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February 2010 Street
Date (new releases-Cecilia Picks) Does classical
music February
Composers Kreisler Street Date (new releases/Cecilia picks) Public
Radio Research Current
Film Reviews The Lovely Bones The Imaginarium
of Doctor Parnassus
Why
Cecilia? Tools |
Harris, Roy Ellsworth Harris was born in Lincoln County, Oklahoma Territory and trained in music. After graduation from Covina High School he entered the University of California in 1919 majoring in philosophy and economics. He began to compose around 1925 living in Los Angeles "to hear music" and in his spare time between school and work he earned his living in early as a farmer, truck driver etc. He studied with Arthur Farwell, who borrowed musical ideas from Native Americans. From 1926 to 1928 after winning a Guggenheim Fellowship he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger as many US composers did. He "developed a system of modal semantics, in which psychological moods are ranged from optimistic to sad in proportion to the remoteness of the semitone from the keynote." For more see February Composers
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 George Frederic Handel b Halle, February 23, 1685 d London , April 14, 1759 |
 A marble stature of Handel.1738 by Louis François Roubiliac, commissioned for the Vauxhall Gardens. It can be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum |
He was born in Halle, Germany February 23, 1685. The family spelled the name 15 different ways. He himself used Händel, Haendel, Hendel and Handel at four different times in his life. *When he settled in England and became a British subject in 1726 he took an English name except for the German "Frederic." He signed "Frederic" on his petition for naturalization.
His background and music training was similar to Bach's with his middle class north German Protestant background. He studied law at Halle and music there under Frederich Wilhelm Zachow (1663 - 1712). Concluding his studies in Halle he took a position in Hamburg with the Keiser's opera orchestra as violinist. His Almira and Nero were produced there in 1705.
1706 found him in Italy where he absorbed the Italian styles of opera oratorio, serenata, concerto and chamber music. In Venice (1709) his opera Agrippina enjoyed great success. While in Venice he also composed the oratorios La Resurrezione and Trionfo del Tempo, the serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, solo cantatas and chamber duets
Continues at February Composers.
 Arcangelo Corelli 1653 - 1713
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Corelli, Arcangelo This violinist and composer was born in Fusignano between Bologna and Ravenna of a prosperous land owning family. So even before birth he had a tie with future patrons. Arcangelo took his first music lessons from a priest in Faenza near Fusignnano, then in Lugo and finally in Bologna at the basilica of St. Petronio. The basilica is famous for its composers Cazzati, Perti, Colonna, Vitali and Torelli. By 1671 he was in Rome performing as a violinist in an orchestra formed for the Easter Season to perform Lenten oratorios at St. Giovanni dei Fiorentini. There is a story that Rousseau aroused Lully's jealousy with his tales of this amazing violinist. Lully at the time was building one of strongest string ensembles in Europe for Louis XIV. It's interesting that we celebrate both Corelli
and Handel this month..They worked together in Italy. Corelli
was conducting a Handel overture with the composer standing behind
him. Suddenly Handel grabbed the bow (baton) out of Corelli's
hand. Corelli was heard to exclaim "but my dear Saxon I'm
not familiar with the French style!" There's more at February Composers.
This is the title page of the second violin part of Corelli's Op. 3 - Trio Sonatas for Two Violins, Violone or Archlute And Organ. First edition, Rome 1689. |
 Rossini in his later years. After writing more than 30 operas in 12 years he abruptly retired from composing for the stage at age 37. |
Rossini, Gioacchino
He was born in Pesaro, Italy. His father was the town trumpeter and slaughter house inspector. He made the mistake of welcoming Napoleon to Pesaro and was removed form his positions. Rossini's mother took him to Bologna where she made her living as a leading lady in comic opera. He studied at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna entering as a student of cello and composition. The music of Mozart was almost a cult for him and his fellow students called him "the little German."
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His sense of melody and sense of humor developed and he produced his first comic opera at 16 La cambiale di matrimonia in 1810 Tancredi, his first opera seria in 1813 both in Venice. Under the title Almaviva his Il barbiere di Sivilia (The Barber of Seville) had an unfortunate first night in Rome in 1816. Later it became his greatest triumph.
There's more Rossini at February Composers |
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 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy 1809 - 1847 |
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Mendelssohn, Jacob
Ludwig Felix
Coming from a well educated wealthy family he was comfortable his entire life (giving a lie to the starving artist theory) and so was able to travel. Beginning in 1829 he visited England (during his lifetime he became a favorite there), Scotland, Italy and France. It was Goethe who urged him to visit Italy. Mendelssohn's letters recounting his Italian experience are fun and witty. And the symphony inspired by the trip is brilliant and entertaining. In 1833 he was appointed Music Director at the town of Duesseldorf. He produced his oratorio "St. Paul" there. In his 30s (1836) he became conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts. He with Schumann and others founded the Leipzig Conservatory in 1842. |
 Mendelssohn like Schoenberg and Gershwin was a talented
amateur artist as well as a composer. He made this watercolor
of the Gewandhaus, the principal concert hall of Leipzig in 1836
for the album of Henriette Grabau. The music below the picture,
also in Mendelssohn's hand, is from Cherubini's Ali Baba |
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This portrait was made at the age of 12. Mendelssohn is in childish dress (Maybe that's why he looks so angry!) He soon abandoned this attire as he became famous at an early age. All the Mendelssohn children (Rebecca, Fanny & Felix) rose daily at five in the morning to begin a day that included study of music, history, Greek, Latin, natural science, philosophy, contemporary literature and drawing as well as regular instruction in riding, swimming and dancing. Felix could read in several languages both classical and modern. There was promise of genius in the earliest of his music. By the age of12 he had written a cantata, two operettas, a piano trio, a violin sonata, four piano sonatas and numerous miniatures. He wrote string symphonies and an opera as teenager between the ages of 12 and 15. The symphonies were inspired by Goethe. Mendelssohn had spent two weeks with him prior to writing them. Even though they are somewhat derivative (he owes a great deal to Mozart and other composers) the symphonies for strings remain in the concert hall and CD repertory today. There's more at February Composers |
 This is Poissoniere Blvd, Paris were Chopin lived with novelist George Sand. The painting is by Isidore Dagnan. It hangs in the Carnavalet Museum. |
Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek February 29, 1810 He was born in Zelazowa, Poland and is known both as a pianist and composer. He was the son of a French father, living in Poland and Polish mother. He became known as a infant prodigy. At the Warsaw Concer -vatory he studied with Joseph Elsner. With two concerts in Vienna he began to gain some recognition in 1830. That year he visited Vienna, Munich and Stuttgart arriving in Paris in 1831. There he began to give concerts and and appear in concerts. At that time he made the acquaintance of Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Bellini. In 1837 he met the novelist George Sand. They lived in Majorca between 1838 and 39. And then in Paris and at Nohant between 1840 and 46. Domestic strife in 1847 caused their separation. Chopin toured England and Scotland in 1848. He died of consumption the next year. |
 George Sand & Chopin Their affair lasted 10 years. It was Chopin's most productive period |
Chopin's compositions are almost entirely for piano. He built his compositional style on the Irish composer John Field as well as Hummel. He created a brilliant individual style and contributed greatly to Western music. His keyboard writing makes a virtue of the evanescent tone of the piano and uses melodic decoration as an enrichment of the harmonic structure. He is the master of suggestion. He explored harmonic territory going far boundaries of his time. His other influences include the folk-music of Poland with his use of the Mazurka and Italian opera with its demanding virtuosity. As a performer his playing was incomparable, remarkable both for its delicacy and it intensity. His contemporaries found the magical significance in his passages incomprehensible on paper. You'll find more at February Composers |
 Villa son Vent in Majorca where Chopin lived with the author George Sand between 1838 & 1839. |
 Johann Nepomuk Hummel 1778 - 1837 |
 Clara (Wieck) Schumann 1819 - 1896 |
 Eugène (Ferdinand Victor) Delacroix 1798 - 1863 painter |
 John Field 1782 - 1837 |
 Marie Antoinette 1755 - 1793 Wife of Louis XVI of France |
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 Louis Philippe 1773 - 1850 King of France |
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 Honoré Balzac 1799 - 1850 novelist |
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 Hector Berlioz 1803 - 1868 |
 Victor Hugo 1802 - 1885 |
We came across a site that might be of interest to the
classical music listener.In it there are rare letters
between Mozart and one Sophie Weber .
http://hometown.aol.com/martibur/
Here's another interesting site:
www.amadeusmozart.de
