Nadia and Lili Boulanger were daughters of Ernest Boulanger, who taught at the Paris Conservatoire. Both studied with and were influenced by notable French composer Gabriel Faure. Both competed for the Prix de Rome prize in composition – Nadia won second place, Lili was the first woman to win the prize. Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) Marie-Juliette…
Overview of Tchaikovsky’s life, his influence as a Romantic composer, and listening examples of Tchaikovsky’s works that feature flute.
“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.” Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, France, near the border with Spain, which created a life-long appreciation of Spanish culture. Ravel is slightly younger than Claude Debussy, whose work Ravel admired. Ravel’s focus on technical perfection of composition surely stems from the detailed work of…
Felix Mendelssohn composed with a combination of the ideas of control and restraint from the Classical Era and the imagination and creativity that characterized the Romantic Era. Many of his compositions are light and focus on the fanciful aspect of Romanticism. Mendelssohn shares some similarities with Mozart. He was considered a child prodigy, often playing…
It is no wonder that Gioacchino Rossini composed so many operas – his musical strength in his youth was his voice. He composed 38 operas by the time he was 37 years old, but composed no more after the creation of one of his most famous, William Tell. Many have speculated why he stopped opera…
“Papa” Haydn was also known as the father of the symphony (of which he composed 104!) and grandfather of the string quartet. Though he did not invent these forms, he did quite a bit to perfect them with wisdom and good taste. “Papa” Haydn was respected as a man of good character who looked out…
The primary aim of French music is to give pleasure Claude Debussy Achille-Claude Debussy, though one of the best known Impressionist composers today was not a fan of the Impressionist label. He admired the work of Richard Wagner and sought to liberate tone, sound and texture even further from the straight-jacket of contrived form. Debussy’s…
George Frederick Handel is a German composer from the Baroque Era who is best known for his great choral work Messiah from which his famous Hallelujah Chorus comes. Handel had a great interest in music as a child which his mother supported but his father discouraged. Handel followed his father’s wishes and enrolled in law…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Classical Era composer who loved to compose operas. He was taught music by his father and became a notable touring musician (managed by his father, of course) as a young boy. He amazed audiences with his command of the piano, violin and viola, as well as his skill in composition…
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is a German Baroque era (1600-1750) composer who is known as the grandfather of modern music theory – his compositions were so well loved and studied, and focused so much on harmonic color, that our rules of music theory are modeled after what Bach did (and avoided) in most of his…
