Antonin Leopold Dvorak Looking back in time at the great composers of the world, only one foreign composer stands out for his many contributions to classical music and in helping America to find its own music. Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born on September 8th, 1841, in a small village of Nelahozeves in Bohemia that lies on the bank of the Mauldau River. The village Dvorak was born into was in good company and surroundings however also retained much of its native luster even through the worst times of political oppression (1). Dvorak grew up around much political discussion within his father’s Inn, however he was never interested in politics, he was more interested in crops just as the other sensible folk in his village. When Dvorak was eight he attended the village for two years, and there he met Josef Spitz whom was the schoolmaster/village/organist that young Dvorak studied the violin from. He soon played well enough to sit beside his father at the Inn and play when the village band went into action (6). Antonin was often called upon to exhibit his talent to the villagers under the proud eye of his father. Unfortunately, facts about his early training that might have been passed down were lost when the old schoolhouse burned down in 1885 (1). At the end of 1853 Antonin’s father sent him to Zlonice to extend his studies, and that he did studying with Antonin Liehmann, whom he learned the organ, piano and viola, as well as continuing his violin studies. With Liehmann he also began studying harmony leading him into composition, for Liehmann has his own orchestra to play them in return. Dvorak’s family soon moved to Zlonice at the insistence of their Uncle, then Dvorak was sent of to intensely study the German langua... ... middle of paper ... ...ty-five, he began to compose symphonic poems which were new to him. Between this period and his death in 1904, Dvorak conducted and attended concerts of his own works as he did throughout his life. In 1901, Dvorak was unanimously elected successor to Ant. Bennewitz as director of the Prague Conservatory (2). His 60th birthday also in 1901 was celebrated all throughout Bohemia and Moravia along with performances of a cycle of his own operas. It soon became clear that the great composer was seriously ill and by April 5th, 1904, doctors discovered that he was suffering from generalized arterial degeneration with some involvement of the kidneys (2), however this great man died suddenly on May 1st, 1904. Because of the many accomplishments of Antonin Dvorak, his works as well as few students of his, will be remembered and loved by the American public forever.
It was not only until the spring of that year that he for first time left Hamburg professionally. He undertook a tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi for the purpose of introducing himself and his works. At Gottingen they gave a concert in which the young pianist made a deep impression upon the musicians present. He and Remenyi were to play Beethoven?s Kreutzer sonata, but at the last moment it was discovered that the piano was half a tone too low.
Gottschalk was a child prodigy, showing astonishing musical abilities at a young age. His father, against his mother’s wishes, sent him off to study music more intensively in Paris. During his time in Paris, Gottschalk studied piano with Charles Hallé, Camille Stamaty, and later studied composition with Pierre Maleden. Paris was just the beginning of the many places where he would compose some of his finest works.
At the age of 17, Balanchine entered the Conservatory of Music. He studied piano, composition and th...
It was a freezing January day in the city of Archangelsk, Russia. A man by the name of Dmitri Shostakovich picked up the newest issue of Pravda from the newsstands, which were unusually busy today. “Wow, this is really harsh!” “Are Pravda’s expectations THAT high?” people whispered to one another. After reading it briefly, Shostakovich flew into a fit of frustration and rage. This paper called his music “degenerate and decadent” (Stevens)! There is no way that Pravda would trash his music as badly as this. In fact, the article was written under orders by an upset Josef Stalin. These two Russian titans impacted Russia’s culture between 1930 and 1950. They absolutely hated each other! The tension between the two radiated throughout Shostakovich’s music and Stalin’s iron-fisted attitude towards his symphonies. Stalin manipulated composers to the point of suicide for defying his wishes, and he was not afraid to do that to Shostakovich. Somehow, Shostakovich dared to resist Stalin’s evil ways and went on to become a “brilliant and internationally famous composer.
Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
-This book was about Velikovsky's claims that incidences in numerous independent cultures around the world were not due to terrestrial origin (i.e. comets and planets caused massive disasters)
Antonin Dvorak was one of the leading composers of the late Romantic period and one of many composers that utilized portions of music from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in his compositions. The idea of Music Nationalism can be found in many of his works, especially in his Symphony no. 9 in E minor “from the New World”, which incorporates ideas from the American culture.
Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
- Norris, Jeremy Paul. The development of the Russian piano concerto in the nineteenth century. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1988. Print.
Shortly before one o'clock on the morning of 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at the age of 35.
He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; the "String Quartet Parties" family were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon, young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra.
Frederic later attended the Warsaw Lyceum where his father was one of the professors. He spent his summer holidays in estates belonging to the parents of his school friends in various parts of the country. The young composer listened to and noted down the texts of folk songs, took part in peasant weddings and harvest festivities, danced, and played a folk instrument resembling a double bass with the village musicians; all of which he described in his letters. Chopin became well acquainted with the fol...
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev Dmitri Mendeleev was one of the most famous modern-day scientists of all time, who contributed greatly to the world’s fields of science, technology, and politics. He helped modernize the world and set it further ahead into the future. Mendeleev also made studying chemistry easier, by creating a table with the elements and the atomic weights of them put in order by their properties. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 7, 1834. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy was the son of Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev and the youngest of 14 children.