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Josef Haydn-Part 13 Upon Haydn's return to Vienna the young Beethoven arranged to have lessons from him. It is generally known that these lessons were practically a failure, for Haydn after his great London success had grown above giving lessons even to a promising genius. In Vienna he was the idol of society and his whole time was occupied by engagements of many kinds and it cannot be denied that he neglected his pupil. His second visit to London was still more succ..

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Josef Haydn-Part 12 The hospitality with which he was received in London gratified Haydn extremely. He wrote to Frau von Genzinger, an amiable and highly cultivated woman, for whom he entertained a pure and elevating friendship, that his presence in London having been announced in all newspapers within three days of his arrival and he had received the most flattering attentions from the nobility. Haydn soon gauged the musical taste of the English public. He doubted as..

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Josef Haydn-Part 11 The Visit to London With the death of the Prince in 1790 the Esterhazy chapter of Haydn's artistic career came to a close, and Haydn embraced the opportunity to carry out the long meditated project of paying his first visit to London. The violinist Salomon was going to organize in London a series of concerts on a large scale and he went to Vienna to engage Haydn. It was no easy decision to embark on such an extensive journey. First of all he was ne..

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Josef Haydn-Part 10 Haydn no doubt catered to the favor of royalty. The miraculous power he attributed to that ring is a proof that, according to his views, inferior beings owe a real worship to the might of the earth. In return for this devotion powerful monarchs rewarded him with their high patronage. In our democratic times we would surely not recommend such servility as worthy of imitation, although we must take notice of the fact that this was on..

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Josef Haydn-Part 9 Haydn, like all geniuses, had a host of opponents. In 1778 he applied for membership to the Tonkunstler Societat, for whom he had written his oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia. Once would have expected such a body to receive him with open arms. Instead of that they asked a sum of 300 florins for the admission and the promise to compose for them whenever they chose to ask him. These exorbitant conditions, probably dictated by jealousy, were not accepted by..

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Josef Haydn-Part 8 Haydn considered himself an ugly man and felicitated himself on the fact that it must be for something deeper than beauty that so many women fell in love with him! In fact, Haydn took considerable pains to attract the fairer sex, and he was never at a loss for the suave turning of a compliment. To the day of his death he would never receive visitors unless he was fully dressed; and the arrangement of his room was so exact and methodical that the leas..

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Josef Haydn-Part 7 Haydn had been about a year in the service, when Prince Anton died (1762). He was succeeded by his brother, Nicolaus, who rejoiced in the soubriquet of The Magnificent. Nicolaus loved ostentation and glitter above all things, wearing a uniform bedecked with diamonds. He loved music, was a performer himself and played the baryton, a stringed instrument similar to the viola da gamba, something between a viola and violoncello, in..

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Josef Haydn-Part 6 In 1759 Prince Esterhazy, a Hungarian nobleman of enormous wealth and passionately devoted to music, appointed Haydn as vice-cappellmeister in his service. It was certainly a providential event for Haydn, for it freed him from anxiety about his daily bread; but the conditions of the agreement would be considered today as utterly humiliating for an artist. Here are some of them: When the orchestra shall be summoned to perform before company, th..

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Josef Haydn-Part 5 Like Rousseau he bought, at a second hand shop some theoretical books, among others Gradus parnassum of Lux and Mattheson's Volkommener Capellmeister, dry treatises which Haydn made his constant companions. Without either money or fire, shivering with cold in his garret, oppressed with sleep as he pursued his studies to a late hour of the night by the side of a harpsichord out of repair and falling to pieces in all parts, he was still happy. The days..

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Josef Haydn-Part 4 Haydn had been two years with Frankh when a piece of good fortune befell him. Chance brought to Frankh's home Reutter, the Court Capellmeister of St. Stephen cathedral church of Vienna. He was in search of children to recruit his choir. The schoolmaster proposed his little relative. Reutter gave him a canon to sing at sight. The precision, purity of tone, the expression with which the child executed it, surprised him, but he was especially charmed wi..

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Josef Haydn-Part 3 A drummer being wanted for a local procession, young Haydn undertook the part. Unfortunately he was so small of stature that the instrument had to be carried before him on the back of a colleague. That this colleague happened to be a hunchback only made the incident more ludicrous. Haydn had rather a partiality for the drum, a satisfying instrument, as Meredith says, because of its rotundity. According to Pohl, the particular..

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Josef Haydn-Part 2 Franz Joseph Haydn was born on the last day of March, 1732, at Rohrau, a small town on the confines of Austria and Hungary. His father was a cartwright and his mother before her marriage had been a cook in the family of Count Harrach, the lord of the village. The father united to his trade the office of parish sexton. He had a fine tenor voice, was fond of the organ and music in general. On one of those journeys which the artisans of Germany often un..

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Josef Haydn-Part 1 Joseph Haydn seems to us now a figure of the remote past, so great have been the changes in the world of music since he lived. But his name will always be read in the golden book of classical music, and whatever the revolutionary processes of art may bring, the time will never come when his most important works will be forgotten. Compared with Mozart, however, we notice a strange dissimilarity. The popularity of Haydn has decreased while that of M..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 14 The organist began to be impatient and at length, addressing the performer, told him that he was convinced that he could not play the people out, and advised him to relinquish the attempt, which, being done, a few strains from the ordinary organist in the accustomed manner operated like the sounding of the fire alarm, and emptied the church instanter. Resuming, we find in Handel's career the following salient points as especially respon..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 13 The fecundity of Handel was prodigious. Enough to say that he composed 23 oratorios and 44 operas, 39 of the latter in Italian. In person and character Handel was like his music, large and powerful. He was kind and generous to a degree that his roughness of manner and the blunt humor of his conversation could not impair. He never married nor did he ever show any inclination for the cares and joys of domestic life. Handel required uncom..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 12 It would take too long to mention all the operas written by Handel during his connection with the Royal Academy of Music. Opposition to Handel grew stronger, and the popular favor seemed to fail him, so that Handel suffered heavy financial losses and, as a consequence of his untiring exertion, also failed markedly in his health. His right arm had become useless from a stroke of palsy. After a cure in Aix-la-Chapelle he recovered and, ret..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 11 Handel was appointed director of the chapel of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons, where he composed the twelve works known as the Chandos Anthems, as well as the Chandos Te Deum and the Suite de Pieces for the harpsichord, a series of compositions, among them the famous air, with variations, known under the name The Harmonious Blacksmith. His chief work at Cannons was the oratorio Esther, for which the Duke paid him £1,000. In 1719 he was..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 10 Handel in London Arrived in London, Handel was requested to write for the Queens' Theater an Italian opera, the subject being Rinaldo, in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. The poet of the libretto, Rossi, was given so little time that he prefixed his work with the following letter: I implore you, discreet readers, to consider the speed with which I have had to work, and if my performance does not deserve your praise, at all events do n..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 9 The title of the new opera was Agrippina, and its first performance, in 1708, caused great enthusiasm, so that the audience burst out in shouts of Viva il caro Sassone! (Long live the dear Saxon!) One of the songs, Vaghe fonti, presents in its orchestral accompaniment the first instance of Handel's use of the pizzicato and mutes. In Rome Handel was a guest of the Arcadians, a society which cultivated every kind of..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 8 On this occasion I must point out that it was quite customary with Handel to borrow from his own works. Some historians go so far as to assert that he sometimes genially borrowed from the works of other composers. The Italian visit (1707-1710) was one of the most important events in Handel's career, as it was the means of coloring his style for the rest of his life and giving it a fluency \\and suavity and grace which it is questionable i..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 7 Handel's Earliest Opera Within little more than a week after the termination of this quarrel Handel presented to the world his own opera - the first - Almira, the role of the tenor being performed by Mattheson. The German opera of this period, though based upon Italian models, had shown signs of a certain individuality. Italian opera owed its origin to a series of reunions instituted by enthusiastic music lovers at the house of Giovanne..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 6 The relation Handel contracted with Mattheson was much to their mutual benefit. Mattheson was a young citizen of Hamburg, a composer, a singer and an actor, very clever on the organ and the harpsichord and afterward a writer of astonishing fertility. Born 1681, he prided himself, when eighty-three years old, on having written as many books upon all sorts of subjects as he had lived years. (The most important are: Critica Musica [1722], Gr..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 5 Handel's First Appointment In 1697, Handel being then twelve years old, his father died. The boy entered the University of Halle, but after one year and a half he tired of his purely classical studies, and finally abandoned them. His sense of filial duty had to give way before the irresistible urge of his genius. While he was still studying at the university Handel received his first musical appointment of organist at the Domkirche of Ha..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 4 Handel's Royal Admirers Acting on the advice of Zachau, Handel started for Berlin in 1696, when he was little more than ten years old. The visit was of importance to him in more than one respect. Berlin was just then the center of German art, and opera especially was in flourishing condition. The Elector Frederick and his wife, Sophia Charlotte, were enthusiastic music lovers, who kept the court continually enlivened with music and dance..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 3 A visit to the Duke of Sachsen-Weissenfels, undertaken by his father, brought an unexpected turn in the lad's life. The Duke, after listening to the organ playing of little Georg Friedrich, then not yet eight years old, declared to the father that for such a manifestation of genius the boy ought not to be restrained, but rather encouraged and allowed to study music systematically with the view of devoting his life to it. Old Doctor Handel..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 2 Stolen Practice Hours Handel was born in Halle on February 23, 1684, to Doctor Handel, then 63 years old, barber, surgeon in ordinary and valet-de-chambre to Prince Augustus of Saxony. Georg Friedrich was born a musician and scarcely waited for his emancipation from the nursery to begin the practice of his art. His earliest delight was to play with toy instruments, drums, trumpets, horns and flutes. For a time the old surgeon..

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Georg Friedrich Handel-Part 1 It is intentional that I let my last article on Johann Sebastian Bach be immediately followed by one on Georg Friedrich Handel because both show a striking parallelism at the beginning of their life. Both were born in the same year, 1685, both were of German birth, both commenced their career as organists. On the other hand, their development, the style of their works, diverged substantially from each other. The comparison between these..

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Marie Hall Miss Hall was born on April 8, 1884, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. She received her first lessons from her father, who was a harpist in the orchestra of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She also studied with a local teacher, Hildegarde Werner. At the age of nine Emile Sauret heard her and was instrumental in having her sent to the Royal Academy of Music in London. She also received instruction from Edward Elgar in 1894, from Wilhelmj, in London, in 1896; fro..

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Cornelius Gurlitt Gurlitt was born at Altona, Prussia, February 10, 1820. For six years he studied under the father of Carl Reinecke, the famous head of the Leipsic Conservatory, with whom Gurlitt was class mate. His first appearance in public took place during his seventeenth year, and the gratifying reception he obtained determined him to proceed to Copenhagen. Here he studied under Curlander, and Weyse, for organ, piano and composition. Here also he became acquai..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 11 Books About Grieg The books about Grieg are comparatively few, although there are numerous magazine articles and contributions to collective biographical works. Daniel Gregory Mason's From Grieg to Brahms, and E. Markham Lee's Grieg were the best works upon the composer until the appearance of the incomparable biography of Mr. H T Finck, the well-known American critic who knew Grieg well, and who corresponded with him frequently during the prepara..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 10 Those who heard Grieg play such pieces as his Butterflies and To Spring have said that he seemed to create an atmosphere about them that was like the humming of bees or the gentle wafting of zephyrs. Once the piece was started, it seemed to rise in the atmosphere like a bird, and soar gently but surely, never alighting until the end. When he played in London crowds gathered around the doors as early as eleven o'clock in the morning and waited until..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 9 Grieg's Personality and Appearance Grieg's appearance was very striking despite the fact that he was not tall. He wore his hair long. It was straight and very nearly white at an early age. His eyes were blue and very intelligent. The fact that he had asthma gave him a tendency to stoop. Grieg had a charming personality, genial, keenly intelligent, simple and enthusiastic. He naturally had many friends. He was extremely modest. Tchaikavski described..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 8 Grieg's Later Years In 1877 Grieg returned to his native land and built a small study-house on one of the gorgeously beautiful fjords near the Hardanger Fjord. There, in a little one-room study, Grieg wrote many of his most beautiful things. This little house soon became the Mecca for so many visitors that in 1855 he abandoned the plan and built the villa Troldhaugen (hill of the sprites), which remained his home until his death. This was located a..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 7 When Grieg reached Rome he naturally sought out Liszt at once. The old master greeted the young composer with his usual warmth and cordiality. Grieg has some manuscript compositions with him and played them, much to the delight of the great pianist. It is interesting to note that the piano upon which this historical performance was given was of American make. For a time they played the Norwegian composer's violin Sonata, Liszt playing the solo part u..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 6 Northern Lights It was to Ole Bull and Rikard Nordraak that Grieg owed his reclamation from the conventional to the highly flavored folk music of Norway. With Ole Bull he traveled over mountain after mountain becoming better and better acquainted with the music of his homeland. Nordraak, although he died before he became twenty-four, and although the greater part of his fame rests upon his association with Grieg, was a remarkable force as a patri..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 5 The Influence of Leipzig The change from the gloriously romantic surroundings of Bergen to the prosaic environment of Germany's great commercial center, Leipzig, must have had a peculiar effect upon a youth as sensitive as Grieg. Although the city still retained some of its medieval aspects at that time (1858), it was vastly different from the Bergen of the same period. Moscheles, Richter, Hauptmann, Wenzel, Reinecke and Plaidy were Grieg's teacher..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 4 At the age of twelve or thirteen he commenced to compose, much to the disgust of his teachers who regarded such youthful indiscretions as rubbish. Grieg had a distaste for everything that savored of the didactic or academic. Accordingly his school days were made very miserable to him by his materialistic teachers. His first ambition, however, was to be a preacher, and he loved to declaim imaginary sermons to members of his fami..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 3 Grieg's Birthplace Grieg was born at Bergen, June 15, 1843. The city of his birth apart from its inspiring natural location is one of the great intellectual centers of Europe. It has been said that a finer spirit of culture and pure democracy exists in Bergen than in any other old world city. Grieg's Early Training Naturally Grieg's first instruction came from his mother. His lessons started at the age of six. Possibly more important even..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 2 Norway became part of Sweden in 1814, and it was not until the bloodless revolution of 1905 that Norway regained her national integrity. Grieg himself was one of the leaders in the great intellectual and educational awakening of the country. Bjornssen, Ibsen, Svendsen, Ole Olsen, Halvorson and others all felt the spirit of re-birth which was stimulating their native land, and these men were majestic enough to realize that the true sovereignty..

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Edvard Grieg-Part 1 I am not an exponent of 'Scandinavian Music' but only of Norwegian. The national characteristics of the three peoples - the Norwegians, the Swedes and the Danes - are wholly different, and their music differs as much. Edvard Grieg Grieg's strong national tendencies, despite his conventional German training, places him at once in a class with Dvorak, Rimky-Karsakov and others who have attempted to preserve the beautiful spirit embe..

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Charles Gounod-Part 14 Some of Gounod's favorite sayings include: In art, mere realism is another word for slavish imitation. Labor is neither cruel nor ungrateful. There is no necessity that every man's cup should be the same size. The great point is that each should always be full to the brim. Nowadays the artist is no longer his own master. He belongs to the world at large, he is worse than its target. He is its prey. His own personal a..

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Charles Gounod-Part 13 Many of Gounod's songs have been very popular indeed, and such works as Nazareth, There is A Green Hill Far Away and the Ave Maria, written over the prelude to the first Fugue in the Well Tempered Clavichord of Back, have become extremely popular. Gounod's Autobiographical Reminiscences rank with those of Berlioz in interest, although not nearly so comprehensive. Gounod wrote many monographs upon noted musicians and also a Method for the Cornet...

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Charles Gounod-Part 12 Other operas are: La Nonne Sanglante Le Medicin malgre lui Mireille La Colombe A la Frontiere Le Tribut de Zomora Polyeucte Maitre Pierre Georges Dandin His sacred works many believe will survive his operas. His best known religious compositions are : Solemn Mass in G Masses for Men's voices The Redemption Messe Angeli Custodes Messe Sainte Cecile Mors et..

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Charles Gounod-Part 11 In his autobiography Gounod mentions many friends. Aside from those associated with him in his educational work, he speaks particularly of the French painter, Georges Ingres, director of the Munich Academy at Rome, whose art is said to hold the middle place between the classic and the modern, and in this way runs parallel to the musical art of Gounod. Gounod was also devoted to Berlioz whom he described as the greatest emotional influence of his..

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Charles Gounod-Part 10 Gounod's preference for the organ was quite pronounced and was doubtless due to his churchly tendencies. He had a fine small pipe organ in his home and enjoyed playing upon it, often continuing his playing well into the early hours of the morning. Saint-Saens speaks of his piano-playing, describing him as an agreeable performer, but at the same time relating his difficulty in playing his own scores. Gounod's greatest success as a conductor wa..

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Charles Gounod-Part 9 In 1893 Gounod was engaged upon work with a Requiem. He was going over the score of what he hoped to make his greatest work and describing his purpose to a pupil when he came suddenly upon a particularly effective passage, and, in the excitement of the moment, fell over the score, dead. Like Mozart he had provided his own memorial service. His funeral in Paris indicated the regard of the French state for its men of genius. Preceded by a company of..

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Charles Gounod-Part 8 It was, however, not until 1859 that his great success Faust was first produced. The master had been greatly attached to the poem for many years. Even during the glorious days at the Villa di Medici in Rome we find him studying the Goethe version of the legend. This remarkable opera was first performed in America in 1863. A recent book upon opera estimated that it is sung throughout the world more than any five operas combined. At the Paris Grand..

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Charles Gounod-Part 7 In 1852 Gounod became conductor of the united male singing societies in Paris as well as the vocal schools. Gounod's important dramatic works were produced during the years from 1850 to 1870, after which he devoted his time almost wholly to religious compositions. The dates of the best known works are as follows: Sappho (1851) Ulysses (1852) La Nonne Sanglante (1854) Le Medecin malgre lui (1858) Faust (1859) Philemon et Bauc..

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Charles Gounod-Part 6 His residence in Rome made a profound impression upon him and led him to make a thorough study of the old ecclesiastical music of Palestrina, whom he always compared with Michelangelo. Of them he said, Both have the same simplicity, even humility of manner; the same seeming indifference to effect, the same scorn for methods of education. There is nothing artificial or mechanical about them. The soul wrapped in ecstatic contemplation of a hig..

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Charles Gounod-Part 5 If I have worked any good during my life, by word or deed, I owe it to my mother and to her I give the praise. She sleeps beneath a stone as simple as her blameless life had been. May this tribute from the son she loved so tenderly form a more imperishable crown than the wreaths of fading immortelles he laid upon her grave, and clothe her memory with a halo of reverence and respect he fain would have endure long after he himself is dead and..

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Charles Gounod-Part 4 We had dined early that evening as we had no reserved seats (this would have been far too costly), and we had to be at the opera house before the doors were opened, with the crowd of people who waited on the chance of finding places untaken in the pit. Even this was a terrible expense for my mother as the seats cost three francs and seventy-five centimes each (about seventy-five cents). It was bitterly cold; for two mortal hours did U..

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Charles Gounod-Part 3 At the time of the master's birth Gounod's parents resided in a modest little house in the section of Paris near the venerable Abbey of St. Germain des Pres. The artist father and musician mother fighting valiantly against commercialism and mediocrity upon one side and poverty upon the other had a very happy home nevertheless. The father's artistic conscience was so highly developed that he would work with extravagant disregard for the value of hi..

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Charles Gounod-Part 2 Humanity yet lingers, it would seem, under the grim shadows of chaos, amidst the monstrosities of the iron age; and instead of driving their weapons into the earth to benefit their fellow creatures, men plunge them into each other's hearts to decide the ownership of the actual soil. Barbarians! Savages! Gounod's father, Francois Louis Gounod was born in 1758 and did not marry until he was forty-seven years old. He died when his son Ch..

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Charles Gounod-Part 1 1818-1893 It is not labor that kills. It is sterility. To be fruitful is to be young and full of life. The calamitous power of Napoleon Bonaparte came to an inevitable end with the mad flight of the French troops from Waterloo, June 18, 1815. The great devastator had for years drained France of its strongest and healthiest men to gratify his ambition for dominion and his appetite for military success. Singularly enough many of..

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Benjamin Godard Godard was born August 18, 1849, at Paris, and died at Cannes, January 10, 1895. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Reber (harmony) and Vieuxtemps (violin). He accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany, and also devoted himself to chamber music. He composed music with great facility, and, indeed, his work suffers at times from a lack of careful revision. Nevertheless he gradually obtained recognition. In 1876 his concerto Romantique was performe..

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Christoph Willibald (Ritter Von) Gluck Gluck was born July 2, 1714, at Weidenwang, in the Upper Palatinate, on the estate of Prince Lobkowitz, and died in Vienna, November 15, 1787. He learnt his first lessons, musical and otherwise, at the Jesuit school of Kommatau. In 1732 he went to Prague and studied under Czernohorsky. In Vienna, 1736, he met Prince Melza at the Lobkowitz residence, who took him to Milan, where he studied further under Sammartini. At this period..

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Francois Auguste Gevaert Gevaert was born at Huysse, near Oudenarde, July 31, 1828, and died at Brussels, December 24, 1908. His father was a baker, and he was intended for the same profession, but better councils prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Convervatory at Ghent, where he studied under Sommere and Mengal. He was then appointed organist of the Jesuit's church. His compositions soon attracted attention, and he eventually..

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Georges Bizet Born at Paris, October 25, 1838, Bizet early showed signs of extraordinary ability. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1848, where he remained until 1857, studying piano with Marmontel, organ with Benoist, harmony with Zimmermann, and composition with Halevy, whose daughter he married in 1869. He won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1857, and proceeded to Italy. At intervals he sent back examples of his work in composition of an elaborate natu..

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John Field-Part 10 An Unfortunate End In the spring and summer of 1833 Field astonished various European centers, including Brussels, Toulouse, Marseilles and Lyons, frequently receiving triple recalls. On September 30 his grand concert at Geneva was a huge success, and a similar triumph was accorded him at Milan in November and December. After his appearance at Florence in 1834 he proceeded to Naples, where he became seriously ill and had to be operated on for fistul..

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John Field-Part 9 The report of the famous John Field's death at the beginning of the year is unfounded. This great virtuoso on the forte-piano still lives; and, if his love of retirement can be conquered, Europe need not yet renounce the expectation of being gratified by hearing him, but it is with difficultly he can resolve on any exhibition of his powers. Towards the close of the year 1831 Field accepted the invitation of the Philharmonic Society of L..

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John Field-Part 8 Glinka a Pupil of Field Between the years 1815 and 1819 Field gave numerous concerts in St. Petersburg, and his reputation as a piano teacher was rapidly growing. Among his pupils of this period were Glinka and Mayer - both of whom wrote effusively of their master, both as a virtuoso and a teacher. During this period he published his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Nocturnes, as well as five Piano Concertos, an Orchestral Concerto, a Quintet, two Divertissem..

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John Field-Part 7 From 1804 to 1807 Field's services both as a virtuoso and as a teacher were in much request; and he gave numerous concerts which proved highly remunerative. Alas! like so many other artists, he was improvident and lived like a true Bohemian - a life diversified with various love affairs. He soon acquired a mastery of French, German and Russian, and was in high favor in the most select circles. He got petted so much that he became indolent and frivolou..

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John Field-Part 6 The promised visit to Paris of Clementi and his pupil had to be delayed owing to business engagements, and, in the meantime, Clementi published Field's Three Sonatas (in A, E-flat and C minor), dedicated to his master. At length - in the early part of August, 1802 - the two pianists set forth for the French capital. Field's playing of Bach's Fugues and of pieces by Handel and Clementi took Paris by storm, and he obtained a similar triumph at Vienna an..

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John Field-Part 5 On February 7, 1799, at a performance for the benefit of Pinto the younger at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, Master Field played his own concerto for the grand forte piano. It may be well to note that Field was kept for several years by Clementi as a hack for showing his pianos, and one can well imagine the drudgery experienced by such a rising genius, compelled to strum away daily for the delectation of would be purchase..

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John Field-Part 4 Almost immediately his father apprenticed the boy to Muzio Clementi, who at once recognized Field's genius. The fact of Field pere giving a fee of a hundred guineas to Clementi for the apprenticeship of his son represents a heavy sacrifice, and is distinctly to the credit of Robert Field. As early as 1794 Clementi announced the young Irish lad as his pupil, and we find Field performing a sonata of Clementi at Barthelemon's concert. The fiction of..

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John Field-Part 3 Field's debut was at Signor Giordani's First Spiritual Concert at the Rotunda, Dublin, on Saturday, March 24, 1792, the two attractions being Madame Gautherot (the famous lady violinist) and Master Field. The advertisements announced Field as a child of eight. This was merely a pious fraud (not yet unknown in advertising circles), as the boy was close on ten years old; but it is probably that he only looked about eight. The pie..

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John Field-Part 2 A Busy Childhood At the age of eight years John Field was a good pianist, his studies having been supervised in true Solomon-like fashion by his father and grandfather and neither of them spared the rod. Indeed, it is alleged that he ran away from home in 1790 in order to avoid the thrashings, but this lacks confirmation. One thing is certain, that at the close of the year 1790 (or early 1791) the precocious child was sent to Tommaso Giordani to rece..

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John Field-Part 1 Inasmuch as the year 1914 was the centenary of the nocturne (invented by an Irish composer, John Field), it may be of interest to give a short biography of that remarkable virtuoso, especially as no English memoir is as yet accessible. There are monographs in French, Italian, German and Russian, while the latest memoir is also in German, and was presented as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Leipzig by Heinrich De..

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Gabriel Urbain Faure Faure was born at pamiers (Ariege), France, May 13, 1845. He studied at Paris with Niedermayer, and also under Deitsche and Saint-Saens. On leaving school, he became organist at a church in Rennes, but in 1870 he returned to Paris. After holding various positions as organist in the French capital he became maitre de Chapelle, and, later, organist at the Madeleine. In 1896 he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire, and in Jun..

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Sir Edward Elgar Elgar was born at Broadheath, near Worcester, England, June 2, 1857. His father was an organist, and also kept a music store in Worcester. Elgar's training was almost entirely along self help lines. He played the organ a little, studied the violin, and several wind instruments, helped at choral societies, conducted a band at a lunatic asylum, and wrote music for every combination of instruments he could think of. He once wrote a whole symphony in th..

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Gaetano Donizetti November 29, 1797 - 1848 Best known works are the operas Elisir d' Amore, Lucrezia Borgia, Lucia di Lammermoor, LaFavorita and Don Pasquale. The Etude Magazine November 1912 [ Piano Chords ] [ Piano Playing ] [ Gospel Music ] [ Play Piano ] [ Keyboard Chord Char..

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Ernst von Dohnanyi Dohnanyi was born at Pressburg, Hungary, July 27, 1877. He first studied music with his father, a professor of mathematics in the gymnasium, but afterwards became a pupil in pianoforte and composition with Carl Forstner, organist of Pressburg Cathedra. In 1894 he became a pupil of Stephan Thoman for piano and of Hans Koessler for composition. He completed some elaborate chamber music for strings, and in 1897 his symphony in F was rewarded the King..

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Claude Debussy-Part 9 What enchanting vision, wonderfully expressed by Debussy by a precipitate descending series of seventh chords built on the whole tone scale. In the limited space allotted to these articles I can only mention briefly some of the other works of Debussy which have become popular, as, for instance, his Sting Quartet, his pianoforte pieces: Jardin sous la pluie, Reflets d'eau, Deux Arabesques, and the song Ariette oubliee, Le Flute de Pan, built..

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Claude Debussy-Part 8 Grieg's music gives him the charming and bizarre sensation of eating a pink bonbon stuffed with snow. Of Beethoven he writes: The right lesson to be learnt from him is not to hold fast to ancient formulas. Neither is it necessary to follow in the tracks of his early footsteps. But it is of greater importance to look out of the open window to the free sky beyond. The bulk of Debussy's works is not very large, owing also to the fact th..

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Claude Debussy-Part 7 On another occasion he writes: From Bach's works a somewhat striking analogy forces itself on the mind. Bach is the Graal and Wagner Klingsor (the evil magician is Parsifal) who would destroy the Graal and usurp the homage given to it. Bach exercises a sovereign influence in music, and in his goodness and might he has willed that we should ever gain fresh knowledge from the noble lessons he has left us, and thus his disinterested love perpet..

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Claude Debussy-Part 6 His Sound Knowledge His early training was conventional and academic, and seemingly in no way conducive to the independent ideas he has formulated for himself. Born at St. Germain-en_Laye, 1862, he began his studies at that most conservative institution, the Paris Conservatoire. He obtained medals for solfege and piano playing, and finally, 1884, the Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata L'enfant Prodigue. He said that his music court le risq..

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Claude Debussy-Part 5 It must be owned that Debussy was not only eccentric in his music, but also in private life. He was unapproachable to strangers; he observed the utmost reticence regarding the intimate details of his career and existence; he sheltered himself from publicity and advertisement. He was of the opinion that to seers of visions a certain loneliness is inevitable. L'ame d'autrui, he said, est une foret obscure ou it faut mar..

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Claude Debussy-Part 4 The same we can notice in life. One sees at times in the country some completely unadorned peasant girl, with her hair just divided in the middle after the old fashion, with an out-of-date but immaculate dress; and he finds her much more charming than if she were clad with expensive silks and laces. I meet often in these mountains of the Berkshire, where I spend my summer, a young girl wearing a framerette suit with pants, driving an old horse and..

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Claude Debussy-Part 3 One finds of course a perfect concordance between the ideals of Debussy and the means chosen by him to reach them, and that is what interests us most. How to arrive? We have here a nature which strives to free itself from all scholastic, academic restraints. As a true artist he shams repetition, plagiarism, not only the outlines of his melodies by also in the combination of chords, in rhythm, in the accepted forms of composition. A rad..

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Claude Debussy-Part 2 He recognized no boundaries whatsoever between the different keys; the same tonality is seldom maintained beyond a single measure. He uses key signatures but he could as well dispense with them, like some of the ultra-modernists (for instance, the Viennese Schonberg). Somebody said that Debussy puts them in place yielding only to an amiable and indulgent prejudice. I prefer, said Debussy, to hear few notes of an Egyptian shep..

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Claude Debussy-Part 1 A young composer once submitted to Rossini a new work of his requesting him to give an opinion on its merits. The master after having perused the composition remarked in his usual sarcastic way: I notice in your work much which is beautiful and much which is new, bit I am sorry to say the beautiful is not new and the new is not beautiful. With these words Rossini gives to all musicians a wonderful guide for their artistic pursuits...

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Frank Damrosch Frank Damrosch was born in Breslau, June 22, 1859. He came to America with his father, Dr. Leopold Damrosch, in 1871, having already studied music under Purchner and Vogt. He studied in New York under von Inten and his father. He also studied in Europe under Moszkowski. He originally intended to adopt a business career, and to that end went to Denver, Colorado, but the musical impulse proved too strong, and in 1884 he was an organist, conductor of the..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 6 The Road To Mastery The road to mastery in musical composition is a long one. To go through it worthily means to possess an intellect of no mean order. The requirements in the way of concentration, imagination and unflagging doing, are fully equal to those made by the higher mathematics. But taken early and carried along sensibly, the boy of gifts, of whom alone we write, learns his harmony in two or three years' time, learns to handle chords, to..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 5 The American youth, when he comes to study, comes late, generally too late. His brain cells are no longer in their early plasticity and impressibility. He learns; but it takes him long to learn, longer than it would have taken some years earlier, because the channels of thought are now formed slowly. When he should be writing in the larger forms, handling an orchestra, dealing in its many colored tones, he is painfully and slowly wrestling with th..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 4 American parents cannot understand, for instance, what makes a certain child so queer. With no musical past of their own to speak of, unacquainted with the conditions that would otherwise render them knowing and discerning, they gaze on a boy who is distracted and absent, poor in his school, ever scribbling tunes, moody, irritable, as a conundrum. Of the creative impulse that is striving within him and that finds perhaps a vent in arra..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 3 Such a boy need be no over-strung delicate child. History shows us quite the reverse. History shows us that these acquirements, having been won little by little, have come to him naturally and without any extraordinary effort. In his seventeenth year, or in his eighteenth, the hand of this youth is penning symphonies. Postpone the time of beginning two years or so - to eleven or twelve - and the outcome is about the same. The name of Richard Strau..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 2 Musical Talents Taken in Time That this is so suggests a fault somewhere in our scheme of education, or a possible misuse of opportunity, or a failure to apprehend the needs of that youth whose peculiar gifts fit him for musical composition. At any rate, in comparing the musical training of the your in America with that of the youth abroad, the first thing that appeals to one is the fact that the boy abroad is ready to finish his education when th..

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Benjamin Cutter-Part 1 On would be American Composers It was the writer's privilege some years ago to converse with a past master in the art of musical instruction as the students thronged through the corridors of a great school of music. A chance remark became, as is often the case, a germ for thought; to which this present paper owes its writing. Who knows but some Schubert is now walking this corridor! . This idea fastened itself then in th..

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Cecile Chaminade Chaminade was born at Paris, August 8, 1861. She studied with Le Couppey, Savart, Marsick and Godard. Her first experiments in composition took place in very early days, and in her eighth year she played some of her sacred music to Bizet, the composer of Carmen, who was much impressed with her talents. She gave her first concert when she was eighteen, and from that time on her work as a composer has gained steadily in favor, until at the present tim..

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George W. Chadwick Born November 13, 1854 Best known works: Comic opera, Tabasco, lyric drama, Judith, Symphonies, overtures, chamber music, anthems, and many beautiful songs including Allah. The Etude Magazine November 1912 [ Piano Chords ] [ Piano Playing ] [ Gospel Music ] [ Play Piano ] [ Keyboard Chord Chart ] [ Beginning Piano ] [ Video Piano Lessons ] [&nb..

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Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni Busoni was born at Empoli, near Florence, April 1, 1866. His father was a clarinet player, and his mother (Anne Weiss) gave him his first piano lessons. He made his first public appearance at the age of nine in Vienna, and afterwards studied there with Hans Scmitt and in Graz with Remy. He ws so successful at the age of 17 that a medal was struck in his honor by the city of Florence, and he was elected a member of the Academia Filamonica at..

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Willy Burmester Burmester was born March 16, 1869, at Hamburg. He was a pupil of Dr. Joachim in Berlin, with whom he studied for many years. In 1885, however, he seceded from the Joachim school, and commenced to develop his technic with a view to achieving virtuosity rather than a classic purity of style. He is a well-developed artist, however, and his taste is broad enough to include all schools of composition in his repertoire. His is at his best, nevertheless, as..

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Johannes Brahms-Part 13 A Sealed Book Resuming, we may say that to the ordinary amateur Brahms is a sealed book. Not only can he not enjoy it, but is is apt to repel him. The reasons are that his is not making any concession to popularity which, indeed, he always despised; then there is a prevalent somberness, which reveals at every moment the North German; also, a lack of spontaneity. We find often the craftsman over shadowing the artist. In his works the feelings fo..

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Johannes Brahms-Part 12 Brahms built his music laboriously. It was his custom to keep his work in manuscript for some time and usually to hear one or two performances of it before allowing it to appear in print. He carried self criticism to the extent of rewriting works which had already been published. To Georg Henschel he said once, One ought never to forget that by actually perfecting one piece one gains and learns more than by commencing or half finishing a d..

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Johannes Brahms-Part 11 Georg Henschel, the singer, was much in contact with Brahms and did much in the way of introducing his works. On one occasion when he and Brahms arrived at a certain town they were given a double bedroom and Henschel anticipated the night with some alarm. As soon as the light was out Brahms was asleep and snoring loudly. Henschel, knowing that he would not sleep, went off to the porter and managed to secure another room. When the friends met in..

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Johannes Brahms-Part 10 His Season His sarcasm was widely known. To a young composer who showed him a manuscript he said: My dear, you will never become a Beethoven, to which, however, he received the unexpected reply; My dear master, none of us ever will. One day as a friend came to tell him that admirers of Raff were getting up a subscription to erect a monument to his memory, he exclaimed, Let them make haste, don't delay a moment, or..