Great Composers and Their Lives

Frederick Delius was an English composer born into a family of fourteen children. He grew up in Bradford located in the north of England, but his parents, who were wool-merchants, were actually German. His musical training during his youth consisted of piano and violin lessons, although it has to be said that his music at that time was considered more of a hobby at an amateur level. Nonetheless, he showed a lot of musical promise and wanted to be a musician. His father was dead-set against it, having impressed upon Frederick Delius that a future in the wool business had been where his destiny lay.

After finishing grammar school, he decided to enter into the family business, giving in to his father's wishes. This did not last very long, for he proved not to be a very talented businessman. Yet, having had to go on many business trips abroad to Paris and Norway during that time did spark a great interest for travel and led him to the United States. Little did he know at that time, his travels to Paris and Norway would be important to his musical career in the future.

At the age of twenty-two, he persuaded his father to help him set up as a grower of citrus fruit in Florida. During his stay, he negleted his work as a farmer and was finally able to dedicate himself to his true passion, music. He ended up meeting Thomas Ward, a local musician, who became his teacher in composition. It was here on the desolate plantation in subtropical weather where his first compositions were written. Following this, he moved to Virginia for several months, earning his keep by playing the organ, singing and giving music lessons.

In 1886, two years after his arrival in America, Frederick Delius ended up returning to Europe. His father finally gave in to his wishes and granted him the support he needed to study for a while at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. The academic training at the conservatory did very little to benefit his very instinctive talent, yet he met a person that would change his whole life, namely the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg. Grieg not only became a life-long friend who encouraged his music, but also persuaded Delius's father to fully support his son's ambitions as a composer.

After eventually moving to Paris, Delius started composing a great deal of works and became known in artistic circles by many of the greats. It was not until 1896 that he met his wife-to-be, a young artist named Jelka Rosen, marrying her only a year after they had met. The two of them settled down in a little French village named Grez-sur-Loing.

Continuing to devout his life to music, he wrote his first true masterpieces between the age of thirty-seven and fourty - Paris and A Village Romeo and Juliet – two compositions that are truly representative of his style and musical ability. He composed many works after that such as Sea Drift, Appalachia, Brigg Fair, A Mass of Life, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, among many others. Due to his acquaintanceship with Thomas Beecham, a famous English conductor who advocated Delius's music, he not only became famous in Germany, but also in his fatherland, England, and the rest of the English-speaking world.

In 1918, Deilius contracted syphilis and eventually stopped composing due to becoming blind and paralyzed. It was not until a man by the name of Eric Fenby, a composer, teacher and great fan of Delius, offered his services as a scribe (as an amanuensis) that Delius was able to dictate his final works over a period of six years. Frederick Delius, aided by Fenby, painstakingly composed some of his most noted works, among which were A Song of Summer and Songs of Farewell.

To listen to music by this great composer, click here.

Posted by Michael Ferris at 07:58 AM | Permalink

For a little change, I thought I would write about a great composer that is still to be admired, for he is still living a prolific life.

Hans Werner Henze is a German that has gone through a lot but has been able to give the world a great deal, not only a lot of songs, but a new type of musical style. His works are comprised of a mixture of various musical styles having evolved into their own. Among them are: twelve-tone technique, serialism, neo-classicism, jazz, and even rock.

Above all, this is a person that is not only great, but had to deal with plenty of prejudice and alienation throughout his lifetime in order to bring his music to the world.. Being a pacifist, he not only grew up during the rise of Nazism in Germany having a father who was a Nazi supporter, he also had to deal with being a homosexual in these harsh times. Born in Gütersloh, Germany, the oldest of 6 children, he got interested in music at a very early age. His father, who was quite conservative, was against him going into the music field. Nevertheless, he ended up going to a state-run music school at the age of 16, studying piano and percussion. He was unfortunately drafted into the army 2 years later and had to serve in Poland just before the end of the war, ending up as a British prisoner.

At the end of the war, he did not let his musical talent go to waste. After working for a while as a theatre pianist, he continued his studies at the Heidelberg Institute for Church Music (German: Das kirchenmusikalischen Institut in Heidelberg) under Wolfgang Fortner in 1946. He later studied 12 tone technique under René Leibowitz in Darmstadt and Paris. 12 tone technique, originally thought up of by Arnold Schoenberg, is a method of composing a song by using all 12 notes of a chromatic scale, all of them equally sounded, typically avoiding a certain key.

Although writing one beforehand called ‘das Wundertheater’, his first full opera and significant work which made him famous was named ‘Boulevard Solitude‘ and was written in 1952. It comprised of the various styles, aria, jazz, blues, and recitative, all united by the same 12 note sequence.

Henze was the ballet director at Wiesbaden State Theatre for a while in 1950, but got tired of living in Germany and went to live in Italy. He ended up in Naples where he concluded his operas ‘König Hirsch’ and ‘Der Prinz von Homburg’. The latter was composed along with a close friend of his, Ingeborg Bachman, an Austrian author and poet who played a leading role in post-war literature. She was the librettist for the opera. For those of you reading that do not know, a librettist is the person that creates the words to be set to music for an opera.

In 1961, Henze moved to Rome. It was here that he became an international figure. He started teaching master classes in composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and became a visiting professor at Dartmouth college in New Hampshire. It was at this time that he wrote his fifth symphony for the New York Philharmonic and went to the US to see his work premier under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.

One very interesting aspect of Henze’works is the ability to express and intertwine his political beliefs and social critic in his music. Music and politics have been intertwined for quite some time, but this is a prime example of how music can enter into the political world. During the 1960’s, Henze became quite interested in communism and wrote ‘Das Floss der Medusa’( The Raft of Medusa) based on the painting with the same name by artist Théodore Géricault. This oratorio was intended to be a requiem for Che Guevara. The grand premier in Hamburg actually failed on account of the fact that the players from West Berlin refused to play under the portrait of Che Guevara with a red flag draped across the stage. The police ended up coming and not only some students were arrested, but also the opera’s librettist. Since then, he has written other politically motivated pieces, such as his 6^th Symphony, written during a year-long stay in Cuba where he was teaching and researching new ideas. This piece encompassed and interesting mix of Greek and Vietnamese freedom songs.

Hans Werner Henze has written a great deal of works since this time and still lives in Italy. He has given a lot to humanity and the musical world; to list all of his achievements on this blog would be impossible. A great composer of today’s present, a truly great musical personality who has not only dedicated, but put his whole life into his music.

 “I have evolved a concept of beauty nurtured by experiences both terrible and wonderful.” ----Hans Werner Henze

To listen to music by this great composer click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 05:39 AM | Permalink

This composer, the most important Spanish composer of our time, was born on November 22^nd, 1901. November 22^nd is the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. This is a composer that seems to have done the impossible, for he was not only incredibly gifted, but also blind. He lost his sight at the age of three on account of diphtheria. It is said that when one loses the ability to see, a keen development of the senses takes place, and among them the sense of hearing. This composer definitely shows cogent evidence of this, for his works were great. Among them, his masterpiece, the Concerto de Aranjuez, is probably known by even the most ignorant to classical music. It’s second movement, Andante, has not only been used in many documentary films on Spain, but also in a great deal of films.

When Rodrigo was 8 years old, he started to learn violin and piano. At the age of 17, he attended the Valencia Conservatory and wrote his first works in 1923. The question is, how was he able to compose being blind? Answer – he first wrote in Braille, thereby dictating the finished work to a scribe. In 1927, following the example of many Spanish composers of the time, he moved to Paris to study under Dukas for five years at the École Normale de Musique. He and his works were well known at this time and so was encouraged by other composers such as Ravel, Falla and Stravisnsky to continue making such great progress. It was during this time period when he made the acquaintance of the Turkish pianist Vicotria Kamhi, a significant woman in his life, for she became his wife in 1933.

He returned home to Spain for a short time only to find out that he was to be bestowed a grant to study Musicology at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Sorbonne. Back to France! Unfortunately, on account of the civil war which broke out in 1936, his grant was cut off, leaving him in grave financial difficulties. Luckily, he was able to survive this; he moved back to Spain at the end of the war and brought his gift of music along with him, namely the Concerto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, immediately making him Spain’s leading composer. He composed many other beautiful works, although nothing has quite compared to the Concerto de Aranjuez. Of course, his gift was not only to Spain alone. To date, it is the most frequently played guitar concerto in the world and has greatly helped contribute to the guitar’s recognition as a concert instrument. The next time you listen to this great work by Joaquin Rodrigo, take a second in your mind to thank him for writing it.

To listen to music by this great composer click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 06:53 AM | Permalink

Kurt Weill was born to the son of a Jewish cantor in Dessau, Germany in the year 1900. His father, Albert Weill, wrote liturgical music and gave lessons in religion at the Synagogue in Dresden. Concerning religion, due to the fact that both of his parents were devout Jews, he had a strict upbringing. In regard to his musical education, he grew up with the Hebrew music tradition. At the early age of nine, he started learning piano from his father. Duke Friedrich II showed a lot of liking for the boy in 1910 and allowed him not only free entry to the performances in his theatre, but also let him go to the rehearsals. This surely had quite an influence upon Weill.

At the age of 12, Kurt Weill started to compose. He seized every opportunity possible to visit the Duke’s theatre as well. From 1918 to 1923, he studied in Berlin under Humperdinck, Busconi and one of Busconi’s students, Phillip Jarnach. The debut performance of his first opera, “the Protagonist” in Dresden in 1926 made Weill quite well known. Right after that, he was truly made famous on account of his next work, “The Threepenny Opera”.

In 1933, Weill was forced to flee to Paris when the Nazis took control of Germany. Then, two years later, he settled down in New York where he started composing for Broadway.

The time in which Kurt Weill lived, namely the 20th century, was not only a time of artistic change, but a time of general upheaval. Horses were the principle means of transportation. Farming was the most prevalent means of earning a living, even in the most developed countries. In 1914, there was war going on in Europe. The Nazis took power in 1933. On account of Arnold Schönberg and Stravinsky(composers I plan on writing about later), music took new shape and form known as atonal music. In addition to this, the radio and phonograph brought a new type of ground-breaking music to listeners; jazz.

Kurt Weill wrote the Threepenny Opera along with the author Bertolt Brecht, who was a great writer at the time, known for his criticism upon the society’s social system. The opera is actually a modernisation of the Beggar’s Opera by the composer John Gay. Weills wife, Lotta Lenya took the main role of Jenny in Weill’s version. It was interesting that he applied elements of jazz and cabaret to the opera as well. I would say that this is one reason why the opera has not only lived on throughout time, but is also known even by amateurs in the field of music. Alongside Bertholt Brecht’s ideas of epic theatre, this opera not only changed the style and the way people looked at opera, but it also made it an instant success.

To listen to music by this great composer click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 09:09 AM | Permalink

Born with the name Jacob Gershowitz in 1898 to a poor Jewish family that immigrated to the United States from Russia in the year 1891, George Gershwin was a very unique composer and gained not only fame but the respect of many great musicians and listeners from around the world. His music is also representative of American society between WW I and WW II.

Posted by Michael Ferris at 02:06 PM | Permalink

Here is what I call an interesting musician. Erik Satie, a pianist and composer, grew up in a bicultural family, having a mother who was Scottish and a father who was French. Although he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and was always a very gifted musician, in the beginning of his career, he had reputation to be very lazy and unreliable, even to the point of being untalented. Despite this, he wrote 3 Gymnopédies.

In 1890, living in Montmartre, France, he met his life-long friend Claude Debussy. He used to like to go to a lot of cafés to meet other musicians and have discussions with them. It was in this year that he wrote Gnosssiennes, which sounds very oriental.

For a long time, he was very low on money and had to live in very humble accommodations, although his desire was to always do more with his music. Not being very satisfied with his knowledge of composition, he went back to school and studied basic compositional technique in 1905. It was during this time that his musical style truly matured, leading up to 1911, when among others, Maurice Ravel, a great composer and one of the friends he got to meet going to the cafés, brought him into the spotlight. His career as a musician began to grow rapidly.

Erik Satie, in a way, was quite a rebel within the musical world. For example, he once co-produced, along with the playwright and poet Jean Cocteau a ballet, Parade. This ballet caused quite a debate in the musical world on account of the magnitude of comedy it contained. In the pit orchestra for this ballet there were, for example, typewriter-players, people playing pistols, and even steamboat whistle players.

He was ridiculed by many during his lifetime, yet some people truly looked up to him as being ahead of his time, a real genius that did not just want to play the same things as everyone else. He was, in other words, as he is for many musicians even today, an inspiration.

To listen to music by this composer, click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 07:06 AM | Permalink

Segovia has been give the name, ‘Father of the Classical Guitar,’ not only because he played beautifully, but because he did so much to further its name and reputation as a concert instrument. Andrés Segovia did compose a few selected pieces for the guitar and they are very interesting and very beautiful. I am putting him into this blog, Great Composers and their Lives, not because he was a composer who composed a ton of pieces, but also because he contributed so much not only to music itself with his performances, but he went through a great deal for my favourite instrument. The guitar had always been a known instrument, but it was an instrument for the lower classes, for dances, and taverns, and had never been really recognised as a concert instrument, except in its own circles of course. Although, this is no longer the case due to Segovia, there are even some musicians today that criticize the instrument’s ability on stage. You can probably guess that during his time, Segovia had to go up against a ton of opposition to achieve his goal, yet succeeded.

When Segovia was five years of age, his uncle with whom he was living had tried to entice him to play a musical instrument. Attending the Grenada Musical Institute, he was encouraged to play the piano and the violin, yet with no avail. Segovia fell in love with the guitar on account of its unique sound. It had surely been flamenco that he had first heard. After a little bit of persuasion, taking a period of years, he was actually able to have his own guitar. By doing this, he was going against not only his family but also his teachers at the Grenada music school. It can be seen that during this period, the guitar had not been taken very seriously. Nevertheless, he became enthralled with the instrument and spent every moment he had practicing, being forced to basically teach himself. Yet, one has to take into account that he had a great deal of musical knowledge deriving from the music school in Grenada. He was in no way ignorant to music. This knowledge had to be applied to the guitar, whereby he developed his own technique of playing. He ended up moving to Córdoba to live with his brother and mother. It was here that he made a lot of friends with other musicians, among them the two pianists: Luis Serrano and Rafael de Montis.

Montis had encouraged him greatly, for he was very taken back by Segovia’s guitar transcriptions. Having given his first public recital at the age of 16 at the Granada Art Centre,

he decided to quit school to make the guitar his life. You can only imagine what his family thought about that! Well, that did not stop him. He moved to Seville where, along with playing recitals, he met a great deal of influential people who were to be the patrons of his near future. Additionally, he also played concerts in many other Spanish cities, receiving a large amount of criticism as well as praise.

During the course of his career, he also met up with Miguel Llobet, a former student of Tárrega, a guitarist for whom Segovia always had fascination. During this time, both of their techniques were similar in one respect. Contrary to a great deal of other guitarists, who used the fleshy part of their fingers OR their nails, these two players used both the fleshy part and the nail, giving a larger variety of sounds to their pieces. Nowadays generally, although sometimes still a debate, both are still used when playing.

By 1919, Segovia had earned a great deal of respect in Spain and got the opportunity to go on international tours by means of a concert promoter who was very impressed with his playing. The first tour of South America had gone wonderfully and did a great deal for his reputation. He furthered his concerts to the rest of Europe, then to the rest of the world. His playing aroused a great deal of interest for the instrument for the first time. He also encouraged other great composers to write music for the guitar. Among them were: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Federico Moreno Torroba, Manuel Ponce, and many more. They did not just composer for solo guitar, but also for guitar and orchestra. Segovia did not stop there. He also encouraged universities and musical institutes around the world to include guitar into their curriculum. It is because of him that the classical guitar is played by concert musicians today in just about every one of the great concert halls around the globe. It is for this reason that he is sometimes known as the ‘father of the guitar’ and at times called ‘the greatest guitarist in the world.

To listen to music by this great composer click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 06:47 AM | Permalink