Great Composers and Their Lives

 This composer was born in Fusignano, Italy and was the youngest of five children. His family was quite wealthy and owned a lot of land. This was quite fortunate on account of the fact that his father, who Arcangelo Corelli had been named after, had died a month before he was born, leaving his wife to raise the entire family practically on her own. 

Although he received his first musical education quite early in his life from a priest in Faenza, it was not until the age of thirteen that his true musical education began. He went to Bologna to study the violin. Having proved to be a quite promising musician, he was accepted at the Accademia filarmonica at the age of seventeen. This institution has been an important provider of musical education to many great composers thoughout the centuries. It exists to this very day.

In the following years, having taken the position of one of the best violinists in Italy, his musical career led him to Rome where he played at a great deal of places. It was here that he made the acquaintance of Queen Christina of Sweden who had a residence there and was a leading patron of Rome's musical scene at the time. He began composing for her and even dedicated his Opus 1 collection of trio sonatas to her in 1681.

His fame caught the attention of Cardinal Benedetto Pamfili who Corelli began to work for in1687, taking up residence in his palace and becoming music director along with giving instrumental performances. This step of Corelli's life was of great importance because Pamfili's palace and the performances had been considered to be one of the musical epicenters of Rome. Corelli's Opus 2 chamber works were dedicated to Pamfili.

After a while, Pamfili left to Bologna and Cardinal Ottoboni took a liking to Corelli's music, somewhat adopting his services. He worked for him for a period of ten years directing concerts as well as operatic performances. His Opus 4 chamber trios were dedicated to Otooboni.

Having reached the climax of his career, he was appointed leader of the instrumental section of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi di Santa Cecilia (* Congregation of Santa Cecilia's Virtuosos) and was also accepted by the Accademia di Arcadia (*Arcadian Academy), two very important musical institutions at the time which brought him into contact with the most famous and best musical personalities of the time including the great composer Friedrich Händel. Corelli was quite active in the performances of Händel's works.

Arcangelo Corelli made it his life's goal to present the best of the violin to the world. His masterpiece, Concerti grossi, Opus 6 - a collection of 12 pieces, having been written over a great many years and completed just before his death - certainly achieved this. These pieces along with Corelli's achievements had played a great role in development of solo concerto and the violin technique we know this very day. A mere year after Corelli had been buried in Rome's great Pantheon, were the Concerti grossi actually published.

Posted by Michael Ferris at 05:32 PM | Permalink

Born in Magdeburg, Germany, this composer managed to learn to play four instruments(flute, keyboard, zither and violin) by the time he was ten and wrote his first opera at ten years old. Nonetheless, his family, not coming from a musical background at all, were not at all impressed. In fact, his mother took away all of his instruments away and sent him to school. Luckily for Georg Telemann, the superintendant of that very school was a music theorist and supported Telemann's passion for music. The young boy was able to learn composition for an entire four years along with studying his normal subjects to please his family.

After entering high school(*German: Gymnasium), he was once again fortunate to find another teacher that supported his interest in music, encouraging him to compose works for school events, dramas, and even got him involved with the local Catholic church.

His time at high school soon camed to an end and he went to Leipzig to study law. Although he was most probably complying with his mother's wishes, his studies did not last very long. His will to be a musician was far too strong. Having settled in Leipzig, he decided to concentrate on composition. Having written a musical psalm setting that was perfomed at a church (the Thomaskirche). The city's mayor liked it so much, he invited Telemann to compose a cantata for Sunday mass every two weeks. The cantor of the church did not much like Telemann's increasing influence at his church, but could not do anything about it. His works were requested for every Sunday soon after.

At the age of 21, Georg Telemann founded the Collegium Musicum, a musical ensemble for which he organized concerts regularly. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed director of the Leipzig Opera and started to compose operas and giving the roles to his own music students.

After leaving Leipzip in 1705, he took up employment composing and directing in various places all over Germany and what is now Poland including Count Erdmann II of Promnitz in Sorau, the Eisenach Court where he made the aquantance of Johann Sebastian Bach, and finally a post in Frankfurt where he married the daugher of a Frankfurt council clerk and had ten children.

At the age of fourty, Teleman moved to Hamburg where he was made Cantor of the Hamburg Johanneum(*German name: Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums.) It is the oldest highschool in Hamburg. Since the school had been founded in 1529, its cantor was not only the director of the school, but also responsible for the music played in Hamburgs five main churches. This position soon led Telemann to become the music director of the Hamburg Opera. It was here that he was closer to his good friend, the musician Georg Frideric Handel, for whom he arranged a lot of concerts.

Along with staging vast musical events for the city, Telmann was known quite well for his composition of Tafelmusik(table music). The pieces were meant to be played at banquets in circles of nobility and the middle class, always beginning with a French-style overture and a series of melodic pieces that were to be played in any which order.

Living over a span of eighty-six years, Georg Philipp Telemann wrote six hundred Italian overtures, fourty-seven concertos(concerts for solo insturmentalists and orchestra), six oratorios including the famed Tag des Gerichts (Judgement Day) and fourty operas, this great composer will live on in our hearts as one of the most prolific of all time, having given a gift to humanity that has and will always endure throughout the centuries.

To listen to music by this great composer click here.

Posted by Michael Ferris at 03:30 PM | Permalink

Anyone who reads the name of this composer immediately thinks of the Canon in D. Of course, Johann Pachelbel wrote many great pieces, but the 3-part canon he had once written will come to mind every time we hear his name. And vice versa, when we hear this piece at a wedding, we will think of him. Interestingly enough, although he penned a great deal of works, the Canon in D composed for 3 violins and continuo was the only canon he had ever written. The piece can be described as 3 violins taking turns to elaborate on a simple theme, resulting in a musical climax which moves the soul.

What many people do not realize is that Johann Pachelbel is not considered a great composer on account of this work alone. Having written a great deal of other things, the famous Canon in D, although a beautiful piece, actually has very little importance in regards to his musical gifts to humanity. His works on the organ were much more important, for they were not only great pieces, but greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach.

Pachelbel was born in Nuremberg. His father was a wine dealer. As a child, having always been interested in scientific as well as musical knowledge, he had 2 music teachers. One of the teachers taught him to play and compose, while the other introduced him to the fundamentals of music. In 1669, he started studies at the University of Altdorf (Universität Aldtdorf) and at the same time took a position as an organist at the St. Lorenz Church (St. Lorenz Pfarrkirche). These happenings in his life were very brief though. In 1673, he went to Vienna, Austria, where he found work as an assistant organist at the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, otherwise known in German as the ‘Stephansdom’. After four years, he became the court organist to Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, a position he kept for only a year.

After this, Pachelbel decided to leave Vienna and went to Erfurt, Germany. There, he found work as an organist for the church named the ‘Erfurt Predigerkirche’. He spent 12 years in this city…He got married to a woman named Barbara Gabler and had a son. Unfortunately, after only 2 years of marriage, both his wife and son were victims of the Black Plague. He got married a second time in 1684. With his second wife, Juditha Dommer, he started a very large family consisting of 2 daughters and 5 sons.

An interesting fact is that Johann Pachelbel became friends with the Bach family and took J.S. Bach’s eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach on as a student in 1686. This certainly added to the future influence upon the music of J.S. Bach.

It was not until 1690 that he moved to Stuttgart to become the organist at the Wurttemberg Court. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave the position due to the French invasion, thereby returning to his hometown of Nuremberg.

He composed many motets, arias, Masses, and 13 Magnificats, including not only violins, but also singers, choirs, orchestras, as well as wind and brass instruments. Therefore his Canon in D was only a small piece amongst many. He was one of the most important organists before the age of Johann Sebastian Bach. Above all, having been acquainted with Catholic church music, he was able to add certain elements to his compositions, thereby bringing a unique beauty to Protestant church music . His works are representative of Protestant church music and give people somewhat of a cultural contrast in regards to two leading religious denominations during the 17^th century. This fact is of utmost significance in the history of music and should be thought of when Johann Pachelbel’s name is mentioned. It is too bad that many associate this genius with a mere canon.

To listen to music by this great composer click here.

Posted by Michael Ferris at 08:22 AM | Permalink

This composer was born in Paris to a family that had been active in the field of music for generations. He was the son of an organist, Charles Couperin, from whom he began his musical training from a very young age. He also learned a great deal from his uncle with the same name, François Couperin. At the age of 10, his father died and he was then taught by an organist by the name of Jacques Thomelin.

His family had a musical tradition going back two centuries before he had been born. In fact, the family’s church, St. Gervais, had successively employed a member of the Couperin family as organist, non-stop, for a period of 173 years. As a sign of how advanced his musical ability had been, it is interesting that the post was officially offered to François at the age of 10 upon his father’s death, yet postponed until his 18th birthday. At the same time, there is information leading to the assumption that that the young Couperin played for services and received wages even before he was eighteen years of age

In 1689, at the age of 21, he married a woman by the name of Marie-Anne Ansault. Only a year later, he received a royal license to publish his only 2 organ masses. Shortly after, he composed a set of 4 sonatas, thereby marking the beginning of his career as a composer. In 1693, he became one of the four organists to King Louis XIV and succeeded Jean-Baptiste Lully as court composer. Along with this, his reputation as a teacher immensely was growing, teaching not only the kings children but a great deal of French nobility. He was not only busy teaching, but also performing, which was very demanding upon him personally.

In 1696, he was presented with his own coat of arms and only six years later, he received the Order of Chevalier de Latran, a form of knighthood and became the king’s harpsicordist. Even after the king’s death in 1715, he remained secure in the court of Louis XV. He died in Paris in 1733

Couperin was quite a prolific composer. Some of his best works were Concerts royaux, L’apothéose de Lully, Leçons de ténèbres and his Organ Masses. Yet, without a doubt, one of the most significant things he composed would be the four books of harpsicord works written between 1713 and 1730. The book contains various pieces which Couperin called ‘Ordres’. These ‘Ordres’ were a succession of dance music and were structured very similar to suites. Each piece of music or ‘Ordre’ had a particular name depicting a person, object, scene or a mood. ( Examples of such titles were: La Visionaire [The dreamer]; Les Ombres Errantes [The Moving Shadows]; Papillons [Butterflies] ). These pieces are representative of great technique as well as demonstrating what Couperin is most known for, namely fusing Italian and French music of the time.

François Couperin was a great composer, an organist, and a harpsicordist that was responsible for bringing together the musical elements and style of France and Italy. In addition to this, his innovative ideas and compositions are said to actually bridge two musical eras, the Baroque and the Classical. A truly great composer!

To listen to a piece by François Couperin click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 06:26 AM | Permalink

Little is known about the early life of Gregorio Allegri. At the age of 9, he was a choirboy in Rome until his voice broke. He then went on to become a tenor at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where he remained between the ages of 14 and 22. It was during this time that he started studying music under the composer Giovanni Nanini, who was believed to have been a former student of Palestrina. Palestrina’s music was of a very great influence on Allegri’s style of composing. His studies were carried out quite intensely up until he was 30 years of age.

At the age of 35, he was a singer and composer at the cathedral of Fermo, then at Tivoli. It was not until he was 46 years old that he was given the rank of Maestro di Cappella (Choir Director) at the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia located in Rome. By this time, he had had 37 years of practice and training in the field of music. A large number of motets and sacred music were composed during that time.

Two years later, he joined Urban VIII’s papal choir. The experience in the choir did not only help to develop his singing ability , but also led Allegri to write a number of works for the choir’s use. Among these compositions was the one that makes him so famous to this very day, namely Miserere. It is one of the best pieces ever written during the period and is a great example of what is know as the Palestrina style of composition, whereby it was incredibly important to emphasise the texts of musical works and at the same time emphasising the beauty in music itself.

The Miserere has quite a history. It was written for the Holy Week (the week before Easter) celebrations at St. Peter’s in Rome. It proved to be such a success and such a powerful piece that its performance became a traditional part of the Holy Week service sung in the Sistine Chapel every year after. Only three copies of the piece are known to have existed. The musical score was kept under close guard of the Vatican. Copying the work was considered an offence punishable by excommunication. It was not until the time of Mozart that the piece was performed on a wider scale. It was the young 14 –year-old Mozart who wrote out the entire piece from memory after hearing only one or two performances.

To listen to more information about Miserere and hear it performed live click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 07:24 PM | Permalink

Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, Italy in 1567 becoming the fifth member of a family of four. Along with his mother and father, he had also had a brother and sister. He had somewhat of an eccentric childhood, to the point of being a bit strange and tragic. His father was a chemist but actually practiced medicine, which of course even at this time was illegal. His mother actually died when he was nine years of age. His father remarried again, but his second wife died when Monteverde was 16. His father remarried once again. You can imagine how difficult this must be on a child. Nevertheless, he received a fine musical education at the cathedral’s Maestro di Cappella. By the age of 16, he had already published many musical works, among them a three-part motet and eight books of madrigals.

A year after publishing his works, he started working for a powerful family, known as the Gonzaga family, in Mantua, working as a string player. It was because of this that his name grew. He played played the viola da gamba, a type of stringed renaissance instrument. You can only imagine what connections can be made working for such a court. He also travelled around Europe performing, having joined the Duke of Mantua’s travelling court. At the age of 34, he married one of the court’s singers whose name was Claudia. They had 3 children together, but unfortunately, one had died, leaving them only two remaining. Around 1607, after only 6 years of marriage, Monteverdi’s wife ended up dying.

It was around the time of his wife’s death that one of his great works ‘la favola d’Orfeo’ was premiered in Mantua. Although the piece was originally written by Jacopo Peri, Monteverdi’s version used a lot of instruments and focused more on musical aspects to perform the opera. Better said, he is ascribed as being responsible for this work’s orchestration. He used stringed instruments for example to portray the character Orpheus, a character which had always been associated with the lyre.

Eleven years before his death, he became a catholic priest. Even this did not take him away from his music. In 1637, due to the opening of the first public opera house in Venice, he was inspired to write two more works, ‘Il ritorno d’Ulisse’ and ‘L’incoronazion di Poppea.’ After visiting Cremona for the last time and shortly after returning to Venice, he died that very year.

Monteverdi lived during an interesting time of transition, namely the transition of the renaissance and baroque eras. It was a change that he encouraged with his genius and musical composition abilities, helping to change and develop existing musical styles. He is a man that lived through a lot of hardship in life, family death, a broken up family, losing the love of his life, but this did not stop him from being one of the most significant composers in history.

To listen to music by this great composer click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 07:01 AM | Permalink

Tomaso, born in 1671, was the eldest child of a man by the name of Antonio Albinoni, a successful paper merchant who owned a number of shops and properties around Venice. He started studying the violin and singing at the age of nine. Although he received a thorough musical education during his youth, contrary to a great deal of other musicians in his era, he did not seek employment within a church. He enjoyed taking advantage of his personal freedom much to much to have wanted this. Many composers did not have the financial means to compose independently, yet Albinoni did have these resources available on account of the wealth generated by his father’s business and was able to compose for himself, making his music quite individual and ‘untouched’.

It was not until the age of 23 that he really started making a name for himself as a musician, having written the opera, Zenobia Regina de Palmireni, which was even brought to the stage. Shortly after this, he wrote 12 trio sonatas. These works remain representative of the two main musical focuses throughout his lifetime, which had been without a doubt secular vocal music and instrumental works. Seeing that very little of survives of his opera works, his reputation today is based mainly upon the instrumental music he composed.

In 1705, having made quite a name for himself on account of his opera works, Tomaso Albinoni married a soprano opera singer, Margeherita Rimondi, and had six children with her. Despite having to bring them up, she still miraculously managed to keep up her career as a performer, even though she ended up dying in her thirties in 1721. This was a hard blow for Tomaso. To add to his consternation, shortly after this, due to a dispute with one of his father’s creditors, he lost all of his family’s shops. Yet, all of this did not stop him from composing. His fortune took a turn when, only a year later, he was asked travel to Munich to stage one of his operas at Prince – Elector Karl Albert’s marriage celebrations, after having dedicated 12 concerti to Maximilian Emanuel II, Elector of Bavaria.

One of the pieces Albinoni was most known for, Adagio in G minor, was ironically not entirely his own. A fragmented manuscript written by Albinoni was taken by the twentieth-century Italian musicologist, Remo Giazotto, and arranged into the piece we know today. In fact, the piece, written for strings and organ, had been quite elaborated to the extent of it being romantic in character. Nevertheless, being quite a beautiful piece, it is still well worth listening to.

Along with being a prolific composer, one of the characteristics that sets this Albinoni apart from the rest of the composers of the period was the fact that his pieces were quite individual. He had, of course, been influenced by some of the greats, such as Corelli and Vivaldi, yet his pieces remained undiluted and pure inventions of his own.

To listen to Adagio in G-Minor by Albinoni (arr. Remo Giazotto) click here

Posted by Michael Ferris at 06:45 AM | Permalink