Jean Baptiste Lully was a prolific composer who is best known for establishing French Opera. (Boynick) Born in Florence on the 28th of November 1632, (Boynick) Giovanni Battista Lulli was a miller’s son. (Sadie 2000 pg 166) Lully first arrived in France in March of 1646 (Jean Baptiste Lully) to work as an attendant for a female courtier. (Sadie 2000 pg. 166) “During his six years in her household, Lully, already an expert at the guitar and violin, polished his skills as a performer and composer.” (Straughan (a)) He made a name for himself as a dancer in the court ballets. (Straughan (a))
He caught the attention of King Louis XIV and initially served him as "composer of instrumental music” (Straughan (a)) He soon took over compositions of entire ballets. (Straughan (a)) “Some time before 1656, he also took over responsibility for the string ensemble called the Petits violons, which he transformed into a group widely renowned for their discipline and artistic excellence.” (Straughan (a)) A clever diplomatist and thorough courtier, he completely won the royal favour, and in March, 1672, he succeeded in ousting Abbe Perrin from the directorship of the Academy of Music, also known as “the Academie Royale”. (Knight)
“Ten years later he had consolidated his position by obtaining sole rights over all dramatic performances with singing.”(Sadie 2000 pg. 166) “Any production not affiliated with The Academie Royale was limited to two singers and six players.” (Jean Baptiste Lully)
From that point on, he successfully founded modern French opera. “His involvement was not limited to musical composition. He collaborated with his poets in the production of libretti, and even took an interest in the acting and declamation of the performers. His insistence on discipline and high artistic standards in the opera orchestra was legendary” (Straughan (a))
“Louis XIV became ill in late 1686.” (Jean Baptiste Lully) While conducting a Te Deum on January 8, 1687, (Straughan (a)) to celebrate the king's recovery Lully accidentally hit his foot with the point of the cane he used to keep time. (Sadie 2000 pg. 166) This wound caused an abscess which proved fatal as Lully died on March 22, 1687. (Straughan (a))
Jean Baptiste Lully made significant contributions to French music. His initial compositions “ballets de cour” didn’t deviate from the Italian forms. (Straughan (a)) They were merely collections of dances and burlesque scenes. (Gregory) “A step in Lully’s progression from ballet to opera was the increased role of music in his ballets.
John Dowland (1563-1626) was a composer of Renaissance England and considered one of the most prolific and well-known composers of English lute song. A composer and accomplished lutenist, he is probably the most well traveled English composer of his time. Through his travels he was exposed to the musical elements of his Italian, French and German contemporaries. He developed his own musical language, in which he created a unique style for the lute song. As a composer, he focused on the development of melodic material and was able to elegantly blend words and music with a wide range of emotion and technique. For the purpose of this document we will focus on the influence of his Italian travels. John Dowland’s use of chromaticism in his lute songs as can be directly associated with such as “All ye whom love or fortune.” In these pieces, we can see the influence on this genre through his travels to Italy and encounters with such composers as Marenzio.
Gabriel Faure was a French Romantic Composer, pianist, teacher and an organist. He was a very influential composer and his style of composition influenced many of the 20th century composers. He was one of the most prominent French composers of his era. Faure was known as one of the French master of the art song. He was awarded a scholarship to École de Musique Classique et Religieuse. His tutors respectively included; Clément Loret, Louis Dietsch, Xavier Wackenthaler, Saint-Saëns and Niedermeyer. Faure took up the post of an organist at the church of Saint-Sauveur at Rennes in Brittany. After the Franco-Prussian war Faure left France and took up teaching in Switzerland.
While there are some nutrients that are commonly agreed upon to be “good” or “bad” nutrients, there are many that have been both demonized and glorified over time. For example, William Keith Kellogg claimed that protein was bad for one’s health and promoted vegetarianism. Thus, at the beginning of the twentieth century, he founded the Kellogg’s company so that he could manufactured foods containing primarily carbohydrates, including corn and wheat flakes. There have also been claims that gluten, fat, and carbohydrates are bad for one’s health. In the 1950’s, Ancel Keys declared that all fat was a cause of heart disease after studying in Naples. In reality, it is really cholesterol that causes heart disease. In response to this information provided by Keys, the U.S. government released a statement to, “reduce all meat and dairy intake.” Yet, after complaints from the meat industry, the government altered the statement to, “choose meat and dairy that reduce saturated fat
Holst grew up in a family of several generations of talented, professional musicians. He grew up and learned playing the trombone, violin, and piano during his childhood, although he took up the trombone and piano more over the violin as he grew older. As a child, Holst suffered from poor eyesight and asthma problems, the latter of which was one of the reasons he took up playing a musical wind instrument, which was thought to help strengthen his chest and lungs. Later, Holst developed neuritis in his right arm nerves, which prevented any previous aspirations to become a professional pianist. Holst later studied music composition at the Royal College of Music. Charles Villiers Stanford, the famous composer, was Holst’s professor of composition at the RCM. Unable to support himself by his compositions, Holst played the trombone professionally and became a teacher at several different times at different schools throughout England and Germany to make financial ends meet. Holst struggled for several years to make a living as a professional composer, as he continued to write several small compositions and pieces over the years.
Rousseau was often in trouble for fighting and stealing. As a result of living this way, he fled to Paris in 1741 seeking fame. He composed an opera called Les Muses galantes, which led to a correspondence with Voltaire, Denis Diderot, and other French philosophers, some of whom were engaged in producing the Encyclopedia. Rousseau contributed several pieces on music to this project. But, it was not unt...
For the musical composer essay, I have chosen to write about a man who I felt made the greatest impact on Romantic opera in the 19th century this master of a man was given the name Giuseppe Fortunio Francesco Verdi but was commonly known as Giuseppe Verdi by all who knew and loved him. This great man was born on either October 9, or 10 in the year 1813 in the community of Le Roncole, near a small town called Busseto in the province of Parma, Italy his astrological sign is that of a Libra. His mother and father were both of Italian descent and their names were Carlo and Luigia Verdi respectively. Now this is where it gets complicated Verdi told every person that talked to him about his background that his parents were illiterate peasants. Despite this lie that Verdi told them they later discovered that his parents were not illiterate peasants as he had claimed but were very smart individuals tha...
recognized as a writer. He became one of the most famous and well paid French
The first thing I will talk about is the type of music he is know for which gave him that name. Most people listen to the type of music he composed but next to none know who or how it was composed. There seems to be an abundance of music fans who know little or nothing about the origin of their music. By discussing what he has accomplished it will explain why he is considered to be so important to his type of music.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.
Born in the seventeenth century, Antonio Vivaldi was a composer who wrote some of the most well know musical works. Throughout his whole life he loved music. His greatest passion was music. Present day still plays his master pieces. He wrote many different styles of music, including church music, operas, Concertos, and chamber music. Antonio Vivaldi greatly contributed to the classical music genre. Although he has passed, his music will live on and it will continue to live on for centuries to come.
Women rights has flourished this past decade. They have came a long way to get to where they are today. For instance, our nation is on the verge to having our very first female president. The amount of feminist accomplishments that has occurred further highlights the transition our women’s rights today compared to back then. “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, an American writer best known for her feminist stories about the lives of daring women, portrays women’s lack of freedom in the 1800s by addressing the concerns of feminism. Those including the escape from the husband’s identity to express the woman’s own unique identity and the right of women to be their own person by experiencing her own interest. In spite of the fact that there is a controversial aspect to the story, the reaction Mrs. Mallard experiences after learning her husband’s death, the reader can still empathize and
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”