Owner: Great composers and their Lives URL:http://www.ferrisguitar.com/blog Join Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:56:32 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Updated weekly, this is a collection of short articles on composers focusing on their lives and what they had to go through to give their gift of music to humanity. Site statistics:Click here
Entry for October 4, 2007 2007-10-04 05:17:32 Eric Satie 1866 -1925Here is what I call an interesting musician. Erik Satie, a pianist and composer, grew up in France and was born into a bicultural family, having a Scottish mother and a French father. Although he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and was always a very gifted musician, in the beginning of his career, he had the reputation of being very lazy and unreliable, even to the point of being untalented. Despite this, he wrote 3 Gymnopédies. Very beautiful pieces that he himself decribed as furniture music, his label for background music. In 1890, living in Montmartre, France, he met his life-long friend Claude Debussy. He used to like to go to cafés to meet other musicians and have discussions(or arguments) with them. It was in this year that he wrote Gnossiennes, which sounds very oriental.For a long time, he was very low on money and had to live in very humble accommodations, although his true desire was to always do more with his music. Not being very satisfied with hi Read more:Entry
, October
Entry for October 1, 2007 2007-10-01 06:23:21 Heitro Villa-Lobos 1887 - 1959
A great composer that gave a great deal to the guitar- and of course, to those that play and listen to it. This wonderful man was responsable for making the country of Brazil know for its music. He was a boy who grew up in Rio de Janeiro and learned cello from his father. This had been probably his second favorite instrument to the guitar... In his first prelude, he actually tried to imitate a cello in the bass.
Throughout his life, he gained quite a mastery on the guitar. And the most interesting thing is that he never got any type of academic training on the instrument... Most of his pieces are full of single chord formations that are moved up and down the fretboard with slight varations. He most likely just sat there and messed with the guitar for hours, listening to every single sound that it made until he was able to invent some of the most unusual sounds the guitar, at that time, had ever made. The chords he made up are with Read more:Entry
, October
Muzio Clementi 1752 – 1832 2008-02-16 17:47:53 Muzio Clementi
was born in Rome. His father, who was quite fond of music and an amateur musician himself, had been a successful silversmith. He recognized his son’s talent right away and started him up playing the organ at the age of 7. Only 2 years after, in direct competition with adults, he was [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-02-14 04:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Franz Berwald 1796 –1868 2008-02-04 04:19:07 Franz Berwald was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1796. Having been largely self-taught, he did study music with his father, who had been a German violinist in the Royal Opera Orchestra, and composition with J. B. E. De Puy, the conductor of the court orchestra. The story of this composer is unique on account [...]
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber 1782 – 1871 2008-01-26 04:08:20 Auber was the son of a hunter that became quite wealthy by going into the business of dealing art in Paris. Auber was actually born in Normandy. This was on account of his parents once making a trip from Paris to Caen, the capital of lower Normandy.
Showing a great deal of talent on [...] Read more:Esprit
, Daniel
George Gershwin 1898-1937 2008-01-20 06:40:41 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 [...]
Johann Pachelbel 1653 – 1706 2008-01-13 14:51:44 Anyone who reads the name of this composer immediately thinks of the Canon in D. Of course, JohannPachelbel
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 [...]
Hugo Wolf 1860 – 1903 2008-01-04 15:43:30 Hugo Philipp Jakob Wolf was a very interesting Austrian composer. A true picture of how detrimental it can be for a composer to get a venereal disease. Yet, due to his genius, he was able to truly give a lot to the world in an incredibly short time.
Having been taught violin and piano by [...]
Luigi Boccherini 1743 - 1805 2007-12-15 02:49:30 This Italian composer was actually born into a family full of artists. Amazingly enough, he wrote 300 chamber works, 18 symphonies, and 93 string quartets. His chamber works also included 9 guitar quintets, which guitarists are quite grateful for.
What made this composer special was the fact that he not only came from Italy [...] Read more:Luigi
Hector Berlioz 1803 – 1869 2007-12-08 17:57:59 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 [...]
Franz Xaver Gruber 1787 - 1863 2007-12-07 10:58:30 Up until now, we have always talked about prolific composers that have written a lot of music for the world. Well, this one had written a single ‘hit’ and went down in history for composing one of the most famous tunes in all the world. You know the song for sure!
Franz Gruber was born on [...]
Franz Schubert 1797 – 1828 2008-03-14 08:39:53 There have been a great deal of classical composers that were centred in Vienna, Austria, whom we associate with the city itself. Among them are Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart, although Franz Schubert was only one of the above-mentioned who was actually born in the city. Unfortunately, he was also the only one of these [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-03-12 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Tomaso Albinoni 1671 – 1751 2008-04-28 04:26:37 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 [...]
François Couperin 1668 - 1733 2008-04-30 04:41:35 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, [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-04-29 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Gaetano Donizetti 1797 – 1848 2008-05-08 09:20:16 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, [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-05-01 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Guillaume de Machaut approx. 1300 - 1377 2008-05-17 12:52:09 To understand the composer Guillaume de Machaut, it is essential to understand the period in which he lived. It was the time when the Ars nova(new art) Period of music was flourishing in France and then throughout Europe. The term itself correlates to its predecessor the Ars antiqua (old art) Period(1240-1320). Both of these [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-05-14 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Gregorio Allegri 1582 – 1652 2008-05-26 11:04:54 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 [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-05-23 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Mikhail Glinka 1804 – 1857 2008-06-05 12:17:26
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 [...] Read more:Mikhail
Intro and Welcome 2008-06-01 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
Frédéric Chopin 1810-1849 2008-06-18 13:13:23 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 [...]
Anton Bruckner 1824 – 1896 2008-07-10 04:41:30 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 [...]
Intro and Welcome 2008-06-20 05:43:21 I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All [...] Read more:Welcome
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