Great Composers and Their Lives

Born in Genoa, Italy, Niccoló Paganini was given a violin by his parents. His father wanted to excel so badly that he locked him in a room for many hours and forced him to practice. At the age of 11, he made his first public performance and was already going on tour at thirteen. By the age of 16, he was already quite successful, yet he also developed a drinking habit that followed him throughout the rest of his life.

Niccoló Paganini is a perfect example of how making a child prodigy of your child is just a bad idea. Of course, there are a lot of children who have a natural talent at playing and compel themselves to make progress on the instrument, but in many cases, they are forced by the parents to be great on the instrument as a result of “hyper-parenting”. This term is used in psychology to describe what some parents, who would of course like their children to become great, do. This includes, for instance, forcing a child to take lessons on an instrument or forcing them to develop any such ability. Unfortunately, many parents nowadays do this because they believe that it is the only way to survive in our competitive world. In my own belief, it may make the child an incredible person that can do a lot of things, but the question is: Do they really enjoy it? Is it making their lives more wholesome? It is a debate that many will continue to have. There is no doubt that Paganini had a fascinating life… but at what cost?

At the age of 19 he moved to Lucca to become the leader of the new national orchestra. It was at this time that he started playing guitar on account of being talked into it by his lover at the time and wrote several compositions for it. Along with this, he wrote many things for the violin and even pieces for violin and orchestra. One of the most amazing things that he wrote were the 24 Caprices for solo violin. For a long time, the technical difficulties posed by these great works were thought of as only being able to be played by Paganini himself, whose technique was truly astounding. He was actually capable of performing entire pieces on the violin with the use of only one or two of its strings. He was known to be one of the greatest violinist ever in the history of the instrument, yet this cannot be proven, for there are no recordings of him.

At the age of 27, he left the city of Lucca and toured all over Italy, impressing with his amazing technique and his ability to sight-read just about any piece of music put in front of him. There was nothing to difficult! One of the most interesting facts about Paganini is that he had had a very scruffy appearance and kind of an evil glare. Due to this and on account of his amazing abilities on the violin, many used to think that he may have sold his soul to the devil and was give the name ‘il figlio del diavolo,’ a phrase in Italian that means ‘the son of the devil.’

To listen to music by this great composer click here

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This composer came from a very poor family and a completely unmusical background. Born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, he was taken from the streets and given a proper musical education by the composer and conductor Johannes Simon Mayr. At the time, Mayr had the position of music director at the Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo’s main church. He was a person who had been quite fond of his spirit and recognised his talent straight away. As a young adult, Donizetti travelled to Bologna to study with a priest, Padre Mattei, who had been a renowned counter-point teacher. Yet, Donizetti never took a liking to him and returned to Bergamo in 1817, still harbouring a great deal of affection for his first teacher, Johannes Mayr.

It was during this time that he started composing a great deal of works, at times accomplishing an entire piece in the course of a single day. His string quartets were excellent, but it was his opera works that showed the ability of a true master. A year after his return to Bergamo, he was called in for compulsory military service, which he was able to get out of due to an exemption bought by a wealthy admirer.

In 1822, Donizetti wrote what was to become his first success, Zoraida di Granata. It was a commission from Rome that was passed down to him by his teacher, Johann Mayr. It was on account of this that he received a series of commissions from Naples, including a contract for writing four operas a year. Although the music for these operas was quite well written, due to the fact that the librettos - the playscripts for the opera performances -were badly done, these never resulted in true masterpieces.

It was not until 1830 that Donizetti had written Anne Bolene, the piece that took him to international stardom. This year altogether had been wonderful for Donizetti. The famed composer Rossini had just retired from opera composition thereby making room for Donizetti to dominate the field. Donizetti took on his bel canto style with the usage of coloratura passages.(* bel canto- A melodic style of operatic singing. *coloratura -Singing with elaborate and showy ornamentation.)

Shortly after, Donizetti’s relationship with his Neapolitan patrons became problematic, whereby he eventually broke his contract in 1832. Although a new contract had been drawn up in 1834, the public authorities objected to his next opera, Maria Stuarda, and revised it to the point of ruining the first production. The only positive happening during this time was his composition and the debut of Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835, an opera based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is probably what he was most known for writing, being a prime example of a bel canto opera as well as a masterpiece in itself.

In 1836, both of Donizetti’s parent died. To make matters worse, his wife of 9 years, Virginia, ended up dying of cholera. He had had 3 children by her, none of whom survived. His next work, Poliuto, was then banned for portraying the martyrdom of a saint. It all became to much disappointment, discouragement, and grief for even a great composer. He moved to Paris.

He was greeted with open arms by the Parisians. They immediately put his works into four theatres around the city. This was not taken lightly by a great deal of the French composers of the time. Donizetti retorted to this by composing some of his greatest works of all time, leading up to his final masterpiece, Don Pasquale, which was first produced in Milan in 1843.

Up until this point in his life, Donizetti had reached international fame and recognition, even receiving the position of Kapellmeister(music director) to the Habsburg Court in Vienna. He had written a incredible amount of masterpieces. This was quite a spectacular feat if you consider the fact that he came from an impoverished and unmusical background. He came quite a long way to give us his gift of music.

Unfortunately, he also suffered from a syphilitic illness. In 1843, the symptoms were so bad that he had to stop composing. Only a year later, he was declared insane. Luckily, he had been taken back to his hometown of Bergamo. There, his friends took care of him until his death in 1848.

To watch some of Donizetti’s music performed, click here

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Born in the village of Novospasskoe near Smolensk in Belarus Russia to a wealthy family, this composer’s first contact with music had to most certainly be Russian folk songs and the sound of church bells which rang every day in his small and quaint little village. At the age of 13, he was sent to a school in St. Petersburg for noble families where he studied for a period of five years. During this time, he had his first piano lessons with composer John Field, who was residing in St. Petersburg and teaching. He only had a few lessons with Field until he continued his instruction with a pianist by the name of Charles Meyer. Mikhail Glinka started composing music on his own shortly after. His early compositions were not very refined on account of the fact that he had never really studied composition seriously, yet the characteristics of folk melody in his pieces could easily be recognised even at this time. After completing his studies in 1822, he ended up staying in St. Petersburg until 1830, having received a governmental appointment that was not very demanding, thereby being able to pursue earning a living as a pianist and a singer as well.

Being drawn to music to such a great extent, it was his wish to further his studies. Making a trip to Italy with a tenor by the name of Invanov in 1830, he ended up in Milan, where he studied at the local conservatory. He encountered a great deal of composers and learned a lot, yet he never really cared for Italy. Before returning to Russia, he had studied composition under Siegfried Dehn in Berlin for a period of five months. This was his first formal composition instruction and unfortunately, it had to be cut short on account of his father’s death.

Up until this point, music life in Russia was principally full of a lot of Italian composers. They, of course, were not fond of putting elements of Russian folklore into their music. Consequently, Russian folk music was disregarded. Glinka realized that it was his life’s goal and calling to go back to Russia and combine what he had learned in Italy with the music of his Russian roots.

In 1835 and 1836, Glinka’s first opera, A Life for the Tsar, was written. It was based on a story by Zhukovsky which told about how a man, Ivan Susanin, risked his life to save the first Romanov Tsar from a gang of Poles. It was so successful that Glinka was named the Imperial Director of Music in Russia by Emperor Nicholas I himself only a year after the opera’s first performance.

Although he started his next opera right away, it did not actually get completed for another six years. Earlier on, upon Glinka’s father’s death and returning to Russia, he got married to a woman named Maria Petrovna Ivanova . The marriage turned out to be somewhat of a disaster, seeing that she was not very supportive of his career in the field of music. After his divorce, he moved in with his mother. This whole process slowed down the completion of his second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila which turned out not to be such a great success. Although it contained a great deal of Glinka’s best and very influential music, the fairy tale by Pushkin, on which the plot was based, was not suitable for opera.

After the short-coming of Ruslan and Lyudmila, Glinka did not compose a great deal of significant music with the exception of one masterpiece, Kamarinskaya, a musical piece which had a great influence upon future composers including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the group of Russian composers known as ‘The Five.’ (* -The latter, also known as ‘The Mighty Handful’ was an important group of composers in music history with the aim of producing a kind of Russian art music without European influence. The group consisted of the following composers: Mily Balakirev who led the group, Modest Mussorgsky, César Cui, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.)

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Now, I thought it was time to write about a composer from the Romantic period again. The person we are going to talk about today is a Frenchman. Interestingly enough, during his childhood, Hector Berlioz was not considered to be a very talented musician, better said, he was talented but not the typical child prodigy composer. He tried playing the piano and the flute, but to no avail. Yet, he started playing guitar, and found a passion for the instrument and became quite good on it. It is interesting that although he learned the guitar and flute, he never learned to play the piano, which is quite a rarity for a composer.

Born in Grenoble in the French Alps, he was know to be an intensive reader. He read all the classics; among them Virgil, Shakespeare and Goethe. As time went by during his childhood, he had had a growing desire to play music and become a musician. His parents, of course, wanted him to take up medicine and sent him to study in Paris. And yet, his will to become a musician had been much too strong. Thusly, he ended up leaving the school against his parents wishes and going to study music at the Paris Conservatoire. Berlioz was financially cut off by his parents on account of this and he was forced to take up a job singing in a choir.

At the Paris Conservatoire, he was noted to be a difficult student. He had conceptions of music that were so grand, most of the things that he conceived were thought to be very difficult if not nearly impossible to perform. This did not stop him from eventually being awarded the Prix de Rome in 1830, a prize which had been coveted by many to a great extent. This had been something he really wanted. He had actually competed four times before finally winning. It was because of this prize that his father finally gave in and recognised his son as a composer. This also gave him the opportunity to go to Rome, an experience which had influenced not only his life a great deal, but also his music.

Around this time, Berlioz became obsessed with a woman, Harriet Smithson, who had been a well-known actress in Paris. Berlioz had seen her perform Shakespeare and became quite infatuated with her. Even though they had never formally met, he wrote letters to her all time proclaiming his love for her. Unfortunately, she was not very interested in him and would not give him the time of day. Berlioz did not just give up… He wrote a piece named Symphonie fantastique. It was program music. - During the Romantic Era, the type of music known as ‘program music’ was quite popular. This is music that is meant to evoke images or memories of past events within the listener. - The second movement of Symphonie fantastique for example describes a ball; the third movement is a portrayal of nature. The main idea of the entire piece was unrequited love; Harriet Smithson being the principle musical idea and the source of his inspiration. When Harriet finally heard the symphony, she fell in love with the composer and married him. They had a son together named Louis.

His compositions at the time included at work commissioned by Paganini, Harold in Italy, and a requiem commissioned by the French government. As mentioned before, Berlioz had a great ability think up and compose for incredibly large-scaled instrumentation. The piece that he wrote for the French government required 220 players and 200 voices. An interesting fact is that Harold In Italy, a piece for viola and orchestra, was actually rejected by Paganini on the grounds that it did not give him enough to play. In spite of this, he remained friends with Berlioz and fancied his musical ability, actually awarding him a great deal of money, which gave him much more time to concentrate on composing.

His marriage to Harriet Smithson ended up being a failure due to Harriet’s failing career and the drinking problem that she developed as a result of it. He got a divorce in 1844, only to shortly after marry a woman by the name of Marie Recio. During the same year, he composed Les Nuits d’Été(Summer Nights) as well as writing an essay on the subject of orchestration that is still used as an important source of information for today’s composers. It is known as the ‘Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration Modernes’(Treatise on Instrumentation).

It was not until 1856 that Berlioz wrote his masterpiece, Les Troyens(The Trojans), one of the grandest works he had ever written. Taking an entire three years to complete, it was actually divided up into two parts on account of its length. The two parts, each one divided into a further two acts were named La Prise de Troie(The capture of Troy) and Les Troyens á Carthage(The Trojans in Carthage).

Berlioz has long since his death in 1869 been recognised as one of the most important composers in the Romantic period, having made advances in symphonic form and orchestration in general. Yet, although he had been successful throughout Europe during his lifetime, it took a long while for his homeland France to recognise his ability. This did not happen until long after his death. Having experienced a life full of both great successes and failures, he carried all the attributes the typical romantic composer was known to have. Above all, his music is a prime exemplar of French music during the Romantic period; a master of orchestration.

To listen to music by this great composer, click here

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Our next composer, Frédéric Chopin, was originally from Poland. Born near Warsaw in Zelasowa Wola, he started studying music at the age of six. Only a year later, he started giving concerts and even published his first composition. At 16 years old, he was accepted by the Warsaw Conservatory to study under Józef Elsner and graduated with honours only three years later, at the time a young man of 19 years and already an accomplished pianist. By the age of 20, he had already composed two piano concertos which were quite demanding for the piano soloist. (* concerto – a word coming from Italian word for concert; in English meaning a composition for orchestra and a soloist.)

The first concerts that he gave abroad were in Vienna, Austria. He was charmed by life outside his country and eventually ended up leaving Poland for good, settling in France in 1831. His father was originally a Frenchman, hence the name he was given Frédéric Chopin.

(*His name is pronounced by correctly reading the following in English accenting the bold print: fre der eek – shou pa)

In France, although he became known as a very good player among a great deal of people, he had a difficult time developing his career as a pianist in the beginning. On account of the fact that he was such a shy person, it damaged his ability to perform on stage. In fact, his first performance in France was not a huge success. People just didn’t take to his introverted presence on stage. He then resorted to playing in the Parisian salons for smaller groups of people which eventually led to his reputation of being arrogant. At the same time, playing for these small groups of influential people, teaching, and composing soon made him one of the most popular and well-paid musicians in Paris. He didn’t need the concert halls to make a living.

At the age of 27, he met the French writer George Sand and ended up living with her for a period of ten years before breaking up. George Sand is known to have inspired him a great deal during the period when he wrote some of his best pieces. She had also cared for him during the times that he became bedridden with tuberculosis.

Frédéric Chopin’s music is something very special. He was, of course, influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach and Vincenzo Bellini, yet a great deal of his compositions were the product of the sounds of the folk songs and dances of his native Poland. Due to the fact that these were so unique with respect to their unusual melodies and rhythms, borrowing them for his compositions also made Chopin’s pieces quite individual in themselves. In fact, along with having influence composers such as Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Johannes Brahms, the music of Frédéric Chopin is still listened to and loved and cherished to this very day.

To listen to music by Frédéric Chopin click here

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This composer has been praised by Richard Wagner as being ‛the only composer who could measure up to Beethoven.’ Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, Austria. Although he appeared to have great musical ability as a child, his first aspirations were not directed at going into the field of music. Wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, he became a school teacher at the St. Florian monastery near the city of Linz. It was there, having once been a pupil himself, that he indirectly started his musical career. Part of his teaching duties included playing the organ.

During this time, he became quite fascinated with music and pursued several disciplines. It was not until 1855 that he applied for the position of organist at the cathedral of Linz, Austria. Even at this time, he was quite unsure of the decision to make a living solely from music alone and was greatly persuaded to apply for the job. Surely enough, his application was successful and he was a full blown professional musician.

Although his work in Linz took up a great deal of his time, he sought out lessons in counterpoint and harmony with Simon Sechter by means of a correspondence course at the Vienna Conservatory. Subsequently, in 1861, he graduated with honours. At his final examination, one of his examiners, astounded by his ability, remarked that Bruckner should have judged them.

Only seven years later, Anton Bruckner became professor at the Vienna Conservatory, thereby leaving his organist position in Linz. To make the decision to change jobs was a difficult thing for him to decide. He enjoyed a great deal of security as cathedral organist. It was not until the Vienna Conservatory said that his salary would be much higher that he decided to take up the professorship.

Bruckner wrote a great deal of sacred music, yet was most noted for his symphonies. His pieces were very long and rich in polyphony(*-Music arranged in parts for several voices or instruments. )It is an interesting fact that his symphonies at the time were regarded as wild and unplayable. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra refused to play his works on account of this. Bruckner then allowed revisions and cuts to his compositions. This led to the attack of his pieces by a famous music critic, Eduard Hanslick, due to their inconsistency. Not until the present day have they started to play his works in their original form.

The one composer that always supported him had been Richard Wagner. This was much appreciated and for this reason, following Wagner’s death, Bruckner dedicated the Adagio from his Seventh Symphony to his memory. It was this very work which brought his music into light of the international community and finally received the recognition it deserved. His Eighth Symphony was not received quite as well, yet the first 3 movements of his Ninth Symphony are truly his most spectacular. It is such a pity that this great man was not capable of finishing it before his death in 1896.

To listen to music by this great composer, click here

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