Robert Schumann Robert Schumann[1] (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. In 1840, against the wishes of her father, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Schumann suffered from a lifelong mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Music room of Schumann 1830–34[edit] [edit]
The Smiths: Better than the Beatles? They lasted just five years. They made just four proper albums. They’ve been ignored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The American pop charts wanted nothing to do with them. But the legacy and legend of the Smiths only grows. The partnership that ensued led to arguably the most important music of the decade, and some would say even longer. The terrific British music writer Tony Fletcher has just published the definitive biography of the group, “A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths,” taking almost 700 pages to tell the story of just 70 songs and this essential slice of the 1980s. “Those my own age, most of us parents now, some even with angst-riden teenagers of our own, mostly greeted a mention of the Smiths as if I was speaking of a former lover,” he writes. Let me start with the big legacy question. I place them right up there. So I think when you look commercially, you can’t say Morrissey and Marr were on the level then of Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards.
Felix Mendelssohn Portrait of Mendelssohn by the English miniaturist James Warren Childe (1778–1862), 1839 Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]; 3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn,[n 1] was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family, although initially he was raised without religion and was later baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. Early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was followed by travel throughout Europe. Life[edit] Childhood[edit] Felix's surname[edit] Career[edit] Musical education[edit] Early maturity[edit] Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach[edit] Düsseldorf[edit]
Lana Del Rey, the joke’s on us Andy Warhol famously remarked that the president and Liz Taylor drink the same cola as the bum on the corner: “All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.” On the year’s most controversial album, “Born to Die,” (released in a “Paradise Edition” last week), Lana Del Rey proclaims “My pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola.” It’s not enough for 2012’s most-talked-about pop star (did people really discuss Carly Rae Jepsen?) to enjoy corporate excess or bemoan it from a human distance; she has to physically bond with it. Why carry the designer bag when you can get the logo tattooed? Whether you find Lana’s, ahem, product placement to be appalling or novel, chances are excellent that you paused to take it in, because it’s not the sort of thing that a pop star — or any kind of celebrity really — would say. Laughter is a crucial feature of any connective music, just in case there are still Scott Walker fans who can’t fathom why he toils in cultdom while Sinatra enjoys commemorative plates.
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, T.O.S.F. (German: [fʁant͡s lɪst]; Hungarian: Liszt Ferencz; October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886), in modern use Liszt Ferenc[n 1] (Hungarian pronunciation: [list ˈfɛrɛnt͡s]); from 1859 to 1867 officially Franz Ritter von Liszt,[n 2] was a 19th-century Hungarian[1][2][3] composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. Life[edit] Early life[edit] The earliest known ancestor of Liszt is his great-grandfather, Sebastian List who was one of the thousands of German migrant serfs locally migrating within the Austrian Empire's territories (around the area now constituting Lower Austria and Hungary) in the first half of the 18th century. Anna Liszt, née Maria Anna Lager (portrait by Julius Ludwig Sebbers between 1826 and 1837) In Vienna, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. Paganini[edit]
Björk puts the rock in rock star Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk was born and raised on an island that tectonic forces are ripping apart. Iceland is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which separates the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate. These two plates are drifting away from one another at a rate of about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) each year. Most of the Mid-Atlantic ridge remains underwater, but Iceland was forced above sea level around 18 million years ago, most likely by an enormous mushroom-shaped plume of magma. The Icelandic plume is also probably responsible for the island’s intense volcanic activity and geysers. Over the years, Iceland’s unique geology and diverse landscapes have appeared in Björk’s art in one way or another. Björk and her team chose Los Angeles-based filmmaker Andrew Thomas Huang to direct the music video for “Mutual Core.” The video opens with crumbling layers of earth, reminiscent of sand art. In some scenes, Björk appears to spit magma from her mouth.
Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) The Unfinished, third movement, facsimile, 1885, in J. R. von Herbeck's biography Schubert’s Eighth is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony due to its emphasis on expressive melody, vivid harmony and creative combinations of orchestral tone color despite the architecturally imposing Classical structures of its two completed movements highlighted by the dramatically climactic development section of the first movement based solely on its quietly sinister opening theme. To this day, musicologists still disagree as to why Schubert failed to complete the symphony; or even whether he did fail to complete it.[4] Some have speculated that he stopped working on it in the middle of the scherzo in the fall of 1822 because it was associated in his mind with the initial outbreak of syphilis, or simply that he was distracted by the inspiration for his Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano which occupied his time and energy immediately afterward; or perhaps a combination of both factors.
Gangnam Style: We need more foreign language pop songs Photographs by Axl Jansen and Ryan Pierse/Getty Images. How to account for the more than 650 million YouTube views of “Gangnam Style”? That jaunty dance surely deserves some credit, but might the faucalized voice and aspirated consonants of the Korean language play a part as well? It may seem unlikely, though perhaps no more unlikely than everything else about Psy’s megahit. “Gangnam Style” is the first smash foreign-language song in the United States in years—and, with any hope, a sign of more to come—but it’s hardly the first. This is a shame for a number of reasons. Given the history of pop, an English translation of "Gangnam Style" may not be far off. Language’s effect on music can take unexpected forms. Despite this rhythmic-linguistic hurdle, some singers do OK shifting from one tongue to another. In any case, international charts make it clear that English now serves as pop’s lingua franca. Are some languages more musical than others? Thanks to Dr.
Franz Schubert 1875 oil painting by Wilhelm August Rieder, after his own 1825 watercolor portrait Franz Peter Schubert (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁant͡s ˈʃuːbɐt]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer. In a short lifespan of less than 32 years, Schubert was a prolific composer, writing some 600 Lieder, ten complete or nearly complete symphonies, liturgical music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades immediately after his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Biography[edit] Early life and education[edit] Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. Teacher at his father's school[edit] Supported by friends[edit]
The End of Jazz - Benjamin Schwarz Duke Ellington with his close collaborator Billy Strayhorn (Underwood & Underwood/Corbis) The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire By Ted Gioia Oxford Musician, composer, scholar, teacher, perhaps a bit of an operator—albeit of a distinctly nerdy variety—Ted Gioia is also the sort of compulsive, encyclopedically knowledgeable enthusiast the jazz world engenders. Although he suggests in his introduction that this book satisfies an unfilled need, in fact the Web site JazzStandards.com already provides a similar guide, written by a variety of contributors. Take his entry on Billy Strayhorn’s bitter, lovely, transcendent “Lush Life” (1936). VIDEO: Benjamin Schwarz shares some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time, from Frank Sinatra to Billy Strayhorn. Still, the most impressive aspect of the entry is Gioia’s assessment of a single word.
Symphonic poem While many symphonic poems may compare in size and scale to symphonic movements (or even reach the length of an entire symphony), they are unlike traditional classical symphonic movements, in that their music is intended to inspire listeners to imagine or consider scenes, images, specific ideas or moods, and not to focus on following traditional patterns of musical form (e.g. sonata form). This intention to inspire listeners was a direct consequence of Romanticism, which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. Musical works that attempt to inspire listeners in this way are often referred to as program music, while music that has no such associations may be called absolute music. Background[edit] Between 1845 and 1847, Franco-Belgian composer César Franck wrote an orchestral piece based on Victor Hugo's poem Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne. Liszt[edit] Franz Liszt in 1858 Czech composers[edit] Dvořák wrote two groups of symphonic poems, which date from the 1890s.
The Greatest Recordings in Jazz History - Jennie Rothenberg Gritz In "The End of Jazz," his essay in the November Atlantic, Benjamin Schwarz looks at the Great American Songbook -- a collection that is not a physical book, but "a notional catalogue of classic popular songs" written between the 1920s and 1950s. Many of its entries are familiar to almost every American, including famous tunes by Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, and other masters of the musical theater. In this video, Schwarz singles out some of the most unforgetable performances of these songs. He shows how Peggy Lee's "Where or When" — recorded with Benny Goodman and his band — captured "the quavering uncertainty" in the weeks just after Pearl Harbor. He explains that Frank Sinatra's "I've Got You Under My Skin" transformed a little-known Cole Porter number into a staple of the Great American Songbook. And he explores the enigma of "Lush Life," a Billy Strayhorn song that Sinatra himself tried and failed to capture.
Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven ( i/ˈlʊdvɪɡ væn ˈbeɪ.toʊvən/; German: [ˈluːtvɪç fan ˈbeːt.hoːfən] ( Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and Christian Gottlob Neefe. Biography Background and early life Prince-Elector's Palace (Kurfürstliches Schloss) in Bonn, where the Beethoven family had been active since the 1730s Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. Beethoven's first music teacher was his father. A portrait of the 13-year-old Beethoven by an unknown Bonn master (c. 1783) Maximilian Frederick's successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Franz, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and he brought notable changes to Bonn. In March 1787 Beethoven traveled to Vienna (possibly at another's expense) for the first time, apparently in the hope of studying with Mozart. Establishing his career in Vienna Musical maturity