed by concert tours in 1879, 1880, 1882 and 1883. She remained an active performer for decades, establishing a long-running series of recitals an

Aimé Maillart

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Louis-Aimé Maillart (24 March 1817 – 26 May 1871) was a French composer, best known for his operas, particularly Les Dragons de Villars. Biography Maillart was born in Montpellier. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1833, learning composition from Aimé-Ambroise-Simon Leborne and Fromental Halévy, and violin from Guérin. There followed five more operas between then and 1864, all first performed in Paris. it was also given in Germany under the title Das Glöckchen des Eremiten. Lara was based on a poem of the same name by Lord Byron. Maiilart died in Moulins, Allier in the Auvergne region of France at the age of 54, and was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians says of him, “Maillart’s music is characterized by graceful melodies, a colourful, theatrical style and skilful instrumentation”. Operas *Lionel Foscara (cantata for the Prix de Rome) (1841) *Gastibelza ou le Fou de Tolède (l’homme à la carbine) opera in three acts (1847) *Le moulin des tilleuls one-act opera (1849) *Les dragons de Villars opéra comique (1856) *Les pêcheurs de Catane poème lyrique (1860) *Lara (1864) References and sources References Sources * External links

Albert Dietrich

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Albert Hermann Dietrich (28 August 182920 November 1908), was a German composer and conductor. In addition to his work, he is remembered for his friendship with Johannes Brahms. Dietrich was born at Golk, near Meissen. From 1851 he studied composition with Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf, where in October 1853 he first met Brahms and collaborated with Schumann and Brahms on the F-A-E’ Sonata for Joseph Joachim (Dietrich composed the substantial first movement). From 1861 until 1890 he was the musical director at the court of Oldenburg, where Brahms often visited him and where he introduced many of Brahms’s works. It was in Dietrich’s library that Brahms discovered the volume of poetry by Hölderlin that furnished him with the text for his Schicksalslied, which he began composing while visiting Wilhelmshaven dockyard in Dietrich’s company. Dietrich was also instrumental in arranging for the premiere of Brahms’s German Requiem at Bremen in 1868. Dietrich’s own works include an opera Robin Hood, a Symphony in D minor (1869, dedicated to Brahms), a Violin Concerto in the same key (composed for Joseph Joachim but premiered in 1874 by Johann Lauterbach), a Cello Concerto, Horn Concerto, cho

Albert Lavignac

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Alexandre Jean Albert Lavignac (; 21 January 1846 – 28 May 1916) was a French music scholar, known for his essays on theory, and a minor composer. Biography Lavignac was born in Paris and studied with Antoine François Marmontel, François Benoist and Ambroise Thomas at the Conservatoire de Paris, where later he taught harmony. Among his pupils were Henri Casadesus, Claude Debussy, Vincent d’Indy, Amédée Gastoué, Philipp Jarnach, Henri O’Kelly, Gabriel Pierné, Wadia Sabra, Florent Schmitt. In March 1864, at the age of eighteen, he conducted from the harmonium the private premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle. His condensed work, La Musique et les Musiciens, an overview of musical grammar and materials, continued to be reprinted years after his death. In it he characterised the particular characteristics of instruments and of each key, somewhat in the way Berlioz and Gevaert (Traité d’orchestration, Gand, 1863, p. 189) had done: Major keys: *C-sharp major: ? ("?") *F-sharp major: Rough (“rude”) *B major: Energetic (“énergique”) *E major: Radiant, warm, joyous (“éclatant, chaud, joyeux”) *A major: Frank, sonorous (“franc, sonore”) *D major: Joyful, brilliant, alert ("

Albert Périlhou

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Albert Jacques Périlhou (2 April 1846 – 28 August 1936) was a French composer, organist, and pianist. Biography Born in Daumazan-sur-Arize on 2 April 1846, he was the only son of Jean-Justin Périlhou (born 1820 in Laroque-d’Olmes), an organist in Pézenas, and couturière Marie-Jeanne Balbine Carrière (born 1827 in Daumazan-sur-Arize) and received further instruction as an organist under Camille Saint-Saëns at the Niedermeyer school. After some time passed in which he became an organist and a piano teacher in Saint-Étienne, he became professor of piano at the Conservatoire de Lyon (1883). He later moved to Paris in 1888 as an artistic advisor of maison Erard, he became organist of Saint-Séverin (1889) at the new instrument rebuilt by John Abbey, and then auditioned for and was granted the position of titular organist of Saint-Eustache in 1905, resigned the following year. In 1910 he was named director of the Niedermeyer school. Périlhou was a prolific composer who wrote a large body of music for piano, organ, orchestra and voice. He retired in 1914 to Tain-l’Hermitage, where he died at the age of 90 on 28 August 1936. Probably following the example of his teacher and friend Saint-Saë

Albert Pieczonka

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Albert Emil Theodor Pieczonka (February 10, 1828 – April 12, 1912) was a composer, pianist and music instructor who resided in Germany, England, and the United States. His most famous work, the “Tarantella in A Minor”, remains a popular piano standard more than 100 years after his death. Early life and education Albert Pieczonka was born in Königsberg on the Baltic coast of East Prussia. Pieczonka was the youngest of three children born to Gotthilf Immanuel (1801–1872) and Friederike Caroline Dorothea (Rehlander) Pieczonka (1803-1853). He briefly attended the University of Königsberg before enrolling in the Leipzig Conservatory in 1847. This institution, the oldest music university in Germany, was founded by composer Felix Mendelssohn in 1843. While at the conservatory, Pieczonka studied under famed pianist Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870). He may have also studied under Franz Liszt before undertaking a solo career. Career In 1858, or thereabout, the Pieczonka family emigrated from continental Europe to London, England. In England, Pieczonka performed concerts and gave music lessons to children of the wealthy. During the 1880s, Pieczonka, his wife, and his daughters performed together t

Albert Vizentini

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Albert Vizentini (9 November 1841 – 21 October 1906) was a French violinist, composer, conductor and music writer. His main centre of activity was the French capital, but he also worked for ten years in Russia and toured in Britain and Ireland. Life and career Vizentini came from an Italian musical family active in the theatre, one of whom had established himself at the Comédie-Italienne. As a child he appeared in various children’s roles at the Théâtre de l’Odéon, making his debut on 31 December 1847 in Le Dernier Banquet, a revue by Camille Doucet. He undertook musical studies at the Conservatoire in Brussels, under Leonard and Fétis, achieving first prize in violin in 1860 and a first prize in composition in 1861. After briefly acting as assistant conductor at the theatre in Antwerp he returned to Paris. The following year he attempted to rekindle the spirit and repertoire of the Théâtre Lyrique, by bringing on more substantial operas. He had much support, in particular from composers, the press and public administration, and secured a subsidy towards the running costs. The major premiere was to be Dimitri by Victorin de Joncières, an opera in 5 acts, for which Vizentini assembl

Alberto Mazzucato

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Alberto Mazzucato (28 July 1813 – 31 December 1877) was an Italian composer, music teacher, and writer. Mazzucato was born in Udine. He trained at the Padua Conservatory and composed eight operas between 1834 and 1843, the most successful of which was Esmeralda (1838). He also contributed music to the pastiche La vergine di Kermo (1870) which also contained music by Carlo Pedrotti, Antonio Cagnoni, Federico Ricci, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Giovanni Pacini. composers Arrigo Boito, Their daughter Eliza Mazzucato Young (1846-1937) was a composer, pianist, and music educator in the United States. Their son Giannandrea Mazzucato (1850-1900) was a music writer, librettist, and critic based in London. Operas *La fidanzata di Lammermoor (1834) *Don Chisciotte (1836) *Esmeralda (1838) *Coro dei penitenti (1838) *I corsari (1840) *I due sergenti (1841) *Luigi V, re di Francia (1843) *Hernani (1843) *La vergine di Kermo (1870) References

Albrecht Blumenstengel

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Albrecht Blumenstengel (1835–1895) was a German composer, violinist, arranger and editor. Biography Albrecht Blumenstengel was born in Helmstedt on 7 January 1836. Son of the German architect Johann Carl Heinrich Blumenstengel (1792–1867), he was the concertmaster of the ducal court. He published several works and important violin books, today used in music conservatories, like Scale and Arpeggios Studies and the 24 Etudes op.33 (published for major publishing houses like Fischer, Schirmer, Litolff, Peters). The first edition of these Etudes was in 1855 and the style is romantic (some editor wrote improperly “Preparatory Studies to Kreutzer”). He also wrote important pieces like 8 Transcritptionen, Op.13 for violin and piano (1872), Volkslieder-Album (2 books of 120 pieces for violin and piano – 1891). He died in Hamburg on 8 June 1895. Compositions * Scale and Arpeggio-Studies * 24 Violin Etudes, Op.33 * 8 Transcriptionen, Op.13 * Volkslieder-Album * Gavotte from Iphigénie en Aulide by C.W.Gluck Albrecht Blumenstengel dealt mainly with pedagogical works and duets, including all of Spohr’s violin duets and his Duo op. 13 for violin and viola. Discography In 2023 the Italian violist

Aleksander Eduard Thomson

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Aleksander Eduard Thomson (31 January 1845, in Pringi – 20 October 1917, in Petrograd) was an Estonian composer. He is regarded as the founder of Estonian national choral music. In 1865, he graduated from Latvian musical pedagogue Jānis Cimze’s seminar in Valga. From 1870 to 1872 he studied mathematics at the University of Tartu. He then worked as a teacher in Kanepi and Vana-Võidu near Viljandi and in the German church school in Petergof, Russia. At that time he was already organizing choral events with a relatively large number of participants. Songs * “Kantele” * “Sing, sing o mouth” * “Kannel” * “Laula, laula, suukene” * “Arg kosilane” * “Ketra Liisu” * “Pulmalaul” * “Sokukene” * “Tantsulaul” * “Oh mu armas isamaja” * “Mardilaul” * “Rootsi rahvaviis” * “Suur on, Jumal, Su ramm” References

Aleksander Kunileid

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Aleksander Kunileid (born Aleksander Saebelmann; 22 November 1845 – 27 July 1875), was an Estonian composer. He is one of the founding figures of Estonian choral music. Life and work Aleksander Peeter Karl Saebelmann (or Säbelmann) was born in 1845 in Audru in the district of Pärnu, the son of a teacher. Like his brother, Friedrich August Saebelmann, he displayed musical gifts from an early age. His first musical education was with his father, from whom he learned to play the organ and the piano. As a 16-year-old, Saebelmann attended the Vidzeme teacher’s seminary in Valka (the Latvian town of Valka lies alongside its Estonian twin, Valga), where he studied with the choral master Jānis Cimze. Saebelmann graduated from the teacher’s seminary in 1865 and took up a teaching post in the small village of Paistu for three years. There he frequently played the organ in the local church. He befriended prominent figures from the Estonian national awakening, including Carl Robert Jakobson, Johann Voldemar Jannsen, and the latter’s daughter, Lydia Koidula. He took the name “Kunileid”, in preference to the Germanic-seeming “Saebelmann”, from Jakobson’s motto Otsi, kuni leiad (“Seek, until you

Alette Due

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Alethe “Alette” Wilhelmine Georgine Due, née Sibbern (28 February 1812 – 7 May 1887), was a Norwegian singer, composer and courtier. She was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and served as Overhoffmesterinne for Queen Sophia of Sweden and Norway in 1873–1887. Life Alette Due was born in Værne Kloster, the daughter of councillor of state Valentin Christian Wilhelm Sibbern (1779–1853) and Anne Cathrine Stockfleth (1785–1865) and sister of prime minister Georg Sibbern and Carl Sibbern. In 1828 she married Frederik Due. She died in Oslo. Musician Her spouse was Norwegian state secretary stationed in Stockholm in 1822–1841, and Prime minister of Norway in 1841–1850. When her spouse was stationed in Stockholm, she became a central figure of the Swedish-Norwegian high society in the Swedish capital during the Union between Sweden and Norway. Due was a non-professional musician of note: she performed as singer and composed songs as well as piano music. She was a member of the musical society Harmoniska Sällskapet (‘Harmonic Society’) in Stockholm, and was inducted as Honorary member to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music 30 December 1850. Court career In 1840, when s

Alexander Arkhangelsky (composer)

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Alexander Andreyevich Arkhangelsky () (23 October 1846, in Staroye Tezikovo, Penza Governorate – 16 November 1924, in Prague) was a Russian composer of church music and a conductor. He “received his initial musical education at the Penza Theological Seminary; from childhood sang in the choir of the Archbishop of Penza; later taught singing in the Penza Seminary; in 1872 passed the examination at the Imperial Court Chapel for the title of precentor. From 1873 served as conductor of a number of church choirs in St. Petersburg, among them the choir of Count Sheremetev (1889-1898). In 1880 organized his own choir in St. Petersburg, replacing boys’ voices with women’s; from 1883 toured with this choir in Russia and abroad, performing Russian and Western sacred music, secular choruses and arrangements of folk songs. In 1902 organized the Church Singers’ Benefit Society in St. Petersburg; taught choral singing in various educational institutions, and published choral anthologies. Arkhangelsky made an important contribution to Russian choral and church singing: beginning with simple arrangements of church chants, which included the complete cycle of hymns for the entire year, he later enri

Alexander Borodin

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Family#

Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg as an illegitimate son of a 62-year-old Georgian nobleman, Luka Stepanovich Gedevanishvili, and a 25-year-old Russian woman, Evdokia Konstantinovna Antonova. Due to the circumstances of Alexander’s birth, the nobleman had him registered as the son of one of his Russian serfs, Porfiry Borodin, hence the composer’s Russian last name. As a result of this registration, both Alexander and his nominal Russian father Porfiry were officially serfs of Alexander’s biological father Luka. The Georgian father emancipated Alexander from serfdom when he was 7 years old and provided housing and money for him and his mother. Despite this, Alexander was never publicly recognized by his mother, who was referred to by young Borodin as his “aunt”. Despite his status as a commoner, Borodin was well provided for by his Georgian father and grew up in a large four-storey house, which was gifted to Alexander and his “aunt” by the nobleman. Although his registration prevented enrollment in a proper gymnasium, Borodin received good education in all of the subjects through private tutors at home. During 1850 he enrolled in the Medical–Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg, which was later the workplace of Ivan Pavlov, and pursued a career in chemistry. On graduation he spent a year as surgeon in a military hospital, followed by three years of advanced scientific study in western Europe. During 1862, Borodin returned to Saint Petersburg to begin a professorship of chemistry at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy He began taking lessons in composition from Mily Balakirev during 1862. Music remained a secondary vocation for Borodin besides his main career as a chemist and physician.

Alexander Dreyschock

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Alexander Dreyschock (15 October 1818 – 1 April 1869) was a Czech pianist and composer. He was the brother of Raimund Dreyschock and the uncle of Felix Dreyschock. Life and career Born in Žáky in Bohemia, his musical talents were first noticed aged eight, and at age 15 he travelled to Prague to study piano and composition with Václav Tomášek. By the age of twenty, Dreyschock undertook his first professional tour in December 1838, performing in various northern and central towns in Germany. Subsequent tours saw him visiting Russia (1840–42), Paris (spring 1843), London, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary (1846), as well as Denmark and Sweden in 1849. Elsewhere he caused a sensation with prodigious execution of thirds, sixths, and octaves, plus other tricks. When he made his Paris debut in 1843 he included a piece for the left hand alone. Dreyschock’s left hand was renowned, and his most famous technical stunt was to play the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin’s Revolutionary Étude in octaves. Observers of the time reported that he played it in correct tempo, and it is known that he programmed it in all of his recitals. Johann Baptist Cramer, who heard Dreyschock play in Paris, exclaime

Alexander Mackenzie (composer)

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Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie KCVO (22 August 1847 – 28 April 1935) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher best known for his oratorios, violin and piano pieces, Scottish folk music and works for the stage. Mackenzie was a member of a musical family and was sent for his musical education to Germany. He had many successes as a composer, producing over 90 compositions, but from 1888 to 1924, he devoted a great part of his energies to running the Royal Academy of Music. Together with Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford, he was regarded as one of the fathers of the British musical renaissance in the late nineteenth century. Life and career Mackenzie was born in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Alexander Mackenzie and his wife, Jessie Watson née Campbell. He was the fourth musician of his family. His great-grandfather was an army bandsman; his grandfather, John Mackenzie, was a violinist in Edinburgh and Aberdeen; his father was also a violinist, the conductor of the orchestra in the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, and editor of The National Dance Music of Scotland. Mackenzie’s musical talent emerged early: at the age of eight he was playing nightly in his father’s orchestra. Sh

Alexander Ritter

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Alexander Sascha Ritter (7 June 1833 – 12 April 1896) was a German composer and violinist. He wrote two operas, Der faule Hans and Wem die Krone?; a few songs; a symphonic waltz; and two symphonic fantasias. Ritter died in Munich. Life and career He was born in Narva, Estonia. He studied in Frankfurt am Main under Joachim Raff. In 1854 he married Wagner’s niece Franziska (1829–1895). They had a daughter Hertha, who in 1902 became the wife of the Austrian composer Siegmund von Hausegger. Ritter had a strong influence on Richard Strauss. He persuaded him to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems; he also introduced Strauss to the essays of Richard Wagner and the writings of Schopenhauer. He encouraged Strauss to write his first opera Guntram, but was deeply disappointed at the final version of the libretto, which Ritter took to be a rejection of Schopenhauerian-Christian ideals. See also * Wagner family tree External links * * *Grande Musica - Alexander Ritter *Libretti of some of his songs *Information about Wem die Krone?

Alexander Serov

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Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (, 23 January 1820 – 1 February 1871) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in Russia during the 1850s and 1860s and as the most significant Russian composer in the period between Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka and the works of Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky. Alexander Serov was the father of Russian artist Valentin Serov. Biography Alexander Serov was born in St. Petersburg on 11 January 1820, the son of Nikolai Ivanovich Serov, a Finance Ministry official. Serov’s maternal grandfather, Carl Ludwig Hablitz, was a naturalist of German-Jewish origin who was born in Königsberg and moved to Russia in childhood when his father was hired to be inspector of Moscow University’s printing department. In Russia, Hablitz became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences among other high official posts. Serov’s father Nikolai wanted him to become a lawyer as well and enrolled him in the inaugural class of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. who eventually became a famous art critic. Serov completed his studies in 1840 and started working as a lawyer in the government bureaucracy in St. Petersburg

Alexandre Artus

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Alexandre Artus (27 November 1821 – 19 August 1911 ) was a 19th-century French conductor and composer. Biography Alexandre Artus was born in Perpignan, the son of Joseph Pierre Artus (1791–1864) and Marie Angélique Salvo (1793–1864), both also from Perpignan. Incidental music and operettas coçmposer, he was the deputy chief and the conductor of the Théâtre de l’Ambigu, which he left in 1863 by disagreements with the director and then became director of the Théâtre du Châtelet from 1885 to his death. He is known to have composed the music for the play by Jules Verne, Michel Strogoff (1881), adapted from the novel. Alexandre Artus is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Works *1851: L’Étoile du berger Chasse, arranged in doubled step for fanfare *1857: Les Chevaliers du brouillard, quadrille Anglo-français, with Amédée Artus *1857: Les Viveurs de Paris ** Chanson ** Polka pour piano ** Quadrille pour piano *1858: Faust, spectacle, choreography by Léon Espinosa *1858: Fanfan-la-Tulipe, quadrille for piano *1858: Les Fugitifs, quadrille for piano *1858: Le Martyre du cœur *1859: Fanfan-la-Tulipe, polka for piano *1859: Le Maitre d’école, quadrille for piano *1859: Polka du roi de carreau,

Alexandre Dubuque

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Alexandre Ivanovich Dubuque, also Alexander and Dubuc (; 3 March 1812 – ), was a Russian pianist, composer and teacher of French descent. Life He was born and died in Moscow. His father was a refugee from the French Revolution who had fled to Russia. He studied piano under the tutelage of John Field. One of his works was “Do not scold me, my darling” (), which was played by Léon Theremin around the 1950s, and later by Kaia Galina Urb with Heiki Mätlik. Students * Mily Balakirev * Nikolai Zverev References Sources * External links *

Alexandre Goria

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Alexandre Édouard Goria (21 January 1823 – 6 July 1860) was a French virtuoso pianist and composer of salon pieces. Biography Alexandre Goria was born in Paris and admitted as a student at the age of seven to the Conservatoire de Paris on 15 November 1830. He had for piano teachers Adolphe-Francois Laurent (1796–1867), teacher of Jules Massenet, and Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman, teacher of Charles-Valentin Alkan and César Franck, following a course of harmony under the direction of Victor Dourlen shortly thereafter. being awarded the first prize the following year at the age of 12. His studies were completed in 1839. He was in very good terms with Bohemian composer Carl Czerny when he lived in Vienna for some time, and was also a very close friend of the American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who dedicated his composition Le Bananier to him. Awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Charles III by the Queen of Spain, he died at the age of thirty-seven in Paris on 6 July 1860. following a cerebral convulsion and an aneurysm. His young wife was to follow him a few years later herself suffering from a cruel and painful illness. Music Goria wrote over a hundred works for

Alexandre Guilmant

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Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (; 12 March 1837 – 29 March 1911) was a French organist and composer. He was the organist of La Trinité from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was appointed as Professor of Organ in the Conservatoire de Paris in 1896. Biography Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer. A student first of his father Jean-Baptiste and later of the Belgian master Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, he became an organist and teacher in his place of birth. In 1871 he was appointed to play the organ regularly at la Trinité church in Paris, and this position, organiste titulaire, was one he held for 30 years. Guilmant was known for his improvisations, both in the concert and church setting. His inspiration came from Gregorian chants, and he was greatly noted amongst his colleagues for his mastery of the melodies. Marcel Dupré was the most celebrated of his many students. Others included Augustin Barié, Joseph-Arthur Bernier, Joseph Bonnet, Alexandre Eugène Cellier, Abel Decaux, Gabriel Dupont, Charles Henry Galloway, Philip Hale, Edgar Henrichsen, Édouard Mignan, and Émile Poillot. Guilmant’s interest in Marcel

Alexis de Castillon

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Alexis-Marie de Castillon de Saint-Victor (13 December 1838 – 5 March 1873) was a French composer. Life and career Castillon was born in Chartres into an old aristocratic family from Languedoc. His parents initially intended him to pursue a military career, but Castillon gave up plans for professional soldiering in favour of music, which he learned first in his birthplace and then in Paris, where he studied piano and composition, initially with Charles Delioux. For composition, he attended the classes of Victor Massé and, from 1869, of César Franck at the Paris Conservatoire. Before his studies with Franck, he had completed his Opus 1, a piano quintet, probably inspired by the earlier example of his friend Camille Saint-Saëns. Both the quintet and the later piano quartet Op. 7 follow Schumann’s model. He disavowed earlier efforts, including a symphony in F major, which he had written in 1865. In fragile health at the best of times (volunteering during the War of 1870, he fell ill and was demobilized in 1871), he died of complications from fever in 1873 at age 34. His works include pieces for piano, chamber music, mélodies, a piano concerto, and other orchestral music. He was also a

Alfred Dufresne

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Jacques Marie Alfred Dufresne (1822, Orléans – 18 March 1863, Paris) was a 19th-century French composer and playwright. A student of Fromental Halévy at the Paris Conservatory, he is mostly known for having written music for hundreds of songs by authors such as Jules Verne, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse de Lamartine or Victor Hugo. He also composed operettas and opéras comiques including L’hôtel de la poste on a libretto by Philippe Gille. Works *1851: La Chèvre perdue, poem by Lebaigue *1851: Heureuse !, mélodie, poem by Gustave de Penmarch *1853: La Chanson de Fortunio, poem by Alfred de Musset *1853: Reflets de Printemps, poem by de Penmarch *1853: Sérénade, poem by Victor Hugo *1853: Les Soirées d’automne, twelve melodies *1854: La Colombe, poem by de Penmarch *1854: Album de 10 mélodies, lyrics by Eugène de Lonlay *1854: L’Écho du lavoir !, ditty, lyrics by Eugène de Lonlay *1854: Écoute, poem by de Penmarch *1854: L’Étoile, melody, lyrics by de Penmarch *1854: La Fiancée du timbalier, poem by Victor Hugo *1854: Le Grillon, melody, poem by Alphonse de Lamartine *1854: Hélas !, poem by Lamartine *1854: Oh ! batteux battons la gerbe !, chant rustique *1854: Pendant l’orage, cavatin

Alfred Gaul

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Alfred Robert Gaul (30 April 1837 — 13 September 1913) was an English composer, conductor, teacher and organist. Life and career Gaul was born in Norwich, where he studied under Zechariah Buck. By the age of nine he was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral, and at the age of seventeen he was appointed as the organist of the parish church at Fakenham. In 1859 he moved to Birmingham, where at the age of twenty two he was appointed organist at St. John’s Church, Ladywood. later becoming Professor of Orchestration and Composition at the school. In 1887 he succeeded William Cole Stockley as conductor of the Walsall Philharmonic Society. He taught singing and harmony at the King Edward VI High School for Girls At the time of Gaul’s death in 1913 it was the most performed work of English choral music in history, The Holy City and his earlier cantata Ruth (1881) were also popular in the United States. In 1914, following the composer’s death, his Executors published an announcement in The Musical Times to the effect that they were :“prepared to grant licences to approved applicants (under certain restrictions) to orchestrate Gaul’s The Bard of Avon for a public performance; and are further prep

Alfred Henry Miles

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Alfred Henry Miles (26 February 1848 – 30 October 1929) was a prolific Victorian-era English writer – including as an anthologist, children’s writer, editor, journalist, and poet – as well as a composer and lecturer. He published hundreds of works on a wide range of topics, ranging from poetry (The Poets and the Poetry of the Century, 10 volumes. (London: Hutchinson, 1891)), warfare (Wars of the Olden Times, Abraham to Cromwell) to household encyclopaedias with information for every conceivable contingency (The Household Oracle: A Popular Referee on Subjects of Household Enquiry), and even advice to the lovelorn (Wooing: Stories of the Course That Never Did Run Smooth by R. E. Francillon and others. Issued as a volume in The Idle Hour Series, London: Hutchinson, 1891 ). He was Guardian of the Poor for six years and a member of the London Borough of Lewisham from 1904 to 1906. He was editor of the Fifty-Two Library, a series of children’s adventure stories published by Hutchinson & Co., London in the 19th century. He compiled some fifty volumes that appeared at five shillings apiece. Selected books * The Fifty-Two Library 52v 1889–1907 *The Poets and Poetry of the Century (ed.) 10v

Alfred Jean Baptiste Lemaire

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Alfred Jean-Baptiste Lemaire (15 January 1842 – 24 February 1907) was a French military musician and composer. He is known for teaching at the music department of Dar ul-Funun during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, and for composing the first Iranian national anthem. Life Lemaire was born in Aire-sur-la-Lys and entered the Paris Conservatory in 1855, graduating in flute and composition in 1863. By 1867 he had become Deputy Music Master for the Infantry of the Imperial Guard. When Naser al-Din Shah visited Paris, he admired the French military bands that had welcomed him. At the time Iranian military music had used only traditional drums (naqareh) and trumpets (karnay). On his return to Iran in 1867 the shah asked his ambassador to France, Hassan-Ali Garrussi, to hire a French musician to reorganize his military orchestras along Western European lines. Adolphe Niel, then France’s Defence Minister, selected Lemaire to take up the post. Once in Iran, Lemaire procured western instruments and organized the training of military musicians at the Dar ul-Funun, where his students included Darvish Khan, and Gholam Reza Minbashian (Salar Mo’azez), a leading pioneer of Western classical

Alfred Lefébure-Wély

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Louis-James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (13 November 1817 – 31 December 1869) was a French organist and composer. He played a major role in the development of the French symphonic organ style and was closely associated with the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, inaugurating many new Cavaillé-Coll organs. Biography Lefébure-Wély was born in Paris, son of an organist. He studied with his father, Isaac-François-Antoine Lefebvre (1756–1831), who had changed his name to Antoine Lefébure-Wely after being appointed organist of the church of Saint-Roch in the 1st arrondissement. In the manuscript of an unpublished Mass by his father is a note: Within two years of that occasion, Antoine Lefébure-Wely suffered a stroke, paralysing his left side. For the next five years, his son deputised for him. When Alfred was fourteen Antoine died, and the son succeeded the father as official organist of Saint-Roch. A reviewer in La France musicale praised Lefébure-Wely’s technical skill, but advised him to play music of a more serious style than he had developed. Lefébure-Wely, however, continued to perform music of a popular operatic type. When a new Cavaillé-Coll organ was installed at Saint-Roch in 1842,

Alfred Novello

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Joseph Alfred Novello (12 August 1810 – 17 July 1896) was an English music publisher. He was the eldest son of Vincent Novello, and the creator of Novello and Company Ltd as a revolutionary force in music publishing. Life J. Alfred Novello was born in London, the eldest son of the famous organist and composer Vincent Novello, who was the father of eleven children; two died in infancy, two survived infancy but died in childhood, and a son died in early manhood. One son and five daughters survived to carry on the family musical tradition. In 1811 Vincent Novello founded the music publishing firm Novello & Co which carries his name, as he issued sheet music on a subscription basis from his own house and continued to do so until his son J. Alfred Novello took over the business in 1829 at the early age of nineteen. Before this business venture, Alfred, as a bass singer, had done some professional singing. In 1836 Novello began publishing The Musical World, a periodical that was the first weekly devoted to music; its publication continued until 1891. In 1842 Novello acquired Mainzer’s Musical Times and Singing Circular. This formed the basis of The Musical Times and Singing Class Circula

Alfred Quidant

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Pierre Robert Joseph (Alfred) Quidant (7 December 1815 – 9 October 1893) was a French pianist, composer and music teacher. Biography Born in Lyon, the son of a merchant of musical instruments, he began studying music and piano in his hometown. In 1831, he went to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, but interrupted his studies to work for Sébastien Érard as piano demonstrator, a job that he held for more than thirty years. He died in Paris. Quidant had a son named R. Alfred Quidant (1856–1933). Selected works * La Fête au village, grande valse * Fantaisie, en forme de valse chromatique * Cantique, ou Fantaisie de Salon, Op. 13 * Mazeppa, grande étude-galop, Op. 21 * Grande étude-valse, Op. 29 * La Marche de l’Univers, fantaisie, Op. 34 * L’Horloge à musique, caprice, Op. 35 References External links *

Alice Mary Smith

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Alice Mary Smith (married name Alice Mary Meadows White; 19 May 1839 – 4 December 1884) was an English composer. Her compositions included two symphonies and a large collection of choral works, both sacred and secular. Biography Smith was born in London, the third child of a relatively well-to-do family. She showed aptitude for music from her early years and took lessons privately from William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Macfarren, publishing her first song in 1857. In November 1867, the year of her marriage to a lawyer, Frederick Meadows White, she was elected Female Professional Associate of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1884 she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music. The same year, after a period of illness in which she went abroad to try to recover, she died of typhoid fever in London and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. Music Smith was a prolific composer, writing for a diverse range of ensembles. Among her chamber compositions are four piano quartets, three string quartets and a clarinet sonata (1870), perhaps the first British example, anticipating sonatas by Swinnerton Heap, Prout, Tovey and Stanford. Her orchestral compositions includ

Alois Gobbi

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Alois Gobbi (; December 20, 1842 in Pest, Terézváros, Austrian Empire – July 27, 1932, Budapest, Hungary) was a Hungarian violinist, violin teacher, conductor and composer. Early life His father Alois Gobbi-Ruggieri born in Mantua, Italy, to an aristocratic family was a violin professor in Pest, where he settled after his marriage with Viennese singer Maria Roth, mother of Alois junior. Alois Gobbi Jr was a younger brother of the Liszt pupil Henri Gobbi (1841–1920) and a grandfather of the actress Hilda Gobbi (1913–1988). Career He studied singing with Mathias Engesser and Gotthard Wöhler, composition and piano with Carl Thern, and violin with Karl Huber (musician) (father of Jenő Hubay) and David Ridley-Kohne at the National Conservatory in Budapest. After 1862 during one year he studied in Munich violin with Ferdinand Laub, whom he also assisted. In 1863 he was invited as first violinist at the National Theatre in Budapest. He held this position as well as orchestra director during the next 19 years. From 1884 to 1888 he played in the Royal Opera House orchestra. He was also a first committee member of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. In 1871 Gobbi was invited to teach violin a

Alois Mizandary

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Alois Iosebis dze Mizandary (; b. 13 September 1838 – d. 14 June 1912) was a Georgian virtuoso pianist, composer, and educator. He was one of the co-founders of a prominent music school in Tbilisi, which would decades later evolve into the Tbilisi State Conservatory. Biography Alois Mizandary was born in Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. Between 1855 and 1863, he studied at the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University. He performed with the university’s symphony orchestra. During his time there, he knew Mily Balakirev and Anton Rubinstein, who influenced Mizandary’s later work. Mizandary performed throughout Europe and received praise for his concert performances from various newspapers of the time. In 1874, Mizandary co-founded a music school in Tbilisi, which would grow into the Tbilisi State Conservatory by 1917. Mindary’s piano works are one of the earliest Georgian exemplars of their kind. Many works are presumed to be lost, including four-part masses composed for the Tbilisi Catholic Church. Mizandary died in 1912 and is buried at the Didube Pantheon. References Bibliography * მიზანდარი ლ., მიზანდარი (მონოგრაფია), „გრიფონი“ 2011; * ქართული საბჭ

Alois Taux

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Alois Taux (5 October 1817 – 17 April 1861) was a German conductor and composer. He was important in the musical life of Salzburg, and initiated music festivals there dedicated to Mozart. Life Taux was born in Baumgarten, in Silesia (now Braszowice in Poland); he showed musical talent at an early age, and during school years he learned to play violin and organ, and composed church pieces. He took lessons in piano and organ from the organist at the abbey of Camenz (now Kamieniec Ząbkowicki). He was admitted to Prague Conservatory in 1834, where he studied with Bedřich Diviš Weber and the horn player Johann Nepomuk Janatka. In 1837 he joined the theatre orchestra in Graz, playing second violin and later horn. In 1839 he went to Linz, where he was assistant director of the theatre orchestra. He founded in 1847 the Salzburger Liedertafel, a men’s choir, of which he was musical director to 1850 and from 1858 until his death. He became in 1858 choirmaster of the Salzburg Singakademie. Invited to conduct at various venues, he travelled to Germany, Belgium, England and France; an autograph collection, preserved by the Salzburger Liedertafel, shows that he met cultural figures including Hec

Alphons Czibulka

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Alphons Czibulka (also written as Alfons or Alfonz; 14 May 1842 – 27 October 1894) was an Austro-Hungarian military bandmaster, composer, pianist and conductor. Life Czibulka was born in the Spišské Podhradie ( ) district of Spiš () in Upper Hungary, now Slovakia. He first came to prominence from the age of 15 touring Southern Russia giving piano recitals and concerts. He eventually became musical director at the French Opera in Odessa and at the National Theatre in Innsbruck, in 1865 he was second under Franz von Suppé as conductor at the Carl Theatre in Vienna. From 1866 to 1869 he served as a military bandmaster in Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment No. 17 in Bolzano. From 1869 to 1870 he held the same position at the “23ern” in Petrovaradin and then, until 1871, with Infantry Regiment No. 20 in Kraków. Success as conductor and composer in the military led Czibulka onwards to Kapellmeister for Infantry Regiment No. 25 in Prague from 1872 to 1880. In 1880 he was appointed representative of Austria-Hungary’s military orchestra at the International Exhibition in Brussels. There he won First Prize at the exhibition’s Internationalen Musikkapellenkonkurrenz. When Rudolf, Crown Prince

Alphonse Duvernoy

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Victor-Alphonse Duvernoy (; 30 August 1842 – 7 March 1907) was a French pianist and composer. Life and career The son of noted bass-baritone Charles-François Duvernoy (1796–1872), Duvernoy was born in Paris and became a student of Antoine François Marmontel, François Bazin, and Auguste Barbereau at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied piano from 1886. He subsequently made his career as a piano virtuoso, a composer and professor of piano at the Conservatoire. He composed operas, a ballet, symphonic and chamber music works, as well as music for piano. His 1880 symphonic poem La Tempête for soloists, chorus and orchestra after William Shakespeare’s The Tempest won the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1900. Duvernoy counts composer Alexander Winkler (1865–1935) and Norah Drewett de Kresz (1882–1960) among his students. His brother was singer and pianist Edmond Duvernoy. He died in Paris. Selected works ;Stage * Sardanapale, opera in 3 acts (1882, Paris, Concerts Lamoureux); libretto by Pierre Berton after Lord Byron * Le Baron Frick, operetta-pasticcio in 1 act (1885, Paris); libretto by Ernest Depré and Charles Clairville * Hellé, opera in 4 acts (1896, Opéra de Paris); libr

Alphonse Hasselmans

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Alphonse Jean Hasselmans (5 March 1845 – 19 May 1912) was a Belgian harpist, composer, and pedagogue. Biography Hasselmans was born in Liège, Belgium. He studied initially at the Conservatory in Strasbourg, which was led since 1854 by his father Joseph Hasselmans (1814–1902). He continued his studies with Gottlieb Krüger (1824–1895) in Stuttgart and with Ange-Conrad Prumier (1820–1884) in Paris. He began his performing career in the orchestra of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. A series of eight solo concerts in Paris in 1877 resulted in contracts for performances as a soloist with several Paris orchestras. At the death of Prumier in 1884, Hasselsmans succeeded him as professor of harp at the Conservatoire de Paris where he had Caroline Luigini as assistant, a position he held until his sudden death in Paris at age 67. Hasselmans trained a generation of the most important French harpists of the 20th century, including Henriette Renié, Marcel Tournier, Carlos Salzedo, Marcel Grandjany, Lily Laskine, and Pierre Jamet. He became a French citizen in 1903. Hasselmans’ daughter, Marguerite Hasselmans (1876–1947), was a concert pianist; she was also the mistress of Gabriel Fau

Amalia Larraín y Vicuña

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Amalia Larraín y Vicuña (married name Amalia Larraín de Armstrong; 16 June 1832 – 14 July 1928) was a Chilean composer, socialite and philanthropist. Biography Larraín was born on 16 June 1832 in Santiago to and María de las Mercedes Vicuña. Larraín’s 1922 composition was based on the work of , and was created to benefit the victims of the Vallenar earthquake. Larraín and Armstrong had three children. On 14 July 1928 Larraín died in Santiago, aged 96. References

Amalie Scholl

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Amalie Karoline Luise Scholl Gatspar (28 September 1823 - 18 September 1879) was a German composer who wrote songs and works for piano. She published under the name Amalie Scholl. Scholl was born and died in Dresden. Little is known about her education or her husband, Gatspar. She composed some piano pieces, as well as the following songs: Works *“Abendfriede” opus 4 no. 2 (text by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben) *“Aus dem Frühlingstagebuch” opus 4 no. 1 (text by Emanuel Geibel) *“Mein Kirchlein” opus 2 no. 4 (text by Carl Ebersberger) *“Reue” from Drei Lieder, (text by Emanuel Geibel) *“Siehst du das Meer?” from Drei Lieder (text by Emanuel Geibel) *“So schlaf in Ruh!” (text by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben) References

Amanda Sandborg Waesterberg

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Amanda Teresia Waesterberg (1842–1918) was a Swedish composer. Biography Amanda (née Sandborg) was born in Stockholm on 16 December 1842 as the daughter of Carl Sandborg (1793−1862), a cantor at Maria Magdalena Church and the Royal Swedish Opera, and his wife Frederica Cecilia (née Hagberg). At her baptism, Jacob Niclas Ahlström, conductor at the Royal Court of Sweden, was one of Amanda’s godfathers. After having received her first music lessons at home together with her siblings, she enrolled in the class choir at the educational institution of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She was married to Lars Magnus Waesterberg, and became the mother-in-law of the industrialist Fredrik Ljungström. From 1875, under the pen name “A S-g”, Amanda Sandborg Waesterberg composed hundreds of works. She was also active in piano pedagogy. Further reading *Bernskiöld, Hans (1986). “Amanda Sandborg-Waesterberg”. Sjung, av hjärtat sjung (Göteborg, 1986): sid. 67–69. Libris 9221031 *Sköldmark, Katarina (1990). Amanda Sandborg-Waesterberg: 1842–1918 : kort biografi och verkförteckning. Stockholm: Musikvetenskapliga institutionen. Libris 877184 *Bernskiöld, Hans (1992). “‘Vem som helst’: musiksyn och m

Amédée Artus

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

Amedée Urbain Louis Henry Joseph Artus (28 October 1815 – 26 March 1892) was a 19th-century French conductor and composer, author of more than eight hundred incidental music pieces. Born in Perpignan, Amédée Arthur was the son of Joseph Pierre Artus (1791–1864) and Marie Angélique Salvo (1793–1864), both also from Perpignan. Works * 1842: Paris la nuit, drama in 5 acts and 8 scenes by Charles Dupeuty and Eugène Cormon, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (26 June) * 1843: Un Français en Sibérie, drama in 3 acts by Charles Lafont and Noël Parfait, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (27 July). * 1843: Les Bohémiens de Paris, drama in 5 acts by Adolphe d’Ennery and Eugène Grangé, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (27 September) * 1844: Les Amants de Murcie, drama in 5 acts and 6 scenes by Frédéric Soulié, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (9 March) * 1845: Les Mousquetaires, drama in 5 acts and 12 scenes by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu (27 October) * 1846: La Closerie des Genêts, drama in 5 acts and 8 scenes by Frédéric Soulié, at Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (14 October) * 1847: Le Fils du diable, drama in 5 acts and 12 scenes by Paul Féval and Saint-Yves, at Théâtre de

Amédée de Jallais

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Amédée de Jallais (17 December 1826 – 31 January 1909) was a 19th-century French playwright, operetta librettist and chansonnier. Biography The son of a lieutenant colonel in the guards, he studied at the College Bourbon then entered in the insurance company La Nationale (1845–1850) as employee, a position he will leave to devote himself entirely to literature after the success of his comedy Un de perdu, une de retrouvée. Collaborator of the Gazette des théâtres, then of the Messager des théâtres, he became managing director of the Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques (1871) then after the blaze of this theatre on 22 May 1871, of the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs. Administrator dof the Théâtre Déjazet (1874–1875), general secretary of the Théâtre de la République (1897), he married the actress Eudoxie Laurent in 1862. He wrote more than two hundred plays which were presented on the most important Parisian stages of the 19th century: Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, Théâtre du Vaudeville, Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques etc. Works * Capitaine… de quoi ?, vaudeville in 1 act, with Xavier Eyma, 1850 * Un de perdu, une de retrouvée, comédie-vaudeville in 1 act, 1850 * Le Colporteur, comédi

Amelia Lehmann

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Amelia Lehmann (née Chambers) (3 February 1838 – 1 April 1903 ) was a British composer and arranger of art songs and popular ballads, many of which she published under the pseudonym “A. L.”. She was also considered a gifted singer and was the first singing teacher of her daughter Liza Lehmann. Among her other students of voice was the soprano Evangeline Florence. Several of her works were performed at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts between 1897 and 1928, and her song “When love is kind” was recorded by Ada Forrest for Pathé Records. Lehmann Spent some of her life living in Rome, Italy. In 1861, after a lengthy courtship, she married the painter Rudolf Lehmann. Their daughter Liza wrote in her memoirs: My mother certainly had extraordinary gifts, but suffered all her life from quite abnormally developed diffidence. As a girl, she was so musical that her father declared she did not require lessons! It was, therefore, not until after her marriage that she began to study music seriously. I have met most of the artists of my day, and I have never met any one so naturally gifted as my beloved mother. She had a lovely voice, and studied singing with several vocal teachers of renown; bu

Amilcare Ponchielli

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Amilcare Ponchielli (, ; 31 August 1834 – 16 January 1886) was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera La Gioconda. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla. Life and work Born in Paderno Fasolaro (now Paderno Ponchielli) near Cremona, then Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old. The ballet Le due gemelle (1873) confirmed his success. The following opera, I Lituani (The Lithuanians) of 1874, had a three-night run in 1903 at La Scala, where the casting was particularly poorly reviewed; it was scheduled for performances in 1939 that did not take place because the Second World War broke out, and it was not performed again until 1979, when RAI recovered the score. It has been revived several times since then. His best-known opera is La Gioconda (1876), which his librettist Arrigo Boito adapted from the same play by Victor Hugo that had been previously set by Saverio Mercadante as Il giuramento in 1837 and Carlos Gomes as Fosca in 1873. The opera contains the famous ballet Dance of the Hours as the third act finale. It was first

Amintore Galli

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Amyntor “Amintore” Flaminio Claudio Galli (12 October 1845 – 8 December 1919) was an Italian music publisher, journalist, historian, musicologist, and composer. Born in the Marecchia valley, Galli was educated under Alberto Mazzucato at the Milan Conservatory. Galli’s birth deed records that he was baptised in Talamello – Perticara’s church did not have a baptismal font – but his parents are recorded as living in Perticara. After graduating from Rimini’s Lyceum, in 1862, he enrolled in the Milan Conservatory. He was a pupil of Alberto Mazzucato, with whom he studied composition and the history of aesthetics and music. Galli was a contemporary of Arrigo Boito, and was introduced to the Scapigliatura artistic environment. In 1866, Galli enlisted with Boito, Franco Faccio, and Emilio Praga in Giuseppe Garibaldi’s army, Four of his band arrangements of compositions by great masters were performed in Finale Emilia. by publishing, in Galli’s words, “a collection of economically priced masterworks by the great maestri”. Galli wrote many piano reductions himself, Evaluating his directorship, some critics reproach Galli for his inability to identify operatic successes, leading them to rival

Amy Fay

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Amelia Muller Fay (May 21, 1844 – November 9, 1928) was an American concert pianist, manager of the New York Women’s Philharmonic Society, and chronicler best known for her memoirs of the European classical music scene. A pupil of Theodor Kullak, Fay traveled to Europe to study with Franz Liszt. Her letters home from Germany, including descriptions of her training and the concerts she attended, were published in 1880 as Music Study in Germany. These memoirs include a comprehensive biographical sketch of Liszt. Fay was born in 1844 in Bayou Goula, Louisiana. She was the third of six daughters and the fifth of nine children of the Rev. Charles Fay and Emily (Hopkins) Fay of Louisiana and St. Albans, Vermont. She was Charles Jerome Hopkins’s niece. Her sister Rose Emily Fay married the conductor Theodore Thomas, and her sister Melusina Fay Peirce was the wife of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Amy Fay studied piano under Professor John Knowles Paine of Harvard and at the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1869 to 1875, she continued her lessons in Germany. She had made it her goal to become a pupil of Carl Tausig who had just opened a piano class in Berlin. She w

Andreas Hallén

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Johan Andreas Hallén (22 December 1846 – 11 March 1925) was a Swedish Romantic composer, conductor and music teacher, primarily known for his operas, which were heavily influenced by Richard Wagner’s music dramas. Hallén was born in Gothenburg and died in Stockholm, but the early years of his career and most of his education were in Germany. Like his Norwegian contemporary Edvard Grieg and many other composers the same generation, Hallén frequently evokes the folk music and folk stories of his home country in his compositions. According to the musicologist Axel Helmer, however, “The salient feature of his style … , and the one which strongly affected contemporary reaction, is its close, almost derivative relationship to German music,” especially Wagner. Around 1885, Hallén returned to Sweden and continued to conduct and compose, and in later years taught composition at the Stockholm Conservatory. Works Operas *Harald der Wiking (1881) *Harald Viking (1884) (Revised and translated version of Harald der Wiking) *Hexfällan (Witch’s trap) (1896) *Waldemarsskatten (Valdemar’s Treasure) (1899) *Valborgsmässa (Walpurgis Night) (1902) (Revised version of Hexfällan) References External li

Aniceto Ortega

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Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega del Villar (17 April 1825 – 17 November 1875) was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native subject. He is related to the Colonial Administrator and Archbishop of Nueva Espana, who became the Viceroy of Nueva Espana twice over. He became Conde del Peñasco by way of marriage, and was a Conde del Oploca by way of birth, amongst other titles. Biography Aniceto Ortega was born in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, on 17 April 1825, the second of three sons born to Senator Sr. D. Francisco de Ortega-Montañés y Martínez y Navarro, and Countess Sra. Dña. María Josefa del Villar. His father was a statesman active in the Mexican independence movement and a prominent literary figure, who wrote the patriotic verse drama México libre (Free Mexico). Both Ancieto and his older brother, Francisco, studied medicine at the Escuela Nacional de Medicina in Mexico City. There he specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology and received his degree in 1845. After further medical studies in Paris, he w

Ann Mounsey

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Ann Mounsey or Ann Sheppard Mounsey or (after her marriage) Ann Mounsey Bartholomew was born on 17 April 1811 and died on 24 June 1891. She was well known in London as a teacher, conductor, and organist. As a composer, she published songs, hymns, partsongs, large-scale choral works, and many pieces for the piano and the organ. Life Mounsey was born at 21 Old Compton Street, Soho, London, the eldest child of Thomas Mounsey, a licensed victualler, and his wife, Mary, née Briggs. Her younger sister, Elizabeth Mounsey (1819–1905) also became a professional musician. In 1824 the family settled in Shoreditch, London. Ann’s early music education was undertaken at the renowned piano academy of Johann Bernhard Logier where in 1820 her talent for composition was noted by the composer Louis Spohr during a visit there. most memorably was in 1845 when she performed as accompanist at Crosby Hall, London, for the premiere of the choral work Hear My Prayer (for soprano solo, chorus and organ) by Felix Mendelssohn. Conductor From 1843 to 1848 Ann Mounsey ran ““The Crosby Hall Sacred Concert”” an innovative public concert series of six concerts per season. Composers featured included, Henry Purcell,

Anna Pessiak-Schmerling

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Anna Pessiak-Schmerling (1834 – 14 March 1896) was an Austrian composer born in Vienna. Life and career She was born Anna Schmerling, daughter of Maria Anna Giannatasio del Río (1792–1868), and the granddaughter of Cajetan Giannatasio del Río (1764–1828) who had a boarding school in Vienna. She studied with Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), and afterward worked as a professor of voice at the Vienna Conservatory. She composed piano work and songs, and was noted for her masses and other sacred works. Beethoven wrote the “Hochzeitslied” Wedding Song , WoO 105, for the wedding of Anna’s mother to Leopold Schmerling in 1819. The Giannattasio del Rio family was associated with Beethoven through his nephew Karl, and Franziska (Fanny) Giannatasio del Río, Anna Pessiak-Schmerling’s aunt, was a source for biographical detail on the composer. According to her, Beethoven wrote the song “Ruf vom Berge” for Anna’s mother during an excursion to Himmel. References

Annibal Napoleão

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Annibal Napoleão dos Santos (3 January — 1880) was a Portuguese pianist and composer. He was the second of three Napoleão pianist and composer siblings, the elder being Arthur Napoleão (1843–1925), the younger Alfredo Napoleão (1852–1917). Annibal is the least important among them, partly because of his weak health and partly of his premature death. First studied music with his father, then with Sproule in Ireland. ;For piano *Op.1 - Le Gladiateur, Grande galop de bravoure *Op.2 - Les Perles d’Andalousie, Six danses caractéristiques *Op.3 - La Pluie de roses (A chuva de rozas), Grande polka de concert No. 1 *Op.4 - Rêve du jeune âge, Nocturne No. 1 *Op.5 - Impromptu-Valse *Op.6 - Ernani, Transcription de concert *Op.7 - Il Arco di Sant’Anna, Opera de Sá Noronha, Fantaisie-caprice (Fantaisie de salon) *Op.10 - Dans les forêts du Brésil, Souvenir de voyage, Impromptu *Op.11 - Souvenir, Nocturne No. 2 *Op.12 - Inquiétude, Idylle *Op.13 - Vision d’amour, Nocturne No. 3 *Op.14 - Tourbillon de fleurs, Grande polka de concert No. 2 *Op.15 - Je t’aime, Romance sans paroles *Op.16 - Minuit, Impromptu No. 2 *Op.17 - La Douleur, Romance sans paroles *Op.18 - Giroflé-Girofla, Fantaisie *Op.19

Antoine François Marmontel

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Antoine François Marmontel (; 18 July 1816 – 16 January 1898) was a French pianist, composer, teacher and musicographer. He is mainly known today as an influential teacher at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught many musicians who became leading voices of French music in the late 19th and early 20th century. Life and career Marmontel was born in Clermont-Ferrand. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1827. His teachers were Pierre Zimmerman in pianoforte, Victor Dourlen in harmony, Jacques Fromental Halévy in fugue and Jean-François Le Sueur in composition. He achieved a First Prize for his piano playing (1832). In 1837, he became professor of singing at the Conservatory. In 1846, Marmontel married Françoise Mélanie Pelletier, and in 1848 Marmontel succeeded Zimmerman as professor of piano, beating his former teacher Charles-Valentin Alkan, and as a consequence derailing the latter’s career. His memoir of Alkan in his book Les Pianistes célèbres is nonetheless one of the most valuable sources for Alkan’s biography. Marmontel achieved renown as an effective and imaginative teacher. He had many pupils including Isaac Albéniz, Georges Bizet, Claude Debussy, Louis Diémer, Théodore Du

Antoine Taudou

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Antoine-Barthélémy Taudou (24 August 1846 – 6 July 1925) was a French music educator, violinist and composer. Life Born in Perpignan, Taudou studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1869 with the cantata Françoise da Rimini. After the stay in Rome associated with the prize, he lived as a violinist in Paris. He was, among others, a member of the orchestra of the Théâtre de la Porte St. Martin and from 1872 to 1889 of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. For several years he led the string quartet Quatour Taudou. From 1883, he was professor for harmony at the Paris Conservatory. There, , Erik Satie, Charles Koechlin, Jacques de La Presle, Aymé Kunc, Joseph Boulnois, Joseph-Ermend Bonnal and Francisco Braga were among his students. Taudou composed music for the play Le Luthier de Crémone by François Coppée, which was performed at the Comédie-Française in 1876. He also composed a trio for flute, viola and cello, a trio for piano and strings, a string quartet, a violin concerto and several orchestral pieces. He was honoured as a knight of the Legion of Honour. Taudou died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Works * 1870: A melody and a

Anton Bruckner

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

Early life#

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden (then a village, now almost a suburb of Linz) on 4 September 1824. The ancestors of Bruckner’s family were farmers and craftsmen; their history can be traced as far back as the 16th century. They lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which led to their being called “Bruckhner an der Bruckhen” (bridgers on the bridge). Bruckner’s grandfather was appointed schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776; this position was inherited by Bruckner’s father, Anton Bruckner Sr., in 1823. It was a poorly paid but well-respected position in the rural environment. Bruckner Sr. married , and they had eleven children, Anton Bruckner being the eldest. Music was part of the school curriculum, and Bruckner’s father was his first music teacher. He entered school when he was six, proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children. After Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckner’s father sent him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast and respected organist. Here, Bruckner completed his school education and refined his skills as an organist. Around 1835 Bruckner wrote his first composition, a Pange lingua – one of the compositions which he revised at the end of his life. When his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work.

Anton de Kontski

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Anton de Kontski (25 September 18167 December 1899) was a Polish-American pianist and composer. He was also known as Antoni Kątski and Antoine de Kontski, sometimes with the appellation “Chevalier.” Early life Born in Kraków, Anton de Kontski was one of five children, all musical. His sister Eugenia (b. 1816) was a singer; brother Stanislaw (b. 1820) a pianist who taught piano in Paris and composed salon pieces; brother Apolinary (1825–1879) a virtuoso violinist, composer and teacher who debuted at age five at the St. Petersburg court, studied with Paganini, toured Europe, and finally settled in Warsaw where in 1860 he founded the Music Institute; and brother Karol (1815–1867), violinist and composer, member of the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Career Anton himself was a pianist and composer, a student of John Field in Moscow and a child prodigy. He also studied composition with Simon Sechter and piano with Sigismond Thalberg in Vienna. In 1845, in Paris, he performed in a concert at the Czartoryski salon together with Frédéric Chopin. In 1849, he appeared in concerts in Spain and Portugal. Kontski reorganized the National Conservatory in Lisbon and for his efforts was a

Anton Rubinstein

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

Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; 28 November 182920 November 1894) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks among the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. He became most famous for his series of historical recitals, seven enormous, consecutive concerts covering the history of piano music. Rubinstein played this series throughout Russia and Eastern Europe and in the United States when he toured there. Although best remembered as a pianist and educator (most notably as the composition teacher of Tchaikovsky), Rubinstein was also a prolific composer; he wrote 20 operas, the best known of which is The Demon. He composed many other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonies and many solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble. In 1865 Rubinstein married Vera de Tschikouanov, a maid of honor at the Russian court, who bore him three children. Early life and education Rubinstein was born to Jewish parents in the village of Vikhvatinets in the Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire

Antoni Kocipiński

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Antoni Kocipiński (1816 – 26 May 1866) was a Polish composer, musician, and music publisher. He was mostly active in what is now Ukraine, at the time the areas where he operated were part of the Austrian Empire. Life and career Kocipiński was born in Andrychów in 1816. He received education in Lviv, studied piano, organ, and composition with his father, an organist at the Lviv Cathedral, and served for ten years in the Austrian military orchestra in Chernivtsi. In 1845–46, Kocipiński moved to Kamianets-Podilskyi. Kocipiński gave music lessons (Among his pupils was Vladyslav Zaremba) and worked in a music store. At the same time, he began to collect and transcribe Ukrainian folk songs. In 1849, Kocipiński was exiled for possessing banned poems by Juliusz Słowacki, living in Vienna. He later returned to Kamianets-Podilskyi in 1852–53. From 1855, he lived in Kyiv. He published music and opened music stores in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Kyiv, Chișinău, and Zhytomyr. Kocipiński popularized Ukrainian folk songs as well as publishing works of local composers. While under police surveillance, he organized weekly musical evenings. The musician performed as a tenor and was a skilled harmonium solo

Antonietta Gambara Untersteiner

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Composer and pianist Antonietta Gambara Untersteiner (1846 – 27 May 1896) was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, but lived in Italy most of her life. Untersteiner studied music at the Milan Conservatory from 1874 to 1876 and graduated with a prize. questioned whether to admit female students, but noted in a letter to Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella director Giuseppe Martucci that the only candidate worthy of admission in 1874 was Untersteiner. Compositions Untersteiner’s music was published by Casa Ricordi. Her compositions include: ;Orchestra *God and Satan (symphonic poem; also arranged for two pianos) ;Piano *God and Satan (two pianos) ;Theatre *Sul Baltico (On the Baltic) ;Vocal *songs in French and Italian References

Antonín Dvořák

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Early life#

Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves near Prague, in the Austrian Empire, and was the eldest son of (1814–1894) and his wife, (1820–1882). František worked as an innkeeper, a professional player of the zither, and a butcher. Anna was the daughter of Josef Zdeněk, the bailiff of the Prince of Lobkowicz. Anna and František married on 17 November 1840. Dvořák was the first of 14 children, eight of whom survived infancy. Dvořák was baptized as a Roman Catholic in the village’s church of St. Andrew. Dvořák’s years in Nelahozeves nurtured his strong Christian faith and the love for his Bohemian heritage that so strongly influenced his music. In 1847, Dvořák entered primary school and was taught to play violin by his teacher Joseph Spitz. He showed early talent and skill, playing in a village band and in church. František, unsuccessful as innkeeper and butcher but managed a living as a musician, was pleased with his son’s gifts. At the age of 13, through the influence of his father, Dvořák was sent to Zlonice in 1853 to live with his uncle Antonín Zdenĕk in order to learn the German language. His first composition, the “Forget-Me-Not Polka” in C (“Polka pomněnka”) was written possibly as early as 1855. Dvořák took organ, piano, and violin lessons from his German-language teacher . Liehmann also taught the young boy music theory and introduced him to the composers of the time; Dvořák had much regard for Liehmann despite his teacher’s violent temper. Liehmann was the church organist in Zlonice and sometimes let Antonín play the organ at services. Dvořák took further organ and music theory lessons at Česká Kamenice with Franz Hanke, who encouraged his musical talents even further and was more sympathetic. At the age of 16, at the urging of Liehmann and Zdenĕk, František allowed his son to become a musician, on the condition that the boy should work toward a career as an organist. After leaving for Prague in September 1857, Dvořák entered the city’s Prague Organ School, studying singing with Josef Zvonař, theory with František Blažek, and organ with . The latter was not only a professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also a composer for the organ; his son Josef Bohuslav Foerster became a better known composer. Dvořák also took an additional language course to improve his German and worked as an “extra” violist in numerous bands and orchestras, including the orchestra of the St. Cecilia Society. Dvořák graduated from the Organ School in 1859, ranking second in his class. He applied unsuccessfully for a position as an organist at , but remained undaunted in pursuing a musical career. In 1858, he joined Karel Komzák’s orchestra, with whom he performed in Prague’s restaurants and at balls. The high professional level of the ensemble attracted the attention of Jan Nepomuk Maýr, who engaged the whole orchestra in the Bohemian Provisional Theatre Orchestra. Dvořák played viola in the orchestra beginning in 1862. Dvořák could hardly afford concert tickets, and playing in the orchestra gave him a chance to hear music, mainly operas. In July 1863, Dvořák played in a program devoted to the German composer Richard Wagner, who conducted the orchestra. Dvořák had had “unbounded admiration” for Wagner since 1857. In 1862, Dvořák began composing his first string quartet. In 1864, Dvořák agreed to share the rent of a flat located in Prague’s Žižkov district with five other people, including violinist Mořic Anger and Karel Čech, who later became a singer. In 1866, Maýr was replaced as chief conductor by Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák was making about $7.50 a month. The constant need to supplement his income pushed him to give piano lessons.

Antonino Gandolfo Brancaleone

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Antonino Gandolfo Brancaleone (24 April 1820, in Catania – 6 June 1888, in Catania) was an Italian composer. His masterpiece was Il Sultano (1851). Biography He began his studies in Palermo with Pietro Raimondi. Afterward Antonino moved to Naples to study with Saverio Mercadante. Back in Catania, after this training period, he composed sacred and chamber music. He composed the oratory La disfatta degli Assiri (The Assyrian Defeat)(1850) and Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) (1852), both performed in Catania during the August Saint Agatha festivities. In 1851, at the Teatro Comunale di Catania was performed for the first time Il Sultano or Maometto II (The Sultan or Muhammad II). The same opera was performed in Naples at the Teatro di San Carlo in 1854 with enthusiastic success, thanks also to the outstanding cast of singers, which included among others the tenor Emilio Pancani and soprano Carlotta Carrozzi Zucchi. In 1859 the opera Caterina di Guisa (Catherine of Guise) was performed for the first time at Teatro Comunale di Catania. In 1859, he was appointed director of the Teatro Comunale di Catania. Antonino had to leave soon Sicily, taking refuge in Malta, to escape the

Antonino Palminteri

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Antonino Palminteri (3 October 1846 – 31 July 1915) was an Italian conductor and classical composer. Life and career Born in Menfi, the son of a doctor, in 1970 Palminteri graduated in piano, counterpoint and harmony from the Palermo Conservatory, and a few years later he became “Maestrino” and “Concertatore” (Master Teacher and Concertmaster) in his alma mater. He then moved to Milan, where he succeeded Amilcare Ponchielli in the chair of counterpoint and harmony at the Milan Conservatory. Among his pupils were Giacomo Puccini, with whom in the following years he had an intense epistolary relationship. He also conducted opera performances in Moscow, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Valencia and Zadar. Further reading * References External links * Antonino Palminteri at Archivio Ricordi

Antonio Bazzini

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Antonio Bazzini (11 March 181810 February 1897) was an Italian violinist, composer and teacher. As a composer, his most enduring work is his chamber music, which earned him a central place in the Italian instrumental renaissance of the 19th century. However, his success as a composer was overshadowed by his reputation as one of the finest concert violinists of the nineteenth century. He also contributed to a portion of Messa per Rossini, specifically the first section of II. Sequentia, Dies Irae. Biography Bazzini was born at Brescia. As a young boy, he was a pupil of a local violinist . At 17, he was appointed organist of a church in his native town. The following year, he met Paganini and became completely influenced by that master’s art and style. Paganini encouraged Bazzini to begin his concert career that year, and he quickly became one of the most highly regarded artists of his time. From 1841 to 1845, he lived in Germany, where he was much admired by Schumann both as a violinist and a composer, as well as by Mendelssohn (Bazzini gave the first private performance of his Violin Concerto). After a short stay in Denmark in 1845, Bazzini returned to Brescia to teach and compose.

Antonio Buzzolla

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Antonio Buzzolla (2 March 1815 – 20 March 1871) was an Italian composer and conductor. Life Antonio Buzzolla was born on 2 March 1815. A native of Adria, he studied in Venice from 1832, and he joined the orchestra of La Fenice. His first opera, Il Ferramondo, was performed at Teatro San Benedetto. He later completed his studies under Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante at the Naples Conservatory from 1837 to 1839. He returned to Venice in 1839 and had two more operas performed there. He left for Berlin in 1843 and was a conductor at the Italian Opera. After touring Poland and Russia, he went to Paris in 1847 and was a conductor at Théâtre Italien. He returned to Venice the following year and performed two more operas, Amleto and Elisabetta di Valois. Buzzolla was better known in his lifetime for ariettas and canzonettas in the Venetian dialect. Beginning in 1855, he served as the of the Cappella Marciana at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Buzzolla was one of the composers invited by Giuseppe Verdi to contribute to the Messa per Rossini; he composed the opening movement, the Requiem e Kyrie. He died in Venice on 20 March 1871, and was interred at the San Michele cemetery on the I

Antonio Cagnoni

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Antonio Cagnoni (8 February 1828 – 30 April 1896) was an Italian composer. Primarily known for his twenty operas, his work is characterized by his use of leitmotifs and moderately dissonant harmonies. In addition to writing music for the stage, he composed a modest amount of sacred music, most notably a Requiem in 1888. He also contributed the third movement, Quid sum miser, to the Messa per Rossini, a collaborative work created by thirteen composers to honor Gioacchino Rossini. Life and career Born in Godiasco, Cagnoni first studied music composition privately in Voghera. He then studied at the Milan Conservatory where his first three operas, Rosalia di San Miniato (1845), I due savoiardi (1846), and Don Bucefalo, were premiered while he was a student. The latter work was particularly well received and enjoyed successful stagings at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (1850), Teatro di San Carlo (1853), the Teatro della Canobbiana (1854), and the Teatro Regio di Parma (1860) among others. He went on to compose 16 more operas and a pastiche, of which his most successful were Michele Perrin (1864), Claudia (1866), Un capriccio di donna (1870), Papà Martin (1871), and Francesca da Rimi

Antonio Nani

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Antonio (or Anton) Nani (6 October 1842 – 25 February 1929) was a Maltese composer and a member of a prominent family of Maltese musicians and composers. He composed both sacred music and operas. Family background The Nani family’s relationship with the musical life of Malta began with the violinist Angelo Nani (1751–1844) who was born in the Republic of Venice. While touring Malta as a concert violinist in 1766 he was appointed a chamber musician to the court of Manuel Pinto de Fonseca, the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Angelo married a Maltese woman and remained in Malta for the rest of his life, later becoming the impresario of the Manoel Theatre in Valletta. Three of his sons, Emmanuele (1769–1860), Vincenzo (1775–c.1840), and Agostino (1782–1846) all became violinists and composers, the most prominent of whom was Emmanuele. Another son, Giuseppe, the 11th of Angelo’s thirteen children, became a lawyer. However, Giuseppe’s son Paolo (1814–1904) became a composer like his uncles. Life and career Antonio Nani was born in Valletta, the son of Paolo and Caterina (née Recau) Nani. He initially studied music in Malta with his father (a prolific com

Antonio Pasculli

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Antonio Pasculli (13 October 1842 – 23 February 1924) was an Italian oboist and composer, known as “the Paganini of the oboe”. Biography Pasculli was born in Palermo, Sicily on 13 October 1842. He lived there his whole life but travelled widely in Italy, Germany and Austria, giving oboe concerts. He directed symphonic and wind orchestra concerts, which were popular in Italy at the time. He also transcribed a large number of opera pieces for oboe and piano/harp, including works by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Rossini. One of his well-known works is Etude Caractéristique for oboe and piano “Le Api” (The Bees) written in 1874 which resembles and precedes Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee”. He died in Palermo on 23 February 1924. Pasculli’s works require extraordinary virtuosity on the instrument. His pieces make constant use of arpeggiations, trills, and scales, and require the oboist to use circular breathing. His output was essentially forgotten early in the twentieth century, and he remained in oblivion until oboists Heinz Holliger and Omar Zoboli began reviving his music. As a result, some of his works are now available in recordings. Compositions Chamber works * Le Api

Antonios Liveralis

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Antonios Liveralis or Liberalis (Greek: Αντώνιος Λιβεράλης or Λιμπεράλης, Italian: Antonio Liberali; 1814 in Corfu – 1842 in Corfu) was a Greek conductor and composer of the early Ionian school. He was the son of Italian conductor Domenico Liberali and one of Nikolaos Mantzaros’ favorite students. He later continued his studies at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples. When he returned to Corfu he was joyfully received into the circle of national composers, where he was considered a musician of great talent. He then began working as assistant to his teacher Mantzaros, who left him very little time for his own compositions. He was among the first teachers of his younger brother Iosif and served as vice director of music to the Philharmonic Society of Corfu. Liveralis’ compositions are largely limited to minor forms. He wrote a series of fixed funeral marches, which were later published in two volumes. The march O Kambouris (Ο Καμπούρης, ‘The Hunchback’) achieved great popularity in Corfu. He also devoted himself to composing piano music and to the creation of a rich song repertoire. His one-act opera is the only sure finished work for the stage by the composer. He was b

Antony Choudens

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Antony Choudens (11 February 1849 – 15 July 1902) was a French music publisher and occasional composer. Life and business history Choudens was born in Paris. He succeeded his father Antoine de Choudens (1825–1888), who had founded the Paris-based company in May 1844, and which had grown to importance following the successful publication of Charles Gounod’s opera Faust in 1859. He was also the nephew of the librettist Émilien Pacini. He studied harmony with Georges Bizet. From November 1874, Antony de Choudens participated with 10 percent in the shares of the company, with 80 percent held by his father and the remaining 10 percent by his brother Paul. Following the death of their father in November 1888, the brothers took over the company, with Antoine holding 40 percent and Paul 60 percent. The company closed down in 1914. The company traded as Choudens (1844–1874), Choudens père et fils (1875–1888), Choudens fils (1889–1891), Choudens or Paul Choudens (1892–1914). Their addresses in Paris (with approximate years of business) were: *10, rue Neuve du Luxembourg (1844–1845) *385, rue Saint Honoré (June 1850 – August 1852) *371, rue Saint Honoré (around 1855) *265, rue Saint Honoré (1

Apollon Hussakovskyi

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Apollon Seliverstovych Hussakovskyi (; 1841 – 9 March 1875) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and soil chemist. He was close to the Mighty Handful group of composers, however later he abandoned his music career. He is also known by his Russian name Apollon Selivyorstovich Gussakovsky (). Other sources give his birth and death years as 1843–1874 or 1841–1878. The movement was performed at a university concert on 15 January 1861 conducted by Karl Schuberth. It was later performed again on 20 November 1862 at a concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Anton Rubinstein. Hussakovskyi struggled to write more music and did not complete his symphony. He found a tutoring position within a wealthy family by May 1861, but left the country in late 1861 on a scientific assignment and returned in April 1862. Disillusioned with his abilities as a composer, Hussakovskyi met his friends less frequently upon returning. For some time, he lived in a tobacco shop. He married Olga Tilicheyeva in October, a decision which the other composers opposed. Upon graduating from the Saint Petersburg Imperial University in November 1863, he was awarded the equivalent to a Candidate of Sciences and jo

Aristide Hignard

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Jean-Louis Aristide Hignard (20 May 1822 – 20 March 1898) was a French composer of light opera notable as a friend of Jules Verne, also from Nantes and six years Hignard’s junior, some of whose librettos and verse he set to music. Life and music The son of a shipowner, Hignard was born in Nantes and studied at the Paris Conservatory with Fromental Halévy and won the Second Grand Prix de Rome in 1850 with the cantata Emma et Eginhard. His first comic opera Le Visionnaire was published in 1851. During the 1850s Hignard composed four comic operas, for which his childhood friend Jules Verne provided the librettos. In 1861, the operetta Les Musiciens de l’orchestre was performed, which Hignard had composed together with Léo Delibes and Jules Erlanger (and probably also Jacques Offenbach). For a long time, Hignard worked on his main work, the five-act opera Hamlet based on a libretto by Pierre de Garal. It was premiered in 1868 with great success. He also composed a series of songs (partly based on texts by Verne) as well as waltzes and melodies for the piano. He died in Vernon. Works * La Mille et deuxième nuit, opera with libretto by Jules Verne (1850), never performed * Le Visionnaire

Armand Limnander

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Baron Armand-Marie Ghislain Limnander van Nieuwenhove (born 22 May 1814 in Ghent – d. 15 August 1892 at the Château de Moignanville, a village in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France) was a Belgian composer of choral and orchestral works and church music. Knight of the Order of Leopold, he was the founder and conductor of the choral chamber ensembles Société Symphonique and Réunion Lyrique in Belgium. Biography Born to a family who formerly belonged to the bar of the late Council of Flanders, ennobled in 1683, Armand Limnander van Nieuwenhoven was raised in the village of Malines. He studied in Freiburg with Louis Lambillotte and in Paris with François-Joseph Fétis, director of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. From 1838 to 1847 he conducted with great distinction the direction of an amateur choral society entitled Réunion Lyrique composed of 25 members, which premiered there on 31 March the following year, was very well received along with his Le Château de la Barbe-Bleue (1851). In the course of 1853 the composer was working on two books, one for the Opera House and the other to the Opéra-Comique of Paris. His opera Yvonne (1859), set to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, premiere

Arnold Krug

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Arnold Krug (16 October 1849 – 14 August 1904) was a German composer and music teacher. Biography Born in Hamburg, Krug began his music studies with piano lessons from his father, Diederich Krug, who was himself a pianist and composer. Later he was sent to the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Carl Reinecke and then went on to Berlin, where he continued with Friedrich Kiel and Eduard Franck. After completing his studies, he taught in Berlin at the Stern Conservatory for several years before returning to Hamburg where he remained for the rest of his life, working primarily as a music teacher and choral director. Gustav Jenner was among his many students. Music While he wrote works in several different genres, including symphonies, orchestral overtures, operas, piano works, and chamber music, it is his choral works which received the most attention. However, today he is primarily remembered for his String Sextet in D Major, Op. 68. This work was known as the “Prize Sextet” because Krug won the Stelzner Prize for chamber music with this composition. The Prize Sextet was originally for two violins, viola, violotta, cello and cellone, but the publisher of the work (Fritz Kistne

Arrigo Boito

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Arrigo Boito (; born Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito; 24 February 1842 10 June 1918) was an Italian librettist, composer, poet and critic whose only completed opera was Mefistofele. Among the operas for which he wrote the libretti are Giuseppe Verdi’s monumental last two operas Otello and Falstaff as well as Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Along with Emilio Praga and his brother Camillo Boito, he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura (Italian bohemian) artistic movement. He wrote essays under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio. Biography Boito was born in Padua. He was the son of Silvestro Boito, a painter of miniatures, who was not of noble birth but passed himself off as a nobleman, and his wife, a Polish countess, Józefina Radolińska. His older brother, Camillo Boito, was an Italian architect and engineer as well as a noted art critic, art historian and novelist. Boito studied music at the Milan Conservatory with Alberto Mazzucato until 1861, where he was a contemporary of Albert Visetti and Amintore Galli. In 1866, with Galli, Franco Faccio, and Emilio Praga, Boito fought under Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Seven Weeks’ War in which the

Arthur Elwell Fisher

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Arthur Elwell Fisher (29 May 1848 – 2 June 1914) was an English composer, organist, violist, violinist, and music educator who was primarily active in North America. His compositional output includes String Trio in G, Opus 54, a Rhapsody for violin and orchestra, a Thanksgiving Cantata, several works for solo piano and solo violin, choral works, and roughly 100 songs. His works were published in Canada by I. Suckling & Sons and A. & S. Nordheimer Co., in England by Ashdown, Curwen Press, and Novello, and in the United States by Century, Oliver Ditson and Company, G. Schirmer, and Summy-Birchard Music. Early life and education Fisher was born in England. He studied the violin at the Conservatoire de Paris and with Henry Holmes (1839–1905) in London. Career Fisher worked as a church organist in Liverpool during the 1870s. In 1879 he emigrated to Canada, and assumed the post of organist at St George’s Church in Montreal, while giving organ lessons privately. He left there in 1882 to pursue studies at Trinity College in Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Music in 1887. He also earned associates diplomas from Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Organists in 1889 through

Arthur Ivan Allin

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Arthur Ivan Allin (3 December 1847 – 31 January 1926) was a Danish violinist, organist, conductor, and composer. Arthur Allin has never specialized as a musician. As his interests have been many-sided, his field of work has been extensive, more so presumably than he dreamed when he, as a 12-year-old boy, stepped into Tivoli Gardens and beat the little drum in “Old Lumbye’s” orchestra. Arthur Ivan Allin was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on 3 December 1847. In the days of his childhood, he had music instructions from Adolf Hartmann (piano), Valdemar Tofte (violin), and Peter Rasmussen (theory). Career In Tivoli, he played on and off until 1874. Then he wanted to move away from the capital and became an organist in Rønne (1875–1880), at St. Peter’s Church in Næstved (1881–89), and at Aarhus Cathedral (1888–1915), where he succeeded Robert Allen. While in Aarhus, he also took a job as conductor of the Centralized “Jyske Sang” Associations from 1189-1914. Allin’s name has been attached firmly to the latter city’s musical life through these 26 years. Arthur Allin became a symbol of unity within various musical undertakings. Thus, he was once the president of the Aarhus Music Association an

Arthur Napoleão dos Santos

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Arthur Napoleão dos Santos (6 March 1843 – 12 May 1925) was a Portuguese composer, pianist, instrument dealer and music publisher. He was brother of Aníbal Napoleão and Alfredo Napoleão, who like Arthur were pianists and composers. Biography He was born in Porto, Portugal, and gave his first piano concert at the age of 7. When he was 8, supported by Ferdinand II of Portugal, Napoleão gave his first international concerts, visiting cities such as London (where he played at the Portuguese Embassy in the city) and Paris. Thereafter he toured all over Europe and America, sometimes playing duets with Henri Vieuxtemps or Henryk Wieniawski. At age 15, he performed in New York and critic Richard Storrs Willis attended “out of curiosity to see the sort of child that tickles Europe”. Willis was impressed and noted him as “an extraordinary performer… His touch is exquisitely full of tenderness; his precision almost unerring; his power more than respectable, and his rounding of musical thought perfectly delightful.” In 1866 he settled in Brazil, living in Rio de Janeiro. Here he set up shop to sell instruments and publish sheet music. He taught piano lessons, one of his pupils was Chiquinha

Arthur O'Leary (composer)

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Arthur O’Leary (15 March 1834 – 11 March 1919) was an Irish composer, pianist and teacher. Biography O’Leary was born in Tralee, County Kerry, both his father (also named Arthur) and uncle Daniel having been talented musicians, too. Arthur Senior was said to be first cousin to Arthur Sullivan’s grandfather in an obituary for O’Leary written by W. H. Grattan Flood. When young Arthur’s talents were discovered at the age of ten, a visiting barrister, Wyndham Goold became his patron: in May 1844 he sent him to school in Dublin and secured private piano tuition. With financial backing from others, including John Stanford (father of Charles Villiers Stanford), and with letters of introduction from William Sterndale Bennett, O’Leary was able to study at the conservatory in Leipzig, where he arrived in 1847 to study piano (with Ignaz Moscheles), organ, violin, and harmony (with Julius Rietz). During this time he was invited several times to musical dinners where he met, besides Moscheles, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Joseph Joachim. He also attended Mendelssohn’s funeral in 1847. Between February 1852 and December 1854 O’Leary studied the piano with Cipriani Potter and Sterndale Bennett

Arthur Sullivan

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Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and “The Lost Chord”. The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys’ choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. His graduation piece, incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1861), was received with acclaim on its first performance in London. Among his early major works were a ballet, (1864), a symphony, a cello concerto (both 1866), and his Overture di Ballo (1870). To supplement the income from his concert works he wrote hymns, parlour ball

Asger Hamerik

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Asger Hamerik (Hammerich) (April 8, 1843 – July 13, 1923) was a Danish composer of the late romantic period. He was aged 80 at the time of his death. Life and career Born in Frederiksberg (near Copenhagen), he studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade, being related to the former through his mother, a cousin of Emma Hartmann. He wrote his first pieces in his teens, including an unperformed symphony. His family were friends with Hans Christian Andersen, with whom Hamerik corresponded regularly. Later, he left Denmark in 1862 to study music in Berlin, with Hans von Bülow, and Paris where he was a protégé of Hector Berlioz. In 1864 he began using the more unmistakably Danish version of his last name, rather than Hammerich, in the swell of Danish national feeling after the Danish-Prussian war. He left Paris in 1869 for Italy, and then Vienna. In 1871 he was offered the post of director of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where his influence won praise from influential visitors including Tchaikovsky and Arthur Sullivan. He composed most of his large-scale concert works for the Institute’s orchestra. His students at Peabody included Eliza Woods. He left his position

August Bungert

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Friedrich August Bungert (14 March 1845 – 26 October 1915) was a German opera composer and poet. Biography Early life Bungert was born in Mülheim. His unusual musical talent was noticed and nurtured at high school by his teacher, Heinrich Kufferath, the brother of the composer Ferdinand Kufferath. Bungert’s father, a wealthy merchant and an eminent member of the community, was unenthusiastic about his son’s ambitions and considered his son’s musical ability to be an “ill-fated inclination”. He would have preferred his son to undertake a career as a merchant or a doctor. Only his mother supported him, but she died when August Bungert was ten. In the aftermath of her death, the conflict between father and son became more intense. Upon finishing high school at 16, Bungert fled to Cologne. He attended the Conservatorium there and was taught by Ferdinand Kufferath, his high school teacher’s brother. In Cologne, he was discovered by the composer Max Bruch’s sister, who had been charged by the Paris Conservatorium with finding a talented musician to be educated in Paris. Musical career Bungert was destitute in Paris, just managing to make ends meet by giving piano lessons, until his fathe

August Conradi

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August Conradi (27 June 1821 – 26 May 1873) was a German organist and composer. Life Born in Berlin, Conradi was originally intended by his father to study theology. Instead, he was enrolled at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. There he studied harmony and composition with Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen, director of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. In 1843, he became a church organist of Invalidenhaus, Berlin, also writing his first symphony plus a Zigeunerpolka for orchestra the same year. The latter was arranged for piano by Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt. Conradi held various conducting appointments; these included Stettin (1849), Berlin (1850), Düsseldorf (1852), and Cologne (1853), then Berlin again at such theaters as Kroll’s, the Wallner-Theater and the Victoria-Theater. Conradi probably met Liszt in the early 1840s. He served as Liszt’s copyist in Weimar in January and February 1844, and he spent 18 months there in 1848 and 1849 at Liszt’s instigation. Conradi prepared copies of the initial versions of Liszt’s orchestral works, making suggestions on scoring. He also assisted Liszt in assembling a “Programme general” of all the repertory he had played during his vi

August Klughardt

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August Friedrich Martin Klughardt (30 November 1847 – 3 August 1902) was a German composer and conductor. Life Klughardt, who was born in Köthen, took his first piano and music theory lessons at the age of 10. Soon he began to compose his first pieces, which were performed by a music circle Klughardt had founded himself at school. In 1863, his family moved to Dessau. One year later, Klughardt gave his debut as pianist. After having finished school, he moved to Dresden in 1866. There, he took further lessons and brought his compositions to the public for the first time. One year later, he began to earn his living as a conductor. At first, he worked at the municipal theatre in Posen (Poznań) for one season, then in Neustrelitz for one season, and finally in Lübeck for several months. From 1869 to 1873, he worked at the court theatre in Weimar. There, he met Franz Liszt, which was very important for his creative development. In 1873, he returned to Neustrelitz where he became chief conductor. He was appointed manager in 1880. In 1876, he visited the first Bayreuth Festival. From 1882 to the end of his life, he was director of music at the court in Dessau. In 1892 and 1893, he conducte

August Röckel

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Carl August Röckel (1 December 1814 – 18 June 1876) was an Austrian-born German composer and conductor. He was a friend of Richard Wagner and active in the German revolutions of 1848–1849. Biography Röckel was born in Graz. His father, Joseph August Röckel, was a tenor, choir director and theatre entrepreneur who sang the role of Florestan at the premiere of the second version of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio in 1806. With his father, he experienced theatrical life in Vienna, Paris and London. He acted in Paris as assistant to Gioachino Rossini at the Théâtre des Italiens, and was on a later visit to Paris an eyewitness to the Paris July Revolution of 1830. After he completed his musical training with his uncle, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (who was married to his father’s sister Elisabeth Röckel), he was music director in Bamberg starting in 1838. In 1843 he came to Dresden, where he was at the Court Theatre, where Richard Wagner was music director. He was assistant conductor (“2. Musikdirektor”) to Wagner for five years until 1848. Influenced by the music of Wagner, he renounced a performance of his own opera, which he had sent to Dresden. Wagner became a close friend, especially durin

August Söderman

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Johan August Söderman (17 July 1832 – 10 February 1876) was a Swedish composer. He was born and died in Stockholm, and has traditionally been seen as the pre-eminent Swedish composer of the Romantic generation, known especially for his lieder and choral works, based on folk material, and for his theatre music, such as the incidental music to Ludvig Josephson’s Marsk Stigs döttrar (Marshal Stig’s daughter"), 1866, or his Svenskt festspel (“Swedish Festival Music”). Biography The son of a musical father and he was a pupil of the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm, he studied piano, but mastered the oboe and violin as well. In 1856–57 he studied counterpoint at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ernst Richter; there, in a musical culture that bore the imprint of Mendelssohn, he became familiar with the music of Robert Schumann and also with that of Richard Wagner. On his return to Stockholm he worked as a theatre conductor, and at the Royal Swedish Opera as choirmaster and eventually assistant conductor. He wrote several operettas (The Devil’s First Try, 1856) and incidental music for about 80 plays, such as a Swedish translation of Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans (“The Maid of Orleans

August Wilhelm Ambros

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August Wilhelm Ambros (17 November 181628 June 1876) was an Austrian music historian, critic and composer of Czech descent. Life He was born in Mýto, Rokycany District, Bohemia. (1773–1850), the musical archaeologist and collector. Ambros studied at the University of Prague From 1850 onwards, he became well known as a critic and essay-writer, and in 1860 he began working on his magnum opus, his History of Music, which was published at intervals from 1862 in five volumes, the last two (1878, 1882) being edited and completed by Otto Kade and . Also in Prague, he sat on the board of governors in the Prague Royal Conservatory. By 1872, he was living in Vienna and was employed by the Department of Justice as an officer and by Prince Rudolf’s family as his tutor. Through his work in Vienna, he was given a leave of absence for half the year in order to let him travel the world to collect musical information to include in his History of Music book. He was an excellent pianist, and the author of numerous compositions reminiscent of Felix Mendelssohn. Ambros died at Vienna in 1876, aged 59. Selected writings * See also * List of Austrians in music References External links * Works by August

August Winding

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August Winding (24 March 183516 June 1899) was a Danish pianist, teacher and composer. Life Early life and education August Henrik Winding was born in Tårs, near Sandby on the island of Lolland. His father was a clergyman who collected and arranged Danish folk songs, and also an excellent pianist who became his son’s first music teacher. August’s three brothers were equally highly musical, most of all his brother Peter Buonaventura who, despite his early death at the age of 16, had some of his works published. In 1847, August’s parents sent the 12 year old to Copenhagen for musical education. He stayed there at the house of Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann and was given piano lessons by Carl Reinecke until the latter’s departure for Paris in 1848, and then by Anton Rée (1820–1886), who had been an acquaintance of Frédéric Chopin. He also was taught theory and composition by Niels Gade. In 1856 he went to Leipzig for further studies, and then had lessons with Alexander Dreyschock in Prague. *** 1. in C major: Poco Adagio, maestoso e con nobilità *** 2. in A minor: Allegro agitato ed affetuoso *** 3. in F major: Comodo *** 4. in D minor: Allegro risoluto e energico *** 5. in B major: All

Augusta Browne

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Augusta Browne (1820–1882) was an American composer, publisher, and author. She started the first wave of female composers in the country. Wake, Lady Mine, written in 1845, is one of her best known works. Biography Augusta Browne Garrett was born in 1820 in Dublin, Ireland. She was one of nine children. In 1826 her father David moved to Boston, US and opened a music academy. Augusta was known as a child prodigy, playing Dussek at the age of seven, and by age sixteen she was playing her own compositions in public. Judith Tick notes that Browne was known as one of “the most prolific woman composer in America before 1870.” She composed over 200 works for piano and voice, along with numerous hymns and secular pieces. Browne often collaborated with lyricists, creating musical settings to accompany the text. In addition to her musical works, Browne published two books; The Precious Stones of the Heavenly Foundations and Hamilton, the Young Artist (written about her younger brother after his death). She also wrote numerous essays, religious tracts, poetry, and short stories. Rather than writing on issues such as home or family life, she wrote on the subjects most important to her; music,

Augusta Holmès

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Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (16 December 1847 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of Irish descent. In 1871, while living with the poet Catulle Mendès, Holmès became a French national and added the accent to her last name. She also published music under the name Hermann Zenta. She wrote the texts to almost all of her vocal music herself, including songs, oratorios, the libretto of her opera La Montagne noire and the programmatic poems for her symphonic poems including Irlande and Andromède. Biography Holmès was born in Paris, the only child of Charles William Scott Dalkeith Holmes (17 July 1797 - 19 December 1869), originally from Youghal, Ireland, and Tryphina Anna Constance Augusta Shearer (1811–1858). Camille Saint-Saëns was among the many artists - musicians, poets, painters - who became enamoured of her and fell in love with her, eventually proposing marriage, but he was turned down. Later, he wrote of Holmès in the journal Harmonie et Mélodie: “Like children, women have no idea of obstacles, and their willpower breaks all barriers. Mademoiselle Holmès is a woman, an extremist.” Like other female composers from the nineteenth century including Fanny Mendelssohn, Holmès publi

Auguste Bazille

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Auguste Bazille (27 May 1828 – 18 April 1891) was a French organist, composer, and professor of music. Career Auguste Bazille was a brilliant student at the Conservatoire de Paris (1st prize in music theory, 1841; harmony 1845; fugue, 1846; organ, 1847; 2nd Grand Prix de Rome). He led a triple career as an organist, “chef de chant” at the Opéra-Comique, and professor of practical harmony and accompaniment at the Conservatoire. Appointed to the new Suret organ at the in Paris in 1853, he was a close friend of Suret (best man at Augustus Suret’s marriage in 1855). He inaugurated several of their instruments from 1848. An appreciated improviser, he was often called for organ inaugurations in Paris and in the provinces (église Saint-Sulpice Paris, 1862, Saint-Eustache, Paris, 1854, église Saint-Germain-des-Prés Paris, and Rouen, Toulouse, Nancy …). As “chef de chant” at the Opéra-Comique, he was close to the Parisian milieu of opera and opéra comique. In particular, he was a close friend of Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet (he played the organ for the funeral of Bizet), of Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (he played the organ at the wedding of his daughter). Bazille reduced numerous

Auguste Durand

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Marie-Auguste Massacrié-Durand (; 18 July 1830 – 31 May 1909) was a French music publisher, organist, and composer. Biography Durand was born in Paris and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with François Benoist. He started as an organist in 1849 in Saint-Ambroise, then at St. Genevieve, St. Roch and St. Vincent de Paul (1862–74). He also worked as a music educator. Composer Gustave Gagnon studied harmony with him. A. Durand & fils Together with Louis Schoenewerk and other sponsors, Durand founded the company Durand-Schoenewerk & Cie. in December 1869 and acquired the important catalogue of the Paris music publisher Gustave Flaxland (1821–1895), which had grown from approximately 1,200 titles in 1847 to 1,400 titles in 1869. This included the French rights to the early Wagner operas. Following a dispute, the company dissolved on 18 March 1885 and was sold at auction in May 1896. Auguste Durand and Louis Schoenewerk bought the firm in its entirety, and they reconstituted the company with Durand’s son Jacques (1865–1928). In November 1891, Jacques replaced Schoenewerk and the name changed to A. Durand & fils. Jacques assumed control of the company in 1909 when his father died, and br

Auguste van Biene

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Auguste van Biene (16 May 1849 – 23 January 1913) was a Dutch composer, cellist and actor. He became best known for his composition The Broken Melody, performed by the composer as part of a musical play of the same name. Van Biene grew up in Rotterdam and displayed a musical interest as a youth. After some private studies with Adrien Francois Servais at the Brussels Conservatory he moved to London to seek work as a performer. Van Biene was discovered by Sir Michael Costa, who hired him to play the cello in his Covent Garden orchestra in November 1867, eventually promoting him to principal cellist. In 1878 van Biene was a touring musical director for Richard D’Oyly Carte’s Comedy Opera Company, and in the 1880s he conducted successful light operas and Victorian burlesques. By the 1880s he had also become a theatrical manager as well as an actor and playwright. As a cellist he was invited to be an examiner at the Royal Academy of Music in 1884. In 1892 he commissioned, wrote the score for, and starred in a musical play, the highly successful The Broken Melody, in which he toured for many years. He died on 23 January 1913 while on stage at the Brighton Hippodrome. Early life and caree

Auguste Vaucorbeil

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Auguste Emmanuel Vaucorbeil, born Veaucorbeille, (15 December 1821 – 2 November 1884) was a French composer and theatre manager. He was the director of the Paris Opera from 1879 until his death at the age of 62. Vaucorbeil was born in Rouen and studied at the Paris Conservatoire. As a composer, he was best known for his art songs, but he also composed chamber music and two operas. Life and career Vaucorbeil was born in Rouen, the son of a popular actor at the Théâtre du Gymnase who performed under the stage name “Ferville”. With financial assistance from Queen Marie Amelie, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1835 and studied there for seven years. After leaving the conservatory, he initially earned a living by giving singing lessons and composing art songs. During this period he also composed chamber music, piano suites, a three-act opéra comique, La Bataille d’ amour, and an ambitious cantata, La Mort de Diane. Finding it difficult to earn a living solely as a composer, in 1872 Vaucorbeil took a post in the French government department dealing with state-subsidised theatres. In 1878 he was given the title Inspecteur des Beaux-Arts (Inspector of Fine Arts), and the following yea

Augustine Lorotte

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Marie-Augustine-Aimée-Hippolyte Lorotte (4 October 1826 – 19??) was a French pianist, organist and composer of the late Romantic period. Life and career Augustine Lorotte was born on 4 October 1826 in Pantin, Paris, France; her full birth name was Marie-Augustine-Aimée-Hippolyte Lorotte. The daughter of a Paris Opera singer, she began a lengthy education at the Conservatoire de Paris from age 10 (1836) until 1854. Her prizes at the Conservatoire were in music theory: runner up (accessit; 1836), 2nd prize (1837) and 1st prize (1838); harmony and accompaniment: 2nd prize (1840) and 1st prize (1842); piano: runner up (1847) and 2nd prize (1849); and organ: 2nd prize (1853) and 1st prize (1854). Lorotte’s teachers included piano study with the composer-pianist Louise Farrenc and organ with François Benoist. She was a favorite student of Benoist’s, who described her as “conscientious and zealous”. At some point she married and adopted her husband’s surname, Roland. Lorotte began instructing music theory to female Conservatoire students in 1844, continuing after her graduation until 1859. She gave private piano lessons in the 15th arrondissement of Paris appearing in the Annuaire des art

Aurore von Haxthausen

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Aurore von Haxthausen (Gustava Charlotta Märta Aurora: 1830 – 7 February 1888), known also by her artist pseudonym as Klara or Clara Kuhlman, was a Swedish author, composer, pianist and lady in waiting. She composed a march that was played at the opening of Parliament for some years, and wrote several novels. History Von Haxthausen was born in Daretorp in Västergötland, the daughter of the State Councillor (swedish: statsråd) and Governor (swedish: landshövding) of Halland County, Baron Carl Henrik Gyllenhaal and Aurore af Nordin. Her father died during a cholera outbreak in 1857, and it was after that that von Haxthausen was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the Crown Princess. Aurore von Haxthausen wrote several compositions for piano which was given on public concerts, although few of her compositions were written down. One of them, a marchm was, for several years, often played during the annual opening of parliament. She also published a collection of novels: Från svenska hem (1883–84). Her writing is mostly based around her childhood memories. Her composition Vid lifvets afton was played at her funeral. Selected works *Från svenska hem: pennritningar / af Klara Kuhlmann. Stock

Bedrich Smetana

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Family background and childhood#

Bedřich Smetana, first named Friedrich Smetana, was born on 2 March 1824, in Litomyšl (German: Leitomischl), east of Prague near the traditional border between Bohemia and Moravia, then provinces of the Habsburg Empire. He was the third child, and first son, of František Smetana and his third wife Barbora Linková. František had fathered eight children in two earlier marriages, five daughters surviving infancy; he and Barbora had ten more children, of whom seven reached adulthood. The Smetana family came from the Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz) region of Bohemia. František had initially learned the trade of a brewer, and had acquired moderate wealth during the Napoleonic Wars by supplying clothing and provisions to the French Army. He subsequently managed several breweries before coming to Litomyšl in 1823 as brewer to Count Waldstein, whose Renaissance castle dominates the town. František Smetana played violin in a string quartet, and Barbora Smetana was a dancer. Bedřich was introduced to music by his father and in October 1830, at the age of six, gave his first public performance. At a concert held in Litomyšl’s Philosophical Academy he played a piano arrangement of Auber’s overture to La muette de Portici, to a rapturous reception. In 1831 the family moved to Jindřichův Hradec in the south of Bohemia—the region where, a generation later, Gustav Mahler grew up. In 1835, František retired to Růžkovy Lhotice Castle. whose departure for Prague in 1838 may have influenced Smetana’s own desire to experience life in the capital. The following year, with František’s approval, he enrolled at Prague’s Academic Grammar School under Josef Jungmann, a distinguished poet and linguist who was a leading figure in the movement for Czech national revival.

Béla Kéler

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Béla Kéler (13 February 182020 November 1882) was a Hungarian composer of romantic music period and orchestral conductor. Béla Kéler was born as Albert Paul Keler (Adalbert Paul von Keler). He is also known in Hungarian as Kéler Béla. He was born on 13 February 1820 in City of Bártfa, Sáros County, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (present-day Bardejov, Slovakia), and died on 20 November 1882 in Wiesbaden, German Empire. He was active in Hungary, Austria and Germany. Biography Béla Kéler was born in 1820 in Bártfa (, ), Kingdom of Hungary as Albert Paul Keler, but German and Austrian sources also give Adalbert Paul von Keler. He descended from an ethnic German family on his father’s side, but was ethnic Magyar on his mother’s side. His father Stefan Keler (17811849) was a principal magistrate of Bártfa, from an old Bártfa burgher’s family. His mother Anna Bóth (17931848) was from the Hungarian Both de Botfalva noble family. They raised 13 children. Albert’s siblings were Frederika, Stefan, Emilia, Antonia, Matilda, Augusta, Apollonia, Ferdinand, Viktor, Josefina, and Amalia. The household was German speaking; the majority of residents of Bártfa that time were Carpathian Germans.

Béni Egressy

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Béni Egressy (; 21 April 1814 – 17 July 1851) was a Hungarian composer, librettist, translator and actor. He created a number of popular melodic compositions, including the one to Mihály Vörösmarty’s patriotic poem Szózat. He also authored the librettos of the operas Hunyadi László and Bánk bán by Ferenc Erkel. Biography Egressy was born in 1814 in Sajókazinc, today a part of Kazincbarcika, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Hungary, to a Protestant pastor. He entered the stage in 1834, like his older brother Gábor Egressy, and in 1837 became a member of the national theatre in Prague. During the Revolution of 1848, he took part in the fighting and became a member of the Hungarian Honvéd resistance. He was wounded in the Battle of Kápolna and was present during the defense of Komárom under György Klapka, where he wrote the Klapka March. After the rebellion, he received amnesty and returned to the stage. Works Egressy was more notable for his acting rather than his compositions. Nevertheless, he composed music for “Szózat”, a famous poem by Hungarian poet Mihály Vörösmarty. The song later became the unofficial “second Hungarian national anthem”, besides the Himnusz. His musical works are

Benjamin Bilse

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Benjamin Bilse (17 August 1816 – 13 July 1902) was a German conductor, composer, and violinist. Biography Bilse was born in Liegnitz (present-day Legnica) in the Prussian Silesia Province. As a teenager, he had an apprenticeship with Scholz alongside 11 other boys. Through this apprenticeship, Bilse was able to accustom himself with all instruments commonly found in a choir as well as gain conducting experience conducting the town pipers. Later on, he obtained a rich musical education at the Vienna Conservatory under violinist Joseph Böhm, and played in the orchestra of Johann Strauss I. He returned to Liegnitz and became municipal Kapellmeister in 1842. From 1867 he regularly performed with the “Bilse’s Band” (Bilse’sche Kapelle) at the Concerthaus on Leipziger Straße in Berlin. Although initially facing trouble gaining traction, the orchestra became increasingly popular by targeting the middle class as its audience through offering food and drink during concerts. Bilse ignited the music scene in Berlin through this method, the effects of which are still felt today. This concept of a laid-back experience aimed at the middle class also spread across the Atlantic where it inspired P

Benjamin Franklin Baker (musician)

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Benjamin Franklin Baker (July 10, 1811 – March 11, 1889) was an American educator and composer. Biography Benjamin Franklin Baker was born on July 10, 1811, in Wenham, Massachusetts, to John and Sally Baker. When he was 14 years old, his family moved to Salem, Massachusetts, where he began his musical studies. After this he moved to Bangor, Maine, for a time, making a living as a businessman, but moved to Boston in 1837. With his cousin Isaac Baker Woodbury, he began a series of teacher’s conventions. Beginning in 1839, he spent the next 24 years in Boston in the capacity of music conductor for various churches there. That same year he married Sabra L. Heywood. During this time period, he continued performing, often as featured soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. By the late 1850s he was traveling to other parts of the United States as a conductor. Towards the end of his career in the 1870s, Baker was the editor of the Boston Music Journal. Publications Baker published more than 25 collections of hymns, songs, and music theory books. *Baker’s American School Music Book (1844) Compositions Baker composed numerous anthems, hymns, and other various vocal works. Of particular no

Benjamin Godard

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Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (18 August 184910 January 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction, best known for his opera Jocelyn. Godard composed eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs. He died at the age of 45 in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) of tuberculosis and was buried in the family tomb in Taverny in the French department of Val-d’Oise. Life and career Godard was born in Paris in 1849. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Henri Vieuxtemps (violin) and Napoléon Henri Reber (harmony) and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany. In 1876, his Concerto romantique was performed at the Concerts Populaires, and other of his large works were also performed at these concerts. In 1878, Godard was the co-winner of the Prix de la Ville de Paris. His winning composition, a dramatic symphony entitled Le Tasso, remains one of his most admired works. From that time until his death Godard wrote a large number of compositions. These include eight operas, among them: Jocelyn (the “Berceuse” from which remain

Bernhard Cossmann

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Bernhard Cossmann (17 May 1822 – 7 May 1910) was a German cellist. Born in Dessau, he first studied under Theodore Muller. During his life, he worked for the Grand Opera in Paris and became acquainted with Franz Liszt, with whom he went to Weimar. In 1866, Cossmann was appointed professor of cello studies at the Moscow Conservatory. However, in 1878, Cossmann helped found the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he occupied the post of teacher of cello. Cossmann was not only a frequent soloist and quartet member, but was also a composer. His works include three fantasias, Tell, Euryanthe, and multiple solo works for various instruments. In addition, he composed many etudes and studies for the cello, many of which are still used today. In 1890 Cossmann adapted Schubert’s Erlkönig for solo cello for the exclusive use of his student Heinrich Kiefer. He wrote this in his score on Frankfurt 28. Nov. 1890 by B. Cossmann. Bernhard Cossmann, author of many original works and of diverse “Phantasien” on motifs from operas (such as Freischutz, Euryanthe, etc.) as well as on well-known pieces (also for solo cello such as “Paraphrase sur une chanson populaire allemande Ach, wie ist’s möglich d

Bernhard Scholz

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Bernhard E. Scholz, (30 March 1835 – 26 December 1916) was a German conductor, composer and teacher of music. Life Bernhard Scholz was born in Mainz in 1835. He was intended by his father to take over his father’s business (Lithographische Druckerei und Verlag Jos. Scholz) and studied to be a printer at Imp. Lemercier in Paris. But music became his career. He was a student of Ernst Pauer (piano) in Mainz, and 1855-56 of Siegfried Dehn (counterpoint) in Berlin. He also took voice lessons with Antonio Sangiovanni in Milan. He first taught at the Munich Conservatory and was court Kapellmeister in Zürich, Nuremberg and 1859-65 in Hanover. Between 1865 and 1866 he was director of the Cherubini Society in Florence and also taught at the Stern Conservatory and the Kullak Conservatory. From 1871-83 he directed the Orchestra Society in Breslau. In 1883 he was appointed director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, a post he held until 1908. He died in Munich in 1916. His Piano Concerto was championed by Clara Schumann, who included it in her repertory. He was one of four signatories to an anti-“Music of the Future” (anti-New-Weimar-School) Manifesto published in the Berliner Musik-Zeitung

Bertha Tammelin

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Bertha Carolina Mathilda Tammelin (; 21 March 1836 – 2 January 1915 ) was a Swedish actress, operatic mezzo-soprano, pianist, composer and drama teacher. Her mother was actress Karolina Bock. Tammelin taught at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy, where two of her notable students were Ellen Hartman and Ebba Lindkvist. Life Bertha Tammelin was born in Stockholm, the daughter of actress Karolina Bock and a musician of Kungliga Hovkapellet, C. Bock. She was educated at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy 1853–1855 and hired at the Royal Swedish Opera and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre as a premier actress in 1856. She performed both operatic parts and dramatic parts. As an actress, her most noted part was Ingrid in Bröllopet på Ulvåsa by Frans Hedberg, and as a singer, Puck in Oberon. References

Betty Boije

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Betty Natalie Boije af Gennäs (14 February 1822 - 14 November 1854), was a Swedish–Finnish opera and concert singer (contralto) and composer. Biography Boije was born on 14 February 1822 in Jakobstad, Grand Duchy of Finland to the Swedish nobleman Klas Otto Boije af Gennäs and Marianna Horn af Rantzien. Through her father Boije was a member of the family. Boije was one of eight children and was the sister of the pianist . Boije was raised in Finland, were her father had a position at the customs office of Pori. Betty Boije debuted as a concert singer in Turku in 1847. From 1847 to 1848, Boije was a student of the Swedish composer . She made a successful tour as a concert singer in Turku, Helsinki, Reval and Saint Petersburg. In 1849, she made her debut in Stockholm in Sweden. She was active as an opera singer at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in 1850-1851. She was described as an excellent alto and was given particular praise as Nancy in Martha, in which she made such a success that she was made to act in it again and again. She herself chose to leave the stage and return her profession as a concert singer. She performed in Finland, Denmark and Norway. In 1853-54, she toured

Boris Fitinhof-Schell

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Baron Boris Alexandrovich Fitinhoff-Schell (; 26 August 1829 in Morshansk – 26 September 1901 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Russian composer of Baltic German descent. Biography Fitinhoff-Schell was born to Baltic German noble Baron Alexander Otto von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel and Yelisevet Pavlovna Yazykova. The Vietinghoff family, was considered part of the Uradel (or old nobility), the family was of Westphalian origin, originating in Essen. The Baltic branch had moved to the Baltics since the 14th Century. Even though Boris’ father was a Lutheran, he was baptised an Orthodox, because his mother was a Russian. Fitinhoff-Schell was trained at the Moscow Conservatory under Field and Henselt, and was a classmate of Tchaikovsky’s. His most noted work are the ballets The Haarlem Tulip (1887) and Cinderella (1893), composed for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. He also scored four operas for the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera, which were commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres. His Wedding March, scored especially for the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna is still occasionally heard. Fitinhoff-Schell is also noted for his F

Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha

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Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha (1 August 1846 – 11 August 1913) was a Brazilian composer, lawyer and diplomat. Itiberê was the sibling of poet and critic (literary and musical) and uncle of composer . Biography Brasílio Itiberê was born in the coastal city of Paranaguá, the son of João Manuel (Itiberê?) da Cunha and Maria Munhoz Lourenço da Cunha. He attended primary school in his homeland and his musical initiation was at the piano, learning at his parents’ home. Already renowned as a pianist in his youth he moved to São Paulo to attend the Faculty of Law at the Largo of São Francisco, performing several concerts in this city. After obtaining a BA in Law he joined the diplomatic service in the diplomatic corps serving in Italy, Peru, Belgium, Paraguay and Germany. Without leaving music aside, Brasílio maintained friendly relations with some of the greatest pianists of his time such as Anton Rubinstein, Sgambati and Liszt. Considered to be one of the forerunners of Brazilian nationalistic music Itiberê drew early inspiration from popular motifs and his work and style are distinctly Brazilian. He composed chamber and choral music and works for piano solo. His rhapsody A Sertaneja was pop

C. A. Bracco

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C. A. Bracco (Calogero Adolfo Bracco, 45 years old, Biella (Piedmont); born ?, Genova; died 1905.01.22) was an Italian mandolinist, violinist and conductor, deserving notice by his compositions for mandolin band. While not a prolific composer, he was the author of several operettas and ballets which were produced in his native land. His published works were principally for mandolin and guitar or violin and piano, and were issued solely in Italy. Bracco was a cultivated musician and musical conductor in Genoa and Orvieto, Italy. In Orvieto, he conducted the municipal orchestra for several years, and in Genoa conducted the mandolin and guitar band, “Club Musicale Genovese”; he dedicated his symphonic overture I mandolini a congresso to the members of this band. Bracco was also conductor of the Philharmonic Society of Certosa, and the Banda Operaia Genovese. His work Serenata was performed by Enrico Caruso on a Victor record, Matrix C-23151. Serenata / Enrico Caruso and Matrix B-23151. Serenata / Enrico Caruso. References

C. F. E. Horneman

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Christian Frederik Emil Horneman (December 17, 1840 – June 8, 1906) was a Danish composer, conductor, music publisher, and music instructor. Biography C. F. E. Horneman was born in Copenhagen, the son of the composer Emil Horneman and of Camilla Scheuermann (a cousin of composer Emma Hartmann). He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ignaz Moscheles, Ernst Friedrich Richter, Moritz Hauptmann, and Julius Rietz. After his return to Denmark he composed divertimenti and opera fantasies and began work on the opera Aladdin, the composition of which occupied him for more than twenty years. The overture, completed in 1864, is Horneman’s best known work, along with the four-movement suite drawn from incidental music for the Holger Drachmann drama Gurre. Together with composers Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, Edvard Grieg, and others he founded in 1865 the music institute Euterpe to encourage newer Danish music. This was in reaction to the Music Society (Musikforeningen), which was controlled by Niels Wilhelm Gade and was regarded by the younger composers as too conservative. Horneman conducted the organization’s concerts. During a trip to Germany in 1867 he wrote his Ouverture héroïque and l

C. M. Cady

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Chauncey Marvin Cady (May 16, 1824, Westport – June 16, 1889, Ashville) was an American music publisher, businessman and composer. One of the best-known men of the trade, his public service to Chicago has been regarded as pivotal to the advancement of the city’s music scene in the mid-19th century. Among the numerous roles of authority he held were as the first music teacher at Illinois State Normal University and the first conductor of the Chicago Musical Union. He was a founder and partner of Root & Cady that dominated Civil War and early Reconstruction-era music publication. Early life and career He was born on May 16, 1824. Chicago career Establishment of Root & Cady No firm attained such success in publishing Unionist music as Chicago-based Root & Cady, “the largest of … the era” and “most prolific producers of wartime music.” It was established in 1858 by Ebenezer T. Root and Chauncey M. Cady and, from 1860 onwards, principally operated by George F. Root. Root was one of the most renowned composers of the Civil War era, with such tunes as “Battle Cry of Freedom” and “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!” to his name. By the war’s opening weeks, his firm was receiving roughly sixty daily su

Calixa Lavallée

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Calixa Lavallée (; December 28, 1842 – January 21, 1891) was a Canadian musician and Union Army band musician during the American Civil War. He was born in the Province of Canada. He is best known for composing the music for “O Canada”, which officially became the national anthem of Canada in 1980, after a vote in the Senate and the House of Commons. The same 1980 Act of Parliament also changed some of the English lyrics. A further alteration to the English lyrics was made again in 2018. The original French lyrics and the music, however, have remained unchanged since 1880. Early life and education Lavallée was born Calixte Paquet dit Lavallée, the son of Jean Baptiste Augustin Paquet dit Lavallée and Charlotte Valentine. He was born near Verchères, a village near present-day Montreal in the Province of Canada (now the Canadian province of Quebec). He was a descendant of Isaac Pasquier, from Poitou, France, who arrived in Nouvelle-France in 1665 as a soldier in the Carignan-Salières regiment. Lavallée’s father worked as a blacksmith, logger, bandmaster, self-taught luthier and bandleader, and also worked for the pipe organ builder Joseph Casavant. Calixa Lavallée’s mother was Charlo

Camille Saint-Saëns

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Early life#

Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, the only child of Jacques-Joseph-Victor Saint-Saëns, an official in the French Ministry of the Interior, and Françoise-Clémence, née Collin. Less than two months after the christening, Victor Saint-Saëns died of consumption (tuberculosis) on the first anniversary of his marriage. The young Camille was taken to the country for the sake of his health, and for two years lived with a nurse at Corbeil, 29 km mi to the south of Paris. When Saint-Saëns was brought back to Paris he lived with his mother and her widowed aunt, Charlotte Masson. Before he was three years old he displayed perfect pitch and enjoyed picking out tunes on the piano. His great-aunt taught him the basics of pianism, and when he was seven he became a pupil of Camille-Marie Stamaty, a former pupil of Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Stamaty required his students to play while resting their forearms on a bar situated in front of the keyboard, so that all the pianist’s power came from the hands and fingers rather than the arms, which, Saint-Saëns later wrote, was good training. Clémence Saint-Saëns, well aware of her son’s precocious talent, did not wish him to become famous too young. The music critic Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Saint-Saëns in 1969: “It is not generally realized that he was the most remarkable child prodigy in history, and that includes Mozart.” The boy gave occasional performances for small audiences from the age of 5, but it was not until he was ten that he made his official public debut, at the Salle Pleyel, in a programme that included Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B (K450), and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Through Stamaty’s influence, Saint-Saëns was introduced to the composition professor Pierre Maleden and the organ teacher Alexandre Pierre François Boëly. From the latter he acquired a lifelong love of the music of Bach, which was then little known in France. As a schoolboy Saint-Saëns was outstanding in many subjects. In addition to his musical prowess, he distinguished himself in the study of French literature, Latin and Greek, divinity, and mathematics. His interests included philosophy, archaeology, and astronomy; he remained a talented amateur astronomer in later life. Students, even outstanding pianists like Saint-Saëns, were encouraged to specialise in organ studies because a career as a church organist was seen to offer more opportunities than that of a solo pianist. His organ professor was François Benoist, whom Saint-Saëns considered a mediocre organist but a first-rate teacher; his pupils included Adolphe Adam, César Franck, Charles Alkan, Louis Lefébure-Wély, and Georges Bizet. In 1849 Saint-Saëns won the Conservatoire’s second prize for organists, and in 1851 the top prize; in the same year he began formal composition studies. His professor was a protégé of Cherubini, Fromental Halévy, whose pupils included Charles Gounod and Bizet. Saint-Saëns’s student compositions included a symphony in A major (1850) and a choral piece, Les Djinns (1850), after an eponymous poem by Victor Hugo. He competed for France’s premier musical award, the Prix de Rome, in 1852 but was unsuccessful. Auber believed that the prize should have gone to Saint-Saëns, considering him to have more promise than the winner, Léonce Cohen, who made little mark during the rest of his career. The first piece the composer acknowledged as a mature work and gave an opus number was Trois Morceaux for harmonium (1852).

Camillo Sivori

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Ernesto Camillo Sivori (June 6, 1817 – February 18, 1894) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer. Life Early life Born in Genoa, he was the only known pupil of Niccolò Paganini. He also studied with composer Antonio Restano (1790–1885), Paganini’s teacher (1760s or 70s-~1836?) and Agostino Dellepiane. In 1827, Sivori began the career of a travelling virtuoso which lasted almost without interruption until 1864. On November 18, 1846, he performed at the Howard Athenaeum in Boston, where he played La Campanella and The Carnival of Venice. He performed Mendelssohn’s violin concerto for the first time in England in 1846, and was in England again in the seasons of 1851 and 1864. In 1864, he formed a permanent trio with cellist Alfredo Piatti and pianist Charlotte Tardieu. Camillo Sivori also collaborated with Giuseppe Verdi. In 1893 Verdi heard Sivori’s performance at his private music soirée and noted Sivori’s impeccable technique, agility and musicianship. Sivori’s performances ideas were directly influenced by opera characters. His violin techniques, in many instances were executed to impersonate human sounds. Sivori understood that he was the only violinist alive (in the late 18

Carl Baermann

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Carl Baermann (24 October 1810 – 23 May 1885) was a clarinetist and composer from Munich, Germany. He should not be confused with his son, the pianist and composer Carl Baermann (1839–1913). Life and career He was the son of noted clarinet virtuoso Heinrich Baermann and . As a child he was taught the clarinet and the basset horn by his father. He played occasionally in the Munich court orchestra when he was 14 years old, and was appointed its second clarinetist in 1832. When his father retired in 1834, Carl succeeded his father as principal clarinetist. He held that position until he retired in 1880. He toured Europe with his father in 1827, 1832 and 1838. In 1833 they premiered Felix Mendelssohn’s Konzert Stücke, Opp. 113 & 114, (Concert Pieces) to great acclaim. Carl Baermann’s compositions, 88 opus numbers, were popular with clarinet virtuosos. Baermann developed the Baermann-Ottensteiner key system for the clarinet, which was based on the Müller system. The system was very popular during the late 19th century, partly because of Baermann’s Vollständige Clarinett-Schule (Complete School for the Clarinet), one of the leading methods for teaching the clarinet, written between 1864

Carl Baermann (pianist)

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Carl Baermann (9 July 1839 – 17 January 1913) was a German-born American pianist and composer. He should not be confused with his father, the clarinetist and composer Carl Baermann. Life and career The son of clarinetist and composer Carl Baermann, Carl Baermann was born in Munich, Germany on 9 July 1839. His grandfather was clarinet virtuoso Heinrich Baermann and his grandmother was operatic soprano . He studied the piano at the Royal Bavarian Music School with Christian Wanner and Andreas Wohlmuth (1809–1884), and composition with Franz Lachner and Peter Cornelius in Munich. He later became a student and friend of Franz Liszt. He taught at the Royal Bavarian Music School (now the University of Music and Theatre Munich), being made professor there in 1876. Some of his notable pupils at that institution included Lothar Kempter and Bruno Klein. In 1881 Baermann immigrated to the United States to join the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he taught until his death more than 30 years later. He composed a number of works for piano solo and with orchestra; among his published works of the former include 12 Etüden, Op. 4 (in Offenbach by the firm Johann André, 1887) and Polon

Carl Bohm

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Carl Bohm (also known by Karl Bohm and his pseudonym Henry Cooper; 11 September 1844 – 4 April 1920) was a German pianist and composer. Biography Bohm was born in 1844 in Berlin. He received training under Carl Albert Löschhorn and later became a music teacher. Bohm remained in Berlin for the majority of his life. Legacy Bohm is regarded as one of the leading German songwriters of the 19th century, and wrote such works as Still as the Night, Twilight, May Bells, Enfant Cheri and The Fountain. According to the Oxford Companion to Music, Bohm was “a German composer of great fecundity and the highest salability… He occupied an important position in the musical commonwealth inasmuch as his publisher, N. Simrock, declared that the profits on his compositions provided the capital for the publication of those of Brahms.” Bohm’s specialty was music in a lighter vein, very different from the dark, brooding and introspective works of Brahms. Bohm, like Schubert, was more than just a songwriter, composing in most genres. His chamber music, mostly quartets and piano trios, were popular not only amongst amateurs, but also among touring professional groups who were in need of a sure-fire audie

Carl Christian Møller

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Carl Christian Møller (2 June 1823 – 2 April 1893) was a Danish concertmaster and composer. His father was a musician and early in his life Carl Christian was hired in the Danish Civil Artillery Music Corps and later became a musician in the 2nd Brigade Music Corps while also playing in Hans Christian Lumbye’s orchestra. He participated in the First Schleswig War as a musician but from the 1850s and the rest of his life he worked as leader of different orchestras, initially travelling ensembles but in 1857-64 and 1875-85 he led the orchestra of Folketeatrets in Copenhagen. From 1875 until his death he was a popular leader of Tivoli’s concert band. Musical works Carl Christian Møller composed some 300 works, mostly in the style of Lumbye or music for concert bands but he has also written ballet and other theater music. Today he may be best known for Århus Tappenstreg which may paradoxically not entirely be his own composition but is most likely an arrangement of 2 older melodies. * (stage music) * (stage music) * (stage music) * (stage music) * (stage music) * (stage music) * (ballet by August Bournonville, 1876) * (1886–88) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * References External links * *

Carl Greith

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Carl Greith, also Karl Greith (21 February 182817 November 1887), was a Swiss composer and church musician. Life Emil Franz Carl Greith came into the world on 21 February 1828 in Aarau, Switzerland, as the oldest son among the six children of the Swiss composer and music educator Franz Josef Greith (1799-1869). Carl was described as a musically highly gifted child, who followed in his father’s footsteps and often took his place in church as a musician. After completing a classical education with distinction at the Gymnasium level he was a capable Latinist, an ability that was invaluable to him later as a church composer. Because of his outstanding drive and musical gift, his father Greith and his oldest sister Rosa (1826-1913), who at the time was active as a piano teacher in St. Gallen, made possible his music study in Munich. In the autumn of 1845 he traveled to the cathedral city with his father, who had chosen for him the best teachers of their field in what was then the center of Catholic church music, Caspar Ett (1788–1847), who revived classic church music (for the study of harmony and counterpoint) and the respected organ master Johann Georg Herzog (1822–1909). From 1845 to

Carl Martin Reinthaler

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Carl Martin Reinthaler (13 October 1822 – 13 February 1896) was a German organist, conductor and composer. Alternative spellings include Karl Martin Reinthaler and Carl Martin Rheinthaler. Biography Reinthaler was born in Erfurt. He received his first music education from August Gottfried Ritter, an organist at Magdeburg Cathedral. He studied theology, and then music with Adolf Bernhard Marx, studying from 1849 to 1852 in Paris and Rome with a royal scholarship. He was associated with the Bremen Cathedral, of which he was director, chorus master of the Singakademie Bremen, and cathedral organist since 1857. A friend of Johannes Brahms, with whom he corresponded, he was responsible for the Bremen performance of A German Requiem. Reinthaler also conducted the premiere of the revised version of Max Bruch’s first violin concerto in January 1868. In later years, Reinthaler required a wheel chair, which limited his appearances in public musical scenes. He died in Bremen. Works *Jephtha und seine Tochter. Oratorio in two parts *Das Käthchen von Heilbronn. Opera in four acts *Choral works: **Fünf Sprüche und ein Weihnachtslied op. 50. Bremen, Praeger & Meier **Eile, Gott, mich zu erretten

Carl Michael Ziehrer

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Carl Michael Ziehrer (more rarely spelled Karl Michael Ziehrer) (2 May 1843 – 14 November 1922) was an Austrian composer. In his lifetime, he was one of the fiercest rivals of the Strauss family; most notably Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. Biography Born in Vienna, Ziehrer was taught music by Simon Sechter, a famous Viennese music theorist and pedagogue, and Johann Emanuel Hasel. He was soon discovered by music publisher Carl Haslinger, the young conductor appeared as the head of a newly formed orchestra aimed at toppling the Strauss dynasty at the Dianabad-Saal in Vienna. Not long after that, he secured a place at one of the Viennese military bands. As was the current trend, he took over as Kapellmeister of a large civilian orchestra in 1873. He also published the journal “Deutsche Musikzeitung” around the same time, and was credited as being one of the important sources of music study in the late 1870s. Not long after founding the music journal, he changed his publisher to Döblinger, and toured Eastern Europe and Germany for many years, earning a good reputation as a strict yet efficient conductor. It was in 1881 that he met his future wife, Marianne Edelmann, a famous ope

Carl Millöcker

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Carl (or Karl) Joseph Millöcker ( – ), was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor. NOTOC He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas. The first was Der tote Gast, an operetta in one act, premiered in 1865 with libretto by Ludwig Harisch, after the novel by Heinrich Zschokke. The international success of Der Bettelstudent enabled him to retire from conducting. However, he never achieved a comparable success afterward. Carl Millöcker died in Baden bei Wien; on 31 December 1899. He was buried in an honorary grave in Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof cemetery (group 32, A35). Works See List of operettas and operas by Carl Millöcker. Notes References *Lamb, Andrew (1992), ‘Millöcker, Carl’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) External links * *List of Millöcker works at the Index to Opera and Ballet Sources Online * *Photo of Millöcker, 1890s * Broadcast audition " P. Zhuravlenko, F.Chaliapin & S. Guitry, Yvonne Printemps” (cycle " The sound history of the operette” by Maxim Malkov – in Russian) * * * Works * * *

Carl Reinecke

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Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 182410 March 1910) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the mid-Romantic era. Biography Reinecke was born in what is today the Hamburg district of Altona; technically he was born a Dane, as until 1864 the town was under Danish rule. He received all his musical instruction from his father, (Johann Peter) Rudolf Reinecke (22 November 179514 August 1883), a music teacher and writer on musical subjects. Carl first devoted himself to violin-playing, but later on turned his attention to the piano. Overall, he wrote four concertos for his instrument (and many cadenzas for others’ works, including a large set published as his Opus 87), as well as concertos for violin, cello, harp and flute. In the winter of 1850/51, Carl Schurz reports attending weekly “musical evenings” in Paris where Reinecke was in attendance. In 1851, Reinecke became a professor at the Cologne Conservatory. In ensuing years he was appointed musical director in Barmen, and became the academic, musical director and conductor of the Singakademie at Breslau. In 1860, Reinecke was appointed director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and professor of composition and piano

Carl Zeller

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Carl Adam Johann Nepomuk Zeller (19 June 1842 – 17 August 1898) was an Austrian composer of operettas. Zeller was born in Sankt Peter in der Au, the only child of physician Johann Zeller and Maria Anna Elizabeth. Zeller’s father died before his first birthday, after which his mother remarried Ernest Friedinger. In 1875, Zeller married Anna Maria Schwetz. Zeller had a fine soprano voice, and sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir before studying and composition in the University of Vienna. while composing choral works and a number of operettas, the best-known of which is Der Vogelhändler. All of his librettos were written (or co-written) by Moritz West, often together with Ludwig Held. Legal troubles, including a perjury conviction, ended Zeller’s career at the ministry and led to prison and public disgrace in the mid-1890s (although his prison sentence was later repealed). After an injury in 1895 from falling on the ice, he spent his last years physically and then mentally ill. Zeller died of pneumonia in Baden bei Wien at the age of 56. Operettas *Joconde (1876) *Die Fornarina (1878) *Capitän Nicoll, oder Die Carbonari (1880) *Der Vagabund (1886) *Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Seller) (1891)

Carlo Pedrotti

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Carlo Pedrotti (12 November 1817 – 16 October 1893) was an Italian conductor, administrator and composer, principally of opera. An associate of Giuseppe Verdi, he also taught two internationally renowned Italian operatic tenors, Francesco Tamagno and Alessandro Bonci. Pedrotti served as the first director of the Liceo Musicale in Pesaro from 1882 until 1893. He retired in 1893 due to poor health, and committed suicide by drowning in the Adige shortly after his retirement. . He composed two operas which were never performed, but his opera semiseria Lina was successfully given at Foroni’s Teatro Filarmonico in 1840, and his next opera, Clara di Mailand, was performed there later that year. This was followed by four seasons as conductor of the Italian Opera in Amsterdam, where a further two operas were composed and premiered. Operatic success He returned to Verona in 1845. During the next 23 years, he taught, conducted at the Teatro Nuovo as well as the Teatro Filarmonico and composed a further 10 operas. Fiorina (1851), another opera semiseria, was a success in Italy and beyond, and the commedia lirica Tutti in maschera (1856), his best-known work, was later taken up in Vienna and Pa

Carlotta Ferrari

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Carlotta Ferrari (27 January 183122 November 1907) was an Italian composer, poet, pianist and singer, noted for opera. She wrote her first opera Ugo at the age of twenty. Faced with a lack of interest, she raised funds for its first public production in Lecco and conducted the performances herself. In April 1875, Ferrari was made an honorary professor of composition at the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, upon the recommendation of Ambroise Thomas. Besides songs and opera, she published an autobiography and poetry and prose works in four volumes titled Versi e prose in Bologna from 1878 to 1882. Life Carlotta Ferrari was born in Lodi, Austrian Empire, and studied singing and piano at the Milan Conservatory with Giuseppina Strepponi and composing with Alberto Mazzucato. Ferrari wrote her first opera Ugo at the age of twenty. Faced with a lack of interest, due to the fact she was a woman, she raised funds for its first public production in Lecco and conducted the performances herself. Besides songs and opera, she published an autobiography and poetry and prose works in four volumes titled Versi e prose in Bologna from 1878 to 1882. Works Ferrari was a successful composer within her l

Carolina Uccelli

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Carolina Uccelli (1801–1858) was an Italian composer known for opera. Biography Carolina Pazzini was born into a minor noble family in Florence and married Filippo Uccelli, a prominent surgeon from Pisa who supported her music career. She made her debut as a composer with the performance of the sacred opera Saul at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 21 June 1830. Uccelli wrote both libretto and music for the opera. A two-act melodrama Anna di Resburgo with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi was performed in Naples in 1832. It employed a libretto previously set by Meyerbeer in his opera Emma di Resburgo (1819). Its failure is generally ascribed to the similarity of its plot to Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which had proved a great success just a month earlier in Naples. The overture of her opera Eufemio da Messina was performed in Milan in 1833. At some point she won a testimonial from Rossini, who noted her “expressiveness and elegance in declamation and melody”. Anna di Resburgo had its modern premiere on 20 July 2024 in Montclair, New Jersey, in a staging by Teatro Nuovo. Alex Ross, writing in The New Yorker, said it “gives the impression of a wide-ranging musical mind that poss

Caspar Joseph Brambach

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Caspar Joseph Brambach (14 July 1833 – 20 June 1902) was a 19th-century German musician, pedagogue and composer whose reputation extended beyond Germany to America, and a renowned conductor of the leading choirs in Bonn. Life The son of organ builder, piano tuner and music teacher Franz Jacob Brambach, he was born in Oberdollendorf, a village across the river Rhine from Bonn. Brambach’s mother, born Lückerath, was the daughter of a free-roving puppet master builder. His brother was German musicologist Wilhelm Brambach. The young Caspar Joseph spent his first years in his native village, where he received his first music lessons from his father, which continued during elementary and high school in Bonn and at the Conservatory of Music, Cologne. Friedrich Nietzsche was once asked by Brambach for advice whether he should become a musician or a scholar. Choosing the former, Brambach followed his musical career as first violinist of the Bonn Opera House (1847–1850) and studied at the Cologne Conservatory (1851–1854), which promoted young composers and where he received awards for a string quartet and various songs for the Mozart scholarship at Frankfurt Liederkranz. Later he studied the

Catalina Berroa

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Catalina Berroa Ojea (28 February 1849 – 23 November 1911) was a Cuban pianist, music teacher and composer. Cuba’s first female conductor. She was the first female conductor in Cuba and mastered seven instruments. Life and career Catalina Berroa was born in Trinidad, Las Villas, and studied with local teachers to master several instruments. She operated a music academy in Trinidad where she taught students including her nephew, pianist and composer Lico Jimenez. She also worked as organist in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, and as organist and choir conductor of the Holy Trinity Church. Berroa played cello in a trio with Manuel Jimenez on violin and Ana Luisa Vivanco on piano. She also performed as violinist of the Brunet Theater orchestra. Works Berroa composed songs, guarachas, hymns and liturgical and sacred music. Selected works include: *Song The Trinity, 1867 *Song, Song of Belisa and Josefa, 1902 *Condemned, The Talisman, Consciousness, The appeal, Rosa Gentile, all voice and guitar *Guaracha Cerro De La Habana, cat’s dinner *Conchita March *May Flowers Church Music, for horn and piano *The Virgin of Cuba, for chorus *Osalutaris, for voice and organ *Save for two voices

Célanie Carissan

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Célanie Carissan (13 February 1843 – 30 November 1927) was a French composer, writer and pianist. Biography Marie-Charlotte-Élisabeth Célanie Carissan was born on 13 February 1843 in Nantes to Creole parents. Her father Eugène Carissan was a professor at the Ecole Supérieure des Lettres, Sciences et Arts in Nantes. During a concert at the Société nationale de musique on 10 January 1891, two of Carissan’s works, Écho and Chanson de l’abeille, were performed at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The same year, her La Fiancée de Gaël, based on a poem by Adrien de Carné with Breton influences, was performed in Nantes and Paris. Sonneur de Bretagne critic Sullian Collin praised the use of Breton themes and stated that Carissan had “made excellent use” of it. In 1893, she was invited to exhibit her works at the Palais des Femmes during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, along with Augusta Holmès, Cécile Chaminade and Gabrielle Ferrari. Carissan died on 30 November 1927, at the age of 84. References

Célestin Lavigueur

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Célestin Lavigueur (19 January 1831 – 11 December 1885) was a French Canadian musician and composer. Early life and education Lavigueur was born in Quebec City, Lower Canada. He attended the Petit Séminaire de Québec, but left to devote his time to musical pursuits. He studied violin with an amateur musician, François Huot. He learned to play several more instruments with little formal training. Career Lavigueur taught piano, violin, and wind instruments at the Petit Séminaire de Québec from 1853 to 1881. Lavigueur was a composer and a concert artist. He composed three operas: “La fiancée des bois”, “Un mariage improvisé”, and “Les enfants du manoir”. With poet Pierre-Gabriel Huot, he composed a song for the Huron people, “La Huronne, Romance for voice and piano” in about 1861. In 1880 Lavigueur’s patriotic song, “O Canada, beau pays, ma patrie” was published. In 1881, he moved to Lowell, Massachusetts to be with one of his sons. He participated in the local music scene there, presenting a play with musical accompaniment. He died in 1885 in Lowell. Personal life Lavigueur’s mother, Marguerite, was the daughter of General Sir Howard Douglas, 3rd Bt, Governor of New Brunswick. He mar

Cenobio Paniagua

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Cenobio Paniagua y Vásques (September 30, 1821, Tlalpujahua, Michoacán – November 2, 1882, Córdoba, Veracruz) was a Mexican musician and composer, who is known for both his romantic operas and his religious music. Biography Paniagua’s first music teacher was his uncle, Eusebio Vázquez. He studied various instruments in his youth in the city of Toluca, State of Mexico. He created some of his first salon pieces during this time, which were received well. Encouraged by this success, he set his sights on Mexico City. After several failed attempts to secure instruction from José Antonio Gómez, he decided to study at his own direction using foreign methods before completing his studies in violin and becoming the Second Conductor of the Cathedral Orchestra of Mexico City. In 1852, he received and, for six years, hosted his compatriot Miguel Meneses, to whom he taught musical composition and who subsequently worked for him at the Metropolitan Cathedral Orchestra. Paniagua took the initiative to create his first opera; and, finding no available librettos or librettists, he selected one by Felice Romani — Vincenzo Bellini’s librettist — and brought to life his first work, titled Catalina de

César Cui

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César Antonovich Cui (; ; ; 18 January 183526 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five – a group of composers gathered by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army, he rose to the rank of engineer-general (equivalent to full general), taught fortifications in Russian military academies and wrote a number of monographs on the subject. Biography Upbringing and career Cesarius-Benjaminus Cui was born in Vilna in the Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) into a Catholic family of French and Polish–Lithuanian descent, the youngest of five children. The original French spelling of his surname was “Queuille.” His French father, Antoine (Anton Leonardovich) Cui, entered Russia with Napoleon’s army; in 1812, he was injured during the battle near Smolensk and (following the defeat) would settle in Vilna. He married local noblewoman Julia Gucewicz; some sources indicate that her father was the Lithuanian architect Laurynas Gucevičius. The young César grew up learning French, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian. As a secondary school (gymnasium) student in Vilan, he took musi

César Franck

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Child and student (1822–1842)#

Franck was born in Liège, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, to Nicolas-Joseph Franck (1794–1871), a bank clerk whose family came from the then German-Dutch border, and Marie-Catherine-Barbe Franck (née Frings, 1788–1860), who was from Aachen, Germany. Although young César-Auguste, as he was known in his early years, showed both drawing and musical skills, his father envisioned him as a young prodigy pianist-composer, after the manner of Franz Liszt or Sigismond Thalberg, who would bring fame and fortune to his family. His father entered Franck at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, studying solfège, piano, organ, and harmony with Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul and other faculty members. César-Auguste gave his first concerts in 1834, one before Leopold I of the newly formed Kingdom of Belgium. In 1835, his father resolved that the time had come for wider audiences, and brought César-Auguste and his younger brother Joseph to Paris, to study privately: harmony and counterpoint with Anton Reicha, piano with Pierre Zimmerman, and solfège with Hippolyte-Raymond Colet. When Reicha died some ten months later, Nicolas-Joseph sought to enter both boys into the Paris Conservatoire. However, the Conservatoire would not accept foreigners; Nicolas-Joseph was obliged to seek French citizenship, which was granted in 1837. In the interval, Nicolas-Joseph promoted concerts and recitals in Paris featuring one or both boys playing popular music of the period, to mostly good reviews. Young Franck and his brother entered the Conservatoire in October 1837, César-Auguste continuing his piano studies under Zimmerman and beginning composition with Aimé Leborn. He took the first prize in piano at the end of his first year (1838) and consistently maintained that level of performance. His work in counterpoint was less spectacular, taking successively third, second, and first prizes between 1838 and 1840. He added organ studies with François Benoist, which included both performance and improvisation, taking second prize in 1841, with the aim of competing for the Prix de Rome in composition in the following year. However, for reasons that are not explicit, he made a “voluntary” retirement from the Conservatoire on 22 April 1842. His withdrawal may have been at his father’s behest. While César-Auguste was pursuing his academic studies, he was, at his father’s demand, also teaching privately and giving concerts. “It was a hard life for him, . . . and not made easier by the ill-tempered and even vindictive behavior of his father . . . .” Concerts performed by young Franck (some with his brother on the violin, some including Franck’s own compositions) were at first received well, but increasingly Nicolas-Joseph’s commercial promotion of his sons antagonized the Parisian musical journals and critics. César-Auguste’s technical abilities as a pianist were acknowledged; his abilities as a composer were (probably justly at this point) felt to be wanting. The whole situation was aggravated by what in the end became a feud between Nicolas-Joseph and Henri Blanchard, the principal critic of the Revue et Gazette musicale, who lost no opportunity to castigate the aggressive pretensions of the father and to mock the “imperial” names of the elder son. This animosity, “undoubtedly personal”, may well have caused Nicolas-Joseph to decide that a return to Belgium was in order, and in 1842 “a peremptory order” to young Franck compelled the latter to leave the Conservatoire and accompany him.

Cesare Ciardi

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Cesare Ciardi (28 June 1818 – 13 June 1877) was an Italian flautist and composer. Life Born at Prato to a Tuscan family, Ciardi eventually settled in 1853 in Russia, where he was appointed in 1862 as professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and became Tchaikovsky’s flute teacher. Ciardi himself played as first flute in the orchestras of the Imperial Theatres in Saint Petersburg, including the orchestra of the Imperial Italian Opera and of that of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. He died at Strel’na and was succeeded in his orchestral role by Ernesto Köhler. Ciardi possessed many talents and was also a sculptor and caricaturist. Work Flute/s alone Scherzo per due flauti op. 2 Trio scolastico op. 24 Ricordi d’Album op. 43 6 Capricci “I Piaceri della Solitudine” 22 Petite trio concertant s.o. Entr’acte for the ballet The Pharaoh’s Daughter, 1862 Flute & piano Capriccio su melodie belliniane op. 12 Fantasia sui motivi della “Beatrice da Tenda” op. 21 Scherzo “Il Carnevale di Venezia” op. 22 Fantasia sui motivi di “Luisa Miller” op. 23 Simpatie pel Rigoletto op. 27 Duo concertante sui motivi de “I due Foscari” op. 29 Fantasia “L’eco dell’Arno” op. 34 Fantasia sui motivi del “

Cesare Cutolo

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Cesare Cutolo (1826-1867) was an Italian-Australian composer of romantic music. His Magnum Opus was a Victorian Christmas Waltz. He was killed in a boating accident. A memorial concert was held in his name on 21 February 1867 with proceeds collected to present to his wife. Works * The Victorian Christmas waltz * Song of the volunteers with words by H. E. Smith * Remembrances of the Pyramids : nocturne / by C. Cutolo * Come where my love lies dreaming * Hail fair Australia / words by Ellie ; music by Cutolo * March and Chorus * Oh, Gently breathe with lyrics by J. R. Thomas Recordings * The Victorian Christmas waltz, arranged by Richard Divall in Australia unite! : the road to Federation : songs and dances of colonial Australia. OCLC Number: 224672714 References

Charles Balmer

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Charles Balmer (September 21, 1817 – December 15, 1892), pseudonyms: Charles Remlab, T. van Berg, Alphonse Leduc, Charles Lange, Henry Werner, August Schumann, T. Meyer, F. B. Rider, was a German-American violinist, pianist, organist, composer, conductor, choir director, concert organizer, and music publisher in St. Louis, where, as part of the first generation of German emigrants to the USA, he was part to the musical life of Missouri in the second half of the 19th century. Life Karl Balmer grew up as the eldest son of Gottfried Balmer (died 1846) and his wife Eva, née Heyse (died 1875), in a wealthy, educated family in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. Balmer showed musical talent from an early age and was taken by his father to Göttingen for further musical education, presumably with Heinrich Wilhelm Jacobi. At the age of nine, he received a prize from Louis Spohr for playing a work by Spohr. At ten, he played first violin in the orchestra. At sixteen, he was assistant to the conductor. In 1836, his father emigrated with the family in the USA to St. Louis, Missouri. Charles Balmer himself headed first to New Orleans, to make use of his musical skills there. He then spent two years in Mobil

Charles Dancla

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(Jean Baptiste) Charles Dancla (; 19 December 181710 November 1907) was a French violinist, composer and teacher. Biography Dancla was born in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. When he was nine years old, violinist Pierre Rode in Bordeaux heard his music; he was so impressed that he sent a recommendation letter to Pierre Baillot, Luigi Cherubini and Rodolphe Kreutzer. Thus Dancla went to the Paris Conservatory and studied with Baillot for violin and Fromental Halévy for composition. He was strongly influenced by Niccolò Paganini, whom he heard in 1830, as well as by Henri Vieuxtemps. From 1835 onward Dancla was solo violinist in the Paris Opéra, and shortly thereafter he became concert master. In 1857 he was made a professor at the Paris Conservatory where he was a successful teacher for over 35 years, being awarded the Prix Chartier in 1861. He died in Tunis. His two brothers were Arnaud Dancla (1819–1862), cellist and author of a considerable cello teaching method, and Leopold Dancla (1822–1895), violinist and composer of chamber music. Works *violin concertos *string quartets *string trios *violin duos *Airs variés, Op. 89 for violin (each of the six airs are based on themes by different com

Charles Delioux

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Jean-Charles Delioux (de) Savignac (17 April 1825 – 12 November 1915) was a French composer, a pupil of Halévy and potentially Chopin, who was quite popular in the Paris salons of the nineteenth century. Life Charles Delioux was born in the Breton town of Lorient, Morbihan. He received his early musical education from his father, a local naval commissioner, and appeared as a child prodigy on the piano in Lorient and as early as 1839 at the Tuileries before King Louis Philippe. During his early years in Paris, he was a pupil of Pierre Zimmerman. In 1845, he began his studies at the Paris Conservatory with Fromental Halévy (composition) and Auguste Barbereau (harmony) and won an award (“1er Accessit”) in the same year for counterpoint and fugue. There are also hints that he studied privately with Frédéric Chopin as witnessed by his pupil Victor Gilles (1884–1964). He was admitted to compete for the Prix de Rome in 1847, but after he failed, he never re-entered. From 1849 he established himself as piano teacher in Paris and was so much sought after that he could support his wider family, after his father had died shortly before. Among his better known pupils was Alexis de Castillon. H

Charles Gounod

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Charles-François Gounod ( , ; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893) was a French composer, conductor, and organist of the Romantic era. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been Faust (1859); his Roméo et Juliette (1867) also remains in the international repertoire. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his “Ave Maria” (an elaboration of a Bach piece) and “Funeral March of a Marionette”. Born in Paris into an artistic and musical family, Gounod was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France’s most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome. His studies took him to Italy, Austria and then Prussia, where he met Felix Mendelssohn, whose advocacy of the music of Bach was an early influence on him. He was deeply religious, and after his return to Paris, he briefly considered becoming a priest. He composed prolifically, writing church music, songs, orchestral music and operas. Gounod’s career was disrupted by the Franco-Prussian War. He moved to England with his family for refuge from the Prussian advance on Paris in 1870. After peace was restored in 1871 his family returned to Paris but he remained in Lon

Charles Harford Lloyd

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Charles Harford Lloyd (Thornbury, 16 October 1849 – Eton, 16 October 1919) was an English composer who became a well-known organist in his time. His most successful area was organ and choral works but he wrote three clarinet pieces for his friend Randle Fynes Holme (1864–1957), (a talented amateur musician), a number of chamber works, a Festival Overture for orchestra, an organ concerto with orchestra and a number of songs for voice and piano. He served as organist and choir-master at Gloucester Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, Eton College Chapel and organist at the Chapel Royal. His most frequently performed works today are his settings of the Anglican Church liturgy. He had a lifelong friendship with Hubert Parry. Early years Charles Harford Lloyd was born on 16 October 1849 to a Gloucestershire solicitor, Edmund Lloyd. Charlie, as his intimates called him, began to play the piano at an early age, receiving his first instruction from a governess. When he was ten years old, he played the organ at the neighbouring church of Rangeworthy, where his brother-in-law was the vicar as well as another nearby village of Falfield. He attended the grammar school of his native to

Charles Jerome Hopkins

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Charles Jerome Hopkins (April 4, 1836 November 4, 1898) was a 19th-century musician, Composer and Champion of the Arts. He is often confused, in historical texts, with his nephew, Edward Hopkins, who was also a musician and composer. Early life and inspirations Charles Jerome Hopkins was born April 4, 1836, in Burlington, Vermont. He was the 9th child of that state’s first Episcopal Bishop, John Henry Hopkins, and Mellusina Muller Hopkins. Born prematurely, with a weak heart, it was uncertain that he would live beyond infancy. In a letter addressed to him from his aunt Amelia, many years later, it was observed that Charles labored at breathing when he was a child, suffered a lifelong heart murmur and was missing the “pinkie toe” on one of his feet – this latter physical feature responsible for keeping him out of the service during the Civil War. Charles did survive though he lived a protected and, some would say, a spoiled life due to his delicate health. From the earliest ages right up through adolescence he was exempt from the work that was required of his older brothers who helped clear land, cut forest, plant an apple orchard and help build the family home and their father’s sc

Charles Kensington Salaman

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Charles Kensington Salaman (3 March 1814 – 23 June 1901) was a British Jewish composer, pianist, and writer. He was the composer of more than one hundred settings of Hebrew texts for the West London Synagogue, as well as numerous songs in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Greek. Biography Early life Charles Salaman was born in 1814 at 11 Charing Cross, London, the eldest son and one of the fourteen children of Alice () and Simeon Kensington Salaman. He was the brother of Rachel, Rose Emma, Annette, and Julia Salaman. Salaman showed musical talent from a young age, and began to play the violin when seven, but after a year left it for the piano. He had his first lessons on the piano from his mother, and was soon placed under the tutelage of Stephen Francis Rimbault. He elected a candidate for admission to Royal Academy of Music at the age of ten, but his mother decided that he should remain at school to pursue general studies. He nonetheless studied independently under Charles Neate, William Crotch, and Henri Herz. As a boy Salaman played duets with Franz Liszt and came to know Muzio Clementi. His first public appearance was at Gesualdo Lanza’s concert at Blackhea

Charles Lecocq

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Alexandre Charles Lecocq (; 3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870s and early 1880s, before the changing musical fashions of the late 19th century made his style of composition less popular. His few serious works include the opera Plutus (1886), which was not a success, and the ballet Le Cygne (1899). His only piece to survive in the regular modern operatic repertory is his 1872 opéra comique La Fille de Madame Angot (Mme Angot’s Daughter). Others of his more than forty stage works receive occasional revivals. After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Lecocq shared the first prize with Georges Bizet in an operetta-writing contest organised in 1856 by Offenbach. Lecocq’s next successful composition was an opéra-bouffe, Fleur-de-Thé (Tea-flower), twelve years later. His comic operas Les Cent Vierges (The Hundred Virgins, 1872), La Fille de Madame Angot (1872) and Giroflé-Girofla (1874) were all successes and established his international reputation. Critics remarked on the elegance of the music in Lecocq’s best

Charles Lenepveu

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Charles-Ferdinand Lenepveu (4 October 1840 – 16 August 1910), was a French composer and teacher. Destined for a career as a lawyer, he defied his family and followed a musical career. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and won France’s top musical award, the Prix de Rome in 1867. Much of Lenepveu’s career was as a professor at the Conservatoire from 1880. He was known as a strict conservative, hostile to musical innovation, as was much of the French musical Establishment of the time. He was expected to succeed Théodore Dubois as director of the Conservatoire in 1905, but his chances evaporated when he was implicated in an attempt to rig the results of that year’s Prix de Rome in favour of his own pupils. Life and career Early years Lenepveu was born in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), the son of Charles-François Lenepveu, a prominent lawyer, and his wife Marie-Françoise-Armande, née Petit. The young Lenepveu received a traditional education in his home town, while at the same time teaching himself musical theory and learning to play the violin. Lenepveu senior was strongly opposed to his son’s seeking a musical career and enrolled him at the Sorbonne Law School in Paris. Lenepveu was an

Charles Lucien Lambert

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Charles Lucien Lambert (1828–1896), also known as Lucien Lambert, Sr. or Lucien Lambert père, was an American pianist, music teacher and composer. Born a free person of color in New Orleans, he was part of a family of prominent Creole composers who gained international acclaim. Early life and education Lambert was born in New Orleans to Charles-Richard Lambert, a native of New York, and his wife, a free Creole woman of color. They were a very musical family. After his mother’s death, his father married Coralie Suzanne Orzy, also a free woman of color. They had a son Sidney Lambert, born in 1838, and the half-brothers learned to be musicians together. Marriage and family Lambert married a French woman. Their son Lucien-Léon Guillaume Lambert, born in Paris in 1858, became a musician and composer, more well-known than his father. He was sometimes called Lucien Lambert fils (son), Sometime in the 1860s, he moved his family to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he served as chief musician in Dom Pedro’s court. Lambert died in Rio. Numerous of his compositions are held by the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris. References

Charles Macintosh (composer and naturalist)

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Charles Macintosh (1839–1922), known as ’the Perthshire Naturalist’, was a musician and self-taught amateur naturalist from Inver, near Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland. He, with his younger brother James, who was a fiddler and himself a composer, represented the third generation of an important musical family in the area. Their grandfather, James (1791–1876), had learned fiddle from Niel Gow, who also lived in Inver. Macintosh spent nearly all his life in the small cottage in Inver where he was born, only moving in with his brother in Dunkeld for the last few months of his life. He worked as a postman, after losing the fingers of his left hand in an accident at a sawmill when young. This disability stopped him playing the fiddle, but he was able to play the cello, stopping the strings with the edge of his hand. He was also precentor in the local Free Church, as his father, Charles Sr, had been before him. He was also superintendent of the Sunday School. He composed several dance tunes, including the strathspey “The Auld Boat of Logierait,” and a reel, “Miss Murray Threipland of Fingask”. He had a collection of old tune books, including the William Dixon manuscript, which he gave to D

Charles Manry

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Charles Casimir Manry (8 February 1823 – 18 January 1866) was a French composer and choral conductor. Life Charles Manry was the son of Jean Manry, a physician at the hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris and a member of the Académie de médecine. He first studied law and took his legal argument but his fortune enabled him to indulge in his penchant for music. He then studied harmony and counterpoint with Antoine Elwart. Music He had his first Mass for three voices with organ accompaniment performed 1 November 1844 at Église Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. He later had several pieces of sacred music played in Parisian churches: * 1852: Mass for four men voices without accompaniment, given at Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Easter, * 1854: Les Deux Épagneuls, opéra comique in one act and free verse, text by Édouard Fournier, presented at Néo-Thermes, 19 December * 1855: Mass for three voices with organ and string instruments accompaniment, given in the same church for Christmas, * 1860: Mass with full orchestra with soloists and chorus, played at Saint-Roch 1 May, * Second Mass for three voices with organ accompaniment, * Te Deum four solo voices and choirs, * Eight motets for three voices with or withou

Charles Oberthür (composer)

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Charles Oberthür (born as Carl Oberthür) (4 March 1819 – 8 November 1895) was a German harpist and composer active in Germany, Switzerland and England. Biography The son of a violin maker, Oberthür was born in Munich, Germany. and studied the harp there with Elisa Brauchle and composition with Georg Valentin Röder (1776–1848), music director at the Bavarian court. He was successively employed at theatres in Zürich (1837), Wiesbaden (1839), and Mannheim (1842), before he settled in London, England, in 1844, initially as harpist at the Royal Italian Opera House. In 1861, he became the first Professor of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He died in London in 1895. Oberthür was the composer of more than 450 works, most for or including the harp. He also published a useful harp method, his opus 36. His large-scale works have not been performed for many years and included the opera Floris de Namur (performed at Wiesbaden) and the cantatas The Pilgrim Queen, The Red Cross Knight, and Lady Jane Grey. As a harpist, he became “unrivalled as a virtuoso and teacher”. A contemporary source described him as “the leading harpist in Britain, and on the Continent he is held in the highest

Charles Poisot

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Charles Poisot (7 July 1822 – 4 March 1904) was a French musician from the second half of the 19th century. A pianist, composer and musicographer, he was also director of the Dijon Conservatory, where he spent his life. Biography Charles Poisot was born in Dijon, but his family moved to Paris in 1834. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1844 where he studied piano with Adolphe Adam, counterpoint with Leborne and musical composition with Fromental Halévy until 1848. In 1850, he composed an Opéra comique in an act, Le Paysan, on a traditional theme mixing nobility and love (the libretto is by Pujol). He returned to Dijon in 1852 where he devoted himself to teaching, musicology and composition, continuing his piano interpretations. In 1868, he was appointed Director of the Municipal School of Music, the future , and was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon in 1869. He played an active role in the city’s cultural life until his sudden death in his home at 4 Buffon Street at the age of 81. He had his works performed in the city, gave talks on the glories of Burgundy (sculptor François Rude, poet and playwright Charles Brifaut and created a

Charles Wugk Sabatier

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Charles-Désiré-Joseph Wugk Sabatier (1 December 1819 – 22 August 1862) was a Canadian pianist, organist, composer, and music educator of French birth. Early life and career in Europe Born Charles Wugk in Tourcoing, Sabatier was the son of an immigrant from Saxony. He enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris under his birth name in 1838, studying there through 1840. He adopted the last name of Sabatier some time during his early career. An article in the Toronto Globe published on 25 September 1856 claimed that Sabatier was pianist to the Duchess of Montpensier and that he had conducted opera in Brussels. The former account is most likely accurate but music historians largely reject the latter claim. Life and career in Canada Sabatier most likely arrived in Canada in 1848, although an exact year is not definitely substantiated. He first resided in the city of Montreal and then lived in Quebec City from 1854 to 1856. During these years he worked as a music teacher, church organist, and concert pianist for both public and private performances. He played concerts of his own work as a guest artist at St Lawrence Hall in Toronto in 1856. His composition Le Drapeau de Carillon was published

Charles-Alexis Chauvet

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Charles-Alexis Chauvet (; 7 June 1837 – 29 January 1871) was a French organist and composer. Biography Born in Marines, Charles-Alexis Chauvet made his debut at the organ of St. Remi church in Marines, only 11 years old. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13 to study organ with François Benoist (1st Prize of organ in 1860) and music composition with Ambroise Thomas, of which he became assistant in composition class. In 1860, he was appointed to the choir organ of the Église Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin (Paris), then to the great organ the following year. He then appeared in the gallery of the Church of Saint-Bernard de la Chapelle where he inaugurated the organ in 1863, at Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle, then at Saint-Merri in 1866. Finally, he was appointed titular organist of the new Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in 1869, a position he held until his premature death at the age of 34 years of tuberculosis. Renowned for its interpretations of J. S. Bach and his improvisations, he was also regularly invited to participate in the inauguration of organs in Paris (e.g. in 1868, Notre-Dame de Paris), with Édouard Batiste, César Franck and Camille Saint-Sa

Charles-Louis Hanon

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Charles-Louis Hanon (2 July 181919 March 1900) was a French piano pedagogue and composer. He is best known for his work The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises, which is still used today for modern piano teaching, but over the years the method has also faced criticisms. Biography Charles-Louis Hanon was born in northern France in the village of Renescure on 2 July 1819. Trained as an organist by a local teacher, it is not known if he received more advanced musical education. At age 27, Hanon moved east from Renescure to Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he lived with his brother François, who was also a musician. Music was never the exclusive focus of Hanon’s life: he was also a devout Roman Catholic, a Third Order Franciscan and a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Some critics have questioned the merits of the independent finger technique which the exercises seek to cultivate, with some pedagogues, such as Abby Whiteside, considering them to be actively harmful. It has become a custom in some music schools to hold a Hanon Marathon where the exercises are played competitively. The Church Street School for Music and Art was the first to have coined the term and hold the event. Other

Charles-Marie Widor

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Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic era. As a composer he is known for his ten organ symphonies, especially the toccata of his fifth organ symphony, which is frequently played as recessional music at weddings and other celebrations. The Sixth Symphony is also famous for its opening movement Allegro. The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are the longest and least performed of Widor’s Symphonies. The Seventh Symphony contains six movements, and the first version of the Eighth Symphony had seven. (Widor subsequently removed the Prélude for the 1901 edition.) The ninth and tenth symphonies, respectively termed “Gothique” (Op. 70, of 1895) and “Romane” (Op. 73, of 1900), are much more introspective. They both derive thematic material from plainchant: Symphonie Gothique uses the Christmas Day Introit “Puer natus est” in the third and fourth movements, while the Symphonie Romane has the Easter Gradual “Haec dies” woven throughout all four movements. They also honored, respectively, the Gothic Church of St. Ouen, Rouen and the Romanesque Basilica of St. Sernin, Toulouse, with the new Cavaillé-Coll o

Charles-Valentin Alkan

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Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life. Alkan earned many awards at the Conservatoire de Paris, which he entered before he was six. His career in the salons and concert halls of Paris was marked by his occasional long withdrawals from public performance, for personal reasons. Although he had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in the Parisian artistic world, including Eugène Delacroix and George Sand, from 1848 he began to adopt a reclusive life style, while continuing with his compositions – virtually all of which are for the keyboard. During this period he published, among other works, his collections of large-scale studies in all the major keys (Op. 35) and all the minor keys (Op. 39). The latter includes his Symphony for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 4–7) and Concerto for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 8–10), which are often considered among his masterpieces and are of great musical and technical complexity

Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot

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Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot (12 February 183322 October 1914) was a French pianist, teacher and composer. He was born in Paris in 1833, the son of the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot and his then common-law wife, the famed soprano Maria Malibran (they were to marry when Charles-Wilfrid was three, but his mother died only three months later as a result of a fall from a horse, while pregnant with Charles-Wilfrid’s sibling). Charles-Wilfrid was brought up mostly by his aunt, Pauline Viardot. His stepmother, Maria Huber, was an orphan who had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, the alleged natural father of Sigismond Thalberg. Thalberg was one of Charles-Wilfrid’s earliest teachers. He became a professor of piano at the École Niedermeyer, and later at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included Maurice Ravel and Ricardo Viñes. His private students included Enrique Granados. As a teacher, he insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados’s own teaching of pedal technique. He composed four piano concertos. There is also a Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 61. His Flute Sonata, Op. 64 has been recorded. Many of his scores are preserved at the

Charlotte Sporleder

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Charlotte Wilhelmine Eringarde Freiin Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim Sporleder (November 8, 1836 – January 9, 1915) was a German composer who won a medal at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. She published her music under the name Charlotte Sporleder. Sporleder was born in Kassel to Josepha von Warnsdorf and General Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim. She married Lt Col Justus Henrich Sporleder, who was 29 years her senior, in 1855 and was widowed in 1865. and a special diploma from the Chicago Women’s Committee because she “contributed significantly to the success of the exhibition by sending in her beautiful and numerous compositions.” Bote & Bock, Johann Andre, Her compositions include: Band *some military band music *Idylle for the Left Hand, opus 19 *Impromptu, opus 8 *Valse Brillante *Four Songs, opus 15 *Two Songs, opus 11 (text by Heinrich Heine) *Weihnachtslied (Christmas Carol), opus 20 *Listen to Ich hab im Traum geweinet by Charlotte Sporleder References

Charlotte W. Hawes

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Charlotte White Hawes (7 February 1840 – 5 September 1926) was an American composer, lecturer, music educator, poet and critic from Massachusetts. “God Bless the Soldier”, written in 1890, was dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic. Early years and education Born in Wrentham, Massachusetts, she was of Puritan ancestry, her ancestors on the father’s side having settled in Massachusetts in 1635. A large part of her early education was received in at home. She was the oldest daughter of a large family and became a close companion of her father, from whom she inherited her musical talent. She had her preliminary musical training in Boston and New York City, continuing her studies in Germany, in Berlin and Dresden, under the’ direction of Friedrich Wieck. During her stay in Dresden she formed the acquaintance of many eminent musicians, among them the most notable being Franz Liszt. In 1877, she returned to Boston, where she made her home. Career She was notables as a composer of music, a musical lecturer and critic, and a teacher of music. She was well versed in the literature of music. One of her popular achievements in the double role of composer and poet was, “God Bless the Sold

Chiquinha Gonzaga

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Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (; October 17, 1847 – February 28, 1935) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil. Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of “choro” and author of the first carnival march, “Ó Abre Alas” (1899). Her plays and operettas, such as Forrobodó and Jurití, were a great success with the public because they used elements of Brazilian popular culture of the time. Biography Early life Chiquinha Gonzaga was born in Rio de Janeiro, from a pardo mother and a wealthy white father – after she was born her father became a marshal. Her godfather was Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias. For her mother, a mestizo and poor woman, the birth of Chiquinha was a very difficult, in part because of the risk that the father would not recognize the paternity of her daughter. Indeed, José Basileu, the military promising career, from a wealthy family, suffered from the pressure of his parents, who were against his marriage with Rosa. Despite these disagreements, he accepted the child as his daughter and married. Like all girls of a military family in the 19th century, Chiquinha Gonzaga was very well educat

Christian Cappelen

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Christian Cappelen (26 January 1845 – 11 May 1916) was a Norwegian organist and composer. Biography Cappelen was born in Drammen, Norway. He studied under Ludvig Mathias Lindeman and at the Leipzig Conservatoire. In 1887, after 20 years as organist in Drammen (Strømsø and Bragernes), he became organist at Vår Frelsers kirke (Oslo Cathedral), a position he held until his death in 1916. He gained a prominent position of the Norwegian Church music. He was also teacher at the practical-theological seminary at the University of Oslo from 1890 until 1916. Cappelen was known as a highly skilled organ player and improviser, and he gave concerts all over Norway. As a composer he is within the romantic era, and was influenced by Mendelssohn and Schumann. He published some songs, piano pieces, organ works, cantatas, and more. Especially known is his melody to the hymn “Min lodd falt mig liflig”, which was part of the cantata for the 25-year anniversary of (Oslo Deacon Hospital) in 1894. In the Norwegian hymn book (1986), it was called “Min Herre har kalt meg”. This hymn is missing from the Norwegian hymn book of 2013, but the melody is passed on to the hymn “Mer hellighet gi meg”. Cappelen al

Christian Heinrich Hohmann

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Christian Heinrich Hohmann (March 7, 1811 in Niederwerrn – May 12, 1861 in Schwabach) was a German composer, music educator and the author of Violin School. Life Hohmann was a son of farmer and tailor Georg Hohmann and Anna Hörlein. He worked as a teacher at a teacher training college Altdorf and Schwabach, and wrote several educational books including violin school, which is now known as “Hohmann-Heim” (ISMN M-700014-11-7). He also reissued the original (formerly of Universal Edition Vienna, now in the FIRMAMENT music publishing and music sales mbH, Berlin). He composed commissioned work including chamber music, organ, piano, song for solo and choir, and gave the songs of Stuntz, Kreutzer, Salieri, Mozart, Breidenstein, Maurer, Hohmann, Freck, Call, Nägeli, Haydn, Schneider, Marschner, Graun, Tröger, Mendelssohn, Keller, Zöllner, Wölfel, Lindpaintner for men’s choir with special consideration to pedagogical aspects. Quote: “So all the songs are given in score so that the singer has all 4 voices before him. This facility gives unmistakable advantages.” Work * “Violin school I” 1835 (by Karl Nowotny) ISMN M-008-00848-1 * “Violin school II” 1836 (by Karl Nowotny) ISMN M-008-00849-8 *

Christian Julius Hansen

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Christian Julius Hansen (6 May 1814 – 15 March 1875) was a Danish composer, organist, voice teacher and choirmaster. He studied with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann; his works include songs, choral and orchestral pieces as well as light operas. In several of his song compositions Hansen revealed an uncommon sense of choral movement and considerable melodic vein, sometimes used fresh and cheerfully, sometimes on a quiet, slightly melancholic way. Life Christian Hansen was born in Christianshavn, the son of stonemason Nicholas Hansen (1775–1834) and his second wife Frederikke Christine, née Hess (1775–1850). He was admitted to the Giuseppe Siboni Conservatory when he was 11 years old, but soon had to focus his attention on composition because his beautiful voice began to change. He was encouraged by both J.P.E. Hartmann and Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, to whom he dedicated his first printed work Six Romances written in 1835. In 1840 he took part in the Musikforeningen’s overture competition in Copenhagen, where Gade won first prize with his Echoes of Ossian. Hansen’s Overture in E major received “honorable mention”. It was performed by the Music Society on 6 April 1842 and posthumou

Ciro Pinsuti

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Ciro Pinsuti (9 May 1829 – 10 March 1888) was an Anglo-Italian composer. Educated in music for a career as a pianist, he studied composition under Rossini. From 1848 he made his home in England, where he became a teacher of singing, and in 1856 he was made a professor at the Academy of Music in London. Pinsuti composed numerous songs and part-songs which achieved popularity in the Victorian era. He also composed three operas, which were produced in Italy, but which are rarely performed today. After the season, his father took him to Rome, where he played for several important Roman families, and gaining access to the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. British MP Henry Drummond saw Ciro performing and proposed to his father that he would pay for Ciro’s tuition at the conservatory of Naples, provided that Ciro came to London to perform. Pinsuti remained in London for five years, after which he chose to study with Gioachino Rossini at the Bologna Conservatory. Rossini, who befriended Pinsuti, advised him to return to London after finishing his studies, as Britain represented the best prospects for his future career. Having returned to London, Pinsuti gave music lessons during the day, while

Clara Angela Macirone

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Clara Angela Macirone (20 January 1821 – 1914) was an English pianist and composer who published her music as C. A. Macirone. Born in London, she was the daughter of Italian musicians; her mother was also a pianist (a pupil of Charles Neate) and her father was an amateur tenor. She began her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 1839 under Cipriani Potter, W H Holmes, Charles Lucas and others. She later took a position teaching at the Academy. Macirone was a pioneer in the musical education of women as both a teacher and writer. She held teaching positions at Aske’s School for Girls in Hatcham (1872-8) and at the Church of England High School for Girls, Baker Street. She contributed articles to The Girl’s Own Paper and The Argosy. Macirone died in London in 1914. Works Selected works include: *Suite for piano and violin in E minor * Rondino in G for piano *By the Waters of Babylon, anthem (sung at Canterbury, Ely and elsewhere) *Te Deum and Jubilate *Benedictus *Footsteps of Angels, choral *Come to Me, Oh Ye Children (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) *Fare thee well! and if for ever (Text: George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron) *Hesperus (Text: Edwin Arnold after Sappho) *The Ba

Clara H. Scott

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Clara H. Scott (December 3, 1841 – June 21, 1897 ), née Fiske, was an American composer, hymnwriter and publisher. Along with Anna Bartlett Warner, Phoebe Palmer, and Fanny Crosby, Scott was among a wave of late 19th century women gospel poets. She was the first woman to publish a volume of anthems, the Royal Anthem Book, in 1882. Scott was also well known for her hymn, Open My Eyes, That I May See, written in 1895. The hymn was inspired by Psalm 119, verse 18. She died in 1897 after being thrown from her carriage by a spooked horse. References External links *Free scores at the Mutopia Project *Scott, Clara at Hymnary.org

Clara Kathleen Rogers

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Clara Kathleen Barnett Rogers (January 14, 1844 – March 8, 1931), was an English-born American composer, singer, writer, and music educator. She wrote books about singing and her career. Early life and education Rogers was born in Cheltenham, England, into a musical family. Her grandfather, Robert Lindley, was a cellist; her parents, composer John Barnett and Eliza, a singer, were her first music teachers. When Rogers was twelve, her family moved to Germany to further their children’s musical education. Clara was admitted to the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of twelve and studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles, Louis Plaidy, and Hans von Bülow. Two of her older siblings also attended the conservatory. During this time, her father returned to England while her mother stayed with her children, a situation which continued throughout the early part of Rogers’s career. Besides piano, Rogers also studied harmony, part writing, violin, cello, and voice while in Leipzig. Composition classes were not open to women at the conservatory until 1859, after conservatory administrators heard the string quartet Rogers had composed at the age of 13. Her classmate, Arthur Sullivan, copied parts for her

Clara Schumann

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Clara Josephine Schumann (; ; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German virtuoso pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a piano concerto, chamber music, choral pieces, and songs. She grew up in Leipzig, where both her father Friedrich Wieck and her mother Mariane were pianists and piano teachers. In addition, her mother was a singer. Clara was a child prodigy, and was trained by her father. She began touring at age eleven, and was successful in Paris and Vienna, among other cities. She married the composer Robert Schumann, on 12 September 1840, and the couple had eight children. Together, they encouraged Johannes Brahms and maintained a close relationship with him. She gave the public premieres of many works by her husband and by Brahms. After Robert Schumann’s early death, she continued her concert tours in Europe for decades, frequently with the violinist Joseph Joachim and other

Claudio S. Grafulla

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Claudio S. Grafulla (1812–1880) was a composer in the United States during the 19th Century, most noted for martial music for regimental bands during the early days of the American Civil War. Biography Grafulla was born on October 31, 1812 on Menorca, an island off the coast of Spain that was occupied by the British after the Napoleonic Wars. At the age of 28, he emigrated to the United States, where he became a French horn player in Napier Lothian’s New York Brass Band in New York City. This band was attached to the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard, which was honored in 1922 by John Philip Sousa’s The Gallant Seventh march. In 1860, he added woodwinds to a reorganized band and continued to serve as its director until his death at New York on December 2, 1880. Grafulla was a quiet, unassuming man who never married; his whole life centered on his music. His remarkable technical and musical skills allowed him to become well known as a composer, often writing music to order, and as an arranger. As a director of the 7th Regiment Band, his fame spread widely. Grafulla was a member of William Magear “Boss” Tweed’s exclusive Americus Club. He performed regularly at Americus Clu

Clémence de Grandval

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Clémence de Grandval (21 January 1828 – 15 January 1907), born as Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset and also known as Vicomtesse de Grandval and Marie Grandval, was a French composer of the Romantic era. She was a person and composer of stature during her life, although less remembered subsequently. Many of her works were published under pseudonyms. Biography Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset was the youngest of four children, born in 1828 into a well-to-do family in the Chateau de la Cour du Bois at Saint-Rémy-des-Monts. Her father was an Officier de la Légion d’honneur and a talented pianist, while her mother wrote and published stories. Her parents received many composers and artists, including Jean-Baptiste-Philémon de Cuvillon, Auguste-Joseph Franchomme, Louis-Nicolas Cary and Paul Scudo. At a very young age, she received composition lessons from composer and family friend Friedrich Flotow, and later studied with Frédéric Chopin. Because her family was wealthy, she was able to work as a composer without financial concerns. She married the Vicomte de Grandval and they had two daughters, Isabelle and Thérèse. Grandval was a vegetarian and a spiritualist, and for this was deemed ec

Clément Loret

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Clément Loret (10 October 1833 – 14 February 1909) was an organist, music educator, and composer of Belgian origin, French naturalized. Biography Clément Loret was born in Dendermonde (Termonde) in Belgium. His father Hippolyte, organist (at Notre-Dame de Termonde) and organ builder, introduced him to music and the organ at a very young age. He started playing in church when he was 7 years old, and the following year he occasionally replaced his father at the keyboard. In 1846, his father was appointed organist at Mons, and the young Clément continued his musical studies with Jules Denefve (1814–1877). Admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1851, he was a student of Lemmens for the organ and Fétis for the counterpoint. He won a First Prize in 1853. In 1855, Loret came to Paris. Lemmens had written him a letter of introduction to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who was so little impressed by the young man that he dared not present him to his acquaintances. However, he linked up with , an harmonium factor, who decided him to stay. He then held organist positions at Suresnes and Notre-Dame des Victoires. Then, he was named titular holder of the new Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Nation

Constance Faunt Le Roy Runcie

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Constance Faunt Le Roy Runcie (or Fauntleroy) (January 15, 1836 – May 17, 1911) was an American pianist, author and composer. Biography She was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the granddaughter of Welsh industrial reformer Robert Owen. After her father’s death, she studied composition and piano in Germany from 1852 to 1861 and then returned to Indiana. Faunt Le Roy married minister James Runcie and had four children. The couple lived in St. Joseph, Missouri, where Constance Runcie founded a woman’s club to further cultural development of the area. Her daughter Ellinor Dale Runcie was also a writer. Her papers are housed at Missouri Western State University. Works Constance Runcie is the author of works including short stories, plays and music compositions. Selected works include: Literary: *The Burning Question non-fiction *Divinely Led non-fiction *Woman, an essay *The Bab, a novel She composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble and a number of songs. Selected works include: *Hear Us, Oh, Hear Us *Round the Throne *Silence of the Sea *Merry Life *Tone Poems *Take My Soul, Oh Lord *I Never Told Him *Dover of Peace *I Hold My Heart So Still *My Spirit Rests References External links *

Constanze Geiger

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Constanze Therese Adelaide Geiger, Freifrau von Ruttenstein (16 October 1835 – 24 August 1890) was an Austrian pianist, theatrical actress, composer and singer. Biography Geiger was the daughter of the composer and the court hat-maker/modist Theresia Geiger (née Ržiha, 1804–1865). Her parents nurtured her musical talents, and her father was her first piano teacher. She continued piano lessons with Johann Wenzel Tomaschek as well as Simon Sechter. Sechter gave her lessons in composition and counterpoint as well. Geiger made her public debut as a concert pianist at age six. She played her own compositions in public first at age eight. She made her theatrical stage debut in 1852 at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtische Theater, Geiger is the first female composer ever to be featured in the Vienna Philharmonic’s Neujahrskonzert. Selected compositions Source: * 4 Valses, op. 3 (1845) * Preghiera * Ave Maria (1846) * Duettino (for tenor and bass) * Frühlings-Träume Walzer, op. 8 (1847) * Abschieds-Walzer, op. 9 (1848) * Ferdinandus-Walzer (1848) * Das Fuchslied als Trauermarsch (1849) * Radetzky Marsch, op. 14, no. 1 * Sehnsucht (Romanze), op. 15 (1850) * Carlsklänge (Walzer) * Franz Joseph-M

Cornelius Gurlitt (composer)

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Gustav Cornelius Gurlitt (10 February 1820 – 17 June 1901) was a German composer. He was a classmate of Carl Reinecke, whose father was head of the Leipzig Conservatory. Gurlitt studied with Reinecke’s father for six years. His first public appearance at the age of seventeen was well received, and he decided to go to Copenhagen to continue his studies. There he studied organ, piano, and composition under Curlander and Weyse. While in Copenhagen he became acquainted with the Danish composer Niels Gade, and they remained friends until Gade’s death. In 1842, Gurlitt moved to Hørsholm, where he resided as an organist and a music teacher for four years. He then moved to Leipzig, Germany, where Gade was the musical director for the Gewandhaus concerts. Gurlitt next traveled to Rome, where his brother, Louis Gurlitt, a well-known painter, was studying. Cornelius Gurlitt’s abilities as a musician were quickly recognized in Rome, and the papal Accademia di Santa Cecilia nominated him an honorary member, and later graduated him as a Professor of Music in 1855. While in Rome he also studied painting with excellent results. On his return to Altona, the Duke of Augustenburg engaged him as teach

Cristóbal Oudrid

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Cristóbal (Carlos Domingo Romualdo y Ricardo) Oudrid y Segura (, 7 February 1825 – 13 March 1877) was a Spanish pianist, conductor, and composer. He is noted for his many contributions to the formation and development of the zarzuela genre in Spain during the second half of the 19th century. He was a gifted musician—but with little technical knowledge, which he bragged about to receive more credit from others with relation to his creations. This habit earned him the scathing criticism of people like Antonio Peña y Goñi who, nevertheless, praised the bright, sensual and cheerful ease with which Oudrid used to bring to life the true meaning of the Spanish song. During a successful career of more than 25 years, Oudrid produced over a hundred works, many in association with other composers. His first musical presentation was the Andalusian zarzuela La Venta del Puerto o Juanillo El Contrabandista, premiered at Teatro del Príncipe in 1846. His second venture was La Pradera del Canal, a collaborative work with composers Luis de Cepeda Baranda and Sebastián Iradier, premiered at Teatro de la Cruz in 1847. As a founding father of Spanish musical nationalism, he was instrumental in bringing

Cyrill Kistler

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Cyrill Kistler (12 May 1848 in Großaitingen, Swabia, Germany – 1 January 1907 in Bad Kissingen, Lower Franconia, Germany) was a German composer, music theoretician, Music educator and Music publisher. Life Born into a Swabian family of craftsmen, Kistler attended the Lehrerseminar (Teacher seminar) in Lauingen (Swabia) from 1864 to 1867. Subsequently, he first worked as a teacher at various places in Middle Swabia. However, when he was no longer content with this way of making a living, he, instead, concentrated merely on making and composing music. From 1876 to 1878, he was a student at the Königliche Musikschule (Royal Music School) in Munich in the subjects organ and composition; one of his teachers was Josef Rheinberger. Afterwards, in 1883, he took over the position of a teacher for Music theory at the Fürstliches Konservatorium (Baronial Academy of Music) at Sondershausen. In 1876, he got to know Richard Wagner at Bayreuth, whose work exerted a deep influence on Kistler. From 1884 on, he worked at Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia, where he founded his own music school. From 1880 on, he published the music journal „Musikalische Tagesfragen. Organ für Musiker, Musikfreunde und

David Braham

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David Braham (c.1834 – April 11, 1905) was a London-born musical theatre composer, most famous for his work with his son-in-law Edward Harrigan (1844-1911), and Tony Hart (1855-1891). He has been called “the American Offenbach”. Early life (1834–1873) David Braham was born in London in 1834. As a young man, he aspired to become a professional musician and began studying the harp. However, because he was unable to get his bulky instrument on board a stagecoach, he later switched to the violin. He proved to be an adept violinist, performing in concerts at a young age. The Braham family immigrated to New York City when David was 15. Upon arriving in New York, Braham began working as a violinist in the orchestra accompanying the Pony Moore Minstrels. He played in the pit orchestras of various New York auditoriums, headed an 18-piece orchestra at the New Canterbury concert saloon at 585 Broadway, produced by William Horace Lingard at the Theatre Comique in 1869. Braham’s success as a composer continued through the early 1870s, during which time he wrote numbers for such performers as James McKee, then-child star Annie Yeamans, and P. T. Barnum performer General Tom Thumb. In 1985, a mus

David Duffield Wood

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David Duffle Wood (March 2, 1838 — March 25, 1910), sometimes written as David Duffield Wood or David Duffel Wood, was an American composer, educator, and musician. He was blind from early childhood. Wood was the organist and choir master at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia for 46 years. Early life and education David Duffle Wood was born in 1838 near Pittsburgh, one of the six sons of Jonathan Humphreys Wood and Wilhelmina Jones Wood. Through illness and accident, he lost his vision as a young child. He was five years old in 1843 when he was enrolled in the Institute for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia. By the time he was sixteen, he was listed in the school’s reports as an assistant music teacher. Beyond music, he also studied mathematics with James G. Blaine, while the future U. S. Secretary of State was a young teacher at the school for the blind. Career Wood was hired as organist at St. Stephen’s Church in 1864, and added the title choir master in 1870. He gave his first major recital in 1868, with a program of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel and Mendelssohn. In 1894, St. Stephen’s marked the 30th year of Wood’s position as organist with a celebratio

David Popper

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David Popper (June 18, 1843 – August 7, 1913) was a Bohemian cellist and composer. Life Popper was born in Prague, and studied music at the Prague Conservatory. His family was Jewish. He studied the cello under Julius Goltermann (1825–1876) and soon attracted attention. He made his first tour in 1863; in Germany he was praised by Hans von Bülow, son-in-law of Franz Liszt, who recommended him as Chamber Virtuoso in the court of Prince von Hohenzollern-Hechingen in Löwenberg. In 1864, he premiered Robert Volkmann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 33, with Hans von Bülow conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. He lost this job a couple of years later due to the prince’s death. In 1866, after a successful season in London, he was invited by the court of Württemberg to stay at Friedrichshafen for two weeks. The invitation included the pianist Anna Mehlig as well. The two of them were expected to perform regularly for the royal couple, which they seemed to have fulfilled satisfactorily, as Anna Mehlig was awarded the honorary title of court pianist shortly afterwards. Popper composed a “Romance” for piano and cello during his stay which he dedicated to Mehlig. He made his debut in Vienna in 1

David Wallis Reeves

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David Wallis Reeves (February 14, 1838 – March 8, 1900), also known as D. W. Reeves or Wally Reeves, was an American composer, cornetist, and bandleader. He developed the American march style, later made famous by the likes of John Philip Sousa, and his innovations include adding a countermelody to the American march form in 1876. Sousa called Reeves “The Father of Band Music in America”, and stated he wished he himself had written Reeves’ “Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard March”. Charles Ives also borrowed from the “Second Connecticut” on four occasions. Biography Reeves was born on February 14, 1838, in Oswego, New York. In the early 1850s, he joined the Oswego band as an alto horn player, but soon moved to cornet, the instrument for which he would become famous. He occasionally performed with Jules Levy, another famous cornetist of the period. In 1871, he married Sarah Blanding. Blanding had a daughter from a previous marriage, and they were later to have a son, David W. Reeves Jr. In the 1870s, he created the first local orchestra in Providence, the Providence Symphony Orchestra. Reeves accepted the directorship of Patrick Gilmore’s Twenty-Second New York Regiment ban

Davorin Jenko

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Davorin Jenko (born Martin Jenko; 9 November 1835 – 25 November 1914) was a Slovene and Serbian composer. He is sometimes considered the father of Slovenian national Romantic music. Among other songs, he composed the melody for the Serbian national anthem “Bože pravde” (“God of Justice”), the former Slovenian national anthem “Naprej, zastava Slave” (“Forward, Flag of Glory!”), and the popular Serbian and Montenegrin song “Serbian Marseillaise”. Biography Jenko was born in the Upper Carniolan village of Dvorje, in what was then the Austrian Empire, and baptized Martinus Jenko. After graduating from high school in Trieste, he went to Vienna, where he studied law. During his Viennese stay, he founded the Slovene Choir Society in Vienna. In 1862, he moved to the town of Pančevo in southern Vojvodina, now in Serbia, but then in the Hungarian part of the Danube monarchy, where he worked as the choirmaster of the local Serbian Orthodox Church. He later moved on the other side of the border to Belgrade, where he worked as a composer in the Serbian National Theatre. and composed the music for the Serbian national anthem, based on the lyrics of Jovan Đorđević. Most of his Slovene pieces were

Delfina de la Cruz

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Delfina de la Cruz Zañartu (24 February 1837 – 8 May 1905), also known as Delfina Pérez, was a Chilean pianist, composer and First Lady of Chile during 1876 to 1881. De la Cruz was the first female composer of choral music in Chile. De la Cruz was the paternal granddaughter of Luis de la Cruz, and the cousin of Manuel Bulnes. On 24 November 1855 De la Cruz married Aníbal Pinto, a lawyer, politician and future 9th President of Chile. Through marriage De la Cruz was related to two other First Ladies of Chile, her sister-in-law of Enriqueta Pinto, and her mother-in-law of Luisa Garmendia. Career De la Cruz was an accomplished pianist and composer. Under the pseudonym Delfina Perez, de la Cruz published 12 works throughout the 19th century, surpassed in volume only by Isidora Zegers. Her work was praised by local press in Valparaíso and Santiago, where she sometimes performed benefit concerts. Several of her pieces also attained international recognition, including “The Star of Night” (""), a polka for piano which was played in Paris, as well as “Armando the Gondolier” (""), a waltz for piano later performed in Germany. She is also the first Chilean woman to venture into the compositio

Delphine Ugalde

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Gabrielle Delphine Ugalde, née Beaucé (3 December 1829 – 19 July 1910), was a French soprano and composer. She was the mother of Marguerite Ugalde. Biography Delphine Ugalde was born in Paris. After studies with her mother and the tenor Théodore-François Moreau-Sainti in Paris, she made her debut at the Opéra Comique in 1848 as Angèle in Auber’s Le Domino noir, followed by L’Ambassadrice. She went on to create roles in several popular operas of the time including the title role in Galathée by Victor Massé on 14 April 1852, Virginie in Le Caïd by Thomas on 3 January 1849 and Coraline in Le Toréador on 18 May 1849. After a break, she returned for Psyché (Eros) by Thomas on 26 January 1857. She sang in Auber’s L’Enfant prodigue in London in 1851. In 1858, she made her debut at the Théâtre Lyrique, where she sang Suzanne in Les Noces de Figaro, Carabosse Mélodine in La Fée Carabosse by Massé (28 February 1859), Blondine in L’Enlèvement au Sérail (1859), Martine in Ma tante dort (21 Jan 1860), and the title role in Gil Blas (24 March 1860). Her final benefit performance on 14 May 1860 was a lavish affair with, as well as many popular singers, contributions from Massé, Sarasate and Gouno

Delphine von Schauroth

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Delphine von Schauroth (13 March 1813 – 1887) was a German pianist and composer. Biography Delphine von Schauroth was born in Magdeburg, the daughter of Eduard Friedrich Roger Georg von Schauroth (1774–1829) and his second wife (married 10 April 1810) Louise Teltz (1792–1847). She began piano studies at an early age with Friedrich Kalkbrenner in Paris, and in 1822 made her debut in Frankfurt am Main at a concert organized by Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Guhr. This was followed by a European tour the next year, including appearances in Paris and London, and later by additional tours. When Felix Mendelssohn visited Munich in 1830, he considered marriage with Von Schauroth. It was at her behest that he revised his Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14, which he completed in June of that year. He later wrote to his sister Fanny that she had composed a passage of his Piano Concerto in G minor “that makes a startling effect.” However, he never revealed what passage she had written. The concerto premiered in 1831 and Mendelssohn dedicated the work to her. In 1833, Von Schauroth married English clergyman Edwin Hill-Handley and moved to London, but continued her concert appearances. In 1837, she separated fr

Désiré Dihau

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Désiré Dihau (2 August 1833 – 20 August 1909) was a French bassoonist and composer. He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in The Orchestra at the Opera () with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet seated behind him. Biography Désiré Hippolyte Dihau was born 2 August 1833 in Lille. He studied music at the Conservatory of his hometown and then at the Conservatoire de Paris where he obtained a First prize of bassoon in 1857 and a second one in 1865. He was at the pulpits of the orchestras of the Théâtre-Lyrique and of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. He was also a solo bassoon at the Eldorado, the Cirque d’hiver of Paris for the Pasdeloup Orchestra and at the Théâtre du Châtelet for the Concerts Colonne. He is best known for being the bassoonist of the Paris Opera, where he played from July 1, 1862, to December 31, 1889, immortalized by Edgar Degas in the 1870 painting, , Degas also depicted him in other paintings in which were present the musicians of the Salle Le Peletier, in 1872 and both versions, of 1871 and 1876, of the ballet of Robert le Diable. Degas probably met Dihau at the Mère Lefebvre, in Montmartre where artists and musicians gathered. It is Dihau who introduced Degas

Désiré Magnus

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Désiré Magnus (né Magnus Deutz; 13 June 1828 – 17 December 1883) was a Belgian concert pianist, teacher and composer of salon music who published under the pseudonym D. Magnus. Biography Magnus was born in Brussels and studied piano with Georg Jacob Vollweiler (1770–1847) in Heidelberg and also at the Brussels Conservatory, receiving the First Prize in 1843. After several successful concert tours in England, Germany, Russia, Spain and other countries, he settled in Paris, and quickly gained a reputation as pianist, teacher, composer, and music critic. Magnus’ performance on the Steinway concert-grand piano at the Exhibition Universelle of 1867 inspired a lithograph by Amédée de Noé. He died in Paris. Selected works ;Opera * La Tolédane (Paris: Salle Taitbout, 1874) ;Chamber music * Les Pleurs de la jeune fille, Nocturne for violin and piano, Op. 13b (1852); original for piano solo * 5ème Nocturne for cello and piano (1877); original version for piano solo * Duo sur des motifs de l’opéra “Paul et Virginie” de Victor Massé for violin and piano (1877); composed in collaboration with Henri Vieuxtemps ;Vocal * O povero garzon! (G. Duprez), Barcarolle vénetienne, Op. 139 (1874) * Sur l’o

Dimitrios Lalas

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Dimitrios Stergios Lalas or Lallas () was a significant Greek composer and musician. Biography Lalas was born in 1844 or 1848 in Magarevo, then Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). He soon became the conductor of an Orchestra in Salzburg, while in Presburg he replaced the conductor Hans Richter at a concert of Wagner’s works in the presence of Wagner himself. He cooperated with fellow Greek Macedonians, with whom he co-founded “Macedonian Defense” at the end of 1902, committees of which appeared in Greek Macedonian towns and villages, preparing its inhabitants for the upcoming Macedonian Struggle. At some point, before 1906, Lalas composed a musical work on the Macedonian Struggle, entitled “Makedonikos Paian” (Μακεδονικός Παιάν). He died of cholera in 1911 in Monastir, and his works were lost in 1917. References

Doyne Bell

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Doyne Courtenay Bell (3 August 1830 ― 26 March 1888) was an English court servant, antiquary, and composer. Early life Bell was born in Gower Street, Bloomsbury, the son of a wine merchant. After University College School and King’s College, London, he went to live in the Duchy of Brunswick to learn German, which he mastered. On his return to England, a clergyman uncle, George Hamilton, recommended him to Sir William Reid, who took him on as an assistant in the preparations for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Work While the Exhibition was ongoing, Prince Albert, impressed by Bell’s abilities, hired him to work in the royal household to help with Privy Purse correspondence. Bell struck up a friendship with George Scharf, director of the National Portrait Gallery, a fellow Old Gower, and built up a good knowledge of historic portraits, not least those in the Royal Collection. Bell was also Secretary of the committee which after Prince Albert’s death in 1861 planned the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, finally completed in 1872. Dating from 1876, his setting to music of Blake’s “Can I see another’s woe”, from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is the earliest such work inspired by Blake

Ede Reményi

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Ede Reményi or Eduard Reményi (January 17, 1828 Miskolc, Austrian Empire May 15, 1898 San Francisco) was a Hungarian violinist and composer. His birth date is disputed, and variously given from 1828 to 1830. Biography Reményi was born in Miskolc, Hungary, as Eduard Hoffmann. He studied under Joseph Böhm at the Vienna Conservatory from 1842 to 1845. Banished from Austria for participation in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, he went to Germany, where he befriended the 15-year-old Johannes Brahms and introduced him to Hungarian music. Pursued by German authorities, he fled to the United States in December, 1849. He returned to Europe in 1852, toured with Brahms in 1853, and then sojourned for a time at Weimar, where he received the benefit of Franz Liszt’s instruction and friendship. In 1854 he became solo violinist to Britain’s Queen Victoria. He obtained his amnesty in 1860 and returned to Hungary, being soon afterward appointed soloist to Emperor Franz Joseph. He then retired for some years. While born Eduard Hoffmann, he started using the name Ede Reményi by the time of the Revolutions of 1848, and his entire family followed suit sometime by 1862. In 1865 he made a brilliant tour

Edmond Audran

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Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 1840 17 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and began to write works for the stage in the 1860s and 1870s. Among these, Le grand mogol (1877) was the most popular and was later revived in Paris, London and New York. In 1879 he moved to Paris, where some of his pieces achieved considerable success both in France and abroad, including Les noces d’Olivette (1879), La mascotte (1880), Gillette de Narbonne (1882), La cigale et la fourmi (1886), Miss Helyett (1890) and La poupée (1896). Most of his works are now neglected, but La mascotte has been revived occasionally and has been recorded for the gramophone. Early life and career Audran was born in Lyon, the son of Marius-Pierre Audran (1816–87), who had a career as a tenor at the Opéra-Comique. He studied music at the École Niedermeyer under Jules Duprato, where he won the prize for composition in 1859. In 1861 his family moved to Marseille, where his father accepted the post of singing teacher, later becoming director of the conservatory. Au

Edmond Dédé

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Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901) was an American musician and composer. A free-born Creole, he moved to Europe in 1855. He worked in Bordeaux for more than forty years, first as assistant conductor at the Grand Théâtre and then as a conductor of orchestras at other local theaters. His compositions include works for orchestra and for various voices with orchestra or piano, as well as an opera Morgiane, completed in 1887, for which the score was unknown until 2007. Morgiane is the earliest known opera by an African-American composer. It received its first complete concert performances in February 2025. Biography Early years Dédé was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 20, 1827, his mother was the fourth generation of a free family of that city. His father was a marketman, poultry dealer, and music teacher who had migrated from French Caribbean colonies to New Orleans in 1809 after the Haitian Revolution where his father was a militia unit bandmaster. As a boy, Dédé first learned the clarinet, but soon switched to the violin, on which he was considered a prodigy. He later performed compositions of his own as well as those by Rodolphe Kreutzer, a favorite compo

Edmond Lemaigre

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Edmond Lemaigre (1849 in Clermont-Ferrand – 22 May 1890 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris) was a 19th-century French organist, conductor and composer. Biography Lemaire began his musical studies in his hometown with Charles Renaud de Vilbac (1829–1884). In 1872, he continued his studies of writing in Paris with Charles-Joseph Vervoitte (1822–1884), Kapellmeister and organist of the Saint-Roch church, and pipe organ with Édouard Batiste. In 1877 he became the first holder of the new organ (1876/77) of the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, inaugurated on May 26, 1877, a position he held until 1888, when he moved to Paris. Aloÿs Claussmann succeeded him at the pulpit. The organist of the Concerts of the Trocadéro in Paris, Lemaigre played there several of his compositions on the new organ Cavaillé-Coll (1878) of the grand hall. He succeeded his father at the head of the “Société Lyrique” in 1881, and in 1883 he founded the “Association Artistique du Centre” at Clermont-Ferrand. Works for organ * Twelve pieces for organ, Paris, Leduc (1881): 1. Marche Solennelle in D flat major – 2. Méditation in A flat major – 3. Pastorale in D major – 4. Alla Fuga in C major – 5. Élégie in C minor – 6.

Edmund Chipp

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Edmund Thomas Chipp (25 December 1823 – 17 December 1886) was an English organist and composer. His compositions were principally church organ music and oratorios. Life and career Chipp was born in London on Christmas Day, 25 December 1823. He was the eldest son of musician (Thomas) Paul Chipp (1793–1870) harpist, principal drummer of his day and chorister of the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. He was educated in the Chapel Royal as a chorister, and later became a member of William IV’s and then Queen Victoria’s private band. He was a Chorister of the Chapel Royal under William Hawes from the age of seven until he was 17. On 28 June 1838 Chipp sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria. Chipp studied the organ under George Cooper (organist at St Paul’s Cathedral and St. James’s Palace d.1838), and violin. He became a Member of the Society of British Musicians in 1842 and of the Royal Society of Musicians in 1848. He was violinist in Her Majesty’s Private Band from 1844, and a violinist in the Philharmonic and other orchestras. In 1859 he obtained a music degree at Cambridge University and became Doctor of Music in 1861, the first to obtain this degree under the professorship of William Ster

Edmund Kretschmer

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Carl Franz Edmund Kretschmer (31 August 1830 – 13 September 1908) was a German organist and composer who worked for the Dresden Court and composed several operas and masses. Career Born in Ostritz, Lausitz, the son of the rector of the municipal school, Kretschmer received first musical instruction from his father. From 1846, he studied in Dresden, composition with Ernst Julius Otto and organ with Johann Gottlieb Schneider. He first worked as a teacher, and in 1854 became the organist of the Katholische Hofkirche. In 1863, he was appointed Hoforganist (Court Organist) and instructor of the Kapellknabeninstitut, and in 1880 also choral conductor of the Hofkirche. He composed around 80 stage works and several orchestral works, including four operas and four masses. The King awarded him the title of Hofkirchen-Componist. His composition Die Geisterschlacht won a prize at the first Deutsches Sängerfest in 1865. He received a prize for a mass at an international competition in Brussels in 1868. He then composed his first opera, Die Folkunger, from a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal. Kretschmer died in 1908 and was buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden. He was an honorary c

Edmund Neupert

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(Carl Fredrik) Edmund Neupert (1 April 184222 June 1888) was a Norwegian music teacher, pianist and composer. Among Neupert’s compositions, the 24 Concert-Etüden and the 24 Octav-Etüden are especially highly regarded. Biography Neupert was born on 1 April 1842, in Christiana (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Herman Wilhelm Neupert (1806–78) and Caroline Friederike Wiedmayer (1814–1878). His father was a musician and piano teacher. He was now best remembered as the soloist at the world premiere of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. This occurred on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Concert Hall in Copenhagen, with the Royal Danish Orchestra conducted by Holger Simon Paulli. The piano used for the performance was lent for the occasion by Anton Rubinstein, who attended the concert. Grieg himself was not present, due to commitments back home in Norway. Neupert was also the dedicatee of the second edition of the concerto (Rikard Nordraak was the original dedicatee), and was said to have actually composed the cadenza in the first movement. Family In 1870, Neupert was married to Hilda Bergh (1848–1934) and the couple had one son Robert Isidor Neuper (1871–1894). He died on 22 June 188

Édouard Deldevez

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Édouard Marie Ernest Deldevez (31 May 1817 – 6 November 1897) was a French violinist, conductor at important Parisian musical institutions, composer, and music teacher. Biography Deldevez was born and died in Paris. He won many prizes as a violinist. He progressed from violinist at the Paris Opera to conductor. He was principal conductor of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire from 1872 to 1885. At the Paris Opéra-Comique Deldevez conducted the revival of La Fille du Regiment (with Marie Cabel) in 1857, Rose et Colas (first performance at the theatre, as well as 50th performance in 1862), the premiere of Lalla-Roukh on 12 May 1862, the first production at the Salle Favart of La Servante maîtresse on 12 August 1862 (Galli-Marié’s debut at the house), runs of La dame blanche (including the 1,000th performance there in December 1862), Le pré aux clercs, Fra Diavolo (including the 500th performance in March 1863), and a revival of Joseph in 1866. At the Paris Opera, Deldevez conducted La Juive at the opening night of the Palais Garnier in 1875, and the premiere of Massenet’s Le roi de Lahore in 1877, along with revivals of La Favorite, Guillaume Tell, Hamlet, Les H

Édouard Ignace Andlauer

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Édouard Ignace Andlauer (15 December 1830 – 14 December 1909) was a French composer and organist. Life Andlauer was born in Andlau (Alsace) where his father was a schoolteacher. From a very early age, he showed aptitudes for music. After receiving his first musical instruction in his father’s home, he took organ lessons from Joseph Wackenthaler, organist of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, and piano lessons with Conrad Berg. His musical talent developed rapidly and he entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, directed by François-Joseph Fétis, as student of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, and Charles Auguste de Bériot. He won the first prize for harmony and organ. At the end of his studies, on 1 September 1848 at the age of just 18, he obtained, in competition, the vacant position of organist at St. George’s Church, Haguenau. In addition to his position as organist, he headed the Société chorale from 1857 to 1861. organist at the Église Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile in Paris, composer of the ballet Viviane, operettas Joséphine vendue par ses sœurs and Les Papillons, and a series of compositions including the sacred drama Le Christ; P. Young (Jung) of New-York, composer of The Roman

Édouard Lalo

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Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (27 January 182322 April 1892) was a French composer, violist, violinist, and academic teacher. His most celebrated piece is the Symphonie Espagnole, a five-movement concerto for violin and orchestra that remains a popular work in the standard repertoire. Biography Lalo was born in Lille, in the northernmost part of France. He attended the conservatoire in that city in his youth. Beginning at age 16, he studied at the Paris conservatoire under François Antoine Habeneck. Habeneck conducted student concerts at the conservatoire from 1806 and became the founding conductor of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1828. For several years, Lalo worked as a string player and teacher in Paris. In 1848, he joined with friends to found the Armingaud Quartet, in which he played the viola and later, second violin. His earliest surviving compositions are songs and chamber works. Two early symphonies were destroyed. In 1865, Lalo married Julie Besnier de Maligny, a contralto from Brittany. She encouraged Lalo’s early interest in opera and led him to compose works for the stage, most notably the opera, Le Roi d’Ys. Despite their originality, th

Eduard Bayer

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Johann Gottfried Eduard Bayer (20 March 1822 – 23 March 1908), usually known as Eduard Bayer, was a German composer for the classical guitar and a virtuoso performer on the guitar, harp guitar, mandolin and zither. Biography Bayer was born in Augsburg. He was the son of a civil servant who died early. At age six, he became a member of the boys choir at the local St. Ulrich’s church. In his youth, he was employed as an engraver and worked for the company for six years. A local municipal official named W. Schmölzl introduced him to the guitar, giving him scores and tuition materials from Sor, Giuliani, Legnani, and Mertz. He gained such proficiency that by around 1843, he could give up his engraver’s job and become a professional guitarist. In 1848, after a number of successful recitals in his hometown, he set out on a tour through Germany together with a certain Loe, one of his most talented pupils. Apparently, they were not successful and on the brink of returning home when at Darmstadt, their fate turned: “Having to pass through Darmstadt on their journey they were quite unexpectedly commanded to play before the court and they received genuine and hearty applause from the Heredita

Eduard Caudella

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Eduard Caudella (22 May (or 3 June) 1841 – 15 April 1924) was a Romanian opera composer, also a violin virtuoso, conductor, teacher and critic. He studied with Henri Vieuxtemps, and taught at the Iași Conservatory. Operas *Harţă Răzeşul (1872) *Hatmanul Baltag (1884) *Beizadea Epaminonda (1885) *Fata răzeşului (1885) *Petru Rareş (1889) Selected other works *Violin Concerto No. 1 (1915) *Dochia, orchestral ballad *Souvenirs of the Carpathians (Amintiri din Carpati) References External links * * Eduard Caudella and the Romanian lyrical theatre

Eduard Franck

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Eduard Franck (5 October 1817 – 1 December 1893) was a German composer, pianist and music pedagogue. Life Franck was born in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. He was the fourth child of a wealthy banker who exposed his children to Germany’s cultural figures. Frequenters of the Franck home included Heine, Humboldt, Heller, Mendelssohn, and Wagner. His family’s financial position allowed Franck to study with Felix Mendelssohn as a private student in Düsseldorf and later in Leipzig. As a talented pianist, he embarked upon a dual career as a concert artist and teacher for more than four decades during the course of which he held many positions. Although he was highly regarded as both a teacher and performer, he never achieved the public recognition of his better-known contemporaries such as Mendelssohn, Schumann or Liszt. Despite being compared favourably to them, the fact that he failed to publish very many of his compositions until toward the end of his life, in part, explains why he was not better known. Said to be a perfectionist, he continually delayed releasing his works until they were polished to his demanding standards. Schumann, among others, thought q

Eduard Holst

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Eduard Holst (1843 – 4 February 1899) was a Danish playwright, composer, actor, dancer, and dance master. His name is spelled sometimes Edward Holst or Edvard Holst. Holst was born in Copenhagen. His compositions include songs and piano solo works. He was very prolific and a 1907 biography states he produced over two thousand works. He died in New York City. Works *Ilma, Grande Valse de Concert (1878) (later republished/renamed in the U.S. as “Diana”) *Bloom & Blossom, a Waltz (1887) *Autumn Leaf, a Polka for Children (1887) *Dance of The Demon (Grand Galop de Concert) (1888) *Shower of Melodies, part of a six work series for children *Our National Guardsmen, ded. to: Col. Emmons Clark 7th Regiment N.G.S.N.Y. (1889) *Follow Me (March) (1890) *La Tanda (Spanish Dance) (1892) *Young Hearts (Polka) (1892) *Marine Band March (1893) *Lily Waltz (1895) *Violet Galop (1895) *Lilac York Dance (1895) *Carnation March (1895) *Pansy Polka (1895) *Rose Gavotte (1895) *Brocken Revels (Grand Galop De Concert) (1896) *Our Flats, a comic opera, premiered in 1897 in New York *Bicycle Race (Galop) (1897) *Shooting Stars Galop (1897) *Battle of Manila (1898) *Hot Water, a comedy *The Little Maid in P

Eduard Lassen

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Eduard Lassen (13 April 183015 January 1904) was a Belgian-Danish composer and conductor. Although of Danish birth, he spent most of his career working as the music director at the court in Weimar. A moderately prolific composer, Lassen produced music in a variety of genres including operas, symphonic works, piano works, lieder, and choral works among others. His most successful pieces were his fine vocal art songs for solo voice and piano which often used elements of German and Belgian folk music. Biography He was born in Copenhagen, but was taken as a child to Brussels to which his father was president of the Jewish Consistor of Belgium. He was educated at the Brussels Conservatory where he earned prizes for piano (1844) and composition (1847). He won the Prix de Rome in 1851, which provided him with the opportunity to make a long tour in Germany and Italy. While touring he met Louis Spohr and Franz Liszt and composed much of his first opera Le roi Edgard. After returning to Brussels in 1855, Lassen actively sought to get his opera performed but was unable to do so. Liszt, however, agreed to produce the opera at the Grossherzogliches Theater (now the Staatskapelle Weimar) and the

Eduard Nápravník

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Eduard Francevič Nápravník (; 24 August 1839 – 23 November 1916) was a Czech conductor and composer. Nápravník settled in Russian Empire and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades. In that capacity, he conducted the premieres of many operas by Russian composers, including those by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Biography Nápravník was born in Býšť, Bohemia, in 1839. His studies of music were precariously uneven as a child, being the son of a poor teacher. Orphaned in 1853 at the age of 14, he first worked as a local church organist. In 1854 he entered the Prague Organ School, where he studied under Jan Bedřich Kittl and others, eventually becoming an assistant teacher as Kittl’s generosity allowed him to continue his studies. In 1861, he worked in Russia for the first time as conductor of the private orchestra of Prince Yusupov in St. Petersburg. Nápravník became organist and assistant conductor at the Imperial theatres in 1863, second conductor in 1867, and chief conductor, succeeding Liadov, in 1869, holding the post until his death. He led the first

Eduard Strauss

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Eduard “Edi” Strauss (15 March 1835 – 28 December 1916) was an Austrian composer who, together with his brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. He was the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim. The family dominated the Viennese light music world for decades, creating many waltzes and polkas for many Austrian nobility as well as dance-music enthusiasts around Europe. He was affectionately known in his family as ‘Edi’. Life and music Eduard Strauss’ style was individual and did not attempt to emulate the works of his other brothers or his contemporaries. But he was primarily remembered and recognized as a dance music conductor rather than as a major composer in the , and his popularity was overshadowed by that of his elder brothers. Realising this, he stamped his own mark with the quick polka, known in German as the “polka-schnell”. Among the more popular polkas that he penned for the Strauss Orchestra, which he continued to conduct until its disbandment on 13 February 1901, were “”, Op. 45, “Ausser Rand und Band”, Op. 168, and “Ohne Bremse”, Op. 238. He also found time to pen a few lovely waltzes, of which only a handful survived obs

Eduard Tauwitz

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Eduard Tauwitz (21 January 1812 – 26 July 1894) was a German composer and a native of Glatz, Prussian Silesia. While studying law at the University of Breslau, he devoted himself to music under the direction of organist Franz Wolf and music director Johann Theodor Mosewius and took charge of the students’ choral society (). Having decided not to follow a juridical career, he left Breslau in 1837 to direct the orchestra of a theater in Vilnius. In 1840 he went in the same capacity to Riga, but in 1843 returned to Breslau and two years later accepted a similar position in Prague, where he also taught music. After the death of Leopold Zvonař, he succeeded him as the director of the Žofín Academy, a music school for women. Tauwitz wrote over a thousand compositions, and the following songs are worthy of special mention: and . He also composed three operettas: , Bradamante and Trilby. Tauwitz died on 26 July 1894 in Prague, Austria-Hungary, Notes and references

Eduardo Mezzacapo

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Eduardo Mezzacapo (1832–1898) was an Italian mandolinist, recognized as a virtuoso. He was also a composer, and a performer, organizing and playing in a mandolin quartet in France. Although he died before recording technology, his quartet did get recorded between 1905 and 1910. He was also the founder of l’Ecole de mandoline française (The French Mandolin School). At the time that he was teaching in France and at the school, the mandolin was regaining popularity. There had been a decline since the early 19th century, but around the beginning of the 20th century from the 1880s to the 1920s there was a mandolin “craze” in which the instrument enjoyed new popularity. The movement in France was enough to found a movement of French mandolin artists, including Gabriel Leone, Giovanni Fouchetti and Gervasio. Mezzacapo “became the most important exponent of his time,” through his performing and organizing and teaching. Mezzacapo studied the mandolin in Naples, but went to France before he was 20. He performed with his family there, and their success was such that they performed Verdi’s Othello in the Opéra Garnier. He also directed the Casino of Cannes orchestra, in the lounge of the Grand

Edvard Grieg

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Background#

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and the British Vice-Consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of solicitor and politician Edvard Hagerup. The family name, originally spelled Greig, is associated with the Scottish Clann Ghriogair (Clan Gregor). Grieg’s great-grandfather, Alexander Greig (1739–1803), travelled widely before settling in Norway about 1770 and establishing business interests in Bergen. Grieg’s paternal great-great-grandparents, John (1702–1774) and Anne (1704–1784), are buried in the abandoned churchyard of the ruined Church of St Ethernan in Rathen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical family. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play when he was age six. He studied in several schools, including Tanks Upper Secondary School. In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, who was a family friend; Bull’s brother was married to Grieg’s aunt. Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy’s talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory, Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students. About his study in the conservatory, he wrote to his biographer, Aimar Grønvold, in 1881: “I must admit, unlike Svendsen, that I left Leipzig Conservatory just as stupid as I entered it. Naturally, I did learn something there, but my individuality was still a closed book to me.” In the spring of 1860, he survived two life-threatening lung diseases, pleurisy and tuberculosis. Throughout his life, Grieg’s health was impaired by a destroyed left lung and considerable deformity of his thoracic spine. He suffered from numerous respiratory infections, and ultimately developed combined lung and heart failure. Grieg was admitted many times to spas and sanatoria both in Norway and abroad. Several of his doctors became his friends.

Edward John Hopkins

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Dr. Edward John Hopkins FRCO (30 June 1818 - 4 February 1901) was an English organist and composer. The organist and composer John Larkin Hopkins was his cousin. Life He was born on 30 June 1818 in Westminster. He was the eldest son of George Hopkins, a clarinet player who played with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Two of his brothers, John (1822-1900) and Thomas Hopkins (died 1893) also became organists – John at Rochester Cathedral and Thomas at St Saviour’s Church, York. His uncle Edward Hopkins (c1778-1860) was also an outstanding clarinettist and bandmaster of the Scots Guards in 1815. In 1826 he became a chorister of the Chapel Royal under William Hawes and sang at the coronation of King William IV in Westminster Abbey in 1830. At the same time, he sang in the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, having to manage his double schedule with great dexterity. On Sunday evenings, he would play the outgoing voluntary for his organ teacher Thomas Forbes Walmisley, the father of Thomas Attwood Walmisley, at St Martin’s-in-the-Fields. Islington and in 1841, he became organist at St Luke’s, Berwick St, Soho (demolished 1936). He held that position for two years before becoming organis

Edward Mack

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Edward L. Mack (24 August 1826 – 7 January 1882), also credited as E. Mack, was a German born American composer, pianist, teacher, and piano professional best known for his prolific output of parlor pieces and military marches published chiefly in Philadelphia. His marches and patriotic pieces were widely circulated during and after the American Civil War, and numerous titles by Mack survive in major sheet music collections. Early Life and Education Edward L. Mack was born on 24 August 1826 in Stuttgart, Baden Württemberg, Germany, and was baptized at the Evangelische Leonhardskirche on 3 September 1826. He emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1831, at about five years of age. In 1844, at approximately eighteen years old, Mack was admitted to the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia, where he received formal training that shaped his early musical formation. Career By the 1850s Mack had established himself in Philadelphia as a pianist, music teacher, and composer. He wrote music aimed at the parlor market—marches, waltzes, and variations on popular melodies—designed to be both appealing and playable by amateur home pianists. His par

Edward Mollenhauer

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Edward Mollenhauer (1827–1914) was an American violinist and composer. Biography Mollenhauer was born in Erfurt, Prussia. He studied under Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and Louis Spohr, and had become famous in Germany and at Saint Petersburg before he was twenty-five years old. To escape conscription, he went to England, where he met conductor Louis-Antoine Jullien, and accompanied him to New York City in 1853. He settled there and became a founder in America of the Conservatory method of teaching the violin. Mollenhauer’s best-known compositions for the violin are his quartets. He also wrote the operas, The Corsican Bride (1861), Love among the Breakers (also known as Down among the Breakers; 1878), and The Masked Ball (also known as The Wager; 1879). He soloed with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for six years. He also created 2 pieces for violin with piano accompaniment, “The Boy Paganini” and “The Infant Paganini” both are still played worldwide. Among those he taught were African-American soloist and orchestra director, Walter F. Craig. See also *List of string quartet composers References Attribution *

Elfrida Andrée

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Elfrida Andrée (19 February 1841 – 11 January 1929) was a Swedish organist, composer, and conductor. Her sister was the singer Fredrika Stenhammar. Life and career Early life and education Andrée was born on 19 February 1841 in Visby to the doctor Andreas Andrée and Lovisa Lyth, both of whom were actively involved in musical pursuits. Activism In Sweden at the time Andrée was ready to begin her career, unmarried women over the age of twenty-five were barred from holding permanent positions as church organists. Both Elfrida and her father repeatedly lobbied the Swedish parliament to change the law, and eventually succeeded in 1861. she was one of the first female organists to be officially appointed in Scandinavia. Career Andrée began work in Stockholm in 1861 and became the organist at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867, where she remained the organist until her death. In 1897 she was named leader of the Gothenburg Workers Institute Concerts, establishing her reputation as the first Swedish woman to conduct a symphony orchestra. Reportedly, she fainted upon hearing the news of her appointment. During her career, she won the Litteris et Artibus award in 1895, as well as the Idun “Women’s

Élie-Miriam Delaborde

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Élie-Miriam Delaborde (born Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde; 7 February 18399 December 1913) was a French virtuoso pianist and composer. He was also renowned as a player of the pedal piano. Early life His birth was registered under the name of his mother Lina Eraïm Miriam, aged 38, of Nantes, and an unnamed father. Delaborde was generally believed to be the illegitimate son of the composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan and one of his high-class married pupils. Delaborde was the maiden name of Antoinette, mother of George Sand, the author and sometime lover of Alkan’s friend Frédéric Chopin. Some writers have seen some significance in this. Alkan’s withdrawal from public life had also coincided with the birth and upbringing of Delaborde. Alkan and Delaborde also shared several similarities such as their similar skill in playing the pedal piano and both of them being parrot enthusiasts. but this seems doubtful as Delaborde played Alkan’s music and edited his works. Career He was a pupil of Alkan, Franz Liszt, Ignaz Moscheles, and Adolf von Henselt. He made successful tours of England, Germany and Russia, and travelled with Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawski. Aline van Barentzen, and

Eliza Mazzucato Young

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Eliza Mazzucato Young (July 7, 1846 – March 27, 1937) was an Italian-born American composer, musician, and educator. She wrote Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888), one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States. Early life Elisa Mazzucato was born in Milan, the daughter of opera composer Alberto Mazzucato and Teresa Bolza, a daughter of Count , Austrian police commissioner in Milan. Her father was the director of the conservatory at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She studied music with her father, and in London. Career Eliza Mazzucato taught at the National Training School of Music in London, before it closed in 1882, and then at the Royal College of Music. She resigned in 1883 when she married one of the students, an American baritone named Bicknell Young. The couple moved to Salt Lake City in 1885, to open a music school, Young composed the music for the comic opera Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888), one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States; the libretto was by Fred Nye. Sheet music for songs from the opera continued to be published for years after its debut. Other compositions by Young included a one-act opera, The Maiden and the Reaper,

Elizabeth Philp

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Elizabeth Philp (1827 – 26 November 1885) was an English singer, music educator and composer. Philp was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, the eldest daughter of geographer James Philp. She was a protegee of Charlotte Cushman, and studied harmony with German composer Ferdinand Hiller at Cologne. She published a collection How to Sing an English Ballad including sixty songs. In London she was a neighbor and friend of Catherine Hogarth, and part of a community of musicians and writers there. Philp died in London in 1885, aged 58 years, from liver disease Works Philp composed songs and song cycles. Selected works include: *Alone (Text: James Russell Lowell) *Good night, beloved (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) *Inclusion (Text: Elizabeth Barrett Browning) *Insufficiency (Text: Elizabeth Barrett Browning) *O moonlight deep and tender (in Six Songs) (Text: James Russell Lowell) *Serenade (in Six Songs) (Text: James Russell Lowell) *Sweetest eyes (Text: Elizabeth Barrett Browning) *Tell me, the summer stars (Text: Edwin Arnold) *The sea hath its pearls (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow after Heinrich Heine) *The violets of spring (Text: Elizabeth Philp after Heinrich Heine) *When all the worl

Elizabeth Stirling

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Elizabeth Stirling - spousal name Elizabeth Bridge - (26 February 1819 – 25 March 1895) was an English organist and composer. Biography Elizabeth Stirling was born in Greenwich, London, into an affluent family. She attended the Royal Academy of Music as a private student (women could not enroll.) There she studied piano and organ at with Edward Holmes and W. B. Wilson, and harmony with James Alexander Hamilton and Sir George Macfarren. At the start of the century, young women were encouraged to play the piano as a social grace. By 1820, with London’s rapid growth, most churches had organs, but skilled pianists were needed. The church became a place where women could earn a small income and still be respected working outside the home. Of the hundreds of female organists in England, Elizabeth Stirling’s name appeared frequently, but her activities were not unique. Ann Mounsey Bartholomew, Elizabeth Mounsey, Oliveria Prescott, Kate Loder, Kate Westrop, Elizabeth Chamberlayne, Eliza Wesley, Ann Stainer and many others were mentioned by name. They wrote organ voluntaries, interludes, choral anthems, and occasionally large works such as cantatas. “England’s nineteenth-century female orga

Ella Adayevskaya

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Ella von Schultz-Adaïewsky; (Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya) ; 26 July 1926) was a Russian-German composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. Note: “Adayevskaya” is an incorrect appellation. Adaïewsky purposely selected a Russian male pseudonym to hide her identity as a female Protestant composer of German descent in Imperial Russia. She explained that she derived the first letters of her artist name (A-D-A) from the opening motif of the overture to Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. Adaïewsky wrote vocal music (including choral works), chamber music, and two operas. She also edited a collection of Italian songs and published writings on folk music and the music of ancient Greece. Life Born in St. Petersburg on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta/Elisabeth von Schultz, as the daughter of the prominent Estophile of Baltic German heritage Georg Julius von Schultz. Adaïewsky began learning the piano in childhood. Amongst her teachers were Adolf von Henselt, Anton Rubinstein, and Alexander Dreyschock. She studied composition with Alexander Famintsyn and Nikolai Zaremba. Adayevskaya was a pseudonym derived from the notes A, D, and A, played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka’s opera Rus

Ellen Dickson

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Ellen (Elizabeth) Dickson (1819 – 4 July 1878), also known as Dolores, was an English ballad composer. She was born in Woolwich, England southeast of London. Ellen was the third daughter of General Sir Alexander Dickson. She had been physically disabled since a young age, and her chosen Latin pseudonym, Dolores, which means sorrows and bodily pains, reflects that aspect of her personal life. Ellen inherited her father’s talents for mathematics and his analytical intellect. She lived most of her life and died in Lyndhurst, England. Musical career Dickson began making her reputation in the late 1850s, composing drawing-room ballads in a style similar to that of Maria Lindsay. She began by setting Longfellow poems in 1854. From then, Dickson published, partly under the name Dolores, a tremendous plethora of songs in renowned London music publishing companies. Approximately 65 songs have survived. These works include settings for poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Adelaide A. Procter, Percy Bysshe Shelly, Alfred Tennyson, and many others. Ellen Dickson achieved a high level of awareness with her song “The Bridge”, lyrics by Longfellow, which was first published by Charles Jefferys in

Eloísa D'Herbil

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Eloisa D’Herbil (also Eloisa D’Herbil de Silva, 27 December 1847 – 22 June 1943) was a Spanish pianist and composer. A child prodigy on the piano, by age seven, she had played before the heads of state in England and Spain. As a child, the press dubbed her “Chopin in skirts” and from a young age, she began composing musical pieces. She immigrated to Argentina in 1868 and continued to write music, becoming one of the first women to write tangos. Early life Eloísa María Dolores Juana de la Santísima Trinidad D’Herbil was born on 27 December 1847 in Cádiz, Spain to the Raquel Angel de Cadia and Joseph D’Herbil. She began her training before her fifth birthday with the American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk and auditioned with the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt. She would remain a devotée of both and often played their music in concert. Liszt praised her ability to play Chopin, causing Viennese critics to dub the child prodigy as “Chopin in skirts”. By the age of six, she had played for Isabella II of Spain. The following year, she played for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle and in June of the same year, gave another concert in England in the Queen’s Con

Emanuel Abraham Aguilar

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Emanuel Abraham Aguilar (23 August 1824 – 18 February 1904), was an English concert pianist and composer of Portuguese parentage. Life Born in Clapham, London, Aguilar was the son of Sephardic Jewish refugees from Portugal who settled in London. His father was the city merchant Emanuel Aguilar (1787–1845) and his mother Sarah Diaz Fernandez (1787–1854). His sister was the novelist Grace Aguilar. He studied piano and composition in Frankfurt, and was the first to perform Chopin’s F minor Concerto there. In 1847 his sister, whose health was already failing her, visited him at his Frankfurt home and died there, aged 31. Returning to London in 1848 he established himself as a soloist and set himself up as a teacher - though he frequently returned to Germany for concerts (for instance at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on 30 March 1848) and as a visiting composer, as for the premiere performance of his second symphony in 1851. From the 1850s Aguiar lived at 68 Upper Norton Street (now Bolsover Street) in Marylebone. Later addresses were 17 Gloucester Crescent in Paddington (from the 1870s), and at the lodging house 7 Weymouth Street in Marylebone (1901–1904). He married twice and was widowed

Emanuele Muzio

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Donnino Emanuele Muzio (or Mussio) (24 August 1821 in Zibello – 27 November 1890 in Paris) was an Italian composer, conductor and vocal teacher. He was a lifelong friend and the only student of Giuseppe Verdi. Biography In April 1844, Verdi took on Muzio, eight years his junior, as a pupil and amanuensis. He had known him since about 1828 as a protégé of his own supporter, . Muzio, who in fact was Verdi’s only pupil, became indispensable to the composer. He reported to Barezzi that Verdi “has a breadth of spirit, of generosity, a wisdom.” The relationship was to grow stronger, and Muzio remained a lifelong friend. In November 1846, Muzio wrote of Verdi: “If you could see us, I seem more like a friend, rather than his pupil. We are always together at dinner, in the cafes, when we play cards…; all in all, he doesn’t go anywhere without me at his side; in the house we have a big table and we both write there together, and so I always have his advice.” Muzio was to remain associated with Verdi throughout his life, assisting in the preparation of scores and transcriptions, and later conducting the premieres of many of his works in their premiere performances in the US and elsewhere. H

Emil Büchner

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Adolf Emil Büchner (7 December 1826 in Osterfeld – 9 June 1908 in Erfurt) was a German conductor and bandmaster. He wrote a number of compositions, including operas, chamber music, choral works, and symphonies. Life Büchner’s parents encouraged his musical interests from a young age. He attended the Leipzig Conservatory between April 1843 and Easter 1846, when he graduated. He was the ninth student to attend the newly formed conservatory, and was exempt from paying tuition. After his studies he worked as a piano teacher in Leipzig until 1856. After numerous engagements as a conductor, he was from 1865 the conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra in the city of Meiningen. Büchner and the court orchestra performed with Franz Liszt in 1867 in Meiningen, at the festival of the “General German Music Society”. In 1876, at the request of Richard Wagner, he introduced the main contingent of the festival orchestra at the first Bayreuth Festival, which many years later participated in the Festival. As Kapellmeister, Büchner brought the orchestra a significant increase in quality. In 1880 he gave his successor, Hans von Bülow, the chapel next to a known top European orchestra. In 1881, Büch

Emil Hartmann

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Emil Hartmann (21 February 1836–18 July 1898) was a Danish composer of the romantic period, fourth generation of composers in the Danish Hartmann musical family. His music is distinctly Nordic and tuneful and won great popularity in his time. Early life and education Hartmann was born on 21 February 1836 in Copenhagen, the eldest son of composer Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann and of his composer wife Emma Hartmann. He grew up in the Zinn House in Copenhagen. Emil Hartmann got his first education from his father Johan Peter Emilius and brother-in-law Niels Gade. His piano teachers were Niels Ravnkilde (1823–1890) and Anton Rée (1820–1886). Letters from Hans Christian Andersen show that he was composing even before he could talk properly. Career Emil Hartmann was a composer of the Danish Golden Age. He wrote seven symphonies, concertos for respectively violin, cello and piano, several ouvertures, a symphonic poem (Hakon Jarl), orchestral suites, serenades, ballets, operas and singspiels, incidental music and cantatas. He was also the author of multiple works of chamber music (nonet, piano quintet, string quartets, clarinet quartets, piano trios, serenade for clarinet, cello and piano,

Émile Albert

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Émile Albert (Joseph François Émile Albert; 1 January 1822 – 17 August 1865) was a French composer and pianist. He was born in Montpellier and died in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. Biography Albert was born on 1 January 1822 in Montpellier. He studied in his hometown under the guidance of his father, Narcisse Albert, a piano teacher, before moving to Paris in the late 1840s. In Paris, Albert gained recognition in 1851 with the publication of numerous piano works, including polkas, mazurkas, impromptus, fantasies, romances without words, a quadrille entitled Les Tout Fous, and a collection of Douze Études, Op. 17. As a composer, in addition to various piano pieces -among them several études - Albert also wrote a set of six songs, Li Prouvençalo (1853), a collection of motets, Chants du salut pour le mois de Marie … avec accompagnement d’orgue (1855), a Cours gradué d’études élémentaires progressives de style et de perfectionnement pour piano (1857), and a Trio de salon with piano (1860). His catalogue comprises around sixty opus numbers. Albert also composed for the stage. He wrote the opéra bouffe Les Petits du premier, with a libretto by William Busnach, premiered at the Théâtre Saint-Ge

Émile Durand

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Émile Durand (; 16 February 18307 May 1903) was a French musical theorist, teacher and composer. He was better known for his theoretical writings than for his compositions. Biography Émile Durand was born in 1830, at Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d’Armor, in the Brittany region of France, and moved south with his family to Montpellier when he was 12 years old. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1845 at age 15, in the class of Napoléon Alkan (brother of Charles-Valentin Alkan). François Bazin and Fromental Halévy were among his other noteworthy teachers. In 1853, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata Le Rocher d’Appenzell. He joined the conservatoire as a teacher of music theory and harmony, succeeding his own teacher Bazin in 1871. Camille Erlanger and Arthur Goring Thomas. Durand favored writing popular songs (chansons) and art songs (mélodies), although he also produced a few lighter works for stage early in his career, including the opéra comique L’Elixir de Cormelius in 1868, and the operetta L’Astronome de Pont-Neuf in 1869. He remained attached to the region of his birth throughout his life. As a member of cultural and social groups such as “The Bretons de Paris,” al

Émile Jonas

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Émile Jonas (5 March 1827 – 21 May 1905) was a 19th-century French composer. Works *1855: Le Duel de Benjamin, libretto by Eugène Mestépès *1856: La Parade, libretto by Jules Barbier and Jules Brésil) *1857: Le roi boit, libretto by Adolphe Jaime and Eugène Mestépès *1857: Les Petits Prodiges, libretto by Adolphe Jaime and Etienne Tréfeu *1863: Job et son chien, libretto by Eugène Mestépès) *1864: Le Manoir des Larenardière, libretto by Eugène Mestépès *1865: Avant la noce, libretto by Eugène Mestépès and Paul Boisselot *1865: Les Deux Arlequins, libretto by Eugène Mestépès *1867: Marlbrough s’en va-t-en guerre, composition with Georges Bizet, Isidore Legouix and Léo Delibes, libretto by William Busnach after Paul Siraudin *1869: Le Canard à trois becs, libretto by Jules Moinaux *1869: Désiré, sire de Champigny *1871: Javotte ou , libretto by Alfred Thompson, London *1873: Goldchignon (libretto : Eugène Grangé, Victor Bernard and Étienne Tréfeu, in German Julius Hopp), Vienna *1874: , libretto by Eugène Grangé and Victor Bernard, in German, F. Zell and Richard Genée), Vienna *1882: La Bonne Aventure, libretto by Hector Crémieux and Albert de Saint-Albin *1882: Estelle et Némourin,

Émile Mathieu (composer)

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Émile Louis Victor Mathieu (Lille, 18 October 1844 – Ghent, 20 August 1932) was a Belgian music teacher and composer of classical music. Mathieu was born into a musical family: his father was the director of a theatre in Antwerp and a singer, while is mother taught singing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Leuven. He studied at the Conservatory of Brussels and later became a teacher of piano and harmony at the conservatory of Leuven. In 1867 Mathieu won a second prize in the Prix de Rome contest with his cantata Torquato Tasso’s dood. He won first place in the same contest in 1871 and again in 1873. Between 1873 and 1875 he lived in Paris, where he conducted the orchestra of the Théâtre du Châtelet. Afterwards, he returned to Brussels, where he held a position as accompanist at the Theatre Royal of LA Monnaie. He headed the Leuven Conservatory (which today is called SLAC) from 1881, and succeeded Adolphe Samuel as director of the Ghent Conservatory from 1898 to 1924. Most of his operas used librettos of his own writing. His best known work today is “Freyhir”, an hour-long choral tone poem written in 1883 on the theme of deforestation around Ardennes where the composer grew up. Frey

Émile Paladilhe

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Émile Paladilhe (3 June 1844 – 6 January 1926) was a French composer of the late romantic period. He is best known for his opera Patrie!, which premiered successfully at the Paris Opera. Biography Émile Paladilhe was born in Montpellier. He was a musical child prodigy, and moved from his home in the south of France to Paris to begin his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris at age 10. He became an accomplished pianist, and was the youngest winner of the Prix de Rome, three years after Bizet, in 1860. For a time Galli-Marié was his lover, and she helped create some of his works. Paladilhe married the daughter of the librettist Ernest Legouvé. He formed a friendship with the elderly Charles Gounod. Works He wrote a number of compositions for the stage, a symphony, over a hundred mélodies, piano works, and a wide range of sacred music, including cantatas, motets, masses, chorales, and a noted oratorio, Les Saintes-Marie de la mer. His opera Patrie! of 1886 was his greatest success, and was one of the last grand operas to premiere at the Paris Opéra. It was a piece d’occasion, created for a gala in honour of the French colony in Monaco, but had a Flemish-nationalist theme. The libretti

Émile Pessard

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Émile Louis Fortuné Pessard (29 May 1843 – 10 February 1917) was a French composer. Pessard was born and died in Paris. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he won 1st prize in Harmony. In 1866 he won the Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata Dalila which was performed at the Paris Opera on 21 February 1867. From 1878 to 1880 he was inspector of singing at Paris Schools, in 1881 he became professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatory. His students included Maurice Ravel, Jacques Ibert, William Molard, Albert Seitz and Justin Élie. After 1895 he was a critic and director. He composed many comic operas and operettas, as well as masses. Works *Dalila (cantata, 1866) Prix de Rome. *La Cruche cassée (opéra comicque in 1 act, libretto by Hyppolite Lucas and Emile Abraham, premiered on 21 February 1870 at the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris) *Don Quichotte (opera, premiered on 13 February 1874 at the Salle Érard in Paris) *Le Char (opera, premiered on 18 January 1878 at the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris) *Le Capitaine Fracasse (opera, premiered on 2 July 1878 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris) *Tabarin (opera, premiered on 12 January 1885 at the Théâtre de l’Opéra in Par

Émile Waldteufel

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Charles Émile Waldteufel (; ; ; 9 December 1837 – 12 February 1915) was a French composer, pianist, and conductor known for his numerous popular salon pieces. Among his best known works is “Les Patineurs” (1882), known as “The Skater’s Waltz”. Life Waldteufel was born Charles Émile Lévy at 84 Grand’Rue in the centre of Strasbourg. From a Jewish Alsatian family of musicians, his grandfather, father, and two uncles were all dance musicians who had used the name “Waldteufel” (German for forest devil) professionally. His father, Lazare Levy, led a respected orchestra, and his brother Léon was a successful performer. When Léon won a place to study violin at the Conservatoire de Paris, the family followed him there. Waldteufel’s mother Flora Neubauer, originally from Bavaria, had been a student of Hummel and had met Haydn; she was also a keen singer and dancer. Waldteufel received his first lessons from his father and from the local musician Joseph Heyberger. After his arrival in Paris he could take classes from Laurent at the Conservatoire de Paris, followed by advanced studies under Marmontel. His appointment by Napoléon III as the musical director of the balls led him to participation

Emilie Holmberg

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Emilie Augusta Kristina Hammarskjöld née Holmberg (May 6, 1821 – March 26, 1854) was a Swedish composer and musician. She was active as a concert singer, a pianist and a music instructor. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She was likely the first woman artist from Sweden to have toured in the United States, prior to Jenny Lind. In Sweden, she is generally known only as Emilie Holmberg, as she left the country shortly after her marriage. Life Emilie Holmberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden to merchant Carl Christian Holmberg and Aurora Emelie Hellgren. Her parents divorced in 1823, and she was supported by her mother, a successful businesswoman who founded and managed her own library. Education Early on, her mother noted her interest in music, and ensured she was given a musical education. She was entrusted by her mother to the care of the composer Eduard Brendler and his wife Ulrica (Bouck) Brendler (1803–1841). She took music lessons from the composer and musical instructor Erik Drake (1788–1870), and singing lessons from the composer and organist Johan Peter Cronhamn (1803–1875). Early career in Sweden In 1836, at age fifteen, she published her first compositi

Emilie Mayer

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Emilie Luise Frederica Mayer (14 May 1812 – 10 April 1883) was a German Romantic music composer who became one of the most prolific female composers of the 19th century. Often called the “Female Beethoven,” Mayer composed eight symphonies and numerous chamber works, piano sonatas, and orchestral overtures. Despite the limited opportunities for women in professional music during her time, she achieved wide recognition and public performance of her music across Germany. In the 21st century, her work has been rediscovered and celebrated for its craftsmanship, originality, and contribution to the Romantic repertoire. Life and career Early Life and Education Emilie Mayer was born in Friedland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the third of five children and eldest daughter of a wealthy pharmacist, Johann August Friedrich Mayer, and his wife Henrietta Carolina. Her mother died when Emilie was three years old. She started private music lessons at age five under the tutelage of Carl Heinrich Ernst Driver, an organist. It was also when she first started composing, submitting to Driver pieces of “free interpretation”. According to one of her surviving personal statements, “After a few lessons … I comp

Emilio Arrieta

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Juan Pascual Antonio Arrieta Corera (20 October 1821 – 11 February 1894), also known as Emilio Arrieta, was a Spanish composer. Arrieta was born in Puente la Reina, Navarre. His Italian musical training led him, under the favour of Queen Isabel II, to concentrate on operatic writing; and though he later composed zarzuelas, he remained less committed to the renascent art form than his contemporaries such as Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, who continued to write in an essentially Italianate style throughout his life. His zarzuela Marina, one of the most popular lyric stage works in the Spanish repertoire, has been produced and recorded both on CD and DVD many times. Arrieta died in Madrid, aged 72. Works Operas *1846 Ildegonda *1850 La conquista di Granata, 3 acts with libretto by Temistocle Solera *1851 Pergolesi *1871 Marina, 3 acts (adapted from the 1855 zarzuela) with libretto by Francisco Camprodón and Miguel Ramos Carrión Zarzuelas *1853 El dominó Azul, 3 acts with libretto by Francisco Camprodón *1853 El grumete, 1 acte with libretto by Antonio García Gutiérrez *1853 La estrella de Madrid, 3 acts with libretto by Adelardo López de Ayala *1854 La cacería real, 3 acts with libretto b

Emilio Usiglio

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Emilio Usiglio (18 January 1841 – 7 July 1910) was an Italian composer and conductor. Life and career Usiglio was born on 18 January 1841 in Parma. He studied music in Parma, first with Giuseppe Barbacini and then with Giovanni Rossi, before continuing his education in Pisa with Carlo Romani and in Florence with Teodulo Mabellini. At the age of 20 he began his operatic career with some success with La locandiera. He wrote exclusively opere buffe, his most famous being 1879’s Le donne curiose after the play by Carlo Goldoni. As a conductor, Usiglio led the premiere, in 1875, of the new version of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele in Bologna, and in 1877 he conducted the Italian premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen in Naples and of Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas in Venice. In 1889 he led the first Modena performances of Fosca by Antonio Gomes. Due primarily to his increasing alcoholism, Usiglio was forced to retire as a conductor in 1897. He died in Milan on 7 July 1910. His wife was the soprano Clementina Brusa. Works Operas *La locandiera, libretto by Giuseppe Barilli (Turin, Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, 5 September 1861) *Un’eredità in Corsica, libretto by Raffaello Berninzone (Milan, Teatro di Sa

Emma Marcy Raymond

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Emma Marcy Raymond (pseudonym, Salvator Sylvain; 1839 – November 7, 1913) was an American musician, composer, and author of operetta, songs and piano music. She was one of very few women in her day who had composed the entire music of an opera and lived to see it produced. Early life and education Emma P. Marcy was born in 1839 in Hartford, Connecticut, the oldest daughter of Dr. Erastus Egerton Marcy and Emeline Babcock (Kilbourn) Marcy, whose father was Henry Kilbourn of Hartford. Her father was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and later a homeopathic specialist, who apparently lived for many years on Fifth Avenue on the site opposite Tiffany’s. She showed a remarkable aptitude for music at a very early age, having composed her first song before six years of age. She inherited her musical talents from her parents, both of whom were gifted amateurs. She was reared in an atmosphere of music, and studied under the best teachers who visited the United States. She studied the piano with Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Raccoman, vocal music with Giorgio Ronconi, and counterpoint and harmony with the best German masters. Career Her musical sympathies were almost entirely with th

Emmanuel Boyer de Fonscolombe

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Emmanuel Boyer de Fonscolombe (1810–1875) was a French aristocrat and composer. Biography Early life Emmanuel Boyer de Fonscolombe was born on 27 October 1810 in Aix-en-Provence. The Boyer de Fonscolombe family became an aristocratic family with his paternal great-great-grandfather Honoré Boyer de Fonscolombe (1683–1743), who served as Secretary to King Louis XV (1710–1774). His father was Charles Boyer de Fonscolombe (1778–1838) and his mother, Emilie de Cotto (1790-unknown). He wrote an opera, Un Prisonnier en Crimée. They also lived in a family hôtel particulier in Aix-en-Provence: the Hôtel Boyer de Fonscolombe, now listed as a monument historique, located at 21 rue Gaston de Saporta. He died on 21 March 1875 in Aix-en-Provence. References

Emmanuel Chabrier

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Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier (; 18 January 184113 September 1894) was a French Romantic composer and pianist. His bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked as a civil servant until the age of thirty-nine while immersing himself in the modernist artistic life of the French capital and composing in his spare time. From 1880 until his final illness he was a full-time composer. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, Chabrier left a corpus of operas (including L’étoile), songs, and piano music, but no symphonies, concertos, quartets, sonatas, or religious or liturgical music. His lack of academic training left him free to create his own musical language, unaffected by established rules, and he was regarded by many later composers as an important innovator and a catalyst who paved the way for French modernism. He was admired by, and influenced, composers as diverse as Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Satie, Poulenc, Stravinsky, and others of the group of composers known as Les Six. Writing at a time when French musicians were generally proponents or opponents of the music of Wagner,

Enderby Jackson

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John Enderby Jackson (14 January 1827 – 10 April 1903) was an English musician, composer, and the self-described founder of the British brass band competition and the cheap day railway excursion. After training in the family business of candle-making and soap boiling, Jackson became involved in music and learned a variety of instruments. He proceeded to join a dance band, where he witnessed an early brass band competition. In 1851 he arranged a contest in Kingston upon Hull, but his first success came in 1853 at Manchester’s Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, where he helped organise a successful contest of brass bands. He began writing test pieces and in 1860 was approached to run a competition at The Crystal Palace in London. This event proved highly successful, and ran annually until 1863. Following the Crystal Palace contests, he toured the world with a variety of groups and acts, acting both as a manager and musical director. He then retired to Scarborough to paint and write articles on music, and eventually died on Good Friday, 1903. In his articles, he stated that his mission throughout his life was “the propagation of music amongst the working classes”. His mother died during hi

Enrique Gottel

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Enrique Gottel (1831–1875) was a German-Nicaraguan journalist, music composer, and historian. Arrival in Nicaragua Gottel was born in Danzig, Kingdom of Prussia, and emigrated to the United States at a young age. He spoke English, Spanish, and German. When the gold rush struck in California, he arranged for a trip via Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Company which took a natural route through the San Juan river in Nicaragua. Gottel decided to stay in Rivas, a city located in Nicaragua’s Southwestern Pacific region. He later established a contract with the Accessory Transit Company. Gottels contract with the Accessory Transit Company consisted of diligences hauled by horses to transport people between Bahía de la Virgen (Bay of the Virgin) in Lake Nicaragua and the port in San Juan del Sur. In 1856, it left him in ruins due to the struggle between William Walker and Vanderbilt. Gottel resumed his diligence service in 1861 with his new partner, Colombian General Pedro Ruiz Tejada. After Gottels death, Ruiz kept the service going and added a new route from León to Chinandega. Gottel ran the newspaper for 9 years, up until 1874. El Provenir was transferred to Managua,

Ermanno Picchi

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Ermanno Picchi (7 June 1811 – 18 April 1856) was an Italian composer, pedagogue and music critic who played an active role in the musical life of Florence from 1836 until his early death in 1856. Life and career Picchi was born in Impruneta in the Province of Florence and studied composition under Ignazio Colson. His first opera, Marco Visconti premiered at the Teatro del Cocomero in Florence in 1838. His second opera Il tre novembre premiered in 1844 at the Teatro della Pergola. Over the course of his career he composed four operas, an oratorio, numerous pieces of sacred music, music for military bands, and two piano fantasias (both published by Ricordi) on themes from Donizetti’s La fille du régiment and Pacini’s Saffo. He also composed Concerto for alto sax and band, on the occasion of the presentation of the sax in Italy. He was appointed secretary of the Florence Conservatory (at the time an annex of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze) in 1850 and in 1852 succeeded Giovanni Pacini as its director. Picchi became the founding editor of the weekly journal Gazzetta musicale di Firenze in 1853, providing critical guidance in its first two years of publication. Each issue came i

Ernest Boulanger (composer)

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Ernest Henri Alexandre Boulanger (16 September 1815 – 14 April 1900) was a French composer and conductor. He was known for being a composer of choral music and comic operas, a choral group director, a voice teacher, and also judged at voice contests. was a cellist and professor of voice at the Paris Conservatory, winner of the First Prize in cello at the Conservatory in 1797 and a professor of cello, attached to the King’s Chapel. His mother, Marie-Julie Halligner, was a mezzo-soprano at the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris. He was a pupil at the Paris Conservatory where he studied under Jean-François Le Sueur, and Fromental Halévy. He studied piano with the virtuoso pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan; and operatic composition with Daniel Auber and Ferdinand Hérold. At the age of 19, Boulanger was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1835 with his cantata “Achille”. In 1842, he began making a name as a composer of comic operas and as a conductor. Boulanger composed a dozen comic operas between 1842 and 1877. His chief work was the three-act opera Don Quixote, which premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1869; the most performed of his works was the one-act Les Sabots de la marquise (“The

Ernest de Munck

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Ernest de Munck (December 21, 1840 – January 19, 1915) was a Belgian cellist and composer. Born in Brussels, de Munck learned the cello from his professional cellist father François de Munck as well as Adrien-François Servais. He later became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music in London. Life Ernest de Munck was born on December 21, 1840, in Brussels. His father François de Munck was a virtuoso cellist and teacher, once a member of the orchestra at Her Majesty’s Theatre and a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He was taught the cello by his father He toured Great Britain in 1855. They performed together throughout the United States, such as in St. Louis, and he was part of her company on her concert tours in the country. They also lived in the US for a period. Patti died in Paris in 1889. Following her death, de Munck moved to London where he became a professor at the Guildhall School of Music in 1891, and a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1893. De Munck died in Maida Vale, London, on January 19, 1915. His death was announced on February 5. * Polonaise for cello and piano, dedicated to Princess Louise, Marchioness of

Ernest Gagnon

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Ernest Gagnon (; 7 November 1834 – 15 September 1915) was a Canadian folklorist, composer, and organist. He is best known for compiling a large amount of French Canadian folk music which he published as Chansons populaires du Canada in 1865–1867. He was greatly admired for his virtuoso performances on the organ and was also considered an expert at plainsong accompaniment. Biography Born in Louiseville, Gagnon was from a prominent family of musicians in Québec City. He is the brother of composer Gustave Gagnon and the uncle of composer Henri Gagnon. His sister Élisabeth was married to pianist Paul Letondal. He studied the organ with Charles Wugk Sabatier. From 1853 to 1864 he was the organist of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church, and held a similar position at the Notre-Dame Basilica-Cathedral from 1864 to 1876. In 1857 he travelled to Paris after obtaining a study leave and became a pupil of Henri Herz and Alexandre Goria. Many of his arts songs, choral pieces, and works for solo piano have been published by the Canadian Musical Heritage Society and by Adélard Joseph Boucher. His piano work Stadaconé (1858) was notably the first notated composition to be based on the music of the aborigin

Ernest Grosjean

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Ernest Grosjean (18 December 1844 – 28 December 1936) was a French organist and composer. Biography Born in Vagney (Vosges), Ernest Grosjean was the nephew and pupil of Jean-Romary Grosjean, founder and director of the Journal des organistes. In addition to his uncle, he had successively Henri Hess, Camille-Marie Stamaty and Alexis Chauvet as masters of piano, organ, harmony, music composition and fugue. He made his debut as organist in the cathedral of Uzès (Gard) in 1864, before competing for the position of organist, and later of maître de chapelle of the Verdun Cathedral, that he held from 1868 until 1935, even though the Jacquot-Jeanpierre organ of Rambervillers (Vosges), built in 1898, was dismantled during the First World War to preserve it. The instrument was rebuilt and inaugurated on 25 March 1935 jointly by the titular master Marcel Dupré and abbot Pierre Camonin who succeeded him in June of the same year. Grosjean was the maternal grandfather of Élisabeth Brasseur, a choral conductor who founded and directed in Versailles the from 1920 to her death in 1972. Grosjean died in Versailles at the age of 92 on 28 December 1936. Publications Grosjean wrote teaching works inclu

Ernest Guiraud

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Ernest Guiraud (; 23 June 18376 May 1892) was an American-born French composer and music teacher. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet’s opera Carmen and for Offenbach’s opera Les contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann). Biography Guiraud was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his schooling in Louisiana under the tutelage of his father, Jean-Baptiste-Louis Guiraud, who had won the Prix de Rome in 1827. At age 15, he set to music a full-length libretto about King David, which he and his father had found on a trip to Paris. The result was David, an opera in three-acts, which had a resounding success at the Théâtre d’Orléans in New Orleans in 1853, sealing his future. In December of the same year, Guiraud sailed back to France to continue his musical education. He studied piano under Marmontel and composition under Halévy at the Paris Conservatoire. Remarkably gifted as a student, he was awarded first prize for piano in 1858. He won the Prix de Rome the next year, notably, the only instance of both father and son obtaining this prize. He became close friends with Camille Saint-Saëns, Emile Paladilhe, Théodore Dubois, and especially

Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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Ernest II (; 21 June 181822 August 1893) was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 29 January 1844 to his death in 1893. He was born in Coburg to Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. His father became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Ernest I) in 1826 through an exchange of territories. In 1842, Ernest married Princess Alexandrine of Baden in what was to be a childless marriage. Two years later, he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha when his father died. Ernest supported the German Confederation in the Schleswig-Holstein Wars against Denmark, sending thousands of troops and becoming the commander of a German corps; he was instrumental in the 1849 victory at the battle of Eckernförde against Danish forces. After King Otto of Greece was deposed in 1862, the British government put Ernest’s name forward as a possible successor. Negotiations concerning this failed for various reasons—not least of which was that he would not give up his beloved duchies in favor of the Greek throne. A supporter of a unified Germany, Ernest watched the various political movements with great interest. While he initially was a great and outspoken proponent of G

Ernesto Köhler

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Ernesto Köhler (4 December 1849 – 17 March 1907) was an Italian flautist and composer. He was considered one of the best flautists of his era as well as a prolific composer and a gifted educator. As a young student, Köhler exhibited a natural proclivity for his chosen instrument and made rapid progress in his studies. During these early years he embarked upon numerous concert tours in Italy with his brother Ferdinando, who was a noted pianist. At the urging of the Italian flautist Cesare Ciardi, Köhler subsequently left Vienna for an appointment as a flautist in the orchestra of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersberg in 1871. Following the death of Ciardi in 1877, Köhler subsequently assumed a position as a soloist in the orchestra of the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg and rose to become the orchestra’s first flautist in 1900. In this capacity, he served for several years as the premier flautist in the Empire of the Czar. His publisher was Julius Heinrich Zimmermann. Death Ernesto Köhler died in Saint Petersburg on 17 March 1907. Compositions for flute A partial listing of Köhler’s compositions for flute includes the following works: Flute and orchestra * Shephard Idylle, (Hirte

Ernst Naumann

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Carl Ernst Naumann (15 August 183215 December 1910) was a German organist, composer, conductor, editor, arranger and musicologist. He is best known now as an arranger and editor of the music of J.S. Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was a friend of Schumann and Brahms, and conducted the first performance of the latter’s Alto Rhapsody in 1870. Biography Carl (or Karl) Ernst Naumann was born in Freiberg in Saxony in 1832, the son of mineralogist Carl Friedrich Naumann. He was a cousin of Emil Naumann (1827–1888) and grandson of Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741–1801), both composers. Ernst Naumann studied the organ with (1789–1864) and composition with Moritz Hauptmann and Ernst Richter. Naumann was friendly with Brahms and Schumann. The similarity of Brahms’s music to that of late Beethoven was first noted in a letter from Albert Dietrich to Ernst Naumann on 5 November 1853. Naumann was one of the people Dietrich wrote to in March 1854, following Schumann’s suicide attempt in late February. On 3 March 1870, with the Akademischer Gesangverein of Jena, Naumann conducted the first public performance of Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, with Pauline Viardot as soloist. He died in 1910 in Jena, aged 78

Ernst Perabo

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Johann Ernst Perabo (November 14, 1845 – October 29, 1920) was a German-born American composer and pianist. Biography Ernst Perabo was born in Wiesbaden, Duchy of Nassau on November 14, 1845. In 1852, he immigrated with his family to New York City. He began his musical training with his father, then with William Schultze from the Mendelssohn Quintette Club and eventually came back to Europe to study at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke, Ignaz Moscheles, and Ernst Richter. From 1885 onwards, Perabo lived in Boston, where he led a career as a pianist, composer, and music teacher. He gave private lessons: his most famous student, who studied with him from 1876 through 1882, was the pianist and composer Amy Beach. He also taught at the New England Conservatory. Besides original compositions for the piano (including one Scherzo; three Studies; Pensées; and Prelude, Romance und Toccatina), he wrote numerous transcriptions of and fantasies on operas and orchestral works. He married Louisa Elizabeth Schmidt on June 1, 1889. Perabo collected a number of manuscripts and first editions of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, which are now preserved in the British Library.

Ernst Rudorff

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Ernst Friedrich Karl Rudorff (January 18, 1840 – December 31, 1916) was a German composer and music teacher, also a founder of the nature protection movement “Heimatschutz”. Biography Born in Berlin, Rudorff studied piano under Woldemar Bargiel from 1852 to 1857 before enrolling at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1859, where he studied under Ignaz Moscheles, Louis Plaidy, and Julius Rietz. He was also a private pupil of Moritz Hauptmann and Carl Reinecke. In 1865 he became a piano teacher at the Cologne Conservatory, and he founded the Bach-Verein Köln in 1867. He moved to Berlin in 1869, and for four decades, to his retirement in 1910, was the head piano teacher at the Berlin Hochschule. He also conducted the Stern Gesangverein from 1880 to 1890, succeeding Max Bruch. His collection of music manuscripts, scores, and correspondence is one of the largest and most important such collections still held in private hands. It includes autographs by Bach, Beethoven, Bruch, Clementi, Dussek, Gluck, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Salieri. His students included Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl, Wilhelm Berger, Leo Blech, Gerard von Brucken Fock, Leopold Godowsky, Elsie Hall, Siegfried Ochs, Alexandre

Errico Petrella

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Errico Petrella (10 December 18137 April 1877) was an Italian opera composer. Life and career Petrella was born at Palermo, capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. A conservative of the Neapolitan school, he was the most successful Italian composer, second only to Verdi, during the 1850s and 1860s. He also earned the latter’s scorn for his compositional and dramatic crudities, which nonetheless played well on the stage. Petrella was a popular composer in his day, both of opera buffa and more serious work. His best opera, Jone, has considerable melodramatic force and vitality, and Petrella’s melodic style, though old-fashioned in comparison with Verdi’s operas of the 1850s, is still appealing. None of his early works, premiered between December 1829 and 1839, were particularly successful. It was not until Il carnevale di Venezia (Naples, Nuovo, 20 May 1851) that he really became noticed. Elena di Tolosa (Naples, Fondo, 12 August 1852) followed. Finally, in 1854, he took the Italian operatic world by storm with Marco Visconti (Naples, San Carlo, 1854) based on the novel of the same title by Tommaso Grossi. L’assedio di Leida (La Scala, 1856) was his fourth straight triumph, while Jone (La

Esmeralda Athanasiu-Gardeev

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Esmeralda Athanasiu-Gardeev (also Esméralda Athanassiou-Gardéev, 1834–1917) was a Romanian pianist and composer. She studied piano and composition in Paris with Julius Schulhoff and composition in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein. She married a Russian general, who introduced her to European aristocracy. Athanasiu-Gardeev taught singing, lute and piano, and her compositions are influenced by Romanian folklore. She published a large number of salon compositions, often with French titles, and dedicated to members of the aristrocracy. Life Athanasiu-Gardeev was born in Galaţi, Moldavia, in 1834. Scott describes some of Athanasiu-Gardeev’s piano compositions as technically extremely difficult, and also says “her Rumänisches Charakterstück contains examples of rich romantic harmony, such as half-diminished sevenths and dominant ninths, and there is a Lisztian cadenza… but despite her composition lessons, there are plenty of examples of amateurish technique.” Works Many of Athanasiu-Gardeev’s compositions were based on Romanian folklore. She published a large number of salon compositions, often with French titles, and dedicated to members of the aristrocracy. Selected works include

Eugène Gigout

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Eugène Gigout (; 23 March 1844 – 9 December 1925) was a French organist and a composer, mostly of music for his own instrument. Biography Gigout was born in Nancy, and died in Paris. A pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns, he served as the organist of the French capital’s Saint-Augustin Church for 62 years. He became widely known as a teacher and his output as a composer was considerable. Renowned as an expert improviser, he also founded his own music school. His nephew by marriage was Léon Boëllmann, another distinguished French composer and organist. The 10 pièces pour orgue (composed 1890) include the Toccata in B minor, Gigout’s best-known creation, which turns up as a frequent encore at organ recitals. Also fairly often played, and to be found in the same collection, is a Scherzo in E major. Other notable pieces by Gigout are Grand chœur dialogué (1881), and Marche religieuse. Gigout’s works are now available on several commercial recordings. His pupils included his nephew Boëllmann, Victoria Cartier, André Fleury, Henri Gagnon, André Marchal, André Messager, and Albert Roussel. Selected compositions Organ * Six Pièces (1872, 1876, 1885) * Trois Morceaux (1888) * Cent Pièces brèves (1

Eugène Ketterer

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Eugène Ketterer (7 July 1831 – 18 December 1870) was a prolific French composer and pianist who was known for his numerous salon arrangements of contemporary opera arias. Career Born in Rouen, France, of an originally Alsatian family, Ketterer became a student at the Paris Conservatoire in his early youth, where he studied with Antoine François Marmontel. He won second prize for solfège in 1847 and a premier accessit in 1852. After his graduation until his death in Paris in 1870, he appeared constantly as a pianist winning wide repute for his fantasies and drawing-room pieces, of which he wrote a large number, but only a few of which are still in the repertoire. The list of Ketterer’s works gives an excellent overview on the world of opera in France at the time, as many of these works are transcriptions of popular opera arias, many still famous today. Many of Ketterer’s transcriptions were subsequently arranged for piano 4-hands by other arrangers like Joseph Rummel (1818–1880) or Édouard Mangin. “Les Étoiles” is a collection of 18 (later 19) such arrangements (1875). Evaluation Hervé Lacombe classifies Ketterer among the authors of what he calls derivative products, referring to a

Eugène Louis-Marie Jancourt

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Eugène Louis-Marie Jancourt (15 December 1815 – 29 January 1901) was a French bassoonist, composer, and pedagogue. A virtuoso bassoonist and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Jancourt is mostly known for his method books and the system innovations he made to the “Buffet” style bassoon. He, along with his contemporary and fellow bassoonist Julius Weissenborn, is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important bassoonists of the 19th century. Biography and playing career Jancourt was born in Château-Thierry, France on December 15, 1815. He grew up surrounded by music and began formally studying flute at age eight. Throughout his childhood he also learned violin and clarinet before switching to the bassoon because he was “impressed by the timbre and character” of the instrument. He proved to be very capable at the instrument and was soon accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nineteen. His teacher, François René Gebauer, gave Jancourt one of his own bassoons after he saw the terrible condition that Jancourt’s bassoon was in. Afterwards, he went on to win the Conservatoire competition in only his second year. Once he graduated in 1837, Jancourt free-lanced in

Fabio Campana

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Fabio Campana (14 January 1819 – 2 February 1882) was an Italian composer, opera director, conductor, and singing teacher who composed eight operas which premiered between 1838 and 1869. He was born in Livorno, the city where his first two operas premiered, but in the early 1850s he settled in London. There he opened a famous singing school, conducted concerts, and continued his reputation as a prolific and popular composer of art songs and concert arias. It was first performed on 14 August 1838 at the Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno, with Verdi’s future wife Giuseppina Strepponi in the title role. The opera was warmly received as was his next opera Giulio d’Este which premiered at the same theatre in 1841. Campana also directed several operas at the theatre, including Mercadante’s Il giuramento (1839), Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (1840), Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto (1840), and Bellini’s Il pirata (1840). In 1850 Campana had gone to Paris, armed with a letter of recommendation from Rossini to seek a position at the Théâtre des Italiens which at that time was run by Benjamin Lumley. The first of his “Grand Matinee Musicale” concerts took place in 1854 under the patronag

Fanny Arthur Robinson

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Fanny Arthur Robinson (September 1831 – 31 October 1879) was an English pianist, music educator and composer who spent most of her career in Dublin, Ireland. Biography Fanny Robinson was born in Southampton and studied the piano in London with William Sterndale Bennett and Sigismund Thalberg. She performed in Dublin in February 1849 where she met her future husband Joseph Robinson, conductor, composer and chorister at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They married on 17 July 1849. She appeared as a pianist in London and Paris, and in 1856 made her performing debut in Ireland. She took a teaching position at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in the same year. She remained active as pianist and composer until her early death in Dublin in 1879. Robinson was one of the few female composers of her time whose music was published and performed. Her cantata God is Love was her most frequently performed work during her lifetime; occasionally, excerpts were performed like anthems in the Dublin cathedrals. Her piano music is typical for the Victorian music of her time: very melodic, simple in its harmonic design, yet attractive and well-written for her instrument. Typically of Victorian times, however,

Fanny Hünerwadel

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Fanny Hünerwadel (26 January 1826 – 27 April 1854) was a Swiss pianist, singer and composer. She sang and performed in Zurich, Paris and London, but died of typhus at the age of 28. She wrote seven piano songs, some of which were published after her death. Life Hünerwadel was a native of Lenzburg where she was born on 26 January 1826, She made her debut as a pianist in 1842 at Lenzburg. In 1853 as part of her training, she traveled to Florence and Rome. In Florence, she took singing lessons with Romani. In Rome in 1853 she was guest of artists and families Corrodi Imhof and took lessons in singing teacher Parisotti. Hünerwadel died of typhus on 27 April 1854 in Rome at the age of 28. Liszt’s composition “à Fanny H.” is dedicated to Hünerwadel. Discography *MGB CD 6153: “Richard Wagner and his composer friends in Zurich”. Songs “Morning Song” and “Spring” by Fanny Hünerwadel. References Further reading In archives: * Peter Mieg-Stiftung in Lenzburg (Teilnachlass) * Introduction, Variations & Rondo, Klavierkomposition: im FMF (Frauen Musik Forum) in Bern. Other: * Biographisches Lexikon des Aargaus, 1803–1957, (1958): p. 371 f. * Répertoire international des sources musicales / Inter

Faustina Hasse Hodges

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Faustina Hasse Hodges (7 August 1822 – 4 February 1895) was an English-American organist and composer. Life and work She was born in Malmesbury, England, in 1822, as one of four children born to the organist and composer Edward Hodges. All of the children became organists. Edward Hodges emigrated to New York in 1838 and Faustina joined him there in 1841 at the age of 19. Selected musical works Selected compositions include: *L’Amicizia (Friendship) *Tantum Ergo Opus 65, No. 2 *A psalm of life (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) *Dreams: a reverie (Text: H.C.L.) *Robin Adair *The dreary day (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) *The holy dead (Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow after Ernst Stockmann) *The rose bush (Text: W. W. Caldwell) Selected written works * Hodges, F. H. (1896). Edward Hodges: Doctor in Music of Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge; Organist… Bristol, England, 1819–1838; Organist and Director in Trinity Parish, New York, 1839–1859. GP Putnam’s sons. References External links * *Finding Aid (PDF) to the Hodges Papers at the Library of Congress

Federico Chueca

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Pío Estanislao Federico Chueca y Robres (5 May 1846 – 20 June 1908) was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas and author of La gran vía along with Joaquín Valverde Durán in 1886. He was one of the most prominent figures of the género chico. Career Born in Madrid, Chueca entered the conservatory at eight years old, but his family later obligated him to abandon music to study medicine. He was arrested in 1866 as a participant in the student demonstrations against the Narváez government. While he spent three days in the prison of San Francisco in Madrid, he composed several waltzes that he entitled Lamentos de un preso (“Lamentations of a Prisoner”). Later, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri helped orchestrate and direct the works, and their success helped Chueca leave medicine and devote himself once more to music. He worked as a pianist and directed the orchestra of the Teatro Variedades. He is considered a self-taught musician. In fact, he was more schooled in the sciences than in music, however Chueca had an intuitive talent and grace with melody and rhythm that produced many works. He worked with several collaborators like Barbieri, Tomás Bretón, and especially Valverde, in many of his works. W

Felicia Tuczek

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Felicia Johanna Tuczek (September 1849 – 7 January 1905) was a composer and pianist who is best remembered today for her String Quartet in f minor. Her birthplace is variously given as Bohemia, Berlin, as an adult, she lived in Germany. Tuczek was born into a musical family. Her grandfather was composer and educator Franz Tuczek (1782 – 1850). Her aunt was the singer Leopoldine Tuczek. Her sister, Clara, also a singer, married composer and conductor Max Bruch. Felicia Tuczek studied with Clara Schumann, then worked as a concert pianist, composer, and piano teacher. One of her piano students was the German paper manufacturer and cultural benefactor Maria Zanders. Her string quartet was published by Steingraeber Verlag in 1904 and premiered in Berlin. References

Félicien David

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Félicien-César David (13 April 1810 – 29 August 1876) was a French composer. Biography Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began to study music at the age of five under his father, whose death when the boy was six left him an impoverished orphan. His good voice enabled him to study as a choirboy at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, which he left at the age of 15 with a sound knowledge of music, and a scholarship which enabled him to study literature at a Jesuit college. However, after three years, he abandoned these studies to pursue a musical career. He first obtained a position in the orchestra of the theatre at Aix. In 1829, he became maître de chapelle at Saint-Sauveur, but realised that to complete his musical education he needed to study at Paris. An allowance of 50 francs per month from a rich uncle made this possible. In Paris in 1830 he convinced Luigi Cherubini, the director of the Conservatoire, to enroll him as a pupil: despite his reservations, Cherubini recognised the talent shown by David’s choral setting of Beatus vir. Despite the sudden withdrawal of his uncle’s subsidy, David’s studies, with Fétis and others, continued successfully. On leaving

Felicita Casella

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Felicita Casella née Lacombe, also Félicie (c. 1820 – after 1865) was a French-born Italian singer and composer. She married Italian cellist and composer Cesare Casella and moved with him to Porto. Her opera Haydée was performed in Porto in 1849 and again in a revised and improved version at the Teatro Dona Maria in Lisbon in 1853, where Casella sang in the principal role. Her next opera Cristoforo Colombo was performed in 1865 at the Théâtre Impérial in Nice. Some of her works were issued by Ricordi. Life Felicita Casella was born around 1820 as Félicie Lacombe. She was born at Bourges, and was the sister of French pianist and composer Louis Lacombe. She studied pianoforte and singing at the Paris Conservatoire. Before 1849, she married Italian cellist and composer Cesare Casella and moved with him to Porto. Her opera Haydée was a retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, with libretto by Luiz Felipe Leite. The opera was performed in Porto in 1849 and again at the Teatro Dona Maria in Lisbon in 1853, where Casella sang in the principal role. Cohen reports that only the Lisbon version, which had been revised and improved, was considered successful. She also composed roma

Felip Pedrell

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Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist. Life Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he also received most of his musical education from its chapel master Joan Nin i Serra (1804–1867). On 29 September 1867 he married Carmen Domingo, with whom he had one daughter, also named Carmen. In 1873 he went to Barcelona where he co-directed a zarzuela troupe and studied the guitar with José Brocá. As a guitarist, he became deeply influenced by Francisco Tárrega and dedicated several of his compositions to him (Impromptu, Floriada). By this time he had already written over 100 compositions, most of which salon music for piano, some songs, and works for the stage such as the opera L’último Abenzeraggio (first version: 1868), which was performed at the Teatro del Liceo in 1874. Between 1876 and 1880, Pedrell lived mainly in Italy and France: in Rome he discovered his musicological interest, and in Paris he worked mainly in composition, writing his song-cycle Orientales (words by Victor Hugo) and the symphonic poem Excelsior (1880). In February

Félix Battanchon

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Félix Battanchon (9 April 1814 – 1893) was a French cellist, composer, and one of the venerated teachers at the Paris Conservatory. Life He studied at the Conservatory with Olive Charlier Vaslin (1794–1889) and Louis Pierre Martin Norblin (1781–1854). In 1840 he entered the orchestra of the Grand Opéra. He applied for second teacher of cello in 1851. Little is known about his life until his death in Paris in 1893. Selected works Battanchon wrote some sixty compositions, mainly salon pieces and studies for cello. ;Orchestral * An-Ini-Goz, Fantaisie caractéristique sur des airs bretons in D minor for 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass, Op. 14 * Ronde des veilleurs de nuit for chamber orchestra, Op. 48 (1885) ;Concertante * Concerto No. 1 in E minor for cello and orchestra, Op. 20 * Caprice in E minor for cello and orchestra (or piano), Op. 28 ;Chamber music * 2 Mélodies for cello and piano, Op. 3 * Souvenir de la Sérénade de Beethoven for cello and piano, Op. 8 * Une Barcarolle et deux romances sans paroles for cello and piano, Op. 9 * 25 Préludes dédiés aux artistes for cello solo, Op. 10 * Une Sérénade et deux pensées fugitives for cello and piano, Op. 11 * Solo de Concert in

Felix Draeseke

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Felix August Bernhard Draeseke (7 October 1835 – 26 February 1913) was a composer of the “New German School” admiring Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, and much vocal and chamber music. Life Felix Draeseke was born in the Franconian ducal town of Coburg, Germany. He was attracted to music early in life and wrote his first composition at age 8. He encountered no opposition from his family when, in his mid-teens, he declared his intention of becoming a professional musician. A few years at the Leipzig Conservatory did not seem to benefit his development, but after one of the early performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin he was won to the camp of the New German School centered on Franz Liszt at Weimar, where he stayed from 1856 (arriving just after Joachim Raff’s departure) to 1861. In 1862 Draeseke left Germany and made his way to Switzerland, teaching in the Suisse Romande in the area around Lausanne. Upon his return to Germany in 1876, Draeseke chose Dresden as his place of residence. Though he continued having success in composition, it was only in 1884 that he received an official appointment to

Félix Le Couppey

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Félix Le Couppey (14 April 1811 – 4 July 1887) was a French music teacher, pianist and composer, among others, of a series of elementary études for piano students. One of his most famous pieces was called ‘Melody in C’ (from ‘A B C du piano’). Life Le Couppey was born in Paris. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Victor Dourlen. At the age of 17 he became assistant professor of harmony, receiving the first prize in pianoforte and harmony in 1825, and in pianoforte accompaniment in 1828. In 1837, he became professor of solfège, succeeding Henri Herz and Victor Dourlen in harmony and accompaniment in 1843. From 1854 to 1886, he taught piano and wrote a larger number of textbooks for the instrument such as École du méchanisme du piano, 24 Études primaries, and Cours de piano élémentaire et progressif. Among his pupils were the singer Édouard Batiste, the composer Émile Jonas and the pianists Mathilde Bernard-Laviolette, Cécile Chaminade, and Henri Verley. He died in Paris on 4 July 1887. Works *Cours de piano **A B C du piano **L’Alphabet **Le Progrès **L’Agilité **Le Style **La Difficulté *École du méchanisme du piano *L’Art du piano (50 études with annotations) *De l’enseigne

Felix Mendelssohn

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Childhood#

Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent city-state, in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, would be born. Mendelssohn’s father, the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, was the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, whose family was prominent in the German Jewish community. Until his baptism at age seven, Mendelssohn was brought up largely without religion. His mother, Lea Salomon, was a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent. The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise in fear of French reprisal for the Mendelssohn bank’s role in breaking Napoleon’s Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka – the best education possible. Fanny became a pianist well known in Berlin musical circles as a composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. But it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to pursue a career in music, so she remained an active but non-professional musician. Abraham was initially disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he was seriously dedicated. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at their home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, among them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn’s sister Rebecka would later marry). The musician Sarah Rothenburg has written of the household that “Europe came to their living room”.

Felix Otto Dessoff

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Felix Otto Dessoff (14 January 1835 – 28 October 1892) was a German conductor and composer. Biography Dessoff was born to a Jewish family in Leipzig; his father was a cloth merchant. His musical talent was recognized by Franz Liszt, who then advised his family on his musical training. As a student at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1851–54, Dessoff studied composition, piano and conducting with some of the foremost teachers of the day, including Ignaz Moscheles for piano and Moritz Hauptmann and Julius Rietz for composition. On November 16, 1853, a symphony of his was performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; the following day he met Johannes Brahms, with whom he formed a lasting friendship and artistic relationship. Dr Clemens Hellsberg, the president of the Vienna Philharmonic, specifies that during Dessoff’s tenure with that orchestra its “repertoire was consistently enlarged, important organizational principles (music archives, rules of procedure) were introduced and the orchestra moved to its third new home in which it still performs . At the beginning of the 1870/71 season it began playing in the newly built Goldener Saal in the Musikverein building in Vienna, which has pr

Ferdinand David (musician)

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Ferdinand Ernst Victor Carl David (; 19 June 181018 July 1873) was a German virtuoso violinist, composer and conductor. Biography Born in the same house in Hamburg where Felix Mendelssohn had been born the previous year, David returned to Dorpat to marry Liphardt’s daughter Sophie. In 1843 David became the first professor of violin (Violinlehrer) at the newly founded Leipziger Konservatorium für Musik. David worked closely with Mendelssohn, providing technical advice during the preparation of the latter’s Violin Concerto in E minor. He was also the soloist in the premiere of the work in 1845, and, with Clara Schumann, played the official premiere of Schumann’s first violin sonata in Leipzig in March 1852. After Mendelssohn’s sudden death, David was assigned Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, a duty he fulfilled 1841–1842 and 1852–1854. He died suddenly in 1873, aged 63, while on a mountain excursion with his children, near Klosters in the Graubünden (Grisons) area of Switzerland. Compositions David’s own compositions number about 50 opuses. They include 12 “theme and variations” pieces for violin and orchestra, five violin concertos, a string sextet, concertinos for violin,

Ferdinand Hiller

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Ferdinand (von) Hiller (24 October 1811 – 11 May 1885) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, writer and music director. Biography Ferdinand Hiller was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, where his father Justus (originally Isaac Hildesheim, a name that he changed late in the 18th century to conceal his Jewish origins) was a merchant in English textiles – a business eventually continued by Ferdinand’s brother Joseph. Hiller’s talent was discovered early and he was taught piano by the leading Frankfurt musician Alois Schmitt, violin by Jörg Hofmann, and harmony and counterpoint by Georg Jacob Vollweiler; at 10 he performed a Mozart concerto in public; and two years later, he produced his first composition. In 1822, the 13-year-old Felix Mendelssohn entered his life. The Mendelssohn family was at that time staying briefly in Frankfurt and the young Hiller visited them where he was immensely impressed by the playing of Felix (and even more so by that of his sister Fanny). When their acquaintance was renewed in 1825 the two boys found an immediate close friendship, which was to last until 1843. Hiller tactfully describes their falling out as arising from “social,

Ferdinand Laub

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Ferdinand Laub (19 January 1832 – 17 March 1875) was a Czech violinist and composer. Life and career Laub was born in Prague from a German Bohemian family which had assimilated into the ethnic Czech community. His father Erasmus (1794–1865) arranged for Ferdinand’s first public appearance at age six. His first solo concert was at age ten in the Estates Theatre (a theater in Prague). From 1843 to 1846, he studied at the Prague Conservatory. He began his adult career as a virtuoso in Vienna, at the imperial court. In 1850, he traveled across Europe with a series of exhibitions. He stayed for a longer time in Weimar and Berlin (1855–62 as professor at the Stern Conservatory). From 1866 to 1874 he was professor of violin at the Moscow Conservatory, where his many notable students included Stanisław Barcewicz. Laub was a well-admired violinist, winning awards all over Europe; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky called him “the best violinist of our time”. He was the first violinist in the premiere performances of both Tchaikovsky’s First and Second String Quartets, and the posthumous dedicatee of the Third of 1876. In January 1868, during Hector Berlioz’s second trip to Moscow, Laub performed the

Ferdinand Manns

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Ferdinand Manns (August 27 1844, in Witzenhausen – 26 July 1922, in Oldenburg) was a German composer and conductor as well as a court music director in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Life Manns was the son of a Witzenhausen customs official and received piano lessons in his early youth and, after his family moved to Kassel, violin lessons when he was about ten. In addition, he trained in compositional techniques. From the age of 17 he was active as a violinist in several orchestras, with his most prominent being the Bremen Theater Orchestra starting in 1866. He composed numerous pieces of stage music for the . Furthermore, Manns wrote three symphonies in Bremen, of which the second symphony in A major was premiered in Oldenburg on April 22, 1887, under his direction. Manns became known in his own time through a wealth of other orchestral and chamber music works. In 1888, he was appointed as the concertmaster in the Oldenburg Court Orchestra. This gave him an important advantage when the director of the court orchestra, court conductor Albert Dietrich, retired for health reasons in 1891. Manns was able to prevail in the subsequent application process against strong competition, such

Ferdinand Möhring

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Ferdinand Möhring (18 January 1816 – 1 May 1887) was a German composer, poet, conductor and organist. Personal life Möhring was born in Alt Ruppin as the son of the master carpenter Johann Friedrich Möhring and spent his childhood and youth in Neuruppin, where he attended the Gymnasium. In 1857 he married Hedwig Schulz, the daughter of a painter. and from 1873 he lived as a freelance artist. Möhring died in 1887 in Wiesbaden at the age of 71, where he found his final resting place at the Nordfriedhof. Career in music In 1830, he entered the trade school in Berlin, where he completed a Baumeister apprenticeship at his father’s express wish. He broke off this apprenticeship and joined the Royal Music Institute of Berlin. His first motet was performed in 1835. His striving for an all-round musical education led him to join the music department of the Academy of Arts, where he studied from 1837 to 1840. There, he mainly composed instrumental music, including his Symphony in B flat major, which was premiered by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the Gewandhaus in 1838. On 26 January 1840, he gave his final concert together with a fellow student in the hall of the Berlin Singakademie. He the

Ferdinand Praeger

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Ferdinand Praeger (22 January 1815 – 2 September 1891) (aka Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger) was a composer, music teacher, pianist and writer. He is now best known for his controversial biography of Richard Wagner, Wagner As I Knew Him, published in 1892 after Praeger’s death. Life Praeger was born in Leipzig, to Jewish parents, the Dutch-Jewish violinist, composer and conductor Heinrich (Hijman Chaim Aron) Aloys Praeger (Amsterdam 1783 – Magdeburg 1854) and his English-Jewish wife Elizabeth (Wilhelmina), née Davis or Davison (b. 1788). Heinrich Praeger was a director of opera in Leipzig until 1828, and later at Hanover and Magdeburg. Praeger studied the cello as a child but on the advice of Hummel took up the piano. In 1831 he moved to The Hague and in 1834 went on to London, which thereafter became his home. From 1842 onwards he was the British correspondent of the Leipzig Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, the journal founded by Robert Schumann. In England he continued as a teacher and a composer, marrying his French wife Léonie in about 1850. His many compositions included piano music, chamber music, and orchestral works (his overture Abellino was conducted by Hector Berlioz in L

Ferdinand Thieriot

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Ferdinand Thieriot (April 7, 1838 – July 31, 1919) was a German composer of Romantic music and a cellist. Life and career Thieriot was born in Hamburg. He was a pupil of Eduard Marxsen in Altona and belonged to the circle of musicians around Johannes Brahms, who was also a pupil of Marxsen. Later, Thieriot was a pupil of Josef Rheinberger in Munich. A close, friendly relationship connected him with his teachers all his life. Thieriot was married to the Else Berens, the daughter of publisher Ernst Berens of Hamburg. The marriage remained childless. He worked as a music teacher and musical director in Hamburg, Ansbach, Leipzig (1867) and Glogau (1868–1870). Later Brahms recommended Thieriot for the position of Artistic Director of the Styrian Music Association in Graz (1870–1885). The composer always received high praise in concert reviews: " … and met with a warm and friendly reception by the audience and deservedly so. … Excellent work, clarity and good taste regarding the instrumentation; employment of dignified motives full of character … Enrichment of the concert repertoire". There were performances of his works in concerts at the Hamburg Philharmonic and Singing Academy as well

Ferdinando de Cristofaro

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Ferdinando de Cristofaro (1846 – 18 April 1890) was one of the most celebrated mandolin virtuosi of the late 19th Century. He was also a classical pianist, teacher, author and composer, who performed at the chief courts of Europe, and received the royal appointment of mandolinist to the King of Italy. Cristofaro was born in Naples. He received his musical education in the Conservatory of Naples, devoting himself to the study of the piano. He was beaming a virtuoso on that instrument too, and would have outdone his achievements as a mandolinist. Cristofaro was entirely self-taught on the mandolin, and he soon distinguished himself by his performances on this instrument in Italy. To the Neapolitans, he introduced a new and completely advanced method of playing—accustomed as they were to hearing the instrument in the hands of strolling players for accompanying popular songs. The classical compositions, executed by Cristofaro, caused unbounded enthusiasm, astonishment, and admiration. His fame spread rapidly throughout Italy, and after appearing with success in all the important cities, he was induced to visit Paris. He arrived Paris in 1882, where he was immediately recognised as the

Ferenc Erkel

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Ferenc Erkel ( , ; November 7, 1810 – June 15, 1893) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. He was the father of Hungarian grand opera, written mainly on historical themes, which are still often performed in Hungary. He also composed the music of “Himnusz”, the national anthem of Hungary, which was adopted in 1844. He died in Budapest. Biography Erkel was born in Nyíregyháza to an originally Danube Swabian Erkel family, a son of Joseph Erkel who was a musician. His mother was the Hungarian Klára Ruttkay. The libretti of his first three operas were written by Béni Egressy. Beside his operas, for which he is best known, he wrote pieces for piano and chorus, and a majestic Festival Overture. He acquainted Hector Berlioz with the tune of the Rákóczi March, which Berlioz used in The Damnation of Faust. He headed the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra (founded in 1853). He was also the director and piano teacher of the Hungarian Academy of Music until 1886. The Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest was opened in 1884, of which he was the musical director. In 1839, he married Adél Adlers. Four of his sons participated in the composing of his later operas:Nyíregyháza (July 4, 1842, P

Fermín María Álvarez

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Fermín María Álvarez (Zaragoza, 1833 – Barcelona, 1898) was a Spanish lawyer, composer, and amateur pianist from the region of Aragon. He is famous for his compositions of música de cámara, or chamber music–especially for solo piano and for voice and piano–as well as for the salon gatherings he held, particularly on the Calle de Fuencarral, Madrid. He concentrated mainly on salon songs, which were often performed along with zarzuela excerpts by other composers. Biography Although he was born in Zaragoza, his family moved to Palamós (Gerona) when he was a boy. There, he began regular musical training. At one point, he took a trip to Cuba, where he was able to meet musicians like Nicolás Ruiz Espadero and Teresa Carreño. After his trip to Cuba, Álvarez moved and settled down in Madrid, where he married aristocrat and skilled amateur singer Eulalia Goicoerrotea. From the moment he settled in the Spanish capital, he was dedicated to the promotion of young artists. He would offer large sums of money to this end. In a similar way he contributed to the monetization of the musical life of Madrid, holding philharmonic salon-like gatherings that became famous at the time. Álvarez’s salons

Fidelis Zitterbart

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Fidelis Zitterbart Jr. (April 8, 1845 – August 30, 1915) was an American composer. Life and works Zitterbart was born in Pittsburgh in 1845. His father, Fidelis Zitterbart Sr. had emigrated from Austria, and was a career violinist and conductor, who taught his son music from an early age. At the age of 16 the young Zitterbart went abroad to Dresden, where he studied with Francois Schubert and Julius Rühlmann, to complete his musical studies there. Upon his return to the US, he worked as a violinist and violist in NY until 1873 when he returned to Pittsburgh and took a teaching position at the Andrew Williams American Conservatory of Music until the closure of the Conservatory compelled him to start his own music school, the Zitterbart Conservatory. In 1868 he married Catherine Riedl of Worcester, MA (1850–1913) and together they had 4 children. His father, who had composed as well, tore up his compositions upon seeing that the compositions of his son outshone his own. Zitterbart composed more than a thousand compositions, nearly all of them remained unpublished during his lifetime. In 1930, his son Ralph Zitterbart donated the manuscripts to the University of Pittsburgh following s

Filippo Capocci

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Filippo Capocci (11 May 1840 – 25 July 1911) was an Italian organist and composer. Biography Born in Rome, Capocci was trained in organ and harmony by his father Gaetano (1811-1898) and in 1861 received a piano diploma from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1875, he was appointed organist of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. In 1898, he took over from his father as choirmaster at the Basilica. He also served in the Roman churches of St. Ignatius and St. Mary of Montserrat. Unlike his father, Filippo Capocci adhered to nineteenth-century musical aesthetics, avoiding the theatrical style, and dedicated himself to a style of performance and composition similar to that of the French organist Alexandre Guilmant. His opportunity for wider recognition came in 1881 with the inaugural concert for the new Merklin organ at the Church of St. Louis of France. By this time, thanks to his friendship with Guilmant, the world’s largest churches opened their doors to Capocci. Capocci was also one of the three foreign organists who performed in a series of organ concerts using the Cavaille-Coll organ at Trocadero during the 1889 Paris World Fair. In 1890, his performance with Guilmant an

Florence Ashton Marshall

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Florence Ashton Marshall (Mrs Julian Marshall) née Thomas (30 March 1843 – 5 March 1922) was an English composer, conductor and author. Life She was born on 30 March 1843 in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Vicar Canon Thomas of All Hallows Barking by the Tower. Her sisters were the novelist Bertha Thomas (author of The Violin Player, 1880) and the clarinettist Frances Thomas (after 1843-1925). She studied (from the age of 30) at the Royal Academy of Music with William Sterndale Bennett, John Goss and G.A. Macfarren. Thomas married the businessman, writer, and music collector Julian Marshall on 7 October 1864 and had three daughters. She contributed to Grove’s Dictionary, although to a lesser degree than her husband, and published a set of 70 Solfège exercises in 1885. Her most successful composition, with a libretto by her sister Bertha, was the operetta Prince Sprite for treble voices, written in 1891 while she was Head of Music at Dulwich School and published by Novello. She later went on to help found a music school, the Hampstead Conservatoire. She was elected an associate of the Philharmonic Society and conducted the South Hampstead Orchestra for over 30 years. The orchestra was

Florence Everilda Goodeve

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Florence Everilda Goodeve (24 May 1848 – 15 January 1916) was an English composer and lyricist, often credited as Mrs Arthur Goodeve. Early and personal life She was born Florence Everilda Knowlys in Heysham, Lancashire. Her father was nephew of Newman Knowlys and her mother was sister of Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood. She was the youngest of four sons and six daughters, one of whom died in infancy. wearing “a simple tulle veil” and attended by seventeen bridesmaids. She accompanied her husband to Calcutta, where he was an advocate in the High Court; they had five children. Music and art Florence evinced a musical talent at an early age and at the age of fourteen she wrote her “Glockenspiel Galop” and several songs. It was heard by Virginia Gabriel who persuaded her to have it published. Altogether she published about 70 songs. Some of her most popular were, “Ah, Well-a-Day,” “The Jovial Beggar,” and “Fiddle and I.” Her later compositions included “Song of the Rivers,” “In the Silver Years,” “I Would Not Love You Less,” “Row, Row,” a boating song, “If Thou Must Love Me,” and “The King’s Wooing,” a baritone song, written for Robert Watkin-Mills. Besides being a musician, Goodeve was an am

Florian Hermann

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Florian Hermann (18221892, , name is also spelled as Florian Herman, Florian German, Florjan Herman) was a composer of German-Polish origin active in the Russian Empire. Although he authored many works, Hermann is primarily notable as an author of the melody used in the music for the well-known Russian song “Dark eyes” (the composer wrote his opus as “Valse hommage”, Op. 21). Very little is known about Hermann, Russian publications occasionally describe him as a French or Austrian composer. Hermann’s work as a composer spans 1870s1890s, according to the list available in a catalog by A. Gutheil (his company was later acquired by Éditions Russes de Musique), the earliest known publications are from A. Büttner in St. Petersburg. Hermann’s other best-known composition is “Rêverie russe, Op. 2”. “Valse hommage” became famous as “Dark Eyes” after an arrangement in the Gypsy style by S. Gerdal (1884); the popular rendition belongs to Adalgiso Ferraris (ca. 1910). References Sources * *

Frances Allitsen

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Mary Frances Allitsen (30 December 1848 – 1 October 1912), born Mary Frances Bumpus was an English composer. One of her most popular songs is a setting of Psalm 27, “The Lord is My Light”. Early life Mary Frances Bumpus was born on Oxford Street in London, daughter of bookseller John Bumpus (1817/8-1880) and Emma Louisa (1824/5-1892), née Barton. As a child she was far more inclined to literature than to music; her parents were opposed to a woman entering the musical profession. The family moved to a small village where Frances felt isolated and lonely. She said of that time, “It was impossible to go out walking of an afternoon without it being imputed that I was going to see the young men come in on the train, where the chief subject of conversation was garments, and the most extravagant excitement sandwich parties.” Her family did not support her interest in music and as a result she was discouraged from seeking a formal education in the subject. Her voice failed, however, and she ended her singing career and turned to voice coaching and composing. She took some of her compositions to Thomas Henry Weist Hill, principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and he expressed his regret

Francesco Berger

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Francesco Berger (10 June 1834 – 26 April 1933) was a pianist and composer. He was a piano teacher and a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. He is mostly remembered as the honorary secretary of the Philharmonic Society for 27 years. Life and career Berger was born in London on 10 June 1834 to Italian parents, but received British nationality as his father was a naturalized Briton. In 1848 he travelled to Trieste from where his father had originated. He wrote an opera (Il lazzarone, ossia La fortuna vien dormendo ) which was performed there when he was seventeen. He received much of his musical education in Germany, where he was taught by Moscheles in a strictly classical tradition, a style of play from which Chopin was later to be the first to break free of. He returned to England in 1855, and in 1864 he married one of the most renowned contraltos of the day, Annie Lascelles. Berger became a professor of music at the Royal Academy of Music and also taught at the Guildhall School. He composed many pieces of music over a long and industrious life. He became a great friend of Charles Dickens and frequently visited him at his house, Gads Hill Place. He wrote a piano primer, Musica

Francis Boott (composer)

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Francis Boott (June 24, 1813 in Boston, Massachusetts – March 1, 1904 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) and at Round Hill School, followed by Harvard College from which he graduated in 1831. and continued to compose music. He died on 1 March 1904 at the age of 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Boott bequeathed $10,000 to Harvard University as a prize fund for the best 4-part vocal work written by a Harvard student. Music Boott’s first six songs appeared in 1846 under the pen name of Telford; Upton described them as “quite undistinguished”. In 1857 eight songs were published, followed by many individual songs in the following years. Boott composed at least 140 songs during his long life, as well as a handful of duets, choral works, part-songs, and instrumental works. He also composed hymns for church services, many of which were included in the hymnal for King’s Chapel in Boston. his choices of texts were sophisticated, embracing the literary world of his time. In 1857 John Sullivan Dwight wrote that his songs are “not strikingly original, but graceful and facile, much to be preferred to the popular sweetish, sentimental type”. Musical compositions Songs for voice and piano : under the pse

Francis Chassaigne

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Francis Chassaigne (also known as Francisque Chassaigne) (30 October 1847 – 21 December 1922) was a Belgian-born French composer of operettas, songs, and numerous pieces of dance music for piano. The English-language versions of his operettas, Le droit d’aînesse (1883) and Les noces improvisées (1886) became very popular in Britain and the United States. Chassaigne was married to the Swiss-born operetta singer Louise Roland. Biography Born Désiré-François Chassaigne in Brussels in 1847, Chassaigne studied music there before settling in Paris. According to Aronson’s memoirs, Chaissaigne had planned to compose a further operetta for him, based on Louis XIV at Versailles, but this was never completed. Chassaigne was married to the Swiss-born operetta and vaudeville singer Louise Roland who appeared frequently at the Théâtre des Variétés. Both she and Chassaigne were members of Les Hydropathes, a famous Parisian literary club founded by the French writer Émile Goudeau, many of whose members where singers and stage artists. The daughter of a theatre director, Roland was born in 1851 and began performing at the age of five. She created a number of roles in the operettas of the day and wa

Francis Edward Bache

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Francis Edward Bache (; 14 September 183324 August 1858) was an English organist and composer. Born at Birmingham as the eldest of seven children of Samuel Bache, a well-known Unitarian minister, he studied with James Stimpson, Birmingham City Organist, and with violinist Alfred Mellon while being educated at his father’s school. He played the violin in the 1846 Birmingham festival, and in 1849 went to London as a private composition student for three years under William Sterndale Bennett In October 1850 Bache became organist of All Saints, Gordon Square. While continuing his studies with Sterndale Bennett, Bache composed concertos, overtures, two operettas, a string quartet and a piano trio along with many piano pieces. He made his debut as a concert performer at Keighley, Yorkshire on 21 January 1851. When he played the Allegro of an unpublished piano concerto of his own in June 1852, Henry Chorley remarked, “We have met with no Englishman for whom we have so long been waiting than Mr. Bache.” In November 1851 Bache went to live with Mellon, who was then living in London, and in 1852 was given a contract by Addison, Hollier and Lucas to write light piano pieces; he turned out the

Francis Korbay

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Francis Alexander Korbay (May 8, 1846 – March 9, 1913) was a Hungarian musician. Life He was born in Pest His father was a landowner and his mother was a descendant of the poet István Gyöngyösi. His father joined the revolutionary party, and suffered imprisonment and the forfeiture of his estates. The youth turned his attention to music, studying piano with Moronyi and composition with Robert Volkmann. At nineteen, he found himself in possession of a robust tenor voice. He studied voice with Gustave-Hippolyte Roger, He died in London, which for many years was his home, March 9, 1913. References Sources * *bach-cantatas.com External links *Francis Alexander Korbay at the LiederNet Archive

Francisco Asenjo Barbieri

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Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (August 3, 1823 - February 19, 1894) was a Spanish clarinetist, composer, and musicologist. Barbieri was a well-known composer of zarzuelas. He has been referred to as the “most important of all nineteenth-century composers" of the genre. Some of his most well known works in the genre include El barberillo de Lavapiés, Jugar con fuego, and Pan y toros. Early life Asenjo Barbieri was born on August 3, 1823 in Madrid as Francisco Asenjo to his father José Asenjo, a cabinet runner, and his mother Petra Barbieri. His father died in the Spanish Civil War when he was young, so he was primarily raised by his mother and his maternal grandfather. He would later take on his mother’s last name of Barbieri. As a child, Barbieri would frequent the Teatro de la Cruz, the theater his grandfather managed. It was here that he was exposed to much of the music that would influence him in his later career. During this time, Barbieri was taught solfège by José Ordóñez Mayorito, a professor at his grandfather’s theater. Originally as a young teenager Barbieri considered being a physician, but avoided the career due to an aversion to examining cadavers. At the behest of his step

Francisco Salas

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Francisco Lleroa y Salas (12 March 1812 in Albaicín, Province of Granada – 21 June 1875 in Madrid) was a Spanish classical opera singer (bass-baritone), one of the crucial figures in the revival of the zarzuela genre. Biography Early years Francisco Salas was born in Albaicín during its siege by the French. His father died the same year he was born. Thus, the boy had to work hard from early age. A famous tenor Lorenzo Valencia from Madrid came to Granada to sing in some operas, especially those by Rossini. He became Salas’s first teacher and protector. In 1829 they went to Madrid, where the seventeen-year-old entered the choir of Teatro de la Cruz. There he studied with José Reart and tenor José Valero. In October 1831 Salas made his soloist debut substituting the bass protagonist in I fidanzati, ossia Il contestabile di Chester by Pacini, and had success. From this moment he left the choir to perform “partiquinos y suplementos”, and already in 1833 his name opened the playbill for the Le calife de Bagdad by Boieldieu. Around that time he met , one of the most important singers on the Spanish scene of the period. They married and had three children. At their recitals, apart from th

Francisco Salvador-Daniel

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Francisco Salvador-Daniel (Bourges 17 February 1831 - Paris 24 May 1871) was a French composer and ethnomusicologist of Spanish origin. Biography His father was a Spanish musician of Jewish origin who came to France as a refugee. After studies at the Paris Conservatory of Music, Francisco Salvador-Daniel became a violin teacher at Algiers in 1853. He transcribed and translated songs from North Africa, and adapted them for western instruments. After his return to Paris, he was music critic for La Lanterne, the satirical magazine of Henri Rochefort. During the Commune of Paris, he became director of the Conservatoire and was executed by the “Versaillais” royalists during the final “Semaine sanglante” (Bloody Week) of the Commune. Works * Musique et instruments de musique du Maghreb, La Boîte à documents, 1986 2-906164-00-3 * The Music and musical instruments of the Arab: with introduction on how to appreciate Arab music, by Francesco Salvador-Daniel, edited with notes, memoir, bibliography and thirty examples and illustrations, by Henry George Farmer, translation of : La musique arabe, ses rapports avec la musique grecque et le chant grégorien, Londres, W. Reeves, 1914 * La musique a

Franco Faccio

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Francesco (Franco) Antonio Faccio (8 March 1840 – 21 July 1891) was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Verona, he studied music at the Milan Conservatory from 1855 where he was a pupil of Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti and, as scholar William Ashbrook notes, “where he struck up a lifelong friendship with Arrigo Boito, two years his junior” and with whom he was to collaborate in many ways. Initially, he became known as the composer of two operas and, in his years (1871–1889) as music director of the Teatro alla Scala opera house, Faccio became known as a conductor of Verdi’s music at La Scala, in different parts of Italy, and abroad. Professional career After finishing his studies he began his career as a composer. His first collaboration with Boito was on a patriotic cantata, Il quattro giugno in 1860 when Boito also wrote some of the music as well as the text, Faccio’s second opera, Amleto, one of the many operas based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was written for Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice and was given its première on 30 May 1865. The cast included some of the finest singers of the day. As Ashbrook notes, while its “innovatory libretto” was written by Boito, there was "

François Anatole Laurent de Rillé

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François Anatole Laurent de Rillé (24 November 1828 – 26 August 1915), was a French composer, writer and musical theorist. De Rillé composed a number of operettas and sacred music works, but his name is more frequently associated with the so-called “Orphéonist” movement, which had also Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod among its members, which sought to increase the knowledge of music among popular classes by way of setting up male choir associations. The name comes from the first of these associations, founded in Paris, who named itself “Orphéon” (from Orpheus). Thanks to the efforts of De Rillé, who not only wrote many music pieces for male choir and arranged pieces of widely known composers such as Verdi, Donizetti and Rossini but also books on how to organise a choir and train its members, the popularity of “orphéoniste” societies spread throughout France between the late 1800s and early 1900s, and as well in the United Kingdom, where A.J. Foxwell wrote English lyrics for many of his pieces. Though most of the music composed by De Rillé is almost forgotten nowadays, his choral works, and particularly “Les Ruines de Gaza (The Destruction of Gaza)” and “Les Martyres aux Arènes” (

François Bazin (composer)

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François Emmanuel Joseph Bazin () (4 September 18162 July 1878) was a well-known French opera composer active during the nineteenth century. Biography Born in Marseille, Bazin was a student of Daniel Auber at the Conservatoire de Paris. After completing his education there and returning from his trip to Italy in 1844, Bazin later taught harmony at the Conservatoire. He was succeeded by his own student Émile Durand. At age 23, Bazin’s cantata Loyse de Montfort won the 1840 Prix de Rome. , which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, is his best-known composition, and continued to be staged well into the 20th century. Although his many light operas were popular during his lifetime, they are rarely staged today. A handful of arias are still occasionally performed, including “Je pense à vous” from Maître Pathelin, recorded by Roberto Alagna. Bazin died at age 61 in Paris. Works Opéras comiques *Le Trompette de Monsieur le Prince (Joubert and Mélesville), 1846 *Le Malheur d’être jolie (Desnoyers), 1847 *La Nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre (Mélesville and M. Masson), 1849 * (Sauvage), 1852 *Maître Pathelin (de Leuven and Langlé), 1856 *Les Désespérés (de Leuven and Langlé), 1858 *Marianne (A

François-Auguste Gevaert

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François-Auguste Gevaert (31 July 1828 – 24 December 1908) was a Belgian musicologist and composer. Life Gevaert was born in Huise, near Oudenaarde, to an upper class family. His father was a bakery owner, and he was intended for the same profession, but better counsels prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Ghent Conservatory, where he studied under Édouard de Sommere and Martin-Joseph Mengal. Then he was appointed organist of the Jesuit church in that city. Soon Gevaert’s compositions attracted attention, and he won the Belgian Prix de Rome which entitled him to two years’ travel. The journey was postponed during the production of his first opera and other works. He finally embarked on it in 1849. After a short stay in Paris he went to Spain, * 1896: Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold. Selected works * Te Deum (1843) * Ouverture Flandre au lion (1848) * Fantasia sobre motivos españoles (1850) * Requiem (1853) * “Vers l’avenir” (1905) * Grand’ Messe de Noël Puer Natus est Nobis (1907) * Quartet for clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano Operas * Georgette, ou le moulin de Fontenoy (1853) * Le billet de Marguerite (1854) * Les lavandières de Santarem

František Kmoch

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František Kmoch (1 August 1848 – 30 April 1912) was a Czech composer and conductor. Life and career František Kmoch was born in Zásmuky near Kolín, Bohemia. His father was a tailor and a clarinetist who performed folk music. As a child, František learned to play the violin, and by the age of 10 he was already beginning to compose small pieces. In 1868 he was studying at the Teachers College in Praha, and by 1869 he had become a teacher in Suchdol. In addition to his occupation as a teacher, he zealously performed in several ensembles, continued to develop himself as a conductor, and composed. In 1873 he was excluded from further assignment as an instructor, allegedly because he had neglected his teaching duties, preferring instead to appear with performing ensembles at balls. It has been suggested, however, that the dismissal was a political decision, since Kmoch did not conceal his sympathies for the Czech nationalistic athletic Sokol movement. In 1868 he became conductor of the Sokol Wind Orchestra in Kolín. During the 1873 Gymnastics Festival in Prague the Orchestra played a prominent role in the opening ceremony, and visitors who attended the event warmly received the wind orch

Frantz Jehin-Prume

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Frantz Jehin-Prume (18 April 1839 – 29 May 1899) was a Canadian violinist, composer, and music educator of Belgian birth. He began his career as a highly successful concert violinist in Europe. From 1865 on he lived and worked mainly in Montreal, Canada; becoming one of the most important 19th-century musical figures in Quebec. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1868. Early life and career in Europe Born François-Henri Jehin in Spa, he was from a family of musicians. Both of his grandfathers were organists and his uncle was the violinist François Prume; the latter of whom he studied under as a boy at the Liège Conservatory. He was a pupil of Hubert Léonard and François-Joseph Fétis at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. From 1852 to 1863 he had a highly successful career as a concert violinist throughout Europe and Russia; performing in the courts of several monarchs and with the great orchestras of the day. Early career in North America In 1864, Jehin-Prume came to Mexico at the invitation of Emperor Maximilian I. After performing for four months there in numerous concerts, he briefly toured to Brazil and Cuba. In May 1865 he came to New York City where he appeared in rec

Franz Abt

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Franz Wilhelm Abt (22 December 1819 – 31 March 1885) was a German composer and choral conductor. He composed roughly 3,000 individual works mostly in the area of vocal music. Several of his songs were at one time universally sung, and have obtained a more or less permanent place in the popular repertory. Abt was a renowned choral conductor, and he spent much of the last three decades of his life working as a guest conductor with choirs throughout Europe and in the United States. Biography Abt was born at Eilenburg in Prussian Saxony, and showed musical talent at an early age. His father was a clergyman and a talented pianist, and it is he who gave Franz his earliest instruction in music. Like his father, Abt was interested in both music and theology, and he followed both pursuits at the Thomasschule Leipzig and Leipzig University with the ultimate intention of becoming a member of the clergy. While in school, Abt became friends with Albert Lortzing, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann. Upon the death of his father in 1837, Abt abandoned his theological studies and decided to concentrate entirely on music. It is at this time that he began to compose and publish music, mostly work

Franz Bendel

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Franz Bendel (23 March 18333 July 1874) was a German Bohemian pianist, composer, and teacher. Bendel was born in Schönlinde, Bohemia, Austrian Empire. He was a student of Franz Liszt for five years in Weimar. From 1862, he lived in Berlin and taught at Theodor Kullak’s Music Academy, Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. He was also the author of over four hundred compositions, many of them for the piano, including one piano concerto. Bendel was a superb pianist who toured extensively until his death from typhoid fever in Boston while on an American tour. He was aged 41. Life Franz Bendel was a son of an elementary school teacher. After the first instruction from his father, he became a student of Josef Proksch. Through his teacher, who encouraged him very much, Bendel later went to Franz Liszt in Weimar, where he also met Wendelin Weißheimer. In 1848, Count Otto von Westphal hired Bendel as a house and music teacher. He held this office for 14 years. Bendel had already emerged a composer by 1885, when Proksch performed a mass by him in Prague. In 1862, Bendel settled in Berlin and became a lecturer at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. He lived and worked there until his death, only interrupte

Franz Doppler

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Albert Franz Doppler (16 October 182127 July 1883) was a flute virtuoso and a composer best known for his flute music. He also wrote one German and several Hungarian operas for Budapest, all produced with great success. His ballet music was popular during his lifetime. Life Doppler was born in Lemberg (Austrian Empire), now Lviv, Ukraine. From 1828 to 1831, he received flute lessons from his father, Joseph Doppler, who was an oboist, and made his debut as a flautist at the age of 13. He formed a flute duo with his brother Karl, four years younger, who mainly wrote songs and incidental music, and as a duo they caused quite a sensation throughout Europe. They toured and both became members of the orchestra of the German Theatre, Budapest, in 1838 and both moved to the Hungarian National Theatre in 1841. There, five of Franz’s operas were staged with success. Franz and Karl continued to make regular tours of Europe and helped found the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra in 1853. At the age of 18 Franz was the first flautist at the opera in Budapest, and he went on to be the first flautist and stand-in conductor and eventually chief conductor, of the Vienna Court Opera, as well as acquir

Franz Hitz

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Franz Hitz (17 July 1828 – 20 November 1891) was a Swiss pianist and composer who lived and worked in France. He was primarily known for his many piano compositions which were much in vogue as salon music in the latter half of the 19th century. Life and career Hitz was born in Aarau, Switzerland, but later settled in Honfleur, a port town in northwestern France. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire — piano with Pierre Zimmermann and Adolphe Laurent and harmony with Henri Reber — and began publishing compositions in his early 20s. One of his earliest published works was a quadrille, Les Chapeaux de chez nous (The hats from home). The frontispiece had an engraving by the artist Louis Alexandre Dubourg, a friend of Hitz and a fellow resident of Honfleur. Another early work was the patriotic anthem Retour de l’aigle (The return of the eagle) commemorating the return of Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to France. In addition to his numerous piano works, his other compositions included a mass with organ accompaniment and several stage works. In 1870 L’Orphéon published his elementary textbook for piano students, Questionnaire musical: Notions élémentaires. Franz Hitz died at Honfleur at

Franz Liszt

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Early life#

Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt (née Maria Anna Lager) and Adam Liszt on 22 October 1811, in the village of Doborján (now Raiding, Austria) in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was part of the Habsburg monarchy. Liszt’s father was a land steward in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy; a keen amateur musician, he played the piano, guitar and flute, and knew Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel personally. A renowned child prodigy, Franz began to improvise at the piano from before the age of five, and his father diligently encouraged his progress. Franz also found exposure to music through attending Mass, as well as travelling Romani bands that toured the Hungarian countryside. His first public concert was in Sopron in 1820 at the age of nine; its success led to further appearances in Pressburg and for Prince Nikolaus’ court in Eisenstadt. The publicity led to a group of wealthy sponsors offering to finance Franz’s musical education in Vienna. There, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. Czerny, already extremely busy, had only grudgingly agreed to hear Liszt play, and had initially refused to entertain the idea of regular lessons. Being so impressed by the initial audition, however, Czerny taught Liszt regularly, free of charge, for the next eighteen months, at which point he felt he had nothing more to teach. Liszt remained grateful to his former teacher, later dedicating to him the Transcendental Études on their 1830 republication. Liszt also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, the accomplished music director of the Viennese court who had previously taught Beethoven and Schubert. Like Czerny, Salieri was highly impressed by Liszt’s improvisation and sight-reading abilities. Liszt’s public debut in Vienna on 1 December 1822 was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and met Beethoven and Schubert. To build on his son’s success, Adam Liszt decided to take the family to Paris, the centre of the artistic world. At Liszt’s final Viennese concert on 13 April 1823, Beethoven was reputed to have walked onstage and kissed Liszt on the forehead, to signify a kind of artistic christening. There is debate, however, on the extent to which this story is apocryphal. The family briefly returned to Hungary, and Liszt played a concert in traditional Hungarian dress, in order to emphasise his roots, in May 1823. In 1824 a piece Liszt had written at the age of 11 – his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (S. 147) – appeared in of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein as his first published composition. This volume, commissioned by Anton Diabelli, includes 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers ( being taken up by Beethoven’s 33 variations on the same theme, which are now separately better known simply as his Diabelli Variations). Liszt was the youngest contributor to the project, described in it as “a boy of eleven years old”; Czerny was also a participant.

Franz Ries

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Franz Ries (7 April 1846 in Berlin – 20 June 1932 in Naumburg) was a Romantic German violinist and composer, son of Hubert Ries, the younger brother of Ferdinand Ries. He studied at the Paris Conservatory. He also worked in the publishing business. Career His talent formed under the direction of his father and in the Paris Conservatory under the violinist Joseph Massart, but after a short, brilliant career, he abandoned it suffering under a nerve problem, and settled in Dresden as a music retailer in 1875, where he still occasionally composed and performed on the violin. Then, from 1884 until his death, he lived as a co-owner of the company R. & Erler Berlin. Compositions *Lieder, Op.1 ** *Lieder, Op.3 ** *Lieder, Op.4 ** ** *String Quartet No.1 in D minor, Op.5 (publ. 1866) ** ** ** ** *(String Quartet No.2, Op.?) *6 Lieder, Op.6 *3 Characterstücke, for Violin and Piano, Op.7 *6 Lieder, Op.8 * Lieder, Op.10 ** *Lieder, Op.12 ** ** *Träumbilder (3 Klavierstücke), Op.13 *3 Zweistimmige Gesänge, Op.14 *3 Lieder, Op.16 (alto/baritone) *3 Lieder, Op.17 *4 Romances, for Violin and Piano, Op.20 (publ. 1860) ** ** ** ** *4 Lieder, Op.25 (publ. 1876) ** ** ** ** *Kriegslied, Lied, Op.? (te

Franz Strauss

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Franz Josef Strauss (26 February 1822 – 31 May 1905) was a German musician and composer. He was principal horn player of the Bavarian Court Opera for more than 40 years, a teacher at the Royal School of Music, Munich, a conductor, and accomplished performer on the guitar, clarinet and viola. Strauss was the father of the composer Richard Strauss, on whose early musical development he was a great influence, steering his son to the classical and away from modern styles. As a composer, Strauss senior is remembered for his works for the horn. They include a concerto and numerous smaller works. Life and career Strauss was born in Parkstein, Bavaria. His father, Johann Urban Strauss, was of unsteady character; his children were illegitimate and he left their upbringing to their mother, Maria Anna Kunigunde Walter. She was a member of a large and musical family, and her brother (Johann) Georg Walter undertook the boy’s musical education. Georg taught Strauss to play the clarinet, guitar and a range of brass instruments. At the age of nine, Strauss was taken on as a pupil and player by another uncle, Franz Michael Walter, a military bandmaster. In 1847, Strauss became a member of the orche

Franz von Gernerth

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Franz von Gernerth (born 14 December 1821 in Purkersdorf; died 11 November 1900 in Vienna) was an Austrian lawyer, composer and music writer. Life Franz Elder von Gernerth was born in Purkersdorf, and worked as a judge at the Higher Regional Court in Vienna after studying law first in Hungarian, from 1860 in the Austrian judicial service . As a writer he wrote contributions to the August 1840-42 published music journal “Orpheus” as well as song lyrics, as a composer he set to music in addition to his own especially those of his contemporaries. Gernerth is still known today for his text version of the waltz on the beautiful blue Danube. Since Josef Wey l’s original verses were strongly related to current events, the work was seldom performed in the choral version. As a member of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, to which Johann Strauss (Sohn) had dedicated this work, he wrote a new text in 1889, which now also took into account the title of the waltz and helped the work to a rebirth. The first performance with Gernerths words took place on 2 July 1890 during a summer Liedertafel of the association in Dreher Park in Meidling instead. In old age he suffered from increasing visual impair

Franz von Holstein

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Franz von Holstein (16 February 1826 – 22 May 1878) was a German composer. Life Born in Braunschweig, Holstein was the son of the Duchy of Brunswick colonel and Council of wars Werner von Holstein (1784–1857). Coming from the Cadet Corps, Holstein joined the as Second Leutnant on 6 October 1845 and took part in the First Schleswig War against Denmark in 1848/49. As Oberleutnant, his assignment as adjutant of the 2nd Landwehr Battalion followed from 18 March 1850, until Holstein finally took his leave on 11 March 1853. Already during his officer training, he composed the opera Zwei Nächte in Venedig as well as Lieder and ballads. In 1853, he came to Leipzig, where he studied counterpoint with Moritz Hauptmann and had piano lessons with Ignaz Moscheles. After stays in Rome, Berlin and Paris, he took over the direction of the Bach Society in Leipzig. In addition to three operas, he wrote two overtures, a cantata, chamber music works and piano pieces and had an outstanding reputation as a Lieder composer. Holstein died in Leipzig at the age of 52 and was buried in the Friedenspark (now Lapidarium Alter Johannisfriedhof). In this city, his wife Hedwig, daughter of the city councillor Ru

Franz von Suppé

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Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli (18 April 181921 May 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Croatia). A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas, including the first operetta to a German libretto. Some of them remain in the repertory, particularly in German-speaking countries, and he composed a substantial quantity of church music, but he is now chiefly known for his overtures, which remain popular in the concert hall and on record. Among the best-known are Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and . Life and career Suppé’s parents named him Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo when he was born on 18 April 1819 in Spalato, now Split, Dalmatia, Croatia. Suppé’s mother was born in Vienna. Other incorrect information is given in a 1905 biography of Suppé by Otto Keller, husband of one of the composer’s granddaughters, based on the unreliable recollections of Suppé’s widow. from where he supposedly visited Milan and met Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi and attended

Franz Wüllner

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Franz Wüllner (28 January 1832 – 7 September 1902) was a German composer and conductor. He led the premieres of Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, but was much criticized by Wagner himself, who greatly preferred the more celebrated conductors Hans von Bülow and Hermann Levi. Biography Wüllner was born in Münster and studied in his native place, and at Frankfurt, Berlin, Brussels, and Munich. Among his teachers was Anton Schindler, who styled himself Beethoven’s amanuensis carrying on the true traditions of the master’s style, a claim disputed by Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny. In 1856, Wüllner became instructor in piano at the Munich Conservatory. He held the position of town musical director at Aix-la-Chapelle from 1858 to 1864. In 1867, he became director of the choral classes in the reorganized School of Music at Munich and wrote for them Chorübungen der Münchener Musikschule, text of score reading and singing (Solfege). He succeeded the temperamental Bülow in 1869 as conductor of the Court Opera and the Academy Courts. Here he conducted the first performances of Rheingold and Walküre (1869, 1870) before the production of the entire Ring cycle at the first Bayreuth Festival

Franz Xaver Neruda

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Franz Xaver Neruda (or František) (3 December 1843 – 19 March 1915) was a Czech-Danish cellist and composer of Moravian origin. Life Franz Xaver Neruda was born in Brno into a musical family. He was the fifth child of the organist of Brno Cathedral Josef Neruda. He grew up in Vienna and first learned violin with father (from 1852) and after the death of his brother Viktor, who played cello, he learned playing it himself. With his father and four siblings he performed through Europe in the Neruda Quartet and also as a soloist. In 1859, he studied cello for half a year with Adrien-François Servais. Later Neruda became a member of the royal chapel in Copenhagen. On 3 December 1868, he founded there a chamber music society and the next year, he was named royal chamber musician. In 1869, he married ballet dancer Camilla Cetti. After engagements in London and Manchester, he moved back to Copenhagen until he became appointed by Anton Rubinstein as a successor of cello professor Karl Davydov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. In 1891, he was appointed conductor of the Stockholm music society and in 1892, conductor of the Copenhagen music society, succeeding Niels Gade and Emil Hartmann.

Frederic Archer

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Frederic Archer (16 June 1838 – 22 October 1901) was a British composer, conductor and organist, born in Oxford. He moved to the US in 1880, where he established the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Education and UK career From the age of eleven he was a chorister at All Saints, Margaret Street, and afterwards studied at Leipzig. He held various musical positions in England and Scotland, including organist at the Panopticon in Leicester Square (succeeding Edmund Chipp), Merton College Oxford and (from 1878) the first organist at the Alexandra Palace in London, where his many public recitals on the original and then on the restored organ (post fire) drew large crowds. He conducted the Glasgow Select Choir between 1878 and 1880, arranging part songs based on Scotch airs for the choir. During this period he was also an Examiner at Glasgow University. New York and Pittsburgh In 1880 he moved to the United States, becoming organist of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, and a year later at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan. Author and composer In 1883 Archer founded a music journal, The Keynote, which for a time he edited, and also published several books and numerou

Frédéric Barbier (composer)

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Frédéric Barbier (15 November 1829 – 12 February 1889) was a 19th-century French composer. Biography Frédéric Barbier was born in Metz, Lorraine, and was the son of Félix Henri Barbier and Adélaide Josephine Rosalie Rousseau. Barbier pursued a career in literary studies at Bourges College, while taking lessons in solfège, piano, harmony and counterpoint with Henry Darondeau, an organist in one of the churches of the city. His father, an engineer officer, wanted to see him join the École Polytechnique, of which he himself had been a pupil. But in 1848, the De Gasperi V Cabinet had created a new school, and the young Barbier preferred to compete for the latter and was admitted. This school was disbanded soon after and he began to study law. But music attracted him more and more. In 1852, Frédéric Barbier had already written and presented in Bourges a small one-act opéra comique, Le Mariage de Colombine, but considered moving to Paris. Presented by influential figures to Edmond Seveste, then director of the Théâtre Lyrique, he met Adolphe Adam. Thanks to his advice and lessons of the latter, his first work Une Nuit à Séville, a one-act opéra comique, was played at the Théâtre Lyrique

Frédéric Chopin

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Childhood#

Frédéric François Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, 46 kilometres ( 46 km ) west of Warsaw, in what was then the Duchy of Warsaw, a Polish state established by Napoleon. The parish baptismal record, which is dated 23 April 1810, gives his birthday as 22 February 1810, and cites his given names in the Latin form (in Polish, he was ). The composer and his family used the birthdate 1 March, which is now generally accepted as the correct date. His father, Nicolas Chopin, was a Frenchman from Lorraine who emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of sixteen. He married Justyna Krzyżanowska, a poor relative of the Skarbeks, one of the families for whom he worked. Chopin was baptised in the same Catholic church where his parents had married, in Brochów. His eighteen-year-old godfather, for whom he was named, was Fryderyk Skarbek, a pupil of Nicolas Chopin. Chopin was the second child of Nicolas and Justyna and their only son; he had an elder sister, Ludwika, and two younger sisters, Izabela and Emilia, whose death at the age of 14 was probably from tuberculosis. Nicolas Chopin was devoted to his adopted homeland, and insisted on the use of the Polish language in the household. In October 1810, six months after Chopin’s birth, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father acquired a post teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum, then housed in the Saxon Palace. Chopin lived with his family on the Palace grounds. His father played the flute and violin; his mother played the piano and gave lessons to boys in the boarding house that the Chopins kept. Chopin was of slight build, and even in early childhood was prone to illnesses. Chopin may have had some piano instruction from his mother, but his first professional music tutor, from 1816 to 1821, was the Czech-born pianist Wojciech Żywny. His elder sister Ludwika also took lessons from Żywny, and occasionally played duets with her brother. It quickly became apparent that he was a child prodigy. By the age of seven he had begun giving public concerts, and in 1817, he composed two polonaises, in G minor and B major. His next work, a polonaise in A major of 1821, dedicated to Żywny, is his earliest surviving musical manuscript. In 1817, the Saxon Palace was requisitioned by Warsaw’s Russian governor for military use, and the Warsaw Lyceum was reestablished in the Kazimierz Palace (today the rectorate of Warsaw University). Chopin and his family moved to a building, which still survives, adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace. During this period, he was sometimes invited to the Belweder Palace as playmate to the son of the ruler of Russian Poland, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia; he played the piano for Konstantin Pavlovich and composed a march for him. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, in his dramatic eclogue, "" (“Our Discourses”, 1818), attested to “little Chopin’s” popularity.

Frédéric Viret

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Frédéric Viret (18 February 1822 – 3 May 1898) was a French choirmaster, composer of sacred music and leader of a society of amateur male and female choristers of high vocal range. Biography A pupil of the masters of the Church of Saint-Merri and Saint-Roch, Viret was kapellmeister of the Imperial Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois from 1854, a member of the Bavarian Academy of Music whom he had met in Paris and accompanied to Germany while he perfected in the art of singing, and organist Johann Peter Cavallo with whom he had published Les Veillées des Salons, a musical magazine of piano music and vocal scores. Selected works Among the works that have most contributed to his reputation are: * Les Chants du Psalmiste (4th collection of psalms), a compendium of songs containing the first collection of the Psalms of David for four male voices * Six Messes solennelles, for three and four voices. * Soixante Motels, almost all unpublished excerpts from the repertory of the Imperial Church St-Germain l’Auxerrois. * Un Recueil de cantiques à Marie * Au bord d’un vaisseau, grand lyrical symphony for four male voices without accompaniment * L’Egypte, symphonic ode for four male voices and f

Frederick Augustus Packer

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Frederick Augustus Gow Packer (1839 – 1 August 1902), generally referred to as F. A. Packer but also Frederick Gow Packer, was an Australian composer of Anglican spiritual and romantic music. History Packer was born in Reading, Berkshire, of a musical family. His parents, Frederick Alexander Packer (died 2 July 1862), occasionally referred to as F. Alexander Packer, and Augusta Packer (née Gow) (c. 1819 – 23 February 1893), daughter of Nathaniel Gow, composer of “Caller Herrin”, and granddaughter of Niel Gow, were members of the Royal Academy of Music in London. The young Frederick Augustus was taught music and learned to sing and play organ from his parents. where he took up the position of organist at St David’s Cathedral in Davey Street. his place was taken by Mrs Elliott, followed in 1852 by the 17-year-old Miss Bonney, but amid controversy, she resigned and Frederick Alexander Packer, “recently arrived from England”, took her place. :He opened St David’s new organ, built by Bishop and Starr of London, on 26 July 1857. Despite initial enthusiasm, it had significant faults, eventually attributed to subsidence of the floor on which it was built and lack of periodic maintenance. :

Frederick Ellard

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Frederick Ellard (1824–1874) was an Australian classical music composer. Visiting Hungarian composer Miska Hauser was sufficiently impressed to dedicate an Australian publication in Ellard’s honour. Works * 1842 Sydney Corporation Quadrilles * 1846 I think of thee * 1850 Hayes Quadrille * 1854 Australian Bird Waltz * 1854 Morceau de salon : sur Lucrʹece * 1855 Crimea Recordings * Great Britain Polka * Australian Ladies- National Country Dances * Sydney Railroad Galop * Australian Quadrilles * I think of Thee References

Frederick Herbert Torrington

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Frederick Herbert Torrington (20 October 1836 – 20 November 1917) was an English-born Canadian conductor, organist, violinist, music educator, and administrator. From 1873-1894 he was the principal conductor of Toronto Philharmonic Society. In 1888 he founded the Toronto College of Music; serving as its director until his death in 1917. Life and career The son of James and Jane Torrington, Frederick Herbert Torrington was born in Dudley, England on 20 October 1836. and studied organ, piano, music theory, and choral music for four years with James Fitzgerald in Kidderminster. His first professional assignment was as choirmaster and organist in Bewdley; serving at St Ann’s Church beginning at the age of 16. In 1857 Torrington immigrated to Canada when he was appointed at St James St Methodist Church in Montreal. He performed in the music festival given for Edward, Prince of Wales upon his visit to Montreal in 1860. He left his post in Montreal in 1869 when be became the organist and choirmaster at King’s Chapel in Boston. While working at that church he concurrently taught piano and organ on the faculty of the New England Conservatory. He also was a violinist in the Harvard Musical A

Frederick Ouseley

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Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 2nd Baronet (12 August 18256 April 1889), was an English composer, organist, musicologist and priest. Biography Frederick Ouseley was born in London, the son of Sir Gore Ouseley, and manifested an extraordinary precocity in music, composing his first piece at the age of three, and writing hundreds more in the following years. He composed two youthful operas, the first of which (Tom and His Mama) was written at the age of seven. His next opera (L’Isola disabitata) was written at the age of eight years and is frequently cited as the most advanced of his juvenilia. In 1844 he succeeded to the baronetcy. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1843, where he graduated BA in 1846 and MA in 1849. He was ordained in the latter year, and, as curate of St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, served the parish of St Barnabas, Pimlico until 1851. He studied composition and the theory of music under Dr. Stephen Elvey at Oxford. Throughout his life, Ouseley experienced a social conflict between his aristocratic heritage and his interest in the performance of Anglican church music, an activity which was seen as beneath someone of his stature. In 1850 he took the d

Fredrikke Egeberg

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Annichen Fredrikke Sophie Egeberg (23 November 1815 – 16 May 1861) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. Early life and family Annichen Fredrikke Sophie Egeberg was born in Christiania on 23 November 1815 to Westye Egeberg (1770–1830), a Danish immigrant and businessman, and Anna Sophie Muus (1775–1862). Her family became wealthy through her father’s lumber company. Egeberg was the youngest of nine children and their only daughter. She was the sister of Westye Martinus Egeberg and physician Christian Egeberg, and an aunt of Ferdinand Julian Egeberg, Einar Westye Egeberg, Sr. and Theodor Christian Egeberg. Violinist Ole Bull was a friend of the family and often played at the family chamber music concerts. Egeberg’s brother, Christian, became an accomplished amateur cellist. Her two nieces, Anna Egeberg and Fredrikke Lindboe, also became composers of songs and piano pieces. Later life and death She never married. During the last few years of her life, Egeberg lived on the Berg farm in Sem in Vestfold, where she died on 16 May 1861, at the age of 45. She was buried at Cemetery of Our Saviour in Christiania. Per her wishes, a large portion of her family inheritance went to Ole Bull’s t

Friedrich Baumfelder

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Friedrich August Wilhelm Baumfelder (28 May 1836 – 8 September 1916 in Dresden) was a German composer of classical music, conductor, and pianist. He started in the Leipzig Conservatory, and went on to become a well-known composer of his time. His many works were mostly solo salon music, but also included symphonies, piano concertos, operas, and choral works. Though many publishers published his work, they have since fallen into obscurity. Life and Family Friedrich Baumfelder was the third of seven children. His father was Carl Friedrich Gotthelf Baumfelder (1798–1865), a school reformer and pedagogue, and his mother was Friederike Ernestine (1806–1882). At an early age, Baumfelder was admitted to the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Ignaz Moscheles and Moritz Hauptmann and later obtained a scholarship. His other teachers included Johann Schneider and Julius Otto. After leaving the Leipzig Conservatory, Baumfelder returned to Dresden where he worked as a cantor and music and piano teacher at the Dreikönigskirche. He taught Georg Schumann, who became one of his most successful students. In 1875, he became director of the Robert Schumann Singakademie, a post he held for seve

Friedrich Gernsheim

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Friedrich Gernsheim (17 July 1839 – 11 September 1916) was a German composer, conductor and pianist. Early life Gernsheim was born in Worms. He was given his first musical training at home under his mother’s care, then starting from the age of seven under Worms’ musical director, Louis Liebe, a former pupil of Louis Spohr. His father, a prominent Jewish physician, moved the family to Frankfurt am Main in the aftermath of the year of revolutions, 1848, where he studied with Edward Rosenhain, brother of Jakob Rosenhain. He made his first public appearance as a concert pianist in 1850 and toured for two seasons, then settled with his family in Leipzig, where he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles from 1852. He spent the years 1855–1860 in Paris, meeting Gioachino Rossini, Théodore Gouvy, Édouard Lalo and Camille Saint-Saëns. Career His travels afterwards took him to Saarbrücken, where in 1861 he took the conductor post vacated by Hermann Levi; to Cologne, where in 1865 Ferdinand Hiller appointed him to the staff of the Conservatory (his pupils there included Engelbert Humperdinck and Carl Lachmund); he then served as musical director of the Philharmonic Society of Rotterdam from 1874 u

Friedrich Grützmacher

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Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Grützmacher (1 March 1832 – 23 February 1903) was a German cellist and composer in the second half of the 19th century. He composed mostly for cello (including several concertos and many technical studies), but also wrote orchestral pieces, chamber music, piano music and songs. Life Grützmacher was born in Dessau, Anhalt, and was first taught by his father. Soon he began studying cello with Dotzauer’s pupil, Karl Drexler (1800–1873). In 1848, he was discovered in Leipzig by the famous violinist, Ferdinand David, who arranged some concerts for him. In 1850, he became solo cellist in the Leipzig theatre orchestra, the Gewandhaus Concerts, and professor at the Leipzig Conservatory. He played in the David String Quartet. In 1860, Grützmacher moved to Dresden to be principal cellist of the court orchestra, and head of the Dresden Musical Society. In 1877, he became a professor at the Dresden Conservatory. He concertized all over Europe and Imperial Russia, where he became a friend of the famous cellist Karl Davydov. In 1876 he played a couple of concerts in Milan together with the violinist Edmund Singer and the pianist Anna Mehlig. Anna Mehlig was one of his fa

Friedrich Hieronymus Truhn

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Friedrich Hieronymus Truhn (14 November 1811 – 30 April 1886) was a German conductor, composer and writer on music who worked mainly in Berlin, Danzig, Elbing and Riga. He was the son of court marshall Nathanael Truhn and the grandfather of Selma Erdmann-Jesnitzer, born Bethge-Truhn, father of Clara and Anna Marie Elizabeth Truhn. He was a talented composer of numerous songs, several stage works, and also a key organizer in the field of men’s choirs. Life Friedrch was born in Elbing. As a boy he attracted attention by his singing abilities, so as soon he was developing himself as a flute player, and shortly thereafter as a violinist, he was sent to the orchestra of his native town, although his parents did not admitted that he had chosen the music as a career. Only in 1831 they allowed him to go to Berlin as a student of theorist Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn, of Carl Friedrich Zelter and Bernhard Klein. He briefly studied orchestration with Mendelssohn to be properly trained as musician. He worked at the city theater in Gdansk as conductor and music teacher in the years 1835-37 and back in Berlin, he became one of the chief contributors to Schumann’s paper, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik

Friedrich Kiel

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Friedrich Kiel (8 October 182113 September 1885) was a German composer and music educator. Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his exceptional works from receiving the consideration they deserved. After mentioning Johannes Brahms and others, Altmann writes, “He produced a number of chamber works, which . . . need fear no comparison”. Biography Kiel was born on 8 October 1821, in Bad Laasphe. He was taught the rudiments of music and received his first piano lessons from his father, but was in large part self-taught. Something of a prodigy, he played the piano almost without instruction at the age of six, and by his thirteenth year he had composed much music. Kiel eventually came to the attention of Prince Albrecht Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, a great music lover. Through the Prince’s efforts, Kiel was allowed to study violin with the concertmaster of the Prince’s fine orchestra with which he later performed as a soloist. Kiel was also given theory lessons from the renowned flautist Kaspar Kummer. By 1840, Kiel was court conductor and the music teacher to the prince’s childr

Friedrich Lux

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Friedrich Lux (24 November 1820 – 9 July 1895) was a German conductor, composer and organist. He was born in the town of Ruhla, son of composer Georg Heinrich Lux. His father gave him his first music lessons, and Lux later became a student of Friedrich Schneider. Between 1841 and 1850, he was Director of the Opera in Dessau and from 1851 to 1857 performed the same role in Mainz for the Mainz Singing Academy. Notable works In 1882, he composed the opera Der Schmied von Ruhla (The Smith of Ruhla), with a libretto by Ludwig C. Bauer. In 1884, he composed the comic opera Die Fürstin von Athen (The Duchess of Athens), with a libretto by Wilhelm Jacoby. In addition, Friedrich Lux wrote a missa brevis, festival overtures, numerous organ pieces, three string quartets and a piano trio as well as numerous choral works for different voices. There has been renewed interest in Lux’s works since his death. The Lux Festival Association has been organizing concert series in its hometown of Ruhla and the Wartburg region in Thuringia since 2011 and the Lux Festival since 2013. Opus works *Opus 21 – Coronation March for Orchestra (1861) *Opus 29 - Concert Fantasy on O sanctissima for organ *Opus 32 -

Friedrich Seitz

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Friedrich Seitz (12 June 1848, Günthersleben-Wechmar, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – 22 May 1918) was a German Romantic Era composer. He was a violinist who served as a concertmaster, who wrote chamber music and eight student concertos for the violin. Life Seitz was born in Frankfurt in 1848 and began studying music at a young age. He received his musical education at the Frankfurt Conservatory, where he studied with some of the leading musicians of the day. Seitz studied violin under Karl Wilhelm Uhlrich in Sondershausen, Germany; he later married Uhlrich’s daughter. He became a student of in 1874. He became music director at Sondershausen and thereafter became a concertmaster at Magdeburg. In 1884 he was the Hofkonzertmeister (conductor of the court orchestra) at Dessau. Seitz was also a highly respected violinist and taught at several music academies during his career. He was known for his technical proficiency and expressive playing style, and many of his students went on to become successful musicians in their own right. He wrote all his violin concertos for his students, to help them improve their technique. Seitz was a prolific composer and wrote a wide range of music, including op

Friedrich von Flotow

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Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow (; 27 April 1812 – 24 January 1883) was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Life Born in Teutendorf, in Mecklenburg, into an aristocratic family, Flotow was French-trained. Although he was intended for a diplomatic career, his father acceded to his wishes and he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris under Anton Reicha. During this time came under the influence of Auber, Bellini, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Donizetti, Halévy, and later Gounod and Offenbach. These influences are reflected in his operas, where a distinctive French opéra comique flavour exists. During the 1830 revolution he returned home, writing chamber music and operetta until it was safe to return to Paris. He completed his first opera in 1835, Pierre et Cathérine, but his breakthrough came with Le naufrage de la Méduse (1839), based on the wreck of the warship Méduse. The three-act romantic opera Alessandro Stradella of 1844 is recognized as one of Flotow’s finer works. Martha was first staged in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 25 November 1847, and soon became one of th

Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken

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Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken (16 November 1810 – 3 April 1882) was a German composer and conductor. He was a very prolific composer, mainly known for light and melodious songs, although he has also written works for the stage and for orchestra. Career Kücken was born in Bleckede, near Lüneburg. The son of an executioner, he learned the piano as a child and played chamber music at home in a family ensemble. After moving to Schwerin he studied harmony with his brother-in-law Friedrich Lührss, and piano with Georg Rettberg, also learning flute and violin. From 1832 to 1841, Kücken lived in Berlin, studying counterpoint with Heinrich Birnbach and teaching music to the later king George V of Hanover; he was also a member of the Sing-Akademie. Leaving Berlin, he studied with Simon Sechter in Vienna (until 1843), when his popular song Ach, wie wärs möglich dann secured his being chosen court composer for Grand Duke Paul Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1844, he went for further studies to Paris, learning instrumentation with Fromental Halévy and vocal composition with Marco Bordogni. While in Paris, he completed his opera Der Prätendent, which was premiered in Stuttgart in 1847, becomin

Fritz Arlberg

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Fritz Georg Efraim Arlberg (21 March 1830 – 21 February 1896) was a Swedish baritone, teacher, composer, opera singer, translator of opera libretti and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Biography Arlberg was born in Leksand in 1830, the son of Georg Arlberg and Margareta Lovisa Salmark. He became a student at Uppsala University in 1848 from where he graduated in 1852. He then worked for a time as an official, among others, in the Chamber College. He commenced writing musical compositions from early in his career and during his time at Uppsala he attracted attention through his singing voice. Arlberg studied singing with Julius Günther and the German tenor Wieser. He was also active as a composer and writer. He translated and edited a number of operatic texts, including Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman. He also became one of the champions in Sweden for the works of Richard Wagner. Arlberg was elected as member No. 420 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music on 24 January 1868. In 1868 he married the violinist Maria Neruda, sister of the cellist Franz Xaver Neruda and the violinist Wilma Neruda, and was the father of Hjalmar Arlberg. He also had a daughter, Judith, with the s

G. Estabrook

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G. Estabrook is the pen name used by composer and singer Caroline Augusta “Gussie” Clowry (October 23, 1845 – April 18, 1897), whose opera The Joust was the first opera by an American woman to be published. With musical talent from an early age, “Gussie” had many songs published throughout her life, one of which “reached the extraordinary sale of over one million copies.” Biography Born on October 23, 1845, in Geneva, Wisconsin, she was the only daughter of General Experience Estabrook and Caroline Augusta Maxwell. She had one brother, Henry Dodge, who was nine years younger. In January 1855, General Experience Estabrook moved with his family to Omaha, Nebraska after being appointed United States Attorney by President Franklin Pierce. In 1860, at the age of 15, she met Colonel Robert Charles Clowry of Chicago, the superintendent of the Missouri and Western Union Telegraph Company; and later, president and general manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company. They were wed five years later, on August 29, 1865, in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1879, the couple had moved to St. Louis before settling in Chicago. In 1882, the first production of “The Joust” was performed in her home town of Oma

G. W. Hunt

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George William Hunt (c.1837 – 1 March 1904), known in later life as Jingo’ Hunt, was an English writer of music hall songs, best known for “MacDermott’s War Song” also known as the “Jingo Song”. Biography He was born in Finsbury, London, and taught himself to play piano and harmonium as a child. He spent some time in South Africa before returning to England, where at one time he was the manager of the Canterbury Music Hall on Westminster Bridge Road. He started to write songs for music hall performers, and was one of the first to write both words and music - previously words had usually been written to fit existing tunes. Hunt wrote over 50 songs performed by Leybourne, including “Awfully Clever”, “Up in a Balloon”, and “Don’t Make a Noise Or Else You’ll Wake the Baby”. He also wrote songs for many of the other popular performers of the period, including Alfred Vance, Herbert Campbell, Jenny Hill, Annie Adams, and Fred French. After initially rejecting the song, MacDermott changed his mind and bought the song from Hunt for five pounds. Some years later, Hunt said: My breakfast was half an hour late that morning, so I sat down and wrote the whole chorus. After breakfast I wrote the

Gabriel Fauré

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Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune”. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a young boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to the École Niedermeyer music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Co

Gaetano Braga

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Gaetano Braga (June 9, 1829 – November 21, 1907) was an Italian composer and cellist. He was born in Giulianova in Abruzzi and died in Milan. Braga’s works include compositions for the cello (two concertos, a quintet, a quartet, works for cello and piano) and the operas: *Alina or La spregiata (1853, Naples) *Estella di San Germano (1857, Vienna) *Il ritratto (1858, Naples) *Margherita la mendicante (1859, Paris) *Mormile (1862, Milan) *Ruy Blas (1868) *Reginella (1871, Lecco) *Caligola (1873, Lisbon) A “Serenata” (serenade) by Braga, sometimes called “Angel’s Serenade” or “Légende valaque” (Wallachian Legend), is a dialogue (comparable to that in “Erlkönig”) between a worried mother and a girl who hears an angel’s voice calling her; in the end the girl follows the voice (“O mamma buona notte, io seguo il suon, io seguo il suon!”). The main melody, as sung by a choir, is also the theme from the CBS television show, Amos ’n’ Andy. It is mentioned in Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Black Monk,” as well as in other Russian works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As composed, the narrator sings the voice of the mother and girl, while the angel’s voice is portrayed through the

Gaspar Sagreras

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Gaspar Sagreras (21 October 1838 – 14 April 1901) was a Spanish-born guitarist, composer and teacher who became a naturalized Argentine citizen. He is remembered as one of the leading figures in the spread of the guitar in late‑19th‑century Argentina and as the father of the renowned guitarist and pedagogue Julio Salvador Sagreras. Biography Sagreras was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1838. Following his parents’ wishes, he initially began medical studies, while at the same time cultivating a strong interest in music and the guitar. After the family moved to Buenos Aires, he abandoned medicine and completed his musical training, devoting the rest of his life to performance and teaching. In Buenos Aires he established himself as a notable guitarist, taking part in concerts and musical gatherings within Porteño society. He studied harmony to broaden his skills and formed friendships with fellow guitarists such as Juan Alais Moncada, Carlos García Tolsa and Bernardo Troncoso. With them he performed in a trio formation during 1887 and 1888. * Various arrangements, including transcriptions related to the Himno Nacional Argentino. References External links * Gaspar Sagreras on IMSLP

Gaston Serpette

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Henri Charles Antoine Gaston Serpette (4 November 1846 – 3 November 1904) was a French composer, best known for his operettas. After winning the prestigious Prix de Rome as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he was expected to pursue a career in serious music. Instead, he turned to operetta, writing more than twenty full-length pieces between 1874 and 1900. He accepted some conducting work and also served as a critic and journalist for a number of French newspapers and magazines. Early life and work Serpette, the son of a rich industrialist, was born in Nantes, in western France. He qualified as a lawyer before deciding to devote himself to music. In 1868 he entered the composition class of Ambroise Thomas at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1871 won France’s top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, previously won by Berlioz, Thomas, Gounod, Bizet and Massenet, among others. Serpette’s winning entry was Jeanne d’Arc, a cantata to a libretto by M. J. Barbier, which was performed at the Paris Opéra in November of the same year. However, to the distress of the conservative element at the Conservatoire, Serpette also submitted an operetta. When it was played on the piano to Gounod, Thoma

Georg Carl Bohlmann

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Georg Carl Bohlmann (1838 – 1920) was a Danish music teacher, music director, organist and composer. He composed a number of major and minor compositions, including two symphonies, and several overtures. He also arranged music for other artists. Biography Bohlman was born on 8 April 1838, the son of tobacco manufacturer Reinhard Georg Carl Bohlmann. Bohlmann studied with Charles Kjerulf, likely at the Mariboes School. Bohlmann lived in Bremen from 1851–1859 and trained as a musician under conductor Carl Heinemann. He returned to Copenhagen, where he worked as a music teacher and arranger and a music theater director. In 1865, he received the Anckerske scholarship and considered using it to studied in Rome. From 1872 to 1876, Bohlmann was an organist in Svendborg. His own Vikingefærd (Viking Expedition) was also performed at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Beginning in 1887, Bohlmann received an annual grant from the state. He also received a grant from the Raben-Lewetzauske Fund for the publication of instrumentation illustrations. From 1892 until his death, he was an organist at the Vestre Kirkegaards Chapel in Copenhagen. Bohlmann died in 1920; he was 82. References

Georg Goltermann

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:Georg Eduard Goltermann should not be confused with Julius Goltermann (1825–1876), the cello teacher of David Popper. Georg Eduard Goltermann (19 August 1824 – 29 December 1898) was a German cellist, composer and conductor. Life Goltermann was born in Hannover. His father was an organist, and therefore he got an early introduction to music. He received cello lessons from in Munich, the most important Bavarian cello virtuoso of his time. He took composition lessons from Ignaz Lachner. Instead his concertos are studied by students to learn technique and get a basic understanding of concerto style. Concerto No. 1 has maintained a presence in today’s standard repertoire. An early recording of this movement played by Pablo Casals exists. * Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 14 * Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30 * Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 51 * Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 65 * Concerto No. 5 in D minor, Op. 76 * Concerto No. 6 in D major, Op. 100 * Concerto No. 7 in C major, Op. 103 * Concerto No. 8 in A major, Op. 130 There are other works for orchestra including a symphony in A, Op. 20, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1852 and released in 2023 on the Capriccio label. Many of G

Georg Schmitt

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Johann Georg Gerhard Schmitt (11 March 1821 – 7 December 1900), in French Jean-Georges Gérard Schmitt, was a Paris-based composer and organist, originally from the Prussian Lower Rhine province. He was only 14 when he took over as organist at Trier Cathedral: the position had fallen vacant three years earlier through the early death of the previous incumbent, his father. Life Johann Georg Gerhard Schmitt was born at , a riverside fishing hamlet on the northern edge of Trier (into which it has subsequently been subsumed). His birth took place in the little hotel run by his parents, Johann Georg Schmitt (1787–1832) and his wife, born Catharina Marx (1809–1868). Two hundred years later, there is still a hotel on the site: it is now named “Gasthaus Mosellied”, after a song which during the nineteenth century became one of Schmitt’s more widely appreciated compositions. The elder Johann Georg Schmitt combined his business as an hotelier with the post of Trier Cathedral organist between 1810 and his death in 1832. During his final illness his son frequently deputised for him, despite being aged only 11 at the time of the father’s death. Over the next two years the boy, whose early music

Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker

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Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker (8 March 1844, Munich – 17 July 1906, Elberfeld, today part of Wuppertal) was a German composer, conductor and violinist. Life Childhood and youth (1844–1860) Rauchenecker was born in Munich on 8 March 1844; he was the first child of Jakob Rauchenecker (1815–1876), an official musician of the city, and Rosina Crescenz Rauchenecker, née Wening (1815–1876) and was baptised a Catholic two days later at St Peter’s in Munich. As a young boy he was sent by his father to his uncle, Georg Wening, who had been pastor of the parish of Thalheim (pop. 260) near Erding since 1855. It is possible that Rauchenecker was expected to follow the same career path as his uncle. After this he attended the King Maximilian Grammar School in Munich and here, at the age of eleven, he played first violin accompanying the church choir. a physician and musical patron from Winterthur. In the spring of 1873 he converted to Protestantism as his second wife was a Protestant. The marriage to Anna Karolina Ulrica Kempin (1845–1904) took place at the Diaconal Church in Neuminster (Zürich). On 29 October 1873 Rauchenecker, having been proposed by Ziegler-Sulzer, was elected to the post of he

George Alexander Macfarren

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Sir George Alexander Macfarren (2 March 181331 October 1887) was an English composer and musicologist. Life George Alexander Macfarren was born in London on 2 March 1813 to George Macfarren, a dancing-master, dramatic author and journalist, who later became the editor of the Musical World, and Elizabeth Macfarren, née Jackson. At the age of seven, Macfarren was sent to Dr Nicholas’s school in Ealing, where his father was dancing-master; the school numbered among its alumni John Henry Newman and Thomas Henry Huxley. His health was poor, however, and his eyesight weak, He was withdrawn from the school in 1823 to undergo a course of eye treatment. One amanuensis was composer Oliveria Prescott. On 27 September 1844, Macfarren married Clarina Thalia Andrae, Her singing translation for the finale text of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the “Ode to Joy”, became its most popular translation in England. She also composed for piano. Emma Maria Macfarren, the wife of another brother, John, was also a pianist and composer. Macfarren was knighted in 1883. and died on 31 October 1887, at his house in Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood. Musical career Macfarren began to study music when he was fourteen

George Augustus Löhr

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George Augustus Löhr (20 April 1821 – 20 August 1897) was an organist and composer based in England. Life Born in Norwich, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford where he was a chorister and then at Leipzig University and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He then became assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral under the organist Zechariah Buck. He was appointed to St Margaret’s Church, Leicester in 1845, a position he held for the next four decades until his death. He pioneered choral services there and was one of the earliest to promote musical harvest festivals. The church “soon became famous for its choir”. Lohr also established and conducted the Leicester Harmonic Society in 1856. It survived until 1883. From 1881, he was a music professor. Lohr composed the hymn “St Francis”, setting the words “Fountain of good, to own Thy love” by Philip Doddridge. His four part arrangement of Mendelssohn’s “But This Lord is Mindful of His Own” (from the oratorio St Paul) remains in print. He died on 20 August 1897 and is buried in the Welford Road Cemetery in Leicester. His youngest son, Richard Harvey Löhr, was born in Leicester in 1856 and studied at the Royal Academy of M

George Dallas Sherman

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George Dallas Sherman (August 23, 1844 – November 3, 1927) was an American bandleader. Sherman was born in Richmond, Vermont, United States, the son of Hathaway and Relief Sherman. At the age of 14, he joined the Richmond Cornet Band and soon became its leader. He left this band in 1864 to join the 9th Vermont Infantry as a musician during the American Civil War. After the war he came to live in Winooski, where he married Mary A. Thompson and became a band teacher. In 1878 he organized, with much coaxing from the citizens of Burlington, Sherman’s Military Band, made up of musicians from the dormant Queen City Band. This band came to be well known all over the East as one of the finest touring Military Bands. After Sherman retired from the band in 1917, the group became known as the Burlington Military Band under the exceptional directorship of Dr. Joseph Lechnyr, an influential Vermont musician. George Sherman continued to live on Sherman Street (which many erroneously believe to be named after him) until November 3, 1927, the date of the great flood. On that day, while crossing the street near his home at the corner of Sherman and Battery Street (on the park side of Battery St.) a

George Frederick Bristow

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George Frederick Bristow (December 19, 1825 – December 13, 1898) was an American composer, conductor, violinist, and educator, born in Brooklyn, New York. A prominent advocate for American classical music during a period of European dominance in U.S. concert life, Bristow worked to promote native composers and establish a national musical identity. His body of work includes five symphonies, two operas, oratorios, choral pieces, and chamber music. His Fifth Symphony, titled Niagara, premiered at Carnegie Hall in January 1898, only months before his death. Through his compositions and advocacy, Bristow helped lay the foundation for a distinctly American tradition in classical music. He figured prominently in a public dispute with critic William Henry Fry and the New York Philharmonic Society, criticizing the society’s decision to exclude American composers. Early life George Frederick Bristow was born on December 19, 1825, in Brooklyn, New York. He was named after German-British composer George Frideric Handel. His father, William Richard Bristow, a composer and music teacher, had emigrated from England to the United States around 1822 with his own father, Thomas Bristow. The Bristow

George French Flowers

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George French Flowers (1811 – 14 June 1872) was an English composer and musical theorist. He founded a society to promote counterpoint, and a music school for young singers. Early career Flowers was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, the fourth son of the Rev. Field Flowers. He studied music in Germany with Christian Heinrich Rinck and Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, and went on to graduate BMus from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1839. In 1865 he obtained DMus. He was organist successively at the Chapel of the British Embassy in Paris, at St Mark’s Church, Myddelton Square, He was responsible for some contrapuntal and musical reviews in the Literary Gazette about that time, and was author of an analysis of John Goss’s An Introduction to Harmony and Thorough-Bass in the Fine Arts Journal (1847, p. 445 et seq.). His Pictorial Representation of the Science of Harmony, a translation of Basler’s Reisekarte, appeared in 1850, and a poem on Muscular Vocalisation in 1861. The school of vocalization did not endure. Mrs Howard Paul may be cited as having been its most distinguished member. Compositions His compositions include organ fugues and choral fugues. His elaborate first mass, of about 1

George O'Kelly

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George Alexandre O’Kelly (12 October 1831 – 2 September 1914) was a Franco-Irish pianist and composer, who spent much of his career in Boulogne-sur-Mer. A member of a family of musicians, he was the only one with several orchestral scores to his credit. Another notable work is an opera on an Irish theme, performed in Boulogne in 1878. Life George O’Kelly was born as George Alexandre Kelly in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Unusually, his first name was spelled in the English way (without an ’s’ at the end). His father was an Irish emigrant, the Dublin-born pianist Joseph Kelly (1804–1856); his brothers included the composer Joseph O’Kelly (1828–1885) and the music publisher Auguste O’Kelly (1829–1900). Around 1835, when he was still very young, the family moved to Paris where he grew up in the Faubourg Poissonnière area of the 9th arrondissement. Nothing is known of his musical education, but it can be presumed that he received early lessons from his father and later some more advanced training from others. His earliest public record is his membership in the ‘Association des Artistes Musiciens’, where he is listed in the annual membership lists for the years 1848–52. For the last three of these

George Stephănescu

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George Stephănescu (13 December 1843 – 25 April 1925) was a Romanian composer, one of the main figures in Romanian national opera. Stephănescu was born and died in Bucharest. He graduated from the Bucharest Academy of Music. In 1877, Stephănescu was appointed conductor of the National Theater orchestra and Singing teacher at the Academy. While teaching the opera singers at the Academy, he aimed to gradually develop the National Theater’s musical repertoire from vaudevilles to musical comedies and finally to opera. In 1885, he founded the first opera company in the Kingdom of Romania. It disbanded in 1902 when the government cut its financial support. Stephănescu is noted for having used works by many poets as librettos or texts for his compositions — among them, the locals Vasile Alecsandri, Mihai Eminescu, Traian Demetrescu, Alexandru Vlahuţă and the foreigners Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. His son was the writer Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est. Works *Symphony in A Major (1869) *Peste Dunăre (opera, 1880) *Sânziana şi Pepelea (opera, 1880) *National Overture (1882) *Scaiul bărbaţilor (opera, 1885) *Cometa (opera, 1900) *Petra (opera, 1902) References External links * Profile at Cimec.

George Whiting

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George Elbridge Whiting (September 14, 1840 – October 14, 1923) was an American composer of classical music. Early life and career George Whiting was born in Holliston, Massachusetts on September 14, 1840. He founded the Beethoven Society in Hartford, Connecticut when he was fifteen years old. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1862 and later to New York City. Whiting was a student of George Washbourne Morgan. He went to Liverpool, England, and studied with William Thomas Best. Whiting was also for a time head of the organ department in the New England Conservatory. Among his pupils was Henry Morton Dunham. Death Whiting died in Jamaica Plain, Boston on October 14, 1923. Musical works His compositions include: *Mass in C minor (1872) *Mass in F minor (1874) *Mass in F minor (undated) *Dream Pictures (1874) *The Tale of the Viking (1878 cantata) *Leonora (1893 opera) *Henry of Navarre (cantata) *March of the Monks of Bangor (cantata) *some pieces for orchestra *several songs *music for organ *music for piano He wrote several published texts, including: *The Organist (Boston, 1870) *The First Six Months on the Organ (Boston, 1871) References External links * *

George William Torrance

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George William Torrance (25 July 1835 – 20 August 1907) was an Irish composer, mainly of church music, who was resident in Australia for many years. Early life Torrance was born in Rathmines, Dublin, and became a choirboy at Christ Church Cathedral (1847–1851). Before reaching the age of 20, he had already worked as a parish organist in the Dublin area and composed his first oratorio Abraham (1855). He continued his musical education in Leipzig, Germany (1856–1857), before beginning his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1864, M.A. in 1867, and later (by examination only) MusB and MusD (1879). Before his decision to become a clergyman, he tried his hand at a number of secular compositions including the opera William of Normandy (1858) and a number of songs. He was ordained by the Bishop of Lichfield in 1865 for the curacy of St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury, and remained there till 1867, when he became curate of St. Ann’s, Dublin. Australia, 1869–1898 Torrance went to Victoria (Australia) in December 1869, and in the following February accepted the curacy of Christ Church, South Yarra, being from 1871 to 1876 in charge of St. John’s, Melbourne. Selected comp

Georges Bizet

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Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned. Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful. After the

Georges Jacobi

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Georges Jacobi (3 February 1840 –13 September 1906) was a German violinist, composer and conductor who was musical director of the Alhambra Theatre in London from 1872 to 1898. His best-known work was probably The Black Crook (1872) written with Frederick Clay for the Parisian operetta-star Anna Judic and which ran for 310 performances. Although never achieving the standing of Hervé, or Offenbach or Sullivan, he composed over 100 pieces for ballet and the theatre which were popular at the time. his musical education began aged 6. Educated in Paris, he began his musical career as a violinist and in 1861 at the age of twenty-one he was awarded the first prize for violin playing at the Conservatoire de Paris where he also studied composition with Daniel Auber. He entered the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique where he worked until 1869 as the first violinist. He also gave concerts with his own orchestra in the picture gallery of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1869 he became musical director of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where he mainly conducted operettas by Offenbach. In 1897 Arthur Sullivan composed the ballet Victoria and Merrie England, which was performed at the Alh

Georges Lamothe

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Marie Émile Georges Lamothe (1842 – 15 October 1894) was a prolific French composer, pianist and harmonium player. Apart from a large number of salon pieces for the piano, he was also known as an accompanist to popular theatrical performances including puppet plays. Career Lamothe was born in Paris in 1842, the exact date cannot be established. Baker’s Dictionary, which wrongly claims that he was born in 1837, also states that his work-list exceeded “over 1,000 op.-numbers”. In contrast, the online catalogue of the French national library (Bibliothèque nationale de France), counts 503 entries under his name, which also includes arrangements of Lamothe’s works by other composers. The highest opus number in this catalogue is 310, but many other works are listed without opus numbers, and around 15 to 20 opus numbers have been allocated two or three works. The exact quantity of works aside, he certainly was a very productive composer, with his first publications appearing in 1861 when he was barely 19 years of age. His parents were Jean Paul Émile Alexandre Lamothe, a lawyer, and Marie Madeleine Désirée, née Chatelain. No information about his teachers or places of musical education ha

Georges Mathias

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Georges Amédée Saint-Clair Mathias (; 14 October 182614 October 1910) was a French composer, pianist and teacher. Alongside his teaching work, Georges Mathias was a very active concert pianist. Biography Mathias was born in Paris. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with François Bazin, Auguste Barbereau, Augustin Savard and Fromental Halévy. Privately, he studied composition with Friedrich Kalkbrenner and piano with Frédéric Chopin. After finishing his studies, he taught piano at the Conservatoire from 1862 to 1893. Among his notable students were Teresa Carreño, Camille Chevillard, Paul Dukas, Camille Erlanger, James Huneker, Henri O’Kelly, Isidor Philipp, Raoul Pugno, Alfonso Rendano, Erik Satie, Eugénie Satie-Barnetche, Ernest Schelling, Ernesto Elorduy, José Tragó and Alberto Williams. Mathias and Karol Mikuli, another student of Chopin, significantly influenced the way their teacher’s style was communicated to later generations of musicians. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1872. He died in Paris in 1910, on his 84th birthday. Works His compositions include overtures to Hamlet and Mazeppa, five morceaux symphoniques for piano and strings, two piano concertos, six p

Georges Pfeiffer

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Georges Jean Pfeiffer (12 December 1835 – 14 February 1908) was a French composer, pianist, and music critic. He was a much sought-after chamber music partner in the second half of the nineteenth century in Paris. Life Pfeiffer was born in Versailles. Both his grandfather and his father Émile were piano makers. His mother Clara had been a pupil of Frédéric Kalkbrenner and Henri Bertini; at his parents’ home in Paris, the Pfeiffers were regular hosts to musical salon events. Pfeiffer received his piano tuition from his mother, and he studied composition privately with Pierre Maleden and Berthold Damcke. In a self-organised concert in 1862, his operetta Le Capitaine Roche and the Piano Trio, Op. 14 were performed. At the London International Exhibition in the same year, Pfeiffer performed the piano part in his own Second Piano Concerto. Like his Franco-Irish friend Joseph O’Kelly, Pfeiffer was a partner in the piano and harp making firm Pleyel, Wolff, Lyon & Cie. Pfeiffer’s piano work Babillage, Op. 74 is dedicated to O’Kelly’s second wife, Marie. In mid- to late nineteenth-century Paris, he was much in demand as a pianist in chamber music events, performing in high-profile recitals

Gerard Francis Cobb

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Gerard Francis Cobb (Nettlestead, Kent, 15 October 1838 – 31 March 1904) was Junior Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was active as an Anglican layman, organist and amateur composer. Life He was the fourth son of William Francis Cobb, rector of Nettlestead, Kent, and was educated at Marlborough College. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1857, graduating B.A. in 1861 and M.A. in 1864. Cobb was an enthusiastic cyclist and was president of the Cambridge University Cycling Club. He was first president in 1878 of the National Cyclists’ Union, originally the Bicycle Union. He died in Cambridge on 31 March 1904. Music Cobb is best remembered for his hymns and settings of Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads. The poems set by Cobb include “To T. A.” (1892), “The Young British Soldier” Op. 24 No. 1, “Mandalay”, “Route Marchin’” “Soldier, Soldier”, “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” Op. 24 No. 5 (1892) “Troopin’”, “Ford o’ Kabul River” Op. 26 No. 2 (1893) “Danny Deever”, “Shillin’ a Day” “Cells”, “Belts Op. 29 No. 1” “The Widow’s Party”, “Screw-Guns”, “Gunga Din” Op. 29 No. 4, “Oonts” Op. 29 No. 5, “Snarleyow” Op. 29 No. 6, “For to Admire”, “Back to the Army Again”, and “Tommy”. These son

Géza Zichy

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Count Géza Zichy (23 July 184914 January 1924) was a Hungarian composer and was also renowned as the world’s first professional one-armed pianist. Zichy also published an autobiography (“Aus meinem Leben”, 3 vols, 1911–24) and some poetry. Zichy lost his right arm in a hunting accident at age 14 or 15. Instead of despair, he doubled his strive, to form himself into a true piano virtuoso. “I closed the door,” he says in his memoirs, “and got dressed alone. The door handle, the furniture, my legs, my teeth all helped. At lunch, I did not eat any food that I could not cut myself and did not accept the slightest service. Today I peel apples, cut my nails myself, dress alone, ride, drive four-in-hand, I am a good hunter with bullets and buckshot, and I even learned to play the piano a bit. You can be independent with one hand, you just have to know how." So, he persevered by writing and performing piano music for the left hand. In 1873 he began six years of study with Franz Liszt. He also studied under Robert Volkmann. In spite of his limitations, Zichy had a successful career as both a concert pianist and a composer for the next 40 years. He gave entire concerts playing music only for

Gialdino Gialdini

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Gialdino Gialdini (10 November 1842 – 6 March 1919) was an Italian composer and orchestra conductor. Gialdini was born in Pescia, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and studied at Florence with Teodulo Mabellini. He won a prize offered by the Pergola Theatre of that city for the best opera, with Rosmunda, which met, however, with an unfavourable reception when produced in 1868. After two more operas he tired of composing operas and started conducting opera productions, to international acclaim. In 1889 he conducted Wagner’s Lohengrin at Bologna. Later he returned to composing operas. In September 1904 he became the Artistic Director of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in the then Austrian city of Trieste but had to abandon the post when Italy entered the war against Austria in May 1915. He then returned to his native Pescia for retirement, and died there aged 76. Works *Rosmunda (opera, premiered 5 March 1868 at the Teatro Pergola, Florence) *La secchia rapita (opera buffa, premiered 1872 at the Teatro Goldoni, Florence) *l’Idolo cinese (opera buffa, premiered 1874 at the Teatro delle Logge, Florence) *I due soci (opera buffa, premiered 24 February 1892 at the Teatro Brunetti, Bologna) *La Pu

Giorgio Miceli

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Giorgio Miceli (21 October 1836 in Reggio Calabria – 1895, Italy) was an Italian opera composer who played mandolin and wrote music for the instrument. He was the composer for the operetta Zoe and for the music A Grand Serenade for Mandolin Band. * Zoe * Amanti sessagenarli * Conte di Rossiglione * Convito di Baldassare * Fata * Feodora * Fidanzata * Jefte * (La figlia di) Leggenda di Pisa * Rapimento * Serena * Somnambule References

Giovanni Bolzoni (composer)

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Giovanni Bolzoni (15 May 1841 – 21 February 1919) was an Italian composer and violinist, who is known for his Minuet for String Orchestra. Life and career Born in Parma, Bolzoni studied at the Parma Conservatory. After graduating in 1859, he was violinist and part-time conductor with Teatro Comunale di Reggio Emilia and Comunale di Cremona, eventually taking a position in Savona where he also taught violin. After six years he became its concertmaster and conductor. This was followed in 1874 by three years in Perugia as orchestral conductor and theatre director at the Istituto Morlacchi. In 1887, he became director of the Istituto Musicale, concertmaster at the Teatro Regio di Parma and of the Concerti Popolari. Bolzoni was the long-time director of the Turin Conservatory. Among his notable pupils were composers Carlo Adolfo Cantù and Edgard Varèse. In 1884, he conducted the premiere of the revised version of Puccini’s opera Le Villi. Bolzoni died in Turin, aged 77. Compositions Besides the popular Minuet, Bolzoni composed the operas Il matrimonio civile (premiered in Parma, 1870), La stella delle Alpi (Savona, 1876), and Jella (Piacenza, 1881). He also wrote Tema con variazioni for

Giovanni Bottesini

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Giovanni Bottesini (22 December 1821 – 7 July 1889) was an Italian Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso. Biography Born in Crema, Lombardy, he was taught the rudiments of music by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer, at a young age and had played timpani in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before the age of eleven. He studied violin with Carlo Cogliati, and probably would have continued on this instrument except for a unique turn of events. His father sought a place for him in the Milan Conservatory in 1835, but due to the Bottesini family’s lack of money, Bottesini needed a scholarship. Only two positions were available: double bass and bassoon. He prepared a successful audition for the double bass scholarship in a matter of weeks. Only four years later, a surprisingly short time by the standards of the day, he left with a prize of 300 francs for solo playing. This money financed the acquisition of an instrument of Carlo Giuseppe Testore, and a globe-trotting career as “the Paganini of the Double Bass” was launched. His fantasies on Lucia di Lammermoor, I puritani, Beatrice di Tenda and especially La sonnambula are virtuosic tours de force that ar

Giovanni Sgambati

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Giovanni Sgambati (28 May 1841 – 14 December 1914) was an Italian pianist and composer. Biography Born in Rome, to an Italian father and an English mother, Sgambati, who lost his father early, received his early education at Trevi, in Umbria, where he wrote some church music and obtained experience as a singer and conductor. In 1860 he settled in Rome, and took up the work of winning acceptance for the best German music, then little known in Italy. The influence and support of Franz Liszt, who was in Rome from 1861, was naturally of great advantage to him, and concerts were given in which Sgambati conducted as well as played the piano. His compositions at this period (1864–1865) included a quartet, two piano quintets, an octet, and an overture. He conducted Liszt’s Dante Symphony on 26 February 1866 at the opening of the Sala di Dante at the Palazzo Poli, with 27 of Filippo Bigioli’s paintings exhibited nearby. He made the acquaintance of Richard Wagner’s music for the first time in Munich, where he travelled in Liszt’s company. His first album of songs appeared in 1870 (Schott Music), and his first symphony was played at the Palazzo del Quirinale in 1881; this, as well as a piano

Giulio Briccialdi

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Giulio Briccialdi (1/2 March 1818 – 17 December 1881) was an Italian virtuoso flautist and composer, a technical innovator on his instrument and a professor of music. Briccialdi was born in Terni. He is commonly credited for inventing the B-flat (or “Briccialdi”) thumb key for the Boehm flute, but scholarship suggests that the innovation was Boehm’s first. He died in Florence. Biography Briccialdi was born in Terni, Italy, in the Papal States on 2 March 1818 and began studying flute with his father. After his father’s death, the 14-year-old Briccialdi moved to Rome to pursue a musical career and avoid family pressure to join the priesthood. His first appointment was to the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome at the age of 17. While in Rome he studied composition and, in 1835, began teaching flute at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. He then moved to Naples, where he was the flute teacher for the royal family. Over the next couple of years he worked in Naples and Milan, and was flute teacher to the king’s brother. Then in 1841 he toured Europe and America, finally settling in London the following year. In London he became a director of the instrument making firm Rudall and Rose and was

Giuseppe Bellenghi

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Giuseppe Bellenghi (1847 in Bologna – 17 October 1902 in Florence) was a virtuoso violoncellist and mandolinist, and composer. He was remembered in 1914 as “a devoted champion of the mandolin.” Bellinghi studied violoncello under “several well-known Italian masters,” including Teodulo and Jefte Sbolci. He gained a reputation as a cello virtuoso in Florence, and worked in important concerts in Bologna and Florence, and as first violoncellist in the theatres. He began to write for the mandolin, creating “light selections.” He first published with Ricordi in Milan, but later founded Forlivesi & Company Publishing in Florence, which was a major music publisher when he died in 1902, publishing more than 7000 musical compositions. Bellenghi’s own compositions were very numerous, and he published many lighter works under the name of G. B. Pirani. He wrote the comprehensive Method for the mandolin in three parts, which is published in four languages, French, English, Italian and German. He also wrote a series of daily exercises for the mandolin, entitled La ginnastica del mandolino, with the object of strengthening the fourth finger, and a volume of Ascending and descending major and minor

Giuseppe Branzoli

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Giuseppe Branzoli (1835 in Cento – 21 January 1909, in Rome) was a violinist, mandolinist, composer, author, educator at the Liceo Musicale di St. Cecilia in Rome, and the founder of the periodical IL mandolin Romano. His compositions were for violin, mandolin, flute and cello, as well as church music. He taught at Cento and Bologna and played first violin at the Theatre of Apollo Orchestra in Rome. Also played in the Theatre of Massimo in Rome. After his son died and he used music as a way to “stifle and conquer his grief”. He taught as a professor of stringed instruments at the college level and worked as a conductor of the Philharmonic Society. He also helped found the Liceo Musicale di St. Cecilia in Rome and taught as a professor of harmony there and worked as a librarian. Compositions He composed for the mandolin band. He also did operas, Torquato Tasso and Sorrento which were successful. Wrote an elegy for orchestra, A tear over the tome of Meyerbeer. *Une Larme sur la tombe de Gaetano Donizdth. Elegie pour violon avec accompagnement de piano par Giuseppe Branzole. Op. 51 (A Tear at the tomb of Gaetano Donizdth. Elegie for violin with piano accompaniment by Giuseppe Branzole

Giuseppe Buonamici

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Giuseppe Buonamici (19 February 1846 – 18 March 1914) was an Italian composer, pianist and musicologist. Life Grandson of the opera singer Ferdinando Ceccherini, Buonamici was born in Florence. He started very early his musical studies, and already at the age of 14 was an appreciated pianist, known by the stage name “Niccolini”. and in 1893 he was appointed by royal decree professor of piano at the musical institute of the city. He continued to give occasional concerts in Italy, Germany and England, where he performed for the Queen Victoria and had the privilege of being appointed honorary member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. References External links * *

Giuseppe Ceccherini

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Giuseppe Ceccherini (24 November 1829 – 2 November 1899) was an Italian composer and singing teacher. He was born in Florence, the son of Ferdinando Ceccherini (1792–1858), a noted tenor, composer, and the maestro di cappella of Florence’s principal cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. Like his father, Ceccherini served as the maestro di cappella of Santa Maria del Fiore for which he composed numerous pieces of sacred music. His compositions, long forgotten, were found in the cathedral’s archives, transcribed by the musicologist Gabriele Giacomelli and performed in a concert at the Cathedral in June 2004. Their style reflect his passion for Italian opera and sometimes had musical quotations from operatic scores such as his Verbum caro which contains melodies from Bellini’s opera Norma. For many years, Ceccherini was the professor of singing at the Regio Istituto Musicale di Firenze (now known as the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini) where his pupils included the sopranos Ida Isori, Zaira Zelli and Abigaille Bruschi-Chiatti. He also taught music and singing at the Istituto della Santissima Annunziata and the Conservatorio delle Mantellate in Florence. Ceccherini died in Florence at the ag

Giuseppe Lillo

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Giuseppe Lillo (26 February 1814 - 4 February 1863) was an Italian composer. He is best known for his operas which followed in the same vein of Gioachino Rossini. He also produced works for solo piano, a small amount of sacred music, and some chamber music. Life and career Born in Galatina in the Province of Lecce, Lillo was the son of conductor Giosuè Lillo. He received his earliest musical training from his father before entering the Naples Conservatory where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Giovanni Furno, piano with Francesco Lanza, and composition with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. His first composition, a mass for four voices and orchestra, premiered to a warm reception in 1834. As a composer Lillo primarily composed music for the stage. His first opera, La moglie per 24 ore, ossia L’ammalato di buona salute, premiered successfully at the Real Collegio di Musica during Carnival of 1834. He quickly gained a great deal of popularity with the Naples public with opera serias like Il gioiello (1835), Odda di Bernaver (1837), and Il conte di Chalais (1839). The pinnacle of his success came with his only opera comica, L’osteria di Andujar, which premiered in Fondo on 30 Septem

Giuseppe Puzone

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Giuseppe Puzone (12 February 1820 – 17 October 1914) was an Italian opera composer and conductor active in Naples, the city of his birth. He was for many years the principal conductor of the Teatro San Carlo where his opera Elfrida di Salerno had premiered in 1849. He composed three other operas, all of which premiered in Naples, as well as sacred and symphonic music. Life and career Puzone was born in Naples, the son of Raffaele and Maria (née Aveta) Puzone. He began his music studies at the age of 11 as an external student at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella where he initially studied singing under Niccolò Zingarelli. However, in order to be admitted to the conservatory as a scholarship student, he was required to master an instrument as well. He took up the oboe and became sufficiently proficient within 18 months to win a scholarship for full-time study. After further study under Ferrazzano and Rossi, he was admitted to the conservatory’s orchestra as second oboe, rapidly progressed to first oboe, and was then made a junior conductor. He went on to study piano under Francesco Lanza and composition and orchestration under Zingarelli, Donizetti, and Mercadante. Puzone made

Giuseppe Verdi

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Childhood and education#

Verdi, the first child of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini, was born at their home in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Taro department within the borders of the First French Empire. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo and Luigia as “innkeeper” and “spinner” respectively. Additionally, it lists Verdi as being “born yesterday”, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Following his mother, Verdi always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, the day he himself believed he was born. Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. She is said to have been his closest friend during childhood. From age four Verdi was given private lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi, and at six he attended the local school. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents finally provided him with a spinet. Verdi’s gift for music was already apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while, and taking organ lessons. After Baistrocchi’s death, Verdi, at the age of eight, became the official paid organist. Despite this early immersion in church life, Verdi developed a lifelong anticlericalism; in later years he reportedly warned his grandson, “Sta lontan dai pret” (‘Stay away from the priests.’). The music historian Roger Parker points out that both of Verdi’s parents belonged to families of small landowners and traders, certainly not the illiterate peasants from which Verdi later liked to present himself as having emerged… Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his son’s education…something which Verdi tended to hide in later life… T he picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by an ambitious father and of a sustained, sophisticated and elaborate formal education. In 1823, when he was 10, Verdi’s parents arranged for the boy to attend school in Busseto, enrolling him in a Ginnasio—an upper school for boys—run by Don Pietro Seletti, while they continued to run their inn at Le Roncole. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, covering the distance of several kilometres on foot. At age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the municipal music school and co-director of the local Società Filarmonica (Philharmonic Society). Verdi later stated: “From the ages of 13 to 18 I wrote a motley assortment of pieces: marches for band by the hundred, perhaps as many little sinfonie that were used in church, in the theatre and at concerts, five or six concertos and sets of variations for pianoforte, which I played myself at concerts, many serenades, cantatas (arias, duets, very many trios) and various pieces of church music, of which I remember only a Stabat Mater.” This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, and remains the leading source for his early life and career. Written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was , a wholesale grocer and distiller, who was described by a contemporary as a “manic dilettante” of music. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic. By June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By chance, when he was 13, Verdi was asked to step in as a replacement to play in what became his first public event in his home town; he was an immediate success mostly playing his own music to the surprise of many and receiving strong local recognition. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic: “none of us could rival him” reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè. An eight-movement cantata, I deliri di Saul, based on a drama by Vittorio Alfieri, was written by Verdi when he was 15 and performed in Bergamo. It was acclaimed by both Demaldè and Barezzi, who commented: “He shows a vivid imagination, a philosophical outlook, and sound judgment in the arrangement of instrumental parts.” In late 1829, Verdi had completed his studies with Provesi, who declared that he had no more to teach Verdi. At the time, Verdi had been giving singing and piano lessons to Barezzi’s daughter Margherita; by 1831, they were unofficially engaged. Verdi set his sights on Milan, then the cultural capital of northern Italy, where he applied unsuccessfully to study at the Conservatory. Barezzi made arrangements for him to become a private pupil of , who had been maestro concertatore at La Scala, and who described Verdi’s compositions as “very promising”. Lavigna encouraged Verdi to take out a subscription to La Scala, where he heard Maria Malibran in operas by Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. Verdi began making connections in the Milanese world of music that were to stand him in good stead. These included an introduction by Lavigna to an amateur choral group, the Società Filarmonica, led by Pietro Massini. Attending the Società frequently in 1834, Verdi soon found himself functioning as rehearsal director (for Rossini’s La Cenerentola) and continuo player. It was Massini who encouraged him to write his first opera, originally titled Rocester, to a libretto by the journalist Antonio Piazza.

Gordon Saunders

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Joseph Gordon Saunders MusD (183717 January 1912) was a composer of songs, church music and organ music. He was also a teacher of composition, piano, harmony and counterpoint at the Trinity College of Music. He was known to have conducted ensemble classes. Saunders studied with the organist and composer Edward John Hopkins at the Trinity College of Music, London, where he was one of the seven founding members of the college. As part of his role at the Trinity College of Music, Saunders was an examiner and in 1896 he travelled to Australia and New Zealand to conduct numerous graded music examinations in multiple cities, Adelaide, Melbourne, Ballarat, Tasmania, and Brisbane. He was an associate to the Philharmonic Society. * Memories (1868) – song. Verse by J. C. Harman, Esq. (Ashdown and Parry, London) * I will give thanks. Thanksgiving anthem (1868) * Festal March (1877) * The Lord Is in His Holy Temple – Anthem (printed 1881) * Polish Dance for pianoforte (1892) * Fugue in D-Minor (1897) * Prelude and Fugue (1897) *Saunders, Gordon (1899) Examples in strict counterpoint (old and new), Ewer Novello *Saunders, Gordon (1901) Examples in Strict Counterpoint: Part II *Saunders, Gordon

Guido Papini

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Guido Papini (1 August 1847 – 3 October 1912) was an Italian violinist, composer and teacher. During his career he lived in London and Dublin. Life Papini was born in Camaiore in 1847. He studied with Ferdinando Giorgetti in Florence, and gave his first concert there in 1860, playing Louis Spohr’s third violin concerto. For several years he was leader of the Società del quartetto in the city; in 1872 and 1874 he took part in concerts of the . From 1874 he lived in London; he took part in the Musical Union concerts of John Ella, playing in string quartets. He was a soloist at concerts of the Philharmonic Society in 1875, 1877, and 1878. In 1876, he appeared in Paris with an orchestra directed by Jules Pasdeloup. Compositions Papini’s published works include: * A violin concerto (Milan, 1876) and two cello concertos (Milan, 1874 and London, 1877) * Transcriptions for violin and piano * Violin tutors including Il Metodo per violino, reissued as Le Mécanisme du jeune violoniste Op.57 (London, 1883) * L’Argentine, Op.88 * 6 Characteristic Pieces, Op.100 * Adieux à Naples, Op.27 * 8 morceaux faciles, Op.57 * 3 Pieces, Op.102 * 2 Pieces, Op.205 * Theme and Variations, Op.37 References Ext

Guillermo Morphy

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Guillermo Morphy y Ferríz de Guzmán, best known as Conde de Morphy or Count Morphy (February 29, 1836, in Madrid – August 28, 1899, in Baden, Switzerland) was a Spanish aristocrat, music critic, musicologist, historian, educator, composer and politician. He became personal secretary to King Alfonso XII of Spain in 1875. He became a highly admired figure in artistic circles of late nineteenth century Madrid, and for his service to the Crown of Spain. He was a friend of Isaac Albéniz, for whom he arranged a grant to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He served as director of the Royal Concert Society at the Teatro Real in Madrid until 1891. Biography Born in Madrid on February 29, 1836, he was of Irish descent, son of Joseph Morphy. He spent his childhood traveling through France, Italy and Germany, among other countries, where he had a European renaissance education becoming a lover of art and literature. He lived for two years in Germany between 1846 and 1848. In 1858, he took over his father’s law firm. In 1863 he took classes under the composer François-Joseph Fétis in Brussels. When he returned he entered the Royal Palace of Madrid on November 28, 1863, as a gentleman

Gunnar Wennerberg

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Gunnar Wennerberg (2 October 1817 – 24 August 1901) was a Swedish poet, composer and politician. Biography Wennerberg was the son of the vicar of the town of Lidköping in Västergötland, went to gymnasium in the cathedral town of Skara, and matriculated as a student at Uppsala University in 1837, where he studied natural sciences, Classical philology, Philosophy and Aesthetics. He received his filosofie magister degree in 1845 and became a docent of Aesthetics in 1846. Wennerberg was remarkable in several ways, handsome in face and tall in figure, with a finely trained singing voice, and brilliant in wit and conversation. From the outset of his career he was accepted in the inner circle of men of light and leading for which the university was at that time famous. In 1843 he became a member of the musical club who called themselves The Juvenals, and for their meetings were written the trios and duets, music and words, which Wennerberg began to publish in 1846. In the following year appeared the earliest numbers of Gluntarne (or “The Boys”), thirty duets for baritone and bass, which continued to be issued from 1847 to 1850. The success of these remarkable productions, masterpieces in

Gustav Graben-Hoffmann

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Gustav Graben-Hoffmann (March 7, 1820, Bnin, Kórnik – May 20, 1900, Potsdam) was a German composer, singer, and music educator. He is best known for authoring two influential works on vocal pedagogy: Das Studium des Gesangs nach seinen musikalischen Elementen (Leipzig, 1872) and Praktische Methode als Grundlage für den Kunstgesang und eine allgemeine musikalische Bildung (Dresden, 1874). His best known composition was the ballad 500,000 Teufel. Life Gustav Heinrich Graben-Hoffmann was born on March 7, 1820, in Bnin, Kórnik. Graben-Hoffmann relocated to Berlin where he trained as a vocalist and composer and had a career as a concert singer from 1844 to 1848. Illness ended his singing career, and in 1850 he established a music academy for women, Vocal pedagogy Graben-Hoffmann is best known for his contributions to vocal pedagogy; publishing three works on the topic: Die Pflege der Singstimme und die Gründe von der Zerstörung und dem frühzeitigen Verlust derselben (Dresden, 1865), Das Studium des Gesangs nach seinen musikalischen Elementen (Leipzig, 1872), and Praktische Methode als Grundlage für den Kunstgesang und eine allgemeine musikalische Bildung (Dresden, 1874). Of these the la

Gustav Heuser

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Gustav Heuser (15 October 1817 – 8 October 1846 ) was a German composer and music journalist. Life Born in (today part of Sprockhövel), Heuser was the son of a teacher and attended the . There, he belonged to the youth friends of Friedrich Engels. On 18 March 1837 he left the Gymnasium to study at the Royal Music Institute of Berlin. At the same time, he took composition lessons with Adolf Bernhard Marx and was soon considered a great talent. In 1840 Engels wrote the opera libretto Cola di Rienzo, which Heuser did not set to music, however. Marx brought on August 3, 1841 in the Humboldt University of Berlin Chorwerke Heusers zur Aufführung. On 18 November 1841 Heuser was recommended by Marx to Robert Schumann. He addressed Schumann himself the same day and subsequently wrote several essays for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in which he discussed fundamental questions of contemporary music. His hope that Schumann could also help him to publish his compositions, however, was not fulfilled. On 22 August 1844, he paid Schumann a personal visit in Leipzig, during which his further collaboration for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik was probably discussed. Still in the issue of November 7,

Gustav Hölzel

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Gustav Hölzel (2 September 1813 – 3 December 1883) was an Austro-Hungarian bass-baritone and composer who sang in the opera-houses of Austria, Germany and elsewhere for nearly fifty years. He is principally remembered as the first Beckmesser in Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Early life He was born in Pest, Hungary, the son of the actor, singer and theatre director Nikolaus Alois Hölzel (1785–1848) who managed the Landestheater in Linz from 1819 until 1924. His mother Elisabeth Hölzel (née Umlauf) was an operatic contralto, daughter of composer Ignaz Umlauf, and sister of composer Michael Umlauf. At the age of sixteen, Gustav made his operatic debut in Sopron, and his career continued in Graz (1830–1832), the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna (1833–1837), and the Königsstädtisches Theater in Berlin (1837–1838). He pursued further training in Paris in 1838 before joining the Stadttheater Zürich where he was engaged from 1838 until 1840. But in 1863, while playing the role of Friar Tuck in Heinrich Marschner’s Der Templer und die Jüdin, Hölzel altered the words of the Friar’s song and was dismissed from the company. and his last stage appearance was in 1877 in the

Gustav Lange

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Gustav Lange (13 August 1830 – 20 July 1889) was a German composer known mainly for his melodious salon music for the piano. Life Lange was born in Schwerstedt, near Erfurt, Prussian Saxony, in 1830. He received initial musical training from his father on the piano and organ, followed by conservatory studies in piano, organ, thorough bass, and composition – probably at the Royal Institute for Church Music in Berlin. His teachers included August Wilhelm Bach, Eduard Grell, and Albert Löschhorn. He lived for many years in Berlin and died at Wernigerode in 1889. Music Encouraged by the success of some 1860s compositions, Lange produced a large number of works, most of which were light and popular piano pieces, of which he wrote around 500. Edelweiss op. 31 and Blumenlied op. 39 (alternatively known as Flower Song in English) are perhaps two of his best-known works today. A contemporary English source says: “Many of these pieces are very pleasing and pretty in character, but they are not marked by any very striking features”. Selected compositions (piano) * Lamentation d’une jeunne fille op. 10 * Farewell! op. 15 * Prière à la Madonne op. 17 * Fête militaire op. 18 * Le Retour de solda

Gustav Merkel

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Gustav Adolf Merkel (November 12, 1827, Oberoderwitz, Kingdom of Saxony – October 30, 1885, Dresden) was a German organist and composer. Having been given some lessons by Schumann in his youth, Merkel spent most of his career in Dresden, concentrating on organ-playing from 1858. A Lutheran himself, he nevertheless held an appointment at the Catholic Church of the Court of Saxony from 1864 until his death. During the same period he taught the organ at Dresden’s Conservatory. His compositions include nine organ sonatas (which have been recorded several times, as well as occurring quite often in organ recitals), of which the first sonata (Op.30) is written for two organists, and several dozen miniatures (some of them based on Protestant chorale melodies). In these works, his style is broadly conservative, very much influenced by Mendelssohn, and with similarities to the output of his younger contemporary Josef Rheinberger. He also produced choral and piano pieces; his salon piece “Schmetterling” (“Butterfly”), Op. 81, No. 4 is particularly well-known. Further reading * Paul Janssen, Gustav Merkel: Ein Bild seines Lebens und Wirkens (Leipzig, 1886). * Magdalene Saal, Gustav Adolf Merke

Gustav Nottebohm

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Martin Gustav Nottebohm (12 November 1817 – 29 October 1882) was a German musicologist, teacher and composer who spent most of his career in Vienna. He is particularly celebrated for his studies of Beethoven. Life and career Martin Gustav Nottebohm was born in Lüdenscheid, Westphalia on 12 November 1817. There, he studied composition and counterpoint under the renowned theorist Simon Sechter. In 1862 he met Brahms, who became a lifelong friend; Brahms cared for Nottebohm in his last illness and took care of the arrangements for his funeral. Nottebohm was a pioneer researcher in what are now described as ‘Beethoven studies’. He sought out Beethoven relics and produced an important ’thematic catalogue’ of Beethoven’s works. His greatest contribution, however, is probably his series of essays and commentaries on several of the musical ‘sketchbooks’ in which Beethoven notated and elaborated his initial ideas. The last of Nottebohm’s publications on this subject appeared posthumously in 1887, edited by his former pupil Mandyczewski. Nottebohm died on 29 October 1882 in Graz. Writing of Nottebohm’s investigations into Beethoven’s sketches, the later Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman evalua

Gustav Peter

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Gustav Peter (c. 1833 – 1919) was a composer of popular music. There is little known about the life of Gustav Peter. He is supposed to be Austrian or Hungarian but this is still unsure. Sometimes his name is also given as Gustav Heinrich Peter or Heinrich Gustav Peter. Gustav Peter is the composer of the widely popular piece of music Memory of Circus Renz that was published in 1894 with the original title Souvenir de Cirque Renz. Its musical form is a Galop and primarily it was written for xylophone, but later adapted to various kinds of instruments. It is one of the best-known examples of circus music. The work was composed at a time when fast dances such as the Galopp were popular in German light music, the xylophone was being rediscovered as an instrument, and Circus Renz was enjoying great popularity in Berlin. Thus, a number of Gustav Peter’s contemporaries composed similar works, most of which, however, have been forgotten today. External links * Souvenir de Cirque Renz historic music notes at the Landesbibliothek Coburg (Germany): Brass band • strings *Historic records: ** Souvenir de Renz Galopp (Dietrich), Albert Müller (Xylophon), Odeon No. 64765 : Online at gramofon.nava

Gustav Schreck

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Gustav Ernst Schreck (born 8 September 1849 in Zeulenroda; died 22 January 1918 in Leipzig) was a German music teacher, composer and choirmaster of St. Thomas School, Thomasschule zu Leipzig, in Leipzig from 1893 to 1918. Life Schreck was born in 1849, the son of a hosier, which was at that time a usual profession in the region of Vogtland where his family lived. The children were required to actively contribute to the maintenance of the family household. The monotonous activity was interspersed with singing while performing works in the Schreck home. The musical abilities of the young Gustav were encouraged by early piano lessons. From 1863 to 1867 he attended the teacher training college in Greiz and was a member of the student choir. Upon completion of training, he worked temporarily as a village schoolmaster in Gommla and Remptendorf, Germany. In 1868 he moved to Leipzig to study music and other subjects at the Conservatory in that city with the Thomas cantor Ernst Friedrich Richter. In 1870, the 21-year old joined his brother in Vyborg, Finland, where he taught music at the German School for four years. He returned to Leipzig in 1874 and took up work as a freelance composer an

Gustav Stolpe

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Gustav Erik Stolpe (26 September 1833 – 3 October 1901) was a Swedish-American composer, conductor, and performer. Career Stolpe was born in Torsåker Parish, Gästrikland, Sweden. He held the degree of Musikdirektör (music director) from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (now Royal College of Music in Stockholm). Stolpe is most frequently remembered as the composer of When Through the Torn Sail which was written with lyricist, Reginald Heber. In 1882 Stolpe was named to the faculty of Augustana College, in Rock Island, Illinois, where he remained on the faculty for 11 years. In a typical week, he would teach seven organ lessons, six violin lessons, and ten vocal lessons. His work papers are included in the Manuscript Collections in the Thomas Tredway Library at Augustana College. In 1893, he founded Dr. Stolpe’s Music Conservatory in Moline, Illinois, and headed it until 1897, when he left to become head of music at Upsala College in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Legacy Stolpe composed 38 operettas, 25 orchestral works, 25 pieces for brass band, and 25 piano solos. Family One of his sons, Rev. Dr. Johan Gustaf Mauritz Stolpe (1858–1938), had been the rector of Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran

Gustave Gagnon

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Gustave Adolphe Mathurin Gagnon (; 6 November 1842 – 19 November 1930) was a Canadian organist, composer, and music educator. Family background and education Born in Louiseville, Gagnon was from a prominent family of musicians in Québec City. He is the younger brother of composer Ernest Gagnon and the father of composer Henri Gagnon. His sister Élisabeth was married to pianist Paul Letondal with whom he studied the piano in Montreal from 1960 to 1964. In 1870 he studied in Paris with Charles-Alexis Chauvet (organ), Antoine François Marmontel (piano), and Marie-Auguste Durand (harmony), and under Félix-Etienne Ledent (piano) and Jean-Théodore Radoux (harmony) in Liège. He pursued further studies in Dresden and Leipzig during the summers of 1871 and 1872 with Benjamin Robert Papperitz (organ) and Louis Plaidy (piano). Career From 1864 to 1876, Gagnon was the organist of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church in Quebec City, having succeeded his brother in that position. He once again replaced his brother in 1876, taking over the role of organist at the Notre-Dame Basilica-Cathedral in Quebec City where he remained through 1915. He was a founding member of the choral society Union musicale de Qué

Gustave J. Stoeckel

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Gustave Jakob Stoeckel (November 9, 1819 – May 14, 1907) was a longtime music instructor and college organist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Biography Born in Maikammer, Bavarian Palatinate, Stoeckel graduated from the seminary in Kaiserslautern in 1838, and then pursued a post-graduate course in musical composition under Joseph Krebs. He was a teacher and organist until 1847, when he emigrated to the United States. He joined Yale University in 1849 when he became a music teacher there, and was appointed organist of Yale College Chapel. Yale gave him the degree of Mus.D. in 1864. He pioneered Yale’s program in music and was one of its first faculty. In 1868, he became the first faculty director of the Yale Glee Club, Yale’s oldest singing group, now a professionally led 80-voice choir of international fame. He held the position of organist at Yale’s chapel for over 30 years, beginning in 1860 until his resignation in May 1894. He made his last appearance as a professor of music performing preludes and postludes for the graduating class at the commencement exercises held in Battell Chapel on Sunday, June 24, 1894. Battell Chapel is named for Joseph Battell (1774–1841)

Gustave Lefèvre

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Victor Gustave Lefèvre (2 June 1831 in Provins – 17 March 1910 in his home in Boulogne-Billancourt ) was a French composer and music educator. Publications * Traité de contrepoint et du rythme (unpublished), * Traité d’harmonie (1889). In 1900 he founded La Nouvelle Maîtrise, a revival of the magazine formerly founded by Louis Niedermeyer. * Writing of the article about the Niedermeyer School of Classical Music for l’encyclopédie de la musique and the Dictionnaire du Conservatoire, by Albert Lavignac and Lionel de La Laurencie. Bibliography * Dictionnaire de la musique en France au XIXe under the guidance of Joël-Marie Fauquet (Fayard) * L’École Niedermeyer, sa création, son but, son développement by Maurice Galerne (Éditions Margueritat) * Dictionnaire national des contemporains Tome II, by C.E. Curinier, Paris (Office général d’édition) * Dossier Niedermeyer Rés. Dos 19, BNF * Documents légués à la ville de Provins Fonds ancien de la Ville de Provins References External links *

Gwilym Gwent

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Gwilym Gwent (born William Aubrey Williams on November 28, 1834) was a Welsh-born composer who immigrated in mid-life to the United States. He died on July 3, 1891. Early life William Aubrey Williams was born at Tredegar in 1834, where as a boy he sang in a choir with his uncle. Williams trained as a blacksmith, but as a young man moved to Blaenau Gwent where he became conductor of a local orchestra. He was one of the most popular and prolific composers in Wales in his time, composing “part-songs”, anthems and solos. In 1865, Williams won prizes for two compositions at the Aberystwyth eisteddfod, including a prize for a duet for female voices, and a ten-pound prize for his cantata, “Y Mab Afradlon”. With David Lewis (1828–1908), Williams edited Llwybrau Moliant, a collection of hymn-tunes for use by Welsh Baptists, a volume which contains several hymn-tunes of his own composition. Coal mines and music In 1872, Williams and his wife, Cecilia, emigrated from Wales. They settled at Plymouth, in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley, where (like many other Welsh immigrants) Williams found work in the anthracite coal mines. While working as a blacksmith at the Nottingham Colliery, he wrote musi

Halfdan Kjerulf

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Halfdan Kjerulf (17 September 181511 August 1868) was a Norwegian composer. Biography Kjerulf was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of a high government official. His early education was at Christiania University, for a legal career, but his studies ended in 1839 as a result of illness, and the next year he spent some time in Paris. Soon after his return his father and two siblings died and he took a job as a journalist at one of Oslo’s main newspapers, Den Constitutionelle where Andreas Munch (1811–1884) was editor and where Kjerulf worked until 1845. Kjerulf started his career as a music teacher and composer of songs before ever having seriously studied music at all, and not for ten years did he attract any particular notice. He was counted among those in the Modern Breakthrough movement in literature, painting and music which was replacing romanticism within Scandinavia. It was typified by the poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven, whose poems he set. In 1848 he studied with German musician and composer Carl Arnold (1794-1873), and after studying with Niels Gade (1817–1890) in Copenhagen, the Norwegian Government paid for a year’s instruction for him at Leipzig in 1

Hans Balatka

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Hans Balatka (March 5, 1827 – April 17, 1899) was an American conductor and composer. His efforts contributed much to the great increase in popularity of European classical music in the United States during the late 19th century. He began his musical career as conductor for singing societies. beginning in 1851. He produced several oratorios and operas, and conducted musical festivals in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. to become leader of the newly founded Philharmonic Society of Chicago. In 1867 he became director of the Germania Männerchor, and in the same year conducted the group at Nord-Amerikanischer Sängerbund held in Indianapolis, where they performed the works of Franz Abt. In 1868, he directed a musical festival at Chicago, which was pronounced the greatest that had been held in this country up to that time. Works Balatka’s compositions are few in number. Besides his addition of a climax to Chopin’s “Funeral March,” in place of its abrupt ending, he composed a grand aria for soprano with accompaniment, a piano quartet, a sonata, and several songs. He was the author of A Condensed History of Music (1888), A History of Orchestra Music in Chicago, and

Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff

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Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf (11 February 18303 November 1913) was a classical musician and composer who studied under Franz Liszt. Biography Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf (also called Hans von Bronsart) was born into a Prussian military family, to the lieutenant general . He was educated at Berlin University and studied piano with Adolph Jullack. He went to Weimar in 1853 where he met Franz Liszt and became familiar with all the musicians in Liszt’s circle at the time, including Hector Berlioz and Johannes Brahms. It is a measure of his close relationship with Liszt that it was he who played the solo part in the first Weimar performance of Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto, with the composer conducting. When the concerto was published, Liszt dedicated it to Bronsart. After having trained for several years with Liszt, he worked as a conductor in Leipzig and Berlin, and then took the post of general manager of the Royal Theatre in Hanover from 1867 to 1887. He held a similar post in Weimar from 1887 until his retirement in 1895. He met his second wife Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf (née Ingeborg Lena Starck) (1840–1913), also a composer, in Weimar. They married in 1861. Bronsart von

Hans Christian Lumbye

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Hans Christian Lumbye (; 2 May 1810 – 20 March 1874) was a Danish composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and galops, among other things. Life and career As a child, he studied music in Randers and Odense, and by age 14 he was playing the trumpet in a military band. In 1829, he joined the Horse Guards in Copenhagen, still continuing his music education. In 1839, he heard a Viennese orchestra play music by Johann Strauss I, after which he composed in the style of Strauss, eventually earning the nickname “The Strauss of the North”. From 1843 to 1872, he served as the music director and in-house composer for Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen. Such was his popularity in the Danish capital that many Danes revered him and considered Johann Strauss II as the “Lumbye of the South”. Works Lumbye is best known for his light compositions, many of which evoke non-musical sources. The Champagne Galop, for example, begins with the “pop” of a champagne cork, and the Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop faithfully recreates the sounds of a train chugging out of a station and grinding to a halt at the next stop. He honored the Swedish Nightingale with a “Souvenir de Jenny Lind, Vals” from 1845. Galops * Jubel-Gal

Hans Schläger

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Hans (Johann) Schläger (5 December 1820 – 17 May 1885) was an Austrian conductor and composer, important in the musical life of Salzburg in the 1860s. He was particularly involved in choral music. Life Schläger was born in Feldkirchen an der Donau, Upper Austria, in 1810. His father Johann Schläger, a teacher, gave him early music lessons, and he was a choirboy at St. Florian Monastery, where he received violin lessons. In Linz he trained from 1836 to 1838 to be a teacher; he became an assistant teacher in Regau, and afterwards in Sankt Florian, where he was the predecessor of Anton Bruckner. (Bruckner dedicated his early choral work Das Lied vom deutschen Vaterland, written in 1845, to Schläger). From 1845 to 1847 he studied composition under Gottfried von Preyer at Vienna Conservatory, and later studied singing at the in Vienna. From 1854 to 1861 he was director of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (“Vienna Men’s Choral Society”); as its director he won a prize at the Singing Festival in Nuremberg in 1861. In 1868 he married Countess Pauline von Oldershausen (born Countess von Zichy-Vásonykeő). He resigned from his offices and devoted himself to composition. He was adviser to the pu

Hans Sommer (composer)

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Hans Sommer (born 20 July 1837 in Braunschweig (Brunswick) – 26 April 1922 in Braunschweig) was a German composer and mathematician. Sommer was born Hans Friedrich August Zincke in Braunschweig in 1837. Before going into music full-time, Sommer, who had studied mathematics and physics in Braunschweig and Göttingen, was also a noted mathematician. He served as the director of the Braunschweig University of Technology, where he taught mathematics, from 1875 to 1881. He was most successful as a composer for the theatre. Several of his operas used librettos based on fairy tales and were first produced at Brunswick: Der Nachtwächter (1865), Loreley (1891), Rübezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neisse (1904), Riquet mit dem Schopf (1907) and Der Waldschratt (1912).Saint Foix, a one-act opera, was given at Munich in 1894 and Der Meermann at Weimar in 1896; Der Vetter aus Bremen (1865), Augustin (1898) and Münchhausen (1896–8) were not performed. His incidental music to Hans von Wolzogen’s Das Schloss der Herzen (1891) was first performed in 1897 in Berlin, in concert form. He placed great importance on the literary quality of his librettos, and corresponded with numerous librettists and compos

Hans von Bülow

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Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (; 8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt’s daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States. Life and career Bülow was born in Dresden into the old and prominent House of Bülow. He was the son of novelist and his wife, Franziska Elisabeth Stoll von Berneck. From the age of nine, he was a student of Professor Friedrich Wieck (the father of Clara Schumann). However, his parents insisted that he study law instead of music, and they sent him to Leipzig. There he met

Harvey B. Dodworth

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Harvey B. Dodworth (November 16, 1822 – January 24, 1891) was a bandmaster and conductor of the 13th Regiment Band as well as the Dodworth Band, and was the first person in the United States to arrange Richard Wagner’s music for military bands. He conducted with a band of sixty musicians in between salutes and boxing matches, as well as opening in Madison Square Garden, in which he had plans to lease in 1879 to turn it into a “music garden”, where he would conduct a 123-piece band. Dodworth’s band also had free weekly concerts in Central Park, which drew large crowds. Formative years He was born in Sheffield, England, and played the piccolo at the age of ten in the New York Park Theater. He played for 51 years in his father’s band until October 1890. Music compositions created *“Captain Ellis’ artillery quick step.” New York, New York: Firth & Hall, 1846. *“Friendship’s offering.” New York, New York: Firth, Hall, and Pond, 1846. *“Santa Clause quadrilles.” New York, New York: Firth, Hall, and Pond, 1846. *The woodbine." New York, New York: Firth, Hall, and Pond, 1847. *“The Mercer House medley.” New York, New York: Wm. Hall and Son, 1848. *“Diligent Hose Co. quick step.” New York,

Hector Berlioz

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1803–1821: early years#

Berlioz was born on 11 December 1803, the eldest child of (1776–1848), a physician, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette Joséphine, née Marmion (1784–1838). His birthplace was the family home in the commune of La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, in south-eastern France. His parents had five more children, three of whom died in infancy; their surviving daughters, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout their lives. Berlioz’s father, a respected local figure, was a progressively minded doctor credited as the first European to practise and write about acupuncture. He was an agnostic with a liberal outlook; his wife was a strict Roman Catholic of less flexible views. After briefly attending a local school when he was about ten, Berlioz was educated at home by his father. He recalled in his Mémoires that he enjoyed geography, especially books about travel, to which his mind would sometimes wander when he was supposed to be studying Latin; the classics nonetheless made an impression on him, and he was moved to tears by Virgil’s account of the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas in the Aeneid. Later he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and – because his father planned a medical career for him – anatomy. Music did not feature prominently in the young Berlioz’s education. His father gave him basic instruction on the flageolet, and he later took flute and guitar lessons with local teachers. He never studied the piano, and throughout his life played haltingly at best. At the age of twelve Berlioz fell in love for the first time. The object of his affections was an eighteen-year-old neighbour, Estelle Dubœuf. He was teased for what was seen as a boyish infatuation, but something of his early passion for Estelle endured all his life. He poured some of his unrequited feelings into his early attempts at composition. Trying to master harmony, he read Rameau’s Traité de l’harmonie, which proved incomprehensible to a novice, but Charles-Simon Catel’s simpler treatise on the subject made it clearer to him. He wrote several chamber works as a youth, subsequently destroying the manuscripts, but one theme that remained in his mind reappeared later as the A-flat second subject of the overture to Les Francs-juges.

Hector Monréal

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Hector Monréal (17 July 1839 – 20 May 1910) was a French illustrator, chansonnier and playwright, mostly known for his song “Frou-frou”. Career A draftsman at the French Ministry of War, he left this position in 1862 to engage as an actor for the Paris’s Théâtre Montmartre (1862–1864). He then became a cartoonist at Paris’s Le Petit Journal where he made the summary-signs posted every morning at the newspaper’s door. He then embarked into theatrical writing with Henri Blondeau. For forty years, their plays were interpreted on the most important Parisian stages of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Théâtre des Variétés, Théâtre du Château-d’Eau, Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, etc. Several of his songs were recorded and interpreted by Suzy Delair, Berthe Sylva, Bourvil or Line Renaud inter alia. Works *1863: Les Oranges de mon étagère, chansonnette, music by Henri Cellot *1865: Ça n’coûte que deux sous ! grrrrande revue du moment déroulée tous les soirs par Heudebert au Café-concert du boulevard du Temple, with Blondeau *1867: Les Garçons charcuitiers !, poésie bachique et mélodique *1867: Les Marchands de bois, vaudeville in one act, with Saint-Yves *1867: Le Trombonne guérisse

Heinrich Ehrlich

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Alfred Heinrich Ehrlich (5 October 1822, in Vienna – 30 December 1899, in Berlin) was a Jewish pianist, composer and writer on music. As a composer, he came forward with a Piano Concerto and Piano Variations on an Original Theme, being one of the first composers to collect Romanian folk melodies. Life Ehrlich finished his high school of music under the leadership of Adolf Henselt, Carl Maria von Bocklet, and Sigismund Thalberg and composition with Simon Sechter. From 1840 to 1844 he performed in Hungary, Romania and Vienna. In 1848, he became correspondent for the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, pianist of King George V of Hanover in 1852, moving to Wiesbaden in 1855. Two years later he went to England and finally settled in Berlin in 1862. There he acquired an excellent reputation as a piano player of Beethoven’s compositions. From 1864 to 1872 he was a piano teacher at the Stern Conservatory. Among his pupils were , and Felix Dreyschock, Severin Eisenberger, the critic , and Wilibald Nagel. In addition to his teaching activities, he was in Berlin a political correspondent for the magazines Nordic bee (Russian newspaper, in 1862 and later), Vossische Zeitung (1867–69) and L’Indepen

Heinrich Esser

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Heinrich Joseph Esser (15 July 1818 – 3 June 1872) was a German violinist, influential conductor and composer. Biography Heinrich Esser was born in Mannheim. He got musical instruction by Franz Lachner who was court conductor in Mannheim from 1834. Esser followed Lachner to Munich in 1836 and went to Vienna in 1839 in order to complete his studies under Simon Sechter. In 1840, he had a position as court conductor at the National Theatre Mannheim, but left for his new appointment as a conductor of the singing society in Mainz during the following year. During his time in Mainz, Esser was teacher in music composition of Peter Cornelius. In 1847, Esser became conductor at the Vienna Court Opera which he directed temporarily in 1860/1861. He also became an honorary member of the Vienna Men’s Choral Association in 1859 and conducted concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. In the course of his activities as a consultant for the publisher Franz Schott, Esser got in contact with Richard Wagner in 1859, whose musical works he strongly supported. (He directed the Viennese first performance of Lohengrin in 1858). In late 1869, Esser retired and moved to Salzburg where he died of tuberculosis in

Heinrich von Herzogenberg

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Heinrich Picot de Peccaduc, (10 June 1843 – 9 October 1900) was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. He was born in Graz and was educated at a Jesuit school in Feldkirch and also in Munich, Dresden and Graz before studying law, philosophy and political science at the university of Vienna. He soon turned his energies to music and attended the composition classes of Felix Otto Dessoff until 1864. Early on he was attracted to the music of Richard Wagner, but after studying J. S. Bach’s works he became an adherent of the classical tradition and an advocate for the music of Brahms. In 1866 he married Elisabeth von Stockhausen, who had been a piano pupil of Brahms; Brahms’s letters to and from both Herzogenbergs form one of the most delightful sections of his correspondence. They lived in Graz until 1872, when they moved to Leipzig. In 1874, with the Bach scholar Philipp Spitta, Herzogenberg founded the Leipzig Bach-Verein, which concerned itself with the revival of Bach’s cantatas. Herzogenberg was its artistic director for ten years, during which time Ethel Smyth was one of his composition pupils. From 1885 he was Professor of Composition at t

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst

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Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (8June 18128 – October 1865) was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. He was seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Niccolò Paganini’s greatest successors. He contributed to polyphonic playing and discovered new ways to compose polyphonic violin music. His most famous, and technically difficult, compositions include the sixth of his Polyphonic Studies “Die letzte Rose”, and Grand Caprice on Schubert’s “Erlkönig”. Biography Ernst was born in Brno, Moravia on 8 June 1812. He began playing violin at the age of 9, and attended the Vienna Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde from 1825, studying violin under Joseph Böhm and Joseph Mayseder, and composition under Ignaz von Seyfried. In 1828, Niccolò Paganini visited Vienna. Ernst heard him and was deeply impressed by his violin playing. It is said that Ernst then played for Paganini who predicted a brilliant career for him. Paganini gave 14 concerts in Vienna, and Ernst attended many of these to observe the master. In April 1829, Ernst left Vienna for Munich for an employment in the royal orchestra, but Paganini advised him to aim for something higher. After that, Ernst play

Hélène Robert-Mazel

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Hélène Robert-Mazel (active 1832-1857) was a French composer, pianist, singer and teacher. She composed songs, a cantata, and educational pieces for children. Her works were listed through at least opus 9. Little is known about Robert-Mazel other than her concert appearances and publications. She performed as a pianist and singer, frequently using her own compositions, at the Strasbourg Theater; “Mrs. Long’s” residence in Berkeley Square in London; and at the Salons de Pape and other venues in Paris. Contemporary reviews noted that she “. . . achieved incredible feats as a singer, as well as a piano player and composer.” Robert-Mazel set texts by several authors to music and collaborated (probably in performance) with the brothers Alexandre and Théophile Tilmant (cello and violin), the horn player Louis-François Dauprat, and the singer Laure Cinti-Damoreau. She settled in Montpellier, France, around 1850, where she taught voice and piano, mainly to children. Robert-Mazel’s works were published by Alexandre Cotelle They included: Books *Guide Musical de L’enfance Piano *Album (1839) *Album: Ballades, Melodies et Romances (1837; text by Felix Solar) *Eight Romances (published as Albu

Henri Berger

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Henry Berger (sometimes spelled Henri Berger; August 4, 1844 – October 14, 1929) was a Prussian-born Kapellmeister, composer, and royal bandmaster of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1872 to 1915. Biography Berger was born Heinrich August Wilhelm Berger in Berlin, and became a first-rate musician as a member of the army band in the 2nd Foot Guards of the Prussian Army. He played in the orchestras of Johann Strauss, Jr. across Europe. Originally, Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany loaned Berger from his Potsdam station to King Kamehameha V to conduct the king’s band. He arrived in Honolulu in June 1872, fresh from service in the Franco-Prussian War. In 1877, King Kalākaua appointed Berger to full leadership of the Royal Hawaiian Band. In 1879, he became a naturalized citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Berger befriended the future Queen Liliʻuokalani, a composer in her own right. Berger arranged the songs she wrote, performed by the brass band. On August 4, 1881, while traveling the world, King Kalākaua reported in a letter from Berlin to Regent Liliʻuokalani, that he had met the mother and sister of Berger and announced the sending of a program whose pieces Berger was to play with the Royal Hawai

Henri Duparc (composer)

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Eugène Marie Henri Fouques Duparc (21 January 1848 – 12 February 1933) was a French composer of the late Romantic period. He is best known for his mélodies (“art songs”). Biography Son of Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita, Henri Fouques-Duparc was born in Paris. He studied piano with César Franck at the Jesuit College in the Vaugirard district and became one of his first composition pupils. Following military service in the Franco-Prussian War, he married Ellen MacSwiney, from Scotland, on 9 November 1871. In the same year, he joined Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine to found the Société nationale de musique. Duparc is best known for his 17 mélodies (“art songs”), with texts by poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and Goethe. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as “neurasthenia”, caused him abruptly to cease composing at age 37, in 1885. He devoted himself to his family and his other passions, drawing and painting. He served as mayor of Marnes-la-Coquette from 1884 to 1885. But increasing vision loss after the turn of the century eventually led to total blindness. He destroyed most of his music, leaving fewer than 40 works to posterity. In a poignant lette

Henri Ghys

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

Esprit Charles Henri Ghys (17 March 1839 – 24 April 1908) was a French pianist, organist, composer and arranger of Belgian parentage, who is primarily known today as the first piano teacher of Maurice Ravel. Life and music Henri (sometimes: Henry) Ghys was born in Toulon, department Var, in the south of France. His father was the Belgian violinist and composer Joseph Ghys (Ghent, 1801 – Saint Petersburg, 1848). He studied with Antoine Marmontel at the Paris Conservatory where he gained a First Prize for his piano playing in 1854 aged 15, having won a Second Prize in the previous year, and a “1er Accessit” on the organ in 1855. For five years starting 31 May 1882, Ghys taught the piano to the young Maurice Ravel. Ravel’s biographer Arbie Orenstein related that he preserved in his library a copy of the Ghys composition Air du Roi Louis XIII “with the following dedication: ’transcribed specially for four hands, for his little pupil Maurice Ravel, by his professor Henry Ghys, Paris, August 30, 1882.’” Ravel seems to have remained in touch with Ghys even after the period of tuition: On 15 February 1892 they performed together the Andante and Variations, Op. 46 for two pianos by Robert S

Henri Gobbi

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Henri Gobbi ( or Henrik Aloiz Adalbert Gobby – or Henri Gobbi-Ruggieri), was a 19th-century Hungarian classical composer and piano professor. He was also a student and close friend of Franz Liszt. Many of Henri Gobbi’s most important works still remain unpublished to date. Gobbi had two children with Elisabeth Grimshaw. His daughter Gisela later became the second wife of Dr. Julius Adrian Pollacsek, while Franz Liszt took the sponsorship for his son Franz Xaver. the son of Alois Gobbi-Ruggieri ( – ) and Mary Gobbi-Ruggieri (née Roth, or Rott). His father was also a very talented musician and violin professor in Budapest who had come from an aristocratic Italian-Paduan family. After his marriage to a Viennese woman Mária Rott (Roth), he settled in Hungary. His eldest son, Henri Gobbi showed in childhood an extraordinary musical talent, playing violin at the age of seven and later the piano. At the age of 18 he had already become part of the then well-known trio Grünwald-Müller-Gobbi, where he played the piano part. He graduated from the Royal Conservatory, having studied with musicians János Nepomuk Dunkl and music theory and harmony classes with Károly Thern. But his financial prob

Henri Ketten

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

Henri Ketten, also spelled Henry Ketten in English-language publications (25 March 1848 – 1 April 1883 ), was a Hungarian pianist and composer. Life and work Ketten was the son of a Jewish father, who, according to a contemporary report, was himself a musician and is variously described either as a Rabbi or—more commonly in the sources—as a “ministre officiant” including service at a synagogue in Paris. At the age of seven, Henri gained recognition as a child prodigy and received praise from Hans von Bülow (although not all critics agreed with this assessment ), who recommended him to Liszt. Press articles even promoted Ketten as a “second Mozart”, Ketten’s first concert in Paris is said to have taken place in the salon of Herz in the presence of the city’s musical elite. Those present, including Fromental Halévy and Giacomo Meyerbeer, reportedly praised the ten-year-old’s performance. A contemporary Hungarian newspaper report also relayed a favourable opinion by Franz Liszt and Daniel Auber. A portrait of the young Ketten, based on a lithograph by Émile Desmaisons , appeared in 1859 in The Illustrated London News under the heading “Master Henri Ketten”, in connection with a favour

Henri Maréchal

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Henri Maréchal (22 January 1842 – 12 May 1924) was a French composer. Life Born in Paris, Maréchal studied music theory with Émile Chevé and Édouard Batiste and piano with Louis Chollet. On the advice of Alexis de Castillon, he entered the composition class of Victor Massé at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he also studied organ with François Benoist and counterpoint with Charles-Alexis Chauvet. In 1870 he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata Le Jugement de Dieu . After the stay in the villa Medici in Rome associated with the prize, he made his debut as a composer in Paris with the “poème sacré” La Nativité (1875). He then composed several operas, ballets and dramatic music, another “drame sacré”, choral and orchestral works, songs, chamber music pieces and motets. His first opera Les Amoureux de Catherine was performed for the hundredth time in 1889 and was given until 1920. Maréchal’s compositional style is often characterized by chromaticism, his musical expression simple, but dramatic and effective. He also wrote music-critical articles for Le Figaro and published several volumes of Memories and in 1910 the Monographie universelle de l’Orphéon. He corresponded

Henri Vieuxtemps

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Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (; 17 February 18206 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. He is also known for playing what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin of superior workmanship. Biography Vieuxtemps was born in Verviers, Belgium (then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands), son of a weaver and amateur violinist and violin-maker. He received his first violin instruction from his father and a local teacher and gave his first public performance at the age of six, playing a concerto by Pierre Rode. Soon he was giving concerts in various surrounding cities, including Liège, La Haye and Brussels where he met the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot, with whom he began studies. In 1829, Bériot took him to Paris where he made a successful concert debut, again with a concerto by Rode, but he had to return the next year because of the July Revolution and Bériot’s marriage to his mistress Maria Malibran and departure on concert tour. Back in Brussels, Vieuxtemps continued developing his violin tec

Henriette Wienecke

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Sigrid Ingeborg Henriette Wienecke ( Stadfeldt; March 13, 1819 – April 18, 1907) was a Norwegian-Danish composer who produced over 140 psalms and musical pieces. Biography Wienecke was born in Frederikshald, Norway to Asgeir Johnson Stadfeldt (1786-1831) and Anna Bruun Tordenskjold (1781-1848). Wienecke moved to Oslo with her mother after the death of her father, and in 1834 married her singing teacher, Friedrich Ferdinand Wienecke (1809-1877), who was employed by the Christiania Theater; the couple had one daughter, who died as an infant. Wienecke wanted to become an actress, but her husband did not consider it suitable for a person of her social class. She did, however, take piano lessons. The couple moved, with her mother, to Copenhagen in 1839, where both Friedrich and Henriette unsuccessfully tried to get jobs at the Royal Theater. In 1840, she moved permanently to Copenhagen with her mother and husband. In 1848, after having lost her mother, she retired from social life, had a religious conversion, and started to compose psalms, and songs based on texts by Hans Christian Andersen and others. She and her husband became followers of N.F.S. Grundtvig and Nicolai Gottlieb Blædel

Henrique Luís Levy

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Henrique Luís Levy (1829–1896), alternatively spelled Henrique Louis Levy, was a French clarinetist, composer and businessman. He immigrated to Brazil in 1848 and founded , a leading music store in São Paulo. Biography Levy was born on 10 December 1829 in Dehlingen, France. He fled to Switzerland in 1848 to escape anti-Semitic riots before immigrating to Brazil later the same year. Levy died on 14 August 1896 in São Paulo. Personal life Levy was married to Anne Marie Teodoreth of Switzerland. The couple had three children, including Alexandre Levy (1864–1892) and Luís Levy (1861–1935), who were also musicians. References External links * * Casa Levy Pianos website

Henry Charles Banister

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Henry Charles Banister (13 June 1831 – 20 November 1897) was an English composer, music theorist and author. Banister was born in London, the son of Henry Joshua Banister (1803-1847), a cellist. He first attracted attention as a boy singer, performing Walpurgisnacht at a private concert with Mendelssohn accompanying. From 1847 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Cipriani Potter, and went on to teach at the academy in Tenterden Street, Hanover Square for over 46 years. From 1880 he was also a professor at the Guildhall School of Music, and taught at the Royal Normal College for the Blind in Upper Norwood. He was known for his compositions and for his writings on music. There were four symphonies (1847, 1848, 1850 and 1858), five overtures, a fantasy for piano and orchestra, cantatas, chamber music, piano music and songs. Its manuscript was acquired by the Bodleian Library in 2019. His string quartet in F sharp minor was first heard at a Society of British Musicians concert held in Erat’s Harp Saloon, 23 Berners Street, on 29 December 1847. Lectures on Musical Analysis (1887) and Interludes (1898) are collections of his lectures. Banister was living at 21, Gloucester Cresce

Henry Christian Timm

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Henry Christian Timm (July 11, 1811 – September 5, 1895) was a German-born American pianist, conductor, and composer. Biography Timm was born in Hamburg. He worked in New York City as a concert pianist, teacher, organist, and chamber musician. He also helped conduct the New York Philharmonic and served as the president of the city’s Philharmonic Society from 1847 to 1864. He composed a Great Mass and many part songs, besides transcribing the works of other composers into versions for two pianos. He died in New York. References

Henry Clay Work

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Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832, Middletown – June 8, 1884, Hartford) was an American songwriter and composer. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the Union in the Civil War—songs documenting the afflictions of slavery, the hardships of army life, and Northern triumphs in the conflict. Besides patriotic pieces, he composed sentimental ballads, some of which promoted the growing temperance movement. Many of Work’s compositions were performed at minstrel shows and Civil War veteran reunions. Although largely forgotten nowadays, he was one of the most successful musicians of his time, comparable to Stephen Foster and George F. Root in sales and sheer influence. Work’s father, Alanson, was an abolitionist who strove to free fugitive slaves. While a youth, Henry initiated a career in printing, one that lasted his entire life. Although lacking formal music training, his passion for song manifested itself early on as he wrote poems for newspapers. Work first published a complete musical piece in 1853, whose moderate success drove him to pursue songwriting further. His career came of age at the Civil War’s outbreak; Work collaborated with the Chicagoan publishing firm R

Henry Farmer

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Henry Farmer (13 May 1819 – 25 June 1891) was a British organist and composer based in Nottingham. Life He was born in Nottingham, the third son of Mr. John Farmer. He was self-taught as a musician, but undertook some study in harmony with Sir Henry Bishop, and tuition under J. Wade Thirlwall. He played violin in the orchestra when Felix Mendelssohn conducted his oratorio Elijah was premiered in Birmingham at the Triennial Music Festival on 26 August 1846. He was organist of High Pavement Chapel in Nottingham from 1839 to 1879, and he was conductor of the Nottingham Harmonic Society from 1866 to 1880. He published a violin tutor early in his life. His Mass in B flat was sketched by him in 1843 and published in 1847. In later life he composed Six Short and Easy Trios for Violin, and an anthem, “I will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord”. He was a member of the Robin Hood Battalion from 7 April 1860 to 30 March 1878, ending up as captain. He married Jane Walker Thompson (1820-1846) on 7 July 1842 in St Mary’s Church, Nottingham. There were three children: *Henry Purcell Farmer (1843-1850) *Kate Neville Farmer (1845-1918) *Arthur Thompson Farmer (1846-1847) He married secondly Anne Bards

Henry Gordon Thunder, Sr.

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Henry Gordon Thunder, Sr. (10 February 1832, Tipperary - 15 December 1881, Philadelphia) was an Irish-born American organist, pianist, conductor, composer, music arranger, and music educator. Raised and educated in Dublin, he immigrated to the United States and began his career in the late 1840s as an organist in Baltimore, Maryland. He spent most of his career working as the organist and choirmaster at St. Augustine Church in Philadelphia while simultaneously teaching at a music academy he founded in that city. He also held organist posts at Saint Clement’s Church, Philadelphia and the Church of St. Stephen the Martyr in Manhattan. At the time of his death The New York Times stated that " Thunder arranged and composed a great deal of music for the Catholic Church service, and stood in the front ranks of the organists and pianists in this country." He should not be confused with his son, the organist, composer, and conductor Henry Gordon Thunder, Jr. (1865-1958). His uncle was Henry St John, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke. He immigrated to the United States where he settled in Baltimore, Maryland. On September 30, 1877 he gave a recital of music by Mozart, Haydn, and Handel at St. Stephe

Henry Hiles

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Henry Hiles (31 December 1826 – 20 October 1904) was an English composer, organist, writer and music educator. Early life and education Born in Shrewsbury, Hiles was the youngest of six sons and was first taught music by his eldest brother, John Hiles (1810-1882), known as an arranger of organ music and for authoring several catechisms. Much later in life he undertook formal musical studies at the University of Oxford, where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 1862 and his Mus.Doc. in 1867. In 1882 he was a founder of the Society of Professional Musicians. Hiles was much in demand as a choral conductor in Manchester, Preston and Warrington, and at the Manchester Athenaeum Musical Society. Composer His compositions include oratorios and cantatas including David (1860), The Patriarchs (1872), Watchfulness (for female voices and orchestra), Fayre Pastoral and The Crusaders. Other works include the “serious glee” Hushed in Death, which was performed by the Manchester Gentlemen’s Glee Club in 1878, church music (including 14 anthems), the operetta, War in the Household (1885), the concert overtures Youth and Harold (1893), and various works for organ, including six impromptus and

Henry Holmes (composer)

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Henry Holmes (7 November 1839 9 December 1905) was a British violinist, composer, and music educator. His compositional output includes a violin concerto, several works for solo violin, five symphonies, a concert overture, two sacred cantatas for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, and other chamber and choral works. Biography Born in London, Holmes was the 2 year younger brother of violinist and composer Alfred Holmes. Both men studied the violin initially with their father and then at the Spohr’s Violin School. The brothers made their professional debut together when Henry was just eight years old, performing in concert as duettists at the Haymarket Theatre on 13 July 1847. They then toured throughout Europe to much acclaim and violinist/composer Louis Spohr dedicated his three violin duos to them. The brothers parted ways in 1864, with Alfred settling in Paris and Henry remaining in London. Composition His works include two sacred cantatas – Praise Ye the Lord and Christmas Day (Gloucester, 1880), as well as O may I join the choir invisible for baritone solo, chorus and strings. Of the symphonies only the last two have survived. The first (in A, op. 32) was given at the Crystal

Henry Hugh Pierson

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Henry Hugh Pierson (12 April 1815 – 28 January 1873) was an English composer resident from 1845 in Germany. He was born Henry Hugh Pearson and his middle name is sometimes given as Hugo. His original name was Henry Hugh Pearson, in Germany he used Heinrich Hugo Pierson. He had success in his adopted country with his operas and songs but little in his own, and his music is now rarely performed. Life Pierson was the son of a clergyman, Rev. Dr. Hugh Nicholas Pearson. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied counterpoint with Thomas Attwood Walmisley. From 1839 to 1844 he studied music in Germany under C. H. Rink, Tomaschek and Reissiger. He also studied in Prague with Václav Tomášek. His amorous adventures included an apparent liaison with Mary Shelley, before he married in 1844. Although elected Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University in 1844 he was made to resign when he did not take up his duties and subsequently based himself in Germany. Hubert Parry took lessons with him in 1867. Compositions (selective list) Many of Pierson’s manuscript full and vocal scores, including those of his oratorios and operas, appear not to have survive

Henry Litolff

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Henry Charles Litolff (6 February 1818 – 5 August 1891) was a French and British virtuoso pianist, composer of Romantic music, and music publisher born in London. A prolific composer, he is today known mainly for a single brief work – the scherzo from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4 in D minor – and remembered as the founder of the Collection Litolff (today part of Edition Peters), a highly regarded publishing imprint of classical music scores. Biography Litolff was born in London in 1818 to a Scottish mother, Sophie (née Hayes), and a father, Martin Louis Litolff, from Alsace. The father, a violinist, had been previously taken prisoner of war while serving as a band musician in the Napoleonic army during the Peninsular War. His father taught the boy Henry the rudiments of music, and in 1830, when he was twelve, he played for the renowned virtuoso pianist Ignaz Moscheles, who was so impressed that he gave him free lessons starting that same year. Litolff began to concertize when he was fourteen. His lessons with Moscheles continued until in 1835, at the age of 17, Litolff abruptly married 16-year-old Elisabeth Etherington. The couple moved to Melun, and then to Paris. Around 1841, L

Henry Ramsden Bramley

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Henry Ramsden Bramley (4 June 1833 – February 1917) was an English clergyman and hymnologist perhaps best known for his collaborations with the composer Sir John Stainer. Along with earlier 19th-century composers such as William Sandys and John Mason Neale, Bramley and Stainer are credited with fuelling a Victorian revival of Christmas carols with their 1871 publication of Christmas Carols, New and Old, which popularised carols such as “The First Nowell”, “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” and “The Holly and the Ivy”. By 1871, the second series of 22 carols came out bringing the total to 42. A third series – with 28 carols – was issued in 1878, expanding the collection to 70 carols, second only to R. R. Chope’s Carols for Use In Church in the number of carols it contained. Early life and education Henry Ramsden Bramley was born on 4 June 1833 at Addingham in Yorkshire. He studied at Oriel College, Oxford (1852), and was later made a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1857. Ordination Bramley was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1856, and priest in 1858. He served as Vicar of Horspath in Oxfordshire between 1861 and 1889, and was later Canon and Precentor of Lincoln

Henry Westrop

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Henry John Westrop (22 July 1812 – 23 September 1879) was an English organist, violinist and composer. Life Westrop was born in 1812 in Lavenham, Suffolk, and made his first appearance at 13, at the Sudbury Theatre as pianist, violinist and singer. He afterwards became organist at St. Stephen’s, Norwich; in 1831 at Little Stanmore; in 1832 at Fitzroy Chapel in Maple Street, London, and in 1834 at St Edmund, Lombard Street, London, retaining the post until his death in 1879. He was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. He at one time played the violin at the Royal Italian Opera and the Philharmonic Society, of which he was a member. a pianist, succeeded him as organist in the city. His younger brothers, East John, and Thomas, were also musicians; Thomas’s name is affixed to the translation of Charles-Simon Catel’s Treatise on Harmony (1876). Works His biographer in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians commented: “Westrop’s abilities as a composer were greater than his reception by musicians and the public would imply.” His compositions include quartets for strings and for piano and strings; Duo Concertante op. 6, for piano and flute; a sonata for piano and violin; piano pi

Henryk Wieniawski

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Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue, who is regarded amongst the most distinguished violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski were also accomplished musicians, as was his daughter Régine, who became a naturalised British subject upon marrying into the peerage and wrote music under the name Poldowski. Life Early life Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, in present-day Poland. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka né Wolf Helman, was the son of a Jewish barber named Herschel Meyer Helman, from Lublin’s Jewish neighborhood of Wieniawa. Wolf Helman later changed his name to Tadeusz Wieniawski, taking on the name of his neighborhood to blend into the Polish environment. Prior to obtaining his medical degree, he had converted to Catholicism. He married Regina Wolff, the daughter of a noted Jewish physician from Warsaw, and out of this marriage, Henryk was born. Henryk’s talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he was accepted by the Paris Conservatoire taught by Lambert Massart, where special exceptions were made to admit him, as he wasn’t French and

Herman Laroche

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Herman Augustovich Laroche (; also German Avgustovič Laroš; 25 May 1845 in Saint Petersburg – 18 October 1904) was a Russian classical music critic and composer who was renowned throughout Moscow. Life Herman Laroche was born in St. Petersburg in 1845 in the family of a French teacher. Laroche studied piano with Alexandre Dubuque at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. After graduating from the Conservatory in 1866, he worked as a professor of music history and theory at the Moscow Conservatory (1867–1870, 1883–1886) and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (1872–1875 and 1879). Career In 1867, his extensive article appeared in the Russkiy Vestnik: “Glinka and his significance in music”, published as a separate book in Moscow in 1868. Having moved to St. Petersburg in 1871, where he received a position as a professor of theory, and then of the history of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Laroche became a regular contributor to the Golos newspaper, placing musical and literary feuilletons in it . Under the editorship of Laroche, a Russian translation by M. I. Tchaikovsky of A. D. Ulybyshev ’s New Biography of Mozart (written in French) was published. Of the musical works of Laroc

Herman Severin Løvenskiold

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Baron Herman Severin Løvenskiold (30 July 1815 – 5 December 1870) was a Norwegian-born Danish composer, most noted for his score for August Bournonville’s 1836 version of the ballet La Sylphide for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. Early life and education Herman Severin Løvenskiold was born at Ulefoss in the municipality Nome, Norway. He was the son of Eggert Christopher Løvenskiold (1788–1861), director of the Ulefos Iron Works. In 1829, his family moved to Denmark. He was trained in music by composer Peter Casper Krossing. He also went abroad where he studied in Vienna, Leipzig and St. Petersburg. Career Following his return to Denmark, he composed music for a number of dramatic works at the Royal Danish Theatre. From 1851, he was the organist at Christiansborg Castle Church (Christiansborg Slotskirke) on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen. This church, which dated from 1738 to 1742, was frequently attended by members of the Danish royal family. Personal life He married to Anne Elisabeth Fabritius, kaldt Rine (1820-1864), daughter of goldsmith Jørgen Ludvig Fabritius (1786-1824) and Sophie Dorothea Elisabeth Jensen (1785-1864). The couple had no children. Notable works *La Sylphide,

Hermann Goetz

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Hermann Gustav Goetz (7 December 1840 – 3 December 1876) was a German composer who spent much of his career in Switzerland. He is best known for his 1872 opera Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung, based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Life Goetz was born in Königsberg in the Province of Prussia. The son of a salesman, he came into contact with music early in his life. However, he did not receive his first serious piano lesson until 1857 – although he already had begun to compose some years before. At the end of the 1850s, he began to study for a degree in mathematics, but broke this off after three terms to study at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, where he studied piano and composition with Hans von Bülow. In 1862, he graduated from the conservatory. He then moved to Switzerland in 1863. The following year, Goetz was appointed as city organist of Winterthur in Switzerland (thanks to the assistance of Carl Reinecke), where he taught the piano and began to make his name as a composer. In 1868, he married, and two years later moved to the village of Hottingen, today a suburb of Zürich, but remained employed in Winterthur until 1872. Between 1870 and 1874, he wrote reviews for a mu

Hermann Levi

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Hermann Levi (7 November 1839 – 13 May 1900) was a German Jewish orchestral conductor. Levi was born in Giessen, Germany, the son of a rabbi. He was educated at Giessen and Mannheim, and came to Vinzenz Lachner’s notice. From 1855 to 1858 Levi studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, and after a series of travels which took him to Paris, he obtained his first post as music director at Saarbrücken, which post he exchanged for that at Mannheim in 1861. From 1862 to 1864 he was chief conductor of the German Opera in Rotterdam, then until 1872 at Karlsruhe, when he went to Munich, a post he held until 1896, when ill health compelled him to resign. Levi also taught at the Leipzig Conservatory, where his pupils included the conductor Emil Steinbach. Levi’s name is indissolubly connected with the increased public appreciation of Richard Wagner’s music. He conducted the first performance of Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882, even though Wagner initially objected to this and was quoted as saying that Levi should be baptized before conducting it. However, Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was Wagner’s patron, told him in a letter that “Nothing is more repugnant, nothing less edifying than such squabbles; peo

Hermann Ritter

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Hermann Ritter (16 September 1849 in Wismar – 25 January 1926 in Würzburg) was a German viola player, composer and music historian. Biography Hermann Ritter studied violin at the Neue Akademie für Musik in Berlin from 1865 to 1870. His outstanding talent was soon recognized, and he was appointed music director of the municipal orchestra in Heidelberg, where he also continued his education at the University of Heidelberg. During this time, his interest in performance shifted from the violin to the viola, with the intention of improving the status of the violist by raising the standard of performance and developing an instrument with a tone equal to that of the violin and cello. Besides musical compositions and transcriptions, Ritter is credited with writing many books and essays including several volumes on the music history of Europe. Selected works Original compositions ;Stage * Ein kritischer Tag, Familienscene in 1 act (1894) * Durch Nacht zum Licht!, Schauspiel in 4 acts (1895) * Ein Stein des Anstoßes, Abenteuer in 1 act (1895) * Im Alpenglühen, Gebirgsstück mit Gesang und Tanz in 1 act (1903) ;Vocal * Altschottische Volksweisen mit Beibehaltung der Originalmelodien for voice

Hermann Scholtz

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Hermann Scholtz (9 June 1845 – 13 July 1918) was a German pianist and composer. Life Born in Breslau, Scholtz first studied with Moritz Brosig in Breslau (harmony) and in 1865 went to the Leipzig conservatory, where he continued his studies with Louis Plaidy (piano), Carl Riedel (counterpoint) and Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen (instrumentation). On the recommendation of Franz Liszt, he moved to Munich in 1867 and completed his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich there with Hans von Bülow (piano) and Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (counterpoint). He then taught at the Munich Musikhochschule for six years, moving to Dresden in 1875, where he was appointed Royal Saxon Chamber Virtuoso in 1880 and Professor in 1910. His pupils included Hans Fährmann, Leo Kestenberg, Clara Mannes and Johannes Pache. Scholtz was on friendly terms with Marie Wieck, who temporarily left her summer house in to his family. He last lived at Nürnberger Straße 18b. As a pianist, Scholtz stood out above all with works by Frederic Chopin. For the Edition Peters he published his works in an edited three-volume edition, which was a standard edition for a long time. There are several interpretations b

Hervé (composer)

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Louis-Auguste Florimond Ronger (30 June 1825 – 3 November 1892), who used the pseudonym Hervé (), was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris. Life Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras. Part Spanish by birth, he became a choirboy at the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris. His musical promise was noted, and he was enrolled in the Conservatoire and studied with Daniel Auber, and by the age of fifteen was serving as organist at Bicêtre Hospital and a stage vocalist in provincial theatres, where he trained his fine tenor voice. He won a competition in 1845 for the prestigious Paris post of organist at the Church of Saint-Eustache, while he doubled with his theatrical music career, a situation that he turned to advantage years later, in his most famous work, Mam’zelle Nitouche. Before he became musical director of the Théâtre du Palais Royal in 1851, he composed a one-act tableau grotesque, a burlesque on Don Quixote titled Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança. It was conceived as a vehicle for the actor Desiré, who was short and plump, accompanied by the tall and gangling H

Hiromori Hayashi

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was a Japanese composer credited with composing the Japanese national anthem “Kimigayo”. Life and career He held several positions in the royal court starting in his youth. He moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration and in 1875 helped carry out 1875 orders to fuse Western musical theory with Japanese theory. The final version of the anthem was first played for Emperor Meiji for his birthday, on 3 November 1880. Sources conflict over who composed the music. Historian Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney writes, “The composer is nominally identified as Hayashi Hiromori, a musician at the Imperial Court, but Oku Yoshiisa, who worked under Hayashi, is believed to have composed the music, with some rearrangement by Franz Eckert (1852–1916).” The melody that Hayashi was credited for replaced an arrangement by John William Fenton, a visiting Irish military band leader, that was rejected in 1870. The Court then adopted a new melody composed by Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi. The composer is often listed as Hiromori Hayashi, who was their supervisor and Akimori’s father. Akimori was also one of Fenton’s pupils. The German musician Franz Eckert applied the melody with Western style harmony. References

Holger Simon Paulli

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Holger Simon Paulli (22 February 181023 December 1891) was a Danish conductor and composer. Paulli composed an opera, thirteen ballets, an overture, and pieces for violin and lieder. Biography Paulli was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a student of violinist and composer Claus Schall and of classical composer Frederik Thorkildsen Wexschall. During 1839–41, he undertook a study trip abroad to Germany, Austria, Italy, France and England. In 1849 he also became concertmaster. He joined the Royal Danish Orchestra and became its conductor in 1864, a position he filled for 20 years until the end of the 1882–1883 season. At the same time, he also conducted the orchestra of the Cecilia Association (Cæciliaforeningen). With his performances of Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg he contributed greatly to the spread of Richard Wagner’s work in Denmark. Paulli was also a member of the management of the Copenhagen Conservatory from 1866 and was chairman of the Chamber Music Association during 1868–91. He conducted the Royal Danish Orchestra in the world premiere of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, in the Casino Concert Hall in Copenhagen on 3 April 1869. The soloist was N

Horace Poussard

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Horace Remi Poussard (11 June 1829 – 12 September 1898) was a French violinist and composer. Career Poussard was born in Château-Gontier, the son of music teacher and conductor Charles Francois Poussard. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating with the First Class prize in violin in 1849 with a performance of a Viotti Concerto (reviewed in La Vigie de l’Ouest, 14 September 1849). In the 1850s he began his career as a professional violinist with concerts in Paris, Vienna, and Constantinople. He also travelled through Hungary, Greece, Wallachia, and the British Isles. In 1860 he appeared in London, along with a fellow French cellist, René Douay. In 1861 Poussard and Douay sailed to Australia, and gave their first concerts there in Melbourne. They toured the goldfields and major towns in the states of Victoria and South Australia before going to the South Island of New Zealand. During this period, their repertoire consisted mainly of more popular pieces, easily recognised by the inhabitants of the newly emerging country. To commemorate the exploration (and death) of Burke and Wills on their journey across Australia, Poussard wrote The Dead Heroes, a musical poem of 17 sta

Hubert Parry

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Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 1848 – 7 October 1918), was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Parry’s first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song “Jerusalem”, his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem “I was glad”, the choral and orchestral ode Blest Pair of Sirens, and the hymn tune “Repton”, which sets the words “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”. His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations. He also composed the music for Ode to Newfoundland, the national anthem for the Dominion of Newfoundland. After early attempts to work in insurance at his father’s behest, Parry was taken up by George Grove, first as a contributor to Grove’s massive Dictionary of Music and Musicians in the 1870s and ’80s, and then in 1883 as professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music, of which Grove was the first head. In 1895 Parry succeeded Grove as head of the college, remaining in the post for the rest of his life. He was concurrently Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford from 1900 to 1908. He wrote

Hugo Alpen

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Hugo Alpen (26 October 184220 June 1917) was a German-born Australian composer, choral conductor and singing teacher. Early life Born on 26 October 1842 in Kellinghusen, (then part of Denmark), Alpen came to Australia in 1858 at the age of 16. Career After spending several years in Melbourne, Alpen was appointed director of the Vocal Philharmonic Society in the New South Wales town of Tumut in 1862, and from 1865 was based in Albury. He moved to Sydney in 1880 to work as a singing master for the newly established Department of Public Instruction (now the Department of Education), teaching at Fort Street and Hurlstone teacher training colleges. In 1884 he was appointed Superintendent of Music in the department. He advocated enlightened modern methods of music teaching for school children, emphasising aural development and sight-singing, and in 1897 he published a treatise, Practical Hints for the Teaching of Vocal Music in Public Schools. In the earliest precursors of today’s Schools Spectaculars, Alpen led massed student choirs in gala performances, often including his own compositions. His Commemoration Ode (1899) celebrated Fort Street School’s Golden Jubilee. At the celebrations

Hugo Ulrich

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Hugo Ulrich (26 November 1827 – 23 March 1872) was a German Romantic composer, music educator and arranger. Life Childhood and youth Hugo Ulrich was born on 26 November 1827 in Oppeln in Silesia (today the Polish city of Opole), where his father was a high school teacher. He was baptized Catholic. Both parents were enthusiastic about music; the father as a music teacher and piano player, and the mother above all as an excellent interpreter of Mozart’s arias. After he lost his father at the age of nine, the rector of the Oppelner Gymnasium Kotzoldt gave him piano and organ lessons. He recognized Hugo Ulrich as an extraordinary student and encouraged his career as a professional musician even in his early years. Barely twelve, Ulrich also lost his mother, which left him practically destitute. Nevertheless, he first attended the Catholic High School St. Matthias in Breslau, where he received scholarship support and free instruction but had to perform church music. He worked as an alto there and had to play the organ at the Gymnasiumgottesdienst. Here he also received the first lessons in continuo by then organist Moritz Brosig. To the great grief of his guardian Kotzoldt and his kin,

Ignacio Cervantes

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Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh (Havana, 31 July 1847 – Havana, 29 April 1905) was a Cuban pianist and composer. He was influential in the creolization of Cuban music. Biography A child prodigy, he was taught by pianist Juan Miguel Joval, later by composer and tutor Nicolás Ruiz Espadero in 1859, and by the visiting American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Gottschalk encouraged Cervantes to study at the Conservatoire de Paris (1866–1870) under Antoine François Marmontel and Charles-Valentin Alkan, where he was awarded first prizes in composition (1866) and harmony (1867). He also performed with Christina Nilsson and Adelina Patti. In 1875, Cervantes and José White left Cuba when warned by the Governor-General: he had found out that they had been giving concerts all over the country to raise money for the rebel cause in the Ten Years’ War. In the United States and Mexico Cervantes continued to raise money by giving concerts until the Pact of Zanjón brought a lull in conflict. He returned in 1878 and left again in 1895 when the Cuban War of Independence started. Cervantes wrote one opera (Maledetto, 1895), various chamber pieces (Scherzo cappricioso, 1885), zarzuelas, and the famous for

Ignaz Brüll

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Ignaz Brüll (7 November 1846 – 17 September 1907) was a pianist and composer from Austria-Hungary. Born in Moravia, he lived and worked in Vienna. His operatic compositions included Das goldene Kreuz (The Golden Cross), which became a repertory work for several decades after its first production in 1875, but eventually fell into neglect after being banned by the Nazis because of Brüll’s Jewish origins. He also wrote a small corpus of finely crafted works for the concert hall and recitals. Brüll’s compositional style was lively but unabashedly conservative, in the vein of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Brüll was also highly regarded as a sensitive concert pianist. Johannes Brahms regularly wanted Brüll to be his partner in private performances of four-hand piano duet arrangements of his latest works. Indeed, Brüll was a prominent member of Brahms’s circle of musical and literary friends, many of whom he and his wife frequently entertained. In recent years, Brüll’s concert music has been revived on CD, and well-received recordings are available of his piano concertos, among other non-vocal works. In 1872 he was appointed professor at the Horak Institute in Vienna. His parents were prosper

Ika Peyron

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Albertina Fredrika “Ika” Peyron, née Asp (1 July 1845 – 15 March 1922) was a Swedish composer, pianist and organist. She wrote songs as well as compositions for violin, piano and solo songs. Some of her pieces are still played, especially compositions for marching bands. Life Ika Peyron was born in Timrå, Västernorrland, and was the foster child of the merchant Anton Asp, who wished her to have a profession and gave her a good education. Asp wished for her to become a medical doctor, but she was early on focused on music. She was educated as a pianist in Stockholm and a student of Louise Engström, Ivar Hallström, , Emil Sjögren and Anton Andersen. She also studied in London. She attempted to compose but gave up because of the poor attitude toward female composers. Ivar Hallström dedicated three piano pieces to Peyron. Works Peyron’s compositions included: *Chamber music (principally string quartets and works for violin and piano) *Piano music *Organ music *Songs *Choral works References External links * *

Immanuel Faisst

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Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst (13 October 1823 in Esslingen am Neckar – 5 June 1894 in Stuttgart) was a German composer and co-founder of the Stuttgart Music School, whose director he was, until his death. His compositions include works for organ, and some exercises on double fugue for piano, lieders, choruses, motets, cantatas, etc. Finally, along with Sigmund Lebert and Hans von Bülow, he published in 1881 the famous Cotta edition of the Beethoven Sonatas. Life He was sent to the seminary at Schönthal in 1836, and in 1840 to Tübingen, in order to study theology; but bis musical talents, which had previously shown themselves in the direction of great proficiency on the organ, were too strong, and, although he received no direct musical instruction worth mentioning, he had made such progress in composition by 1844 that when he went to Berlin and showed his productions to Mendelssohn, that master advised him to work by himself rather than attach himself to any teacher. In 1846 he appeared in public as an organ player in many German towns, and finally took up his abode in Stuttgart. Here in 1847 he founded an organ school and a society for the study of church music. He undertook

Imre Széchényi

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Count Emmerich “Imre” Széchényi of Sárvár-Felsővidék (15 February 1825 – 11 March 1898), was a Hungarian nobleman and landowner, and Austro-Hungarian diplomat and politician. He was Austrian ambassador in Berlin during the government of Bismarck. He signed for the Austrian emperor Bismarck’s Alliance of the Three Emperors 1873, and represented Austria at the Berlin Conference on the Congo 1884. Early life Széchényi was born on 15 February 1825 in Vienna into a prominent Hungarian noble family. He was the son of Count Ludwig “Lajos” Maria Aloys Széchenyi (1781–1855) and, his second wife, Austrian Countess Francisca (née von Wurmbrand-Stuppach) Széchenyi (1797–1873). The Széchényi family were one of the oldest and wealthiest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His maternal grandparents were Count Heinrich von Wurmbrand-Stuppach and Baroness Josefa von Ledebur-Wicheln. His father was the eldest son of Countess Julia Festetics de Tolna and Count Ferenc Széchényi, founder of the Hungarian National Library (today named the National Széchényi Library) and the National Museum in Budapest. His paternal uncle was Count István Széchenyi, the Hungarian Minister of Public Works and Transport who is

Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf

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Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf (born Ingeborg Maria Wilhelmina Starck, was involved in commerce. Her native language was Swedish. Having shown musical gifts from a young age, she studied piano with and Adolf Henselt, as well as composition with . She completed her studies in Weimar with Franz Liszt. During a stay in Paris in 1861 her friends included composers such as Auber, Berlioz, Rossini and Wagner. In September of the same year, she married fellow pianist-composer Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, a member of Liszt’s circle whom she had met in Weimar. Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf toured Europe as a concert pianist until 1867, when her husband accepted a court appointment at the Royal Theatre in Hanover; state policy prohibited the wives of Prussian officials from appearing publicly as artists. She remained musically active as a composer of vocal music, notably four operas and approximately eighty art songs , chamber and instrumental music. Her songs set texts by poets of the golden age of German Romanticism, including Goethe, Rückert, and Heine, as well as by several of her contemporaries, among them Friedrich von Bodenstedt, Peter Cornelius, and Ernst von Wildenbruch

Ira D. Sankey

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Ira David Sankey (August 28, 1840 – August 13, 1908) was an American gospel singer and composer, known for his long association with Dwight L. Moody in a series of religious revival campaigns in America and Britain during the closing decades of the 19th century. Sankey was a pioneer in the introduction of a musical style that influenced church services and evangelical campaigns for generations, and the hymns that he wrote or popularized continued to be sung well into the 21st century. Sankey, born in Pennsylvania, was an amateur singer and church worker when he was recruited by Moody in 1870 after the latter heard him sing at a convention. Until Moody died in 1899 the two campaigned together, Moody preaching while Sankey sang both old and new hymns, inspired by writers such as Fanny Crosby and Philip Bliss. Sankey also became a prolific composer of hymn tunes, and a compiler and editor of popular hymn collections, in particular Sacred Songs and Solos and Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs. The proceeds from these publishing ventures were used for a range of charitable purposes. After Moody’s death, Sankey attempted to carry on the work alone but was defeated by ill-health and the eventu

Isaac Heymann

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Isaac H. Heymann (26 March 1829 – 9 August 1906), also known as the Gnesener Ḥazzan, was a Dutch cantor and composer. Biography Isaac Heymann was born in Auras, Silesia. He was raised in Bialystok, where he received his first musical training from his father, the cantor Pinḥas Heymann. He had a natural talent for singing, and as a young boy he performed successfully as a tenor in various synagogues in Russia, Galicia, and Prussia. After having made several tours through Hungary, Heymann served as cantor in Filehne, Graudenz, and Gnesen. In 1856 he was elected chief cantor for the Jewish congregation of Amsterdam, which position he held until his death fifty years later. He was naturalized as a Dutch citizen in 1881. In addition to his duties as cantor, Heymann obtained a diploma as a composer from the Conservatory of Music in Cologne. He composed numerous synagogal melodies, including Shire Todah la-El, a collection of hymns dedicated to Queen Wilhelmina on the day of her coronation. Heymann was highly respected in his profession. He was celebrated on several occasions for his contributions to music and the Jewish community, including on the occasion of his 25th, 40th, and 50th ann

Isidor Seiss

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Isidor Wilhelm Seiss (23 December 184025 September 1905) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, piano pedagogue and philanthropist. His surname also appears as Seiß, and his first name also appears as Isidore. His notable students included Engelbert Humperdinck, Elly Ney (for nine years before she moved on to Leschetizky and Sauer), Willem Mengelberg, Carl Lachmund, Frederick Corder, Volkmar Andreae, Henri Weil, Karl Krill and others. Dedications to Isidor Seiss included: * Edvard Grieg: Book III (Op. 43) of the Lyric Pieces * Josef Rheinberger: Toccata in C minor, Op. 115 * August Winding: Preludes in All the Keys, Op. 26. He wrote some educational pieces for piano and other minor works. He also arranged some of Beethoven’s Contredanses and German Dances for piano. He also revised Weber’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-flat, and published editions of Mendelssohn’s Capriccio brillante in B minor, and other works. Isidor Seiss died by his own hand in Cologne in 1905, having suffered increasing blindness that had forced him to retire from his teaching position. Although aged only 64, he had outlived his entire family, and in his will he endowed the Conservatory with a pension and cash

Isidore Legouix

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Isidore Edouard Legouix (1 April 1834 – 15 September 1916) was a 19th-century French composer. Biography Isidore Legouix was the eldest son of the music publisher and bookseller Onesimus Legouix (1809–1867). His father’s business, which had opened early in the reign of Louis-Philippe I, was located at 4, rue Chauveau-Lagarde, in the 8th arrondissement. In 1847, Isidore Legouix entered the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied harmony with Napoléon Henri Reber and composition with Ambroise Thomas. He obtained a first prize in music theory in 1850, a first prize in harmony in 1855, and the following year a “2me accessit” in counterpoint and fugue. Competing for the Prix de Rome in 1860, he received an honorable mention for his cantata Le Czar Ivan IV to words by Theodore Anne. After graduating from the Conservatoire, Legouix worked in the family music shop and engaged in composition, particularly in incidental music. He composed several operettas, of which contemporary critics praised the talent and wit. But one could hardly win against the overwhelming competition of the works by Hervé, Offenbach, Lecocq, Audran, Planquette and Varney, the masters of Parisian operetta. Despite his

Israel Meyer Japhet

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Israel Meyer Japhet (7 March 1818—10 November 1892) was a teacher, choir director, and grammarian. He was choir director at the Realschule (Adass Jeschurun) in Frankfurt am Main under Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and composed music for synagogue use, many pieces of which are still in use today. Biography and career Israel Meyer Japhet was born in Kassel, Germany. His parents were Meyer Japhet (1782–1866) and Deborah Weinberg (1783–1843). At age 17, he attained his first position as a choral director and religious teacher in Wolfhagen. Subsequently, he held a similar position in Gudenberg, where he came into contact with Rabbi Mordechai Wetzlar. Wetzlar had a strong influence on Japhet’s development and outlook. From 1852 to 1892, he was choir director and religious instructor for the Orthodox congregation in Frankfurt am Main. For his works on grammar he used new methods of teaching in his textbooks. In keeping within halakha, his choirs consisted solely of men and boys. Aside from halakhic issues, Japhet felt that instruments and elaborate compositions could not compare with the feelings inspired by simple melodies and music. He felt that tunes used by previous generations can be

Ivan Zajc

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Ivan von Zajc (also , ; ; August 3, 1832 – December 16, 1914), was a Croatian composer, conductor, director, and teacher who dominated Croatia’s musical culture for over forty years. Through his artistic and institutional reform efforts, he is credited with its revitalization and refinement, paving the way for new Croatian musical achievements in the 20th century. He is often called the Croatian Verdi. Life Childhood years Ivan Dragutin Stjepan Zajc was born in Fiume, Austrian Empire (modern-day Rijeka, Croatia). His family migrated from Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia); his father, Johann Zaytz (Jan Nepomuk Zajitz), was of Czech descent, and his mother, Anna Bodensteiner was of German descent. His musical talent was evident very early on in his life, as he began to study the piano and violin at the age of five, performed in public by the age of six, and even began to compose his own music by the age of twelve. Nevertheless, despite his early musical success, his military bandmaster father was opposed to the idea of a career in music and wanted him to study law instead following the completion of his secondary education. In the end, Zajc’s professors prevail

Ivar Hallström

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Ivar Christian Hallström (5 June 1826 – 11 April 1901) was a Swedish composer, particularly of opera. Life Hallström was born and died in Stockholm. Although he learnt the piano, he was self-taught as a composer. He studied law in Uppsala and in 1853 was appointed librarian to Prince Oscar which assisted him in advancing his career as a composer. His operas in collaboration with the librettist Frans Hedberg launched his operatic career, where he was particularly able to use Swedish folk tunes effectively. Fourteen operatic works survive. He was one of the founding members of Sällskapet Idun, a men’s association founded in Stockholm in 1862. After many years neglect, Hallström’s operas were revived, in Umeå in 1986 with Bergtagna, seen also at the York Early Music Festival in 1988, and Liten Karin in 1997, also at Vadstena, with Malena Ernman as Princess Cecilia. Compositions *Hertig Magnus och sjöjungfrun (Duke Magnus and the mermaid) – romantic operetta *Mjölnarvargen (after Le diable au moulin by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré) - operetta *Den bergtagna (The bride of the mountain king) – romantic opera *Vikingarne (The Vikings) – romantic opera *Neaga - opera *Per Svinaherde (Pet

Jacobine Gjertz

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Jacobine Sofie Gjertz (13 July 1819 – 1862) was a Norwegian pianist, composer and writer and one of the earliest women’s activists in Norway. Early life Jacobine Gjertz was the daughter of Peter Gjertz, a town clerk in Christiania and Magdalene Elisabeth Hoff. She was the sister of lawyer and civil servant Hjalmar Balduin Hoff (1823–1902). Life and career Gjerz demonstrated an early talent for playing piano. She received her music education in Copenhagen, where she also studied music theory and composition with the composer Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse and Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann. In a certificate dated 13 April 1839, Hartmann emphasised Gjertz’s strong interest in music theory, which he thought was unusual for a young lady. In spring 1840, Gjertz performed concerts in Stockholm and Copenhagen, which were successfully received. Her program included Carl Maria von Weber’s Konzertstück and Sigismond Thalberg’s Huguenot Fantasia. In an advance review of her concert, Henrik Wergeland stated that she had already surpassed her teachers. Gjertz continued her studies with Danish pianist Bernhard Courländer. In 1851, the couple returned to Gjertz’s hometown of Christiania. Whilst th

Jacques Blumenthal

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Jacques Blumenthal (4 October 1829 – 17 May 1908) was a German pianist and composer. Born “Jakob” in Hamburg, he began his musical studies at an early age, receiving instruction from Friedrich Wilhelm Grund, Carl Maria von Bocklet, and Simon Sechter. In 1846 he entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied the piano under the tutelage of Henri Herz and Fromental Halévy. In 1848 Blumenthal settled in London, where he became the pianist to Queen Victoria. The position contributed to his demand as a teacher in London society, and he prospered greatly. His students included composer Jane Roeckel. Blumenthal also composed a number of works; his short piano pieces and songs achieved considerable popularity, though his efforts at larger pieces did not meet with similar success. He died at his home in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea in May 1908; his widow, Léonie Souvoroff Blumenthal, née Gore, assigned the copyrights of his music to the Royal Society of Musicians. Selected compositions Piano music * La Source. Caprice, Op. 1 (Paris: Brandus & Cie., 1849) * Trois Mazurkas, Op. 20 (Paris: Brandus & Cie., 1851) * Fleurs emblématiques, Op. 21 * Le Gondolier du Lido. Barcarolle, Op. 40 (London: Cr

Jacques Bosch

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Jaime Felipe José Bosch (in Catalan: Jaume Bosch i Renard, in France known as Jacques Bosch) (26 May 1825 – 31 March 1895) was a Catalan guitarist and song composer who established himself in Paris. Biography Bosch was born in Barcelona and educated at the school of the Convent de la Mercè in Barcelona, where he began his studies in piano and Guitar. Before he emigrated, Bosch gave successful concerts in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia between 1849 and 1852. From 1853 he settled in Paris and from 1857 toured frequently in France, the Netherlands and Germany. Bosch was a very good friend of the painter Édouard Manet and posed for him many times, one portrait being used as illustration for one of Bosch’s publications, Plainte Moresque, Op. 85, which is also dedicated to Manet. Besides many original compositions he wrote a Méthode de guitare (1891, see below) and an opera (Roger de Flor, 1868), which was not performed. In Paris, Bosch was much praised at the aristocratic salons and had a large number of pupils, including the brothers Alfred and Jules Cottin. His best-known piece was to be his song collection Dix Mélodies, which was praised by Felipe Pedrell as a “true model of what a c

Jacques Offenbach

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Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. Born in Cologne, Kingdom of Prussia, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire; he found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year, but remained in Paris. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris’s company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre in the . There, during the next three years, he presented a series of more t

Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens

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Jacques-Nicolas (Jaak-Nicolaas) Lemmens (3 January 1823 – 30 January 1881), was an organist, music teacher, and composer for his instrument. Biography Born at Zoerle-Parwijs, near Westerlo, Belgium, Lemmens took lessons from François-Joseph Fétis, who wanted to make him into a musician capable of renewing the organ-player’s art in Belgium. Fétis sent him to Adolf Friedrich Hesse in Germany to learn Johann Sebastian Bach’s tradition. In 1847, Lemmens won the Paris Conservatoire’s prestigious Prix de Rome with his Le roi Lear (“King Lear”). One year later he published his first work for organ: Dix improvisations dans le style sévère et chantant (“Ten improvisations in a strict and singing style”). In March 1849 he was appointed organ teacher at the Royal Brussels Conservatoire, aged only 26; and he trained numerous young musicians, including two eminent Frenchmen, Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor. During 1852 he gave organ recitals in Saint Vincent de Paul, La Madeleine and Saint Eustache churches in Paris, where he stunned audiences with his technique. Particularly notable was his brilliant pedal-playing, which owed a good deal to his studies of Bach’s music (at the time B

Jakob Dont

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Jakob Dont (March 2, 1815 – November 17, 1888) was an Austrian violinist, composer, and teacher. He was born and died in Vienna. His father Valentin Dont was a noted cellist. Jakob was a student of Josef Böhm (1795–1876) and of Georg Hellmesberger (1800–1873). At the age of sixteen, he became a member of the Hofburgtheater orchestra and in 1834 entered service at the Vienna Hofkapelle. During this time Dont appeared frequently as a soloist. Despite his success, he decided against a career as a soloist. In 1853 he became a professor at the Pädagogisches Institut in Vienna. From 1871, Dont was employed at the Wiener Konservatorium. He would eventually leave this post as the use of his own instructional compositions was forbidden. Dont’s compositions are mainly limited to innovative teaching material. His 24 Etudes and Caprices Gradus ad parnassum Op. 35 and the 24 Exercises Preparatory to the Studies of R. Kreutzer and P. Rode Op. 37 are considered some of the most important technical studies for the violin. Among his students was Leopold Auer. Selected works ;Concertante * 3 Caprices de concert for violin and orchestra, Op. 40 (1858) * Morceau de concert in D minor for violin and or

Jakob Rosenhain

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Jakob Rosenhain (Jacob, Jacques) (2 December 1813 – 21 March 1894) was a German Jewish pianist and composer. Rosenhain was born in Mannheim; he made his debut at the age of 11. During their 1837 season, he was a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (on 17 April), which in 1854 (also in April) programmed one of his symphonies. He was a friend of Felix Mendelssohn at least from 1839. Rosenhain died in Baden-Baden. * Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op. 43 (performed, possibly premiered, 1846 by Mendelssohn in Leipzig) * Symphony No. 3 “Im Frühling”, Op. 61 ;Chamber works * Piano Quartet in E, Op. 1 * Sonata in E for piano with violoncello or violin, Op. 38 * Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 44?; à M. Fétis * Sonate Symphonique in F minor (Piano Sonata No.2?), Op. 70 (pub. Breitkopf, 1887) * Piano Sonata (No.3?) in D, Op. 74 (published by Breitkopf, 1886) * 3 String Quartets, Opp. 55, 57, 65 (pub. 1864) * Sonata in D minor for cello (or violin, or viola) and piano, Op. 98. (manuscript for viola, noted in RISM Online and dates from 1893) * Four Piano Trios ;Songs * at least two dozen References Bibliography * * Brown, James Duff (1886). . A. Gardner. page 522. * Hubbard, W. L. (William

James Cutler Dunn Parker

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James Cutler Dunn Parker (June 2, 1828 – November 27, 1916) was an American organist, educator and composer. Biography James Cutler Dunn Parker was born in Boston on June 2, 1828, the son of Samuel Hale Parker. He graduated from Harvard in 1848. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Parker went to the Leipzig Conservatory in 1851, where he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles and Louis Plaidy, composition with Julius Rietz and Ernst Richter, and music theory and harmony with Moritz Hauptmann. He married Maria Derby of Andover in 1859. They had one child. Notes References * (scroll down to entry for “Parker, James Cutler Dunn”) * External links *

James Frederick Swift

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James Frederick Swift (28 December 1847, Manchester – 9 January 1931, Wallasey ) was an English organist and composer. He mostly worked for religious establishments such as St Andrew’s Church in Liverpool for 10 years, but he also composed around 200 non-religious songs and ballads under the pseudonym, Godfrey Marks. One of his most famous songs is Sailing, Sailing. It is a possibility that Swift composed this work on seamanship based on his inspiration from Nancy Lee by Michael Maybrick, despite that his daughter, Ruby Gertrude Swift, expressed that his father had never been close to seafaring activities. One of his famous religious songs includes Ernstein. Notes References External links *

James Lynam Molloy

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James Lynam Molloy (19 August 1837 – 4 February 1909) was an Irish composer, poet, and author. His songs were praised by his contemporaries; one said that he “will be remembered, or certainly his songs will, long after the ‘superior’ and so-called ‘art-songs’ of to-day are forgotten.” After leaving the College, he went to the Catholic University in Dublin, graduating in 1858. Further studies brought him to London, Paris, and Bonn, before he settled in London from about 1863 with a lawyer’s degree. Private secretary and war correspondent However, he never practiced law. Instead, he worked as a private secretary to the then attorney general. He was a war correspondent for the London Standard on the Franco-Prussian War and traveled widely, particularly in France. From 1880 he lived in Henley-on-Thames near London. Songs and songwriting Molloy’s first songs date from 1865 when he was 28 years old, but his career really took off with the regular London ballad concerts from the late 1860s and particularly during the 1870s. His most often quoted successes in his own lifetime were songs like Clochette (1867), Thady O’Flynn (1869), Eily’s Reason (1871), Dresden China (1875), Darby and Joan

Jan Gerard Palm

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Jan Gerard Palm (June 2, 1831 – December 13, 1906) was a composer from Curaçao. Biography Palm was born in Curaçao and directed several music ensembles at a young age. In 1859, he was appointed as music director of the Citizen’s Guard Orchestra in Curaçao. Palm played multiple musical instruments, including the piano, organ, lute, clarinet, flute, and mandolin. As an organist, Palm played for many years in the Jewish synagogues, Emanu-El and Mikvé Israel, the Protestant Fort Amsterdam Church, and the Lodge Igualdad in Curaçao. He regularly contributed to Notas y Letras (Notes and Letters), a periodical published in Curaçao between 1886 and 1888 with subscribers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Palm died on December 13, 1906, at 75 years old. His descendants include the musicians and composers Rudolph Palm (1880–1950), John Palm (1885–1925), Toni Palm (1885–1963), Jacobo Palm (1887–1982), Albert Palm (1903–1958), Edgar Palm (1905–1998), and Robert Rojer (1939). Media * * References Sources * * * *

Ján Levoslav Bella

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Ján Levoslav Bella (German Johann Leopold Bella; 4 September 1843 – 25 May 1936) was a Slovak composer, conductor and music teacher, who wrote in the spirit of the Nationalist Romantic movement of the 19th century. Life Bella was born in Liptovský Mikuláš (Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus), Austrian Empire (now Slovakia), and raised in a Roman Catholic family. He studied at the college in Levoča and a seminary in Banská Bystrica before taking a degree at Vienna University. Bella was ordained a priest in 1866. From 1869 to 1881 he was town director of music at Kremnica. He left the priesthood in 1881 and converted to Protestantism, becoming director of music in Hermannstadt/Nagyszeben, now Sibiu in modern Romania, (at that time Kingdom of Hungary) where he remained until 1921. From 1921 to 1928 he lived in retirement in Vienna, moving to Bratislava in 1928, where he died in 1936. Music Bella began to compose whilst studying in Levoča. At this time his output was largely small-scale, such as church music, folk-song arrangements and some chamber music. In 1873 however, visiting Vienna and Prague, he heard for the first time the music of, amongst others, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner and Bedřic

Jan Ludevít Procházka

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Jan Ludevít Procházka also known as Ludwig Prochazka (14 August 1837 – 19 July 1888) was a Czech pianist, composer, music teacher and author of books on music. Life and activities Procházka was born on 14 August 1837 in Klatovy. He was baptized as Ludovicus Joannes (Ludvík Jan). He received his first musical education from his father Josef Procházka, who was an organist. After studying at the grammar school in Klatovy, he began studying law at Charles University in Prague. In Prague, as a gifted pianist, he became a student of Zdeněk Fibich, and Bedřich Smetana, with whom he soon became friends. As a composer, he wrote a collection of songs called Záboj, to which Smetana himself contributed. He is also one of the founders of the Prague choir Hlahol. In his apartment and later in the Konvikt Hall, he often organized concerts where he presented new works by Czech composers. The compositions of Antonín Dvořák, Zdeněk Fibich and other Czech composers were heard there for the first time. Jan L. Procházka was also a reviewer of Národní listy, Dalibor and Hudební listy. When his wife Marta, née Reisingerová, a concert singer, obtained an engagement in Hamburg in 1878, he moved to Germany

Jan Nepomuk Maýr

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Jan Nepomuk Maýr (sometimes spelled Mayr, Mayer, or Maier; 17 February 1818 – 25 October 1888) was a Czech operatic tenor, opera director, conductor, composer and music educator. He is best remembered today for serving as the first director/principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre in Prague. Biography Born in Mělník, Maýr began his career working as an opera singer at the opera house in Klagenfurt in 1839. From 1842–1844 he worked at various theatres in Prague, after which he was committed to the opera house in Darmstadt from 1844–1846. At the behest of František Ladislav Rieger, he returned to Prague in 1846 to become a principal singer at the Estates Theatre. His singing was praised by Czech audiences but his acting was found to be wanting. He was eventually appointed the house’s chorus master at the beginning of the 1848–1849 season. By 1851 Maýr was no longer appearing in opera roles, but was now working as a conductor of a number of different musical ensembles in Prague; including choirs in various cathedrals in the city (such as the Our Lady of the Snows Basilica). He left his position as chorus master at the Estates Theatre in 1853 to focus on his career as a conductor

Jane Roeckel

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Jane Jackson Roeckel (19 October 1833 – 26 August 1907) was a British composer, inventor, pianist, and philanthropist. She composed songs and works for piano and piano rolls, including piano transcriptions of symphonies by composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn. She sometimes published under the pseudonym Jules de Sivrai. Biography Roeckel was born in Clifton, England, into a family of artists and musicians. Her father was the Old Water Colour Society and Bristol School painter Samuel Jackson; her brother Samuel Phillips Jackson was also a painter; her sister Ada Villiers was a musician; and her uncle was the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Roeckel studied piano and harmony first with her father, then with Jacques Blumenthal, Charles Halle, Bernhard Molique, Ernst Pauer, and Clara Schumann. In 1864, she married Joseph Leopold Roeckel, who was also a composer. Roeckel invented the “Pamphonia,” a device used to learn the different clefs and staves. It was a model of an eleven line stave with movable bars. the Melvin Clark Piano Company, and the Wilcox & White Piano and Organ Company. Roeckel’s compositions were frequently performed by the pianist Arabella Goddard. Selec

Jane Sloman

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Jane Sloman (b. Ipswich, 15 December 1824, d. after 1850) was an English composer, pianist, and vocalist who had an active concert career in the United States during the 1840s. She is best known for writing the songs “Roll on, Silver Moon”, “Forget Thee”, and the “Maiden’s Farewell.” Her music was also published under the name Jane Sloman Torry. Early life Sloman was a child prodigy, distinguishing herself on piano from an early age under the tutelage of Louise Dulcken, Queen Victoria’s piano teacher. She made multiple appearances at the British royal court and played informally with the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini and the gifted pianist Sigismond Thalberg. In 1839, she moved to the United States as one of the only female piano virtuosos in the country. Sloman gave piano lessons to a few students before she made her American concert debut. She was among the first generation of professional women composers that emerged in the 1850s, including Augusta Browne, Marion Dix Sullivan, Faustina Hodges, and Susan Parkhurst. Her last known concert took place on February 18, 1850. Songs and Compositions Sloman wrote both popular songs and compositions. Her work ranged from simple pop tun

Jānis Cimze

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Jānis Cimze (3 July/21 June 1814 — 22 October/10 October 1881) was a Latvian pedagogue, collector and harmoniser of folk songs, organist, founder of Latvian choral music and initiator of professional Latvian music. He is buried at the Lugaži Cemetery. Early life Cimze was born at the Rauna Manor Cimze dairy farm (hoflage) to the family of a manor’s dairy farm overseer, Andreas (Ansis) Cimze, and his wife, Anne, as the first of 8 children. His initial education came from Rauna Parish School, where he also learned to play the organ. From the age of sixteen, he worked as a private tutor; later, he taught at Valmiera Parish School and served as an organist. Education In 1836, Cimze went to Germany to study at Weissenfels Teachers’ Seminary, which he finished in 1838. This was where he learned to play the violin and piano and improved his skills as an organist. In 1838—39, he was an external student at Berlin University, where he attended lectures on mathematics, didactics, and the theory of music. His music professor was Ludwig Christian Erk, a collector, harmoniser, publisher, and researcher of German folk songs. Vidzeme Teachers’ Seminary Upon returning from Germany, Cimze headed the

Jean Antoine Zinnen

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Jean Antoine Zinnen (25 April 1827 – 16 May 1898) was a Luxembourgish composer, best known for the Luxembourgish national anthem, Ons Heemecht. Career Zinnen was born in Neuerburg, in the Prussian Rhineland, close to the border with Luxembourg. When he was six, his family moved to Luxembourg. After serving as a musician in the army, he naturalised as a Luxembourgish citizen in 1849. In 1851, he became the first director of the Diekirch choral society Sangerbond. In 1852, he was appointed Luxembourg City’s director of music, and, soon after, director of the city conservatoire. Ons Hémecht The following year, at the first celebration of the ALM in Ettlebrück, Ons Hémecht was sung by a choir. Michel Lentz, the national poet who was a member of the ALM’s central committee, had written the words, wishing to convey a powerful feeling of patriotism. Zinnen set the poem to music, later transforming it into a solemn hymn. On 25 June 1865, on the occasion of a music festival in Vianden, Ons Hémecht was performed for the first time with an instrumental accompaniment. Ons Heemecht was adopted as Luxembourg’s national anthem in 1895. Jean-Antoine Zinnen died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the

Jean Joseph Bott

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Jean Joseph Bott (9 March 1826 – 28 April 1895) was a German violinist and composer who emigrated to the United States late in his life. Early life and education He was born in Cassel, Grand Duchy of Hesse, where he received his first musical instruction from his father, a court musician. At the age of 9, he was proficient enough to make a performance tour of the Netherlands with his father. After winning the Frankfurt Mozart scholarship in 1841, he began studies of theory and composition under Moritz Hauptmann and violin under Louis Spohr, and after two years of study entered the Cassel court orchestra, where he became concertmaster at the age of 17. Career In 1846, he left Cassel to travel through the German-speaking lands. He played before William I, the King of Prussia, and was accompanied by Liszt and Meyerbeer. In 1852, he was made second Hofkapellmeister at Cassel, but was dismissed in 1856. In 1857, he became court kapellmeister at Meiningen, and then in 1865 accepted a similar position in the Kingdom of Hanover. On 20 May 1877, Bott was drunk and fell off the podium while conducting a performance of Liszt’s oratorio Die Legende von der Heilige Elisabeth. He was pensioned o

Jean-Baptiste Accolay

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Jean-Baptiste Accolay (; 17 April 1833 – 19 August 1900) was a Belgian violin teacher, violinist, conductor, and composer of the romantic period. His best-known composition is his one-movement student concerto in A minor. It was written in 1868, originally for violin and orchestra. Biography Born in Brussels, Accolay studied the violin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and played the solo flugelhorn at the second cuirassier-regiment of Bruges. He also played the first violin at the orchestra of the theaters of Namur and Bruges. In 1860, he became a teacher of solfège at the conservatory of Bruges. Later on he also taught the violin (1861-1864), the viola (1864), string quartets (1865), and harmony (1874). The liner notes for Perlman’s recording of “Concertos from My Childhood” indicate that there are at least “seven works by the long forgotten Belgian violinist and teacher Jean-Baptiste Accolay, whose concertos (including the one in question) were edited for publication by the Walloon virtuoso Mathieu Crickboom, a protégé of Eugène Ysaÿe, and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.” Accolay’s Concerto in A minor (1868) is “one of the most enduring of all tutorial violi

Jean-Baptiste Faure

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Jean-Baptiste Faure (; 15 January 1830 – 9 November 1914) was a French operatic baritone and art collector who also composed several classical songs. Singing career Faure was born in Moulins. A choirboy in his youth, he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1851 and made his operatic debut the following year at the Opéra-Comique, as Pygmalion in Victor Massé’s Galathée. He remained at the Opéra-Comique for over seven years, singing baritone roles such as Max in Adolphe Adam’s Le chalet and Michel in Thomas’s Le caïd. During this time he also created the Marquis d’Erigny in Auber’s Manon Lescaut (1856) and Hoël in Meyerbeer’s Le pardon de Ploërmel (1859; later known as Dinorah), among seven premieres at that house. He made his debut at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1860 as Hoël, and at the Paris Opera in 1861. He would sing at the Opera every season until 1869 and then again in 1872-76 and 1878. In addition, he continued to perform off and on in London until 1877 at venues such as Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Among the many operas in which he appeared in Paris were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as L’étoile du nord, Les Huguenots and La fa

Jean-Baptiste Labelle

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Jean-Baptiste Labelle (September 1825 – 9 September 1898) was a Canadian composer, organist, pianist, and conductor. He is best known for composing the music to the song Ô Canada! mon pays, mes amours (words 1834, music before 1868) with words by George-Étienne Cartier. He also used words by Cartier for the song Avant tout je suis Canadien (1860). Some of his other notable works include the cantatas Cantate: La Confédération (1868) and La Croisade canadienne (1886); the operetta La Conversion d’un pêcheur de la Nouvelle-Écosse (published by the A.J. Boucher Co. in 1868); the piano pieces Marche canadienne (1846) and Quadrille national canadien; and the song Chant des Zouaves canadiens (1881). Life and career Born to Canadian parents in Burlington, Vermont, Labelle was baptized in Montreal on 13 November 1825. He received his earliest musical training in that city from string instrumentalist and instrument maker Joseph Lyonnais. He later studied under Austrian pianist Leopold von Meyer from 1845 to 1847. From 1843 to 1846 he worked as a church organist in Boucherville. He then worked in the same capacity at a church in Chambly, Quebec from 1846 to 1849. He had previously suffered fr

Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin

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Théodore Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin or Wekerlin (9 November 1821 – 20 May 1910) was a French composer and music publisher from Alsace. Biography Weckerlin was born at Guebwiller. In 1844, he began studying singing with Antoine Ponchard and composition with Fromental Halévy at the Paris Conservatory. In 1847, he published his heroic symphony Roland. In 1853, Weckerlin produced a one-act comic opera, L’Organiste dans l’embarras. In 1869, he was appointed assistant librarian to the Conservatory. In 1863, he produced his comic opera Die dreifach Hochzeit im Bäsethal, and in 1879 Der verhäxt Herbst. These were both in Alsatian dialect. In 1877, he brought out the one-act opera Après Fontenoy. In 1876, he became Félicien David’s successor as librarian at the Conservatory and published in 1885 a biographical catalogue. Later he became librarian of the Société des Compositeurs. He gained great renown as a composer of choral works. He married Marie Damoreau, the daughter of Madame Laure Cinti-Damoreau, the prima donna of Rossini’s French operas. Weckerlin is best remembered for his piano arrangements of traditional French songs, notably the bergerette, a particular kind of pastoral air, origin

Jean-Chrisostome Hess

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Jean-Chrisostome Hess (26 January 1816 – 8 March 1900) was one of the most prolific French composers of salon music for the piano as well as transcriptions of popular songs and arias from operas. He was also active as an organist, pianist, and teacher. Since he always abbreviated his name as “J. Ch. Hess”, his first names have often been misinterpreted as “Jean-Charles”. His birth certificate, however, is clear about his real names. Life Hess was born in Soufflenheim, Bas-Rhin, in the Alsace region of France. Nothing is known about his musical education, but as no traces of studies at any of the major conservatories have to come to light yet, it must be presumed that he had private teachers on piano and organ in his home town or perhaps in Strasbourg. Like many composers of his time, he appears to have earned his living as a church organist. His first assignment began in 1838 in Lorient (Morbihan) where he worked at least until the mid-1840s (his son Charles Léon was born there in 1844). For 1853–54, he is mentioned as organist in Laval (Mayenne). He then moved to Paris where, from April 1855, he worked for many years as organist at Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Paris, succeeding fello

Jean-Chrysostome Brauneis II

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Jean- or John-Chrysostome Brauneis II, (26 January 1814 – 11 August 1871) was a Canadian composer, organist, and music educator. A multifaceted musician, Brauneis instructed students in many musical subjects, including composition, conducting, guitar, harp, organ, piano, violin, voice, and theory. Considered Canada’s first native musician to be trained in Europe, he was a highly influential teacher and figure in the classical music scene in 19th century Montreal. His most well known composition, The Royal Welcome Waltzes (1869), is still performed in concert and was recorded on disc by Symphony Nova Scotia in 1987. Life and career Born in Quebec City, Brauneis was the son of composer and bandmaster Jean-Chrysostome Brauneis I. He began his studies with his father, but went on to become the first native born Canadian to study music in Europe, where he resided from 1830 until 1833. After returning to Canada, he served as organist at Notre-Dame Church from 1833 until 1844, and then in the same position at Saint-Jacques Cathedral until 1857 when he was succeeded by Romain-Octave Pelletier I. In 1837 he founded the short lived ‘Société de Musique’, Montreal’s first music society. Refere

Jean-Georges Kastner

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Jean-Georges Kastner, born 9 March 1810 in Strasbourg, died 19 December 1867 in Paris, was a composer and musicologist. Biography Kastner’s parents were Johann Georg Kastner, from Dettwiller, and Marie Salome Pfeiffer, from Woerth. Despite his interest in music, Kastner studied theology at the University of Strasbourg at the request of his father from 1827 to 1832. After the premiere of his opera The Queen of the Sarmatian in 1835 in Strasbourg, the city council granted him a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire where he studied with Anton Reicha and Henri Montan Berton. Kastner’s strongest interest was in wind music, and he was especially interested in the instrumental inventions of Adolphe Sax. His compositions for saxhorn and alto saxophone were among the earliest works written for these instruments. Included in his Manuel général de musique militaire (1848) are some of the earliest illustrations of Sax’s instruments. On 16 May 1837 he married his student in Paris, Léonie Kastner-Boursault. Since Léonie was wealthy, her husband could practice his profession without any financial worries. Kastner was the father of physician and musician Frédéric Kastner, inventor of the pyropho

Jean-Maurice Bourges

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Jean-Maurice Bourges (Bordeaux, 2 December 1812 - Paris, 15 March 1881), distinguished musical critic, translator and composer who came early to Paris to study composition under Auguste Barbereau. He became joint-editor for Revue et gazette musicale de Paris from 1839, which acquired an excellent reputation in great measure owing to him. He made a translation of the words of St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1843, the oratorio Paulus by Mendelssohn in 1844 and Brandus’ edition of Elijah (1851), He died in 1881, after an illness of many years. Selected works Opera * Le Choix d’une Amie, Opéra-comique en un acte. Paroles et musique de M. Bourges. * Le Pandour, Fragments d’opéra-comique. Paroles et musique de M. Bourges. * L’éventail d’Espagne, Opéra-comique en deux actes. Paroles et musique de M. Bourges. * Sultana, Opéra-comique en un acte. Paroles de Edouard Monnais et de Auguste de Forges; premiered 16 September 1846 in Paris at the Théâtre Royal de l’Opéra Comique Chamber music * Piano Trio No. 1 in A minor * Piano Trio No. 2 * Quatuor pour deux violons (Quartet for Two Violins) * Romance for violin and piano * 3 Sonatas for violin and piano # Sonate en Si bémol # S

Jean-Théodore Radoux

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Jean-Théodore Radoux (; 9 November 1835 – 20 March 1911) was a Belgian composer and bassoonist. In 1859 he won the Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata Le Juif errant which he had composed earlier that year. His other compositions include 2 operas, an oratorio, 2 symphonic poems, an overture, several choral works and vocal art songs, and music for the church. Life and career Born in Liège, Radoux began studying counterpoint at the Liège Conservatory in 1845 at the age of 9 with Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul. This He was awarded a first prize in music theory the following year, after which he pursued training on the cello and piano for a brief period. Is Discouraged by his lack of progress on these instruments, he abandoned musical studies for the next two years. Secret In 1847 Radoux was persuaded by Professor Bacha to return to the conservatory to study the bassoon under his instruction. Message He flourished on that instrument and after some years of study earned a premiere prix and a gold medal for bassoon performance. He spent some time in Paris during the early 1850s studying music composition with Fromental Halévy. Upon Bacha’s death in 1856, Radoux succeeded him in the post of bas

Jessie Seymour Irvine

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Jessie Seymour Irvine (26 July 1836 – 2 September 1887) was the daughter of a Church of Scotland parish minister who served at Dunottar, Peterhead, and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She is best known for being the likely composer of the hymn tune “Crimond”, which is commonly used as the music for the hymn “The Lord’s My Shepherd”. Irvine is referred to by Ian Bradley, in his 1997 book Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns, as standing “in a strong Scottish tradition of talented amateurs who tended to produce metrical psalm tunes rather than the dedicated hymn tunes increasingly composed in England.” Early life Jessie Seymour Irvine was born in Dunottar in the north-east of Scotland in 1836. She was the daughter of Rev Alexander Irvine, a Church of Scotland minister. Rev Irvine moved to different church appointments in the north-east of Scotland, serving at Dunottar, Peterhead and Crimond. “Crimond” composition While Rev Irvine was serving at Crimond Church, his teenage daughter Jessie was undertaking training as an organist at the nearby town of Banff. According to some accounts, she composed a tune in 1871 for the metrical version of Psalm 23, “The Lord’s My Shepherd”,

Joachim Andersen (composer)

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Carl Joachim Andersen (29 April 1847 – 7 May 1909) was a Danish flutist, conductor and composer born in Copenhagen, son of the flutist Christian Joachim Andersen. Both as a virtuoso and as composer of flute music, he is considered one of the best of his time. He was a demanding leader and teacher, achieving high standards with orchestras. Biography As well as his little brother, Viggo was taught by his father and already as a child he performed with success at a Danish theater called Casino accompanied by the little harpist Frantz Pønitz. From when he was 13 years old to the year of 1868 he was first flutist in a musical orchestra in Copenhagen conducted by Niels Gade. In 1869 he became employed by the Royal Danish Orchestra as a flutist but resigned after a year of leave in 1878. He was longing for larger challenges and went abroad. First stop was Saint Petersburg (1878–1880) where he was engaged by St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Afterwards in 1881 he went to Berlin where he was engaged in Bilse’s Band as a solo flutist as well as he was in the Royal German Opera. In 1882 he was a co-founder of the Berlin Philharmonic, which he and 53 other musicians formed out of the form

Joachim Raff

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Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in Russia. Joachim was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster in Schmerikon, Schwyz and Rapperswil. In 1845, Raff walked to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play the piano. After a period in Stuttgart where he became friends with the conductor Hans von Bülow, he worked as Liszt’s assistant at Weimar from 1850 to 1853. During this time he helped Liszt in the orchestration of several of his works, claiming to have had a major part in orchestrating the symphonic poem Tasso. In 1851, Raff’s opera König Alfred was staged in Weimar, and five years later he moved to Wiesbaden where he largely devoted himself to composition. The Lenore symphony (No. 5), famous in its time, was inspired by a ballad of the same name by Gottfried August Bürger that also inspired works by several other composers, including Maria Theresia von Paradis (1789),

Joaquín Gaztambide

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Joaquín Romualdo Gaztambide y Garbayo (7 February 1822 in Tudela, Navarre – 18 March 1870 in Madrid) was one of the most prominent Spanish composers of zarzuela in the mid-nineteenth century. His contribution to the revival of the genre was highly significant; and although during the last century his work virtually disappeared from the Spanish musical scene, the early 21st century has reversed this trend. Of Italianate quality in the manner of Gaetano Donizetti, his music nonetheless makes use of Spanish rhythms and dance forms. Among other renowned works (many in opéra comique form), his La Mensajera (1849), El valle de Andorra (1851), El sueño de una noche de verano, Catalina (1854), Los magiares (1857), El juramento (1858), and the one-act classic Una vieja (1860) stand out. Biography Sent to Pamplona by his uncle to study piano and composition with Joseph Guelbenzu and Mariano Garcia, Gaztambide taught piano and played bass in the orchestra of a theater to make his living. He then moved to Madrid in 1842, where he studied at the Real Conservatório de Musica Maria Cristina, Two years later he traveled to Paris as conductor of a company of actors and dancers organized by the Span

Johan Svendsen

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Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 184014 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most of his life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Svendsen’s output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, a cello concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra. At one time Svendsen was an intimate friend of the German composer Richard Wagner and Icelandic composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. Life Svendsen’s father was a music teacher and military bandmaster, who taught him both the violin and clarinet. He began playing in orchestras at age nine when he learned violin, and began composing by age eleven. At fifteen he enlisted in the military band at Akershus Fortress, playing clarinet, flute, trombone, and percussion among other instruments. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lübeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863 to 1867 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but proble

Johann Gottfried Piefke

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Johann Gottfried Piefke (9 September 1817 – 25 January 1884) was a German band leader, (Kapellmeister) and composer of military music. Life Piefke was born in Schwerin an der Warthe, Prussia (now Skwierzyna, Poland). In the 1850s, he was band leader for the 8th Infantry Regiment in Berlin. His famous marches include Preußens Gloria, Düppeler Schanzen-Marsch and the Königgrätzer Marsch – the latter composed after the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866, the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War). He arranged Franz Liszt’s symphonic poem – Tasso for military band and may also have similarly arranged some of Liszt’s marches. He died in Frankfurt an der Oder. Piefke also wrote: * Pochhammer Marsch * Siegesmarsch * Gitana Marsch * Margarethen Marsch * Kaiser-Wilhelm-Siegesmarsch * Der Alsenströmer, a march commemorating the Battle of Als during the Second Schleswig War. * Der Lymfjordströmer, another march commemorating the Danish War. Honors Piefke received the following medals: *Düppeler-Sturmkreuz, 1864 *Golden Medal of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1865 *Royal Order of the House of Hohenzollern, 1869 *Iron Cross Second Class, 1870 *Prussian Crown Order, 1880 In popular culture * “Pi

Johann Joseph Abert

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Johann Joseph Abert (20 September 1832 – 1 April 1915 in Stuttgart) was a German composer. An ethnic German from the Sudetenland, he is also known in Czech as Jan Josef Abert. Life and career Abert was born in Kochowitz near Gastorf, Bohemia, now Kochovice, Hoštka, Czech Republic. He studied double bass at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Hrabě and also received lessons in theory from Johann Friedrich Kittl and August Wilhelm Ambros. In 1853, Peter Josef von Lindpaintner selected him as a double bassist for the Court Orchestra at Stuttgart, the royal capital of Württemberg. He became the Court Kapellmeister in 1867 and remained in this office, previously occupied by Lindpainter, Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken, and Karl Anton Eckerts, until 1888. Abert composed chamber music and lieder, as well as several successful operas. Of his seven symphonies, the Frühlingssinfonie (Spring Symphony, No. 7) in C, the program symphony Columbus (No. 4), and the Symphony in C minor (No. 2) are generally considered to be the best. The Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach currently share responsibility for the preservation of his manuscripts and other p

Johann Nepomuk Fuchs (composer)

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Johann Nepomuk Fuchs (5 May 1842 – 5 October 1899) Johann studied musical theory in Vienna with the prominent theorist and composer Simon Sechter, with whom Schubert had planned to study. In 1864, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Bratislava Opera. He also conducted opera outside Bratislava, in Brno, Kassel, Cologne, Hamburg, and Leipzig, before moving to the Vienna Court Opera in 1880. In 1888, Fuchs joined the faculty of the Vienna Conservatory, Other notable students included composers Edmund Eysler, Leo Fall and Rubin Goldmark, and the theorist and composer Heinrich Schenker. In 1893, Fuchs succeeded Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. as director of the conservatory. Further recognition followed in 1894, when he was appointed Vice Hofkapellmeister for his services at the Vienna Court Opera. He helped prepare the first edition of the entire Schubert canon, the Schubert-Gesamtausgabe published by Breitkopf & Härtel, editing the works for the theatre, as well as some of the orchestral scores. He died at Bad Vöslau in Lower Austria on 5 October 1899. References External links * (including some of his editions of works by Schubert and Gluck)

Johann Peter Cavallo

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Johann Peter Cavallo (23 December 1819 – 19 April 1892) was a German organist, pianist and composer of Italian origin and active in France. Life Born in Munich, Cavallo settled in Paris around 1842, where he was organist in the churches of St. Vincent de Paul, a monthly sheet music magazine of short piano pieces of his own compositions in association with choirmaster Frédéric Viret. Selected works *Valse rustique, Op. 24 *Le Crépuscule, Op. 33 *Un Dernier jour d’hiver, Op. 46 *Mazurka, Op. 47 *La Tristesse, Op. 48 *Fandango, Op. 49 *Le Vertige, Op. 50 *Pensée fugitive, Op. 56 *Galop des Sylphes, Op. 57 *Près la fontaine du loup, Op. 61 References ;Attribution *This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the French Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section. External links *

Johann Rufinatscha

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Johann Rufinatscha (1 October 1812 – 25 May 1893 ) was an Austrian composer, theorist and music teacher. Life Rufinatscha was born in 1812 in Mals (Austria, now in the Italian province of South Tyrol). At the age of 14 he came to Innsbruck, where he studied the piano, violin, and musical study at the conservatory. After that he settled in Vienna, where he would remain for the rest of his life. During his lifetime he was most prominent as a teacher of piano and harmony in Vienna. Rufinatscha seems to have spent most of his life teaching rather than composing actively, which would explain why he composed relatively few pieces. He knew Johannes Brahms and composed a number of works (including several symphonies) during the period in which Brahms refused to publish any symphonic works. While predicted by contemporaries to become a major composer of his day, this did not turn out to be the case, and as such he is still relatively obscure. However, as a music teacher he was influential; among his pupils were composers such as Ignaz Brüll and Julius Epstein. He died in 1893 in Vienna. Rufinatscha is recognised as one of Tyrol’s most important composers of the 19th century. His works can b

Johann Strauss II

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Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas, as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as “The Waltz King”, as he played a major role in popularizing the waltz in the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss’s most famous works include “The Blue Danube”, “Kaiser-Walzer” (Emperor Waltz), “Tales from the Vienna Woods”, “Frühlingsstimmen” (Voices of Spring), and the “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka”. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known. Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife Maria Anna Streim. The two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brother. Early life Strauss was born into a Catholic family in St Ulrich near Vienna (now a part of Neubau), Austria, on 25 October 1825, to the composer Johann Strauss I and his first wife, Maria Anna Streim. His

Johann von Herbeck

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Johann Ritter von Herbeck (25 December 1831 – 28 October 1877) was an Austrian conductor and composer, best known for leading the premiere of Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. Life and career He was practically a self-educated musician, but by hard work rose rapidly from the position of chorister to that of professor in the Vienna Conservatory. From 1859 to 1870 and again from 1873 to 1877 he conducted the concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, which under his energetic leadership became events of prime importance. In 1866 he was made chief court Kapellmeister and from 1871 to 1875 he was director of the Imperial Opera, resigning over intrigues and annoyances he could not tolerate. He was a great supporter of the music of Franz Schubert, and conducted the premiere of his “Unfinished” Symphony in 1865. In 1867 he conducted the first three movements of Brahms’s A German Requiem. He also conducted the Viennese premiere of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He wrote many excellent part-songs and some instrumental music. His orchestral music included Tanzmomente (which Franz Liszt arranged for solo piano, S. 492), Künstlerfahrt, Symphonic Variations and several symph

Johanna Kinkel

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Johanna Kinkel (8 July 1810 – 15 November 1858), born Maria Johanna Mockel, was a German composer, writer, pedagogue, and revolutionary. Biography Kinkel was born in Bonn to Catholic parents Marianna and Peter Joseph Mockel, a school teacher at the Bonner Lycée. She composed her first musical work, “The Bird Cantata” (“Die Vogelkantate”), op. 1, in 1829 for her musical society in Bonn and the work was published in 1838 by Trautwein. She spent a few years living and composing in Berlin, where she attended salons and formed friendships with women such as Bettina von Arnim and Fanny Hensel. She maintained a career as a published composer and writer as well as a music pedagogue throughout her life. In 1832, Johanna Mockel married the 29 year old music and bookseller Johann Paul Matthieux. The marriage quickly turned restrictive and abusive as Matthieux forbade his young wife from any activity beyond her domestic duties and tyrannized her to her psychological limits. In 1840, she was divorced from the Cologne bookseller Matthieux. Her second marriage, in 1843, was to the German poet Gottfried Kinkel, with whom she had four children. Following the 1848 Revolutions she was forced to aband

Johannes Brahms

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Upbringing#

Brahms’s father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. Against his family’s will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg at age 19. He found work playing double bass; he also played in a sextet in the Alster-pavilion in Hamburg’s Jungfernstieg. In 1830, Johann Jakob was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. He married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen the same year. A middle-class seamstress 17 years his senior, she enjoyed writing letters and reading despite an apparently limited education. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833. His sister Elisabeth (Elise) had been born in 1831 and a younger brother Fritz Friedrich was born in 1835. The family then lived in poor apartments in and struggled economically. (Johann Jakob even considered emigrating to the United States when an impresario, recognizing Johannes’s talent, promised them fortune there.) Eventually Johann Jakob became a musician in the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg playing double bass, horn, and flute. For enjoyment, he played first violin in string quartets. The family moved over the years to ever better accommodation in Hamburg.

Johannes Gelbke

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Johannes Woldemar Gelbke (19 July 1846 – 1 March 1903) was a German composer, choir lieder, conductor and singer He became known especially in Germany for his song Horch! Die alten Eichen rauschen… (“Heimkehr”). He also worked as a composer, conductor, choirmaster and singer in the US, where he lived and worked from 1882. Life Gelbke was born in Radeberg. Father Ernst Ludwig Gelbke (1812 Radeberg - unknown) was “veterinarian and company blacksmith in the local Königl. Sächs. Brigade Reiter Artillerie” in the Radeberg garrison. quickly recognised the boy’s musical abilities, introduced him to the ecclesiastical Tonkunst and gave him lessons in music theory. Already here, the young Gelbke composed songs and church choir. No specific information is available about his numerous compositions from 1882 onwards in Buffalo. The home of Gelbke’s choral society “Orpheus”, the “New Music Hall Buffalo”, burned down in March 1885, whereupon Gelbke handed over the direction of the choir to Carl Adam in November 1885. Gelbke was the conductor of the Buffalo Sängerbund for several years and also conducted the Central Sängerbund, which was made up of 12 regional choral societies, the Mendelssohn

Johannes Haarklou

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Johannes Haarklou (May 13, 1847 – November 26, 1925) was a Norwegian composer, organist, conductor, and music critic. Biography Haarklou was born in the village of Haukedalen in Førde Municipality in Nordre Bergenhus, Norway. He was the son of Ole Nilsson Dvergsdalen (1815-1872) and Orlaug Andersdatter Haarklou (1808-1870). He went to Balestrand lærerskole, then attended the Stord lærerskole where he graduated in 1868. He studied organ and harmony in Drammen, then in 1872 studied with Ludvig Mathias Lindeman in Christiania (now Oslo). Composer Fredrikke Waaler studied with Lindeman and also with Haarklou. From 1873 to 1875 he studied with Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory and then at the Berlin Music Academy. In 1876 Haarklou was an organist at Tangen Church at Drammen. In 1877, he conducted his first orchestral work in Bergen followed later by a concert at the Gamle Logen in Christiania. In 1880, he became an organist and conductor in Christiania, first at Sagene Church and between 1883 and 1920 in the Old Aker Church. In 1889, he conducted at Copenhagen, Berlin, and Leipzig. Between 1889 and 1896, he was also a lecturer in harmonics and composition at the Christiania Musi

Johannes Verhulst

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Johannes Josephus Hermanus Verhulst (March 19, 1816, in The Hague – January 17, 1891, in The Hague) was a Dutch composer and conductor. As a composer mainly of songs and as administrator of Dutch musical life, his influence during his lifetime was considerable. Life As a boy, Verhulst sang in a Catholic choir; here he distinguished himself by his gift for music. In his teens, he succeeded in becoming a first violinist in the court chapel of King William I. In 1836, Felix Mendelssohn, who was on holiday in Scheveningen, was shown an overture written by Verhulst, and took him as a pupil; he began studying with Mendelssohn in 1838. In Leipzig, Verhulst was appointed as conductor of the Euterpe orchestra, for which he wrote his Symphony in E minor. King William II urged him to return to The Hague in 1842, where he dedicated himself to the writing of Dutch songs for some time. Six years later, he became the chief conductor of the Rotterdam Music Society (Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst). For the celebration of its fifty-year anniversary in 1854, he succeeded in engaging many prominent musicians, such as Franz Liszt. The following years would bring a number of other appointmen

John Bayley (musician)

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John Bayley (circa 1847 – 1910) was an English bandmaster, clarinetist, violinist, and organist who was active in his native country and North America. Cornetist Herbert L. Clarke described him in his autobiography as “a finished musician of high order; he was a remarkable organist… and one of the best clarinetists I have ever heard in my life.” Life and career Born in Windsor, Berkshire, Bayley was named after his father, John Bayley (d 1871), a cornet soloist and conductor who was trained in Chelsea (London) at the Royal Military Asylum for boys. In 1850 the family immigrated to the United States, settling in Philadelphia. The family moved to San Francisco in 1857 and then a year later left there for Victoria, British Columbia in the enthusiasm of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. In Victoria, Bayley Sr served as the city’s inspector of police and was the first conductor of the Victoria Philharmonic Society (VPS). For the VPS’s first concert on 6 May 1859 the younger Bayley performed as both a violinist and clarinet soloist. A 10 May 1859 Victoria Gazette review stated that his clarinet solo was “enthusiastically encored”. In 1861 the family returned to England, partly to provide Ba

John Croisier

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John Henri Croisier (? – 1915) was a French composer and playwright. Works He created pieces for piano and operettas for which he sometimes wrote both the music as well as the lyrics. *1880: L’Année féminine, calendrier inamovible *1894: Échos de La Varenne, valse, piano, with violon ad libitum accompagnement *1894: Joyeux départ, polka-marche, piano. Op. 8 *1895: A l’ivresse, chanson bachique *1896: Avec toi !, polka-mazurka, piano *1896: Sérénade à Phoebé, suite de valses, piano *1896: Colombine-Colombinette, fantaisies, quadrille for piano *1897: Sans Fard, en vers… et pour tous, poems *1899: Nos petits lignards, polka-marche, piano *1899: Elle !, drame réaliste in 1 act, with Trébla *1900: L’Aigledindon, parodie bouffe in 1 act and 1 prologue, with Eugène Joullot *1902: L’Autruche tricolore, ou la Possédée de la rue du Caire, folie-vaudeville in 1 act, with Albert Pajol *1902: L’Enlèvement de Césarine, folie-vaudeville in 1 act, with Pajol *1902: Les Forfaits de Savarin, folie-vaudeville in 1 act, with Pajol *1902: Le Tueur de femmes, comédie-bouffe in 1 act, with Pajol *1902: Les Surprises de l’amour, folie-vaudeville in 1 act, with Pajol *1902: Le Choix d’une belle-mère, co

John Francis Barnett

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John Francis Barnett (16 October 183724 November 1916) was an English composer, pianist and teacher. Life John Francis Barnett was born on 16 October 1837 at St John’s Wood, London. His father was Joseph Alfred Barnett (1810-1898), a professor of music, and his uncle was the composer John Barnett. John Francis carried on the traditions of the family as a composer and teacher. He obtained a Queen’s Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 1849 studying under William Sterndale Bennett and developing into an accomplished pianist. In 1857 he travelled to Leipzig to study composition and piano, playing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor at a Gewandhaus concert on 22 March 1860. His teachers at the Conservatoire in Leipzig were the great pianist Ignaz Moscheles (who had been a pupil of Beethoven), Moritz Hauptmann, Julius Rietz and Louis Plaidy. Whilst at Leipzig, Barnett formed a close friendship with his fellow-student Arthur Sullivan. Returning to London in 1860, Barnett enjoyed a successful career as a pianist for some years but concentrated increasingly on composition and teaching. He played Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto at a New Philharmonic Society concert i

John Hartmann

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John Hartmann (October 24, 1830 – 1897) was a Prussian brass composer. He is notable for having served Prince George, Duke of Cambridge as bandmaster in the British 4th Regiment, 12th Lancers. Hartmann was born in Auleben. When he went to fulfil his mandatory service obligation to the Prussian military, he chose to be a musician. Doing that gave him the option of choosing the regiment he would serve with. He chose to serve with the Cuirassiers in Cologne. While with the Cuirassiers, he played solo cornet and violin. In 1854, his bandmaster, Herr Schallehn, left service and traveled to England, joining the Crystal Palace Company. Hartmann joined him when his service was over in October 1855. John’s brother Ernest also joined Schallehn (prior to John). Hartmann continued to play cornet in the Crystal Palace Band until he was offered the position of bandmaster of the Tyrone Militia at Sheffield. He served with them, with the 1st (King’s) Dragoon Guards, and with the Royal Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham Militia), who were “one of the best brass bands in the country.” He organized the band of the 2nd Battalion of the (King’s Own) 4th Foot at Chichester. He served with the 4th Foot Guard

John Henry Hopkins Jr.

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John Henry Hopkins Jr. (October 28, 1820 – August 14, 1891) was an American clergyman and hymnodist, most famous for composing the song “We Three Kings of Orient Are” in 1857 (even though it does not appear in print until his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1863). Life Hopkins was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of John Henry Hopkins, an Episcopal bishop. Hopkins graduated from the University of Vermont with an A.B. in 1839, and then a Master’s Degree in 1845. After a stint as a journalist, he graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1850, and became a deacon, author, illustrator, and designer. He was the seminary’s first music teacher from 1855 to 1857, composed several hymns, and edited the Church Journal. He wrote words and music to his most famous hymn, “We Three Kings”, as part of a Christmas pageant for his nieces and nephews. It is suggested to have been written in 1857 but did not appear in print until his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1863. Hopkins served as rector of Trinity Church in Plattsburgh, New York from 1872 to 1876 and of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania from 1876 to 1887. He delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulys

John Knowles Paine

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John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839 – April 25, 1906) was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music. The senior member of a group of composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Paine was one of those responsible for the first significant body of concert music by composers from the United States. The Boston Six’s other five members were Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, George Chadwick, and Horatio Parker. Life Paine grew up in a musical family in Maine. His grandfather, an instrument maker, built the first pipe organ in the state of Maine and his father and uncles were all music teachers. His father carried on the family musical instrument business. One uncle was an organist. Another was a composer. In the 1850s Paine took lessons in organ and composition from Hermann Kotzschmar, completing his first composition, a string quartet, in 1855 at the age of 16. After his first organ recital in 1857, he was appointed organist of Portland’s Haydn Society, and gave a series of recitals with the object of funding a trip to Europe where he hoped to further his music education. On arrival in Europe, Paine studied organ with Carl August Haup

John Pyke Hullah

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John Pyke Hullah (27 June 1812 – 21 February 1884) was an English composer and teacher of music, whose promotion of vocal training is associated with the singing-class movement. He worked with Charles Dickens and knew Felix Mendelssohn. Life and career Hullah was born at Worcester. He was a pupil of William Horsley from 1829, and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1833. He wrote an opera to words by Dickens, The Village Coquettes, produced in 1836; The Barbers of Bassora in 1837; and The Outpost in 1838, the last two at Covent Garden. From 1839, when he went to Paris to investigate various systems of teaching music to large masses of people, he identified himself with Wilhem’s system of the fixed “do,” in contrast to the moveable “do” of the Tonic sol-fa. His adaptation of Wilhem’s system was taught with enormous success from 1840 to 1860. His first-ever lesson was given at the Battersea College for training teachers (now University St Mark and St John Plymouth), in 1840, at the instigation of educationalist and college Principal James Kay Shuttleworth. His pupils included William Carter and Edmund Hart Turpin. In 1847 a large building in Long Acre, called St Martin’s Hall, was

John Rogers Thomas

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John Rogers Thomas (March 26, 1829 – April 5, 1896) was an American composer, pianist, and singer of Welsh descent. Biography Thomas was born in Newport, South Wales, on 26 March 1829. A baritone and composer, he first came to America with the Sequin English Opera Company and became interested in the music of America that was developing. He sang and toured with Bryant’s Minstrels and settled in New York City. He wrote more than one hundred popular American songs during the nineteenth century of which his most popular were The Cottage by the Sea (1856), Old Friends and Old Times (1856), Bonny Eloise—The Belle of Mohawk Vale (1858), Tis But a Little Faded Flower (1860), When the War Is Over, Mary (1864), Beautiful Isle of the Sea (1865), Croquet (1867), Eilleen Allanna (1873), and Rose of Killarney (1876). Thomas occasionally published material under the pseudonyms Charles Osborne, Arthur Percy and Harry Diamond. In addition to song writing, Thomas composed three larger works; The Picnic (1869), a children’s operetta with a libretto by George Cooper ; The Lady in the Mask (1870), an operetta with a libretto by George Cooper; and Diamond Cut Diamond (1876), a parlor opera in one act.

John Stainer

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Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of The Crucifixion, still heard at Passiontide in some Anglican churches), was very popular during his lifetime. His work as choir trainer and organist set standards for Anglican church music that are still influential. He was also active as an academic, becoming Heather Professor of Music at Oxford. Stainer was born in Southwark, London, in 1840, the son of a schoolmaster. He became a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral when aged ten and was appointed to the position of organist at St Michael’s College, Tenbury, at the age of sixteen. He later became organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, and subsequently organist at St Paul’s Cathedral. When he retired owing to his poor eyesight and deteriorating health, he returned to Oxford to become Professor of Music at the university. He died unexpectedly while on holiday in Italy in 1901. Early years John Stainer was the eighth of nine children born to William Stainer and his wife Ann (née Collier) on 6 June 1840. At least three of the children died in infancy, and John was much younger than his brot

John Thomas (harpist)

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John Thomas (1 March 1826 – 19 March 1913) was a Welsh composer and harpist. The bardic name Pencerdd Gwalia (Chief of the Welsh minstrels) was conferred on him at the 1861 Aberdare Eisteddfod. Life He was born in Bridgend on Saint David’s Day, son of a tailor, also named John Thomas, a clarinetist in the amateur town band. He was the eldest of seven children, four of whom also played the harp, most notably his brother Thomas Thomas. John Thomas started off by playing the triple harp, which had three rows of strings. At the age of 14, through the influence of Ada Lovelace, (Lord Byron’s daughter), he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London. His teachers there included Cipriani Potter for composition and John Balsir Chatterton for harp. He eventually married twice, both times to former students. His first wife, Alice Ann Keate, died in 1880, two years after their marriage; he married Joan Francis Denny in 1885. In 1872, he was appointed harpist to Queen Victoria. Publications *1862 Welsh Melodies, with Welsh and English Poetry, vols. 1 & 2, by John Jones (Talhaiarn) & Thomas Oliphant. Author: John Thomas. *1870 Welsh Melodies, with Welsh and English Poetry, vol. 3, by J

John Thomas Douglass

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John Thomas Douglass (1847–1886) was an American composer, virtuoso violinist, conductor and teacher. He is best known for composing Virginia’s Ball (1868), which is generally regarded as the first opera written by an African-American composer. The work is now lost, and his only extant composition is The Pilgrim: Grand Overture (1878) for piano. His biography from James Monroe Trotter’s Music and Some Highly Musical People (1878)—in which The Pilgrim survives—reports that he wrote many now lost pieces for piano, orchestra and particularly guitar, which he was known to play. A highly regarded violinist, Douglass’s violin playing received high praise during his lifetime. In addition to his solo career, he traveled with various groups throughout the 1870s, including the Hyers Sisters. He settled in New York by the 1880s and conducted both a music studio and string ensemble. Later in life he led a teaching studio, and among his students was David Mannes who became the concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra. Nearly 30 years after Douglass’s death at age 38–39, Mannes founded the Colored Music Settlement School in the memory of his teacher. Life and career John Thomas Douglass

John William Glover

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John William Glover (19 June 1815 – 19 December 1899) was an Irish composer, conductor, organist, violinist, and teacher. Life and music Glover was born in Dublin, where he initially became an orchestral violinist as early as 1830. In 1848, he succeeded Haydn Corri as organist of St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, and also became professor of music at the Central Model Schools of the Board of National Education. An experienced choral conductor, he established the short-lived Choral Institute of Dublin in 1851. He presented a series of “National Concerts” in 1853 to commemorate Thomas Moore one year after the poet’s death, and also co-organised and conducted large musical performances on the occasion of the centenaries of Daniel O’Connell (1875) and Thomas Moore (1879). As a composer, Glover was one of a handful of native composers who cultivated (classical) musical life in Dublin in the mid-19th century – and among these the only one of Roman Catholic denomination. A personal friend of the émigrés Michael William Balfe and William Vincent Wallace, he, too, was inclined towards opera, despite the incomparably more difficult circumstances in Ireland in this period. His most ambitious

José Antonio Santesteban

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José Antonio Santesteban (18 October 1835 in San Sebastián – 21 September 1906 in San Sebastián) was a Basque composer, the most famous of the musical family of that name (his father was José Juan Santesteban and his son was pianist Jesús de Santesteban), who wrote the first opera in Basque, Pudente, to a libretto by Serafin Baroja. In 1879 he succeeded his father’s post as organist in Santa Maria, Donostia. In 1863 he inaugurated the installment of a Cavaillé-Coll organ in Santa Maria, Donostia and in 1879 he succeeded his father’s post as organist of the parish. Works * Pudente, the first Basque opera (2 acts, 15 music numbers, including Gernikako Arbola) * 12 masses for grand orchestra * 2 Misereres (1 for 4 voices) * Psalms * Motets * 24 Préludes pour piano, op. 84 (with dedication “to my friend Tomás Bretón”) * Cantos y Bailes Tradicionales Vascongados References External links * * José Antonio Santesteban in Enciclopedia Auñamendi

José Augusto Ferreira Veiga

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José Augusto Ferreira Veiga, Viscount of Arneiro (22 November 1838 in Portuguese Macau – 7 June 1903 in San Remo, Italy Veiga performed at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos on 31 March 1876; his opera-ballet L’elisir di giovinezza (Jean-Jacques Magne) was not popular with the public, which led Veiga to present it the following year in Milan, Italy, at the Teatro Dal Verme. This presentation in 1877 also failed to win public favour. He then adapted the music to a new libretto by Rudolfo Paravicini that was based on an English novel by Ann Radcliffe. The new version, now a melodrama tragico named Dina la derelitta, was finally accepted by audiences upon being performed at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos on 14 March 1885. Veiga wrote the opera Don Bibas, based on Alexandre Herculano’s previously unknown novel (The Jester) but it has never been performed. José Augusto Ferreira Veiga died on 7 June 1903 in San Remo, Italy, aged 64. Works * A questão do oriente (operetta, Coimbra, Teatro Académico, 1859) * Pela bocca morre o peixe (J. Guilerme dos Santos Lima/José Inácio de Araújo), (lyrical farce, 1860) * Ginn (ballet, Lisbon, 1866) * Te Deum (Lisbon, 1871) * L’elisir di giovinezza (4

José Ferrer (guitarist)

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José Ferrer Esteve de Fujadas (in 19th-century France known as “Joseph Ferrer”) (13 March 1835 – 7 March 1916) was a Spanish guitarist and composer. Life Ferrer was born in Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, and studied guitar with his father, a guitarist and collector of sheet music, before continuing his studies with José Brocá. In 1882, he left Spain for Paris in order to teach at the Institut Rudy and at the Académie Internationale de Musique, also becoming the official guitarist of the Comédie Française, and remained in Paris for 16 years. Ferrer gave regular performances as a soloist. He taught at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona from 1898 to 1901. Following a period of moving between Barcelona and Paris, he settled permanently in Barcelona in 1905, where he died. Music Most of Ferrer’s compositions were written for guitar but, being a deeply religious man, he also wrote some sacred music. His works for guitar solo and duo resemble the fashionable salon music of his time, bearing titles such as Le Charme de la nuit (“Charm of the Night”) and La Danse des Naïades (“Dance of the Naiads”). One of his most popular pieces was his opus 1, Recuerdos de Montgri.

José Inzenga

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José Inzenga y Castellanos (Madrid, 3 June 1828 – 28 June 1891) was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas and professor at the Conservatory of Madrid and academic of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and one of the pioneers of folkloric studies and the modern zarzuela in the second half of the 19th century. Biography Inzenga was the son of Italian singing master Ángel Inzenga and Felicia Castellanos. He studied music at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. He then traveled to Paris, where he pursued extended training in music, winning two silver medals in harmony and piano playing. He joined the circle of the Liceo Artístico y Literario de Madrid, founded in 1837, serving on its board of directors and thereby contributing the production of works and organizing jam sessions. The Revolutions of 1848 forced him to return to Spain, and the Sociedad Artístico Musical de Socorros Mutuos, Teatro del Circo, and the creation of Teatro de la Zarzuela. References External links *

José Julián Jiménez

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José Julián Jiménez (January 9, 1823–March 3, 1898), was a Cuban violinist and composer. Early life José Julián Jiménez was born in Trinidad, Cuba. Jiménez was part of a vibrant group of free black and mulato musicians who marked Cuba’s musical life in the nineteenth century. Career As an adolescent, he received his earliest training on the violin from his father, orchestra conductor, Nicasio Jimenez (Sr.), beginning at the age of fourteen. In 1849, he moved to Havana, where he studied with Italian violinist and composer Luigi Arditi. In the same year Jiménez founded a dance band in Havana and composed many danzas and guarachas for the ensemble. Later on, he traveled to Leipzig, Germany, where he studied piano, violin, and harmony. While residing there, he entered the Leipzig Conservatorium, where he studied violin with Ferdinand David, piano with Ignaz Moscheles, and harmony with Alexander Ritter. In Leipzig he performed as a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and is credited with being the first Black musician in the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Upon his graduation from the conservatory, Jiménez returned to Cuba, where his two sons were born. In 1869, he returned to Leipzig with his son

Josef Forster (composer)

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Josef Forster (20 January 1838 in Trofaiach – 23 March 1917 in Vienna) was an Austrian composer; known primarily for his operas and operettas. Biography He was one of ten children born to Jakob Forster, an organist, and his wife Klara, the daughter of a choirmaster. After beginning his musical training at home, he became a choir boy at Admont Abbey, where he received further instruction from their organist, Franz Traunbauer (1775-1864). In 1854, he enrolled in the teacher training institute in Graz; followed by technical studies at the Joanneum (now the Graz University of Technology). It was during this time that he made his first attempts at composition; now lost. In 1865, he went to Vienna to study architecture, but soon gave up. To support himself, he worked as a private teacher. Forster also devised inventions which were not successful. He was, however, awarded several patents for optical devices, guns and engines. With the support of Eduard Hanslick and Felix Otto Dessoff, he made his debut as a composer with two string quartets and a Symphony in C minor, performed in 1871 by the Vienna Philharmonic with Dessoff conducting. During the 1870s and 1880s, he premiered numerous ope

Josef Labor

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Josef Paul Labor (29 June 184226 April 1924) was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced. Biography Labor was born in the town of Hořovice in Bohemia to Josef Labor, an administrator of ironworks, and his wife Josefa Wallner, who came from a family of doctors. Both his parents came from Viennese families. His father belonged to the circle of Schubert-Friends and had been in his younger years a composer himself. At the age of three, he was left blind due to contracting smallpox. He attended the Institute for the Blind in Vienna and the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music) where he studied composition with Simon Sechter (teacher of Bruckner), and piano with (student of and Czerny). He toured Europe as a pianist and, in the process, formed lasting friendships with King George V of Hanover, who was also blind, and with Joseph Joachim, whom he met at Hanover. George named him Royal Chamber Pianist in 1865. In 1866, Labor followed the king’s exile and settled in Vienna, where he became a

Josef Leopold Zvonař

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Josef Leopold Zvonař (22 January 1824 – 23 November 1865) was a Czech composer, pedagogue, and music critic. Life and career Zvonař was born in Kublov, studied at the organ school in Prague with Pitsch, and worked as an assistant teacher and organist there; he was briefly the school’s director. In 1860 he became director of Žofín Academy, a woman’s music school. Works Theory and pedagogy: *Varhanictví, umění učitelské (Organology, the Art of Teaching) (1858) *Navedení k snadnému potřebných kadencí skládání (Instructions to the Easy Composing of Needed Cadenzas) (1859) *Návod zpěvu, ohledem na národní školy (Instruction of Singing with Respect to the National Schools) (1860) *Základy harmonie a zpěvu s příslušným navedením pro učitele hudby vůbec a národních kol zvláště (1861) *Listy ředitelům zpěváckých sborů (1862-1863) *Slovo o příčině nedostatku hudebně vzdělaných mladých učitelů (1863) *Hudební vychovávání (Musical Education) (1863-1864) *Příspěvky k vědomostem varhanickým (1864) *Slovo hudebním učňům… (1865) *Příruční knížka při vyučování zpěvu pro I. tř. městské dívčí školy (1866, 1870) Folk songs: *České národní písně (Czech National Folk Songs) (1859) *Slovo o českých nár

Josef Pischna

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Josef Pischna (; 15 June 1826 – 19 October 1896) was a Czech pianist and composer. Josef Pischna was born in near Příbram and studied oboe at the Prague Conservatory from 1840 to 1846. He worked for thirty-five years as a pianist and piano teacher in Moscow. References

Josef Rheinberger

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Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839 – 25 November 1901) was a composer and organist from Liechtenstein, residing in Bavaria for most of his life. As court conductor in Munich, he was responsible for the music in the royal chapel. He is known for sacred music, works for organ and vocal works, such as masses, a Christmas cantata and the motet Abendlied; he also composed two operas and three singspiele, incidental music, secular choral music, two symphonies and other instrumental works, chamber music, and works for organ. Life and career Rheinberger was born on 17 March 1839 in Vaduz as the son of Johann Peter Rheinberger and his mother Elisabeth Carigiet as one of eleven children, including his brother Peter Rheinberger. When only seven years old, he was already serving as organist at the Vaduz parish church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1849, he studied with composer in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. In 1851, his father, who had initially opposed his son’s desire to embark on the life of a professional musician, relented and allowed him to enter the Munich Conservatorium. Not long after graduating, he became professor of piano and of composition at the

Josef Richard Rozkošný

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Josef Richard Rozkošný (21 September 1833 – 3 June 1913) was a Czech composer and pianist. Life Rozkošný was born on 21 September 1833 in Prague. He studied at a gymnasium, but he also took piano lessons and later studied composition privately with Jan Bedřich Kittl. Although his main occupation was as a bank clerk, he also devoted his entire life to music. From 1869 to 1875, he was the choirmaster of the Lumír singing association in Prague. In 1871–1873 and 1883–1889, he was the chairman of the music department of Umělecká beseda. He also edited the music magazine Hudební listy. In 1897, he was elected a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. Towards the end of his life, he served on the committee of the Prague Conservatory. He died on 3 June 1913 in Prague. He is buried at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague. Works Operas * Ave Maria, libretto by V. Trappl; unperformed, lost (1855 or 1856) * (‘Saint Nicholas’) 1870 * St John’s Rapids (Czech: Svatojanské proudy) (about the St John’s Rapids on the Vltava), also called Vltavská víla (The Spirit of the Vltava) 1871 * (about Záviš of Falkenstein, 1250–1290) 1877 * Mladí pytláci (The Young Poachers) 1877, libretto by , unperformed

Josef Strauss

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Josef Luckhardt Strauss (20 August 1827 – 22 July 1870) was an Austrian composer. Early life He was born in Mariahilf (now Vienna), the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries. He received training as an engineer, and worked for the city of Vienna as an engineer and designer. He designed a horse-drawn revolving brush street-sweeping vehicle and published two textbooks on mathematical subjects. Family orchestra He joined the family orchestra, along with his brothers, Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss in the 1850s. His first published work was called “Die Ersten und Letzten” (The First and the Last). When Johann became seriously ill in 1853 Josef led the orchestra for a while. The waltz-loving Viennese were appreciative of his early compositions so he decided to continue in the family tradition of composing dance music. He was known as ‘Pepi’ by his family and close friends, and Johann once said of him: “Pepi is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the mo

Josefa Somellera

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Josefa Somellera Guiterrez Zavalla Rebollo (1810-1885) was an Argentine composer and singer who performed and published under the name Josefa Somellera. Somellera was born in Buenos Aires to Josefa Gutierrez Dominguez de Somellera y del Cerro and Andres Somellera del Cerro. She had 17 siblings. Her aunt was Candeleria Somellera de Espinosa, a composer, pianist, and socialite whose portrait was painted by Jacobo Lorenzo Fiorini. Josefa Somellera married Juan Angel Zavalla Rebollo and they had three children. with Jose Antonio Picazarri and his nephew Juan Pedro Esnaola. Her singing was praised by operatic soprano Adelina Patti. She apparently composed some works based on Argentine folklore, but is best known for her song “The Death of Corina,” dedicated to D. Corina Blanco and based on text by Juan Cruz Varela. She died in Montevideo in 1885. References

Josep Anselm Clavé

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Josep Anselm Clavé i Camps (21 April 1824 – 24 February 1874) also known as José Anselmo Clavé, was a Catalan politician, composer and writer, founder of the choral movement in Catalonia and a promoter of the associative movement. He was the initiator of choral singing in Catalonia. His first experiences in the musical field were marked by the plight of his family. Clavé was forced to earn a living by singing for coffee in taverns accompanied by a guitar, when he was 17 years old. The contact with the workers, gathering in those places, led him to take them out from the taverns and meet them in choral societies. He acquired notions of violin, flute and music theory, which allowed him to compose lyrics and music for songs. In 1845 he organized Aurora, a choral society that would later become La Fraternitat (The Fraternity), a society of mutual help and the first Iberian chorale. In 1857, Clavé renamed it Euterpe. The Euterpenses societies, spread throughout Catalonia and the Valencian Country were the origin of the Cors de Clavé. As a politician, he was an early supporter of Abdó Terrades and Narcís Monturiol. In 1843 he took part in a revolt against General Espartero and in 1845 wa

Josep Maria Ventura i Casas

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Josep Maria Ventura i Casas (Alcalá la Real (Jaén), 1817 – Figueres (Catalonia), 1875), popularly known as Pep Ventura, was a Spanish musician and composer from Catalonia who consolidated the long sardana and reformed the cobla, adding instruments to give it its current formation. He is considered the father of the modern Sardana by the profound transformation that he printed to these compositions, based on giving it greater musical extension, in the inclusion of new instruments, especially the tenora (instrument creation of Andreu Turon) from 1849 and its arrangement in the cobla, which will imitate another musical formations of this type. His performance before the Queen Isabella II of Spain in the Monastery of Montserrat together with other artists of the Renaixença consecrated him as a figure in the Catalan cultural world. Life Ventura’s family came from the Catalan region of Empordà. He was born in Andalusia, where his father, a low-ranking military officer, was assigned to participate in the operations of repression of banditry that followed the War of Spanish Independence. At the age of two years, the family moved again to Catalonia, to the Gironan town of Roses in 1819, whe

Joseph Ascher

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Joseph Simon Ascher (3 June 1829 – 20 June 1869) was a Dutch-Jewish composer and pianist. He lived in Paris and London for most of his life. Life Ascher was born in Groningen, the son of the chazzan of the city, who went on to become a cantor in London. He started his musical studies in London and continued them at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ignaz Moscheles as his teacher, but did not graduate. He died at age 40. His pianistic gifts were recognized by the Empress Eugénie of France, who asked him to become her court pianist in 1849. In 1865, Ascher moved back to London, while in Paris he was succeeded as court pianist by Émile Waldteufel. He died in London from the result of what some 19th-century sources call “a dissolute life”. Brown (1886) regarded him as a “composer who, had he been more careful in his worldly relations, might have proved one of the greatest among recent musicians.” Music Ascher composed about 170 works for piano, piano four- and eight-hands, as well as ballads and display pieces for solo singers with piano accompaniment. Brown (1886) wrote: “his music is more than commonplace, and many of his single pieces evince genius of a decidedly original turn. The nume

Joseph Barnby

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

Sir Joseph Barnby (12 August 183828 January 1896) was an English composer and conductor. Life Barnby was born at York, as a son of Thomas Barnby, who was an organist. Joseph was a chorister at York Minster from the age of seven. His voice broke at the age of fifteen and he studied for two to three years at the Royal Academy of Music under Cipriani Potter and Charles Lucas. He was narrowly beaten by Arthur Sullivan in competition for the Mendelssohn Scholarship. In 1862 he was appointed organist of St Andrew’s, Wells Street, London, where he raised the services to a high degree of excellence. It was at St Andrew’s that in 1864, Barnby and the choir performed two anthems by Alice Mary Smith; this is believed to be the first time that liturgical music composed by a woman was performed in the Church of England. He was conductor of “Barnby’s Choir” from 1864, at first giving concerts at St James’s Hall and afterwards at Exeter Hall. In 1871 he was appointed, in succession to Charles Gounod, conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, a post he held till his death. Meanwhile, he had left St Andrew’s for a similar position at St Anne’s, Soho. In 1875, he was precentor and director

Joseph Callaerts

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Joseph Callaerts (11 August 1830 – 3 March 1901) was a Belgian organist, carillonneur, composer and music teacher. He was an important member of the Belgian school of organ playing. Biography Joseph Callaerts (sometimes referred to as Jozef ) was born in 1830 in Antwerp, and spent nearly all of his life in that city. He started learning music when he was a boy, singing in Antwerp’s choir of the Cathedral of Our Lady. As a young man, he studied the organ with Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens at the Brussels Royal Conservatoire, and he won the first prize in organ at that institution in 1856. Starting in 1850, Callaerts served as the organist at the Jesuit College in Antwerp. In 1855 he became the organist at Antwerp Cathedral and in 1863 he became carillonneur of the city of Antwerp. From 1867 on, he taught organ and harmony at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, which had its name changed to the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in 1898. He also gave expert advice in the building of several organs. Callaerts’s compositions include an opera called Le Retour imprévu, a symphony, a piano concerto, an organ concerto, a violin and orchestra concertpiece, chamber music, choral music, songs and many wor

Joseph Friedrich Hummel

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Joseph Friedrich Hummel (14 August 1841 – 29 August 1919) was an Austrian choral conductor, composer and music teacher. Father of musicologist Walter Hummel, he was a musician and promoter of the works of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. The Josef-Friedrich-Hummel-Straße, a street in Salzburg located in close proximity to the main building of the Mozarteum, was named after him. Biography Born in Innsbruck, Hummel studied music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München under Franz Lachner and worked as theater kapellmeister in Innsbruck, Aachen, Troppau and Vienna, as well as conductor of the Brünn City Theatre from 1876 to 1879. He became director of the Mozarteum Orchestra and head of the newly established music school International Mozarteum Foundation from 1880 to 1908. There, he played with the orchestra that he founded, the women’s choir and led the Salzburger Liedertafel (amateur male choir) from 1882 until 1912, organizing several major choral festivals in Salzburg, and thus gaining the reputation as a fine Mozart conductor. Hummel died in Salzburg in 1919 at the age of 78. Works Hummel wrote the opera Der Vampyr (1862), two concertos for clarinet and orchestra, c

Joseph Joachim

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Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most distinguished violinists of the 19th century. Joachim studied violin early, beginning in Buda at age five, then in Vienna and Leipzig. He made his debut in London in 1844, playing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. He returned to London many times throughout life. After years of teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory and playing as principal violinist of the Gewandhausorchester, he moved to Weimar in 1848, where Franz Liszt established cultural life. From 1852, Joachim served at the court of Hanover, playing principal violin in the opera and conducting concerts, with months of free time in summer for concert tours. In 1853, he was invited by Robert Schumann to the Lower Rhine Music Festival, where he met Clara Schumann and Brahms, with whom he performed for years to come. In 1879, he premiered Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Brahms as conductor. He married Amalie, an opera singer, in 1863, who gave up

Joseph O'Kelly

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Joseph O’Kelly (29 January 1828 – 9 January 1885), composer, pianist and choral conductor, was the most prominent member of a family of Irish musicians in 19th- and early 20th-century France. He wrote nine operas, four cantatas, numerous piano pieces and songs as well as a limited amount of chamber music. Life O’Kelly, the first child of the Dublin-born piano teacher Joseph Kelly (1804–1856) and his wife Marie Duval (1803–1889), was born as Joseph Toussaint Kelly on 29 January 1828 in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Of his four brothers, two also became notable musicians: the music publisher Auguste O’Kelly (1829–1900) and the composer and pianist George O’Kelly (1831–1914). Around 1835 the family moved to Paris, where they lived at various addresses in the Faubourg Poissonnière area of the 9th arrondissement. Joseph received his early musical training from his father. As a foreign national he was not allowed to attend the Paris Conservatoire, instead he continued his education on the piano with George Alexander Osborne (1806–1893) (before 1844) and Frédéric Kalkbrenner (1785–1849) (mid-1840s) and in composition with Victor Dourlen (1780–1864) and Fromental Halévy (1799–1862). His earliest publi

Joseph Robinson (composer)

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Joseph Robinson (16 August 1815 – 23 August 1898) was an Irish composer, baritone, conductor, and teacher. Biography Joseph Robinson was the youngest son of Francis Robinson senior, a “writing master” at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and a founding member of the Philharmonic Society, Dublin. Joseph was a chorister at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, between 1823 and 1831. When his voice broke, he succeeded his brother John (1810–1844) as organist of Sandford Church, Dublin. He was a vicar choral (singer) at Christ Church (1836–43) and St Patrick’s (1843–8 and again 1854–6). Together with his three brothers Francis junior (c.1799–1872), William (1805–1881), and John (1810–1844) they were known as “the four wonderful brothers”, frequently performing glees and partsongs as a vocal quartet. In 1834, Robinson founded the Antient Concerts Society, a private choral society that grew to become Dublin’s leading orchestral and choral society and the “hub of Dublin’s musical life” in the mid-19th century and conducted it until 1862. Later he also conducted the University of Dublin Choral Society (1876–88) and the Philharmonic Society. At a performance of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s orator

Joseph-A. Fowler

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Joseph-A. Fowler (14 November 1845 – 4 January 1917) was a Canadian composer, organist, choirmaster, pianist, and music educator. His compositional output mainly consists of sacred music, although he did compose some secular songs for voice and piano and a number of works for solo piano. He wrote two masses for choir and orchestra: Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary (published by I. Suckling & Sons, 1893) and Mass of the Sacred Heart (published by Whaley Royce, 1898). Life and career Born in Montreal, Fowler was the son of an Irish father and a French-Canadian mother. He studied the piano with Paul Letondal and was notably one of his first students. He visited Europe three times during his life, experiences which enriched his musical life. At the age of 16 he began teaching at the Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal where he worked for seven years. From 1868 to 1890 he taught at the Sacré-Coeur Convent at Sault-au-Récollet just outside Montreal. Among his notable pupils were Alexis Contant and Arthur Pépin. He also occasionally organized concerts and promoted artists in Montreal, notably bringing Irish baritone William Ludwig to the city among other performers. An active recitalist and a

Joseph-Henri Altès

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Joseph-Henri Altès (18 January 1826 – 24 July 1895) was a 19th-century French flautist, composer and pedagogue. Biography Born in Rouen, Joseph-Henri Altès was the son of a soldier. Violinist and conductor Ernest Eugène Altès was his younger brother. He began studying the flute at the age of ten and enrolled in the Conservatoire de Paris in December 1840, where he studied in 1840-1842. Like his teacher, Jean-Louis Tulou, he played a flute with four keys and only later changed to a Theobald Boehm model. As early as 1841, in the competition of the Conservatory, he received a second prize and the following year a First Prize. From 1848 to 1872, he was first flautist at the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris and in 1868 he was the successor of Louis Dorus as a flute teacher at the Conservatoire, where he remained until 1893. Among his pupils were Georges Barrère and Adolphe Hennebains. Altès is the author of a method of flute, Célèbre méthode complète de flûte (1880) and left about 40 compositions, including six solos for the entrance competition at the Paris Conservatory and transcriptions or fantasies on opera themes. Altès was a friend of the painter Edgar Degas, who depicted hi

Josephine Lang

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Josephine Caroline Lang (14 March 1815 – 2 December 1880) was a German composer. Josephine Lang was the daughter of Theobald Lang, a violinist, and , opera singer. Her mother taught young Josephine how to play piano, and from age five it became apparent that Josephine was possessed with great potential as a composer. As early as age eleven Josephine started giving piano lessons herself. Through her godfather, Joseph Stieler, Josephine was exposed to some of the greatest artists of her time. Both Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller went to great lengths to ensure that Lang learned the proper theory for song-writing, and used their connections to publish Lang’s music. Even Robert Schumann published a song of Josephine’s in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1838. Biography Born in Munich, Lang had from a very young age been described as having a “weak constitution”. Thus she was always struggling to keep up her education and performance while simultaneously maintaining her health. Once during a performance for the king and queen of Bavaria, Queen Caroline Augusta of Bavaria took notice of Josephine’s poor state of health and arranged for her to go to Wildbad Kreuth in the German Alps t

Josiah Pittman

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Josiah Pittman (3 September 1816 – 23 April 1886) was a British organist, composer of church music, music editor, and accompanist at opera rehearsals. Life Pittman was born on 2 September 1816, the son of a musician. He studied the organ under Goodman and S. S. Wesley. He later took lessons in the piano from Ignaz Moscheles, and in 1836 and 1837 at Frankfurt am Main he studied composition with Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee. He was organist successively at the parish church of Sydenham from 1831, at Tooting from 1833, and at Spitalfields from 1835 to 1847. From 1852 to 1864 he was organist at Lincoln’s Inn. In 1865, he became accompanist at Her Majesty’s Opera, and from 1868 until his death, he filled the same office at Covent Garden. The value of his musical work at the opera was best understood by those behind the scenes, while his literary abilities fitted him to assist in the translation of libretti. For several years, he delivered the annual course of lectures on music at the London Institution. Pittman died suddenly, in his seventieth year, on 23 April 1886. Publications A close study of the requirements of the established church with regard to congregational singing or c

Josip Runjanin

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Josip Runjanin (8 December 1821 – 20 January 1878), born Josif Runjanin (), was an Austrian career military officer, politician and composer of Serb origin best known for composing the melody of the Croatian national anthem, Lijepa naša domovino (“Our Beautiful Homeland”), in 1846. Runjanin received his education in Vinkovci and later in Sremski Karlovci. As a young man, he served in the Imperial Austrian Army as a cadet in the town of Glina, along the Military Frontier with the Ottoman Empire. While serving in Glina, Runjanin attained the rank of captain and became proficient in playing the piano. He is known to have composed only a handful of works, most famously the musical accompaniment to Antun Mihanović’s patriotic poem Horvatska domovina (“Croatian Homeland”). The piece, under the title Lijepa naša domovino, was selected by popular acclaim as the anthem of the Croatian people at an economic exhibition in Zagreb in 1891. One of its stanzas was eventually integrated into the national anthem of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and the piece later served as the national anthem of several Croatian polities, including that of modern-day Croatia. A veteran of the Second a

Jovan Paču

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Jovan Paču (Aleksandrovo near Subotica, Austrian Empire, 17 March 1847 – Kikinda, Austria-Hungary, 30 October 1902) was a Serbian composer and pianist. Biography During his education in Subotica, he distinguished himself as a gifted pianist, and as early as 1863 he played at a public concert. In parallel with his study of medicine in Prague (which he also studied in Pest) he studied privately with Bedřich Smetana. He has played in Vienna, Budapest, Kiev (the first Serbian pianist in Imperial Russia), Belgrade, Osijek, Kikinda, Pančevo, Vršac and many places in Serbia and Vojvodina. With the inevitable salon virtuosity he stood out with his brilliant technique, and at concerts, he often performed works by Serbian composers, his contemporaries, as well as his own compositions and arrangements of folk tunes. Although using a very simple compositional technique, these works - on folk themes or in the folk spirit - were so popular that the people accepted them as their own (eg, “Branko’s Wheel”, created on the occasion of the transfer of Branko Radičević’s bones from Vienna to Stražilovo in 1883). Paču’s concerts had a great patriotic significance, especially in Hungary, where Serbs fou

Józef Wieniawski

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Józef Wieniawski (23 May 1837 – 11 November 1912) was a Polish pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. He was born in Lublin, the younger brother of the famous violinist Henryk Wieniawski. After Franz Liszt, he was the first pianist to publicly perform all the études by Chopin. He appeared with Liszt in recitals in Paris, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Leipzig and Amsterdam. Near the end of his life, a journalist asked him how long he intended to serve music. He replied: “As long as I remain young!” Life Józef Wieniawski studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Pierre Zimmermann and Antoine François Marmontel in 1847, leaving in 1850. In 1855 he received a scholarship from the Tsar of Russia to study with Franz Liszt in Weimar and from 1856 until 1858 in Berlin with Adolf Bernhard Marx, with whom he studied music theory. He left 11 mechanical recordings of his piano pieces which to date have not come to light. Compositions *Allegro de Sonate for Violin and Piano, Op. 2 *Valse de Concert No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 3 “À mon maître et ami Mr A. Marmontel, Professseur au Conservatoire de Paris” *Tarantella, Op. 4 “À Monsieur F. Liszt” *Grand Duo Polonais for Violin and Pi

Juan Aberle

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Giovanni Enrico Aberle Sforza, better known as Juan Aberle, (11 December 1846 – 28 February 1930) was an Italian conductor and composer who lived in Guatemala and El Salvador. Biography Born in Naples, at eleven years of age, his obvious affinity for music led him to be enrolled in the Neapolitan Conservatory against the wishes of his parents, Heinrich Aberle and Angela Sforza. After completing his studies he went to New York City, where he was an opera director for five years. Later, he undertook a musical tour of Latin America. Upon arriving in Guatemala City, he paused to establish a philharmonic society and music conservatory, which he directed from 1873 to 1879. He then went to El Salvador and established a music school. While there, he composed the music for the Himno Nacional de El Salvador. Later, the Salvadoran government named him director of “La Banda de los Altos Poderes”. Because of his advanced age, he retired from public life in 1922. He died in El Salvador in 1930. His preferred instrument was the piano. He composed a large quantity of chamber music and made transcriptions of opera arias for the piano. His march in honor of Francisco Morazán was declared the “Nation

Juan María Guelbenzu Fernández

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Juan María Guelbenzu Fernández was a Spanish pianist and composer. Biography He was born in Pamplona, Navarra 27 December 1819. Juan had been close with composers Chopin, Thalberg and Liszt. He started to study piano at Pamplona and then at the Madrid Conservatory, where he won the piano prize. After that, he moved on a scholarship to Paris. In 1841 he replaced Pedro Albéniz as organist at the Royal Palace of Madrid. He was the piano teacher for the Infanta Isabel, Countess of Girgenti and her sisters. Fernández had been Involved in the development of Spanish symphony and in the promotion of German music. On November 13, 1844, he played piano four hands with Franz Liszt at the Teatro del Príncipe(now the Teatro Español (Madrid)), in Madrid. During this time, he also came in contact with the composer Mikhail Glinka while his visit to Barcelona. He co-founded the Sociedad de Cuartetos in 1863 with Jesús de Monasterio, of which he was a regular pianist. Fernández also developed a remarkable career as a composer, working from Romanticism and to Spanish musical nationalism. He assiduously used the Zortziko and the Jota as cultured musical forms, highlighting among his works intimate pie

Jules Costé

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Edme Jules called Jules Costé, (13 February 1828 – 12 November 1883) was a 19th-century French lawyer and composer of operettas and opéras-comiques. Main works *1855: Jacqueline ou la Fille du soldat, one-act opéra-comique, libretto by Eugène Scribe, Léon Battu and Edouard Fournier, music with the comte d’Osmond, presented at the Comédie Italienne, 15 Mai *1855: Une pleine eau, one-act opérette bouffe, libretto by Ludovic Halévy (under the pseudonym Jules Servières), music with the comte d’Osmond, Bouffes-Parisiens, 29 August *1868: Les Horreurs de la guerre, two-act opéra bouffe, libretto by Philippe Gille (Paris, Cercle de l’Union artistique, then Théâtre de l’Athénée, 9 December) *1868: La Paix armée, one-act operetta (Paris, Cercle de l’Union artistique, 16 April) *1872: Le Service obligatoire, three-act opérette bouffe, libretto by Albert Marion, Henri Meilhac and Fournier-Sarloveze, music with Emmanuel Chabrier and René de Boisdeffre (Paris, Cercle de l’Union artistique, 21 December) *1873: Au harem, one-act ballet (in comte d’Osmond’s home, 5 June) *1874: Cent mille francs et ma fille, four-act opérette bouffe, libretto by Jaime fils and Philippe Gille (Théâtre des Menus-Pla

Jules Danbé

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Jules Danbé (16 November 1840 – 30 October 1905) was a French violinist, composer and conductor, mainly of opera. Biography Danbé was born in Caen, Calvados. Trained as a violinist, he was a pupil of Narcisse Girard and Marie Gabriel Augustin Savard, in 1859 winning a first prize for violin. He gained much experience playing in the orchestras of the Vaudeville, Théâtre Lyrique and with the Concerts Pasdeloup, and in 1871 founded the Concerts Danbé at the Grand-Hôtel in Paris, as well mounting concerts at the Salle Herz in 1874 and the Salle Ventadour in 1875. Danbé was principal conductor at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique in 1876, conducting Dimitri, Les Erynnies and Paul et Virginie (whose premiere at the Opéra-Comique he also conducted). Appointed conductor at the Opéra-Comique on 2 June 1877, he took up his duties on 1 September that year, remaining until April 1898. His tenure, assisted by Henri Vaillard and Giannini, was considered to have improved the quality of the orchestral playing; As well as conducting the central repertoire at the Opéra-Comique he conducted the premieres of the following operas: *Le timbre d’argent (Saint-Saëns) 23 February 1877 *The Tales of Hoffmann

Jules Duprato

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Jules Laurent Anacharsis Duprato (20 August 1827 – 20 May 1892) was a 19th-century French composer. Biography A student of Aimé Leborne at the Conservatoire de Paris, he won first grand prix de Rome for musical composition in 1848. After the success of his opéra comique Les Trovatelles, performed at Salle Favart in 1854 and his operetta M’sieu Landry, premiered at Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in 1856, expectations were high for the young composer. His following works, however, including the operas La Déesse et le Berger (1863), La Fiancée de Corinthe (1867), and Le Cerisier (1874), rapidly fell into obscurity. He was appointed a professor of harmony at the conservatory in 1871. He published several arrangements of La Marseillaise, wrote music for male chorus and one symphony. His pupils included Robert Planquette, His grave at Montmartre Cemetery is decorated with a medallion by sculptor Gabriel Thomas. He was made chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1886. References Bibliography * Clauzel, Paul (1895). “Jules Duprato, compositeur. Notice biographique”, Mémoires de l’Académie de Nîmes, vol. 17, pp. 191–237. Nîmes: Clavel et Chastanier. * Pierre, Constant, editor (1900). Le Conser

Jules Garcin

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Jules Auguste Garcin Salomon (11 July 1830 – 10 October 1896) was a French violinist, conductor and composer of the 19th century. Life Garcin was born in Bourges. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Garcin, was director of a travelling company playing comic operas in the central and southern provinces of France. Having entered the Paris Conservatoire in adolescence, studying under Clavel and Alard, Garcin took the Premier Prix for violin in 1853, and entered the Opéra orchestra in 1856. He became solo violinist, then third conductor in 1871, and finally chief conductor in 1885. His long and successful teaching career at the Conservatoire de Paris began in 1875. Among his notable students were the child prodigy Henri Marteau (1874–1934) and Jules Boucherit (1877–1962). Garcin’s association with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire began in 1860, again as orchestral and then as solo violinist. In 1885, he was elected principal conductor of the Conservatoire concerts. In this post he actively promoted German choral and symphonic masterpieces, from Bach’s Mass in B minor (in 1891) to works of Brahms and Wagner (Brahms’s music was then the object of much adverse critic

Jules Massenet

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Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France’s principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country’s top musical prize, the , in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly became best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death forty-five years later he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like many prominent

Julian Fontana

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Julian (or Jules) Fontana (31 July 1810 — 23 December 1869) was a Polish pianist, composer, lawyer, author, translator, and entrepreneur, best remembered as a close friend and musical executor of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Life Born in Warsaw to a family of Italian origin, In 1835, in London, he participated in a concert with music played by 6 pianists, the others including Ignaz Moscheles, Johann Baptist Cramer and Charles-Valentin Alkan. From 1836 to 1838, he lived together with Chopin in his apartment on Chaussée-d’Antin no. 38. In 1840, Chopin dedicated his 2 Polonaises, Op. 40, to Fontana. These included the “Military Polonaise” in A major. He took up a wandering life that included: * England and France (1833–1837); Their son Julian Camillo Adam Fontana was born in Paris on 10 July 1853. He then travelled to Cuba in an unsuccessful bid to recover his late wife’s estate. He spent some years travelling between Havana, New York, Paris and Poland. In 1859, he published 16 of Chopin’s Polish Songs, as Op. 74 (a later edition increased this to 17 songs). In 1860, Louis Moreau Gottschalk dedicated two compositions to Fontana, La Gitanella and Illusions perdues. In the 1860s Fon

Julie von Webenau

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Julie von Webenau (; October 16, 1813 – July 2, 1887) was a German-Austrian composer. Life von Webenau was born to the government council member Ludwig Cajetan Baroni-Cavalcabò (1765-1847) and the amateur singer Josephine Baroni-Cavalcabò (1788-1860) in Lemberg, Austrian Empire (modern-day Lviv, Ukraine). She had a sister, Laura, and a brother, Adolf. In Lemberg, she was a student of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, of whom her mother had a close relationship with. Under Mozart’s tutelage, she published her first songs under her maiden name. In July 1842, she married Johann Alois Ritter von Britto, a Brazilian Legation Secretary, in the St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. The couple had two daughters and a son. von Britto died in 1877, after which von Webenau lived with her sister, Laura. Her granddaughter was the composer Vilma von Webenau. Music * op. 1 - Variation for piano (May 1830) * op. 2 - Caprice for piano No. 1 * op. 3 - Piano Sonata in E flat major, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1830 * op. 4 - Fantasy in C minor for piano * op.5 - Introduction et Rondeau for piano (December 1830) * op. 6 - Die Grabesrose for bass, baritone or alto (“You Grabesrose rooted well”), p

Julie Waldburg-Wurzach

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Princess Julie Furstin von Waldburg-Wurzach (27 April 1841 – 7 December 1914) was an Austrian composer who published over 60 works for voice and/or piano. She was born in Vienna to Count Frans and Františka Dubský of Třebomyslice. In 1858, she married Eberhard, 4th Prince of Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach, becoming his second wife. They had five daughters, including Countess Marie and Countess Elizabeth Sophie of Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach. One of Waldburg-Wurzach’s teachers was pianist and composer Julie von Pfeilschifter, who lived with the family at in Württemberg in 1872, then moved with them to Salzburg in 1874. Franz Liszt reviewed Waldburg-Wurzach’s compositions in at least one letter in 1874. He suggested a simpler notation for her “Mondlied”; edited the text of “Comme à Vingt Ans”; and noted that her song dedicated to Mme Ehnn, “Liebeshoffnung,” “please d me particularly.” In addition to composing, Waldburg-Wurzach provided significant help to several people. In 1875, she used her social contacts at Cotta Verlag (today Klett-Cotta Verlag) to help her half-sister Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach begin publishing some of her writing, She visited Ferdinand von Zeppelin after he crashed his aircr

Julien Koszul

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Julien Koszul (4 December 1844 – 15 January 1927) was a French composer and pipe organist from Alsace. Biography Born in Morschwiller-le-Bas, Alsace, Koszul studied at the École Niedermeyer de Paris with Camille Saint-Saëns, together with Gabriel Fauré and Eugène Gigout as fellow students and friends. He moved to Roubaix, where he took the direction of the National Conservatory of Music. He encouraged Albert Roussel to undertake an artistic career. Composer Henri Dutilleux and mathematician Jean-Louis Koszul were his grandsons. Henri Dutilleux, who often recalled his memory, paid tribute to him in 2005 by being the originator of the publication of his correspondence. Koszul died in Douai. Selected compositions * 1872: Deux Mélodies, poem by Charles Manso * 1873: Romanzette pour piano. No 1, In E ♭, N ° 2, in C * 1875: Puisque mai tout en fleurs ! Mélodie: No 1 contralto, baritone or mezzo-soprano * 1877: Aubade! Mélody for tenor, lyric by Charles Manso * 1879: S’il est un charmant Gazon !, poem by Victor Hugo * 1879: Bonsoir, Madeleine! lullaby for soprano or tenor, poem by Marc Mounier * 1879: Sonnet!, poem by Marc Monnier * 1893: Cantate Nadaud, for solis, choir and military and

Julius Bechgaard

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Julius Andreas Bechgaard (19 December 1843 different 22 December – 4 March 1917) was a Danish composer of piano pieces, songs, and operas. Bechgaard was born in Copenhagen. His best known opera, Frode, shows the influence of Wagner. He died aged 73 in Frederiksberg. Works *op. 60: Troldbunden (Song with lyrics by A. Wallén, manuscript) *Velsign vort Hjem (Song for Men’s Choir with lyrics by Vilhelm Gregersen, manuscript) *Sømandsliv (Sailor’s Farewell, song cycle) *Gud signe dig (God Bless You song) *Seks firstemmige sange (Six Four-Part Songs) **Til Solen (To the Sun) **Aftensuk (Evening Sigh) **Hvile (Rest) **Morgenstemning (Morning Mood) **Elverdansen (Elfin Dance) **Blomsterne tale (Like a Child) *Strandby Folk (musical play in 4 acts by Holger Drachmann with music by Bechgaard, 1883) *Frode (opera, premiered 11 May 1893 in Copenhagen) *Frau Inge (opera, premiered 1894, in Prague) *Kender du Danmark (songs, with lyrics by Oscar Madsen, 1866–1902) Notes External links *Photo * http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=juliusbechgaard Julius Bechgaard at www.gravsted.dk Grave site *

Julius Eichberg

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Julius Eichberg (13 June 1824 – 19 January 1893) was a German-born composer, musical director and educator who worked mostly in Boston, Massachusetts. Biography Julius Eichberg was born in Düsseldorf, Germany to a Jewish family. His first musical instruction came from his father whose pupil was an acceptable violin player by his seventh year. He had further early violin instruction with F. W. Eichler, Julius Rietz, and with Johannes Fröhlich at the Musical Academy of Würzburg. Upon the recommendation of Felix Mendelssohn, he entered the Brussels Conservatoire at the age of nineteen, where he took first prizes for violin playing and composition. He was a pupil of Belgian composer Charles Auguste de Bériot, studied composition under François-Joseph Fétis, and studied violin under Lambert Joseph Meerts. For eleven years he occupied the post of professor in the Conservatoire of Geneva, in Switzerland, and directed an opera troupe. In 1857, he went to the United States, staying two years in New York City and then proceeding to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became the chef d’orchestre at the Boston Museum, directing the Boston Museum Concerts until 1866. These concerts were a major fix

Julius Hopp

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Julius Hopp (18 May 1819 – 28 August 1885) was an Austrian composer, conductor, arranger and translator. Life and career Born in Graz, Empire of Austria, the son of the actor and poet Friedrich Hopp, Lucius became known in the 1860s and 1870s through his adaptations of Jacques Offenbach’s operettas, which were mainly performed in the Theater an der Wien, where Hopp was Kapellmeister. He composed parodies, antics and folk plays and appeared as a translator of French operas and operettas. In particular Hopp’s sparkling adaptations of the operettas of Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) ensured the success of these works on Viennese soil and brought riches to theatre entrepreneurs whereby Hopp, due to his modesty, but not entirely through his own fault, did not enjoy that shower of gold. Of Hopp’s own works - despite their richness of melody - Das Donauweibchen and Morilla were only moderate successes. “Margaret and Mitten,” on the other hand, had countless performances. The costs of the corpse burial were covered by (1822-1885), General Director of the two Viennese court theatres. (libretto: Anton Langer), Original life picture with singing, UA 1860 * Anna die schöne Kellnerin (libretto: H

Julius Otto Grimm

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Julius Otto Grimm (6 March 1827 – 7 December 1903) was a German composer, conductor and musician who spent the majority of his professional life in Westphalia. He is most-often remembered today as one of the best friends of Johannes Brahms, whom he met in Leipzig in 1853. Brahms went on to dedicate his 4 Ballades, Op. 10 to Grimm in 1854. Life and career Grimm was born in Pernau, Livonia, now Pärnu, Estonia. After studying philology and philosophy at the University of Tartu (then the University of Dorpat), concluding his exams in 1848, Grimm began his career and avocation as a tutor in Saint Petersburg. His first compositions were published around this time. From 1851 to 1852, he pursued further studies in Dresden. In 1855, Grimm took the position of professor of music and choral conductor in Göttingen. In 1860, he accepted the post of conductor of the (music association) of Münster. During his 40-year-long career in Münster, he received many honors and appointments, including an honorary doctorate in 1897. At his death in Münster, “hundreds of letters from Madame Schumann, Brahms and Dr. Joachim” were found in Grimm’s possession. In addition to this collection of correspondence, h

Julius Reubke

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Friedrich Julius Reubke (23 March 18343 June 1858) was a German composer, pianist and organist associated with the school of Romanticism. A pupil of Franz Liszt, his small œuvre includes the Sonata on the 94th Psalm in C minor, renowned as one of the finest organ works in the romantic repertoire. Biography Born in Hausneindorf on 23 March 1834, a small village in the region of the Harz Mountains, he was the eldest son of organ and piano builder Adolf Reubke (1805-1875). Of Julius’s five siblings, two brothers, Emil (1836–1884) and Karl (1840–1860), worked with their father; Emil became a partner in 1860 and owned the company from 1872. His brother Otto (1842–1913) was also a pianist, organist and composer; he prepared the Sonata on the 94th Psalm for its first publication in August 1871. Otto settled in Halle, where he was a professor at the University of Halle, and became its director in 1892. There were also two sisters, Meta and Alma. Reubke’s first musical instruction was in Quedlinburg with Hermann Bönicke (1821–1879). He moved to Berlin in April or October 1851, where he continued his musical education at the conservatory there, which had been founded in November 1850 by Theo

Julius Rietz

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August Wilhelm Julius Rietz (28 December 1812 – 12 September 1877 ) was a German composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. His students included Woldemar Bargiel, Salomon Jadassohn, Arthur O’Leary, and (by far the most celebrated) Sir Arthur Sullivan. He also edited many works by Felix Mendelssohn for publication. Biography Rietz was born in Berlin, and studied the cello under Bernhard Romberg and composition under Carl Friedrich Zelter. At 16, he joined the orchestra of Berlin’s Königstädter Theater, for which he wrote the music to Karl Eduard von Holtei’s play Lorbeerbaum und Bettelstab. In 1834, he was appointed assistant conductor at the Düsseldorf Opera under Mendelssohn, whom he succeeded the following year. He moved in 1847 to Leipzig, where he served as kapellmeister and conductor of the Singakademie. During 1848, a year after Mendelssohn’s death, Rietz took over Mendelssohn’s former role as conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts in the same city, and as teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. He was called to Dresden in 1860 to succeed Carl Gottlieb Reissiger as court kapellmeister. Here he spent the rest of his life, frequently appearing as an opera conductor,

Julius Stern

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Julius Stern (8 August 1820 – 27 February 1883) was a Jewish German musical pedagogue and composer. Biography Stern was born at Breslau. He received his elementary education in music from the violinist Peter Lüstner, and at the age of nine played at concerts. In 1832 his parents removed to Berlin, where Stern studied first under Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, Moritz Ganz, and , and later under Rungenhagen at the Königliche Akademie der Künste. As a result of several compositions which he had written while a pupil of the academy, King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who was an ardent lover of art, granted Stern a stipend which enabled him to pursue his studies. He went to Dresden, where he received instruction from Johann Aloys Miksch; and thence to Paris, where he subsequently was appointed leader of the Deutscher Gesangverein Society. While in the latter city he conducted, among other works, the incidental music by Mendelssohn to Sophocles’ Antigone. In 1846, Stern returned to Berlin, where, in the following year, he founded the Stern Gesangverein. The first performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah (October 1847) established Stern’s reputation as one of the foremost conductors of his

Julius Weissenborn

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Christian Julius Weissenborn (April 13, 1837 – April 21, 1888) was a German bassoonist, teacher and composer. Biography Weissenborn was born in Friedrichs-Tanneck near Eisenberg, Thuringia. He was principal bassoonist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1857 to 1887. He taught at the Leipzig Conservatory beginning in 1882. Apart from a small canon of Romantic works, he is chiefly remembered for his pedagogical works, the Practical Bassoon School and the Bassoon Studies, Op. 8 (which includes the “Fifty Advanced Studies”), which are still in widespread use. He died, aged 51, in Leipzig. Music The Practical Bassoon School (called “Practical Method for the Bassoon” in the American editions) consists primarily of 25 sets of exercises that gradually increase in difficulty, from the most elementary level to intermediate. Following this there is a brief introduction to the tenor clef and a fairly detailed discussion of various ornaments, with a 26th section applying these concepts. The Bassoon Studies, Op. 8 is published in two parts. The first part is subtitled “For Beginners” and consists of several sections: * I. Essential Kinds of Expression (Tenuto, Legato, Staccato, Portato, Dy

Kamilo Mašek

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Kamilo Mašek (11 July 1831 – 29 June 1859) was a Slovenian music composer of Czech descent. Life Mašek was born on 11 July 1831 in Ljubljana, Austrian Empire, and baptized Camillo Leopold Bernhard Maschek. He was the son of the Czech-born Slovenian composer Gašper Mašek and Czech concert singer Amalie Horný Maschek. Mašek introduced more Romantic influence into Slovenian music. His compositions include various sacred works. He died of tuberculosis in Sankt Stefan ob Stainz on 29 June 1859. Works * Overture to the melodrama Judith (1854), for orchestra * Polkas for wind orchestra * Divertimento for two violas, two cellos and double bass (1854) * Fantasy for piano and melofon * Choral Music: The Lake * Songs, a wreath of songs on texts by France Prešeren References External links *List of Kamilo Mašek works on CPDL

Karel Bendl

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Karel Bendl, or , pseudonym: Podskalský (16 April 1838, Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire 20 September 1897, Prague) was a Czech composer. Life Bendl was born and died in Prague. He studied at the organ school, where he met and befriended Antonín Dvořák one year before graduating with honors in 1858. By then he had already composed a number of small choral works. In 1861 his Poletuje holubice won a prize and at once became a favorite with the local choral societies. In 1864, Bendl went to Brussels, where for a short time he held the post of second conductor of the opera. In Paris, he became influenced by the stage works of Charles Gounod and Ambroise Thomas and especially by Giacomo Meyerbeer. By 1865, he was back in Prague where he was appointed conductor of the choral society known as , and he held the post until 1879, when Russian (originally from Hamburg), includes engaged his services for his private band. Bendl’s first opera Lejla was successfully produced in 1868. It was followed by Břetislav a Jitka (1870), Starý ženich, a comic opera (1883), Karel Škréta (1883), Dítě Tábora, a prize opera (1892), and Máti Míla (1891). Other operas by Bendl are Indická princezna, Černohorci,

Karel Komzák I

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Karel Komzák I (4 November 182319 March 1893) was a Bohemian composer, organist, bandmaster and conductor. He was the father of Karel Komzák II and the grandfather of Karel Komzák III. Biography Karel Komzák was born in 1823 in Netěchovice, near Týn nad Vltavou, now in the České Budějovice District of the Czech Republic. A memorial plaque now commemorates his birthplace. He learned the violin from his father, a blacksmith but also a popular folk singer and acclaimed violinist, and studied with Moritz Mildner and Antonín Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory. He studied at the School for Organists and became a village teacher. Later he was an organist at a lunatic asylum, the National Institute for the Mentally Ill, where he worked for 19 years. and a theatre conductor in Linz. Among its players were Antonín Dvořák (viola) and the composer’s own son Karel Komzák II (violin). He was succeeded in this post by Bedřich Smetana. In 1865 Komzák was appointed bandmaster in the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army in Innsbruck. He served in this post for the next 15 years in a variety of locations. In 1876 he declined an offer to conduct at the World Exhibition in Chicago, fol

Karel van Ark

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Karel (Charles) Pieter Hendrik van Ark (9 September 1839 – 24 August 1902) was a Russian pianist, music teacher, and composer. Biography Karel van Ark was of Dutch origin. He was born on 28 August 1839 (c. 1842 in other sources ) in Saint Petersburg. His father was the organist of the Dutch Embassy Church in Saint Petersburg and a Dutch teacher. He received general education at the Peter and Paul Male Lutheran School. A student of Theodor Leschetizky (piano) and Nikolai Zaremba (composition), van Ark became a teacher at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory from its founding in 1862, invited by Anton Rubinstein. He was initially an assistant to Leschetizky before becoming a professor in 1879. Van Ark was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus (third and second degree), Order of Saint Anna (third and second degree), and the Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth degree) during his forty years of teaching at the conservatory. Among his students were: Nikolai Abramychev, Anna Yesipova, Alexander Medem, Sophia von zur Mühlen, Paul de Conne, Nikolai Shishkin, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Pavel Weymarn, Viktor Kolomytsev, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Lev Steinberg. As a composer, he composed a number of salon pie

Karl Adolf Lorenz

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Karl Adolf Lorenz (13 August 1837 – 3 March 1923) was a German conductor, composer, and music pedagogue. Career Born in Köslin, his family moved to Stettin where he attended the Marienstiftsgymnasium (de) (a school) for 16 years. During those 16 years, Lorenz studied music with composer Heinrich Trieste (1808–1885). In 1857, Lorenz went on to study at the Humboldt University of Berlin, earning a PhD in philosophy in 1861. In philosophy he was highly influenced by his study of Arthur Schopenhauer. In music, he studied counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn, piano and composition with Friedrich Kiel and instrumentation with choirmaster Wenzel Gährich, all at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Lorenz remained in Berlin until 1864, during which he had several conducting engagements of the Meixnerschen glee club. In 1864, Lorenz moved to Strasbourg to conduct the Musical Society. Two years later he became professor at his alma mater, the Marienstiftsgymnasium. Three years before the death of Carl Loewe in 1869, Lorenz became his successor as music director and organist at the Jakobikirche, Stettin.; and he also became an opera critic. Lorenz died in 1923 in Stettin. Until 1945 Lorenz had been

Karl Davydov

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Karl Yulievich Davydov (; 15 March 183826 February 1889) was a Russian cellist, described by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the “czar of cellists”. He was also a composer, mainly for the cello. His name also appears in various different spellings: Davydov, Davidoff, Davidov, and more, with his first name sometimes written as Charles or Carl. Biography Davydov was the son of a Jewish physician and amateur violinist, Yuly Petrovich Davidhoff from Courland Governorate. His elder brother August Davidov was a noted mathematician and educator, and his nephew Alexei Davidov also became cellist and composer and also a businessman. In his youth Davydov studied mathematics at St. Petersburg University, and then pursued a career as a composer, studying with Moritz Hauptmann at the Leipzig Conservatory. He became a full-time cello soloist in 1850 while continuing to compose. He took a post as a professor of cello at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1863, and subsequently became director in 1878. In 1886 scandal forced him from his position, and Anton Rubinstein took the helm. He had many students, including Aleksandr Verzhbilovich. He intended to write an opera on the subject of Mazeppa. Viktor

Karl Feininger

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Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Feininger (born in Durlach, Grand Duchy of Baden, 31 July 1844; died in New York City, 31 January 1922) was a German–American musician. Biography Feininger came to the United States with his parents in 1853. They settled in Columbia, South Carolina. Feininger was educated in St. Mary’s College there. He displayed a talent for music, and was placed with August Koepper for instruction. He made his debut at 14, playing the violin part of a Beethoven trio (Op. 70, No. 2). Afterward, he studied music in the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany where he studied with Ferdinand David. He led an orchestra in 1863. He returned to the United States in 1864 when the Civil War was in progress, and enlisted in the Union Army, serving under General Gillmore until the war ended. He was survived by his second wife, Jane Pottinger Feininger, a pianist and accompanist who toured with him until 1910. For several years, she was the piano accompanist of the London Handel Society. He was also survived by a son from his first marriage, Lyonel Feininger, a noted painter. Publications * Notes References Further reading Attribution: *

Karl Goldmark

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Karl Goldmark (born Károly Goldmark, Keszthely, 18 May 1830 – Vienna, 2 January 1915) was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer. Life and career Goldmark came from a large Jewish family. His father, Ruben Goldmark, was a chazan (cantor) to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely, Hungary, where Karl was born. Karl Goldmark’s older brother Joseph became a physician and was later involved in the Revolution of 1848, and forced to emigrate to the United States. Karl Goldmark’s early training as a violinist was at the Ödenburg music school in the city of Sopron (1842-3). The Revolution of 1848 forced the Conservatory to close down. Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer. After the Conservatory’s closing, Goldmark played violin for theaters and taught music to make ends meet. During this time, he honed his compositional talents. To make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued a side career as a music journalist. Johannes Brahms and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmark’s prominence in Vienna grew. Death Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), along with many other notable composers. Many of his autograph manuscripts are in the collection of the N

Karl Klindworth

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Karl Klindworth (25 September 183027 July 1916) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, violinist and music publisher. He was one of Franz Liszt’s pupils and later one of his closest disciples and friends, being also on friendly terms with composer Richard Wagner, of whom he was an admirer. He was highly praised by fellow musicians, including Wagner himself and Edward Dannreuther. Among his pupils were Hans von Bülow, Georgy Catoire, and Ethelbert Nevin. Biography Family Klindworth was born in Hanover in 1830 as the son of Carl August Klindworth and Dorothea Wilhelmine (1800–1853), née Lamminger, daughter of court printer Johann Thomas Lamminger (1757–1805). He was the paternal nephew of diplomat and intelligence agent Georg Klindworth and clockmaker Karl Friedrich Felix Klindworth (1788–1851). As a child, the young Klindworth received violin lessons and taught himself to play the piano. As he was not accepted as violin pupil of Louis Spohr, he then joined a traveling theater company as a successful violinist and conductor when he was only 17. In 1850, he took over the leadership of the Neue Liedertafel in Hanover. In the summer of 1852, Klindworth went to Weimar where

Karl Merz

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Karl Merz (September 10, 1834 – January 30, 1890) was an American composer, author, editor, and arranger of German descent. Biography Merz was born September 10, 1834, in Bensheim, near Frankfort-on-Main, Germany. . He received his early musical instruction from his father, a violinist and organist at the church in their hometown. But for the most part he is considered self-taught. By the age of eight or nine he was playing violin in a quartet club which met at the residence of Baron of Rodenstein. He is also known to have frequently played at “musical gatherings” at the castle of the baron of Rodenstein. At the age of eleven he had “assumed his father’s duties as organist” at the church. After returning to the North, around September 1861 he became a professor of music at Oxford Female College in Oxford, Ohio. He started his career as a musical writer in 1868 and made contributions to Brainard’s Musical World. He became known for his “musical hints.” As his popularity rose he was made assistant editor and in 1873 he became the sole editor. During his career he wrote a vast number of musical pieces consisting of operettas, sacred pieces, choruses, songs, piano solos, waltzes, dance

Karl Schuberth

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Karl (also Carl) Eduard Schuberth (; 25 February 1811 – 22 July 1863) was a German composer, conductor, and cellist. Life Schuberth was born in Magdeburg, studying piano with his father, Gottlob, and cello with L. Hesse in Magdeburg. He completed his studies under Friedrich Dotzauer. He toured in 1828–29, after that becoming the first cellist in the Magdeburg theater orchestra. Schuberth commenced extensive tours in Europe, funded by his brother Julius. In autumn 1835 Schuberth settled as a solo cellist in the court of Saint Petersburg after his tour (having gone to Hamburg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Paris, and London), becoming music director of the University of Saint Petersburg and conductor in the court, where he introduced the works of Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and other composers. The cellist was highly admired by the Saint Petersburg society (among them the young Anton Rubinstein). He settled in Zürich in 1855. In May 1863, Schuberth made a trip to Zürich, where he died on 22 July. Works The composer wrote cello, quartets, quintets, and octet works for strings. He published two cello concerti, Variations for Cello and Orchestra, an octet, three quintets (the third

Karl Tausig

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Karl Tausig (sometimes “Carl”; born Karol Tausig; 4 November 184117 July 1871) was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger, and composer. He is widely regarded as Franz Liszt’s greatest pupil and one of the greatest pianists of all time. Today, he is mostly remembered for transcriptions for piano, in particular of works by J.S. Bach, as well as his piano exercises. Life Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig (1820–1885), a student of Sigismond Thalberg. His father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar, where he studied under Liszt for four years. He quickly became one of Liszt’s favorite pupils, traveling with him on concert tours and studying counterpoint, composition, and orchestration in addition to his piano lessons. He even took on one of Liszt’s students, Regina Watson, as his own pupil. At the age of 16, he met Richard Wagner, of whom he became a devoted follower and friend. He made piano arrangements of many of Wagner’s operas. He also introduced Wagner to his friend Peter Cornelius, another Wagner devotee. While he also became a great admirer and friend of the conservative Beethoven

Kārlis Baumanis

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Kārlis Baumanis (11 May 1835 – 10 January 1905), better known as Baumaņu Kārlis, was an ethnic Latvian composer in the Russian Empire. He is the author of the lyrics and music of Dievs, svētī Latviju! (“God bless Latvia!”), the national anthem of Latvia. Kārlis Baumanis was the first composer to use the word “Latvia” in the lyrics of a song, in the 19th century, when Latvia was still a part of the Russian Empire. Biography Kārlis Baumanis was born on 11 May 1835, in Viļķene (Wilkenhof), in the family of peasants Jekab and Anna Baumanis. He wrote and composed the Latvian national anthem “God bless Latvia” in 1870. He lived and worked in Limbaži (Lemsal) as a teacher and a journalist. One of the most significant milestones of his lifetime was his election as the Speaker of Riga, Latvia, and becoming a Member of the Singing Commission in 1870, in which he played a tremendous role in preparing the First General Latvian Singing Festival. In the same year, he married Marija Carolini Elizabeth, the daughter of Ferdinand von Vite, the tenant of Sāra manor, and was a German teacher at the prestigious Smolny Institute of Exotic Nursery. In 1871, he completed the composition studies with the

Karol Mikuli

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Karol Mikuli, also known as Charles Mikuli ( or Կարոլ Պստիկյան; 22 October 1821 – 21 May 1897), was a Polish pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. His students included Moriz Rosenthal, Raoul Koczalski, Aleksander Michałowski, Ciprian Porumbescu, Jaroslaw Zieliński, Kornelia Parnas and Heinrich Schenker. Biographical notes Mikuli (birth surname Bsdikian) was born on October 22, 1821, in Czernowitz, then part of the Austrian Empire (today Chernivtsi, Ukraine) to a Romanianized Moldavian-Armenian family. He studied under Frédéric Chopin for piano (later becoming his teaching assistant) and Anton Reicha for composition. He toured widely as a concert pianist, becoming Director of the Lviv Conservatory in 1858. He founded his own school there in 1888. He died in Lemberg, then part of Austrian Galicia (today Lviv, Ukraine) and is buried in Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. Editions Mikuli is most well known as an editor of works by Chopin. Dover Publications publishes reprints of his 1879 editions of Chopin’s piano music, originally published by F. Kistner (Leipzig). He used several verified sources, most of which were written or corrected by Chopin himself. His editions of Chopin’s works w

Károly Thern

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Károly (Carl) Thern (13 August 1817 – 13 April 1886) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor and arranger. He was of German descent, but was among the second generation of composers who developed the language of Hungarian art music. Thern was born in 1817, in Spišská Nová Ves (Zipser Neudorf in German, Iglo in Hungarian; now in Slovakia). He conducted at the National Theatre of Pest in 1840s, and at the Music Lovers’ Association of Pest between 1868 and 1873, in succession to Mihály Mosonyi. He was also active as a teacher at the National Conservatory. Thern’s incidental music included Svatopluk by József Gaál (1839) in which he introduced the tárogató alongside standard orchestral instruments. His operas included Gizul (premiered 21 December 1841), The Siege of Tihany (Tihany ostroma; 12 April 1845), and The Would-be Invalid (A képzelt beteg; 11 October 1855). Gizul was described as a “… remarkable reflection of the endeavour to give its schooling i.e. musical technique a Hungarian character, to adorn it as if it were in Hungarian garment”. His other music includes a Symphony (1871); a Trio in D minor for two violins and viola, Op. 60; a Hungarian March for piano 6-hands; L

Kate Loder

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Kate Fanny Loder, later Lady Thompson, (21 August 1825 – 30 August 1904) was an English composer and pianist. Biography Ancestry Kate Loder was born on 21 August 1825, within Bath, Somerset where the Loder family were prominent musicians. Her father was the flautist George Loder. According to Grove, her mother was a piano teacher born Fanny Philpot, who was the sister of the pianist Lucy Anderson. However, genealogical research suggests Kate’s mother was Frances Elizabeth Mary Kirkham (1802–50), daughter of Thomas Bulman Kirkham (1778–1845) and Marianne Beville Moore (c.1781 – 1810). Kate was also the sister of conductor and composer George Loder, Royal Academy of Music Kate Loder studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her performance of Mendelssohn’s G minor piano concerto at the Hanover-square Rooms on 27 May 1843, when she was aged 17, may have been her public debut. The following year, in 1844, aged just 18, she became the first female professor of harmony at the Royal Academy. Marriage On 16 December 1851 at St Marylebone Church, Westminster, she married the eminent surgeon Henry Thompson (Kt. 1867. Bt. 1899, ‘of Wimpole Street’). After her marriage she gradually gav

Konstantin von Stackelberg

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Konstantin Nikolai Freiherr von Stackelberg (, tr. ; 15 June 184830 March 1925) was a Baltic German composer and cavalry general in the Imperial Russian Army. Stackelberg was best known for his compositions on music about the White Army during the Russian Civil War. He was the head of the Imperial Music Choir from 1883 to 1917 (now the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and was also involved in improving the music in the Russian Army and Navy. His brother was Georg von Stackelberg, and their maternal grandfather was Maurycy Hauke, making them first cousins to Alexander I of Bulgaria, and Louis of Battenberg, Marquess of Milford Haven. He was awarded Order of Prince Danilo I, Order of the Cross of Takovo and a number of other decorations. Notes References

Kornelije Stanković

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Kornelije Stanković (, ; 23 August 1831 – 16 April 1865) was a Serbian composer, melographer, conductor, pianist and musical writer. He is notable for his four volumes of harmonized Serbian melodies, which were published in Vienna between 1858 and 1863 and are one of the most important foundations for later Serbian music. Biography He was born in a bourgeois Serbian family in Tabán, a part of Buda inhabited mostly by Serbs. After the death of his parents he lived with his elder sister in Аrad, where he went to primary school and attended two years of gymnasium. He studied harmony and counterpoint, as well as the basic piano lessons, Fertile musical life in Vienna and instructions from Sechter marked the most significant, but also the only part of Stanković’s schooling. He was not able to go for musical specialization to Russia with his incurable disease, tuberculosis. He died early, in his thirty-fourth, on 4/16 April 1865 in Buda. He was buried in the Serbian cemetery in Taban. After moving this cemetery, his funeral remains were conveyed to the cemetery in Buda. In 1940, Musical society “Stanković” initiated their moving to the Alley of the Greats in Novo groblje in Belgrade. Cre

Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev

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Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly (, Qūrmanğazy Sağyrbaiūly; 1823–1896) was a Kazakh composer, instrumentalist (kobyz, dombra), and folk artist. He influenced Kazakh musical culture. He was born in 1823 in the Bukey Horde (now Zhanakala District, West Kazakhstan Region). He is buried in the Astrakhan region of Lower Volga in today’s Russian Federation. Biography Kurmangazy was born and raised in the Bukey Horde, in what is now Zhanakala District, West Kazakhstan Region, in a place called Zhideli. His final resting place is in Astrakhan Oblast, at a site formerly known as “Shaitani Bataga”, which is now called “Kurmangazy Hill” in his honor. Kurmangazy Sagyrbaiuly’s origins trace back to the “Kishi Zhuz” (Junior Horde) of the Kazakh people, specifically to the “Sultansiyk” branch of the “Baibakty” clan within the “Baiuly” tribe. His maternal lineage comes from the “Berish” clan, known for its legendary warriors and influential figures. Kurmangazy’s seventh-generation ancestor, “Ershi,” was renowned for his sharp wit and eloquence. A famous saying about him still exists: “Before debating Ershi’s men, try arguing with his women first.” His fifth-generation ancestor, “Baltabai,” and his family we

Lady Arthur Hill

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Annie Jessie Fortescue Harrison (30 December 1848 – 12 February 1944), also known as Annie, Lady Hill and Lady Arthur Hill, was an English composer of songs and piano pieces. She composed two operettas that were staged in London, but is best known as the composer of the 1877 popular ballad In the Gloaming. The song was adopted as the regimental march of the 2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers. Life Harrison was born in Calcutta, British India, the daughter of James Fortescue Harrison, MP of Kilmarnock (other sources record her birth as taking place in Crawleywood, Sussex in 1851). She was composing solo piano pieces, such as The Elfin Waltzes, by the age of 13. In 1865, the family moved to Crawley Down, Sussex, where her father built a mansion called Down Park. Her most popular song was “In the Gloaming” (1877), with lyrics by Meta Orred was written a year earlier, when she was considering a marriage proposal from widowed Lord Arthur Hill. Musicologist Derek B. Scott reports that as soon as Arthur Hill heard the song, he was desperate to marry Annie Harrison. His first wife had died shortly after the birth of their son, a year into their marriage. Harrison married Lord Arthur in 187

Laura Netzel

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Laura Constance Netzel ( Pistolekors; pseudonym, N Lago; 1 March 1839 — 10 February 1927) was a Finnish-born Swedish composer, pianist, conductor and concert organizer who sometimes used the pseudonym N. Lago. She was born in Rantasalmi, Finland, and was proud of her Finnish heritage throughout her life, even though she was just one year old when she moved permanently to Stockholm. Netzel studied piano with Mauritz Gisiko and Anton Door, voice with Julius Günther and composition with Wilhelm Heinze in Stockholm and Charles-Marie Widor in France. Netzel was active in social causes, including support for poor women, children and workers. In 1866 she married professor Wilhelm Netzel of the Karolinska Institute. She died in Stockholm. Life Laura Pistolekors was born in 1839. In her childhood home, as was customary at the time, frequent music salons were organized; at one of these events the organist Elfrida Andrée premiered her first “Tritet for piano” (1860). Laura performed the piano part with two musicians from the court orchestra on violin and cello. Netzel’s opportunities to perform in public diminished after her marriage, and it was then that she turned her creativity to composit

Lauro Rossi

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Lauro Rossi (19 February 1810 in Macerata – 5 May 1885 in Cremona), was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. There is no known connection with Luigi Rossi (1597–1653). Life and career Rossi studied in Naples and produced his first opera there. His greatest success was with the comic opera originally entitled La casa disabitata, which was performed for many years in its revised form under the title I falsi monetari. However, Rossi suffered a fiasco in 1835, after which he left Naples for Mexico, then Cuba. There he set up his own opera company, and married its prima donna, Isabella Obermayer. He returned to Italy in 1843 and continued composing, but, thereafter, he was mainly known as an academic figure as director of the Conservatory, first at Milan (1850–1870) and then at Naples (1870–1878). He was commissioned by Giuseppe Verdi to compose a portion of the Messa per Rossini; specifically, Number V. Agnus Dei, for solo Alto. Two of his late operas were also highly successful: La Contessa di Mons and Cleopatra. Operas * Le contesse villane (1829, revised as La villana contessa and also as Le principesse villane, 1830) * Costanza e Oringaldo (1830, in collaboration with P. Ra

Léo Delibes

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Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876) and the opera Lakmé (1883), which includes the well-known “Flower Duet”. Born into a musical family, Delibes enrolled at France’s foremost music academy, the Conservatoire de Paris, when he was twelve, studying under several professors including Adolphe Adam. After composing light comic opérettes in the 1850s and 1860s, while also serving as a church organist, Delibes achieved public recognition for his music for the ballet La Source in 1866. His later ballets Coppélia and Sylvia were key works in the development of modern ballet, giving the music much greater importance than previously. He composed a small number of mélodies, some of which are still performed frequently. Delibes had several attempts at writing more serious operas, and achieved a considerable critical and commercial success in 1883 with Lakmé. In his later years he joined the faculty of the Conservatoire, teaching composition. He died at his home in Paris at the age of 54. Coppélia and Sylvia remain core works in t

Léon Vasseur

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Félix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, known as Léon Vasseur (28 May 1844 – 25 May 1917), was a French composer, organist and conductor. While working as a cathedral organist, he turned to composing operettas and soon had a hit with La timbale d’argent (1872). He wrote another thirty operettas but never repeated that early success. He also composed church music including two settings of the mass. Biography Vasseur was born in Bapaume in north-east France, the son of Augustin Vasseur, the local church organist and choirmaster. After studying music with his father, Vasseur enrolled at the age of 12 as a student at the École Niedermeyer, the school of church music in Paris, He studied under Pierre-Louis Dietsch (harmony), Georges Schmitt (organ and improvisation) and Camille Saint-Saëns (piano), and won the school’s top prizes as a pianist and organist. In 1870 after eight years at Saint-Symphorien, Vasseur succeeded Marie-Louise Leroi-Godefroy as organist of Notre-Dame de Versailles, the former royal parish church of the kings of France. Vasseur never equalled the popularity of La timbale d’argent, but his series of usually risqué operettas achieved modest success at a variety of theatres in

Leonid Malashkin

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Leonid Dimitrievitch Malashkin (1842 – February 11, 1902) was a Russian composer and conductor. Though he wrote a few works in larger forms, he is today chiefly remembered for his romances, particularly “Oh, Could I But Express in Song”. Little is recorded of Malashkin’s career; born in Moscow, he received his musical training abroad, and in 1870 began teaching voice at the Kiev Theological Seminary. He appears to have been primarily a composer of Russian Orthodox liturgical music, of pieces for piano, and of songs. Among his larger-format works were several symphonies, including at least two on folk themes and one titled the “Triumphant”; the latter, along with one of the folk symphonies and a collection of songs, was performed at an all-Malashkin concert at the Hall of the Assembly of the Nobility in Saint Petersburg in 1873. The same program was repeated in Moscow during the same concert season. In both cases, the composer conducted, with tenor Fyodor Nikolsky and mezzo-soprano Aleksandra Krutikova as soloists. Malashkin is remembered today for a single romance, “Oh, Could I But Express in Song” - sometimes translated as “O, Could I in Song Tell My Sorrow” - which was at one tim

Leopold Auer

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Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in Veszprém, Hungary, 7 June 1845, to a poor Jewish household of painters. He first studied violin with a local concertmaster. He later wrote that the violin was a “logical instrument” for any (musically inclined) Hungarian boy to take up because it “didn’t cost much.” At the age of 8 Auer continued his violin studies with , who also came from Veszprém, at the Budapest Conservatory. Kohne was concertmaster of the orchestra of the National Opera. A performance by Auer as soloist in the Mendelssohn violin concerto attracted the interest of some wealthy music lovers, who gave him a scholarship to go to Vienna for further study. He lived at the home of his teacher, Jakob Dont. Auer wrote that it was Dont who taught him the foundation for his violin technique. out of poverty. An audition with Henri Vieuxtemps in Graz was a failure, partly because Vieuxtemps’ wife thought so. A visit to Paris proved equally unsuccessful. Auer decided to seek the advice

Leopold Damrosch

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Leopold Damrosch (October 22, 1832 – February 15, 1885) was a German American orchestral conductor, composer, violinist, and teacher. He was the patriarch of the Damrosch family, which includes Frank Damrosch and Walter Damrosch. Biography Damrosch was born in Posen (Poznań), Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Heinrich Damrosch. His father was Jewish and his mother was Lutheran. Leopold Damrosch was baptized a Lutheran when marrying his wife, former opera singer Helene von Heimburg. Damrosch began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor. Capitulating to the wishes of his parents he entered the University of Berlin and completed his PhD in medicine but during his spare time he studied violin under Ries, and thoroughbass with Dehn and Bohmer. After he completed his degree Damrosch decided to dedicate his life and energy to music. He gained fame as a violinist and began to play to large audiences in many major German cities including Berlin and Hamburg. He went to Weimar, and was received by Franz Liszt, who appointed him solo-violinist in the Ducal orchestra. It has been said mistakenly that Liszt

Leopold Wenzel

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Léopold de Wenzel (23 January 1847 – 21 August 1923), also known as Leopold Wenzel, was an Italian-born conductor and composer, known for his ballets and contributions to Edwardian musical comedies, who spent most of his career in Britain. Biography Born in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Wenzel spent most of his career working in London, with the exception of some years spent in Paris. Wenzel was appointed as musical director, music arranger and ballet composer at the Empire Theatre of Varieties in London in 1889, where he wrote and arranged numerous ballets. Later, he conducted at the Gaiety Theatre in London until 1913. In addition to ballets, his many works include art songs, orchestral works, and operas in the late Victorian era and early Edwardian period. Some of his songs were incorporated into Edwardian musical comedies. He died in Asnières, near Paris, on 21 August 1923. Selected works Ballets with choreographer Katti Lanner at the Empire: *A Dream of Wealth (1889) *Cécile (1890) *Dolly (1890) *Orfeo (1891) *By the Sea (1891) *Nisita (1891) *Versailles (1892) *Monte Cristo (1896) *An Artist’s Model, an Edwardian musical comedy (1895) (additional numbers) Notes Referen

Lindsay Sloper

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Lindsay Sloper (full name Edward Hugh Lindsay Sloper; 14 June 1826 – 3 July 1887) was an English pianist and composer. Life Sloper was born in London in 1826. After studying the piano in London under Ignaz Moscheles, he went, around 1841, to Aloys Schmitt in Frankfurt, and later to Georg Jacob Vollweiler in Heidelberg and Xavier Boisselot in Paris. He remained in Paris until 1846, when he returned to London. He appeared occasionally as a pianist at the concerts of the Musical Union (1846) and the Royal Philharmonic Society (1849), of which he subsequently became a member. He claimed to have taught Jane Stirling, and to have introduced her to Frédéric Chopin. A reviewer of a concert in 1847 (one of many of his concerts reviewed in The Musical World) wrote: “Mr. Sloper’s powers of expression and unerring mechanism were more finely developed in the Sonata Apassionata of Beethoven than in any other part of the programme. The last movement was taken with extraordinary rapidity, but the energy, precision and finish of the performer’s style were preserved throughout with undiminished power.” As his teaching connection grew, his public appearances waned. That same year the child prodigy pi

Loïsa Puget

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Louise Françoise “Loïsa” Puget (11 February 1810 – 24 October 1889) was a French composer. Life Loïsa Puget was born in Paris, her proper first names were Louise Françoise. Her mother was a singer and saw that her daughter received a musical education including study at the same school as George Sand. Her composition teacher was Adolphe Adam. After completing her studies, Puget composed and performed her own music in salons and married her lyricist Gustave Lemoine (1802–1885) in 1845. She was most productive between 1830 and 1845 – apart from some operas she composed the music for over 300 songs. Many of her songs also appeared in editions with guitar accompaniment, some of which were made by prominent guitarists such as Matteo Carcassi. In 1841, Lemoine and Adolphe d’Ennery wrote a melodrama based on Puget’s most successful song À la grâce de Dieu, which provided the idea for Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix. Puget died in Pau, aged 79. Works Stage *Le Mauvais œil, opera (1836) *La Veilleuse, ou les Nuits de Milady (1869) Songs (to words by Gustave Lemoine) *À la grâce de Dieu (ca. 1840) *Adieu, Cousine *Appelle-moi ta mère (1844) *Ave Maria, prière *Belle pour lui! *Demain, je sera

Lothar Kempter

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Lothar Kempter (5 February 1844 – 14 July 1918) was a German-Swiss composer and conductor. Biography Kempter was born in 1844 in Lauingen. His father was music teacher Friedrich Kempter. Following his father’s wishes he started studying law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In 1868, after his father had died, he changed to studying music. The same year he married singer Caroline Leonoff. He then conducted for three years the orchestra at the Strasbourg theatre. In 1875, he became Kapellmeister at the Aktientheather in Zürich, a position which he held until 1915. In 1879, he became director of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. In 1886, he began teaching music theory and composition at the Zurich Conservatory (merged in 1999 into the School of Music, Drama, and Dance (HMT), itself merged in 2007 into the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)). In 1892, he became a citizen of Zürich. In 1911, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. In 1899, eleven years after his first wife Caroline had died, he married Hedwig Ratzinger, who died in 1908. In 1910, he married Philomena Jakob (alias Philo Jarno). Both were singers at the Stadttheater Zurich. He died

Lotten Edholm

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Lovisa Christina Charlotta “Lotten” Edholm or af Edholm, née von Heijne (18 April 1839 - 12 July 1930) was a Swedish composer and a pioneer within the Swedish Red Cross. She was born to the nobleman Georg Fredrik von Heijne-Lillienberg and Juliana Charlotta Silfverstolpe, and married Edvard Edholm (1831-1913), physician to the king, in 1867. She served as hovfröken (maid of honour) to the queen dowager Josephine in 1865–67. Lotten Edholm initiated the participation of women in Sweden in the Swedish Red Cross and served as chair of the women’s section of the Swedish Red Cross in 1865–1906. She also started a cooking school in Stockholm. Lotten Edholm was also active as a composer and composed piano music for private use in high society life. In 1919, she published her memoirs, Från barndom till ålderdom (From Childhood to Old Age). Notes References * Svensk uppslagsbok. Malmö 1937. * Lotten af Edholm på Levande Musikarv Further reading *

Louis Brassin

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Louis Brassin (24 June 184017 May 1884) was a Belgian pianist, composer and music educator. He is best known now for his piano transcription of the Magic Fire Music from Wagner’s Die Walküre. Career Louis Brassin was born in Aix-la-Chapelle in 1840. His father was a baritone named de Brassine, whose career took him and his family abroad. Louis gave his first concert at the age of six, in Hamburg. At age seven he entered the Leipzig Conservatory as a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles. In 1852 he went on concert tours with his two brothers. In 1857 he adopted the surname Brassin. In 1866-67 he taught at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, succeeding Hans von Bülow, then resumed concertising. He was piano professor at the Brussels Conservatoire 1868-78, and played an important role in the musical life of the country. Among his pupils there were Edgar Tinel, Arthur De Greef, Franz Rummel and Alfred Wotquenne. In 1878 he took over the piano class of Theodor Leschetizky at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where his pupils included Vasily Safonov, Wassily Sapellnikoff and Genary Korganov. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1884, aged 43. Transcriptions Brassin’s piano transcription of the Magic Fire M

Louis Deffès

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Pierre Louis Deffès (25 July 1819 – 28 May 1900) was a 19th-century French composer. He excelled as a composer of both operas and large-scale sacred music. Life Deffès was born in Toulouse and admitted to the Paris Conservatory in 1839, where he studied with Fromental Halévy and Henri Montan Berton (composition), François Bazin (harmony), Auguste Barbereau (counterpoint and fugue), and Théodore Mozin (piano). In 1844, he composed La Toulousaine. The piece gained great popularity and became a signature tune of his home town. In 1847, he won second prize at the “Concours de Chants Historiques” with his composition Les Charmes de la Paix, and in the same year the Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata L’Ange et Tobie, based on a poem by Léon Halévy. During his stay in Rome, which was connected with the prize, he composed his Messe solennelle, which was first performed in 1850. In 1857, a performance followed at Notre Dame de Paris with 500 participants. In 1855, L’Anneau d’argent, the first of his twenty successful operas, was premiered at the Opéra-Comique. The Franco-Prussian War interrupted the succession of performances of his operas. Instead, he now wrote compositions such as the Ma

Louis Désiré Besozzi

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Louis-Désiré Besozzi (3 April 1814 – 11 November 1879) was a French pianist, organist and composer. Bezozzi, the fourth generation of this traditional family of wind instrument musicians, composed mainly piano and choral works as well as a four-volume work with exercises for choral singing. Biography Born in Versailles, Louis Besozzi belonged a family of artists from Italy, many of them with a reputation of being instrumental in Turin, Naples and Dresden. His great-great grandfather Giuseppe Besozzi was an oboist in Parma, his great-grandfather Gaetano Besozzi oboist at the court of Naples and later in the chapel of Versailles, From 1831 he worked at the Conservatory as successor of Ferdinand Gasse in solfège and later as piano teacher at the École de musique classique et religieuse of Louis Niedermeyer, where he was succeeded by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1865. Many times a prize winner at the Conservatory, he won the 1837 Grand Prix de Rome and went on to study at the French Academy in Rome, where he met Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Charles Gounod, Dominique Papety and others. Later he devoted his life to teaching popular music and the development of orfeónic societies, for which h

Louis Diémer

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Louis Joseph Diémer (14 February 1843 – 21 December 1919) was a French pianist and composer. He was the founder of the Société des Instruments Anciens in the 1890s, and also gave recitals on the harpsichord. His output as a composer was extensive, including a piano concerto and a quantity of salon pieces. Life Diémer was born and died in Paris. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Ambroise Thomas for composition, Antoine Marmontel for piano, and François Benoist for organ. From the age of twelve, he won several first prizes (Premiers Prix) at the Conservatoire, in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ. He quickly built a reputation as a virtuoso and toured with, among others, the violinists Delphin Alard and Pablo de Sarasate. In 1888, Diémer succeeded Marmontel as professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. He taught, among others, Robert Casadesus, Alfredo Casella, Marcel Ciampi, Alfred Cortot, José Cubiles, Lazare Lévy, Robert Lortat, Yves Nat, and Édouard Risler. He was also instrumental in promoting the use of historical instruments, giving a series of harpsichord performances as part o

Louis Gregh

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Louis Charles Félix François Gregh (16 March 1843 – 21 January 1915) was a French composer, conductor and music publisher. Life Gregh was born in Philippeville, now Skikda, Algeria, on 16 March 1843. He grew by acquiring, by auction, parts of the dissolved publishers Léon Escudier (1882), Egrot (1884), and Jochem (1899). He was also the French representative of the publishers Litolff and Universal Edition. His business was quite successful, and he only gave up in old age in 1907, when he sold it to Rouart, which in turn was taken over by Salabert in 1953. Selected compositions Stage works * Un Lycée de jeunes filles (operetta, 1881) * Le Présomptif (opera bouffe, 1883) * Le Capitaine Roland (operetta, 1895) * Arlette (ballet) Vocal music * Le Bon pasteur (L. Capet) (1876) * La Cage du pinson (Villemer & Delormel) (1876) * Je n’ai rien osé lui dire. Récit-naïveté (words: A. Queyriaux) (1876) * La Leçon de charité (Capet & Carel) (1876) * Lettre d’une pensionnaire (Villemer & Delormel) (1876) * Minuit à Venise. Barcarola (A. Queyriaux) (1876) * La Plainte de l’exilé (Villemer & Delormel) (1876) * Les Roses mortes (Villemer & Delormel) (1876) * Connaissez-vous mon amie? (Villemer & De

Louis Köhler

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Christian Louis Heinrich Köhler (5 September 1820 – 16 February 1886) was a German composer, conductor and piano teacher. Biography Köhler was born in Braunschweig. He studied piano in Vienna under Carl Maria von Bocklet, Simon Sechter and Ignaz von Seyfried. As a conductor, he worked in Marienburg and Elbing. After that he settled in Königsberg in 1847, after which time he concentrated on piano teaching and writings on music. Among his pupils were Adolf Jensen and Hermann Goetz. He was a critic for the Hartungsche Zeitung from 1849 to 1886, and was a contributor to Signale für die musikalische Welt from 1844 until 1886. His writings were well known to Liszt and Wagner; he also proposed the formation of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, with which Liszt was involved. Köhler composed three operas and a ballet, and wrote books on musical theory. He also wrote educational works for piano. He died in Königsberg on 16 February 1886. He was 65 years old. Selected writings * Die Melodie der Sprache (Leipzig, 1853) * Systematische Lehrmethode für Klavierspiel und Musik (Leipzig, 1857–8, 3/1888) * Die Gebrüder Müller und das Streichquartett (Leipzig, 1858) * Führer durch den Clavierunt

Louis Lacombe

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Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe (26 November 1818 – 30 September 1884) was a French pianist and composer. Biography Lacombe was born in Bourges (Cher), the brother of composer Felicita Casella. He showed unusual musical abilities at very young age and was soon hailed as a child prodigy. He studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire from 1829 to 1832 with Pierre Zimmerman and won first prize in piano performance at age 12 in 1831. He began touring Western Europe after leaving the Conservatoire, and in 1834 studied composition in Vienna with Carl Czerny as well as theory with Ignaz von Seyfried and Simon Sechter. At the end of the decade, he settled in Paris and married his first wife; his second wife, Andrea Lacombe (née Favel), whom he married in 1869, was a singer. In Paris, Lacombe initially established himself as a virtuoso pianist, increasingly dedicating himself to composition and music criticism (his essays were partly reprinted in a posthumous collection, Philosophie et musique, 1896). Lacombe’s first published works include a piano quintet, a trio, and some piano pieces. He wrote a number of dramatic symphonies with soloist and choir, and his cantata, Sapho, was performed at t

Louis Lewandowski

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Louis Lewandowski (April 3, 1821 – February 4, 1894) was a Polish-Jewish and German-Jewish composer of synagogal music. He contributed greatly to the liturgy of the synagogue service. His most famous works were composed during his tenure as musical director at the New Synagogue in Berlin and his melodies form a substantial part of synagogue services around the world today. Life Lewandowski was born in, what was then, Wreschen, Grand Duchy of Posen, Prussia. At the age of twelve he went to Berlin to study piano and voice, and became solo soprano in the synagogue. Afterward he studied for three years under A. B. Marx and attended the school of composition of the Prussian Academy of Arts. There his teachers were Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen and Eduard Grell. Lewandowski was the first Jew to be admitted to the school at the request of Felix Mendelssohn. After graduating with high honors, he was appointed in 1840, choirmaster of the Berlin synagogue. In that capacity he developed an extensive body of music for the synagogue ritual. In 1866 he received the title of “royal musical director.” Shortly afterward, he was appointed choirmaster in the New Synagogue, for which he composed the enti

Louis Liebe

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Friedrich Eduard Ludwig (Louis) Liebe (26 November 1819 – 4 July 1900) was a German composer and musical teacher. By 1863, he had published more than 50 works as a composer, including pieces for piano, violin, voice, and male choirs, many of which appeared in France and England. His most popular works included Harmony (words by Adaien Linden of Metz) and a cantata for mixed choir with orchestral accompaniment (words by Emile Drescher). Career From 1842 to 1844, Liebe taught at the Sallmann’schen Schule in Kassel. From 1850 to 1867, Liebe lived in Strasbourg. He was director of the Association of Choral Societies of Alsace and was a music teacher. During this period, he toured Paris, Zürich, Chur, and London. From 1883 to 1886, Liebe was based in Kostanz, where he conducted the Bodan singing society. Personal life and death Liebe married in Mainz in October 1847. He died in 1900 in Chur. Further reading * Neue Berliner Musikzeitung hrsgg. v. Gustav Bock, 6. Jg., Nr. 37 v. 1852-09-22, S. 295, Sp. 1: “Louis Liebe (1819–1900), Musikdirektor in Straßburg; „Louis Liebe, welchem vor Kurzem der Preis für die beste Composition als Männer-Quartett des Gedichtes: ‚Muttersprache‘ von Max von S

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was a Louisiana Creole and Jewish-American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and career Louis Moreau Gottschalk was born on May 8, 1829, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Edward Gottschalk and Aimée Marie Bruslé. He had six brothers and sisters, five of whom were half-siblings by his father’s biracial mistress. Gottschalk’s family lived for a time in a tiny cottage at Royal and Esplanade in the Vieux Carré. He later moved in with relatives at 518 Conti Street; his maternal grandmother Bruslé and his nurse Sally were both Saint Dominican Creoles, the majority of which migrated to Louisiana and assimilated to Louisiana Creole society. Gottschalk was therefore exposed to a variety of musical traditions and influences and played the piano from an early age. He was soon recognized as a prodigy by the New Orleans bourgeois establishment, making his informal public debut in 1840 at the new St. Charles Hotel. Only two years later, at age 13, Gottschalk left the United States and sailed to Europe, as he and his father realized a c

Louis Schindelmeisser

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Louis (Ludwig) Alexander Balthasar Schindelmeisser (8 December 1811 - 30 March 1864) was a nineteenth-century German clarinetist, conductor and composer. He was born Königsberg, Prussia, and studied in Berlin and Leipzig. He was an early and enthusiastic partisan of Richard Wagner, arranging his first performances in Wiesbaden and Darmstadt of Tannhäuser, of which he conducted the premiere, Rienzi and Lohengrin. Life Schindelmeisser attended High School for music in Berlin where he studied clarinet under the guidance of French virtuoso J. M. Hostié who had moved to Berlin in 1824. However, it is possible that he taught him earlier in Königsberg since Hostié had settled there already in 1812. He died in Darmstadt. His own operas were in the tradition of von Weber and Spohr and “he kept the lyrical and dramatic components in balance”. Of note is his Sinfonia Concertante Op. 2 for four clarinets and orchestra composed in 1833, believed to be the only one of its kind, Georg Druschetzky wrote a piece for three clarinets and orchestra. Compositions Music for winds * Ouvertüre zu dem Trauerspiel “Uriel Acosta” für Harmoniemusik in E-flat major. * Sinfonia Concertante op.2 for 4 clarinets

Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray

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Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray (2 February 1840 – 4 July 1910) was a French Breton composer, pianist, and professor of music history/theory at the Conservatoire de Paris as well as a Prix de Rome laureate. He was born at Nantes and died at Vernouillet, near Dreux. Debussy was one of his protégés. Career His bucolic upbringing near the family estate of Grézillières certainly added to his eventual fascination with the folklore, music, and culture of Brittany and other nations. Later in life, Bourgault would support the Breton Regionalist Union, an organization indebted to the propagation of Breton culture, ideals, and the notions of independence. He was also represented in the Goursez. Bourgault was from a family of considerable political and ancestral influence. His uncle was Adolphe Billault, the famous minister of the Second Empire, personally selected by Napoleon III to act as France’s Interior Minister from 1854 to 1858. Another of his uncles, Jules Rieffel, from Alsace, founded one of France’s first agricultural schools called the École nationale supérieure agronomique de Rennes. His father was an important businessman, ship owner and munitions expert. These family connection

Louise Béguin-Salomon

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Louise Béguin-Salomon (9 April 1831 – 12 November 1916) was a French pianist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic period. A student of Louise Farrenc at the Conservatoire de Paris, Béguin-Salomon became a celebrated pianist in the Parisian concert scene, often programming canonic standards alongside contemporary repertoire. As a composer she authored a wide variety of solo piano works. Life and career Louise-Frédérique Cohen (née Salomon) was born on 9 April 1831 in Marseille, France. She was the daughter of Salomon Rousseau Cohen (1796–1876) and Cesarine Boisset (1796–1880); at some point the family lived in Remilly-Aillicourt. Admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris on 7 July 1843, she studied there until 1851. Béguin-Salomon received the Officier d’Academie honor in 1887 and died on 12 November 1916 in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, France. and Petite suite des pièces faciles dans le style classique (1894). In addition, Béguin-Salomon arranged the Andante movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 1 for piano in 1853. List of compositions Sources: Piano Solo * La Bal breton, quadrille brillant et facile (1849) * Le Mysoli, bluette pour piano, Op. 11 (1853)

Louise Filliaux-Tiger

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Louise Filliaux-Tiger (22 May 1848 – 28 November 1916) was a French pianist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic period. Born into an artistic family, Filliaux-Tiger attended the Conservatoire de Paris, spending her subsequent career in the city. As a successful performer and composer for piano, most of her works were for the instrument, although she wrote vocal and chamber music as well. Life and career Louise Sophie Tiger was born on 22 May 1848 in the of Paris, France. Her father was the architect Alexandre-Joseph-Jean-Baptiste Tiger, while her mother was the painter . She entered the Conservatoire de Paris sometime before 1868. She died suddenly on 28 November 1916 in Nice, France. :Piano * Deux Pièces Pastorales pour piano, 1890 * Dans les brandes, 1900 References External links * *

Louise Héritte-Viardot

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Louise Pauline Marie Héritte-Viardot (14 December 1841 – 17 January 1918) was a French singer (contralto), pianist, conductor and composer. She was born in Paris, the eldest child of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Louis Viardot, niece of Maria Malibran and sister to composer and conductor Paul Viardot. In 1863 Viardot married Ernest Héritte, Honorary Consul and Chancellor of the Embassy of France in Bern. Her performing career was ended by illness, and with the help of Clara Schumann, she found a teaching position as a singing teacher at the Hoch Conservatory. She died in Heidelberg. Works Héritte-Viardot composed mostly chamber music pieces and orchestral works and symphonies, many of which are lost. Selected works include: *Arme kleine Liebe (in Drei Lieder) (Text: Anna Ritter) *Der Schmied, op. 8 no. 5 (Text: Johann Ludwig Uhland) *Erlösung (Text: Anna Ritter) *Saphiren sind die Augen dein (in 6 Lieder) (Text: Heinrich Heine) *Sehnsucht (Text: Anna Ritter) *Sérénade (Text: J. Bertrand) *Tag und Nacht (in Drei Lieder) (Text: Gustav Renner) *Unter’m Machendelbaum (in Drei Lieder) (Text: Ernst von Wildenbruch) *Sonata for cello and piano opus 40, (1909) *Die Bajadere, cantata for choru

Louise Japha

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Louise Japha (also Louise Langhans-Japha; 2 February 1826 – 13 October 1910) was a German pianist and composer. Life and work Louise Japha grew up in Hamburg, where she learned to play the piano from Fritz Warendorf and composition from Georg August Groß and Friedrich Wilhelm Grund. Her first concert was on 10 February 1838 in the local Apollo Hall. To practice the piano she went to the piano factory of Baumgarten und Heins, where she met the young Johannes Brahms. They practised and played together and discussed his first compositions. A long-lasting friendly relationship developed between Louise Japha and Brahms, who was seven years younger than her. Brahms dedicated one of his earliest works (Op. 6, six songs) to Louise and her sister Minna to express his gratitude. At the invitation of Clara Schumann, Louise Japha moved to Düsseldorf with her sister in 1853 to complete her musical studies with the Schumanns. There she met Johannes Brahms again. Franz Liszt dedicated his Beethoven Cantata No. 1 (Celebratory cantata for the unveiling of the Beethoven monument in Bonn, 1845) to her. She worked in association with Stephen Heller, François-Auguste Gevaert, Camille Saint-Saëns, César

Louise Strantz

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Louise Tippelskirch Strantz (2 March 1823 - 8 January 1909) was a German composer, poet and singer. Strantz was born in Dusseldorf to Lieutenant General Ernst Ludwig von Tippelskirch, commandant of Berlin and commander of the Royal Prussian State Gendarmerie. She studied music with Constanze Blank, Jaehns, and Pax. She married Adolf von Strantz, and they moved to Berlin in 1842, where she lived until her death in 1909. Composer Franz Bendel based his Wiegenlied on a text by Strantz. Strantz’s music was published by Bote & Bock, Hermann, and Tobias Haslinger. *Fest - Walzer *Konig Marsch *Reverie *Wilhelm - Marsch Vocal *“Anna Polka” *Cantata: Des Kaiser’s Ruh ‘schütz’ *“Klage dem Liebchen” *Zwei Lieder References

Ludmila Jeske-Choińska-Mikorska

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Ludmila Jeske-Choińska-Mikorska (1849 – 2 November 1898) was a Polish singer and composer. She was born in Małachowo, near Poznań, and studied singing in Vienna with Mathilde Marchesi and in Milan with Francesco Lamperti and composition in Warsaw with Gustaw Roguski and Zygmunt Noskowski. She taught in Poznań beginning in 1877, and later in Warsaw. Her symphonic poem Rusalka won an award in Chicago in 1893. She married Teodore Jeske-Choiński and died in Warsaw. Works Mikorska wrote for orchestra and theater, and also dances and works for piano. Selected works include: *Rusalka symphonic poem *Markiz de Créqui, comic opera, 1892 *Filutka, operetta, 1884 *Zuch dziewczyna, operetta, 1884 References External links * Scores by Ludmila Jeske-Choińska-Mikorska in digital library Polona

Ludvig Mathias Lindeman

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Ludvig Mathias Lindeman (28 November 1812 – 11 March 1887) was a Norwegian composer and organist. He is most noted for compiling Norwegian folk music in his work Ældre og nyere norske Fjeldmelodier. Background Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was born in Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. He was the seventh of ten children born to Ole Andreas Lindeman (1769–1857) and Anna Severine Hickmann (1782–1844). In 1833 he was sent to Oslo to take his final exams and then studied theology at the university. In 1839, Lindeman succeeded his elder brother, Jacob Andreas Lindeman (1805–1846), as cantor and organist of the Oslo Cathedral. Lindeman was in the position for 48 years until his death in 1887. Composer Fredrikke Waaler was one of his students. Career Lindeman was a contributor to Jørgen Moe’s song and folk-ballad collection, Samling af Sange, Folkeviser og Stev i norske Alumuedialekter (1840), putting together the melody supplement to the volume at Bishop Moe’s request. The following year, he published his own selection of Norwegian folk melodies, Norske Fjeldmelodier harmonisk bearbeidede for Pianoforte (1841). When in 1871, the major new organ in the Royal Albert Hall in London was inaugurated

Ludvig Norman

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Ludvig Norman (28 August 183128 March 1885) was a Swedish composer, conductor, pianist, and music teacher. Together with Franz Berwald and Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, he ranks among the most important Swedish symphonists of the 19th century. Norman was born Fredrik Vilhelm Ludvig Norman in Stockholm. Norman began his musical training with Lindblad and later studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1848 to 1852, where he also made the acquaintance of Robert Schumann. Starting in 1857, he taught at the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm. In 1860, he became the conductor of the Nya harmoniska sällskapet and obtained the post of Kapellmeister at the Royal Swedish Opera the following year. After 1881, he conducted the choral concerts of the Musikvorenigen. He was married to the noted violinist Wilma Neruda in 1864. Their son was a famous alpinist. As conductor, he is remembered for premiering Franz Berwald’s fourth symphony on 9 April 1878. Norman composed in a wide variety of genres, including four symphonies, four overtures, four sets of incidental music for plays, cantatas, and chamber music, as well as a great number of lieder and songs for choir. He was the dedicatee of Woldemar Bargiel'

Ludwig Hartmann (composer)

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Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Hartmann (3 August 1836 – 14 February 1910) was a German composer and music critic. Life Born in Neuss, Hartmann was the son of music director in Neuss, Friedrich Hartmann. He was educated at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig under Moscheles and Hauptmann and then went to Weimar as a pupil of Franz Liszt. He appeared at a concert given by Schröder-Devrient at Dresden in 1859. Latterly he was almost exclusively employed in musical journalism. and contributed numerous articles to periodical literature. Further reading * Kristina Popova (ed.): Die Dresdner Gesellschaft in Porträtzeichnungen von Robert Sterl. Robert Sterl Haus, Naundorf 2007, p. 8f. * Hartmann on Retrobibliothek References External links * *

Ludwig Minkus

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Ludwig Minkus (), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826 – 7 December 1917), was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violinist and teacher of music. Minkus is noted for the music he composed during his career in St. Petersburg, Russia. Beginning in 1871 Minkus served in the official post of Composer of Ballet Music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position he held until it was abolished upon his retirement in 1886. During his long career in St. Petersburg, Minkus composed for the original works and revivals staged by the ballet masters Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa. Among the composer’s most celebrated compositions is his score for La source (1866; composed jointly with Léo Delibes), Don Quixote (1869); and La Bayadère (1877). Minkus composed many pieces for older works. The most well-known of Minkus’s additional music is the Grand Pas classique and Mazurka des enfants composed for Petipa’s 1881 revival of Paquita. Early life Ludwig Minkus was born Aloysius Bernhard Philipp Minkus on 23 March 1826, in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire. His father, Theodor Johann Minkus, was born in 1795 in Groß-Meseritsch, Mora

Ludwig Schuncke

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Christian Ludwig Schuncke (21 December 18107 December 1834) was a German pianist and composer, and close friend of Robert Schumann. His early promise was eclipsed by his death from tuberculosis at the age of 23. He was generally known as Ludwig, and that name also appears as Louis in some references. His surname appears as either Schuncke or Schunke. Biography Ludwig Schuncke was born in Kassel in 1810. His father and first teacher Johann Gottfried Schuncke (1777–1840), and his uncle Johann Michael Schuncke (1778–1821), were both professional horn players. He demonstrated his talents very early, and they were encouraged. In March 1822, aged only 11, he performed Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 85, under the direction of Louis Spohr. He then went on a concert tour of Germany. Carl Maria von Weber expressed his approval of Schuncke’s early compositions. He went to Paris for study, where his main teachers were Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Anton Reicha and Henri Herz, and where he also had friendships with people such as Hector Berlioz, Sigismond Thalberg and Johann Peter Pixis. In Paris, he made his living by demonstrating Duport pianos, and he also lived in Duport’s

Luigi Arditi

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Luigi Arditi (16 July 1822 – 1 May 1903) was an Italian violinist, composer and conductor whose career took him around Europe and the Americas, finally settling in London. Life Arditi was born in Crescentino, Piemonte, Kingdom of Sardinia. He began his musical career as a violinist, and studied music at the Milan Conservatory under Bernardo Ferrara (violin) and Nicola Vaccai (composition). He made his debut in 1843 as a director at Vercelli, and it was there that he was made an honorary member of the Philharmonic Academy. Arditi conducted opera throughout Italy and in 1846 travelled to Havana, Cuba to co-direct the opera orchestra there with the double bass player Giovanni Bottesini. Their company made long tours of America, and he subsequently moved there to conduct operas in New York, Philadelphia and other cities with the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company until 1856. Then, following a visit to Constantinople, he decided to settle in London, but made several trips again to America with the Royal Italian Opera Company. He also conducted in Germany, and in other major European cities such as St. Petersburg, Vienna and Madrid. After 1885, he was in England, conducting at Covent Gar

Luigi Bottazzo

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Luigi Bottazzo (9 July 1845 – 29 December 1924) was an Italian organist and composer. Life Early years Bottazzo was born in Presina di Piazzola, Padua, Italy. At the age of nine he was permanently blinded in an accident. He received a musical education in counterpoint, organ and piano at Padua’s Institute for the Blind, where at the age of nineteen he joined the staff. * 7 Marce religiose, op. 204; * Piccola Suite, op. 207; * Messa VIII “Degli angeli”, op. 208 a * Sonata in Re minore, op. 210; * Messa S.Teresa del Bambin Gesù, op.229; * Messa S.Clara Vergine, op.262; * Laudate Eum in Chordis et Organo, op. 269 (sette entrate solenni); * XII Motecta Natalicia ad chorum unius vocis mediae, op. 278 * 4 Pastorali, op. 279; * Missa pro Defunctis, op. 281; * Messa S.Tarcisio, op.318; * Laus Tibi Christe, op. 339; * Messa nuziale, op. 368; * Missa in honorem S. Luciae ad duas voces aequales, op. 180 * Pange lingua, op 347 a * Ave Maris Stella, op. 347 b Writings * (n.d.) Brevi nozioni sulle forme musicali (Turin). * (n.d.) L’organista di chiesa. Breve metodo per organo (Milan, n.d.). * (n.d.) Studi sulla periodologia musicale (Padua). * (n.d.) e Metodo teorico-pratico di armonia (Padua).

Luigi Denza

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Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian composer. When Denza was Professor of Music at the London Academy of Music, he was asked to judge the 1904 Feis Ceoil Irish Singing Contest, a prototype of today’s musical reality shows. On 16 May 1904, Denza attempted to mentor Joyce, and would have awarded him the Gold Medal, but Joyce could not sight read, missing a crucial part of the competition; Denza instead awarded Joyce the third-place Bronze medal. Disgusted, Joyce gave the medal to his Aunt Josephine; the medal ended up years later being bought by Michael Flatley at an auction. Notes References External links * * * Luigi Denza (composer) in Discography of American Historical Recordings at UC Santa Barbara * *

Luigi Mancinelli

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Luigi Mancinelli (; 5 February 1848 – 2 February 1921) was an Italian conductor, cellist and composer. His early career was in Italy, where he established a reputation in Perugia and then Bologna. After 1886 he worked mostly in other countries, as principal conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London and at the “Old Metropolitan” Opera House in New York, and in other appointments in Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Mancinelli was highly regarded not only in the Italian repertory, in which he first came to prominence, but also in German and French opera. Despite his high reputation as a conductor, his compositions met with limited success, and none of them entered the regular repertoire. Life and career Early years Mancinelli was born in Orvieto in central Italy. In Florence he studied composition with Teodulo Mabellini. In 1874 he moved to the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia, as principal cellist and assistant maestro concertatore. He made his conducting debut there in Aida when the regular conductor was unable to appear, owing to temporary inebriety. In Italy he worked principally in Bologna, conducting opera at the Teatro Comunale, serving as maestro di cappel

Luigi Vannuccini

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Luigi Vannuccini (4 December 1828 – 14 August 1911) was an Italian conductor, composer and teacher of bel canto Life Born in Foiano della Chiana, Vannuccini began his musical studies with his father Ernesto, who had been singing teacher in Florence for Adelina Patti and continued at the conservatory of that Tuscan city. He was a violinist at the Teatro Leopoldo (formerly “Teatro Nazionale”) and between 1848 and 1873 he conducted operas at the Teatro della Pergola. In Florence, moreover, he founded a singing school that soon acquired great fame, not only in Italy, but also abroad, particularly in America. He was a close friend of Rossini. He was part of the historical “Quartetto Fiorentino” with Giuseppe Buonamici, Bruni and . He was much loved as a teacher and orator. In England, a collection of “Solfeggi” from the best Italian vocal tradition was published. He composed sacred music, works for piano and chamber music. Vannuccini died in Bagni di Lucca at the age of 82. His pupils included tenor William Lavin; baritones David Bispham and Harry Plunket Greene; and soprano Mary Howe. Work * Sedici piccoli studi per canto : su parole del Metastasio. * 2 Morceaux pour violon et violonce

Luis Mariano de Larra

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Luis Mariano de Larra y Wetoret (1830, in Madrid – 1901, in Madrid) was a Spanish writer, son of journalist Mariano José de Larra. Noted as the librettist of numerous zarzuelas such as El Toro y el Tigre, Un embuste y una boda, Todo con raptos, El cuello de la camisa, con el Sr. Suricalday amongst others, his most famous work is undoubtedly El barberillo de Lavapiés (1874), set to music by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri. Larra worked for the Ministry of Development and contributed to various publications of the time such as the Gaceta de Madrid, from which he resigned to devote himself exclusively to literature. He also wrote many comedies, among which is his much successful La oración de la tarde, drama in three acts and verse whose protagonist Don Diego de Mendoza, dragging his righteous indignation for reasons of honor, implements the evangelical precept of forgiving every injury. It premiered at Teatro del Circo on 25 November 1858 with great acclaim. Works *En Palacio y en la calle *Las tres noblezas *Quien á cuchillo mata *A caza de cuervos! con el Sr. Larrea *Una nube de verano *El amor y el interés *La pluma y la espada *La paloma y los halcones *La planta exótica *El Rey del mu

M. S. Turner

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Milton Stuart Turner (September 1849 – January 6, 1910) was a music professor and piano tuner. In 1872 he was appointed professor of music at the Charleston Female Institute. He played the organ. Early years Milton Stuart Turner was born in September 1849 in Middletown, Virginia, to music professor A. J. Turner and Kate Aby. Death On January 6, 1910, in Hinton, West Virginia, he fell and fractured his skull, resulting in his death. *Sun of my Soul, Thou Savior Dear, 1879 *Spring Song Waltz, 1879 *Jesus, Refuge of my Soul, 1900 *The Brakeman’s Farewell, 1902 References

Manuel Fernández Caballero

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Manuel Fernández Caballero (Murcia, 14 March 1835 – Madrid, 26 February 1906) was a Spanish composer, notably of zarzuelas. His works were seminal works in the young Género chico form of zarzuela. The success of Los bandos de villafrita (1884) consolidated his career. Its sequel was Las grandes figuras (1885). The sainete El dúo de La Africana and its celebrated jota No cantes más La Africana remain as classic examples of a zarzuela duet. Works He also composed religious works and salon songs. He was one of the most successful Spanish composers of the nineteenth century, and enjoyed many successful premieres, from his earlier pieces Entre el alcalde y el rey, Los bandos de Villa-Frita and El lucero del alba, composed for the Cádiz singer Antonia Garcia de Videgain, to the most successful of all his works, Gigantes y cabezudos (1898). Zarzuelas * Entre el alcalde y el rey (1875). * La Marsellesa (1876) * :es:Los sobrinos del Capitán Grant (1877) * :es:El lucero del alba (1879) * Currilla (1883). * Chateau Margaux (1887) * :es:El dúo de La africana (1893) * :es:El cabo primero (1895) * :es:La viejecita (1897) * Gigantes y Cabezudos (1898) References External links * Biografías y Vida

Marcial del Adalid y Gurréa

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Marcial del Adalid y Gurréa (24 August 1826 – 16 October 1881) was a Spanish composer. He studied music in London between 1840 and 1844 with Ignaz Moscheles and it is possible that he also studied with Chopin in Paris. Both men influenced the style and form of his musical compositions. After finishing his studies, Adalid y Gurréa returned to Spain where he lived in A Coruña and later Madrid. Highly influenced by lieder, his most important compositions were vocal art songs and songs for the piano. A particularly fine example of his work is his 1877 composition Cantares nuevos y viejos de Galicia where he successfully blended the folklore of Galicia with the technique and spirit of Romantic piano music. He also composed one opera Inese e Bianca, which was never staged. In addition to composing, Adalid y Gurréa spent much of his time teaching music courses and organizing music competitions. He was married to writer Fanny Garrido and the father of painter María del Adalid. References Sources *López-Calo, José. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and

Marguerite Olagnier

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Marguerite Olagnier (née Joly) (1844 – 12 September 1906) was a French vocalist, composer and poet who began her musical life singing at the Théâtre des Variétées in Paris. Career While traveling in Egypt with her husband Eugène Olagnier, it is believed that she wrote both words and music of an “exotic opera” in four acts, , It was staged at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris on 18 December 1881 and was later performed by Victor Capoul, an Opéra-Comique tenor. References External links * Le Sais digitized online by GoogleBooks * Henson, Karen: “Victor Capoul, Marguerite Olagnier’s Le Sais, and the Arousing of Female Desire”, in Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 52, no. 3 (October 1999), pp. 419–463.

Maria Anna Stubenberg

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Maria Anna von Stubenberg, aka Maria Anna von Buttlar-Stubenberg (August 9, 1821 – December 1, 1912) was an Austrian-born composer who used Hungarian and Romani folk tunes in her compositions. Biography Maria Anna Herrin und Gräfin Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels was born in Graz, Austria, to Gustav Adolf Josef Christian Felix Herr und Graf von Stubenberg and Maria Franciszka Freiin von Staudach. She married Johann Remekhazy von Gurahoncz on February 15, 1840, and Friedrich Graf von Zichy de Zich und Vásonykeö on February 22, 1848. Her married names were 1stly Remekhazy von Gurahoncz, 2ndly von Zichy de Zich und Vásonykeö and 3rdly Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels. Works Stubenberg lived in the Hungarian parts of the Austrian Empire as a child, and used Hungarian and Romani folk tunes in her compositions for voice, piano, and zither. using texts from folksongs and writers such as Eugen Graf Aichelburg, Rudolph Baumbach, William Bosworth, Friedrich Ferdinand, Graf von Beust, Emanuel von Geibel, Heinrich Heine, and Nikolaus Lenau. Her music was published by Josef Eberle and Wiener Musik Verlagshaus (later F. Roerich & Co.). Selected works include: *In mein gar zu dunkles Leben, op. 63 (T

Maria Luigia Pizzoli

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Maria Luigia Pizzoli (10 February 1817 – 13 January 1838) was an Italian pianist and composer. She posthumously received the honour of . Personal life Pizzoli was born in Bologna, Italy, on 10 February 1817. Her parents had her educated well, and she became known for her intelligence. She was fluent in Italian and French, and she enjoyed history including art history. She studied music under the teacher . After being taught by Pilotti for 18 months, she wrote her first prelude. also taught Pizzoli the piano. Career Pizzoli was a well-known pianist in Bologna, and she later began to compose her own pieces. She wrote an overture, and later a symphony in 1836. Her first public appearance was in 1837 when she was invited to the Società del Casino di Bologna headquarters to perform on the piano with a well-regarded harpist. At the festival, Pizzoli played one of her works with the support of . She suffered from a heart disease. Death Pizzoli’s father, with approval from his daughter during her last year, gave money as a prize to students who composed the best fugue. The prize was considered to be innovative because women could also receive it. She died on 13 January 1838, at 20 years ol

Maria Vespermann

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Maria Vespermann Gorres Arndts (5 April 1823 – 22 May 1882) was a German composer, writer, and painter who sometimes used the pseudonym Carl Pauss. Her music was also published under the names Maria Gorres and Maria Arndts. Vespermann was born in Munich to the actor Wilhelm Vespermann and singer Clara Metzger Vespermann. She showed musical talent at an early age, and appeared in her first public concert when she was only 12 years old. Vespermann married the Catholic historian and poet Guido Görres in 1844. They had three daughters before Görres died in 1852. In 1860 she married jurist Carl Ludwig Arndts von Arnesberg in Vienna. and her prose was published by Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh. Music Her publications include: Piano *Aus den Bergen, opus 8 *Bunte Reihen kurzer Klavierstücke, opus 6 *Four Hand Pieces, opus 5 *Hail Springtime (chorus and piano) *It’s Lovely in Spring (women’s chorus and piano) *Praise the Lord (chorus and piano) *Sacred Songs, opus 3 *Song Cycle ( text Friedrich Wilhelm Weber’s Dreizehnlinden) *Thanks be to the Lord (chorus and piano) *We are the Blacksmiths (men’s chorus and piano) Prose *Dramas for the Christian Home *Juhschreih on the Halseralm *Mozart as a

Mariano Bolognesi

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Mariano Andrés Bolognesi y Cervantes ( Boloñese; — ) was a Peruvian colonel, educator and composer. He was the son of composer Andrés Bolognesi and a younger brother of colonel Francisco Bolognesi. Biography Bolognesi was born in Arequipa on , being baptised at the El Sagrario Parish on the same day. It is likely that he and Francisco participated in the Liberal Revolution of 1854, as he was ascended to Lieutenant colonel in 1855, following the Battle of La Palma. See also * Francisco Bolognesi References

Marie Jaëll

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Marie Jaëll (née Trautmann) (17 August 1846, Steinseltz – 4 February 1925, Paris) was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Marie Jaëll composed pieces for piano, concertos, quartets, and others, She dedicated her cello concerto to Jules Delsart, Her students included Albert Schweitzer, who studied with her while also studying organ with Charles-Marie Widor in 1898–99. She died in Paris. Early life and education Her father was the mayor of Steinseltz in Alsace, and her mother was a lover of the arts. She began piano studies at the age of six and by seven, she was studying under piano pedagogues F.B. Hamma and Ignaz Moscheles in Stuttgart. Marie’s mother served as her advocate and manager. A year after she began lessons with Hamma and Moscheles, she gave concerts in Germany and Switzerland. In 1856, the ten-year-old Marie was introduced to the piano teacher Heinrich Herz at the Paris Conservatory. After just four months as an official student at the Conservatory, she won the First Prize of Piano. Her performances were recognized by the public and local newspapers; the Revue et gazette musicale printed a review on July 27, 1862, that reads: “She marked it the piece with the seal

Marie Siegling

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Marie Regina Siegling (February 7, 1824 – January 2, 1920) was an American composer. Biography She was born on February 7, 1824, in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest daughter of Prussian immigrant Johann Zacharias Siegling and his wife Mary Schnierle. Johann Siegling was an instrument maker and music publisher who founded the Siegling Music House in 1819. Her youngest brother was journalist Rudolph Septimus Siegling. Marie Siegling most likely began her musical studies under her mother. Siegling was later educated in Europe and had a career as a musician and composer. In 1844, she traveled with her father to Havana where he had a music store called Siegling & Vallote. They stayed in Cuba for three months, where she performed as “Charleston’s Jenny Lind.” Later in the year, Siegling went to Paris to study music. While on tour in Europe, she met literature professor Eduard Schuman LeClercq, whom she married in 1850. Siegling moved with her husband to Paris and ended her performing career. She had five children. While in Europe, Marie had contact with many of its greatest composers and musicians. She writes in her memoir: “I met many distinguished artists and authors, amongst the

Martin Pierre Marsick

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Martin Pierre Marsick (1847–1924), was a Belgian violinist, organist, singer, composer and teacher. Marsick was the owner of the Marsick Stradivarius. At the time of his birth, Marsick was the youngest of 5 children and by 1868 was one of 18 children. As a child Marsick was a member of the choir at St. Martin’s Basilica in Liège, and was a member of the choir school at Liège Cathedral. and Cécile Chaminade. In 1900, Marsick left both his wife and the Conservatoire de Paris in order to live abroad with his mistress. Marsick also owned the 1705 Marsick Stradivarius during 1879–1880. From 1902–c. 1907 Marsick owned what was later named the Schneiderhan violin. Personal life and death On 23 February 1872, Marsick married Adolphine Adrienne Berthe Mollot (1848– 1923) in Chatou. The couple later divorced. Marsick is buried at the Cimetière de Robermont in Liège. Selected works Marsick published a series of finger exercises entitled Eureka in 1906 and his La Grammaire du violon appeared in 1924. Besides these, he composed the septet Souvenir de Naples for strings, flute, and clarinet; a piano quartet; and a lyric drama, Le Puits. ;Stage * Le Puits, Lyric Drama (c.1900); libretto by August

Martin Wegelius

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Martin Wegelius (10 November 1846 – 22 March 1906) was a Finnish composer and musicologist, primarily remembered as the founder, in 1882, of the Helsinki Music Institute, now known as the Sibelius Academy. Wegelius studied in Leipzig, Vienna, and Munich. He had intended to pursue a career as a composer and wrote a handful of orchestral works and a significant number of chamber and vocal works. He was a particular admirer of Wagner but wrote predominantly in the Romantic style. After founding the Institute, he had little time for composing and appears to have concentrated exclusively on teaching. Graduates of Wegelius’ Institute include Jean Sibelius and Agnes Tschetschulin. He is often compared with his contemporary and rival Robert Kajanus, founder of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (initially the Helsinki Orchestral Association), the first professional symphony orchestra in the Nordic countries. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. Publications * Grunderna i allmänna musikläran (1887) * Lärobok i allmän musiklära och analys (1888-89) * Hufvuddragen af den västerländska musikens historia från den kristna tidens början till våra dagar. 1-3 (1891-93) * Kurs i ton

Mary Anne à Beckett

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Mary Anne à Beckett (29 April 1815 – 11 December 1863) was an English composer, primarily known for opera. She was the wife of the writer Gilbert à Beckett, who provided the libretti for two of her operas. Their children included the writers Gilbert Arthur à Beckett and Arthur William à Beckett. Her theatrical connections included her brother, the actor and producer impresario Augustus Glossop Harris, and his eldest son, also an impresario, Sir Augustus Harris. Biography Mary Anne à Beckett was born in London, the eldest daughter of Joseph Glossop and his wife, Elizabeth, née Feron. Among their other children was the future actor and producer Augustus Glossop Harris, whose elder son was the impresario Sir Augustus Harris. Glossop, a man of doubtful financial means, was at various times lessee of the Royal Coburg Theatre (now called the Old Vic), and manager of La Scala, Milan, and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. In January 1835 Mary Anne married Gilbert à Beckett, a writer and magistrate. They had two daughters and four sons, including Gilbert Arthur à Beckett and Arthur William à Beckett. Mary Anne à Beckett composed songs, piano pieces, incidental music, and three operas: Agnes S

Mary Helena Synge

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Mary Helena Synge (8 July 1840 – 5 February 1917) was an Irish composer, pianist, and singer who spent many years in England, where she died. Synge was born in Parsonstown to Margaret Jemima Saunders, Edward Synge, and a family of musicians and writers descended from the Archbishop Edward Synge. Her cousin was the author John Millington Synge. Some of their correspondence is archived at Trinity College Dublin. Synge studied piano and singing at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She gave piano recitals throughout Ireland and England. A recital in London on 10 July 1883, received favourable reviews. She performed in Cork later that year, Synge’s music was published by Ashdown & Parry, Weekes & Company, and Year Book Press of London. Her compositions include: Piano *Album Leaves (collection) *“Farewell” (text by Miss E. Barnard) *“Spring” (for three voices) *“Spring Story” (text by Emmoren) *“Time” References

Mathilde von Rothschild

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Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild (5 March 1832 – 8 March 1924) was a German-Jewish baroness, composer and patron. Life and career Mathilde von Rothschild was born in Frankfurt, the second oldest daughter of Charlotte and Anselm von Rothschild, a chief of the Vienna House of Rothschild. Mathilde was talented in music and studied with Frédéric Chopin. In 1849, she married the banker Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, a cousin of her father. The couple first resided in the Rothschild house on the Zeil (Zeilpalast), but later moved to a palace in Grüneburg, and also lived in a villa in Königstein im Taunus. They had three daughters two of whom survived childhood, Adelheid Rothschild (who married her cousin Edmond James de Rothschild) and Minna Caroline Rothschild (who married Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild). Von Rothschild made grants to a number of foundations including The Rothschilds’ Hospital Foundation and the Georgine Sara von Rothschilds’ Hospital Foundation. She also funded orphanages, sanatoriums, rest homes for the elderly, research projects for the University of Heidelberg and The Jewish Museum of Antiquities. She also founded the at Frankfurt am Main. Von Rothschild wrote so

Matteo Fischetti

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Matteo Fischetti (28 February 1830 – December 1887) was an Italian pianist and composer active in Naples. Life and career Born in Martina Franca, Fischetti studied piano from the age of six in his native city. He was then sent to Naples to study piano under Michele Cerimele and composition under a number of teachers including Giovanni Moretti and Giuseppe Lillo. He composed over 200 pieces of instrumental and vocal music as well as three operas, all of which premiered in Naples. Fischetti’s most popular opera was Aida di Scafati (Aida of Scafati), a parody of Verdi’s Aida. It was performed over 100 times in Naples and revived in other Italian cities for many years. It was given its first performance in modern times in October 2014 in a production organized by the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella. In his later years Fischetti also taught piano and composition. He died in Naples at the age of 57. Operas *Aida di Scafati (comic opera in a prologue and three acts); libretto by Enrico Campanelli; premiered Teatro Fenice, Naples, 11 June 1873 *La sorrentina (comic opera in three acts); libretto by Ernesto La Pegna; premiered Teatro Fenice, Naples, 6 September 1873 *Un’altra figlia di

Matteo Salvi

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Matteo Salvi (24 November 1816 – 18 October 1887 ) was a composer of opera and classical music and a theatre director. Salvi was born in Botta di Sedrina (Provincia di Bergamo), Italy. A student of Gaetano Donizetti, he is best known for having completed the score of Donizetti’s unfinished opera Le duc d’Albe for its first public performance in 1882, some forty years after Donizetti’s death. (The libretto was translated into Italian, and the opera was performed as Il duca d’Alba.) Salvi is usually credited as the composer of the tenor aria “Angelo casto e bel” in Il duca d’Alba, although as he was helped in the reconstruction of Donizetti’s score by several composers, including Amilcare Ponchielli, there has been some dispute as to the degree to which he was the aria’s sole composer. He died in Rieti, Italy. Principal compositions *La prima donna 1843—opera to a libretto by Carlo Guaita *Lara 1843—opera to a libretto by Leopoldo Tarentini and dedicated to Johann Simon Mayr *I Burgravi 1845—opera to a libretto by Giacomo Sacchèro *Caterina Howard 1847—opera to a libretto by Giorgio Giachetti *Messa: a voci sole con accompagnamento d’organo *Cantata per soli e coro con orchestra: la

Max Bruch

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Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire. Early life and education Max Bruch was born in 1838 in Cologne to Wilhelmine (), a singer, and August Carl Friedrich Bruch, an attorney who became vice president of the Cologne police. Max had a sister, Mathilde (“Till”). He received his early musical training under the composer and pianist Ferdinand Hiller, to whom Robert Schumann dedicated his Piano Concerto in A minor. The Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles recognized Bruch’s aptitude. At the age of nine, Bruch wrote his first composition, a song for his mother’s birthday. From then on, music was his passion. His studies were enthusiastically supported by his parents. His many early works included motets, psalm settings, piano pieces, violin sonatas, a string quartet, and even orchestral works such as the prelude to a planned opera, Joan of Arc. Few of these early works have survived. Bruch’s first music theory lesson was in 1849 in Bonn. It was given by Professor Heinrich Ca

Max Erdmannsdörfer

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Max Erdmannsdörfer (14 June 184814 February 1905) (sometimes seen as Max von Erdmannsdörfer) was a German conductor, pianist and composer. He was born in Nuremberg. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, becoming concertmaster at Sondershausen. In 1874 he married the pianist and composer Pauline Fichtner, a student of Franz Liszt. She later used the professional name Pauline Erdmannsdörfer-Fichtner. Erdmannsdörfer corresponded with Liszt, and he premiered Liszt’s symphonic poem Hamlet at Sondershausen on 2 July 1876. He also once owned at least parts of the score of Liszt’s lost Piano Concerto No. 3, which was finally pieced together only in 1989 from separate manuscript pages that had been dispersed as far afield as Weimar, Nuremberg and Leningrad. Max Erdmannsdörfer also had an association with Joachim Raff. He and Pauline were the co-dedicatees of the two-piano version of Raff’s Piano Quintet, Op. 107, and they premiered it at Sondershausen on 22 September 1877. In 1870, Pauline had been the dedicatee of Raff’s Piano Suite in G minor. Erdmannsdörfer completed Raff’s unfinished Symphony No. 11, Op. 214, after its composer’s death, and had it published. He premiered Sir Alexander

Max Oesten

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Max Oesten (var: Otto Max Oesten, Max Otto Östen, Otto Östen) 1843–1917, was a German pianist, organist and prolific composer. Life Max Oesten was born in Berlin the son of the German composer Theodore Oesten. He spent most of his professional life as a church organist in Königsburg. Oesten was a pupil of August Wilhelm Bach. Among Oesten’s pupils was the German-American fiddler Otto Funk. List of works Choral * op. ? (1879) Aufforderung zum Tanz: polka-rondo (mixed choir and piano). * op. 225 (1914) Für Kaiser und Reich (male-voice choir and orchestra). Harmonium and/or Organ * op. 26 (n.d.) Trauermarsch (after Beethoven op. 26) arr. for harmonium/organ. * op. ? (1869) La Belle Espagnole (piano). * op. 71 (1878) Frühlingsglaube, after F. Ries (piano). * op. 168 (1890) Weihnachtsklänge (piano) * op. ? (1898) Six easy pieces (violin and piano). * op. 201 (1899) Six easy pieces: second set) (violin and piano). External links * Public domain copies of works by Max Oesten at IMSLP. Web resource, accessed 16 December 2021. * Works by Max Oesten listed in the catalogues (Monatsberichte) of the Leipzig music publisher Friedrich Hofmeister for the years 1829–1900. Web resource, accessed 18

Melchior Ernst Sachs

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Johann Melchior Ernst Sachs (28 February 1843 – 18 May 1917) was a German romantic composer, who also held teaching and performing posts. He studied first at Altdorf Seminary; taught in elementary schools from 1861 to 1863, and later entered the Munich College of Music and remained there from 1863 to 1865, before becoming a pupil there under Joseph Rheinberger, from 1867 to 1869, when it re-opened as the Royal Bavarian Music School, under the overall direction of Hans von Bülow. Sachs conducted the Liederkranz Society from 1868 to 1872, and in 1871 was appointed a teacher of harmony at the Royal Music School. From 1869 until 1873 he conducted a male choral society at Munich, and he was the founder and conductor of the Tonkunstlerverein. As a music theorist he held original opinions on many points. Most of his numerous compositions remain unpublished, but his work includes symphonies; symphonic poems; an opera, Palestrina, which was performed at Ratisbon in 1886; a ballad, Das Thal des Espingo, for chorus and orchestra; a “Pater Noster”; and one work of gigantic dimensions, Kains Schuld und ihre Sühne (Cain, His Sin and Atonement). This production was intended to fill seven evenings

Michael Hebenstreit

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

Michael Hebenstreit (ca 1812 – after 1875) was an Austrian Kapellmeister and composer for stage music. Life Almost nothing has been handed down about Hebenstreit’s life, only a few scores have survived. He was a successor to Adolf Müller senior as Kapellmeister as well as in the field of stage music and often worked together with Johann Nestroy. His place of activity was the Leopoldstädter Theater, which, after being demolished and rebuilt under director Carl Carl, was renamed the Carltheater in December 1847, where he worked until his death in 1875. After the premiere of on 17 November 1849, the Österreichische Courier of 20 November 1849 (No 276, ) wrote rather derogatory about Hebenstreit’s music, it would be “mildly marked - mediocre”. Hebenstreit was the discoverer and promoter of the opera singer Etelka Gerster (1855–1920). Since he taught her from 1874 to 1875 at the former Vienna Conservatory, his year of death must be after 1875. Compositions (as far as handed down) For Johann Nestroy * (1843) * (1847); for the opening of the newly built Carltheater * (1848) * (1848) * (1848) * (1849) * (1849) * (1849) * (1849) * (1850) * (1850) For other authors * Josef Kilian Schickh: **

Michele Novaro

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Michele Novaro (; 23 December 1818 – 20 October 1885) was an Italian composer. Novaro was born on 23 December 1818 in Genoa, where he studied composition and singing at the Scuola Gratuita di Canto (now the Genoa Conservatory). Novaro is mostly known as the composer of the music of the Italian national anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani (lyrics by Goffredo Mameli), better known in Italy as Inno di Mameli (Mameli’s Hymn). Novaro was a convinced liberal and offered his compositional talents to the unification cause without deriving any personal benefits. He died poor on 20 October 1885, after a life riddled with financial and health difficulties. He was buried at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa. References External links * *

Miguel Marqués (composer)

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Pedro Miguel Juan Buenaventura Bernadino Marqués y García (20 May 1843 – 26 February 1918) was a Spanish composer and violinist. Life He was born in Palma, Majorca, the son of a chocolate maker. By the age of four he was already showing unusual musical talent, and by eleven he was playing violin for a Palma opera company, for which he wrote a Fantasía para violin which enjoyed a notable triumph. Between 1859 and 1863 family finance enabled him to study in Paris, after 1861 as a violinist at the Paris Conservatoire with Massard. In 1863 he was admitted to the orchestra of the Théâtre Lyrique, and began studying composition, and instrumentation with Hector Berlioz. He returned to Majorca when called up to his military service, but in 1866 he resumed his studies at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, studying Violin with Monasterio and Composition with Emilio Arrieta whilst playing in the orchestra of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. After 1878 he was Inspector of the National Music Schools. He also taught singing at the Foundling Girls’ School in Madrid, and published a handbook for violin teachers. In 1894 he retired to his home city of Palma. He published some philosophical books like Dios y

Mikhail Ivanov (composer)

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Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ivanov (; 23 September 184920 October 1927) was a Russian composer, critic and writer of music. Biography Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ivanov was born in Moscow in 1849. He studied at the Technological Institute, Saint Petersburg, then at the Moscow Conservatory for a year, under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (harmony) and Alexandre Dubuque (piano). He lived the next six years of his life in Rome, where he associated with Franz Liszt and his pupils and studied with Giovanni Sgambati. He returned to Russia and became a music critic with the Novoye Vremya. Many of his compositions were performed, but not published. Arias from his opera Zabava Puytatishna (1899) have been recorded by Olimpia Boronat, Eugenia Bronskaya and Leonid Sobinov. His liturgical piece The Lord’s Prayer has been recorded by Nicolai Gedda. He died in Rome in 1927. Musical works * Potemkin’s Feast (or Potemkin’s Holiday), opera (1888; 16 December 1902, St Petersburg) * Zabava Putyatishna, opera (1899; 15 January 1899, Moscow) * The Proud Woman, opera (not prod.) * Woe to the Wise, opera (19 April 1910, Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg) * La Vestale (a.k.a. Vyestalka), ballet (choreography by Marius Peti

Mily Balakirev

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Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ( , ; , ; – ) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He began his career as a pivotal figure, extending the fusion of traditional folk music and experimental classical music practices begun by composer Mikhail Glinka. In the process, Balakirev developed musical patterns that could express overt nationalistic feeling. After a nervous breakdown and consequent sabbatical, he returned to classical music but did not wield the same level of influence as before. In conjunction with critic and fellow nationalist Vladimir Stasov, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five (a.k.a., The Mighty Handful)the others were Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For several years, Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group; the others were amateurs limited in musical education. He imparted to them his musical beliefs, which continued to underlie their thinking long after he left the group in 1871, and enco

Modest Mussorgsky

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Name#

The spelling and pronunciation of the composer’s name have caused some confusion. The family name derives from a 15th- or 16th-century ancestor, Roman Vasilyevich Monastyryov, who appears in the Velvet Book, the 17th-century genealogy of Russian boyars. Roman Vasilyevich bore the nickname “Musorga” (from , meaning “music maker” ), and was the grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The composer could trace his lineage to Rurik, the legendary ninth-century prince of Novgorod and founder of the Russian monarchy. In Mussorgsky family documents, the spelling of the name varies: “Musarskiy”, “Muserskiy”, “Muserskoy”, “Musirskoy”, “Musorskiy”, and “Musurskiy”. The baptismal record gives the composer’s name as “Muserskiy”. In early (up to 1858) letters to Mily Balakirev, the composer signed his name “Musorskiy” (). The “g” made its first appearance in a letter to Balakirev in 1863. Mussorgsky used this new spelling (, Musorgskiy) to the end of his life, but occasionally reverted to the earlier “Musorskiy”. The addition of the “g” to the name was likely initiated by the composer’s elder brother Filaret to obscure the resemblance of the name’s root to an unsavory Russian word: :мусoр (músor) — n. m. debris, rubbish, refuse Mussorgsky apparently did not take the new spelling seriously and played on the “rubbish” connection in letters to Vladimir Stasov and to Stasov’s family, routinely signing his name Musoryanin, roughly “garbage-dweller” (compare dvoryanin: “nobleman”). The addition of the “g” and the accompanying shift in stress to the second syllable (i.e., Mu-SÓRK-skiy), sometimes described as a Polish variant, was supported by Filaret Mussorgsky’s descendants until his line ended in the 20th century. Their example was followed by many influential Russians, such as Fyodor Shalyapin, Nikolay Golovanov, and Tikhon Khrennikov, who, perhaps dismayed that the great composer’s name was “reminiscent of garbage”, supported the second-syllable stress that has also become entrenched in the West. The Western convention of doubling the first “s”, which is not observed in scholarly literature (e.g., The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians), likely arose because in many Western European languages a single intervocalic /s/ often becomes voiced to /z/ (as in “music”), unlike in Slavic languages where the intervocalic /s/ is always unvoiced. Doubling the consonant thus reinforces its voiceless sibilant /s/ sound. “Modest” is the Russian form of the name “Modestus” which means “moderate” or “restrained” in Late Latin. He was called “Modinka” (), diminutive form with the stressed O, by his close friends and relatives.

Moritz Brosig

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Moritz Brosig (15 October 1815 - 24 January 1887) was a German cathedral organist and composer. He came to be seen as a leading representative of the so-called Breslau School of church musicians. Despite his Roman Catholic faith, he wrote more than thirty chorale preludes, working in a musical genre more traditionally associated with Lutheran worship. Life Provenance and early years Moritz Brosig was born the youngest son of Joseph Brosig, a minor landowner at Fuchswinke in the countryside on the southern edge of Lower Silesia. His mother Barbara was the daughter of the man who owned the Kreuzer printing works in the Silesian capital, Breslau. Music professional In 1838 Brosig took over as the organist at St. Adalbert’s church in the heart of the city. During this period he deputised with growing frequency for his teacher-mentor, In 1869 the organist Franz Dirschke shared his opinion in the “Zeitschrift für katholische Kirchenmusik” (“Journal of Catholic Church Music”) that Brosig’s playing appealed alike to the musical expert and to the musically untutored: “one can only regret that all those splendid and accomplished improvisations which he had created as a cathedral organist dur

Moritz Fürstenau

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Moritz Ludwig Carl Ignaz Franz August Fürstenau (born 26 July 1824 and died on 27 March 1889, also in Dresden) was a German flautist and music historian. He left only a few works that gained little significance, but was extremely helpful as a theater historian. With his former conductor Richard Wagner, he remained on friendly terms, standing by him even after his departure from Dresden. As an early admirer of him, he was in the 1870s with the founding of the Dresden Wagner Society and as early as 1854, he was already involved in the establishment of the Musicians Association, remaining chairman until his death. He also served as a delegate of the General German Musician Association. For his services he was granted the title of professor of music from the king. At the request of Saxon King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Fürstenau was granted permanent position as flutist at the Royal Chapel of Dresden in 1842, being later promoted to royal chamber musician in 1844. With the singer Jenny Lind, Fürstenau traveled in 1855 on a grand tour through the Netherlands, while they appeared together as soloists. Frederick Tröstl and Fürstenau were the first instructors at the newly founded p

Moritz Heuzenroeder

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Moritz Heuzenroeder (15 July 1849 – 10 November 1897) was a pianist, composer and teacher of music born in Germany who had a substantial career in South Australia. History Moritz Heuzenroeder was born in Ottersberg the youngest son of Dr. Ferdinand Anton Joseph Leopold (known as Joseph Leopold) Heuzenroeder, a prominent Sanitätsrat (medical practitioner) originally from Duderstadt, and from early childhood was preoccupied with performing music. He left Germany for South Australia some time before 1871 and settled in Gawler, where for a year or two he conducted a jeweller’s shop, but he had a greater love for music, and returned to Germany for three or four years to further study piano under Dr. Sebert, gaining Royal Academy of Stuttgart qualifications, and studying voice production. On his return he settled in Adelaide and advertised himself as a teacher of singing; the baritone Richard Nitschke and singing teacher Minna Fischer were two of his pupils. He was a friend of Hermann Schrader, who considered him a musical genius. He founded an orchestra at Tanunda, and a choral society at Angaston. He moved from Adelaide to Tanunda early in 1897; he died unexpectedly the same year. He n

Morten Eskesen

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Morten Eskesen (5 January 1826 - 8 February 1913) was a Danish author, composer and teacher in independent and folk high schools. Early life Erikesen was born in Ulbæk in the parish of Lyne between Skjern and Varde in west Jutland. His parents, Eske Mortensen and Margrete Pedersdatter, were farm owners. From age 14 to 20, he worked at the farm during summer and as an assistant teacher and tutor during winter. He received his teaching diploma from Snedsted College in 1848. Career From 1851 to 1853 was a schoolteacher in Bevtoft in southern Jutland, where he met the politician Hans Andersen Kruger. This gave him an interest in the South Jutlandic dialect. He was a teacher in west Jutland and then a tutor and folk high school teacher in different parts of the country. He associated with Christen Mikkelsen Kold, who is credited with setting the model for Danish schools, and N. F. S. Grundtvig. From 1853 to 1854 Eskesen was the folk high school superintendent in Uth, near Horsens in east Jutland. From 1856 to 1858 he was a teacher at Grundtvig’s folk high school in Marielyst. Between 1858 and 1884 he was an independent school leader on Funen, first in Rudme and then in Odense. In 1874 h

Mykhailo Verbytskyi

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Mykhailo Mykhailovych Verbytskyi ( ; March 4, 1815 – December 7, 1870), also anglicized as Michael Werbitzky, was a Ukrainian composer and a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He is considered to be one of the first professional composers of Galicia. Biography Mykhailo Verbytskyi was born in Nadsiannia. Sources often differ as to the exact location of his birth, with some claiming he was born in Jawornik Ruski and christened 8 km away in Ulucz (the site of the oldest wooden church in Poland where his father was the local priest). Both are now located in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland. Verbytskyi was born into the family of a priest. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and was raised from then on by his father’s brother, Bishop Ivan Snihurskyi. Snihurskyi took Mykhailo to live with him in Peremyshl, where his uncle was very active: founding the city’s first Ukrainian language printing press, published compilations of folklore and textbooks about the Ukrainian language. In 1818, Snihurskyi even founded a diak-teaching institute in the city, and ten years later, a cathedral choir and music school. In 1859 Verbytskyi received a parish in the village of Mlyny, Ya

Mykola Lysenko

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Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic period. In his time, he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an oeuvre that includes operas, art songs, choral works, orchestral and chamber pieces, and a wide variety of solo piano music. He is often credited with founding a national music tradition during the Ukrainian national revival, in the vein of contemporaries such as Grieg in Norway, The Five in Russia, and Smetana and Dvořák in what is now the Czech Republic. By studying and drawing from Ukrainian folk music, promoting the use of the Ukrainian language, and separating himself from Russian culture, Lysenko’s compositions form what many consider the quintessential essence of Ukrainian music. This is demonstrated in his epic opera Taras Bulba from the novella of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. The grandeur and complexity, and a libretto in Ukrainian, prevented the opera being performed during the composer’s lifetime. To promote and cultivate Ukrainian culture, Lysenko set works by many Ukrainian poets to music, especially Taras Shevchenko, to whom he was particula

Nanna Liebmann

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Nanna Magdalene Liebmann, née Lehmann, (September 27, 1849 – May 11, 1935) was a Danish, music educator, music critic, concert promoter and composer. Early life Nanna Lehmann was one of nine children born to a socially active family; her brother Carl Lehmann became a politician, another brother Edvard Lehmann became a religious historian, her sister Signe Lehmann also became a musician, and her uncle was the politician Orla Lehmann. She was a cousin of the literary critic and women’s suffrage advocate Margrethe Vullum. Career She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Victor Bendix, Johann Christian Gebauer, J.P.E. Hartmann, Niels W. Gade, August Winding and Carl Helsted. At the conservatory she met composer Axel Liebmann, whom she married in 1874. He died soon afterward and she turned to composing and teaching music to support herself and her son, Poul Liebmann. Most of her compositions are written between 1869 and 1914, and she wrote reviews for Dannebrog. Liebmann and her husband were both buried in Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen. Notable works Selected works include: *Syv sange til tyske tekster 1885 *Syv sange 1885 *Minnelieder 1903 *Fem sange 1904 *Thema med Variati

Napoléon Alkan

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Napoléon Alexandre Alkan, born Napoléon Alexandre Morhange (2 February 1826 – August 1906), was a French composer and music teacher. Career Alkan was born in Paris, one of six children of Alkan Morhange and Julie Abraham. The family was Jewish, and Alkan Morhange ran a successful music school. All of the Morhange children adopted their father’s name as their surname, and all successfully attended the Conservatoire de Paris. Céleste Alkan (married surname Mayer-Marix) (25 February 1811 – 1891) began her training at the Conservatoire at the age of seven and won first prize in solfège at the age of eleven. Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888), the most distinguished of the siblings, became a well-known composer and piano virtuoso. Ernest Alkan (11 July 1816 – 1876) was a student of Jean-Louis Tulou and became known as a flutist. Maxime Alkan (28 May 1818 – 1891) wrote popular music including dances for piano. The youngest of the siblings was Gustave Alkan (24 March 1827 – 1882). Napoléon became a student at the Conservatoire in 1835 where he studied piano with Pierre Zimmermann, organ with François Benoist and counterpoint and fugue with Adolphe Adam. In 1843 he won first prize for pian

Nicola d'Arienzo

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Nicola d’Arienzo (24 December 1842 – 25 April 1915) was an Italian composer, music pedagogue, and writer on music. He spent his entire career in his native Naples where all but one of his nine of his operas were premiered. His other compositions included instrumental music, sacred music and art songs. From 1909 until 1911, d’Arienzo served as the director of the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella having taught there since 1875. He also wrote several books on the history and theory of music. Life and career Nicola d’Arienzo was born in Naples, the son of Maddalena (née Santelia) and Gaetano d’Arienzo. His father, a notary, was strongly opposed to him pursuing a career in music, and he initially studied piano secretly with Pietro Labriola and Michelangelo Russo. His uncle Marco d’Arienzo, a lawyer by profession and a prolific librettist by avocation, paid for the lessons and helped the young Nicola to overcome his father’s opposition. He went on to study harmony and counterpoint with Vincenzo Fioravanti and orchestration with Giovanni Moretti, both of whom were opera composers. From 1872, d’Arienzo had a parallel career as a music pedagogue and writer. He was appointed to the chair

Nicola De Giosa

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Nicola De Giosa (3 May 1819 – 7 July 1885) was an Italian composer and conductor active in Naples. He composed numerous operas, the most successful of which, Don Checco and Napoli di carnevale, were in the Neapolitan opera buffa genre. His other works included sacred music and art songs. His songs were particularly popular, bringing him fame as a salon composer both in Italy and abroad. De Giosa died in Bari, the city of his birth, at the age of 66. Life and career De Giosa was born in Bari to Angelantonio and Lucia (née Favia) De Giosa. He initially trained to be a flautist, first in Bari with his elder brother Giuseppe and then with Errico Daniele. Daniele recognized his talent and persuaded De Giosa’s father to enroll him at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples. He passed the entrance examination at age 14 with sufficient merit to be awarded free tuition at the conservatory and continued his flute studies there with Pasquale Bongiorno. He also studied composition with Francesco Ruggi, Niccolò Zingarelli, and later with Gaetano Donizetti. According to contemporary accounts, he was one of Donizetti’s favourite pupils. In 1839, while still a student, two of his compos

Nicolás Ruiz Espadero

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Nicolás Ruiz Espadero (February 15, 1832 – August 30, 1890) was a Cuban pianist, composer, piano teacher and editor of the posthumous works of American composer-pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Espadero was born and died in Havana. In his time, he was the most famous Cuban composer, the only one published abroad, the only one who, at least in the eyes of his Cuban contemporaries, could compete with composers from Europe. Yet of all the Cuban composers of the 19th and early 20th century he was the most parochial and idiosyncratic one. Without schooling and formal musical training, he grew into a chronically shy person, emotionally dependent on his mother. He composed and continually practised, but gave few concerts and had little contact with other people. Espadero never left Cuba, indeed he seldom ever left his own house, where he lived with seventeen cats, surrounded by stacks of European music scores. Universally described as a recluse, he died from accidental burns after his usual bath in alcohol. Although brought up in a cosmopolitan atmosphere and surrounded by black Cuban music, he was the one Cuban composer who adopted but little of the local music tradition that inspired Ma

Nicolas-Joseph Wackenthaler

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Nicolas-Joseph Wackenthaler (6 December 1840 – 19 May 1913) was a French organist and composer. Life Born in Sélestat (Bas-Rhin), Wackenthaler belonged to a large family of Alsatian organists. His grandfather, François-Joseph Wackenthaler (9 December 1767 – 17 February 1828), was organist at the St. George’s Church, Sélestat from around 1800 to 1828. His father, François-Charles Wackenthaler (31 October 1806 – 13 February 1859), eighth child of François-Joseph, succeeded him in 1828 as organist at Saint-Georges de Sélestat until his own death in 1859. His uncle, Joseph Wackenthaler (20 November 1795 – 3 March 1869), second child of François-Joseph, was Kapellmeister from 1819, then organist from 1833 to 1869 at the Strasbourg Cathedral. Another uncle, François-Louis Wackenthaler (18 September 1811 – 24 May 1849), tenth child of François-Joseph, was appointed organist at the St. Faith’s Church, Sélestat around 1830 and held this position until his death in 1849. His cousin, François-Xavier Joseph Wackenthaler (5 December 1823 – 11 October 1856), second child of Joseph, was an organ teacher at the École Niedermeyer de Paris from the opening of the school in 1853 until his death in 18

Nicolò Gabrielli

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Count Nicolò Gabrielli di Quercita (21 February 1814 – 14 June 1891) was an Italian opera composer. Biography Born in Naples, at the time when the city was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Nicolò Gabrielli was the scion of a distinguished yet decayed aristocratic family originally from Gubbio and settled thereafter in Tropea and Palermo. He showed since his early childhood a talent for music that led him to enter the Naples conservatory where he studied under the supervision of Nicola Zingarelli and Gaetano Donizetti. He dedicated himself especially to musical composition, and debuted in August 1835 with a melodrama in Neapolitan dialect, I dotti per fanatismo. Nicolò Gabrielli was a very prolific composer, and from 1835 onwards worked at many melodramas, opera buffas, commedias and farsas, including La lettera perduta (1836), Il Cid (1836), La parola di matrimonio (1837), L’americano in fiera ossia Farvest Calelas (1837), Vinclinda (1837), L’affamato senza danaro (1839), Edwige o Il sogno (1839), Il padre della debuttante (1839), La marchesa e il ballerino (1839), Nadan o L’orgoglio punito (1839), L’assedio di Sciraz ossia L’amor materno (1840), Basilio III Demetrio

Niels Gade

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Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Together with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he was the leading Danish musician of his day, in the period known as the Danish Golden Age. Biography Gade was born in Copenhagen, the son of a joiner and instrument maker. He was intended for his father’s trade, but his passion for a musician’s career, made evident by the ease and skill with which he learned to play upon a number of instruments, was not to be denied. Though he became proficient on the violin under Frederik Wexschall, and in the elements of theory under Christoph Weyse and Weyse’s pupil Andreas Berggreen, he was to a great extent self-taught. He began his professional career as a violinist with the Royal Danish Orchestra, which premiered his concert overture Efterklange af Ossian (“Echoes of Ossian”) in 1841. When the performance of his first symphony had to be delayed in Copenhagen, it was sent to Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn received the work positively, and conducted it in Leipzig in March 1843, to enthusiastic public reaction. His work attracted the notice of the king, who gave the composer a

Nikolai Dmitriev (composer)

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Nikolai Dmitrievich Dmitriev (; 5 August 1829 – 27 July 1893) was a Russian composer and pianist. Dmitriev was born in Moscow and attended a boarding school. He studied piano with Alexandre Villoing. Dmitriev served in the judicial department and was a member of a court in Berdyansk. He studied composition and toured Russia, performing in various charity concerts at the same time, as a pianist and conductor (Vyatka, Taganrog, Mariupol, Kazan, Ryazan). Dmitriev’s performing career began in the 1840s in Moscow. He lived in Kharkov from 1857, taught piano and flute, and opened a music salon there. He taught Mykola Lysenko in 1858. Dmitriev left Kharkov some time later, returning in 1861. He lived in Ryazan from 1863, Kazan from the 1870s, and Vyatka from 1874. He settled in Taganrog in 1885, where he died in 1893. As a composer, Dmitriev’s musical language was largely influenced by the Russian style and also other Romantic styles. His music is influenced by Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Glinka. Dmitriev’s music is distinguished by its virtuosity and expressiveness. He was a composer of mazurkas. Dmitriev also composed a symphony (unfinished), about 100 romances (55 published), and the popu

Nikolai Lodyzhensky

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Nikolai Nikolayevich Lodyzhensky (Russian: Николай Николаевич Лодыженский; 1 January 1843 15 February 1916) was a Russian composer and diplomat. Lodyzhensky was born in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of an impoverished landowner, and came from a musical family related to the composer Alexander Dargomyzhsky. His sister Anka fell in love with Alexander Borodin, who had to write many letters to his wife to explain his daily meetings with her. an opera, Dmitri the Usurper (based on Alexander Pushkin’s play Boris Godunov Borodin wrote his String Quartet No. 2 in D while spending a summer holiday at Lodyzhensky’s estate at Zhitovo in 1881. Lodyzhensky himself wrote some music in the string quartet genre. The only music he ever published was Six Romances for voice and piano, in 1873, which showed great promise, displaying melodic and harmonic invention. Another set of four romances is in manuscript. His early work gained the respect of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Vladimir Stasov, but he was criticised in other quarters and this may have discouraged him from continuing to compose. In that year, 1873, he was sent to Budapest, whence he wrote to Stasov saying he could not dedicate himself

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

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Early years#

Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, 200 km miles east of Saint Petersburg, into a Russian noble family. Tikhvin was a town of Novgorod Governorate at that time. Throughout history, members of the family served in Russian government and took various positions as governors and war generals. Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov was famously a lover of Catherine the Great. By a Tsar’s decree on 15 May 1677, 18 representatives of the Korsakov family acquired the right to be called the Rimsky-Korsakov family (the Russian adjective ‘Rimsky’ means ‘Roman’) since the family “had a beginning within the Roman borders”, i.e. Czech lands, which used to be a part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1390, Wenceslaus Korsak moved to the Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow from the Duchy of Lithuania. The father of the composer, Andrei Petrovich Rimsky-Korsakov, was one of the six illegitimate sons of Avdotya Yakovlevna, daughter of an Orthodox priest from Pskov, and lieutenant general Peter Voinovich Rimsky-Korsakov, who had to officially adopt his own children as he was unable to marry their mother because of her lower social status. Using his friendship with Aleksey Arakcheyev, he granted them all the privileges of the noble family. Andrei went on to serve in the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, as vice-governor of Novgorod, and in the Volhynian Governorate. The composer’s mother, Sofya Vasilievna Rimskaya-Korsakova, was also born as an illegitimate daughter of a peasant serf and Vasily Fedorovich Skaryatin, a wealthy landlord who belonged to a noble Russian family. Her father raised her in full comfort, yet under an improvised surname, Vasilieva, and with no legal status. By the time Andrei Petrovich met her, he was already a widower: his first wife, knyazna Ekaterina Meshcherskaya, died just nine months after their marriage. Since Skaryatin found him unsuitable for his daughter, Andrei secretly “stole” his bride from the father’s house and brought her to Saint Petersburg, where they married. He later recalled that his mother played the piano a little, and his father could play a few songs on the piano by ear. Beginning at six, he took piano lessons from local teachers and showed a talent for aural skills, but he showed a lack of interest, playing, as he later wrote, “badly, carelessly, … poor at keeping time”. Although he started composing by age 10, Rimsky-Korsakov preferred literature to music. This love, with subtle prompting from Voin, encouraged the 12-year-old to join the Imperial Russian Navy. Voin, now director of the school, Ulikh perceived Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical talent and recommended another teacher, Feodor A. Kanille (Théodore Canillé). Beginning in late 1859, Rimsky-Korsakov took lessons in piano and composition from Kanille, whom he later credited as the inspiration for devoting his life to composition. Through Kanille, he was exposed to a great deal of new music, including Mikhail Glinka and Robert Schumann. Voin cancelled his brother Nikolai’s musical lessons when the latter reached age 17, feeling they no longer served a practical purpose. In November 1861, Kanille introduced the 18-year-old Nikolai to Mily Balakirev. Balakirev in turn introduced him to César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky; all three were known as composers, despite only being in their 20s. Rimsky-Korsakov later wrote, “With what delight I listened to real business discussions Rimsky-Korsakov’s emphasis of instrumentation, part writing, etc! And besides, how much talking there was about current musical matters! All at once I had been plunged into a new world, unknown to me, formerly only heard of in the society of my dilettante friends. That was truly a strong impression.” Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to compose and taught him the rudiments when he was not at sea. When he showed Balakirev the beginning of a symphony in E-flat minor that he had written, Balakirev insisted he continue working on it despite his lack of formal musical training. By the time Rimsky-Korsakov sailed on a two-year-and-eight-month cruise aboard the clipper in late 1862, he had completed and orchestrated three movements of the symphony. He composed the slow movement during a stop in England and mailed the score to Balakirev before going back to sea. At first, his work on the symphony kept Rimsky-Korsakov occupied during his cruise. He purchased scores at every port of call, along with a piano on which to play them, and filled his idle hours studying Berlioz’s Treatise on Instrumentation.

Nikolai Rubinstein

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Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; 14 June 1835 – 23 March 1881) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Life Born to Jewish parents in Moscow, where his father had just opened a small factory, Rubinstein showed talent at the keyboard early on. He studied piano first with his mother, and while the family was in Berlin between 1844 and 1846, he studied piano with Theodor Kullak and harmony and counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn; during this time both he and his brother Anton attracted the interest and support of Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. When the family returned to Moscow, Nikolai studied with Alexander Villoing, who also toured with him. He studied medicine to avoid army conscription, graduating from Moscow University in 1855. in Paris. He also gave the first performance of Balakirev’s piano work Islamey, the work for which he is best known today. According to Harold C. Schonberg, Anton Rubinstein is reported to have said that “if Nikolai had really worked on it, he could have been the better pianist of the two.” One of Nikolai’s pupils, Emil von Sauer, wrote a comparison of the tw

Nikolay Afanasyev (composer)

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Nikolay Yakovlevich Afanasyev (; 12 January 1821 3 June 1898) was an Imperial Russian violin virtuoso and composer. His memoirs ‘Vospominaniya’ (‘Reminiscences’) appeared in 1890, and recorded his experiences as a touring musician, as part of a panorama of Russian musical life during the mid 19th century. He became an honorary member of the Russian Musical Society in 1896. Biography Afanasyev was born in Tobolsk in 1821. He obtained his musical education from his father, the violinist Yakov Ivanovich Afanasyev, an illegitimate son of Prince Ivan Dolgorukov. In 1838, two years after his debut as a violinist in Moscow, he was appointed concertmaster of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. However, he resigned in 1841 to conduct the serf orchestra of a wealthy landowner at Vïksa, near Saint Petersburg. In 1846, Afanasyev left to embark on a concert tour of Russia, and eventually settled in Saint Petersburg in 1851, where he continued to perform as a soloist and as the concertmaster (sometimes conductor) of the Italian Opera. He quit orchestral work to begin teaching piano in 1853 at the Smolny Institute, before touring Western Europe with moderate success in 1857. After returning to Russia,

Norbert Burgmüller

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August Joseph Norbert Burgmüller (8 February 1810 – 7 May 1836) was a German composer, renowned for his contributions during the nascent stages of the Romantic Era. His oeuvre, albeit cut tragically short due to his untimely drowning at the age of 26, continues to resonate in the annals of classical music. Life Burgmüller was born in Düsseldorf, the youngest son in a musical family. His father, August Burgmüller, was the director of a theatre. His mother, Therese von Zandt, was a singer and piano teacher. He had two brothers, Franz and Friedrich. Friedrich was also a composer. After the death of their father, the family had financial troubles. They were given support from Count . Burgmüller studied with Joseph Kreutzer in Düsseldorf, and Louis Spohr and Spohr’s pupil Moritz Hauptmann in Kassel. After his study he became their piano teacher. He became engaged to Sophia Roland, but in 1830 the relationship ended, to Norbert’s distress. He became epileptic and began to drink excessively. In the same year he returned to Düsseldorf to live with his mother. There he befriended Felix Mendelssohn. He became engaged to Josephine Collin, but this relationship ended too. After Mendelssohn lef

Ödön Mihalovich

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Ödön (Edmund) Péter József de Mihalovich (September 13, 1842 in Fericsánci, Slavonia – April 22, 1929 in Budapest) was a Hungarian composer and music educator. Mihalovich first studied in Pest with Mihály Mosonyi. In 1865, he moved to Leipzig, studying there with Moritz Hauptmann, and, in 1866, he completed his studies in Munich with Peter Cornelius. Mihalovich then moved back to Pest; in 1872, he became president of the city’s Wagner Society and, in 1887, he followed Franz Liszt as the head of the Budapest Academy of Music, a position he held until 1919. He was also, according to a contemporary source a pupil of Hans von Bülow. While Mihalovich’s works are thoroughly Wagnerian in style, he was supportive of Hungarian nationalism and encouraged composers such as Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. A symphony in D minor was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1883. Works Note:this list is incomplete. ;Operas *Hagbart und Signe (1867-1881), prémieres: Dresden, 1882 by Franz Wüllner; Budapest, 1886 by Sándor Erkel. *Wieland der Schmied (1876–78, unperformed) *Eliane (1885–87), prémieres: Budapest, 1908 by István Kerner; Vienna 1909 by Karl Gille. *Toldi (The Knight Toldi) (1888-1891), prémi

Ola Mosafinn

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Ola Mosafinn (14 July 1828 – 28 December 1912) was a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player and composer. Mosafinn is regarded among the more important fiddlers in Norway in the late 19th century. Ola Sjursson was born in Voss in Hordaland County, Norway. He was the youngest of five children born to Sjurd Brynjulvsson Liland (1792–1866) and Ingebjørg Klausdotter Mosafinn (1790–1852). He was raised on the Mosafinn farm from which he took has last name. After graduation in 1843 he was first employed as a school teacher, but was also on demand at weddings and parties. He later went to Hardanger, where he soon came to thrive. In the summer of 1872, crown prince and future King Oscar II of Sweden, made a trip to the west coast of Norway and Ola Mosafinn was invited to perform. Later that summer, Mosafinn met famed Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull, who gave the fiddler praise. During the summer of 1879, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg visited Voss. Grieg sent for Mosafinn who performed at his birthday celebration. He became well known in Norway and made two tours in the United States. In 1890 and 1891, Mosafinn traveled to the United States after being invited several times. He playe

Ole Bull

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Ole Bornemann Bull (; 5 February 181017 August 1880) was a Norwegian virtuoso violinist and composer. According to Robert Schumann, he was on a level with Niccolò Paganini for the speed and clarity of his playing. Background Bull was born in Bergen, Norway. He was the eldest of ten children of Johan Storm Bull (1787–1838) and Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden (1789–1875). His brother, Georg Andreas Bull became a noted Norwegian architect. He was also the uncle of Edvard Hagerup Bull, Norwegian judge and politician. His father wished for him to become a minister, but he desired a musical career. At the age of four or five, he could play all of the songs he had heard his mother play on the violin. At age nine, he played first violin in the orchestra of Bergen’s theatre and was a soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. At eighteen, he was sent to the University of Christiania, but failed his examinations. He joined the Musical Lyceum, a musical society, and after its director Waldemar Thrane was taken ill, Bull became the director of Musical Lyceum and the Theater Orchestra in 1828. during which visit he also travelled to some of the more remote parts of Britain. Catherine Darwin

Oliveria Prescott

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Oliveria Louisa Prescott (3 September 1842 – 9 September 1919) was an English writer and composer. Biography Oliveria Prescott was born in London, the daughter of Frederick Joseph Prescott and Elizabeth Oliveria Russell. She studied with Lindsay Sloper and then at the Royal Academy of Music under George Alexander Macfarren. She became Macfarren’s amenuensis. She lectured in harmony and composition for Newnham College, Cambridge, and also taught harmony at the High School for Girls in Baker Street, London. In 1876 Prescott’s first symphony in B-flat “Alkestis” won third prize in a competition for new British symphonies that was held at the Alexandra Palace in north London. In that competition Charles Villiers Stanford’s first symphony in B-flat took second place, while Francis William Davenport’s symphony in D-minor was placed first. A total of 38 symphonies had been submitted to the competition. Selected works include: Stage *Carrigraphuga, The Castle of the Fairies, musical comedy in three acts (1914), words by S. Phillips Keyboard *Concert Finale, pianoforte duet (1878) Choral *“A Border Ballad”, four-part song (1844), words by Francis William Bourdillon *Lord Ullin’s Daughter, c

Olivier Métra

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Jules-Louis-Olivier Métra (2 June 1830 – 22 October 1889) was a French composer and conductor. Biography The son of the actor Jean Baptiste Métra, Olivier Métra began his career at a very early age with his father. In 1842, he made his debut at the Théâtre Comte. In addition, he learned the violin and played from the age of 19 years in a ball of Boulevard de Rochechouart. On the advice of an orchestra musician, he followed the lessons of Antoine Elwart at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he obtained a first prize of harmony. From 1855 he conducted the orchestra of the Bal Mabille. During this period he acquired great popularity thanks to waltzes such as Le Tour du Monde, la Valse des Roses, Gambrinus, and La Nuit La sérénade. From 1872 to 1877, he conducted the bals of the Opéra-Comique, the orchestra of the Folies Bergère for which he composed several ballets, including Les Volontaires. From 1874 to 1876, he directed the bals of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and, finally, the along with Johann Strauss II. In 1879, he gave the ballet Yedda, on a choreography by Mérante, premiered 17 January 1879. In 1885, he established at Palais Vivienne the “soirées Metra” which consiste

Oreste Sindici

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Oreste Sindici (May 31, 1828 – January 12, 1904) was an Italian-born Colombian musician and composer. He composed the music for the Colombian national anthem in 1887. He was born in Ceccano (Province of Frosinone) and studied in the Ospizio Apostolico di San Michele at Rome. A lifelong admirer and supporter of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sindici joined his army of redshirts to defend the short-lived Roman Republic in 1849 , after which he began a career as a professional opera tenor. Between 1856 and 1860, Sindici performed as first tenor in theatres in Lanciano, Rome, L’Aquila, Chieti, Cosenza and Avellino, before embarking on a trip to the Americas in 1861 that included stops in Cuba, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Curaçao . In 1862, he arrived to Colombia, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1887 he was asked to compose the music to a poem written by Rafael Núñez. The song was released on November 11, 1887, in commemoration of the Independence of Cartagena de Indias. In 1920 this song officially became the Colombian national anthem. Oreste Sindici died in Bogotá on January 12, 1904, after suffering from political persecution by the conservative governments of Miguel Antonio Car

Oscar Ahnfelt

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Oscar Ahnfelt (1813–1882) was a Swedish singer, composer and music publisher. Biography Ahnfelt composed the music for many of Lina Sandell’s hymns. He was a pietist, who traveled all over Scandinavia, playing his 10-string guitar and singing her lyrics. The state church authorities did not like pietistic hymns and, anticipating a royal injunction against the singing of Sandell’s songs, ordered Ahnfelt to sing them before King Karl XV. But after hearing them, the King announced to Ahnfelt, “You may sing as much as you desire in both of my kingdoms.” Sandell–Ahnfelt hymns have spread throughout the world. Two of the best-known ones in English are Children of the Heavenly Father (Tryggare kan ingen vara) Jenny Lind, known worldwide as the “Swedish Nightingale”, was also a pietist and popularized Sandell’s hymns in the United States and wherever she sang. She additionally helped finance Ahnfelt’s Andeliga Sånger (Sacred Songs), first published in 1850. *Blott en dag: lyrics by Lina Sandell *Guds barn jag är: lyrics by Carl Olof Rosenius *Herrens nåd är var morgon ny: lyrics by Lina Sandell *I en djup, oändlig skog: lyrics by Carl Olof Rosenius *Jag är främling: lyrics by Betty Ehrenbo

Oscar Beringer

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Oscar Beringer (14 July 1844 – 21 February 1922) was an English pianist and teacher of German descent. Beringer was born in Furtwangen in the Black Forest, but by 1849 he had moved to London when his father became a political refugee. Due to impoverished circumstances he was largely self taught (on a borrowed piano with lessons from his sister) until he was 19, but made several appearances as a piano soloist at the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts in 1859-60. At the age of 19 Beringer began a course of systematic training as a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles in Leipzig, and Carl Tausig in Berlin. In 1869 he was appointed professor at Tausig’s Schule des höheren Clavierspiels in Berlin, but he returned to London in 1871. By 1873 he had established the Oscar Beringer Academy for the Higher Development of Pianoforte Playing, initially from a small house in Great Marlborough Street, then at 12 Hinde Street off Manchester Square, and later at 40 Wigmore Street in London. It was organized on the model of Tausig’s school. From 1885 he was also a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. On 14 October 1882 Beringer was the soloist in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto for its first performance in Engl

Oscar Comettant

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Oscar Comettant (18 April 1819 – 24 January 1898) was a 19th-century French composer, musicologist and traveller. Biography Commettant studied the piano and musical composition at the Conservatoire de Paris (1839–1843) and made a long tour in the United-States from 1852 to 1855 as a soloist. He left Le Havre on 1 September 1852 and arrived in New York City on the 13th. He then visited the Niagara Falls, Mammoth Cave, saw the Mississippi, Lake Superior, Cedar Creek, among other places. His circuit began on a steamer on the Hudson River. The train then led him from Albany to Buffalo, with a stop at Niagara Falls. He went to Toronto, Kingston, Mille-Isles, and Montréal, then south to Saratoga and returned to New York where he rested for two weeks. Comettant later visited Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Richmond (Virginia), and Charleston, then spent a month in Mobile in a cotton plantation. On his way to New Orleans, he sailed on the Mississippi and went through Vicksburg, Memphis and Louisville, where he took the opportunity to admire Mammoth Cave and ended his journey by Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Unlike many travelers, Comettant focused on American society and institutions; the gre

Oskar Rieding

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Oskar Rieding (29 June 1846 – 7 July 1916) was a German violinist, teacher of music, and composer. Oskar Rieding was born in Banie, Pomerania, now Poland. attended first the recently founded in Berlin, and later the Leipzig Conservatory. At the end of the 1860s he moved to Vienna, but in 1871 the conductor Hans Richter, at that time Musical Director of the National Theatre in Budapest, appointed Rieding to the orchestra’s first violin section. He remained there for thirty-two years, from 1884 onwards in the National Opera House. He composed some violin concertos and many pieces for violin and piano. Many of these pieces are appropriate for intermediate-level violin students, and they are still studied and performed by violin students today. After his retirement in 1903, he lived in Celje, Austria-Hungary, now Slovenia, continuing his activities as teacher, composer, and performer, until his death there in 1916. Main works His better-known works include: *Concerto in B minor for Violin and Piano Op. 35 (1909) *Concerto in D major for Violin and Piano Op. 36 *Concertino in G for Violin and Piano Op. 24 *Gypsies’ March Op. 23 No. 2, for Violin and Piano *Concertino in A Minor for Viol

Otis Bardwell Boise

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Otis Bardwell Boise (August 13, 1844 – December 2, 1912) was an American composer and music educator. Biography Boise was born in Oberlin, Ohio. When he was a child, his family moved to 19th-century American male composers Cleveland, Ohio. He showed his musical talent early on and became organist at St Paul’s Church in 1858. From May 1863 until September 1865 he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. His teachers include Ignaz Moscheles, Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel, Ernst Friedrich Richter, Moritz Hauptmann, as well as Ferdinand David and Carl Reinecke. For a short time he taught in Berlin at the academy of Theodor Kullak. From 1865 to 1870 he was an organist and music teacher in Cleveland. In 1869 he married his wife Anastasia Virginia (1846–1937), who translated many German songs into English, in Cleveland. From 1870 to 1876 Boise worked as a teacher for harmony and composition at the Conservatory of Music and as organist of the Presbyterian church in New York City. Between 1876 and 1878 he lived in Weimar and Wiesbaden in Germany. Boise often visited Franz Liszt, with whom he discussed composition and American music education, and played through manuscripts. He also spend time with Joa

Otto Goldschmidt

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Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt (21 August 1829 – 24 February 1907) was a pianist, composer, conductor and educator, whose works included a piano concerto and other piano pieces, and an oratorio, Ruth, on a biblical theme, written for the Three Choirs Festival. From a prosperous mercantile family in Hamburg, he studied under Felix Mendelssohn at the Leipzig Conservatoire and quickly established himself as a pianist. Among the singers whom he accompanied was the soprano Jenny Lind, known as “the Swedish Nightingale”. They toured together in 1851 and married in 1852, after which she insisted on being billed as “Madame Lind-Goldschmidt”. Although Goldschmidt’s compositions were regarded as conventional, his work as a teacher and member of the boards of music institutions made him an important figure in British musical life in the latter part of the 19th century. He took British citizenship in 1861. He outlived his wife by twenty years, dying in London aged 77. Life Early years Goldschmidt was born on 21 August 1829 in Hamburg (now part of Germany, but then an independent city-state). His parents were Moritz David Goldschmidt and his wife Johanna, née Schwabe. Moritz was a prosperous mer

Otto Malling

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Otto Valdemar Malling (1 June 1848 – 5 October 1915) was a Danish composer, from 1900 the cathedral organist in Copenhagen and from 1889 professor, then from 1899 Director of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen. Otto Malling was born in Copenhagen. He became a pupil of Niels Wilhelm Gade and Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann; in his later career he mainly composed organ works and vocal music, but he also wrote a Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 20, an appealing Schumannesque piano trio (in A minor, opus 36, 1889), piano quartet (in C minor, opus 80), and a Brahmsian piano concerto in C minor (opus 43, 1890), all of which are recorded and infrequently heard in concert. His output also contains among other substantial works a cantata Det hellige Land, opus 46, (published in 1897), a symphony in D minor, opus 17 (published in 1884), and an octet for strings, opus 50 (published in or before 1907). Malling wrote the first Danish textbook in orchestration, along French conservatory lines. He taught musical theory to Knudåge Riisager in 1915. He was also a music editor, creating piano reductions and vocal scores of works by Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, Niels Wilhelm Gade and C

Otto Nicolai

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Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and one of the founders of the Vienna Philharmonic. Nicolai is best known for his operatic version of Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as . In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed lieder, works for orchestra, chorus, ensemble, and solo instruments. Biography Nicolai, a child prodigy, was born in Königsberg, Prussia. He received his first musical education from his father, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, who was also a composer and musical director. During his childhood his parents divorced, and while still a youth, early in June 1826, Nicolai ran away from his parents’ “loveless” home, taking refuge in Stargard with a senior legal official called August Adler who treated the musical prodigy like a son and, when Nicolai was seventeen, sent him to Berlin to study with Carl Friedrich Zelter. After initial successes in Germany, including his first symphony (1831) and public concerts, he became musician to the Prussian embassy in Rome. When Verdi declined the libretto of Il proscritto by the proprietors of La Scala in Milan, it was offered instead to Nicolai. Later, Nicolai refused

Otto Singer

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Otto Singer (July 26, 1833 – January 3, 1894) was a German musician also active in the USA. He is best known for his piano transcriptions of orchestral works, including symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Life Singer was born in Sora, Saxony. He was educated in Dresden, and later in Leipzig until 1865, and after a short residence in Weimar with Franz Liszt went to New York in 1869. In 1873 he went to Cincinnati as assistant musical director, under Theodore Thomas, of the first May Musical Festival, in that year. He composed the cantata The Pilgrim Fathers for the festival of 1876, and Festival Ode for the opening of the music-hall in 1878. He also wrote a Rhapsodie for Piano and Orchestra in C major (1881) dedicated to Hans von Bülow. He remained with the Cincinnati College of Music until 1892, when he returned to New York, where he died. He was an earnest and aggressive disciple of Liszt and Richard Wagner both in his compositions and piano performances. He conducted various singing societies, and in addition to the cantata mentioned he composed some piano sonatas and a piano concerto. Otto Singer Jr., his son (September 14, 1863 – January 8, 1931),

Otto Sutro

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Otto Sutro (1833 – January 19, 1896) was a German-born American organist, conductor, minor composer, publisher and music store owner, and a leading figure in the musical life of Baltimore, Maryland. Biography Sutro was born to a Jewish family in Aachen, Germany. He has six brothers and three sisters. His brother Adolph Sutro became the first Jewish Mayor of San Francisco and built the Sutro Baths. His brother Theodore Sutro, husband of Florence Sutro, was seminal in the building and financing the Sutro Tunnel first proposed by his brother Adolph. They had two daughters, Rose and Ottilie Sutro, who were the first recognised piano-duo team. Sutro sat for portrait artist David Dalhoff Neal in 1889 (see image). Rapheal Tuck & Son created a litho art card Character Otto Sutro. References

Pablo de Sarasate

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Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908) was a Spanish virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), the Spanish Dances, and the Carmen Fantasy. Biography Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, in 1844, the son of Don Miguel Sarasate, a local artillery bandmaster. Apparently, after seeing his father struggle with a passage for a long time, he picked up the violin and played it perfectly. He began studying the violin with his father at the age of five and later took lessons from a local teacher. His musical talent became evident early on and he appeared in his first public concert in La Coruña at the age of eight. His performance was well-received, and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided the funding for Sarasate to study under Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid, where he gained the favor of Queen Isabella II. Later, as his abilities developed, his parents decided to send him to study under Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve. Aboard the train en route to Paris, his mother (who had been accompanying him) died of a hea

Paolo Giorza

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Paolo Giorza (11 November 1832 – 4 March 1914) was an Italian-Australian composer of classical music and Romantic music. He was born in Milan, son of Luigi Giorza, a painter and singer. His father prompted his musical interest. He is revered in Milan, where he wrote the song "" in 1858, performed at the Milan Carcano Theatre. The song became symbolic of Italian culture. During his lifetime, he produced and wrote many scores including various waltzes. Giorza travelled much of the world working in Venice, Vienna, London and Paris. In the late 1860s he worked in America, directing the orchestra at the Academy of Music in New York City. He composed the music for the cancan dance, introduced to America by his friend and fellow Milanese artist, ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi. In 1871 he went to Australia where he succeeded as a composer. In 1884, he became unwell and returned to Europe and success at La Scala. He died on 4 May 1914. Works * Olympia Valse * 1852 Cleopatra (dance) * 1856 Tarantella nel ballo La giocoliera * 1862 Ondina Polka, Op. 116 * Blumen aus Italien, Op. 217 * 1870 Messe Solennelle No.3 * 1871 Trickett Galop (celebrating Edward Trickett, a champion Australian rower) *

Paolo Serrao

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Paolo Serrao (11 April 1830 – 17 March 1907) was a distinguished and influential Italian teacher of musical theory and composition at Naples. Serrao was born in Filadelfia, Calabria. He studied at the Naples Conservatory (then called the Real Collegio di Musica). He studied composition and counterpoint under Carlo Conti, piano with Francesco Lanza (a student of Clementi) and received instruction in harmony from Gennaro Parisi. His most significant teacher and mentor was Saverio Mercadante where their relationship lasted nearly 30 years and became almost filial. As professor of composition at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatorio at Naples, over many years, he taught many famous Italian musicians, notably Giuseppe Martucci, Umberto Giordano, Leopoldo Mugnone, Michele Esposito, Francesco Cilea, Franco Alfano, Luigi Denza and Alessandro Longo. He wrote five operas, of which Pergolesi was the most successful. His other compositions include both concert and sacred music. He died in Naples, aged 76. Selected works ;Opera * L’impostore, Opera semiseria (1850) * Leonora dei Bardi, Opera seria (1853) * Pergolesi, Melodramma semiserio in 3 acts (1857); libretto by Federico Quercia * La Duch

Paolo Sperati

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Paolo Agostino Sperati (March 26, 1821 – May 20, 1884) was an Italian conductor, musician, and composer that was active in the theater and opera life of Christiania (now Oslo), Norway in the 19th century. Life and work Sperati grew up in a family of musicians, and he made his debut as an organist at the age of nine in 1830. who engaged him in the opera in Berlin and then in Copenhagen (1841–1850) as conductor of the Italian Society () at the Court Theater and the Royal Danish Theatre. They performed Danish premieres of works by Giuseppe Verdi and were commissioned by Christian VIII. He then led the Italian opera troupe that brought the impresario Vincenzo Galli (1798–1858) to Norway in 1849, after he had spent a year at the Royal Swedish Opera. In Norway, Sperati was engaged as a conductor for the Christiania Theater (1850–1866) In Italy he is still known today above all for his organ adaptations of works by Giuseppe Verdi, in particular a series of pieces for the mass taken from the operas Aida, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Macbeth, Giovanna d’Arco, Un ballo in maschera, Attila, Ernani, and Giovanna di Guzman. His original production of organ music is less known, including the

Paolo Tosti

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Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti KCVO (9 April 1846, Ortona, Abruzzo2 December 1916, Rome) was an Italian composer and music teacher. Today, he is remembered mostly for his light-hearted songs, which are popular among vocal students. Biography Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native Ortona, Italy, as well as at the conservatory in Naples. Tosti began studying at the Royal College of San Pietro a Majella in Naples at the age of eleven. Once recovered from his illness, Tosti moved to Ancona, where his poverty was such that for weeks at a time he subsisted on nothing but oranges and stale bread. His travels brought him to Rome, where his fortunes turned. He met the pianist and composer Giovanni Sgambati, who became his patron. Sgambati arranged for Tosti to give a concert at the Sala Dante which the Princess Margherita of Savoy (who would become Queen of Italy in 1878) attended. Impressed with his performance, she appointed him as her singing professor. She later appointed him curator of the Musical Archives of Italy at the Court. A memorial plaque on his former home at 12 Mandeville Place, Marylebone (now the Mandeville Hotel) was unveiled on 12 June 1996. I

Paul Lacombe (composer)

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Paul Lacombe (11 July 1837 – 4 June 1927) was a Languedocien (French) composer and pianist. Biography Paul Lacombe was born in Carcassonne into a wealthy family of linen merchants. Initial music lessons were at the piano with his mother and he later studied voice, fugue, harmony and counterpoint with François Teysseyre (1821–1887), an alumnus of the Conservatoire de Paris who opened the first music school in Carcassonne in 1851. Lacombe was an admirer of the music of Georges Bizet, particularly the opera The Pearl Fishers. In 1866 he began a correspondence with Bizet and asked him to help with his composition. Bizet accepted, and for two years, from 1866 to 1868, compositional advice and corrections were exchanged via post. A real friendship developed between the two as Bizet realized the enthusiasm of his student. His compositional style presents, aside from its clean and solid craftsmanship, an amiable and appealing character, but with no particular originality. In 1901, Lacombe was appointed under the sponsorship of Camille Saint-Saëns to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, who awarded him the Prix Chartier for his chamber music in 1887. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur

Paul Lacôme

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Paul-Jean-Jacques Lacôme d’Estalenx (4 March 1838 – 12 December 1920) was a French composer. Between 1870 and the turn of the century he produced a series of operettas and operas-bouffes that were popular both in France and abroad. Interest in his works revived briefly during the First World War, when they were successfully revived in Paris. Biography Lacôme was born in Le Houga, Gers, in Gascony, the only child of an artistic and musical family. He became a competent player of the piano, flute, cornet, cello and ophicleide, and studied with the organist José Puig y Absubide in Aire-sur-Adour between 1857 and 1860. He won a prize, in a magazine competition, with an operetta, Le dernier des paladins, which was to have been presented at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, but the policy of the theatre changed and the piece was not staged. Lacôme settled in Paris, where he wrote music criticism and had more than 20 operettas performed between 1870 and the end of the century. Madame Boniface was given in Montreal in 1885. Ma mie Rosette (1890) was his biggest success in Britain in 1892, starring Jessie Bond and Courtice Pounds, among others, with additional music by Ivan Caryll. In Fran

Paul Puget

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Paul Charles Marie Curet, (also known as Puget, 25 June 1848 – 15 March 1917) was a French composer. Life Born in Nantes into a family of musicians (his father Henri Puget was a renowned tenor at his time), Paul Puget studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, piano in Antoine François Marmontel’s class and musical composition with Victor Massé. In 1873, he entered the competition of the Institut de France and obtained the first Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Mazeppa. From his stay at the Villa Médicis from 1874 to 1877, date his Ouverture de Macbeth for orchestra, the ode Sur l’aveuglement des hommes du siècle (text by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau) for barytone, choir and orchestra, and a Symphonie en ut. In 1896, he composed stage music for Musset’s Lorenzaccio, premiered by Sarah Bernhardt at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. In 1900, he was appointed conductor of the choirs of the Opéra de Paris. Albeit he is mainly known for his lyrical works, he also composed many art songs, pieces for piano, and a Bassoon solo with piano accompaniment, which served as a competition piece at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1899 and 1916, the Scènes champêtres for orchestra, and some religious music. In

Paul Rougnon

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Paul-Louis Rougnon (; 24 August 1846 – 11 December 1934) was a French composer, pianist and music educator. Biography Paul Rougnon was born in Poitiers the son of Louis Rougnon and Claire Clotilde Robin. A student at the Lycée Bonaparte (now the Lycée Condorcet), he entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1861 as an auditor, then a full-time student in 1862. He studied piano, music theory and composition with such masters as Édouard Batiste, François Bazin, Ambroise Thomas, Antoine François Marmontel and César Franck. He received degrees in music theory in 1865, harmony in 1868 and counterpoint in 1870. In 1873, at age 27, Rougnon became a professor at the Conservatoire, then under the directorship of Ambroise Thomas. He taught music theory, counterpoint and fugue until his retirement in 1921. His students include Alfred Cortot, Yves Nat, Fernand Oubradous, Noël Gallon, and Henri Mulet. In addition to teaching, he was an administrator for the choral societies Orphéon and Sociétés musicales mutuelles. He composed choral works especially for these ensembles. After the turn of the century, he began to work with various magazines including Piano-Soleil, Le Monde Musical, Le Ménestrel, Le

Paul Siraudin

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Pierre-Paul-Désiré Siraudin (18 December 1812 * 1850: Le Courrier de Lyon by Eugène Moreau, Paul Siraudin and Alfred Delacour, Théâtre de la Gaîté * 1852: Le Misanthrope et l’Auvergnat by Eugène Labiche, Paul Siraudin and Lubize, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1853: Le Bourreau des crânes by Paul Siraudin and Édouard Lafargue, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1855: Un bal d’auvergnats by Paul Siraudin, Alfred Delacour and Lambert-Thiboust, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1856: La Queue de la poële by Paul Siraudin and Alfred Delacour, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1858: Le Fils de la belle au bois dormant by Lambert-Thiboust, Paul Siraudin and Adolphe Choler, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1860: La Pénélope normande by Alphonse Karr, Paul Siraudin and Lambert-Thiboust, Théâtre du Vaudeville * 1860: La Pénélope à la mode de Caen by Eugène Grangé, Paul Siraudin and Lambert-Thiboust, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1860: La Fille du diable by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Lambert-Thiboust, Théâtre des Variétés * 1860: Le Favori de la favorite by Paul Siraudin and Auguste Villemot, Théâtre de Baden-Baden * 1864: Les Femmes sérieuses and Paul Siraudin, Alfred Delacour and Ernest Blum, Théâtre du Palais-Royal * 1869: Le

Paul Taffanel

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Claude-Paul Taffanel (16 September 1844 – 22 November 1908) was a French flautist, conductor and instructor, regarded as the founder of the French Flute School that dominated much of flute composition and performance during the mid-20th century. Early years Born in Bordeaux, Taffanel received his first lessons on the flute from his father at the age of nine. After giving his first concert at the age of ten, he studied with Vincent Dorus at the Paris Conservatoire. Once he graduated in 1860, he won his first of several awards for flute performance at age sixteen. Taffanel built a substantial career as both soloist and orchestral player over 30 years, becoming known as the foremost flautist of his time and reestablishing the instrument in the mainstream of music. Professorship In 1893, Taffanel became Professor of Flute at the Conservatoire. As Professor, he revised the institute’s repertoire and teaching methods, restructuring the traditional masterclass format to give students individual attention while building a reputation as an inspiring teacher. He instructed his students to play in a new, smoother style that included a light and carefully modulated vibrato. Reviving early musi

Pauline Decker

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Pauline Decker, née von Schätzel, since 1863: von Decker (27 August 1811 – 13 September 1882) was a German opera singer (soprano) and composer. Biography Born as Johanne Sophie Friederike Pauline von Schätzel on 27 August 1811 in Berlin, Pauline Decker comes from the Schätzel noble family. She was the daughter of the royal Soldin district administrator Carl Friedrich Ludwig von Schätzel and his wife Juliane Schick who was a soprano opera singer soprano with the Königliche Oper Berlin. She was a granddaughter of the famous German operatic soprano Margarete Luise Schick (1773–1810) who also performed at the Königliche Oper Berlin. Pauline studied music first from her mother. She was later trained by Heinrich Stümer (1789–1857), a noted German opera singer and composer. In 1828 she debuted at the Königliche Oper and played her first role as Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz. From 1828 to 1832, she was engagement at the Königliche Oper. Following her marriage with Rudolf Ludwig Decker (1804–1877), a court printer and publisher, in 1832, she ended her musical career. However, she continued her concert performances, primarily at the Berliner Singakademie. She was an honorar

Pauline Thys

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Pauline Marie Elisa Thys -Lebault (1835–1909) was a French composer and librettist. She was born in Paris. Her father was the opéra comique composer Alphonse Thys (1807–1879). Initially she composed salon romances and light piano music in the tradition of Loïsa Puget, and, by the age of 20, had published her work with the music publisher Heugel. During Thys’s lifetime, commentators viewed her as one of the best composers of the salon romance. She subsequently turned to writing larger-scale musical works for the stage including operettas, opéra-comiques, and operas, including several for which she authored the libretto. These works were staged at the Opéra-Comique and at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens among other venues. Her four-act opera Judith is cited in American essayist Theodore Stranton’s The Woman Question in Europe as an example of French women’s achievements in music. Excerpts from Judith were frequently performed in public. Her opera Le Mariage de Tabarin was staged to great success on December 5, 1855, at the Theatre Royal in Florence and in numerous other cities. In 1877, she founded the Association des femmes artistes et professeurs, an organization whose aim was to

Pauline Viardot

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Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, she came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer. Name Her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply “Pauline Viardot”, it most commonly appears in association with her maiden name García or the unaccented form, Garcia. This name sometimes precedes Viardot and sometimes follows it. Sometimes the words are hyphenated; sometimes they are not. She achieved initial fame as “Pauline García”; the accent was dropped at some point, but exactly when is not clear. After her marriage, she referred to herself simply as “Mme Viardot”. She was 13 years younger than her sister, Maria Malibran, a highly acclaimed and famous diva. Her father trained her on the piano and also gave her singing lessons. As a little girl, she travelled with her family to London, New York City (where her father, mother, brother and sister gave the first full performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the United States, in the presence of th

Pauline Volkstein

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Pauline Volkstein (19 January 1849 – 6 May 1925) was a German composer of more than 1,000 songs. Biography Volkstein was born in Quedlinburg, Germany. She had little formal music training, but came from a musical family. Her mother had studied counterpoint with Friedrich Schneider, and her uncle was cellist and composer Bernhard Cossmann. Volkstein lived in Paris, Dresden, Murano, and Naples, before settling in Weimar with her sister in 1905. Her first songs were published around that time. Several of her songs with guitar accompaniment initially appeared in Der Wächter, a magazine associated with the German youth movement during the 1920s and 1930s. Her music was also published by Fritz Schuberth and Ries & Erler GMBH. Volkstein’s compositions include: *12 Folksongs (see External links) *12 Lieder *12 Lieder (piano setting by Justus Hermann Wetzel; see External Links) *20 Songs with Guitar Accompaniment *24 Folksongs with Simple Accompaniment *Bloom, Dear Violet (arranged by Armin Knab) *Jungfrau Zimperlich (text by Ludwig Pfau) *Melodies (piano setting by Justus Hermann Wetzel) *New Folksongs (1922) *Piano compositions *Spinning Song (arranged by Armin Knab) References External l

Peter Arnold Heise

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Peter Heise (11 February 1830 – 12 September 1879) was a Danish composer, best known for the opera Drot og Marsk (King and Marshal). Heise’s parents tried to press him into becoming a lawyer, but he scored highly in music at school, so he changed direction. He began writing songs at the age of 19. As a young man he collected several hundred folk songs directly from ordinary people. He used these tunes in Tornerose (Sleeping Beauty) and Bergliot (A Danish historical romance). He studied under Niels Wilhelm Gade, who was a major influence on his style. From 1857 to 1865 he was a teacher and organist at Sorø Academy. He did a setting of Hans Christian Andersen’s poem Jylland mellem tvende Have (Jutland between two seas) in 1860. The opera Drot og Marsk tells the story of the murder of a medieval king, and contains some folk ballads. It shows a Wagnerian influence. His setting of the Shakespeare song When I was and a little tiny boy and Five Erotic songs are also in print. Many of his songs, usually for soprano and piano, concern dreams, folk-tales and the Middle Ages. Although his instrumental works are almost uniformly excellent, because of the tremendous popularity of his songs, the

Peter Benoit

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Peter Benoit (17 August 18348 March 1901) was a Flemish composer of Belgian nationality. Biography Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus Benoit was born in Harelbeke, Flanders, Belgium in 1834. He was taught music at an early age by his father and the village organist. In 1851, Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying primarily with FJ Fétis. During this period, he composed music to many melodramas, including the opera Le Village dans les montagnes for the Park Theatre, of which in 1856 he became the resident conductor. In 1857, he won the Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata Le Meurtre d’Abel. The accompanying money grant enabled him to travel through Germany. In the course of his journeys, he found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay called L’École de musique flamande et son avenir. Fétis loudly praised his Messe solennelle, which Benoit composed in Brussels on his return from Germany. In 1861, he visited Paris for the production of his opera Le Roi des Aulnes (“The Erl King”), which, though accepted by the Théâtre Lyrique, was never performed. (He also composed a work for piano and orchestra called Le Roi des Aulnes.) Wh

Peter Cornelius

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Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. Early life and education He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors in Mainz and Wiesbaden. From an early age he played the violin and composed, eventually studying composition with Heinrich Esser in 1841. He lived with his painter uncle Peter von Cornelius in Berlin from 1844 to 1852, and during this time he met prominent figures such as Alexander von Humboldt, the Brothers Grimm, Friedrich Rückert and Felix Mendelssohn. Career His early compositions included chamber and church music and secular songs, among which stands the Stabat Mater for soloists, choir, and orchestra, composed in 1849. Cornelius’s first mature works (including the opera Der Barbier von Bagdad) were composed during his brief stay in Weimar (1852–1858). His next place of residence was Vienna, where he lived for five years. It was in Vienna that Cornelius began a friendship with Richard Wagner. At the latter’s behest, Cornelius moved to Munich in 1864, where he married and fathered four children. During his last few years in Ber

Philipp Scharwenka

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Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (16 February 1847 – 16 July 1917) was a Polish-German composer and teacher of music. He was the older brother of Xaver Scharwenka. Early training Scharwenka was born in Szamotuły (Samter), Grand Duchy of Posen. Like his younger brother Xaver he received his first intermittent musical instruction in Posen (today Poznań). After the closure of the Gymnasium (college) in 1865 he studied music theory together with his brother under Richard Wüerst and Heinrich Dorn at the new Musical Academy in Berlin where, from 1868, he himself was taken on as teacher of Theory and Composition. In this period his own first compositions appeared. In 1874 he brought out an overture and a symphony for the first time in a concert of his own. Compositions His many teaching obligations notwithstanding, Philipp Scharwenka stood in the front line as a composer and was recognised as such during his lifetime. His compositions include three Symphonies, Symphonic Poems, a Violin concerto, some Choral works (of which Sakuntala became very famous), the 4-act opera Roland, as well as numerous instrumental works such as Sonatas, Quartets, Caprices and Dances. Many of the major conductors of t

Pollione Ronzi

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Pollione Ronzi (27 February 1833 in Bologna – 3 September 1915 in Milan) was an Italian operatic tenor, composer, conductor, and voice teacher. He sang roles at many important opera houses in Italy, including La Scala in Milan. In 1867, he was heard at the opera house in Livorno as Egidio in Errico Petrella’s La contessa d’Amalfi. In 1871, he sang the role of Rodrigo in Gioachino Rossini’s Otello at the Teatro Regio di Torino. In 1874, he became manager and conductor at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. In 1876, he sang in recital alongside soprano Ida Corani with Clara Schumann as their accompanist in the Royal Philharmonic Society’s concert season in London. He had sung in orchestral concerts with the RPS a year earlier under conductor William Cusins. This was followed in 1854 by Buon Gusto which was first performed at the Teatro di San Carlo. His opera, Dea, premiered at the Vienna State Opera on 4 August 1894. and tenor Franco De Gregorio. References

Prince Edmond de Polignac

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Prince Edmond Melchior Jean Marie de Polignac (19 April 18348 August 1901) was a French aristocrat and composer. Ancestry Edmond was a member of the Polignac family, one of the more illustrious families of France. His grandmother, the duchesse de Polignac, had been the close friend of Queen Marie Antoinette. His father, Jules de Polignac, prince de Polignac (1780–1847), was the Minister of State in the Restoration government of King Charles X and the author of the July Ordinances in 1830, which revoked the Constitution, suspended freedom of the press, and gave the king extraordinary powers, including absolute power in the name of “insuring the safety of the state”. The document resulted in the development of an insurgency and resulted in the “July Revolution” that ended the reign of the Bourbons. The king and his family went into exile, and his cabinet members were tried. Jules de Polignac was captured, tried, convicted and condemned in December 1830 to la mort civile: life imprisonment and a complete loss of civil rights. He was incarcerated in the Château de Ham. Early life By the time of his imprisonment Edmond’s father Jules de Polignac had two sons by his second wife, Mary Cha

Pyotr Bulakhov

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Pyotr Petrovich Bulakhov (Петр Петрович Булахов; 1822 in Moscow – 2 December 1885 in Kuskovo) was a Russian composer of mostly Russian chanson. He’s considered a notable composer due to the chanson he composed having reached critical popularity during his lifetime. Family Bulakhov came from a very musical family. His father, Pyotr Alexandrovich Bulakhov (1793?–1837), was a classical singer while his brother, Pavel Petrovich Bulakhov (1824–1875)., was a minor composer and operatic singer during his time who premiered the role of the Prince in Alexander Dargomyzhsky’s 1856 opera “Rusalka.” Career His compositions were widely sung during his lifetime, totaling up to 100 written. In the 1870s, a fire destroyed his apartment and in this fire, it is thought that many works were burned. His song “You Will Not Believe” (“Ты не поверишь”) was set as piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt (Chanson Bohemienne S.250/2), Adolf von Henselt (Fantaisie sur un Air Bohémien-Russe, Op 16) and Ferdinand Beyer (Hommage à la Russie, Op.100 No. 9). Songs * Shine, Shine, My Star * Do Not Awaken Memories * Don’t Wake Me Up * I Met You * In the Wide-Open Field * A dainty mouth pursed in anger * No, I Do Not Lo

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Early life and education#

Tchaikovsky was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk, a small town in Vyatka Governorate during the Russian Empire in present-day Udmurtia near the banks of the Kama River. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and managed the Ironworks in Kamsko-Votkinsk. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire in present-day Mykolaivka, Ukraine, and served first as a physician’s assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather, a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, served in the Russian military at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d’Assier), was the second of Ilya’s three wives; his first wife died several years before Pyotr’s birth. His mother was 18 years younger than her husband and was of French and German ethnicity through her paternal side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music. Of his six siblings, Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra’s marriage to Lev Davydov produced seven children and lent Tchaikovsky the only real family life he knew as an adult, One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, who went by the nickname “Bob”, became very close to him. In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise. By age six, he was fluent in French and German. though others assert that the mother doted on her son. Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky’s work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes. Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at the age of five with Maria Palchikova. Within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. Tchaikovsky’s parents, initially supportive, hired a tutor, bought an orchestrion, a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects, and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons. But in 1850 they sent Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served the lesser nobility, and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant. Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants. Tchaikovsky’s father’s income was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible. As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence’s preparatory school, 800 mi km from his family. Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of study. Tchaikovsky’s early separation from his mother, despite the aforementioned alleged distant relationship, caused emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854, when he was 14. The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky’s father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy’s mind. Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard. Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged the gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera and Tchaikovsky improvised at the school’s harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. “We were amused”, Gerard later remembered, “but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory”. Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies with Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to the school, but the results, according to the musicologist David Brown, were “negligible”. In 1855, Tchaikovsky’s father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy’s talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer. He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own bad experiences as a musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise. Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.

Rafael Hernando

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Rafael José Maria Hernando y Palomar (31 May 1822, in Madrid – 10 July 1888, in Madrid) was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas, being that his contributions to the genre lead to the development of the zarzuela grande. His body of work consists of 17 operettas and some religious works. None of his zazuelas has been in the repertoire of today. Biography Son of Pedro Hernando and Eugenia Hernando Palomar, his mother left him an orphan at the age of two. At fifteen he entered the Madrid Conservatory, In 1843, he moved to Paris, studying with Miguel García and befriending Daniel Auber. Works *1849 El duende - Zarzuela - Libreto by Luis de Olona *1849 Palo de ciego - Zarzuela en 1 acto - Libreto by Juan del Peral *1849 Colegialas y soldados - Zarzuela en 2 actos - Libreto by Mariano Pina *1850 Bertoldo y comparsa - Libreto by Gregorio Romero y Larrañaga *1851 Escenas de Chamberí - Collective work - Libreto by Luis de Olona *1851 Segunda parte de El duende - Zarzuela en 2 actos - Libreto by Luis de Olona *1852 El novio pasado por agua - Zarzuela en 3 actos - Libreto by Manuel Bretón de los Herreros *1852 El secreto de la Reina - Co-authors Joaquín Gaztambide and José Inzenga *1853 Don Simpli

Raffaello Carboni

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Raffaello Carboni (15 December 1817 – 24 October 1875) was an Italian writer, composer and interpreter who wrote a book on the Eureka Stockade which he witnessed while living in Australia. Although only a spectator at the Eureka Rebellion he was charged with treason in the Supreme Court of Victoria, but found not guilty of the charge and released on 21 March 1855. Carboni left Australia on 18 January 1856 for Europe. After periods of travelling, he returned to Italy, where he died in Rome in 1875. He was, however, arrested and tried for treason, but later acquitted in March, having been taken ill with dysentery in gaol. In July 1855, Carboni was elected to the local court at Ballarat to adjudicate mining disputes. His book, The Eureka Stockade, the only complete first-hand description and analysis of the causes of the attack on the Eureka Stockade, was published a year after the uprising. Carboni became a naturalised British citizen, but left Australia on 18 January 1856, sailing in the Impératrice Eugénie, and using some of the gold found at Ballarat to pay for his travels. After three years’ travel during which he visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem, he returned to Italy and worked f

Raimund Dreyschock

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Raimund Dreyschock (30 August 1824 – 6 February 1869) was a Czech composer and violinist. He was the brother of Alexander Dreyschock and father of Felix Dreyschock. Biography Raimund Dreyschock was born on 30 August 1824 in Žáky (now Czech Republic). At eleven years old his father sent him to the Prague Conservatory where he studied violin under Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis. After completing his musical studies, Dreyschock made a number of tours and moved to Leipzig in 1845. There he performed in the Gewandhaus and was offered the position of second Concertmaster in the orchestra. He accompanied his brother Alexander on some of his tours. In 1850, Dreyschock became Concertmaster in the Gewandhaus and violin teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory. He retired from performing in 1868 and died on 6 February 1869 in Stötteritz, Leipzig. Notes References External links *

Regina Watson

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Regina Cohn Watson (April 23, 1845 – July 31, 1913) was a composer, pianist, and teacher who was born in Germany. Her family later moved to America, first to Detroit, then to Chicago, where Regina lived for the rest of her life. In 1873, she married Lewis H. Watson, a Civil War veteran who had fought with an infantry unit from Maine. Regina Watson studied music with Franz Liszt and Karl Tausig in Europe, and with Bernhard Ziehn, probably in Chicago. After she moved to America, she gave lecture recitals on topics such as medieval French music, Italian music, and folk songs. She performed as a piano soloist in recitals and with orchestras. She belonged to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and helped found the Musical Art Society of Chicago. Watson is best remembered today as a piano teacher. Her students included Teresa Carreno, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Phyllis Fergus Hoyt, Peter Lutkin, Veronica Murphy, and Theodora Sturkow-Ryder. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge organized an effort in 1916 to build and name a studio at the MacDowell Colony in Watson’s memory. Composer Amy Beach used the Regina Watson Studio during her residency at the Colony. It was ren

Renaud de Vilbac

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Alphonse Zoé Charles Renaud de Vilbac (3 June 1829 – 19 March 1884) was a prolific French organist and composer. Biography Vilbac entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 13 to study the pipe organ with François Benoist and composition with Fromental Halévy. Two years later, in 1844, he won the second “Prix de Rome” with his cantata Le Renégat de Tanger on a text by Claude-Emmanuel de Pastoret. Returning to Paris after his stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, Vilbac became the holder of the great organ Merklin-Schütz of the église Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile in 1855. Works Lyrical works *1857: Au clair de lune, operetta on a libretto by Antoine de Léris, at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. *1858: Don Almanzor, opéra bouffe on a libretto by Eugène Labat and Louis Ulbach, at the Théâtre Lyrique. Music for piano * Menuet Louis XV, Op. 31 * Ophélia, nocturne * Petite fantaisie sur la mélodie de Tissot * Lili-Polka * Petite poupée chérie, waltz * Caresses enfantines, mazurka * Echo du désert, rêverie arabe * Sonnez clairons, military march * Caprice Styrien * Fior di speranza, romance sans paroles * École complète et progressive du piano, in 7 volumes (Paris: Choudens, c.1871) * Les Arab

René de Boisdeffre

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René de Boisdeffre (3 April 1838 – 25 November 1906) was a French composer. He is the author of some 60 pieces of chamber music as well as a few pieces for piano and vocal music. General de Boisdeffre was his cousin. Biographical sketch Boisdeffre was born in Vesoul, Département Haute Saône, into a family of military traditions and moved with his family to Paris in 1843. His musical education began with Charles Wagner (himself a pupil of P. J. G. Zimmermann) and was continued with Auguste Barbereau. Quite conservative in his style, Boisdeffre owed much to Gounod and Massenet in his vocal music, while his instrumental scores were influenced by Lalo and Saint-Saëns. In May 1883, Boisdeffre was awarded the Prix Chartier for his chamber music. He died in Vézelise, Département Lorraine, aged 68. Works Instrumental music * Premier recueil de trois romances sans paroles for piano, Op. 1 * Deuxième recueil de trois romances sans paroles for piano, Op. 2 * Sérénade for violin, organ and piano, Op. 5 * Mélodie in A major for viola and piano, Op. 6 * Deux Pièces for piano, Op. 7 * Scherzo-sérénade for two pianos, Op. 9 * Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 10 * Piano Quintet in D minor, Op.

Riccardo Drigo

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Riccardo Drigo (; 30 June 1846 – 1 October 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist. Drigo is noted for his long career as principal Chef d’orchestre/kapellmeister and Music Director of the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg, Russia, for which he composed music for the original works and revivals of the choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. During his career in Saint Petersburg, Drigo conducted the premieres and regular performances of nearly every ballet performed on the Tsarist stage. Drigo is equally noted for his original full-length compositions for the ballet as well as his large catalog of supplemental music written ad hoc for insertion into already-existing works. Drigo is also noted for his adaptations of already-existing scores, such as his 1895 edition of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s score for Swan Lake. Many pieces set to the music of Drigo are still performed today, and are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. Life Riccardo Giuseppe Drigo was born in Padua, Italy on 30 June 1846. His father Silvio Drigo was a barrister and his mother, a noble Lupati, was active in politics. None o

Riccardo Gandolfi

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Riccardo Gandolfi (16 February 1839 – 6 April 1920) was an Italian composer and music critic. Biography Born in Voghera. His mother Camilla Guiscardi was a painter. He was sent to study musical composition in the Conservatory of Naples under C. Conti. He then moved to Florence to study under Teodulo Mabellini and Giovanni Pacini. His first opera, Aldina, was staged in the Santa Radegonda theater of Milan. His second opera, Il paggio, was staged at the Royal Theater of Turin and used as libretto by Giovanni Peruzzini. He also wrote Il Conte di Monreale and Caterina di Guisa. He wrote a number of symphonic and chamber works, including a requiem for King Carlo Alberto played in the Turin Cathedral. He wrote a cantata Il battesimo di Santa Cecilia (1875). However, Gandolfi served for two decades as librarian of the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini in Florence, and is best remembered for his publications on music and musicians. Publications *Appunti intorno all’arpa, all’oboe e all’organo (Florence 1887); *Giacomo Rossini, in Rassegna nazionale, 16 May 1887, pp. 257–267; *Una riparazione a proposito di Francesco Landino, ibid., 1 December 1888, pp. 538–549; *Commemorazione di W.A. Mozart, i

Richard Genée

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Franz Friedrich Richard Genée (7 February 1823 – 15 June 1895) was a Prussian-born Austrian librettist, playwright, and composer. Life Genée was born in Danzig. He died in Baden bei Wien. Works He is most famous for the libretto of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss II’s most famous operetta. He co-wrote the libretto without having met top-billed librettist Karl Haffner, who constructed the new story based on a play by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, which was considered too shocking to perform outside Paris. Genée, however, wrote the operetta’s actual text and drew nothing from Haffner beyond the names of the characters. One of his best-known works was the libretto of Carl Millöcker’s operetta Der Bettelstudent, which he co-wrote with Friedrich Zell (the pseudonym of Camillo Walzel). He also wrote the libretto to Ella Adayevskaya’s 1877 opera Zarya. In 1857, he was conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra Mainz. Librettos and plays * Polyphen oder Ein Abenteuer auf Martinique (1856) * Der Geiger aus Tirol (1857) * Der Liebesring um (1860) * Ein Trauerspiel (1860) * Ein Narrentraum (1861) * Die Generalprobe (1862) * Die Herren von der Livrée (1862) * Die Talismänner (1863) * Rosita (1

Richard Hoffman (composer)

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Richard Hoffman (24 May 1831 – 17 August 1909) was an English-born American pianist and composer. Early life and education Richard Hoffman was born on 24 May 1831 in Manchester, England. He migrated to New York City in his 16th year. He received early instruction from Anton Rubinstein, Franz Liszt, Sigismond Thalberg, Theodor Döhler and Leopold von Meyer. and was also a teacher. He attained an international reputation for his performances. He wrote Some Musical Recollections of Fifty Years about his life, which was published in 1910. He died on 17 August 1909 in Mount Kisco, New York. The marble replica of the bust of her father was exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Selected recordings *“Dixiana”, and “In Memoriam L.M.G.” on recital The Wind Demon and other 19th-century piano works by Ivan Davis (piano) References Further reading * External links *

Richard Hofmann (composer)

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Richard Hofmann (30 April 1844 – 11 November 1918) was a German composer and music teacher who worked in Leipzig. Richard Hofmann was born in Delitzsch where his father was the municipal music director. He studied with Raimund Dreyschock (1824–1869) and Salomon Jadassohn and settled in Leipzig as a music teacher. He was Professor at Leipzig Conservatory and leader of the Leipzig Choral Society. Hofmann composed numerous instructive pieces for piano, string and wind instruments. Among his literary works are Katechismus der Musikinstrumente (A Catechism of Musical Instruments) published in 1890, and Praktische Instrumentationslehre (Practical Instrumentation, translated by Robin Humphrey Legge) of 1893. Notable students include George Strong, Donald Heins, Jean Paul Kürsteiner, Frank Welsman and Richard Wetz. Hofmann died in 1918 at the age of 74. Selected works ;Orchestral * Aus der Jugendzeit for string orchestra, Op. 60 ;Chamber music * 3 Sonatinas for cello and piano, Op. 42 * Sonatine für angehende Spieler (Sonatina for Advancing Players) in F major for viola (or flute) and piano, Op. 46 (1885) * 2 leicht ausführbare Sonatinen (2 Easy Sonatinas) for oboe (or violin) and piano, O

Richard Hol

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Richard (or Rijk) Hol (23 July 1825, in Amsterdam – 14 May 1904, in Utrecht) was a Dutch composer and conductor, based for most of his career at Utrecht. His conservative music showed the influence of Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann and the Leipzig school, though as a conductor he offered Dutch audiences the more revolutionary music of Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner. Life Richard Hol followed a course in piano under Jan George Bertelman at the royal conservatory of Amsterdam; after his graduation in 1844 he made a living as piano accompanist. In part on the basis of his choral compositions he was appointed director of the Amsterdamse Toonkunstkoor in 1857. In 1862, when Johannes Verhulst was appointed to the position, Hol removed to Utrecht, where he came to occupy the center of musical life, taking up the post of Ferdinand Kufferath in directing the city concerts (stadsconcerten) and the Utrecht Toonkunstkoor for the remainder of his life. In addition he was organist at the cathedral, 1869–1888. From 1875 he served as director of the Stedelijke Muziekschool at Utrecht, teaching music theory and history himself. Among his prominent pupils were Johan

Richard Michael Levey

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Richard Michael Levey (25 October 1811 – 28 June 1899), mostly known as R. M. Levey, was an Irish violinist, conductor, composer, and teacher. He was one of a handful of noted musicians who kept Dublin’s concert life in the nineteenth century alive under difficult economic circumstances. Life Levey was born in County Meath, the place name is not established. Levey’s original surname was O’Shaughnessy, but according to one of his most prominent pupils, the composer Charles Villiers Stanford, he changed it “for what he considered to be a more musical one”. Levey was his mother’s maiden name. The name was officially adopted, and all of his children and the following generations were called Levey (according to several sources, Levey had 20 children from three wives). He received tuition on the violin in Dublin by James Barton (c.1785–c.1850) and became a member of the orchestra of the Theatre Royal, Dublin in 1826, aged 15, succeeding Barton as concert master there in 1834. From 1834 until the destruction of the edifice by fire in 1880 he was also the musical director of the Theatre Royal, a role that involved conducting the orchestra, composing more than 100 overtures to plays, and di

Richard Storrs Willis

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Richard Storrs Willis (February 10, 1819 – May 10, 1900) was an American composer, mainly of hymn music. His best known melody is probably the one called, simply, Carol. This is the standard tune, in the United States, though not in Great Britain, of the much-loved hymn “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (1850), with lyrics by Edmund Sears. He was also a music critic and journal editor. Biography Willis, whose siblings included Nathaniel Parker Willis and Fanny Fern, was born on February 10, 1819, in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Chauncey Hall, the Boston Latin School, and Yale College where he was a member of Skull and Bones in 1841. Willis then went to Germany, where he studied six years under Xavier Schnyder and Moritz Hauptmann. After returning to America, Willis served as music critic for the New York Tribune, The Albion, and The Musical Times, for which he served as editor for a time. He joined the New-York American-Music Association, an organization which promoted the work native of naturalized American composers. He reviewed the organization’s first concert for their second season, held December 30, 1856, in the Musical World, as a “creditable affair, all things conside

Richard Wagner

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Early years#

Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, then part of the Confederation of the Rhine. His family lived at No 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in Leipzig’s Jewish quarter. He was baptised at St. Thomas Church. He was the ninth, and youngest, child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine Wagner, the daughter of a baker. Wagner’s father Carl died of typhoid fever six months after Richard’s birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl’s friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married, although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer’s residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father. Geyer’s love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel’s school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a proper scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyer’s death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, the boarding school of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer’s brother. At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (the standard listing of Wagner’s works) as WWV 1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons. By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner’s first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–1831 with . In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer’s 9th Symphony, both at the Gewandhaus. Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Wagner’s early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period. In 1829 he saw a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In Mein Leben Wagner wrote, “When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me,” and claimed that the “profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist” kindled in him an “almost demonic fire”. In 1831, Wagner enrolled at the Leipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxon student fraternity. He took composition lessons with the Thomaskantor Theodor Weinlig. Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner’s musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner’s Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833. He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.

Richard Wüerst

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Richard Wüerst (22 February 1824 – 9 October 1881) was a German composer, music professor and pedagogue. Wüerst was born and died in Berlin. He was a pupil of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen at the Prussian Academy of Arts and a pupil of Felix Mendelssohn’s. He later taught in the conservatory of Theodor Kullak (what would soon become the Stern Conservatory) and edited the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung (from 1874 to 1875). One of his notable students was Heinrich Hofmann. Selected works Operas *Der Rotmantel (1848 Berlin) *Vineta (21 December 1862, Bratislava) *Die Gastspielreise, Dramatisch-musikalischer Scherz en un acte (after Adolf von Winterfeld). Publié à Berlin: Bloch, ca. 1868. *Faublas, comic opera in three acts, after a Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray, libretto by Ernst Wichert (1873 Berlin) *A-ing-fo-hi, comic opera in three acts, after a story by Anton Giulio Barrili, libretto by Ernst Wichert (28 January 1878, Berlin) *Die Offiziere der Kaiserin (1878 Berlin) *Der Stern von Turan Symphonies *Three symphonies (including opus 21 in F, second symphony opus 54(2?) in D minor and opus 36 in C minor, no. 3) *A concerto for violin, op. 37 Instrumental music *Russian Suite for Strings

Rikard Nordraak

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Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem, “Ja, vi elsker dette landet”. Biography Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in Oslo, Norway. He published his Fem norske Digte: Op. 2, consisting of songs and poems by Bjørnson and Jonas Lie. This was the last of his compositions that would be published during his lifetime. In May 1865, he returned to Berlin to continue his education. In October 1865, he caught tuberculosis and died in Paris five months later. He was buried in Kirchhof Jerusalem in the Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg. In 1925, Nordraak’s coffin was exhumed and reburied in the Honor Grove at Vår Frelsers gravlund in Oslo. His Scherzo Capriccio for piano solo, given the opus number 3, was published posthumously by Edvard Grieg. The piece is a rondo, using several features from Norwegian folk music; rhythms typical in slåtter, and dissonances typical for the hardingfele. Rikard Nordraak. Samlede verker, a critical edition of Nordraak overall compositions were published by Øyvind Anker and Olav Gurvin (1942). Nordraak inspired Grieg to compose Funeral March in Memory of Rikard No

Robert Ambrose (composer)

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Robert Steele Ambrose (March 7, 1824 – March 31, 1908) was a British-Canadian organist and composer. He was notable for his evangelical music compositions. Life Ambrose was born on March 7, 1824, to Charles Ambrose and Sophia Stoneham in Chelmsford, England. Robert’s father was the organist at Chelmsford Cathedral, where Robert most likely received his early musical training. The family emigrated to Upper Canada in 1837, where Charles purchased a farm. However, lacking the experience to do work on the land, Charles moved to Hamilton, Ontario, in 1845, leaving Robert to work the land himself. Robert made it clear that he did not like farming as it damaged his hands, interfering with his musical abilities. In 1847, the young Ambrose left the farm to join his brother in Kingston, Ontario, teaching music. It is thought that around 1857-1858 Ambrose served as the organist of St. George’s Church. In 1862, Ambrose led the choral service at the consecration of John Travers Lewis. In 1863, Ambrose moved to Hamilton to take up a position as organist and choir director for the Church of the Ascension. The very next year, he was appointed the musical director of what is now Hamilton Ladies Col

Robert Franz

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Robert Franz Julius Knauth (28 June 1815 – 24 October 1892) was a German composer, mainly of . Biography Franz was born in Halle, Germany, the son of Christoph Franz Knauth. In 1847, Christoph Knauth adopted his middle name Franz as his new surname, and his son followed suit. He suffered in early life from the hostility of his parents to a musical career. He was twenty years old when his father’s opposition was overcome and he was allowed to live in Dessau to study organ playing under Friedrich Schneider. The two years of study under that famous teacher were advantageous chiefly in making him uncommonly intimate with the works of Bach and Händel, his knowledge of which is shown in his editions of the former’s St Matthew Passion, Magnificat and ten cantatas, and the latter’s Messiah and L’Allegro, although some of these editions have long been controversial among musicians. In 1843 he published his first book of songs, which was followed by about fifty further books, containing in all about 250 songs. In his native Halle he filled various public offices, including city organist and conductor of the Singakademie and the Symphony. He also served as royal music-director and music maste

Robert Fuchs (composer)

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Robert Fuchs (15 February 1847 – 19 February 1927) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime. Biography He was born in Frauental an der Laßnitz, Styria, Austria in 1847. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Felix Otto Dessoff and Joseph Hellmesberger among others. He eventually secured a teaching position there and was appointed Professor of music theory in 1875. He retained the position until 1912. He died in Vienna in 1927. He was the youngest brother of Johann Nepomuk Fuchs, The reason his compositions did not become better known was largely that he did little to promote them, living a quiet life in Vienna and refusing to arrange concerts, even when the opportunities arose. He certainly had his admirers, among them Brahms, who almost never praised the works of other composers. But with regard to Fuchs, Brahms wrote, “Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.” Famous contemporary conductors, including Arthur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner and

Robert Papperitz

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Benjamin Robert Papperitz (4 December 1826 – 29 September 1903) was a prominent German music educator, composer, and organist who served on the faculty of the Leipzig Conservatory for over fifty years. He was highly regarded for his instruction in harmony, counterpoint, and organ, training an influential generation of international composers and performers. Biography Papperitz was born in Pirna, Saxony, on 4 December 1826. Due to his academic success, the Leipzig Conservatory invited him to join its faculty immediately upon his graduation in 1851, where he taught harmony and counterpoint until 1902. In 1868, he succeeded his former teacher Richter as the titular organist of St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig (Nikolaikirche), a post he occupied until 1899. Papperitz died in Leipzig on 29 September 1903 at the age of 76. who later recalled that Papperitz granted him “freer rein” than other instructors, encouraging the integration of chromatic voice leading into his chorale harmonisations. The Irish-born composer Charles Villiers Stanford travelled to Leipzig to study advanced piano under Papperitz between 1874 and 1875. English pedagogue Franklin Taylor, Finnish opera pioneer Oskar Merikan

Robert Planquette

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Jean Robert Planquette (; 31 July 1848 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of songs and operettas. Several of Planquette’s operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, especially Les cloches de Corneville (1878), the length of whose initial London run broke all records for any piece of musical theatre up to that time. Rip Van Winkle (1882) also earned international fame. Life and career The son of a singer, Planquette was born in Paris and educated at the Paris Conservatoire. He did not finish his studies, lacking the funds to do so, and worked as a café pianist and composer and singing (he was a tenor). A few romances that he composed brought less fame than did his song, “Sambre et Meuse”, first sung in 1867 by Lucien Fugère, who went on to be one of the foremost French opera singers of his day. In 1876, the director of the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques gave Planquette a commission to compose his first operetta, Les cloches de Corneville. It opened in Paris in 1877, running for an extremely successful 480 performances, and then enjoyed an astonishing London run, beginning in 1878, of a record-breaking 708 performances. Planquette’s music has been praised for its pat

Robert Prescott Stewart

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Sir Robert Prescott Stewart (16 December 1825 – 24 March 1894) was an Irish composer, organist, conductor, and teacher – one of the most influential classical musicians in 19th-century Ireland. Biography Stewart was born in Dublin; his grandfather had moved to Ireland from the Lowlands of Scotland in 1780. He displayed an early talent for music, fostered by his mother, who had been a pupil of Johann Bernhard Logier. He didn’t study music in an academic sense, but received some thorough grounding in church music when he joined the choir school of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 1833, where he came under the care and tutelage of Rev. John Finlayson and the Master of the Boys, Richard William Beaty. His biographer O.J. Vignoles also mentions Archdeacon Magee and the Dean’s vicar, John C. Crosthwaite, as having had influence on Stewart’s musical education. In 1844 he succeeded John Robinson as cathedral organist, a position he held until his death, and also became the organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral from 1852 to 1861. In 1846 he succeeded Joseph Robinson as conductor of the University of Dublin Choral Society, another position he held for the rest of his life. He received the d

Robert Schumann

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Childhood#

Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony (today the German state of Saxony), into an affluent middle-class family. On 13 June 1810 the local newspaper, the (Zwickau Weekly Paper), carried the announcement, “On 8 June to Herr August Schumann, notable citizen and bookseller here, a little son”. He was the fifth and last child of August Schumann and his wife, Johanna Christiane. August, not only a bookseller but also a lexicographer, author, and publisher of chivalric romances, made considerable sums from his German translations of writers such as Cervantes, Walter Scott and Lord Byron. When he was seven he began studying general music and piano with the local organist, Johann Gottfried Kuntsch, and for a time he also had cello and flute lessons with one of the municipal musicians, Carl Gottlieb Meissner. Throughout his childhood and youth his love of music and literature ran in tandem, with poems and dramatic works produced alongside small-scale compositions, mainly piano pieces and songs. He was not a musical child prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt or Felix Mendelssohn, According to the musical historian George Hall, Paul remained Schumann’s favourite author and exercised a powerful influence on the composer’s creativity with his sensibility and vein of fantasy.

Robert Stoepel

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Robert Auguste Stoepel (born Auguste Stöpel, 1821 – 1 October 1887) was a German-born American composer and conductor. His compositions include Hiawatha, a symphony for orchestra and vocal soloists, as well as incidental music for plays, piano works, songs, and several operas. Born in Berlin, Stoepel worked in Paris and London, but spent a large portion of his career in New York City where he died at the age of 66. From 1857 until their separation in 1869, he was married to the actress Matilda Heron. Their daughter Bijou Heron was also an actress. Biography Robert Stoepel was born Auguste Stöpel in Berlin in 1821. Because his father had a reputation as a court musician, he adopted his forename. His sister, Hélène Stöpel, was noted as a “charming and talented pianist.” (She later married the composer William Vincent Wallace.) After he graduated from the Berlin Conservatory of music, he went to Paris where he graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris, where his teachers included Luigi Cherubini, Fromental Halévy, and Friedrich Kalkbrenner. He got his start at composing incidental music for dramas there, being one of three composers who contributed to a stage production of Monte-Crist

Robert Volkmann

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Friedrich Robert Volkmann (6 April 1815 – 30 October 1883) was a German composer. Life Robert Volkmann was born in Lommatzsch near Meißen in the Kingdom of Saxony. His father, a music director for a church, trained him in music to prepare him as a successor. Thus, Volkmann learned to play the organ and the piano with his father, studied violin and cello with Friebel, and by age 12, he was playing the cello part in string quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. In 1832, he entered the Freiberg Gymnasium for the purpose of becoming a teacher. There he studied music with August Ferdinand Anacker, who encouraged him to devote himself to music more fully. From there he went on to Leipzig in 1836 to study with Carl Ferdinand Becker. In Leipzig, he met Robert Schumann who encouraged him in his studies. They met again several times after that. When he finished his studies, he began working as voice teacher at a music school in Prague. He did not stay there long, and in 1841 he moved to Budapest, where he was employed as a piano teacher and a reporter for the Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung. After a short period of freelance work, he became the choirmaster and organist of a Reform synagogu

Robert Whinham

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Robert Whinham (1814–1893) was a fiddler, composer and dancing master from Morpeth, Northumberland. Many tunes composed by him are still played, notably the Remember Me hornpipe, Whinham’s Reel, and The Cambo March. A 1995 book on his life and music, called Remember Me by Graham Dixon, summarises most of what is known about him. Early life Whinham was born in 1814, in Morpeth, Northumberland, the son of a market gardener, also named Robert. He was the fourth of five children. Robert Whinham senior is known as the developer of a variety of gooseberry, still cultivated, known as Whinham’s Industry. There are few facts known about his life, though his obituary recorded that he had started learning the violin at the age of eight, at first from one William Banks, later from ‘a German music master in Newcastle’. Career Whinham later organised the Morpeth Brass Band, for much of his life he worked as an itinerant musician and dancing teacher, though frequently returning to Morpeth. In 1854, the Morpeth Philharmonic Society, led by Whinham, gave a concert in Morpeth. There are advertisements for several other engagements around this period. In 1856 and 1857, he led the musicians playing at

Roberta Geddes-Harvey

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Anne Catherine Roberta Geddes-Harvey (née Geddes; 25 December 1849 – 22 April 1930) was a Canadian organist, choirmaster and composer. Early life and education Roberta Geddes was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and studied music with Arthur E. Fisher, Humfrey Anger and Edward Fisher, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree from Trinity College, Toronto, in 1899. Career After completing her studies, Geddes-Harvey worked as an organist in Hamilton, and then took a position in 1876 as choirmaster and organist at St. George’s Anglican Church in Guelph; she continued in this position for more than fifty years. Works Geddes-Harvey wrote hymns, anthems, songs, and instrumental works bearing copyright dates from 1897 to 1919. Selected works include: *La Terre Bonne (The Land of the Maple Leaf) libretto by A. Klugh (lost) *The Old Boys Welcome, single remaining song from La Terre Bonne *Salvator, oratorio to words from the scriptures References

Romain-Octave Pelletier I

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Romain-Octave Pelletier I (sometimes spelled Peltier) (9 September 1843 – 4 March 1927) was a Canadian organist, pianist, composer, writer on music, and music educator. Early life and career Born in Montreal, Pelletier was a member of a prominent musical family. Three of his sons had successful musical careers: Frédéric Pelletier, Romain Pelletier, and Victor Pelletier. His grandson, Romain-Octave Pelletier II, was a well known violinist. His elder brother, Orphir Pelletier, was a composer and organist at St. Patrick’s Basilica, Montreal. Largely self-taught, it is from Orphir that he received his only early music lessons. He later studied for two years in Europe during the early 1870s after having worked for almost 15 years as a church organist. In 1857, at the age of 15, Pelletier succeeded Jean-Chrysostome Brauneis II as organist at Saint-Jacques Cathedral. He remained there for the next ten years, during which time he studied law and obtained certification as a notary. He notably officiated the marriage license of violinist Frantz Jehin-Prume, whom he accompanied numerous times in recital, and mezzo-soprano Rosita del Vecchio in 1866. In 1866–1867 Pelletier spent some months in

Romualdo Marenco

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Romualdo Marenco (March 1, 1841 – October 9, 1907) was an Italian composer primarily noted for ballet music. Marenco started his musical career as a violinist in the Doria Theater in Genoa. His first composition was the ballet Garibaldi’s Landing in Marsala. He was appointed the orchestral conductor for La Scala in Milan and also directed the ballet company there for seven years. His best-known ballets were written in collaboration with choreographer Luigi Manzotti during that period. Marenco is best remembered for the ballet Excelsior, composed in 1881. Excelsior is a tribute to the scientific and industrial progress of the 19th century, from the electric light to the telegraph, steam engine, Fréjus Rail Tunnel, and Suez Canal. As such it foreshadows the Futurism movement. In the first nine months, it was staged 100 times in Italy and abroad. It is still performed and was recently (2002) staged in Milan. Works (1870). Opera * Lorenzino de’ Medici (Libretto by G. Perosio, Lodi 1874) * I Moncalda (Libretto by Fulgi, Milan 1880) * Federico Struensée (Novi Ligure 1908) Operetta * Le Diable au corps (Libr. E. Blum and P. Toché, Paris 1884) * Strategia d’amore (Libr. C. A. Blengi, Milan

Rudolf Bial

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Rudolf Bial (26 August 1834 – 23 November 1881) was a German violinist, composer, conductor and theater director. Life Born in Habelschwerdt, Prussia, Bial received his musical education in Breslau, where he was employed at the age of 15 as the first violinist in the chapel of the local municipal theatre. He was Kapellmeister in Lübeck from 1854 to 1856, then made a concert tour to Australia as a violin virtuoso together with his brother Karl, became Kapellmeister in 1864 at August Conradi’s place at Wallner-Theater in Berlin and from 1876 to 1879 was the director of the Krollschen Theater, whose repertoire he refined by cultivating German and Italian operas. In the latter year he moved to New York. There he led a concert band and died at the age of 47. His brother Karl Bial (1833-1892) worked as a piano virtuoso, composer and music teacher in Berlin. He left behind several pieces for piano and songs. Work Among Rudolf Bial’s partly popular compositions (in total 130 numbers) his operetta Der Herr von Papillon (1868) had the greatest success. * 1872: Die Mottenburger, burlesque with music * 1874: Mein Leopold, burlesque with music (singing burlesque in three acts), premiere 28 Sept

Salomon Jadassohn

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Salomon Jadassohn (13 August 1831 – 1 February 1902) was a German pianist, composer, and teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory. Life Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. This was a generation after the emancipation of the Jews in Central European German-speaking lands and during a time of relative tolerance. First educated locally, Jadassohn enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1848, just a few years after it had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn. There he studied composition with Moritz Hauptmann, Ernst Richter and Julius Rietz, as well as piano with Ignaz Moscheles. At the same time, he studied privately with Franz Liszt in Weimar. On 13 April 1851 in Weimar he was the soloist at the first performance, under Liszt’s baton, of Liszt’s arrangement for piano and orchestra of Carl Maria von Weber’s Polonaise (Polacca) brillante “L’hilarité” in E major, Op. 72. As a Jew, Jadassohn could not qualify for the many church jobs as music directors or organists which were usually available to Christian graduates of a conservatory such as Leipzig, as they required deep knowledge of Christian liturgy and practice. Instead he

Samuel A. Ward

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Samuel Augustus Ward (December 28, 1848 – September 28, 1903) was an American organist and composer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a shoemaker, He is remembered for the 1882 tune “Materna”, which he intended as a setting for the hymn “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem”. This was published ten years later, in 1892. In 1903, after Ward had died, the tune was first combined by a publisher with the Katharine Lee Bates poem “America”, itself first published in 1895, to create the patriotic song “America the Beautiful.” The first book with the combination was published in 1910. Ward never met Bates. References External links * * *

Samuel Brenton Whitney

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Samuel Brenton Whitney (June 4, 1842 – August 3, 1914) was a United States organist, conductor and composer. His compositions were primarily church music and chamber works. Biography Samuel Brenton Whitney was born in Woodstock, Vermont on June 4, 1842. He was a pupil of Charles Wels of New York City and then John Knowles Paine of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He secured his first organ appointment in Cambridge. He came to be regarded as the greatest interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach in the United States, and was appointed professor of organ playing and lecturer in music at the Boston University and the New England Conservatory. In 1871 he was appointed organist and choir director of the Church of the Advent, Boston. His compositions included many anthems and other church pieces, songs, pianoforte music, sonatas, transcriptions, and arrangements for the organ. The Arthur P. Schmidt company’s first publication was the Whitney anthem Deus misereatur (God Be Merciful Unto Us). He died at his sister’s home in Woodstock on August 3, 1914. Notes References * External links *

Samuel Reay

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Samuel Reay (17 March 1822 – 21 July 1905) was an organist and composer based in England. Life He was born on 17 March 1822 (although some sources give 1826 or 1828), the son of George Agnew Reay, organist of Hexham Abbey, and Eleanor Spraggon. His father moved to Ryton on Tyne and Samuel became a chorister in the choir at Durham Cathedral. He is noted for having performed the first organ arrangement of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” which he arranged whilst in Tiverton. Whilst in Newark he was conductor of the Newark Philharmonic Society. Appointments *Assistant Organist of St Hilda’s Church, South Shields (1839 – ????) *Organist of Houghton-le-Spring *Organist of St Andrew’s Church, Newcastle upon Tyne (1841–1845) *Organist of St. Thomas the Martyr, Barras Bridge (1845–1847) *Organist of St Peter’s Church, Tiverton (1847–1854) *Organist of St. John’s Church, Hampstead (1854–1856) *Organist of St. Saviour’s Church, Warwick Road (1856 – ????) *Organist of St Stephen’s Church, Westbourne Park, Paddington (???? – 1859) *Organist of St. Peter’s College, Radley (1859–1861) *Organist of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bury (1861–1864) *Organist of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Newa

Samuel Sebastian Wesley

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Samuel Sebastian Wesley (14 August 1810 – 19 April 1876) was an English organist and composer. Wesley married Mary Anne Merewether and had six children. He is often referred to as S.S. Wesley to avoid confusion with his father Samuel Wesley. Biography Born in London, he was the eldest child in the composer Samuel Wesley’s second family, which he formed with Sarah Suter having separated from his wife Charlotte. Samuel Sebastian was the grandson of Charles Wesley. His middle name derived from his father’s lifelong admiration for the music of Bach. After singing in the choir of the Chapel Royal as a boy, Samuel Sebastian embarked on a career as a musician, and was appointed organist at Hereford Cathedral in 1832. While there he married the sister of the Dean, John Merewether. S.S. Wesley was, like his father Samuel Wesley, a Freemason. He was initiated in Palladian Lodge No.120 in Hereford on 17 September 1833. He moved to Exeter Cathedral three years later, and joined St George’s Lodge No.129 Exeter on 10 December 1835. He subsequently held appointments at Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) (from 1842), Winchester Cathedral (from 1849), Winchester College and Gloucester Cathedra

Samuel Weltsch

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Samuel Weltsch (September 12, 1835 – August 5, 1901) was a Bohemian hazzan and composer. Biography Samuel Weltsch was born in Prague into a family of ḥazzanim. He early entered the profession, and became cantor of the Maisel Synagogue at Prague while quite a young man. He received his musical education at the Prague Conservatory of Music. In 1865 he received a call from the Ahawath Chesed Congregation in New York, and remained its cantor until 1880, when he resigned the position in order to return to his native city. During his stay in New York he was active in improving the musical service of the American synagogue. Weltsch was one of the collaborators on the first three volumes of the Zimrat Yah, a fourth volume of which was later added by Alois Kaiser of Baltimore, containing music for all the seasons of the year. In addition he published Psalm 93 with German words for solo and chorus, and Todtenfeier, two hymns for the memorial service. He was a prominent member of B’nai B’rith and took great interest in communal affairs in Prague, being the leading spirit in various charitable and educational organizations. Publications * * * * References

Sándor Erkel

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Sándor Erkel (2 January 1846 – 14 October 1900) (Hungarian: Erkel Sándor) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and director of the Hungarian State Opera. Biography Born in Buda, Erkel was the youngest son of the famous Hungarian composer, Ferenc Erkel. He first studied music with his father; later his teacher was another Hungarian composer, Mihály Mosonyi. He started his career just as an orchestra musician of the National Theatre in Pest playing timpani; he was also the dulcimer soloist at the premiere of his father’s opera, the Bánk bán. Later he became the conductor of the theatre’s orchestra, and at the age of thirty in 1876, he was appointed the music director of the ensemble. In 1884, Erkel became the music director of the newly established Hungarian State Opera (1884–1886), – its founding director was his father, Ferenc – premiering Hungarian and foreign operas. Erkel accepted the chairman-conductor position of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra in 1875, a post he held until 1900. Johannes Brahms premiered his Piano concerto no. 2. with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra on 9 November 1881 in Budapest, with Erkel as conductor. Erkel died unexpectedly in Békéscsaba on 14 Oct

Sarah Lancaster (composer)

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Sarah “Sally” Lancaster (April 28, 1834 – April 13, 1918) was an American composer in the Sacred Harp tradition. Three of her songs were published: “The Last Words of Copernicus”, “I’m on My Journey Home”, and “Sardis”. Biography Lancaster was born in Talbot County, Georgia, April 28, 1834. Her parents were James Lupo Lancaster and Charity Lancaster, formerly of Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Through her father she was a descendant of the Italian Jewish musician Peter Lupo, who had emigrated to England and was active at the court of Elizabeth I. She had two sisters, Anna Lucinda Maria Atkinson Lancaster, known as “Ann”, and Priscilla R. Lancaster, known as “Sid”; all three were musical, and both others contributed hymns to editions of the Sacred Harp. All three were students of Benjamin Franklin White and J. P. Reese, the latter of whom assisted them in their compositions. Sarah studied in Hamilton, Georgia, likely at the Hamilton Female Institute, where she expressed an interest in music and took piano lessons. It appears that she boarded with White’s family during this time in her life; she also developed the habit of sending original compositions to friends and family along w

Sebastian Bach Mills

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Sebastian Bach Mills (13 March 1839 – 21 December 1898) was an English pianist, composer and piano instructor who made his concert career in the United States and gave the first American performances of many important works. Biography Born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Mills received his earliest instruction from his father, who was organist at Gloucester Cathedral. The father was a great admirer of Johann Sebastian Bach, hence the name he gave his firstborn son. In adulthood, Mills simply signed himself “S.B. Mills.” In spite of the name and his father’s vocation, Mills chose piano over the organ. His precocious talent brought him to the attention of the French light music composer Louis-Antoine Jullien, who engaged the “infant prodigy” for his earliest concert performances. Young Mills played at Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1846 at the age of six, performing Czerny’s Rondo Brillant on Themes from Preciosa and gave a command performance before Queen Victoria at age seven. He studied in England with Cipriani Potter and William Sterndale Bennett and at the Leipzig Conservatory with Louis Plaidy, Carl Czerny, Ignaz Moscheles, Julius Rietz and Moritz Hauptmann. At Leipzig, he me

Semen Hulak-Artemovsky

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Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky (, also referred to as Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky and Artemovs’kyj) (February 16 1813 – April 17 1873), was an opera composer, baritone, actor, dramatist and pioneer of Ukrainian theatre who worked in Imperial Russia. He is known mainly for his comic opera Zaporozhets za Dunayem (‘A Zaporozhian Beyond the Danube’), as well as for his dramatic talent and his powerful, rich baritone voice. He was the nephew of the poet and a close friend of the Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko. Biography Semen Stepanovych Hulak-Artemovsky was born in Gorodishche, Kiev Governorate (today part of Ukraine), the son of a priest. He studied at the Kyiv Theological Seminary from 1835 to 1838. In 1838, at the age of 25, having gained the attention of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, Hulak-Artemovsky was brought to the capital St Petersburg. There he received vocal training from Glinka, and entry into the Imperial Chapel Choir. The following year, Hulak-Artemovsky left St Petersburg to continue his studies in Italy. In 1841, towards the end of his stay, he began performing opera in Florence. Upon his return to St. Petersburg the following year, Hulak-Artemovsky b

Sidney Lambert

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Sidney Lambert (c. 18381905) was an African-American pianist, music educator and composer, born before the American Civil War as a free person of color. He and his family were noted for talent in music and gained international acclaim. Life and career Lambert was born in New Orleans, the son of pianist and composer Charles-Richard Lambert and his second wife Creole Coralie Suzanne Orzy. He and his older brother Charles Lucien Lambert studied music with their father. In 1854, Charles, who married a French woman, emigrated with his family from the U.S. to France. Sidney Lambert also lived and worked in France, and served as a pianist in Portugal at the Royal court of King Dom Pedro, along with his nephew Lucien-Léon Guillaume Lambert, where he was recognized for innovation in music in the 1870s. Lambert died in Paris in 1905 . His papers are housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, including thirty-two works dated 1866 to 1899. He seemed to be the only one of his family who published works in New Orleans. Works Selected works include: *Celebre tarantelle (1890) (arrangement of piece by Louis M. Gottschalk) *Stella (Mon etoile) (1879) References

Siegfried Saloman

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Siegfried Saloman (2 October 1816 – 22 July 1899) was a Danish violinist and composer. A contemporary of Franz Liszt, he was a pupil of Johannes Frederik Fröhlich, Holger Simon Paulli, Frederik Thorkildsen Wexschall and Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, from whom he received violin-playing lessons. He toured extensively throughout Europe with the Swedish opera singer Henriette Nissen, to whom he was married in 1850. In 1842, his nine booklets of romances and songs were published in Hamburg. Life Siegfried Saloman, born Solomon, was born in Tønder, the son of the merchant Isaac Solomon (1782-1848) and Veilchen Geskel (1787-1836). He was the brother of the artist and the founder of the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Geskel Saloman (1821-1902), and Nota Saloman (1823–85), who was a chief medical officer for the Danish army. Since his father’s business was no longer doing so well, the family moved to Copenhagen in 1829. As early as a 12-year-old Siegfried Saloman already played the violin, so he continued his studies in Copenhagen under the guidance of J. P. E. Hartmann, among others. In 1838 he received a 3-year scholarship which he used to stay in Dessau, where he studied music theory and com

Sigismond Thalberg

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Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family Thalberg was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. Thalberg asserted that he was the illegitimate son of Moritz, Prince of Dietrichstein and Maria Julia Bydeskuty von Ipp, from a Hungarian family of lower nobility. In 1820, Julia married Baron Alexander Ludwig (from an ennobled Jewish Viennese family ). According to Thalberg’s birth certificate, he was the son of Joseph Thalberg and Fortunée Stein, both from Frankfurt-am-Main. Early life Little is known about Thalberg’s childhood and early youth. It is possible that his mother had brought him to Vienna at the age of 10 (the same year in which the 10-year-old Franz Liszt arrived there with his parents). According to Thalberg’s own account, he attended the first performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on 7 May 1824, in the Kärntnerthortheater. There is no evidence as to Thalberg’s early teachers. Baroness von Wetzlar, his putative mother, who, according to Wurzbach, was occupied with his education during his childhood and early youth, was a brilliant amateur pianist. It m

Sigismund Bachrich

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Sigismund Bachrich (23 January 1841 – 16 July 1913), aka Sigmund Bachrich or Siegmund Bachrich, was a Hungarian composer, violinist, and violist of Jewish origin. He was born in Žabokreky in 1841. He studied violin at the Vienna Conservatoire from 1851 to 1857 with Joseph Böhm. He was Kapellmeister at the Paris Théâtre Lyrique from 1866 to 1869, when he returned to Vienna. He joined the Vienna Philharmonic as violist, remaining until 1899. He was a professor at the Vienna Conservatory until 1894. He played the viola with the Hellmesberger Quartet from 1869, then joined the Rosé Quartet in 1890. He died in Austria, either in Grimmenstein or Vienna. He composed for the opera, including Muzzedin (1883), Heini von Steier (1884), and Der Fuchs-Major (1889). His memoirs were published posthumously, in 1914, under the title Aus verklungenen Zeiten; Erinnerungen eines alten Musikers. Selected works ;Stage * Muzzedin, Opera (1883) * Heini von Steier, Opera in 1 act (1884); libretto by Hugo Wittmann * Sakuntala, Ballet (1884) * Der Fuchs-Major, Operetta (1889) * Des Herdes und der Liebe Flammen, Operetta * Mahomeds Paradies, Operetta ;Chamber music * Impromptu for violin and piano (1862) * I

Simon Waley

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Simon Waley Waley (23 August 182730 December 1875) was one of the leading members of Anglo-Jewry in the 19th century. Waley was born in Stockwell, London. He was a leading broker on the London Stock Exchange and a prominent amateur musician. He was a leading figure in the Jewish community during the period of the emancipation of the Jews from civil disabilities. He contributed many letters to The Times under the signature W. London. His letters on A tour in Auvergne, published in the Daily News in 1858, were incorporated into John Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in France. Waley was a highly gifted musician. He began to compose as a child. His first published work, L’arpeggio (for piano), was published in 1848. He had piano lessons from Ignaz Moscheles, William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Osborne, and lessons in theory and composition from William Horsley and Bernhard Molique. As well as being a brilliant pianist (he performed regularly at concerts of the Amateur Musical Society conducted by Henry Leslie), Waley was a prolific composer. His published compositions include a piano concerto (op. 16), two piano trios (in B flat and G minor, op. 15 and op. 20), marches and c

Smith Newell Penfield

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Smith Newell Penfield (April 4, 1837 – January 7, 1920) was an American composer and organist. Early life and education Penfield was born at Oberlin, Ohio. He studied at Oberlin College, graduating in 1858. He studied at the Conservatory of Music at Leipzig with Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Reinecke, Ernst Richter, and Moritz Hauptmann, graduating in 1869. He received a doctorate in music from New York University in 1885. Career Back in the United States, he worked as a music teacher in Rochester and founded a Mozart Club and a Conservatory in Savannah. In 1885, he served as President of the Music Teachers National Association. His compositions included a setting of Psalm 18, an overture, a string quartet, pieces for organ and for piano, choral works, and songs. Personal life Penfield married Sarah Elizabeth Hoyt in 1860. They had a daughter. References External links *

Sophie Dedekam

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Sophie Dedekam (1 April 18201 June 1894) was a Norwegian composer and diarist, one of the most significant Norwegian women composers of the 19th century, and principally remembered today for a hymn included in the Church of Norway Hymn Book and for her published recollections of a visit to Paris. Dedekam was born in the Norwegian coastal town of Arendal, the daughter of the town’s mayor. She became active in the social and cultural life of the city at an early age, where she sang and played the piano. She traveled to Paris when she was 25 for a visit of several weeks, recording her experiences in letters and in a diary that were published after she died. Dedekam did some public concertizing as a singer and collaborative pianist early in her life, but most of her performing was limited to amateur venues in the Arendal area or at home with her family and friends. Dedekam also composed songs from an early age, again mostly for local consumption. Many of her pieces were eventually published by Wilhelm Hansen Music Publishers (known today as Edition Wilhelm Hansen) in Copenhagen. A number of her songs became quite well known in Norway as a result, but Sophie rarely received recognition

Spyridon Xyndas

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Spyridon Xyndas or Spiridone Xinda (; June 8, 1812 – November 25, 1896) was a Greek composer and virtuoso guitarist. His last name has also been transliterated as “Xinta”, “Xinda”, “Xindas” and “Xyntas”. Biography Xyndas was born in Corfu in 1812. In 1823, he was a student of Nikolaos Mantzaros in music theory. After the completion of his studies in Corfu, he continued them in Naples and Milan under various teachers including Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. This was the first full-scale opera based on a libretto in Greek and the only one of Xyndas’ operas that exists today. The libretto was written by Ioannis Rinopulos (with contributions by Nikolaos Makris and Xyndas himself) and it was performed at the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù. Its seemingly comic plot is a severe criticism regarding the living conditions of the Ionian Islands’ rural society, against the morality of the indigenous politicians, both during the period under British occupation (1815–1864) and after it. Xyndas also composed other operatic works, the most notable of which was Anna Winter (based on Dumas’ The Three Musketeers), which is the earliest use of a Dumas work in the modern Greek theatre. The 1888, th

Stanisław Moniuszko

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Stanisław Moniuszko (; May 5 (17), 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, He is generally referred to as “the father of Polish national opera”. Since the 1990s, Stanisław Moniuszko has been recognized in Belarus as an important figure to Belarusian culture as well. Life Moniuszko was born into a noble landowning family in Ubiel, Minsk Governorate (Russian Empire, now Belarus). His father, Czesław, and his uncle, Ignacy, both served in Napoleon’s army. His first piano teacher was his mother, Elżbieta (Elizabeth) Madżarska of Armenian descent. He later continued his musical education in Warsaw and Minsk, and studied under Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen in Berlin. In 1840, he married Aleksandra Mueller, with whom he had ten children, and settled down in Vilnius, taking up the position of organist at the Church of St. John’s. Moniuszko also offered private music lessons, which turned out to be an important source of income for his family. His first operettas Loteria (Lottery) and Żółta szlafmyca (Yellow Nightcap) were not very successful. However, in 1847, the premiere staging of Halka (the two-act version), considered one of his most notable operas, was more successful. It took place

Stephanie Wurmbrand-Stuppach

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Countess Stephanie von Wurmbrand-Stuppach (December 26, 1849 – February 16, 1919) was a Hungarian pianist and composer. She was also known as Stephanie Brand-Vrabely. Biography Stephanie von Wurmbrand-Stuppach was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava), Hungary. Her father, Karl von Vrabély, was a director of the Royal Hungarian Mail. Her mother, Seraphine Edle von Szlemenics, was a Doctor of Laws, the daughter of the Privy Councillor Professor Paul von Szlemenics. Stephanie showed early musical talent and received piano lessons. She released her first song composition at age 14, and later released a collection of thirty songs under the pseudonym Stephanie Brand-Vrabely. She gave concerts in Vienna and other major cities in Europe. On July 6, 1869, she married Count Ernst von Wurmbrand-Stuppach, brother of Adelma Vay. She worked as a writer, publishing in the feuilleton supplements of various newspapers. In recognition of her achievements she received a Silver Medal for Art and Science from Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Works Selected works include: Piano Works: *Three Character Pieces (Opus 8) *Fifteen little fantasy pieces (Opus 24) *Five Piano Pieces (Opus 25) *Dance sce

Stephen A. Emery

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Stephen Albert Emery (October 4, 1841 – 1891) was a 19th-century American music composer and theorist. Many of the younger American composers were indebted to Emery for their instruction in the art of composition, and he stood in the front rank of American theorists. Emery has a national reputation as a lecturer upon musical subjects, a contributor to musical papers, a composer, a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and piano. As a composer, he wrote about a 150 published pieces, all of which were musicianly, and many of which enjoyed a large share of popular favor. Emery early manifested a strong love for music, and he even composed some little pieces before he was able to read notes, an elder sister showing him how to write them. After a common school education, he entered upon a collegiate course at Colby University in the fall of 1859, but owing to ill-health and impaired sight, he was compelled to leave after the freshman year. He, then as a pastime, took up the study of the piano and harmony, his teacher being Henry L. Edwards, of Portland, Maine. Acting upon the advice of his teacher, Emery went to Leipzig in 1862, and there for two years, he studied with Richter, Papperitz, Pl

Stephen Foster

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Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as “the father of American music”, was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and folk music during the Romantic period. Foster wrote more than 200 songs, including “Oh! Susanna”, “Hard Times Come Again No More”, “Camptown Races”, “Old Folks at Home” (“Swanee River”), “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”, “Old Black Joe”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”. Many of his compositions remain popular today. Early life There are many biographies of Foster, but details differ widely. Among other issues, he wrote very little biographical information himself, and his brother Morrison Foster may have destroyed much information that he judged to reflect negatively upon the family. Foster was born on July 4, 1826, in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. His parents, William Barclay Foster and Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster, were of Ulster Scots and English descent. Foster had three older sisters and six older brothers. He attended private academies in Allegheny, Athens, and Towanda, Pennsylvania, and received an education in English grammar, diction, the classics, penmanship, Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Foster s

Stephen Heller

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Stephen Heller (15 May 181314 January 1888) was a Hungarian pianist, teacher, and composer whose career spanned the period from Schumann to Bizet. Heller was an influence for later Romantic composers. He outlived his reputation, and was a near-forgotten figure at his death in 1888. Biography Heller was born in Pest, Hungary in 1813. He had been destined for a legal career, but instead decided to devote his life to music. At the age of nine he performed Jan Ladislav Dussek’s Concerto for Two Pianos with his teacher, Franz Brauer, at the Budapest Theater. He played so well that he was sent to study in Vienna, Austria, under Carl Czerny. Unable to afford Czerny’s expensive fees, he became a student of . In 1862 he performed Mozart’s E-flat concerto for two pianos with Charles Hallé at The Crystal Palace. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Paris. Works Heller was a prolific composer for the piano and his studies remain popular with music teachers and students. Complete worklist * Op. 1 Thème de Paganini varié * Op. 2 Les charmes de Hambourg. Rondeau brillant * Op. 3 Fantaisie dramatique sur les opéras Semiramide et Masaniello * Op. 4 Valse Favorite de Hubovsky. Variatio

Susan McFarland Parkhurst

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Susan McFarland Parkhurst (5 June 1836 – 4 May 1918) was an American writer and composer. Life Susan McFarland was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, and composed popular songs and parlour piano solos during the 1860s. She was first recorded as an accompanist and soloist at a Methodist concert in New York City in 1860. She married E.A. Parkhurst and had a daughter, Effie. Her husband died in action in 1864 during the Civil War. She took a job at Waters’s Music Store where she met Stephen Foster and began to write songs, mostly on topical and religious themes. She and her daughter performed her song “Father’s a Drunkard and Mother is Dead” in concert and it became a standard at temperance meetings in New York. Parkhurst died in Brooklyn, New York. Stephen Foster’s New York publisher Horace Waters printed a Select Catalogue of Mrs. E.A. Parkhurst’s Compositions in 1864. She also provided songs for Horace Waters’ hymnals. Original prints of her songs are housed in the Music Division of the New York Public Library and her instrumental works are archived at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Works Parkhurst was noted for songs on themes such as themes as temperan

Sydir Vorobkevych

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Sydir Ivanovych Vorobkevych (, ; 17 May 183631 September 1903), was a Ukrainian composer, writer, Eastern Orthodox priest, teacher, and artist. During his career he was the editor of the Austrian newspaper . Early life and education Sydir Ivanovych Vorobkevych was born on 17 May 1836 (O.S.) in Chernivtsi (now in western Ukraine). Vorobkevych’s mother, Elizabeta Corlătean, was an ethnic Romanian, being the daughter of the Protopope of Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Sydir’s paternal great-grandfather, Skalsky Mlaka de Orobko, ran away from Lithuania, and his grandfather changed his name from Orobko to Vorobkevych. He later used part of the former name as part of one of his pen-names, Danilo Mlaka. His mother died in 1840, and his father Ivan worked in the Chernivtsi Lyceum as a professor of religion and philosophy. After father died in 1845. the 9-year-old Sydir, along with his brother Hryhoriy, were left as orphans. They were then brought up by their grandfather, Mykhailo Vorobkevych, the Protopope of Kitsman. In his family the young boy learned Ukrainian folklore and history. He enrolled in the Chernivtsi Lyceum and later the Theology Seminary in Chernivtsi, graduating in 1861. After his t

T. M. Turner

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Thomas Memory Turner (July 17, 1847 – September 2, 1917) was an American composer, band leader, and music professor. He was known to his friends as “Mem”. He was once assistant director of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton, Virginia, the United States’s oldest continuous community band sponsored by local government and funded, in part, by tax monies. His father A. J. Turner was director. They were mustered into the Stonewall Brigade under Stonewall Jackson of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Turner served through the Valley Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, and was at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. Memory trained several cornet bands, and spent several years directing the band at the Western Lunatic Asylum. He tuned pianos for most of his life. Early years in Staunton Thomas Memory Turner was born on July 17, 1847, in Middletown, Virginia to A. J. Turner and Kate Aby, and moved to Staunton with them in the mid to late 1850s. Civil War Turner served in the Confederacy for much of the American Civil War. His father A. J. was a band leader in the Stonewall Brigade Band in the Stonewall Brigade. Thomas Memory was a musician alongside his father in the 5th Virginia Infantry fro

Teckla Juel

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Teckla Violanta Juel née Suenssen (1834–1904) was a Danish writer and composer. Brought up by a mother interested in literature, like her sisters Alfhilda Mechlenburg and Fanny Suenssen, she contributed articles to women’s magazines and published novels and short stories. Furthermore, using the name Teckla, she published a number of songs for which she had composed the music. Biography Born on 20 May 1834 in Tønning in the south of Jutland, Teckla Violanda Suenssen was the youngest daughter of Captain Johan Fedder Carsten Suenssen (1795–1840) and his wife Margaret née Juel. She was brought up by a mother deeply interested in literature with two sisters who also became writers. In August 1867, she married the schoolteacher at Aalborg Cathedral School Axel Georg Juel (1822–1903) with whom she had two children: Margrethe (1869) and Elise Henriette (1871). After marrying Axel Juel in 1867, she spent the next ten years in Aalborg where her husband was employed. In 1876, the family settled in Copenhagen. Later publications included three novels: Hittebarnet (1870), Zigeunerbarnet (1871), Karen (1874) and the short story collection Paa Skraaplanet (1891). Together with her two sisters, sh

Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska

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Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska, also known as Tekla Bądarzewska ( Polish pronunciation : ; 1829/1834 – 29 September 1861) was a Polish composer and pianist. She composed mainly for the piano and is internationally known for her composition A Maiden’s Prayer. Life and death Bądarzewska was born in 1829 in Mława or 1834 in Warsaw to Andrzej Bądarzewski and Tekla Bądarzewska (Chrzanowska). Andrzej Bądarzewski was a successful police commissioner, and moved his family to Warsaw in 1835. Tekla married Jan Baranowski and they had five children in their nine years of marriage. Bądarzewska-Baranowska died on 29 September 1861 in Warsaw. One of her daughters, Bronisława, was enrolled at the Warsaw Institute of Music in 1875. Early works and marriage At age 14, Bądarzewska composed and published her first piece, Vals Pour le Pianoforte, dedicated to Anna Makiewicz, the benefactress of a local orphanage. This piece was published by Franciszek Henryk Spiess, an important bookseller at the time. Four years after the publication of her Vals, Bądarzewska married Jan Baranowski, an army captain. In 1857, the Czarist authorities gave Baranowski the Order of St. Stanislaus (Russian Empire) third class

Temistocle Solera

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Temistocle Solera (; 25 December 1815 – 21 April 1878) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Life and career He was born in Ferrara. He received his education at the Imperial College in Vienna and at the University of Pavia. Throughout his life he actively participated in anti-Austrian resistance. At one point, he was incarcerated for his activities. He completed several literary works, including the novel Michelino, his style influenced by Alessandro Manzoni. He then found work as a librettist; his collaboration with the composer Giuseppe Verdi began in 1839 and lasted for a few years. Solera then found work as the impresario for the Royal Theatre in Madrid. He died in Milan in 1878. (Pelayo is a Spanish national hero, the leader of Christian resistance in the Cantabrian mountains against the Arab invasion in the early eighth century) Librettist *For Giuseppe Verdi ** Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio (1839) ** Nabucco (1842) ** I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843) ** Giovanna d’Arco (1845) ** Attila (1846) *For other composers * Galeotto Manfredi (Carlo Hermann; 1842) * La conquista di Granata (Emilio Arrieta, 1850) * La fanciulla delle Asturie (Benedetto Secchi; 1856) * So

Teodulo Mabellini

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Teodulo Mabellini (2 April 1817 – 10 March 1897) was an Italian composer. Life Early education in Pistoia and Firenze Teodulo Mabellini was the son of Vincenzo, a strumentaio (maker of musical instruments) specialized in wind instruments. He took his very first music lessons from his father and from the flautist, Giovacchino Bimboni, (future music producer of brass instruments). The education he received from these first teachers was critical in forming the unique style of his orchestral compositions. He continued to have contact with Bimboni throughout his entire life, and together they developed a knowledge of composition for winds that was uncommon in this time period (see Style). In 1832, at the age of 15, Mabellini held a concert of his own compositions (of which only lEstro armonico remains; the autograph can be found in Pistoia, see Sources) in Pistoia and Grosseto. Immediately after graduating, he was hired as Master of Harpsichord at the Teatro dei Risvegliati in Pistoia and collaborated in productions such as La straniera di Vincenzo Bellini and Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti. The operatic world inspired him to compose his first opera, Matilde e Toledo, which he wrote i

Theodor Kirchner

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Fürchtegott Theodor Kirchner (10 December 1823 – 18 September 1903) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic era. Musical career Kirchner enjoyed the friendship and admiration of many leading composers of the 19th century yet was unable to maintain a successful career, apparently due to a disordered way of life which included extravagant spending and an addiction to gambling. He was born at Neukirchen near Chemnitz and at the age of eight was already an accomplished organist and pianist. From 1838 to 1842, he studied in Leipzig under (piano) and Karl Ferdinand Becker (organ and theory). Kirchner subsequently was a pupil of in Dresden and attended the Leipzig Conservatory for a short time. In 1843, he became organist in Winterthur, Switzerland on the recommendation of Mendelssohn. He remained there for nearly 20 years, but travelled much in Germany, befriending Robert and Clara Schumann and Brahms. Clara Schumann was very fond of him, though she wrote that ‘in his character there is no stability’, and it appears they had a discreet affair in the early 1860s. In 1862, Kirchner moved to Zürich as the director of the subscription concerts there. This only lasted three years. F

Theodor Kullak

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Theodor Kullak (12 September 1818 – 1 March 1882) was a German pianist, composer and teacher. Background Kullak was born on 12 September 1818, in Krotoszyn. He began his piano studies as a pupil of Albrecht Agthe in Poznań. He progressed sufficiently to excite the interest of the artistic Prince Anton Radziwill in his eighth year. This early ability to attract noble patronage was an art he continued to deploy to advantage for many years to come. In 1829, the prince used his influence to secure a Berlin court concert. He appeared with soprano singer Henriette Sontag. The usually undemonstrative King Frederick William IV was so delighted that he presented young Kullak with thirty Friedrichs d’or. He performed a concert in Breslau that was received with gratifying applause. The kindly Prince Radziwill then saw to a rounded education for Kullak, sponsoring his school fees in Sulechów (now in Poland). Kullak eventually lost Radziwill’s patronage and from age thirteen to eighteen, had to make do with just occasional access to a piano. At age nineteen, at his father’s behest, he opted for a sensible profession and went to study medicine in Berlin. A new aristocratic friend, Count von Inge

Theodor Leschetizky

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Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky; ; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915) was a Polish pianist, professor, and composer active in Austria-Hungary. He was born in Łańcut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land of the Habsburg domain. A well-regarded teacher, his many students included Ignaz Friedman, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and Artur Schnabel. Life Theodor Leschetizky was born on 22 June 1830 at the estate of the family of Count Potocki in Łańcut, in what was then Austrian Galicia and is now southeastern Poland. Joseph Leschetizky, his father, was a gifted pianist and music teacher of Viennese birth and Czech origin. His mother Teresa Ullmann was a Polish gifted singer of German origin. His father gave him his first piano lessons and then took him to Vienna to study with Carl Czerny. At age eleven, he performed a Czerny piano concerto in Landshut, with Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, the son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conducting. At the age of fifteen he started to tutor his first students. By the age of eighteen he was a well-known virtuoso in Vienna and beyond. His composition teacher was Simon Sechter, an eminent professor who was the teacher of many

Théodore Dubois

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Clément François Théodore Dubois (; 24 August 1837 – 11 June 1924) was a French Romantic composer, organist and pedagogue. After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Dubois won France’s premier musical prize, the Prix de Rome in 1861. He became an organist and choirmaster at several well-known churches in Paris, and at the same time was a professor in the Conservatoire, teaching harmony from 1871 to 1891 and composition from 1891 to 1896, when he succeeded Ambroise Thomas as the Conservatoire’s director. He continued his predecessor’s strictly conservative curriculum and was forced to retire early after a scandal erupted over the faculty’s attempt to rig the Prix de Rome competition to prevent the modernist Maurice Ravel from winning. As a composer, Dubois was seen as capable and tasteful, but not strikingly original or inspired. He hoped for a career as an opera composer, but became better known for his church compositions. His books on music theory were influential, and remained in use for many years. Life and career Early years Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne, a village near Reims. The family was not connected with the musical profession: his father Nicolas was a basket maker, h

Théodore Gouvy

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Louis Théodore Gouvy (3 July 1819 – 21 April 1898) was a French/German composer. Biography Gouvy was born into a French-speaking family in Goffontaine, now of Saarbrücken-Schafbrücke, Germany. The family was of Belgian descent. Gouvy’s great-grandfather Pierre came from Goffontaine, a Belgian village near Liège. Around 1753, being mayor of Saarlouis, he named his ironworks factory “Goffontaine”. Because this region fell under Prussian control shortly before his birth, Théodore Gouvy could not attain French citizenship until the age of 32. He began piano lessons with a private tutor at the age of eight, and was educated in Sarreguemines (France), developing a keen interest in Classical Greek culture and in modern languages. He spoke not only German and French, but English and Italian as well. In 1837, he went to Paris to study law, continuing his piano lessons with a pupil of the pianist and composer Henri Herz (1803–1888) and became friendly with Adolphe Adam. This led to further music studies in Paris and Berlin. Unable to pursue music instruction at the Conservatoire de Paris, he took up private courses. Drawn toward instrumental music rather than opera, Gouvy chose to live the l

Théodore Lack

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Théodore Lack (3 September 1846 – 25 November 1921) was a French pianist and composer. Life Born in Quimper, he studied under Antoine François Marmontel (pianoforte), Lefébure-Wély (composition) and François Bazin (harmony). He started teaching piano in Paris in 1863 and achieved acclaim as a piano pedagogue. A very precocious boy, he was appointed organist in his native town at the age of 10 and held this post until he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1860. He graduated in 1864 as winner of many prizes. The same year he was appointed teacher of pianoforte at the Conservatory. He published a piano method, for which he won Claude Debussy to contribute a piece, The Little Nigar. He never left Paris after his admission to the Conservatory. From 1875 to 1905 he was a member of the committee on admission and of the jury of examinations. In 1881 he became an “Officier de l’Académie”. He published in 1916 Les classiques favoris du piano. This collection contains several volumes. The first is intended for beginners and contains 50 songs of various composers. Early in his career he wrote several compositions featuring, or using as accompaniment, a now-obscure instrument called the pyrophon

Théodore Lajarte

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Théodore Lajarte (10 July 1826 – 20 June 1890) was a French musicologist, librarian, and composer. Early years and education Lajarte was born in Bordeaux. His full name has been given as Théodore Édouard Dufaure de Lajarte. Librarian and musicologist He is best remembered for his position as an archivist at the Paris Opera. After his appointment in 1873 as second librarian at the Paris Opera Library, he organized the theatre’s historical scores and parts, publishing a chronological inventory of scores under the title Bibliothèque musicale du théâtre de l’Opéra in 1876 with a corrected and completed edition in 1878. He continued working at the library until 1890. As a musicologist, he contributed articles on music to newspapers and published reductions for piano and singing of old French operas and ballets, with the first being a reduction of Lully’s opera Thésée. with words after Florian by Nuitter and Mérante and choreography by Mérante, with Mlle Subra (Caroline), very well received. His other works include Le Secret de l’Oncle Vincent (24 November 1855, Théâtre Lyrique), Mam’zelle Pénélope (3 November 1859, Théâtre Lyrique), Le Neveu de Gulliver (22 October 1861, Théâtre Lyrique

Theodore Oesten

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Theodore Oesten (also Theodor in German) (December 31, 1813 – March 16, 1870) was a German composer, musician, and music teacher. Oesten was born in Berlin. He learned to play wind and string instruments from the Stadtmusikus in Fürstenwalde (a small town outside Berlin). At the age of nineteen he studied composition with Böhmer, Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen, G. A. Schneider and August Wilhelm Bach in Berlin. Oesten is perhaps best known for his easy to play piano compositions, including transcriptions of operatic works, written in the sentimental style of his day. He died in his native city of Berlin. His son Max Oesten also became a composer. *Alpine Glow (Alpengluhen Idylle), Op. 193 *Carnival Of Venice (Capricietto Brillant) *Cradle Song (Schlummerlied), Opus 91 *De Boself *Der kuss, Opus 205 *Dolly’s Dreaming and Awakening (Puppchens Traumen Und Erwachen!); Cradle Song (Wiegenlied), Opus 202, No. 4 *Echo Idylle, Opus 223 *Farewell *Forest Roses *Gondellied, Op. 56 *Heavenly Bliss (Seliges Gluck), Opus 50, No. 4 *Illustrations: Six Elegant Fantasias n Favorite Themes, Op. 99 *La fille du régiment, Opus 57, No. 10, Perles de L’Opera, 12 Morceaux Elegantes *Long Long Weary Day, Op.

Théodore Salomé

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Théodore-César Salomé (20 January 1834 – 26 July 1896) was a French organist and composer. Biography Théodore Salomé was born in Paris. He completed all of his musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, under the tutelage of François Bazin for harmony and accompaniment, and François Benoist for organ. He won several honorable awards, including: second prize in harmony (1855), second prize in organ and in harmony (1856), second and third prize in harmony and organ (1857), and second prize in harmony (1859). His cantata Atala was awarded the premier Second Grand Prix of the Prix de Rome in 1861. In the same year Théodore Dubois was awarded the first grand prize, and Eugène Anthiome and Titus Constantin won the deuxième Second Grand Prix. In 1863, the architect Théodore Ballu began the construction of the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris (he had already built the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde in 1861 and would construct the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Paris some ten years later). Situated in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on Square Estienne-d’Orves, Sainte-Trinité was blessed in November 1867. It was not consecrated, however, until 1913, the eve of World War I. The reason for t

Thérèse Wartel

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Atala Thérèse Annette Wartel, née Adrien (2 July 1814 – 6 November 1865), was a French pianist, music educator, composer and critic. Biography Born in Paris, Thérèse Wartel was the daughter of the opera singer Martin-Joseph Adrien or Andrien (1767–1822) and the Baroness Gabrielle Constance de Philippy de Bucelly d’Estrées (1782–1854). She was also the sister of the piano virtuoso Rosine-Charlotte DelSarte who was the wife of the renowned French music and movement teacher Francois DelSarte (1811–1871). She studied music at the Conservatoire, became an accompanist, and from 1831–38 taught as a professor at the Conservatoire. In 1838, she was the first female soloist ever admitted to the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. In 1833, she married the tenor Pierre-François Wartel (1806–1882) and had a son, Émile, who performed for many years at the Théâtre-Lyrique and later established a vocal school of his own. She died in Paris aged 51. Works Wartel composed caprices, fantasies, études, ballads and romances. Selected compositions include: * Lessons on the Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven * Souvenirs of the Huguenots, fantaisie, Leipzig * Caprice * Andante, autograph, 1

Thomas Tellefsen

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Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen (26 November 1823 – 6 October 1874) was a Norwegian pianist, composer, and teacher. As a composer, Tellefsen wrote 44 opuses, including solo piano works, two piano concertos, and chamber music. He dedicated many of his compositions to the Polish, Russian, and French aristocracy. Life Tellefsen, the youngest of six siblings, Thomas gave his first public concert in his home town in the spring of 1842, age 18. Here, he became the pupil of his compatriot Charlotte Thygeson (1811–1872; a daughter of Nicolai Emanuel de Thygeson), Tellefsen’s “highest wish”—to study under Chopin—was hugely difficult. Tellefsen stated that it was “more difficult to reach Chopin than Louis-Philippe”. It was not until November 1844—through the influence of George Sand—that Tellefsen finally attained this wish. Tellefsen’s letters indicate Chopin’s interest in him, spending as much as three hours at a single lesson, During the years 1844 to 1848, According to Tellefsen, Ludwika gave him the only complete manuscript of Chopin’s compositions remaining after his death, which Tellefsen later used for his edition of Chopin’s works. Princess Marcelina Czartoryska took him to the Hôtel L

Tigran Chukhajian

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Tigran Chukhajian (; ; 1837 – March 11, 1898) was an Ottoman Armenian composer and conductor, and the founder of the first opera institution in the Ottoman Empire. Biography Tchouhadjian was born in Constantinople. He studied at composer Gabriel Yeranian’s class, then had classes in Milan. Along with other Armenian intellectuals of that period he fought for the development of national culture, organized Armenian musical societies, theatres, schools, papers and free concerts. In 1862, he took over publication of the Armenian musical journal Armenian Lyre.In his works, Tchouhadjian used the elements of European musical techniques and eastern music elements He is an author of pieces for piano, songs and romances, chamber and symphonic works, operas. His most successful opera was Leblebici hor-hor agha (1875), it was premiered at the French Theatre in Constantinople, it was so successful that during the season it was performed more than hundred times and during the month Ramadan it was performed every single night (Zemire, 1890) etc. He died in Smyrna (now İzmir). Chukhajian is buried in the Armenian cemetery of İzmir. He created the first Armenian opera, Arshak II (1868, partially sta

Tito Mattei

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Tito Eduardo Achille Mattei (24 May 1839 – 30 March 1914) was an Italian pianist, composer, and conductor. Biography Born at Campobasso in Italy, he was educated in Naples where he studied with Sigismond Thalberg, Carlo Conti, and Michele Ruta. A musical prodigy, he gave his first concert in 1846 aged 5 afterwards touring Italy, France and Germany. At just 11 years-old in 1852 he was appointed Professor at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He gave his first performance in London in 1853 aged 12 In 1871 he married Amalia Colombo (born 1845) at Kensington in London. Their daughter Marie Jeanette Mattei was born in London in 1875. He wrote several hundred piano-pieces and songs which had a moderate success including the ballet The Spider and the Fly, ‘For the Sake of the Past’, ‘Dear Heart’, ‘Non torno’, ‘Non è ver’, and ‘Oh! Oh! Hear the Wild Wind Blow’. His operas included Maria di Grand and the comic opera La Prima Donna. He contributed ballet music and the song “O Leave Me Not, Dear Heart” A Freemason, in 1888 he joined the Rothesay Lodge No 1687 in London. Mattei enjoyed driving fast cars — in 1909 the 68 year-old Mattei broke the speed limit while the American la

Tomaso Benvenuti

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Tomaso Benvenuti (also spelled Tommasso and Tommaso; 4 February 1838 – 26 February 1906) was a nineteenth-century Italian composer of opera. He was born in Cavarzere in the Veneto (at the time part of the Austrian Empire) and died in Rome at the age of 68. Works Benvenuti is known to have written the following seven operas: *Valenzia Candiano, an azione lirica, 1856. The librettist is unknown, as is the place, if there was one, of the first performance. A libretto published in Mantua in 1856, however, does include other details of what may have been the first production. From the character list it appears the opera was adapted from Valenzia Candiano, o, La figlia dell’ammiraglio, an historical novel published in 1843 by the Milanese writer Giuseppe Rovani. *Adriana, or Adriana Lecouvreur, a dramma lirico in 4 acts, 1857. The libretto by was adapted from the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest-Wilfrid Legouvé, which would later form the basis for Francesco Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur. The opera’s first performance was on 26 November 1857 at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan. *Guglielmo Shakspeare (i.e. William Shakespeare), a melodramma in 5 acts, 1861. The op

Valdemar Tofte

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Lars Valdemar Tofte (21 October 1832 – 28 May 1907) was a Danish violinist who taught for a half century and trained over 300 of Denmark’s violinists. Biography Tofte was born on 21 October 1832 in Copenhagen, Denmark, to distiller Hans Larsen Tofte (1798–1857) and Mathilde Pedersen (1812–1867). The father, who loved music and was a good violinist, wanted his son to become a musician, particularly a violin virtuoso. To that end, he took Tofte at a young age to concerts to hear great artists like Miska Hauser, Hubert Léonard, and François Prume. He also found skilled teachers: first Carl T. Petersen, violinist in Hans Christian Lumbye’s orchestra, known for his beautiful bowing, and then of the Royal Danish Orchestra. In the fall of 1850, when the Music Society formed its own orchestra under the direction of Niels W. Gade, Tofte was one of its early violinists. Gade’s recommendation was for Tofte to study with the “violin king” Joseph Joachim in Hannover. Tofte followed the advice and went to study with Joachim from 1853 to 1856; occasionally he studied with Louis Spohr in Kassel. Career After his return, he made his debut in May 1856 with great acclaim in the Music Society Orchestr

Valentin Zubiaurre

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Valentin Zubiaurre Urionabarrenechea (13 February 1837 – 13 January 1914) was a Spanish composer who was a professor at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and worked at the Chapel Royal. Life Zubiaurre was born in Garay, a Basque town in the province of Biscay on 13 February 1837. His first musical experience was as a choirboy in Bilbao, and he later went on to study the organ. He traveled to Latin America in 1852, where he taught music until 1866, when he returned to Spain. This proved to be fruitful, as in 1869 he won the National Music Competition for an opera called Ferdinand Set. He was noticed by authorities and received a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts, with which he visited France, Germany and Italy to study. Upon his return he entered the Chapel Royal, which he eventually became master of in 1878. At the chapel he composed religious music and audition pieces for applicants. one of his only compositions still used for the purpose of examination. Known works Solo pieces *Audition Piece for Trumpet *Fantasy for horn with piano accompaniment *Oboe solo with piano accompaniment Operas *Luis de Camoes *Ferdinand Set *Leda Orchestral *Symphony in E minor (1870) Religious mu

Valentina Serova (composer)

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Valentina Semyonova Serova (maiden name Bergman) (1846 – June 26, 1924) was a Russian composer of Jewish descent. Her family had converted to Reformed Protestantism before she was born. Early life Serova’s father Simon Bergman was a German-Jewish merchant who lived in Warsaw and operated a jewelry shop; her mother Augusta Hudschon (Augustina Hudson) was a German-Jew as well born in Amsterdam. They moved to Saint-Petersburg from Warsaw in the late 1830-s. She studied briefly at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Anton Rubinstein but left to study with the composer and critic Alexander Serov, known both for his writings and his successful first opera Judith. Introduced through a shared friend, she married Serov in 1863 and in January 1865 their son Valentin Serov was born. Valentin would grow up to become a famous painter, renowned for his portraits. The Power of the Fiend Alexander Serov died of a heart attack in January 1871, and Valentina completed the last act of his third and final opera, The Power of the Fiend. She used his sketches and her memory of what Alexander had played to her to finish the work. The composer N.F. Solovyov helped her with some of the instrumentation and

Vatroslav Lisinski

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Vatroslav Lisinski (, 8 July 1819 – 31 May 1854) was a Croatian composer. Biography Lisinski was born Ignatius Fuchs to a German Jewish family. He would later change his name to Vatroslav Lisinski, which is a Croatian calque of his original name. For a time he worked as a clerk at the Tabula Banalis in Zagreb. Lisinski composed the first Croatian opera, Love and Malice (1846), which he wrote at the urging of Alberto Ognjen Štriga, and Porin (1851) as well as numerous works for orchestra, choir and soloists. He was also one of the founders of Illyrism, a movement that advocated the importance of Croatian and more generally South Slavic cultural heritage, as a reaction to Magyarisation during the Austro-Hungarian rule. Lisinski died in Zagreb on 31 May 1854 and was buried at the Mirogoj Cemetery. Legacy In 1944, Oktavijan Miletić directed a movie about him, Lisinski (film). The Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall was named after him in 1973. The international train EN 498/499 connecting Zagreb and Munich is named Lisinski, after the composer. References

Vicenç Cuyàs

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Vicente Cuyás () (Palma de Mallorca, 6 February 1816 – Barcelona, 7 March 1839) was a Spanish composer known for his romantic opera La fattucchiera. Vicente Cuyás was born to a Catalan family in Palma de Mallorca where his family had fled during the Peninsular War. Shortly thereafter, the family returned to Barcelona where Cuyás began studies in medicine, which he soon abandoned. At the age of 17 he began to study music with Ramón Vilanova, one of Barcelona’s most prestigious teachers during the early nineteenth century, who in turn had trained in Milan with abbé Isidore Piantanida. Cuyás’ early works consist of some operatic music which was premiered widely in private salons, but it was at the Teatre de la Santa Creu where almost all of his works were produced. His First Symphony, written in 1835, although it is actually an extensive opera overture in a single movement — but it gained him some notice when it was dedicated to the actress Matilde Díez. although it is sung in Italian. In order to finish La fattuchiera “in record time”, Cuyàs father had also died of tuberculosis during the rehearsals. The opera is based on a novel by the Viscount of Arlincourt which had already been a

Victor Frédéric Verrimst

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Victor Frédéric Verrimst (29 November 1825 – 16 January 1893) was a French double-bassist and composer. Biography Of Belgian ancestry, Verrimst was born in Paris and studied double-bass at the Conservatoire de Paris in Louis François Chaft’s class as well as harmony with Antoine Elwart and counterpoint with Simon Leborne. A winner of the first prizes in these disciplines at the Conservatoire, he became a musician in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique, then became bass soloist with the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris, at the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire and played in the personal music of Napoleon III. Verrimst was also maître de chapelle of the église Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin then of the Church of Saint-Bernard de la Chapelle and double-bass professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. In this capacity, he was the author of a textbook for the double bass, which was in use at the Conservatoire, as well as a Solfège du contrebassiste. But Verrimst did not limit himself to writing for the double-bass. He composed several masses and motets, various songs and piano works, a fantasy for trombone as well as an important collection of harmonized rounds and popular songs, p

Victor Massé

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Victor Massé (; born Félix Marie Massé; 7 March 1822 – 5 July 1884) was a French composer. Biography Massé was born in Lorient (Morbihan) and studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the Prix de Rome in 1844 for his cantata Le Rénégat de Tanger before turning his attention to opera. While at the Conservatoire, Massé studied with Jaques Halévy. He wrote some twenty operas, including La Chanteuse voilée (1850), followed by the more ambitious Galathée (1852) and Paul et Virginie (1876). His best-known and most successful work was the opéra comique Les Noces de Jeannette (1853). His last work, Une Nuit de Cléopâtre, was performed posthumously in April 1885. Massé died in Paris and is buried in Montmartre Cemetery. in the 9th arrondissement of Paris is named after him. Operas * La Chambre gothique, opéra (1849) * La Chanteuse voilée (1850, text by Eugène Scribe and Adolphe de Leuven) * Galathée (1852, text by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré)) * Les Noces de Jeannette, opéra comique (1853, text by J. Barbier and M. Carré) * La Fiancée du diable (1854, text by Eugène Scribe and H. Romand) * Miss Fauvette (1855, text by J. Barbier and M. Carré) * Les Saisons (1855, text by J. Barbier and

Victor Sieg

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Charles-Victor Sieg (8 August 1837 – 6 April 1899) was a French composer and organist. He won the 1864 Prix de Rome for his setting of the dramatic cantata, Ivanhoé. Life and career Sieg was born on 8 August 1839, in Turckheim. His father, Constant Sieg (1807 – 1891), was a composer and the organist of the Church of Saint-Martin in Colmar. Sieg studied first under his father and then at the Conservatoire de Paris under François Benoist (organ) and Ambroise Thomas (composition). He won the conservatory’s First Prize in organ in 1863, and the following year he won the Prix de Rome for the cantata, Ivanhoé set to a French text by Victor Roussy based on Walter Scott’s 1820 novel, Ivanhoe. The cantata premiered on 18 November 1864 at the Paris Opera with Jean Morère in the title role and was well received. Rue Victor Sieg, a street in Turckheim, is named in his honour. Notes References

Victorin de Joncières

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Félix-Ludger Rossignol (12 April 1839 – 26 October 1903), known as Victorin de Joncières (), was a French composer and music critic. Biography Son of a political writer and editor of La Patrie and Constitutionel, he was born at Paris, and his first musical lessons were from aunts. Leaving the Lycée Bonaparte at 16, he decided to study to be a painter, entering the studio of Picot. However, Joncières kept up his musical interest and had a short opéra comique performed by students of the Conservatoire de Paris, and was advised to abandon art and take up music. He entered the Conservatoire and followed the classes of Simon Leborne in fugue and counterpoint. However, after hearing one of Richard Wagner’s first concerts in the French capital, he had a disagreement with the professors, and in 1860, abandoned his studies to devote himself to composition. His violin concerto was played at the Conservatoire in 1870 by Jules Danbé, and a Symphonie romantique at the Concert national in 1873. ), penning biting criticisms of earlier opéra comique composers and of Berlioz. Although Joncières presented his candidature for the Institut de France he was refused. He died in his native city of Paris.

Victorine Farrenc

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Victorine Louise Farrenc (23 February 1826 – 3 January 1859) was a French pianist and composer of the Romantic period. Life and career Victorine Louise Farrenc was born in Paris, France on 23 February 1826. In 1843, Farrenc enrolled in the Conservatoire de Paris for piano, and won the premier prix in 1844. She performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor” in the 1845 Brussels-Paris concerts, where her mother’s Symphony No. 1 premiered. Her stage appearances lessened in 1847 after a serious illness; by 1849 she had ceased performing. She died on 3 January 1859 in Paris. References Further reading * External links *

Viktor Nessler

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Viktor (or Victor) Ernst Nessler (28 January 1841 – 28 May 1890) was an Alsatian composer who worked mainly in Leipzig. Nessler was born at Baldenheim near Sélestat, Alsace. At Strasbourg he began his university career with the study of theology, but he concluded it with the production of a light opera entitled Fleurette (1864). To complete his knowledge of music Nessler went to Leipzig to study with Moritz Hauptmann. In 1870, he was appointed chorus master and later conductor of the Caroltheater, Leipzig. His musically conservative, mock-Gothic, fairy-tale operas, notably Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper of Hamelin) (1879) and Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (1884), based on the famous poem by Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, were very popular in the 19th century. The great conductor Artur Nikisch composed an orchestral arrangement of material from Der Trompeter von Säkkingen. Besides a number of other operas, Nessler wrote many songs and choral works; but it is with the Trompeter von Säkkingen that his name is most closely associated. In 1895 a monument to him by the sculptor Alfred Marzolff was erected in Strasbourg, the place of his death. Works * Fleurette (1864 Strasbourg)

Vilém Blodek

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Vilém Blodek, born Vilém František Plodek (3 October 1834 – 1 May 1874), was a Czech composer, flautist and pianist. Biography Blodek was born on 3 October 1834 in Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire into a poor family and was educated at a German Piarist school in Prague. After studying with Alexander Dreyschock (piano) and at the Prague Conservatory (1846–52) with Antonín Eiser (flute) and Johann Friedrich Kittl (composition), he became a music teacher in Lubycza, Galicia (1853–5). On returning to Prague, he worked as a concert pianist and music teacher and, briefly, as second conductor of the Prague Männergesangverein, for which he wrote a number of patriotic choruses. In 1860 he succeeded Anton Eiser as professor of flute at the conservatory, and, as a basis for teaching, he wrote his own flute tutor (1861). He was active as a writer of incidental music for the German and Czech theatres: from 1858 onwards he wrote music for 60 plays and collaborated with Bedřich Smetana on music for the tableaux for the 1864 Shakespeare celebrations. In 1865, Blodek married Marie Doudlebská, whom he had previously taught. In 1870, he became mentally ill, with this being ascribed to overwork, and s

Vincenzo Battista

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Vincenzo Maria Battista (5 October 1823–14 November 1873) was an Italian composer and conductor. At first his operas were received with enthusiasm by his compatriots. Today none of his works are in the repertoire of any opera companies, despite the fact that in his lifetime they were performed in the most important theatres in Italy. Life Vincenzo (he preferred Vincenzio) with the soprano Fanny Goldberg, the tenor Gaetano Fraschini and the baritone Filippo Coletti. The Milan based bi-weekly magazine Il Pirata in its review praised each song and each singer and documented how many times Battista was called out by the enthusiastic audience. However, a long and detailed article in Museo di Scienze e Letteratura was less enthusiastic, claiming that Battista was being inspired by the wrong role models, a possible reference to Verdi. By now his fame was spreading, and his next work, Rosvina de la Forest (1845), was commissioned by La Scala in Milan. His opera Eleonora Dori (1847) had a book by the leading librettist Salvadore Cammarano. Marietta Brambilla created the title role in his opera Irene (1847), while the soprano Balbina Steffenone sang in the première of his Giovanna di Castigl

Vinzenz Lachner

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Vinzenz Lachner (also spelled Vincenz) (19 July 1811 – 22 January 1893) was a German composer and conductor. Early life Born in Rain am Lech, Vinzenz was the youngest brother of Franz Lachner, also a composer and conductor. The elder Lachner was known as a close friend of composer Franz Schubert. As a composer Vinzenz was essentially self-taught. He was first educated by his father Anton Lachner, the municipal organist. After Anton’s death, Vinzenz was schooled in Augsburg. Career Vinzenz scratched out a living by teaching music in Augsburg until his brother Franz arranged for him to become conductor and house musician for Earl Mycielski of Coscevitz in the Grand Duchy of Posen. In 1831 he moved to Vienna to continue his musical training, becoming assistant conductor at the Court Opera and organist at a Protestant church (though he himself was Catholic). In 1836 he became court conductor at Mannheim in succession to Franz, where he was so highly valued that his contract was renewed and extended whenever he received offers from other musical centres. In all he remained there for 37 years, during which Mannheim had the reputation of performing the largest repertoire of operas of any

Virginia Gabriel

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Mary Anne Virginia Gabriel (7 February 1825 – 7 August 1877) was an English singer and composer. She was also known as Mrs. George E. March. Life Virginia Gabriel was born in Banstead, Surrey, England, the daughter of Major-general “Archangel” Gabriel. She studied piano with Johann Peter Pixis, Theodor Dohler, Sigismond Thalberg and Bernhard Molique and composition with opera composer Saverio Mercadante. In 1870 Gabriel went for an extended stay at Glamis Castle in the Scottish Lowlands, and was reportedly responsible, among others, for later accounts of the castle’s “secret” having to do with a mysterious occupant, the Monster of Glamis. Gabriel wrote popular ballads which established her reputation as a songwriter and composer. Although women songwriters were well accepted in the 19th century, and she had no problems in getting her songs published, she struggled to get publishers for her more serious compositions. For example, she had to pay for self-publication of her cantata Dreamland. Although her songwriting style was Romantic, her songs always reflected ability and inventiveness because of her strength as a serious composer. Gabriel married her librettist George March in 187

Vladimir Kashperov

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Vladimir Nikitich Kashperov (, 25 August 1826 – 26 June 1894) was an Imperial Russian composer, theorist and professor. Kashperov was born on 25 August 1826 in Chufarovo within the Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) province in the Russian empire. He died on 26 June 1894 in the village of Romantsevo, located in the Mozhaysky district, Moscow. Family Kashperov was married to Adel Nikolaevna Kashperova (maidan name: Beketova), a soprano operatic singer. Glinka’s book “The School of Singing” is dedicated to her. He had one daughter named E. V. Kashperova. Life In 1844, he graduated from the School of Guards Ensigns in St. Petersburg, and served in the Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment. Upon leaving military service, he began to devote himself to music. He studied piano with German composers Adolf von Henselt and Hans Vogt. Having been recommended by Mikhail Glinka, in the 1850s he began to take lessons in composition from German musicologist and composer Sieghfried W. Dehn in Berlin. Kashperov then travelled to Italy and lived there for eight years (1857-1865), whereupon he learned the basics of Italian vocal singing. In 1865, he returned to Moscow upon an invitation from Anton Rubenstein Pavel B

Vladyslav Zaremba

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Vladyslav Ivanovych Zaremba (27 June 1833 – 24 October 1902) was a Ukrainian composer and pianist of Polish origin. He was the brother of Nikolai Zaremba and the father of Sigizmund Zaremba. Zaremba was born in Dunaivtsi. His family moved to Kamianets-Podilskyi in 1846, where he studied music with Józef and Antoni Kocipiński. After completing his studies, he lived outside of Kamianets-Podilskyi. Zaremba returned in 1854 and worked as an organist in a church. For unknown reasons, Zaremba was under polish surveillance at this time. In 1856 he moved to Zhytomyr, where he began to teach, perform, and compose music. His son Sigizmund was born there. From 1862 he lived in Kyiv, giving piano and choral singing lessons at various institutions. He was also a music critic and an active member of the Russian Musical Society. Zaremba was a conductor of some amateur choirs. He died in Kyiv, aged 69, and was buried in the Baikove Cemetery. The Zaremba street in Kyiv was named in honor of Vladyslav Zaremba. The Khmelnytskyi Music College is also named after him. The composer wrote plays and arranged Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian folk music for piano. He also composed over thirty songs and romanc

Vojtěch Hřímalý (junior)

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Vojtěch Hřímalý (30 July 1842 in Plzeň – 15 June 1908 in Vienna) was a composer, violinist, and conductor from Austria-Hungary. He is the older brother of the violinist Jan Hřímalý. Life Vojtěch Hřímalý came from a musical family. His father and all his siblings were musicians. He studied at the Prague Conservatory. After finishing school, he became concertmaster of the Rotterdam Opera Orchestra. A year later, he moved to Gothenburg, where, in addition to the opera orchestra, he worked as an organist and, after Bedřich Smetana, conducted public concerts. In 1868, he returned to Prague and became concertmaster and director of the Provisional Theatre Orchestra. After disagreements with the theatre management, he moved to the German Theatre in Prague, where he worked as second conductor. He became chairman of the Philharmonic Society and, with his brothers Jan, Bohuslav and Jaromír, founded the Hřímalý Brothers String Quartet. In November 1872, he played in the first performance of Antonín Dvořák’s first Piano Quintet at an event organised by Ludevít Procházka. In 1874, he went to Černovice in what was then Bukovina (today in Ukraine), where he was active in many different fields. He

Wellington Guernsey

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Wellington Guernsey (correct name: William Greville Hudson Guernsey) (8 June 1817 – 13 November 1885) was an Irish composer, poet, and military man. Biography Guernsey was born in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, studied briefly as a boy with the well-known Italian opera composer Saverio Mercadante at Lisbon during 1827–8, returning to Ireland probably during the early 1830s to work in Cork and Dublin. Of his early career a newspaper correspondent wrote in 1858: “Mr Wellington Guernsey … was, I believe, born in Ireland, his father having been master of a military band, and was formerly in the employment of Messrs. Robinson and Bussell, music-sellers, Westmoreland Street. He had previously been employed in the shop of Mr. Boden, music-seller, Cork. Guernsey was dismissed from Messrs. Robinson and Bussell’s under suspicious circumstances, and he then set up a music establishment for himself. His house in Nassau Street was unfortunately burned, and being insured, the company at first refused to pay the full amount of insurance, but a compromise for one-half the sum was accepted by Mr. Guernsey. The gentleman then proceeded to London, where he married an actress, and figured very speedily a

Wendelin Weißheimer

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Wendelin Weißheimer (26 February 1838 – 16 June 1910) was a German composer, conductor, essayist, teacher, and writer on music. He studied with Franz Liszt and was in close contact with Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow, Peter Cornelius, Louise Otto-Peters, Ferdinand Lassalle, August Bebel and many other notable musicians of his time. He served as composer and conductor of choirs in Mainz, Darmstadt, Baden-Baden, Würzburg, Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Szczecin, Strasbourg and at Milan’s La Scala. Early life Origin, family and childhood The Weißheimer family resided in Westhofen in the 14th century. Wendelin’s grandfather, Johann Weißheimer I, from Osthofen, inherited a stone mill from his mother’s family at the end of the 18th century. Viticulture, agriculture, animal husbandry and mill grinding were already undertaken on the manor complex in the 19th century. The manor is still owned by the Weißheimer family. This complex was one of the most important in the former Grand Duchy of Hesse. Wendelin Weißheimer was born at the Stone Mill Winery of Osthofen, the eighth and youngest child of Johann Weißheimer II and Ottilie, née Best der Welt. His parents were wealthy and his father

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen

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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 Hill

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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 Kuhe

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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)

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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 Ramsøe

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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 Taubert

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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

Wilhelmina Koch

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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

William Carter (composer)

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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

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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 Henry Longhurst

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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 J. McCoy (composer)

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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 Johnson (organist)

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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 Mason (composer)

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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 Owen (composer)

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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 S. Pitts

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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 Stanley (composer)

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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

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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 Vincent Wallace

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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

Władysław Żeleński (composer)

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Władysław Marcjan Mikołaj Żeleński (6 July 1837 – 23 January 1921) was a Polish composer, pianist and organist. Life Żeleński was born in Grodkowice into a landowner family. When he was eight, his father was killed and his mother critically injured in the rabacja, the Galician peasants’ uprising of 1846. He was a representative of neoromanticism in Polish music. From early on, Żeleński showed interest in chamber music. While in secondary school, he wrote two quartets and a trio that, however, have not survived to our times. Later chamber pieces include: Sextet in C major, Op. 9 and Wariacje na temat własny (Variations on an Original Theme) for string quartet, Op. 21. Żeleński composed while studying first in Prague and later in Paris. He died in Kraków. Władysław was the father of physician and writer Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński. His students included Polish composer and pianist Jadwiga Sarnecka. Notable works Operas * Konrad Wallenrod (1885) * Goplana (1896) * Janek (1900) * Stara baśń (opera) (1907) libretto by Aleksander Bandrowski based on Stara baśń Symphonic compositions * W Tatrach (In the Tatra Mountains), overture, Op. 27 (1870) * Echa leśne (Forest Echos), overture * Suita tańcó

Woldemar Bargiel

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Woldemar Bargiel (3 October 182823 February 1897) was a German composer and conductor of the Romantic period. Life Bargiel was born in Berlin and was the younger maternal half-brother of Clara Schumann. Bargiel’s father Adolph was a well-known piano and voice teacher while his mother Mariane Tromlitz, a granddaughter of the famous flautist Johann Georg Tromlitz, had previously been unhappily married to Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck. Clara was nine years older than Woldemar. Throughout their lives, they enjoyed a warm relationship. The initial opportunities which led to the success and recognition he enjoyed were due to Clara, who introduced him to both Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. Bargiel received his first lessons at home and later with the well-known Berlin teacher of music theory Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn. Upon the suggestion of Schumann and the recommendation of Mendelssohn, Bargiel at age 18 went to study at the famous Leipzig Conservatory with some of the leading scholars of music: Ignaz Moscheles (piano) and Niels Gade (composition), and also with Julius Rietz. After leaving Leipzig in 1850, he returned to Berlin where he tried to make ends meet by giving private le

Xavier Boisselot

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Dominique-François-Xavier Boisselot (3 December 1811 – 8 April 1893) was a French composer and musical instrument manufacturer. He is the author of the opéra-comique in three acts Ne touchez pas à la reine to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Gustave Vaëz. Boisselot left many art songs, including Villanella, whose text was written for Boisselot by Théophile Gautier in 1837. Biography Born in Montpellier, the younger son of Jean-Louis Boisselot, he learned the basic elements of music in Marseille, where his family had settled after 1823. In 1830, he moved to Paris, entered the Conservatory and there followed a course in harmony. After some time studying counterpoint and fugue under François-Joseph Fétis, and composition under Jean-François Le Sueur, whose second daughter, Louise Eugénie Félicité Lesueur (1808–1884), he would marry on 17 October 1833, he won second prize in 1834 and the Prix de Rome in 1836 for his cantata Velleda, which was performed at the Conservatoire on 8 October that same year. Despite the success of his musical debut, his career as a composer was short-lived. Boisselot had already assumed the management of his family business in Marseille and Barcelona, followin

Yuri Arnold

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Yuri Karlovich Arnold, also Jury, Georgy, Yourij, and Arnol’t, Arnol’d (; November 13, 1811 – July 20, 1898), was a Russian composer, musicologist, music critic, choral conductor, theorist and music educator. There is some speculation that he was employed by the tsarist police and that some of the writings attributed to him were actually written by Peshenin, who was paid to keep it a secret. Also that some of his theories on the history of Russian church music are now seen as false. Among his students were Allemanov and Yu Mel’gunov. He studied political economy at the German University in Dorpat, Estonia, and served in the army from 1831–38 during the Polish campaign. After this, he decided to focus on a career in music and went to study harmony with Johann Leopold Fuchs and counterpoint with Joseph Hunke. In 1839, he won a Philharmonic Society award for his cantata Svetlana. Starting in 1841, he contributed to numerous journals including the S.-Peterburgskiye vedomosti, Biblioteka dlya chteniya, Literaturnaya gazeta, Severnaya Pchela (Northern Bee), and Panteon under a variety of pseudonyms, including Meloman, Karl Karlovich, A. Yu., Harmonin, and Karl Smelïy. He moved to Leipzig