Dvorak
Antonin Dvorak was born in Nelahozeves on September 8, 1841. Dvorak was one of the greatest of the Czech composers. He grew up with an appreciation of local folk songs and demonstrated a talent for music at an early age. His first experience with music was of a violinist and violist. He got the attention of Johannes Brahms with his Moravian Duets and soon won a competition in Vienna that he would have never won if it had not been for the insistence of Brahms. Since his patriotic composition, Hymnus, was so popular in 1873, he decided to dedicate himself to composing and teaching music.
Unlike most of the contemporaries, Dvorak was not a pianist/composer. His compositions for the piano are rare. His piano compositions have a quality that makes them both beautiful and powerful. Someone said that they are much like a jewel: they are revered by those who appreciate the beauty of their shape, the smoothly polished surface, and the glow that comes from within.
As his fame spread throughout Europe, it spread to the United States as well. He was invited in 1892 to the National Conservatory in New York City where he became the artistic director. At the time, he was earning a little less than $500 a month as a professor at the Prague Conservatory. When he took the job at the National Conservatory, he made a salary of $15,000 a year. He served at the Conservatory for three years and wrote some of his best-known music during his time, which includes his Symphony #9 in E minor.
When in New York City at the Conservatory of Music, Dvorak taught composition three mornings a week and conducted choir and orchestra another three mornings. He encouraged his students to develop their own “American style”. He also encouraged them to develop the folk songs and “plantation music” of the South.
Dvorak was nationalistic in his earlier works back home; the New World was a nationalistic composition for America. The time he spent working on the New World made him homesick for his native home; Bohemia. His personal secretary suggested the family go to the tiny Czech community in Iowa, known as Spillville. The village was located on a river and the hills and countryside reminded Dvorak of his native Bohemia. In Spillville, everyone spoke Czech and the Catholic Church had an organ that Dvorak would be able to play.
Though Jelly Roll Morton began his career without formal training, he grew to live an influential life. His piano style, musical notations on paper, and creative compositions thrived in the 1910s and the 1920s and even weaved its way into the later eras as musicians used Morton’s music as the foundation for their own. Even past his death, Jelly Roll Morton remains a legendary figure. His works are meticulously preserved and displayed in the prestigious Smithsonian Museum and universities around the world continue his legacy by teaching students about Jelly Roll Morton and his influential career.
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.
Nearly a century’s worth of compositions has earned Aaron Copland extensive recognition as the foremost American composer of his time. Ironically, Copland was raised the son of Russian Jewish immigrants and inhabitant of a colorless city environment, yet would become known for producing the music of “rugged-souled Americans” (Mellers 4). Unbounded by historical musical constraints such as those present in the culture of France, where Copland studied for many years, Copland found himself free to explore and experiment in pursuit of a unique, undoubtedly American sound.
The American composer and pianist, Louis-Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869), was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of the most culturally diverse areas in America during his time. His father, Edward Gottschalk, was of German-Jewish heritage, and his mother, Aimée de Bruslé, was a Creole of French-Roman Catholic background. The Bruslé family had fled from Haiti to New Orleans because of the rising slave rebellion. Also, his maternal Grandmother Bruslé and Sally, her African-American nurse, were originally from Saint-Dominque. The cultures of Gottschalk’s family resulted in his mixed heritage. His family background most likely triggered an interest in him to travel and tour many places during his musical career. He travelled to places including France, Switzerland, Spain, as well as the West Indies. All of the areas he visited influenced his music in some way.
...from America’s heritage and this is why Antonin Dvorak and his “New World” Symphony is a very important part of the late romantic music period among nationalism composers.
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.
this paper I will discuss Gershwin’s life as a child and his upbringing and how his music
Therefore, to endure the pains and sufferings the slaves had to use music. As illustrated above, the advent of music had far reaching results as it encouraged and gave them hope to continue working. The early music composers are the evidence of existence of early music which in turn has shaped today’s music like the blues and pop lyrics. In this case, the culture of the past has been rescued from getting lost.
Ferenc Farkas was born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, in December 1905. He studied composition with Albert Sikós and Leó Weiner at the Budapest Academy of Music and continued his studies with Ottorino Respighi at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Ferenc Farkas was Professor of Composition at the Conservatory of Kolozsvár from 1941 to 1944 and also served as its director during his last year there. In 1949 Farkas was appointed Professor of Composition at the Budapest Academy of Music, a post which he held until his retirement in 1975. His pupils included Attila Bozay, Axolt Durkó, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Emil Petrovics, Sándor Szokolay and many other prominent Hungarian composers.
These events led to Chopin being exiled from Poland. Chopin went to live in Vienna and eventually Paris, to live with other musicians and exiles. Chopin composed in his own individualistic style for most of his life. Eventually, Chopin departed from his own traditional way of composing to tackle problems of form and genre. In his late years he adopted a symptomatic approach to composition (Sadie, 293).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as W.A. Mozart, was a very well-known composer of the Classical Period as well as still to this day. Wolfgang Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He was known for his sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos, and operas. He set the standards high for all composers following in his footsteps.
For a society that was now being defined by radically changing racial and ethnic diversity, the music that bore the label of “American” by definition required that multiplicity of cultures. Gershwin’s and Copland’s compositions both epitomize this idea because they were so successful in defining and uniting diverse elements of American culture into their arrangements, giving the American music scene a new exclusive tradition of both foreign sounds and exotic rhythms.
Besides composing, he also worked as a conductor in Düsseldorf (1833-35) and Leipzig (1835-40). And in 1843, he established a new conservatory in Leipzig. Up to this point, Mendelssohn was already a well-known pianist, composer and conductor.
Frederic Chopin is one of the most famous and influential composers from the nineteenth century. He is especially known for his piano music now and then. Chopin’s works include three sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, etudes, impromptus, scherzos, ballades, preludes, two piano concertos, a few chamber music, and some Polish vocal pieces. He played an important role in the 19th century Polish nationalistic movement. In particular, his mazurkas and polonaises based on Polish dances best express his nationalistic passion and the musical features of the Polish culture.
Claude Debussy is one of my favorite composers of all time. Claude Debussy’s music has had the ability to alter how I perceive music and, has made me gain a greater appreciation for all types of music. Growing up playing piano my entire life it was always hard for me as a child to follow all of the “rules” of what traditional classic music was interpreted as. Sheet music seemed so dull and boring to me, because I would be playing the piece but certain parts just did not sound appealing to my ear. My instructor always frowned upon me for this because it was different from what every other person was doing at the time. I recognized that Debussy’s style of music was also criticized much in the same way as mine was one day while I was listening to my favorite piece Clair De Lune. The song in my mind is simply perfection, the harmonies all flow beautifully but, according to others it is not what they want to hear because it is considered to be vague and lacks image. My struggle at being restricted to these so called rules of piano made me like Debussy more and more.