ΜΟΥΣΙΚΟ ΗΜΕΡΟΛΟΓΙΟ - ΟΚΤΩΒΡΙΟΣ
* OCTOBER 1
I--1716 in Bergamo
Italian composer and organist.
By 1672 he was organist to the Academia della Morte in Ferrara.In1677 he was admitted to the Academia
Filarmonica of Bologna--far too late to lend credibility to the unlikely notion that he was Corelli's teacher.
He moved to Modena in 1680,but returned to Bologna in 1682 as 'principe'of the Academy.
Within a year or so he was again in Ferrara,now as 'maestro' to the Academia della Morte,and in1686 he became'maestro di cappella' at Ferrara Cathedral.
He spent the last four years of his life at the important church of St Maria Maggiore in Pergamo.
Birth of KARL RANKI
1898 in Caaden near Vienna
Austrian- born British dconuctor.
He studied with Schoenberg and Webern and became chorus master and repetiteur at the Vienna Volksoper
in 1919,and was later assistant conductor.He became music director of the Neues Deutsches Theater in
Prague in 1937.At Covent Garden from 1946 to 1951 he made a vital contribution to the building of the company's technical standards.Subsequently he was music director of the Scottish National Orchestra.
He composed eight symphonies and an opera,''Deirdre of the sorrows''(1951)
Birth of PAUL BEN HAIM
--1897 in Munich
Israeli composer.He studied at the music academy and at the university in Munich(1915-1920)
His career as a conductor in Germany was cut short by Hitler's rise to power,and in 1933 he emigrated to Palestine.His works include two symphonies,and concertos for violin,cello and piano.
Many of his compositions incorporate themes derived from the folk music of the Holy Land.
--1708 in London
English composer He was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1668 and royal'musician for the virginals''' the following years.In 1679 he gave it up in favour of Henry Purcell,his pupil,taking it up again after the latter's death.With his busy life in various churches,it was natural fo Blow to become a fluent composer of anthems and
servicesAs a composer ofseculer music he was generally less successful,but if his attempts at the lighter song style do not match the melodiousness of some of his contemporaries,his odes contain powerful music,especially the masterly ''Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell(published 1696) for countertenor duet,two recorders,and
continuo a threnody worthy of its subject.His short opera ''Venus and Adonis''(produced London,1684)was
intended for court circles;although uneven in quality it has fine moments
* OCTOBER 2
Death of MAX(Christian Friedrich)BRUCH
--in 1920 in Berlin.
German composer.At 14 he won the coveted Frankfurt Mozart Foundation Prize and studied with Ferdinand Hiller
and Carl Reinecke.His long career included appointments as a conductor at the German courts of Coblenz and
Sondershausen and such cities as Liverpool and Breslau.
... Much influenced by Schumann and Mendelssohn's music,he achieved early fame in 1868 with his First Violin
Concerto op.26,which largely overshadows his 100 published works.
Bruch's music is notable for its melodic strength,its harmonic weakness beind due to a lack of inventiveness
and a resistance to progressive ideas of Wagner and Listz.
His precocious gifts remained lergely unfulfilled because he lived in the shadow of his greater contemporary
Brahms and because he resisted current changes in musical development,but his name will endure thanks to
one superb violin concerto..
Death 0f SAMUEL ARNOLD
--1802 in London.
He was educated in the Chapel Royal and in 1764 went as harpsichordist and composer to Covent Garden;
ther he compiled pasticcios,including''The Maid of the Mill'(1765).He subsequently enjoyed a successful career
as an opera composer and director,producing nearly ioo operas and other stage works as well as sveral
oratorios.He owned Marylebone Gardens for a short period,and became organist and composer to the Chapel Royal.Among his most importand projects was a collected edition of Handel's works,which wasw not completed.
In 1787 he became conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music,and in 1793 he was appointed organist of
Westminster Abbey.
Death of JOONAS KOKKONEN
--1996 in Jarvenpaa.
Finnish composer.He studied the piano at the Sibelius Academy,Helsinki,and musicology with Ilmary Krohn.
As a composer he was largely self-taught.Sibelius and Bartok are the most obvious influences on Kokkonen's
music; and in his early works he also experimented with serialism.He wrote four symphonies and three string
quarters,but his most successful and influencial work has been the opera ''Viimeiset Kiusaukset''( The Last
Temptation,1975)inspired by the life of the 19th century Finnish revivalist preacher Paavo Ruotsalainen.
Birth of KENNETH LEIGHTON
--1929 in Wakefield
English composer.He studied classics at Oxford University(1947-51) and composition in Rome with Petrassi(1951)
From 1953 to1956 he held a composing fellowship at Leeds University;thereafter he taught at Edimburgh
University,apart from a period back at Oxford(1968-70).His large output includes two symphonies,several concertos,and much church music,the style owing something to Bartok and Hindemith in its bold use of expanded diatonic and polytonal harmonies
* OCTOBER 3
Birth of KAROL(Maciej)SZYMANOWSKI
--1882
in Tymoszowka,nr Kiev.
Pilish composer.In spring 1914 he visited Sicily and North Africa,and the journey renewed and intensified his
interest in Mediterranean and Arab cultures.
Along with the growing awareness of modern French and Russian music(Debussy,Ravel,and late Skryabin),
this love of 'exotic'subject matter undoubtedly played a part in helping him shake off German influences,inaugurating his most prolific period as a composer,coinciding more or less with the war years.
By the mid-1920s he was enjoying increasing international recognition.He was a prominent figure in Polish
musical life too,becoming director of the Warsaw Conservatory in 1927 and rector of the State Academy
of Music in 1930 He was dismissed from the Academy(for political reasons)in April 1932.
Faced with alarming financial problems and rapidly deteriorating health,he was obliged to undertake
Death of Sir MALCOLM SARGENT
--1967 in London.
English conductor,pianist,and composer.
His talent came to the notice of Henry Wood.who engaged him to make his orchestra conducting deput with the Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1921.
He gave the premieres of works by Walton,Holst,and Vaughan Williams and held posts with the Halle,Liverpool
Philharmonic,and BBC Symphony orchestra.He was also an advocate of Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
He was knighted in 1947.
From 1948 to 1967 he achieved his greatest fame as chief conductor of the BBC Promenade Concerts,popularizing music in Britain on a new scale.
Death of CARL(August)NIELSEN
--1931 in Copenhagen.
Austrian composer,an exact contemporary of Sibelius,Glazunov,and Dukas,he came from humble origins and was one of ten children.As a child he showed musical aptitude and played the trumpet in the local regimental band. In 1884 he entered the Copenhagen Conservatory as a pupil of Gade He remained in Copenhagen for
the rest of his life.
His six symphonies bestride exactly the same period as those of Sibelius,though his development is quite different.
Nielsen's 60th birthday in the summer of 1925 was celebrated in Denmark to much the same extent as
Sibelius's 50th had been in Finland.A new symphony,the 'sinfonia semplice',followed within months and
Nielsen conducted its first performance himself as he had all the predecessors except the First.
The sixth is the most rarely heard of the cycle and in some ways the most enigmatic.After it,only the Flute
and Clarinet Concertos and 'Commotio for organ were to come.
By 1925 both Nielsen and Sibelius had completed their symphonic odyssey,and Nielsen's heart condition
claimed him in 1931
Death of MATTHIAS GEORG MONN
--1750 in Vienna
Austrian composer.From 1738 he held the post of organist at the newly built Karlskirche in Vienna.A notable contributor to the rise of the pre-classical symphony,Monn was the earliest in Vienna,in 1740,to write an example in four movements,with a minuet as the third;and he was one of the first to incorporate a tonic-key reprise of the first subject in his recapitulations,thus establishing an embrionic type of *sonata form.
His surviving output embraces some 20 symphonies,concertos(mainly for harpsicord),chamber music,and an imaginative and technically demanding cello concerto.
Death of HANS GAL
--1987 in Edinburgh
Austrian composer.He studied in Vienna where he was lecturer in music theory at the University from 1919 to
1929.He directed the Mainz Musikhochschule until1933 ,then worked as a conductor in Vienna until the Anschluss
when he moved to Edinburgh as a university lecturer.There he remained,a well-loved teacher and presence in the city's musical life,also producing a large amount of choral,orchestral,and chamber music in a well-wrought
conservative style.His books included several perceptive studies of composers,including Johannes Brahms
(London,1964),Franz Scubert(London,1974),and Richard Wagner(London,(1976).
Death of Sir ARNOLD BAX
--1953 in Cork.
E nglish composer.He studied at the Hamstead Conservatoir(1898-1900) and with Frederick Corder
at the RAM(1900-1905) His early works are imbued with the spirit of Celtic legent,an interest ignited
by his reading W.B.Yeats's ''The Wanderings of Usheen in 1902.
Later turned his attention to abstract forms,producing important cycles of string quartets,piano sonatas,concertos and symponies.
Acomposer with great facility,Bax developed a vivid orchestral palette drawn eclectically from Wagner'
Richard Strauss,Debussy,Elgar,and the Russians,all of whom he admired.He wrote plays novels,and
poetry under an Irish pseudonym,Dermont O'Byrne.and in 1943 he published his autobiography,
Farewell my Youth.He was knighted in 1937.
* OCTOBER 4
Death of GIOVANNI BATTISTA MARTINI
--1784 in Bologna
Italian writer on music.He was one of the most influential theorists and teachers of his time.
The son of a string player,he studied music at Bologna,then entered the Franciscan order.Apart from his
novitiate,he spent all his life as organist and maestro of S.Francesco,Bologna.
He awned a vast collection of music of the past (now in the Civico Museo,Bologna),and his writings include
a music history,'storia della musica'(Bologna,1761-81),which
he never completed.
He was consulted by many ,including J.C.Bach and Mozart about counterpoint in the 'old style'
(stile antico)of Palestrina.He also composed much sacret music and many instrumental and orchestral works.
* OCTOBER 5
Death of JACQUES(Jacob)offenbach
--1880 in Paris
French composer of German origin.
His promise as a cellist was such that,in1833,hisfather took him and the violinist brother Julius to Paris,where Jacob
was admitted to the Conservatoire.
Offenbach's early works were largely for his own instrument,together with some modesty successful attempts
at theatrical composition for the theatre.I 1850 he became conductor at the Theatre Francais,turning his concentration increasingly to theatrical composition.
He was already 36 when,in 1855,he took a tiny theatre just off the Champs-Elysees and renamed it the Theatre deBouffes-Parisiens.There he staged short,witty musical stage pieces whose humorous texts and catchy numbers provet enormous hits during that year's Paris Exhibition.
He graduated to full-length works with the mythological satire'Orfee aux enfers'Orphee aux enfers(Orpheus in Hell),
better known as 'Orpheus inthe Underworld';1858.This and other works proved irresistible not only in Paris but also in Vienna and eventually other centres,including London.
In all he composed over one-act or full-length operettas and a ballet'Le Papillon'for the Paris Opera and the romantic
opera 'Die Rheinnixen'(The Rhine Nymphs,1864).He concentrated much of the effort of his last years on the large-scale
fantasy opera 'Les Contes d'Hoffmann'(1881),but had not created a definite version when he died.
Death of SILVESTRE REVUELTAS
--1940 in Mexico city
Mexican composer.Although he studied in the USA,musical and personal experiences on tour in Mexico anSpain proved more influential on his own music,which is based on folk melody,tricked out in lavish instrumentation and
powerful motor rhythms.
The fiercly compressed 'Redes('Nets') and 'Sensemaya'(both 1938) are highly characteristic examples of his pungent orchestral idiom.The music for the film 'Noche de los mayas(1939) offers a more extended and varied
introduction to a highly individual musical personality.
Death of PIERRE de MANCHICOURT
--1564 in Madrit
Franco-Flemish composer.In 1539 he was director of the choir at Tours Cathedral,and by 1545 was maitre de
chapelle at Tournai Cathedral.He also served as canon at Arras before moving to the Flemish chapel of Philip II
in Madrid in 1559.
His works include many masses and motets,and over 50 chansons in both elegiac and satirical styles.
Birth of GIUSEPPE GAZZANIGA
--1743 in Verona
Italian composer.He studied with Porpora and Piccinni.
After beginning his career in Naples in 1768 he went on to present comic and serious operas at various Italian
theatres.He is most associated with Venice where his best-known work,Don Giovanni,was performed as part of a dramatic caprice in 1787.
Giovanni Bertati's libretto was useful to Da Ponte,but neither text nor music can survive comparison with
Mozart's opera.Gazziniga became maestro di cappella in Grema in 1791 and composed several liturgical works,
his theatrical activity ceasing in 1801.
* OCTOBER 6
Death of ALEXEI VLADIMIROVICH STANCHINSKY
--1914 nr Logachyovo,Smolensk province.
Russian composer and pianist.From 1904 he studied the piano privately in Moscow.In1907 he entered theMoscow Conservatory,where hestudied with Taneyev.In 1910 he made a collection of traditional music in Smolensk province.
The circumstances of his death near a river four years later remain unresolved.
He composed mainly for the piano,his works including two sets ofSketches(1911-13)and three preludes in canon
forms(1913-14)
Death of ANTONIO(Maria Gaspare Gioacchino)SACCHIN
I--1786 in Paris
Italian opera composer.After studying at the Conservatorio di S.Maria di Loreto in Naples,he embarked on a prolific
career of opera composition for the major theatres of Venice, Rome, Florence,and Naples.In 1769 he was elected director of the Venetian Conservatorio.In 1770 he travelled round Germany,commanding high fees.From 1772 he
spent ten years in London,where he was highly praised for his lyrical gifts.
Having fallen into financial straits because of his luxurious tastes,Sacchini ,moved to Paris where he was strongly supported by Marie Antoinette. His French operas resemble Piccinni's in their strongly dramatic intentions.
His last completed work,''Oedipe a Colone''was temporarily rejected at Fontainebleau,a disappointment which may have speeded his death.
In 1787 it was given at the Opera and became the most successful opera of its epoch,remaining in the repertory,
with over 500 performances,until the 1820s.
Death of JOHANN GOTTFRIED REICHE
--1734 in Leipzig
German trumpeter and composer.
In 1700 he was engaged in Leipzig as a town musician.He became one of the foremost interpreters of Bach's
trumpet parts.24 of his wind sonatas were published under the title 'Neue Quantricinia'(Leipzig,1696)
1959 Θάνατος του MARIO LANZA. Ο διάσημος Ιταλός τενόρος πεθαίνει από καρδιακή προσβολή στο σπίτι του στη Ρώμη .
* Dimitris Kipreos
* OCTOBER 7
Death of Sir Hubert Parry
1918 inRustington,Sussex.
English composer,teacher,and writer.After obtaining the Mus.B.degree while still at Eton,he read history and law
at Exeter College,Oxford(1867-70),sdudyi
ng music in his spare time and spending summer 1867 in Stuttgart with
Henry Hugo Pierson.He studied privately with Edward Dannreuther,who became his lifelong mentor.
He produced a series of discursive chamber works,a period of activity which culminated in the Piano concerto in F,
and the dramatic cantata 'Scenes from Prometheus Unbound.
Though a fine composer of instrumental works,his five symphonies are monuments to his considerable intellectuel
powers.He became best known for his choral works.
A disciple of Darwin and Herbert Spencer,he wrote widely on historiographical topics founded on evolutionary theory.
In 1883 he was appointed professor of music history at the RCM(where he also taught composition),becoming director
in 1895. From 1900 to 1908 he was professor of music at Oxford.He was knighted in 1898,created a baronet in 1902
and made CVO IN 1905.He is buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
* OCTOBER 8
Death of KATHLEEN FERRIER
1953 in London.
English contralto.She began to study singing relatively late,at the age of 25, having been a telephone operator.
On the advice of Malcolm Sargent she moved to London and took lessons with John Hutchinson and Roy Henderson.
Her operatic appearances were few but acclaimed,beginning with the premiere of Britten's ''The Rape of Lucretia''
(1946) and ending with her only other operatic role,Gluck's Orpheus(1953)
She was a leading concert and oratorio singer,notably in ''The dream of Gerontius'' and an admired recitalist.
The beauty of her voice and warm personality endeared her to audiences.
Birth of GIULIO CACCINI
--1551 in Florence
Italian composer and singer.He studied with Giovanni Animuccia in Rome before being recruited to sing in a set of wedding festivities in Florence in late 1565,after which he stayed there for most of his life.
Caccini was temporarily exiled from Florence in the 1590s but returned to play a leading role as a singer in the festivities for the wedding of Maria de' Medici and Henri IV of France in October 1600.Thus he became involved
in the rise of opera in Florence.
Caccini was a first-rate singing teacher,his pupils including his two wives,his two daughters,and his son,and also Francesco Rasi-one of the most celebrated singers of the early 17th century He nevertheless continued in the service of the Medici, and was buried with all honour in the church of Ss Annunziata.
Birth of EMIL Von SAUER
1862 in Hamburg
German pianist.He studied in Moscow with Nikolay Rubinstein,then witg Liszt.
He toured extensively in a long career that lasted from 1882 until 1936;but he also taughth at the Vienna Academy
and edited music(the complete piano works of Brahms)and teaching manuals.He had a formidable technique and his playing was noted for its elegance and refinement.
* OCTOBER 10 or 9
Birth of GIUSEPPE(Fortunino Francesco)VERDI--1813
in Roncole,near Busseto Italian composer
EARLY YEARS
Verdi was the son of an innkeeper in Roncole,a small village near Busseto in the duchy of Parma;his mother was a spinner.After some instruction with the local priests he moved to Busseto in 1823 and two years later began lessons
with Ferdinando Provesi,maestro di cappella at the church there.He became actively involved in the musical life of Busseto,both as a composer and as a performer.In May 1831 he moved into the house of Antonio Barezzi,a prominent merchant in Busseto and a keen amateur musician.In May 1832 he travelled to Milan and applied for entry to the conservatory.He was refused,but Barezzi agreed to the expense of private study in Milan andVerdi became a pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna,who had for many years been maestro concertatore at La Scala.He studied in Milan for some three
years,but then returned to Busseto as maestro di musica.In May 1836 he married Barezzi's daughter Margherita;they had two children,both of whom died in infancy.Verdi kept in contact in Milan,and composed an opera (Rocester) that he tried to get staged.Eventually he was successful with a revised version of the opera,now entitled ''Oberto,conte di
San Bonifacio,which was performed at La Scala,Milan,in 1839. Even before it was staged he resigned his position in
Busseto and went to live in Milan.
* OCTOBER 9
Birth of CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS 1835 in Paris.
French composer.His father died a few weeks after his birth and he was brought up by his mother and his grandmother.He began to learn the piano at the age of three and,after lessons with Camille Stamaty,gave a concert
at the Salle Pleyel when he was ten,the programme including Mozart's B concerto K450 and Beethoven's Third
Concerto.He also took lessons in composition and organ playing.
By the time he was 30 Saint-Saens had written four of his five symphonies,two of his violin concertos,and his First
Piano Concerto(1858) which was the earliest attempt in the medium by a French composer.He had also written
chamber music,including the delightful Piano Trio in F (1863),and over 30 songs,and Berlioz in a letter of 1864
called him already 'truly great artist.'
A failure that Saint-Saens regretted far more deeply was that of his operas.'Samson et Dalila' has entered the repertory,but after a low start.He was known for his quick wit and intemperate opinions,and certainly he grew crustiewith age.He married in 1875,but after the death of his two young sons,for which he blamed his wife's
carelessness,he left her and never married again.His character,like his piano playing,was often felt to be brilliant
but cold.But even a casual hearing of 'Samson et Dalila' or of the Fourth Piano Concerto reveals that passion and
imagination were not lacking.
Birth of JOHANN WILHELM HERTEL
1727 in Eisenach.
German violinist,keyboard player,and composer.
He studied originally with his father,the distinguished string player JohannChristian Hertel,whom he accompanied
as harpsichordist on concert tours.He was a prolific and,in his lifetime,highly esteemed composer.
His output includes masses,Passions,cantatas,and other church music for the court,as well as numerous keyboard concertos,symphonies,chamber works and two sets of ''Oden und Lieder''His writings embrace a treatise on thorough bass and two autobiographies.
* OCTOBER 10
Death of ADOLF HENSELT
--1889 in Bad Warmbrunn,Silesia.
German pianist and composer.
He was widely regarded as one of the leading piano virtuosos of his era,notable for his silken tone and his ability
to negotiate wide stretches. From 1838 his career was centred on St Petersburg,where he developed an
outstanding reputation as a performer and teacher.His compositional output is chiefly devoted to piano music.
His most ambitious piece is the massive,and structurally novel,Piano Concerto in F minor op.16,which strikingly displays
his propensity for extended figuration.
Birth of JOHANN NICOLAUS BACH
1669 in Eisenach.
The eldest son of Johann Christoph Bach,who served as university and town organist at Jena and is chiefly
remembered for his'Missa sopra'Allein Gott in der Hobe' for chorus;strings and continuo(1716).
* OCTOBER 11
Death of BATTISTA GIOVANNI VITALI--1692
in Modena.
Italian composer.He came from a family that produced at least three generations of musicians in the 17th and 18th
century.Vitaly was a string player in the S.Petronio orchestra,Bologna,from 1658,but his precise role is slightly
obscured by the uncertain terminology of the bass violin at this period(violone,violoncino,viol
oncello).
His instrumental collections achieved many reprints,being especially popular in England,where their simple violin
style yet tunefulness and rhythmic vitality no doubt appealed to the burgeoning amateur market.
Besides instrumental sets,his output includes both sacred and secular music.
* OCTOBER 11
Death of SAMUEL WESLEY--1837
in London.
English organist and composer.At first outshone by the musical precocity of his elder brother,Charles,he later proved the more talented-indeed he was the most important English composer of his generation.
His technique developed so rapidly that by the age of eight he had completed an oratorio,Ruth(1774),which was shown to an astonished William Boyce.He had written a considerable body of works including harpsichord sonatas
and church and orchestral music,his overture in D (1784)for two horns and strings equalling those of J.C.Bach.
He was powerfully attracted to the Roman liturgy,composing many works for it including the motets Dixit Dominus
(1800).In exitu Israel(1810)and the Missa de Spiritu Sanctu(1784) dedicated and presented to Pope Pius VI.
an eccentric man,inclined to the unorthodox,Wesley separated from his wife after only two years of marriage to live with his housekeeper.With irregular work,he spent much of his life in virtual destitution,being obliged to support his
wife and their three children as well as his housekeeper's children(among them Samuel Sebastian).
* OCTOBER 11
Birth of SILVIUS LEOPOLD WEISS--1686
in Breslau,Poland.
German lutenist and composer.He studied with his father,also a lutenist and in about 1706 entered the service of the
Court Palatine Carl Philipp.From 1708 to 1714 he lived in Italy.On the prince's death he returned to Germany,where he spent the rest of his life in the service of the electoral court at Dresden,becoming one of the highest-paid court
instrumentalists. He played throughout Europe and was highly sought after as a teacher.He wrote more lute music
than any other composer for this instrument.
* OCTOBER 11
Death of ANTON(Josef)BRUCKNER--1896
in Vienna
Austrian composer and organist.
He received his first music lessons from his father.When his father died in 1837 the family moved to Ebelsberg,a
small village near St Florian.There he was accepted as a choirboy in this great Augustinian monastery,where he received a thorough musical and general education.After training as a teacher in Linz(about 13 km from St Florian)
he took a post as a schoolteacher.During his ten years at St Florianhe he took the opportunity of playing the splendid
Chrismann organ in the Abbey and of studying the numerous manuscripts and printed volumes in the large library.He became a fine organist,able to hold his own with the recognized organ virtuosos of the day.
At the end of 1855 he became the cathedral organist in Linz,and his schoolteaching was left behind to devote himself to music.Although fully involved in the musical life of Linz,as a church musician and occasional conductor of the
Frohsinn choral society,he made significant progress as a composer.For the last ten years of his life he withdrew from
teaching and organ-playing and was occupied with the Ninth Symphony(having written eight so far)working on the
finale right up to his death.
Bruckner's Symphony no.9 in D minor,begun in August 1887 and left incomplite on his death,is a remarkably
forward-looking work,presaging the 20th century in its obsessive,driving rhythms in the second movement and
wrenching disonances in the third movement and the finale sketches.
* OCTOBER 12
Birth of JOHANN LUDWIG KREBS--1713 in Buttelstedt,nr Weimar.
German organist and composer.He attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig from 1726 and became an admired
pupil of J.S.Bach;who allegedly reffered to him as 'the only crayfish[Krebs] in my brook[Bach].
In 1737 he was appointed organist at the Marienkirche,Zwickau,and later held court posts at Zeitz and Altenburg.
On Bach's death in 1650 he applied unsuccessfully for the vacant post at Leipzig
His surviving output consists solely of instrumental music,including organ preludes and fugues,concertos for two
harpsichords,and trio sonatas,much of it strongly influenced by Bach
* OCTOBER 12
Death of LORENZO PEROSI--1956
in Rome.
Italian composer.He studied in Rome and Milan.In 1894 he was appointed 'maestro di cappella at St Mark's Venice,
being ordained shortly afterwards.In 1898 he was made director of the Sistine Chapel,in which capacity he was influential in drawing up the *motu proprio of 1903,advocating the return to a 'pure'style of church music.
Perosi's compositions of this period,which include a St Mark Passion(1897),display the influences of both 16th century
polyphony and Wagner;his oratorios were acclaimed internationally.
After a mental breakdown during World War I he recovered to produce a few small-scale works.
* OCTOBER 13
Death of JOHANN CHRISTOPH PEZEL--1694 in Bautzen,nr Glatz
German composer.
Between 1664 and 1681 he was a member of the Leipzig band of town musicians.
He composed several works for windand brass,mainly in the form of suites or sonatas,of which the best known are
his two collections of''Turmmusic'' scored for the typical town-band ensemble of cornetts and trombones.
* OCTOBER 13
Birth of ANSELM HUTTENBRENNER--1794 in Graz
Austrian composer.He studied in Vienna with Salieri and made a modest reputation as a composer.He was also
friendly with Beethoven and Schubert.Probably in 1823,Schubert gave Huttenbrenner's brother Felix the score of the
''Unfinished''Symphony,whence it eventually passed to Anslem,who made a piano duet arrangement.
In 1865 Johann Herbeck retrieved the score from him and conducted the belated premiere in Vienna.
* OCTOBER 13
Death of ARISTIDE CAVAILLE-COLL--1899 in Paris
French organ builder,from a family of organ builders,he studied in Paris and was joined there by his father and brother. They built over 500 organs,including those at Notre Dame, Ste Clodilde, and the Madeleine.
By making technical improvements to the controls and introducing many new stops,they created the quintessential
French Romantic organ,capable of subtle expressiveness and great volume,which profoundly influenced the school
of French organ composers from Franck Messiaen.
* OCTOBER 13
Death of REBECCA CLARKE--1979 in New York
English violin player and composer.After withdrawing from RAM in 1905 she studied at the RCM(1907-1910) with
Stanford,who persuaded her to take up the viola.She played in the Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1912 and was in many chamber groups,some exclusively of women.A recital career took her in 1916 to the USA ,where she stayed
until after World War 1.She revisited America in 1939 this time remaining there and marrying a fellow RCM student
and composer,James Friskin(1886-1967),in 1944.
Among her output is a sries of lullabies(including the exquisite'Morpheus')for viola,the highly acclaimed Viola Sonata
submitted under the pseudonym'Antony Trent' for the Coolidge Competition,in which it won second prize,apiano trio,a rhapsody for cello and piano,and many songs.
* OCTOBER 14
Death of KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI(Leon Dudley)--1988 in Wareham,Dorset
English composer and pianist.Largely self-taught,he appeared in public as a pianist in London,Paris,and elsewhere and in 1919 played his First Piano Sonata to an impressed Busoni,who wrote of its 'profusely
ornamental harmonic complexity'and commented that'in disregarding tradition[his music]crosses a threshold
which is no longer European,producing a quasi-exotic kind of vegetation'.
His private wealth allowed him to devote himself to composition,and for decedes he lived as a quasi-recluse,
unconcerned whether his music gained recognition;indeed,for many years he refused to permit public
performances.In 1975 he relaxed his attitude and allowed the recording of his massive
''opus clavicembalisticum''.
* OCTOBER 14
Death of EMIL(Grigor'yevich)GILES--1985
in Moscow.
Russian pianist.A prizewinner in competitions in the USSR and Europe during the 1930s,he did not appeared professionally outside Russia until 1947(1955 in the USA).Gifted with a flawless technique and considerable power,he could also produse the most delicate of touches in his thoughtful and considered interpretations
of the widest repertory from Bach to Bartok and the music of his Russian contemporaries.
* OCTOBER 14
Death of ANTONIO(Pietro)CESTI--1669 in Florence
Italian composer.He was a choirboy at Arezzo and in 1637 became a member of the Franciscan order at Volterra,where after a period of study in Florence he was appointed first organist,then maestro di cappella
at the cathedral.He was ordained as a priest,but this does not seem to have prevented him from travelling
round Italy as an opera singer during the next few years.
His early operas such as 'Alessandro vincitor di se steso(1651)',L'Argia(1655)',an
d Orontea(1656)
established his reputation as one of the best-known composers for the theater.He spent his last years
at the imperial court in Vienna,where his''Ilpomo d'oro''('The Golden Apple') was given a sumptuous
production(requiring 24 stage sets)in1668.Later that year he moved to Florence as maestro di cappella
at the court,where he died('poisoned by his rivals'according to one report).
* OCTOBER 14
Death of FRANTISEK(Franz Xaver)BRIXI--1771 in Prague
Czech composer and organist.His family,related to the Bendas,included several composers and organists of whom
he was the most prominent.Enormously prolific,he wrote some 500 religious works including masses and oratorios.
His music,like that of many of his Czech contemporaries,embraced the Viennese characteristics of Fux and the
Neapolitan style of Alessandro Scarlatti;his lively rhythmic writing and melodic inventiveness continued to exert an
influenced on Czech music into the 19th century.
* OCTOBER 14
Death of LEONARD BERNSTEIN --1990 in New York
See his birth on 25th August 1918
* OCTOBER 14
Birth of ALEXANDER (von) ZEMLINSKY--1871 in Vienna
Austrian composer and conductor,studied at the ViennaConservatory with Anton Door(1887-90) and J.N.Fuchs
(1890-2).Some of his early chamber music,notably the Clarinet Trio(1895),brought him to the attention of Brahms,
who reccomended him to his publisher,Simrock.It was however Wagner and,more important,Mahler who became
the most significant influences on his work.In 1895 he met Schoenberg,to whom he taught counterpoint and with
whom he formed a lifelong friendship;Schoenberg later married Zemlinsky's sister Mathilde.
His opera 'Es war einmal...('Once upon a time...') was accepted by Mahler for performance at the Vienna Court
Opera in 1900.The tone-poem' Die Seejungfrau'( The Mermaid,1902-3),based on Hans Andersen,is widely
interpreted as conveying the pain of his rejection by Alma Schindler,who subsequently married Mahler.
Zemlinsky's career as a conductor began with his appointment as Kapellmeister at the Vienna Carltheater in 1899.
In 1904 he made his debut at the newly formed Volksoper,becoming music director(1906-11).In 1911 he was appointed opera conductor at the German Theater in Prague,a post he had until 1927.
In 1927 he moved to Berlin,where he taught at the Musikhochschule and became Klemperer's assistant at the Kroll
Opera.In 1933 he left Nazi Germany for Vienna,then settled in the USA IN 1938.
* OCTOBER 15
Birth of FRIEDRICH(Wilhelm)NIETZSCHE--1844
in Rocken
German philosopher.His influence on 19th-and 20th-century thought has been profound.He first met Wagner in 1868 and under his influence wrote( The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music,1872).Widely regarded as among the most important works in the history of aesthetics,it posits the idea of Wagnerian music drama as the
resurrection of the spirit of the Greek tragedy in which the initial balance between the 'Apollonian'(words and
rationality)and the'Dionysiac'(music and the irratioality of convalsive emotion),sundered by the works of
Euripides,is brought back into realignment.
The crystallization of his philosophy is contained in''Also sprach Zarathustra''(1883-5),which is written in an untypical,poetic style and provided Strauss with the inspiration for his tone-poem of the same name(1895-6) and Delius's A Mass of Life(1904-5) draw on Also Sprach Zarathustra for their texts.
Nietzsche was a gifted pianist and also a composer,though none of his music has entered the repertory.His only musical work published in his lifetime was the choral Hymnus an das Leben to a text by the writer and psychologist Lou Andreas-Salome,with whom he was in love.Anumber of songs,written between 1854 and 1874,were posthumously published in 1924.
* OCTOBER 15
Death of ZDENEK FIBICH--1900 in Prague
Czech composer.After Smetana and Dvorak he is the principal representative of Czeck Romantic music.
Between 1865 and 1867 he studied in Leipzig with E.F.Richter and Moscheles.After stays in Paris and Mannheim he settled in Prague in 1871.After the death of his wife,Ruzena Hanusova,he married,at her request,her sister Betty(1846-1901),an admired operatic contralto.An affair with the writer Anezka Schulzova(1868-1905).
provided inspiration for the music of his final decade.After increasing ill health,he died of pneumonia.
His three completed symponies contain much fine music,while his symphonic poems are genuinly innovatory,
and he made the first use of the polka in an instrumental work (String Quarter in A major,1874).
His eight operas show a preoccupation with tragedy;the third,(The Bride of Messina,1883) was an attempt
to provide the Czechs with music drama in the Wagnerian manner
* OCTOBER 15
Birth of BERNHARD(Henrik)CRUSEL--1775 in Nystad
Finnish composer,clarinettist,and conductor.He moved to Stockholm when he was 15 and made a career as a
virtuoso there and,later,on the Continent.His three clarinet concertos,all composed as a vehicle for his own
prowess,were the first Nordic concertos to enter the international repertory.
On settling back in Sweden,in addition to composing and teaching,Crusell ranslated the libertos of Mozart and Rossini operas into Swedish for the Royal Opera in Stockholm.
* OCTOBER 16
Death of LEOPOLD SILVIUS WEISS--1750 in Breslau,Poland.
German lutenist and composer.He studied with his father Johann Jacob(1662-1754),also a lutenist,and in about 1706 entered the service of the Count Palatine Carl Philipp.From 1708 to 1714 he lived in Italy.On the prince's death he returned to Germany,where he spent the rest of his life in the service of the electoral court at Dresden
,becoming one of the highest-paid court instrumentalists.Weiss was among the last great lute virtuosos at a
time when the lute was rapidly going out of fashion.He played throughout Europe and was highly sought after as a teacher. He wrote more lute music than any other composer for the instrument,many of his pieces being grouped into suites absorbing French and Italian influences and using sophisticated harmonies and modulations * OCTOBER 16 Death of LEOPOLD SILVIUS WEISS--1750 in Breslau,Poland. German lutenist and composer.He studied with his father Johann Jacob(1662-1754),also a lutenist,and in about 1706 entered the service of the Count Palatine Carl Philipp.From 1708 to 1714 he lived in Italy.On the prince's death he returned to Germany,where he spent the rest of his life in the service of the electoral court at Dresden ,becoming one of the highest-paid court instrumentalists.Weiss was among the last great lute virtuosos at a time when the lute was rapidly going out of fashion.He played throughout Europe and was highly sought after as a teacher. He wrote more lute music than any other composer for the instrument,many of his pieces being grouped into suites absorbing French and Italian influences and using sophisticated harmonies and modulations
* OCTOBER 16
Birth of JAN(Lukas Ignatius)DISMAS ZELENKA--1679 in Lounovice,Bohemia.
Czech composer.In 1710 he moved to Dresden and became a violone player in the royal chapel.He had
lessons with Fux in Venice(where he may also have studied with Lotti),then returned to the Dresden royal
chapel,where he stayed for the rest of his life.His output includes about 20 massea and mass fragments
,responsories,two'Magnificant'
settings,psalms,and three oratorios.His highly original instrumental music
includes six chamber sonatas,five oschestra capriccios,and a chamber concerto.He also wrote an opera
in Latin.His considerable stature was recognized only towards the end of the 20th century. * OCTOBER 16 Birth of JAN(Lukas Ignatius)DISMAS ZELENKA--1679 in Lounovice,Bohemia. Czech composer.In 1710 he moved to Dresden and became a violone player in the royal chapel.He had lessons with Fux in Venice(where he may also have studied with Lotti),then returned to the Dresden royal chapel,where he stayed for the rest of his life.His output includes about 20 massea and mass fragments ,responsories,two'Magnificant' settings,psalms,and three oratorios.His highly original instrumental music includes six chamber sonatas,five oschestra capriccios,and a chamber concerto.He also wrote an opera in Latin.His considerable stature was recognized only towards the end of the 20th century.
* OCTOBER 16
Death of JAN PIETERRSZOON SWEELINCK--1621 in Amsterdam
Dutch organist,composer,and teacher.
Before 1580 he succeeded his father(his earlier teacher) as organist of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam,a post
... he retained for the rest of his life.On his death his son Dirk,was appointed to succeed him.Chief among his voca
compositions are numerous chansons and Italian madrigals,motets(Cantiones sacrae,1619),and polyphonic
settins(for domestic devosions)of the entere Genevan Psalter.
His numerous organ works(by no means all of which have survived)include fantasias,toccatas,and sets of elaborate variations(notably those on'Mein junges Leben hat ein Endt) in which the influence of John Bull and
oter English virginalists is apparent. * OCTOBER 16 Death of JAN PIETERRSZOON SWEELINCK--1621 in Amsterdam Dutch organist,composer,and teacher. Before 1580 he succeeded his father(his earlier teacher) as organist of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam,a post... he retained for the rest of his life.On his death his son Dirk,was appointed to succeed him.Chief among his voca compositions are numerous chansons and Italian madrigals,motets(Cantiones sacrae,1619),and polyphonic settins(for domestic devosions)of the entere Genevan Psalter. His numerous organ works(by no means all of which have survived)include fantasias,toccatas,and sets of elaborate variations(notably those on'Mein junges Leben hat ein Endt) in which the influence of John Bull and oter English virginalists is apparent.
* OCTOBER 16
Death of JACOB REGNART--1599 in Prague
Netherlands composer.He was one of five brothers,all of whom became musicians,and he spent most of his
life in the service of the emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II.From 1582 he was vice-Kapellmeister and then
Kapellmeister to Archduke Ferdinand in Innsbruck,returning to Prague after Ferdinand's death to serve as vice-Kepellmeister under Philippe de Monde.He composed some charming songs in the style of the Italian villanella;
the three volumes published as 'Teutsche Lieder between 1576 and 1579 received several reprints,as well as being used in arrangements by other composers. * OCTOBER 16 Death of JACOB REGNART--1599 in Prague Netherlands composer.He was one of five brothers,all of whom became musicians,and he spent most of his life in the service of the emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II.From 1582 he was vice-Kapellmeister and then Kapellmeister to Archduke Ferdinand in Innsbruck,returning to Prague after Ferdinand's death to serve as vice-Kepellmeister under Philippe de Monde.He composed some charming songs in the style of the Italian villanella; the three volumes published as 'Teutsche Lieder between 1576 and 1579 received several reprints,as well as being used in arrangements by other composers.
* OCTOBER 16
Birth of PIERRE van MALDERE--1729 in Brussels
Flemish composer.In 1746 he was a violinist in the royal chapel at Brussels;he seems to have remained in its service for most of his life,in spite of tours that took him to Dublin(where he directed the Philharmonic Concerts,
1751-3),Paris,Vienna,and elsewhere.HEwas director of the Brussels Grand Theatre from 1762 to 1767.
A prolific composer, he wrote several operas,symphonies,and chamber music. * OCTOBER 16 Birth of PIERRE van MALDERE--1729 in Brussels Flemish composer.In 1746 he was a violinist in the royal chapel at Brussels;he seems to have remained in its service for most of his life,in spite of tours that took him to Dublin(where he directed the Philharmonic Concerts, 1751-3),Paris,Vienna,and elsewhere.HEwas director of the Brussels Grand Theatre from 1762 to 1767. A prolific composer, he wrote several operas,symphonies,and chamber music.
* OCTOBER 16
Death of Sir GRANVILLE(Ransome)BANTOCK--1946 in London
English composerThe son of a successful gynaecologist,he was prepared for the Indian Civil Service,then
trained as a chemical engineer.Determined to pursue music as a profession,in 1889 he entered the RAM,where he studied with Frederick Corder.
... As a student he had several large-scale works performed including his one-act opera,'Caedmar'(1892).
On leaving the RAM in 189he edited the New Quarterly Musical Review(until 1896) and gained experience as a conductor with a world tour of Sidney Jones's 'The Gaiety Girl'(1894-5)and a national tour of Stanford's Shamus O'Brien(1896-7).As musical director of the New Brighton Tower Pleasure Gardens(1897-1900) he promoted the music of Parry,Stanford,Elgar,and Sibelius.He held the post of principal at the Birmingham and Midland
Institute of Music(1900-34)and Peyton Professor of music at Birmingham University(1908-34) in succession to Elgar,later teaching at Trinity College,London.
He was knighted in 1930. * OCTOBER 16 Death of Sir GRANVILLE(Ransome)BANTOCK--194 6 in London English composerThe son of a successful gynaecologist,he was prepared for the Indian Civil Service,then trained as a chemical engineer.Determined to pursue music as a profession,in 1889 he entered the RAM,where he studied with Frederick Corder.... As a student he had several large-scale works performed including his one-act opera,'Caedmar'(1892). On leaving the RAM in 189he edited the New Quarterly Musical Review(until 1896) and gained experience as a conductor with a world tour of Sidney Jones's 'The Gaiety Girl'(1894-5)and a national tour of Stanford's Shamus O'Brien(1896-7).As musical director of the New Brighton Tower Pleasure Gardens(1897-1900) he promoted the music of Parry,Stanford,Elgar,and Sibelius.He held the post of principal at the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music(1900-34)and Peyton Professor of music at Birmingham University(1908-34) in succession to Elgar,later teaching at Trinity College,London. He was knighted in 1930.
* OCTOBER 17
Death of FRYDERYK CHOPIN--1849 in Paris.
Polish composer and pianist.He spent his early life in Warsaw,where he studied privately with Adalbert Zywny and at the High School of Music with Jozef Elsner.From an early age his talents were much in demand in the leading aristocratic households in Warsaw,and he continued to move freely in such circles when he moved to Paris in 1831.Although he clearly drew much of his inspiration from a private,idealized image of Poland,Chopin found his way of life in Paris congenial and soon put to the bach of his mind any thoughts of returning to hishomeland.He made a comfortable living from teaching and from seles of his published music,and he enjoyed
the friendship of some of Europe's most eminent artists and composers.
After the failure in 1837 of his plans to marry Maria wodzinska,a Polish girl of good family,Chopin found himself increasingly involved with the novelist George Sand;the next ten years of his life were dominated by that relationship,though it seems that they were lovers in the accepted sense for only a short time.
These were productive years for Chopin,and when the relationship ended in 1847(partly as a result of family intrigues involving George Sand's children from her marriage to Casimir Dudevant)he composed little more.
The works composed in Warsaw(polonaises,rondos,varia
tions)reflect above all the influence of such composer-virtuosos as Hummel,Weber,and Kalkbrenner.The three early compositions for piano and orchestra are typical of this''stile brillante'',both in their forms-rondo,variations,and fantasia-and in their links with opera(op.2,and with ''national ''airs(op.13) and dances(op.14).Even the two piano concertos(1829-30),in which the composer's
personal voice is a great deal stronger,belongs to this world in their overall style and conception.
The concertos marked the end of Chopin's .apprenticeship With the 'Etudes''op.10,completed in 1832,he achieved the fully intergrated style of his maturity.
Chopin's influence was immense,and it acted on several different levels.The external characteristics of his style were appropriated by many composers of light'salon'pieces,designed primarily for the Victorian musical soiree.More crucially,his innovatory harmonic language foreshadowed Brahms,Wagner,and other late romantics,while his approach to thematic working informed several composers working outside the Austro-
German mainstream,notably in Russia.Most influential of all was his development of a new soundscape of highly
idiomatic piano textures,essentially distinct from the pianism of Beethoven,Schumann,Mendelssohn
,and Brahms.
His music takes a decisive step towards the eventual liberation of texture and colour as structural agents
more than half a century later.
* OCTOBER 17
Death of PIERRE BERNAC 1979 in Villneuve-les-Avignon
French baritone.He gave his first recital in 1925,making a strong impression with his vocal refinement,sensitive
phrasing,and imaginative projection of the words.From the mid-1930s he was a leading interpreter of French
song.He began a close partnership with Poulenc,who wrote many works for him,and from the early 1940s his
light,high baritone inspired works by a number of composers including Jolivet,Sauguet,Fransaix,Hinde
rmith,
Berkeley,and Barber.He became a world authority on the teaching of French 'melodie'and in 1970 published ''The
Interpretation of French Song.
* OCTOBER 17
Birth of OTAKAR JEREMIAS 1892 in Pisek
Czech composer and conductor.He came from a musical family;his father,who gave Otakar his earliest tuition,
founded the South Bohemian Conservatory at Ceske Budejovice.The son studied in Prague with Novak
(composition and Jan Burian (cello).He accompanied his pianist-composer brother on foreign tours,returning in 1928 to succeed his father as director of the conservatory.In 1929 he was appointed conductor of the newly
formed radio symphony orchestra in Prague,and in 1945 became opera director of the National Theatre.
As a composer he was strongly aware of his nationalist heritage.
An unqualified admiration for Smetana's music helped mould his style,and an interest in Wagner marks his larger choral and theatrical works.
* OCTOBER 17
Birth of PIERRE-ALEXANDER MONSIGNY--1729 in Fauquembergues,nr.Saint-Omer.
French composer.Born into a noble family,he held several official positions in Paris before his connection with the Duke of Orleans allowed him to take up composing.He enjoyed success in Paris,c.1760-77, as a composer
of comic operas at about the time when Philidor and Greere were achieving great popularity.Although he never
attained their facility in composition,or a comparable originality,he took pains to match his music to the text and had a gift for attractive melody.
In his late 40s Monsigny suddenly stopped composing,probably of eye problems;from then on he lived in modest retirement.His works enjoyed continued success into the early 19th century.
* OCTOBER 17
Death of PETER von Winter1825 in Munich
German composer.At the age of ten he entered the Mannheim court orchestra as a violinist.
In 1780-1 he visited Vienna,where he studied with Salieri and met Mozart.In Munich he was vice-Kapellmeister from 1787 and Kapellmeister from 1798. He composed over 40 ballets and operas,which were performed as far afield as Naples,Paris,and London;these included the 'Singspiel Das Labyrinth(Vienna,1798;a sequel to
Mozart's Die Zaouberflote)and Das unterbrochene Opferfest('The Interrupted Sacrifice';Vienna'1796),his
greatest operatic success.His output also includes symphonies,overtures,concertos
,vocal music,and much church music.He wrote a treatise on singing that was widely used throughout the 19th century.
* OCTOBER 18
Death of VIKTOR(Josef)ULLMANN--1944 in Auschwitz
Czech composer.The son of an army ofisser,he wa educated in Vienna.After military service in World War 1
he studied withSchoenberg,who in turn recommendede him to Zemlinsky;in 1920 the latter appointed him
repetiteur at the German Theatre in Prague.He subsequently became music director at Aussig in 1927 but left his post after a year.Drawn to the writings of Rudolf Steiner,he temporarily abandoned his musical career to work in the anthroposophical bookshop in Stuttgard(1930-33).He returned to Prague after the Nazi aquisition
of power,though Steiner'sthought left an indelible impression on his first opera 'Der Sturz des Antichrist
(The Fall of the Antichrist',1935) Between 1935 and 1937 he studied with Alois Haba, but hh did not adopt any of the latter's quarter-tone technique.
In 1942 Ullmann was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the 'model ghetto'at Terezin,where he took an active part in the camp's musical life,producing the works by which he is best remembered:several song cycles,a string quartet,three piano sonatas,and the opera 'Der Kaiser vin Atlantis(The Emperor of Atlantis).
On 16 October 1944 Ullmann was transported from Terezin to Auschwitz where he died in the gas chamber two days later.Der Kaiser von Atlantis,now recognized as one of the most powerful and haunting works of the 20th
century,was first performed in Amsterdam in 1975
* OCTOBER 18
Death of JOHN TAVERNER--1545 in Boston,Lincs.
English composer.Nothing is known about him until 1524-5,when he was a singer at the collegiate church at
Tattershall.In 1526 he moved to Oxford to run the choir at Thomas wolsey's newly founded Cardinal College
(the future Christ Church),where choral music on a grand scale was encouraed.Following Wolsey's political downfall he returned to Lincolnshire,as a singer and possibly Master of the Choristers at the parish church of St Botolph,Boston.
Taverner's church music stands as one of the pinacles of the Tudor tradition.In his most extended works,such as the Missa'Corona spinea' and Missa'Gloria tibi Trinitas'--the latter written for Cardinal College--he trancends even the length and comprexity of the Eton Choirbook repertory,and shows no interest in the expensive word-dominated styles of contemporary continental music.
After his death Taverner's music continued to be valued in England both by musical connoisseurs and by Catholic recusants,and subtle influences are detectable in Byrn.
* OCTOBER 18
Birth of PABLO SOROZABAL--1897 in San Sebastian.
Basque composer and conductor.He wrote orchestral works, song cycles,and choral music before his first zarzuela,'Katiuska'(Barcelona,
1931),brought him fame at home and abroad.Asteady stream of stage works followed,of which the most successful were 'La del manojo de rosas(The girl with the Bunch of Roses,Madrid,1934),'La taberneta del puerto(The Port Barmaid,1936),and a version of the Don Juan story.'Los burladores(The Tricksters,(1948)Succulent lyricism,sharpened by sophisticated musical wit,make Sorozabal the last major composer of zarzuelas.
* OCTOBER 18
Death of JEAN BAPTISTE SENAILLE--1730 in Paris
French composer.He studied the violin with G.A.Piani a pupil of Corelli.He was the first to publish violin sonatas in Paris(1710,1712)and in 1713 he took over his father's duties at court.In 1716 he visited Italy,possibly studying with T.A.Vitali in Modena;he return to Paris where from 1728 until his death he was a popular performer at the Concert Spirituel.
* OCTOBER 18
Death of CHARLES(Francois)GOUNOD 1893 in Saint Cloud.
French composer.After entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1836,to study counterpoint and composition he won
the Prix de Rome in 1839.In Rome his musical scope was broadent by his discovery of Palestrina and 16th century polyphony,together with Bach,Beethoven,and Mendelssohn.
In 1849 he met Pauline Viardot,who assisted his entry into the Parisian operatic world by promising to sing the title role in his first opera,Sapho(1851),which was a failure.It was not until he moved from the Opera to Carvalho,s more forward-looking Theatre Lyrique that he prodeced the five more successful operas on which
his reputation now rests:Le Medecin malgre lui(1858),Faust(1859),Philemon
et Baucis(1860),Mireille(1864) and
Romeo et Juliette(1867)
''Faust remains one of the landmarks of French 19th- century opera.Gounod's influence on Bizet and Massenet,
on Faure's early songs,and on English choral music was considerable.Faust brought him international fame,but
even at the height of his powers (1855-65)Gounod seldom rose far above the rank of 'petit maitre'.
* OCTOBER 18
Birth of BALDASSARE GALUPPI--1706 in Burano,nr.Venice.
Italian composer.The son of a violin-playing barber who gave him his earliest music lessons,he composed his first opera at the age of 16.After taking some lessons from Antonio Lotti he had a brief spell as a harpsichordist in
Florence.When he returned to Venice he successfully relaunched his operatic career.In 1740 he became maestro
di musica at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti,where he did much to raise the musical standards,but in 1741 he went
to London to compose opera seria for the King's Theatre;he remained one of England's favourite Italian
composers long after he returned to Italy in 1743.In 1748 he became vicemaestro at St Mark's,Venice, and in 1762 succeeded to the post of maestro,from which in 1765 he obtained three years leave to go to Moscow as maestro di cappella to Catherine the Great.
Galuppi was the most important Venetian musician of his time.His most impotant single contribution was to the development of 'opera buffa'.His considerable output os 'opera serie',oratorios,and church music is largely forgotten,but some of his keyboard music,which combines the language and structural principles of 'opera buffa' with idiomatic keyboard writing,is still played today.It is not known which of these works inspired Robert
Browning's poem 'A Toccata of Galuppi's'
* OCTOBER 19
Birth of CATTERINO ALBERTOVICH CAVOS
--1775 in Venice
Italian-born Russian composer and conductor He studied with Francesco Bianchi and made his debut in 1797 when his
Patriotic Hymn was performed at La Fenice,Venice.In1799 he moved to Petersburg to take up an administrative post for the Imperial Theatres;he became director of the Russian Opera in 1806 and from 1832 was also director of music
at the imperial court.
He wrote over 50 stage works including operas,vaudevilles,and ballets.His most celebrated piece was the patriotic opera Ivan Susanin(1815;staged 1822),which held its place in the repertory even after the appearance of Glinka's
opera on the same plot,A Life for the Tsar,conducted by Cavos at its premiere in 1836.
Birth of KARL-BIRGER BLOMDAHL
--1916 in Vaxjo
Swedish composer.He studied with Hilding Rosenberg in the late 1930s and early 40s,and began to compose in a
Hindemithian manner;the Concerto Grosso(1944) is typical.In his Third Symphony(1950) he began to introduse Schoenbergian serial methods,though here the influence of Bartok is stronger.
His later orchestral works,which include the ballet 'Sisyphos'(1954) and 'Forma fertitonans(1961),show his
development.He was professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm(1960-64) and
director of the Swedish radio music department(1964-68),where he helped found an electronic music studio.
Death of JACQUELINE DU PRE
--1987 in London
English cellist.From 1955 she studied with William Pleeth,later with Tortelier,Casals and Rostropovich,and began her short but hugely successful career with a recital in 1961 at the Wigmore Hall,London.
Married to the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim(b.1942),she played in concerts throughout the world.Her
distinctively physical style was eloquently suited to the Schumann and Elgar concertos.In 1973 multiple sclerosis
forced her to retire from the concert hall,but her beauty of tone and dazzlingly natural technique is preserved on many recordings.
* OCTOBER 20
Death of MICHAEL WILLIAM BALFE
--1870 in Rowney Abbey,Herts.
Irish composer and baritone.He moved to England after the death of his father in 1823 and earned his living as a violinist at Drury Lane.Under the patronage of Count Mazzara he studied in Rome and Milan;he also visited Paris,where he was introdused to Rossini by Cherubini and made his singing debut in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.He then travelled widely in Italy.After his third opera,Enrico Quarto,had been performed ,he returned to London where he received great success with 'The Siege of Rochelles'(1835) and 'The Maid of Artois'(1836) at Drury Lane.After the successof 'Les Puits d'amour'in Paris,he triumphed at Drury Lane in 1843 with
'The Bohemian Girl,which ran for over 100 nights.In 1846 he took over from Costa as conductor of Her
Majesty's Theatre until its closure in 1852.The year before his death 'The Bohemian Girl' was prodused in Paris
,its success earning him national honours from both France and Spain.In addition to his operas,Balfe is well
known for his songs''Come into the Garden.Maud and excelsior
* OCTOBER 21
Death of HENRY LAWES--1662 in London
English singer and composer.He was brought up in Salisbury,and may have been a chorister in the cathedral
there.In 1626 he was made a Gentleman 0f Charles I's Chapel Royal,and five years later was appointed one of the king's musicians (for lutes and voices).He wrote the music for John Milton's masque ''Comus'',prodused at Ludlow Castle on Michaelmas Night 1634,of which only five songs survive.He contributed to Davenant's lost opera 'The Siege of Rhodes',first performed at Rutland House in 1656.
At the Restoration he was reinstated to his court position,and wrote a setting of Zadok the Priest for the
coronation of Charles II. He was buried in Westminster Abbey
* OCTOBER 21
Birth of JOSEPH CANTELOUBE--1879 in Annonay
French composer and collector of folksongs.In 1902 he met d'Indy,who became his teacher and shared his deep respect for folk music.As well as his celebrated 'Chants d'Auvergne',which appeared in five books between 1923 and 1954,he published many collections of songs from various regions of France.Although the 'Chants d'Auvergne have subtly orchestrated and harmonized accompaniments,many of Canteloube's arrangements
are for amateurs and simply accompanied,or for voice alone.Among his original works are two operas,Verlaine settings,and orchestral song cucles dedicated to Maggie Teyte.
* OCTOBER 21
Birth of HOWARD FERGUSON--1908 in Belfast
English composer and musicologist.He studier at the RCM and began a career as a composer and pianist.
He prodused a number of craftsmanlike scores,including an Octet(1933),Piano Sonata(1938-40),and 'Amore
langueo' for tenor,chorus,and chamber orchestra(1956),before abandoning composition to concentrate on
editing keyboard music.
* OCTOBER 21
Birth of MALCOLM(Henry)ARNOLD --1921 in Northampton
English composer He studied composition at the RCM(1938-40),then played the trumpet in London orchestras
until 1948,when he became an independed composer,earning his living by writing film scores(including that for
The Bridge on the River Kwai,1957).His substantial outpur includes symphonies,concertos,and a variety of chamber pieces.His style owes something to Sibelius,Bartok,and Shostakovich but it nevertheless distinctly personal in its expressiveness and exuberance
* OCTOBER 22
Birth of KARL MUCK--1859 in Darmstadt.
German conductor.He began his career as a pianist,making his debud in 1880.He then taught himself conducting and from 1884 conducted operas in Salzburg,Graz,and Brno. In 1886 he was appointed music director of the Landestheater in Prague,leaving in 1892 for the Berlin State Opera,where for 20 years he gained the reputation of a demanding and disciplined conductor of a wide repertory.He was music director of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra(1912-17) and from 1901 to 1930 he conducted at Beyreuth,where his spaciously flexible
performances were considered a yardstick.
* OCTOBER 22
Death of PABLO CASALS--1973 in Puerto Rico
Catalian cellist,conductor,pianist and composer.He studied in Barcelona and made his international debut in 1899.The greatest cellist of his generation, he focused in his programmes on Beethoven,Brahms,and the unaccompanied works of Bach, while also reviving the concertos of Haydn,Dvorak,and Lalo.He refined the use of portamento,shaped his phrasing with warmth and his note with a singing style,and freed the arm in its control of the bow.Like his pianist friend Cortot,with whom he joined in 1905 to form a trio with the violinist Jacques Thibaud,Casals was also an able conductor,of orchestras in Barcelona and those at his own Prades and Puerto Rico Festivals.
* OCTOBER 22
Death of POMPONIO NENNA 1613 in Rome
Italian composer.He may have been in Gesualdo's service in Naples at the end of the 16th century,and his
madrigals show similar interest in chromaticism.By 1608 he had moved to Rome,where his eighth book of madrigals was published posthumously.ASwell as his secular music(madrigals and villanellas)he wrote a small amount of church music.
* OCTOBER 22
Birth of FRANZ(Ferenc)LISZT--1811 in Raiding
Hungarian composer.His father,a failed trainee for the catholic priesthood and an amateur musician was a clerc
and his mother a chambermaid from lower Austria.Though proud of his Hungarian origins,their only child never lealnt the Hungarian languagehis musical talents were soon discovered to be podigious,and he made his debut
as a pianist in Odenburg at the age of nine playing a concerto by Ries.
Liszt was regarded by many as the supreme piano virtuoso of the 19th century,but he was also active as a conductor,teacher,and author In his music and his life ,he typifies the image of the Romantic artist.An active
proselytizer for new music,he was an ardent supporter of the works of Wagner and Berlioz,among others.
Combining his dramatic instincts with a sincere religious faith,endeavoured to revolutionize church music and
oratorio.Eva Brahms,who secretly adnired Liszt's musical style,declared that if Mozart represented musical classicism,Liszt represented'the classicism of piano technique'.
* OCTOBER 22
Death of JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR 1764 in Paris
French composer and violinist.The son of Antoine Leclair,a Lyons lace-maker and amateur cellist,he was one of eight children,six of whom became violinists.In1722 he was engaged as a dancer and ballet master at Turin,where he seems to have studied the violin with G.B.Somis.In1723 he went to Paris,securing a patron in Joseph Bonnier and publishing his first book of violin sonatas.From 1726 to 1728 he was again in Turin,
studying with Somis.On his return to Paris,Leclair published a second book of violin sonatas and made his deput
at the Concert Spirituel,performing his own sonatas and concertos
In 1743 he settled in Paris,where in 1746 his ''Scylla and Glaucus'',an opera tragedie,was performed by the
Academie Royale de Musique.Shortly before his death he separated from his second wife and went to live in a suburb of Paris. On the morning of 23 October 1764 he was found murdered on his own doorstep,almost certainly by his own nephew,though the calprit was never brought to justice.
His published music includes several collections of violin duets,trio sonatas,and concertos;of his theatre music
only 'Scylla et Glaucus'survives,which compares favourably with similar works by Rameau.
* OCTOBER 22
Death of ALESSANDRO(Gasparo)Scarlatti-1725 in Naples-
* OCTOBER 22
Death of BENEDETTO FERRARI --1681 in Modena.
Italian composer,librettist,singer,and
theorbo player.
He wrote the libretto for L'Andromeda,the opera that opened the Teatro S.Cassiano in Venice to the paying public in 1637(the music was by Francesco Manelli).He also wrote librettos for other composers,and several operas,but most of his own music is now lost save for three attractive books of chamber songs.
* OCTOBER 21
Death of HENRY LAWES--1662 in London
English singer and composer.He was brought up in Salisbury,and may have been a chorister in the cathedral
there.In 1626 he was made a Gentleman 0f Charles I's Chapel Royal,and five years later was appointed one of the king's musicians (for lutes and voices).He wrote the music for John Milton's masque ''Comus'',prodused at Ludlow Castle on Michaelmas Night 1634,of which only five songs survive.He contributed to Davenant's lost opera 'The Siege of Rhodes',first performed at Rutland House in 1656.
At the Restoration he was reinstated to his court position,and wrote a setting of Zadok the Priest for the
coronation of Charles II. He was buried in Westminster Abbey
* OCTOBER 23
Birth of PIETRO GENERALI
1773 in Masserano,nr Vercelli.
Italian composer He studied in Rome and Naples,and his short compositions were mostly sacred.After 1800 he mainly wrote operas,produsing more than 50 by the end of his long career.His early works were prdominantly'opere buffe' and 'farse', most notably''Pamela nubile(Venice,1804)written after Goldoni.
His later production included 'opere serie',but after about 1815 he oinevitably suffered from comparisons
with the all-conquering Rossini.He spent his last years as 'maestro di cappella' at the cathedral in Novara.
Dith of JEHAN TITELOUZE
--1633 in Rouen
French organist and composer.In 1815 he went to Rouen and worked as organist at St Jean until 1588,when he became organist at Rouen Cathedral.He was much in demand as an organ restorer and adviser.Comparatively
few of his works have survived-mainly skilled polyphonic setting for organ of hymns and the 'Magnificat',designed for performance during church services.He was also noted as a theorist and literary man
Birth of ALBERT(Gustav)LORTZING
1801 in Berlin
German composer.He spent much of his early life touring with his family in a travelling opera company,where he found time to have occasional lessons and to begin composing for the stage as well as acting and singing.His first opera,''Ali Pascha von Janina(1824)-written to his own text and reflecting the language of Mozart,to which
he remained loyal-set the pattern of spoken dialogue opera.
With''Die beiden Schutzen(The Two Riflemen)and ''Zar und Zimmermann(both 1837) he made his reputation with works in his characteristic vein of light tunefulness(based on a German popular song),expert stage sense,a touch of sentimentality in the drawing of character,and inventive handling of stage convention.
In 1844 he became Kapellmeister in Leipzig,but he was forced to leave and encountered much difficulty in fending for his large family.His next work ''Undine(1845),was a magic opera that accomodetes some romantic gestures,including use of motif,to his by now tried operatic methods.
In 1846 he moved to Vienna,where he strengthened his popularity with ''Der Waffenschmied(The Armourer'',
(1846).His last work,''Die Opernprobe(1851) satirizes some of the stage and operatic conventions he knew so well,especially the Italian recitative he disliked.An appointment in Leipzig fell through,and in 1850 Lortzing moved to Berlin as conductor of a small theatre There he and his family lived in poverty in spite of the frequent
performance of his works,and he died,unable to afford a doctor when about to be dismissed from even this modesr post.
* OCTOBER 24
Birth of EMMERICH(Imre)KALMAN
--1882 in Siofok.
Hungarian composer.After studying at the Budapest Academy of Music,his interest centred increasingly on the
theatre.He had his first real success with Tatarjaras('The Gay Hussars',1908) and became one of the leading figures of Viennese operetta,retaining a strongly Hungarian flavour in his works,which included
'Der Zigeunerprimas('The Gypsy Chief',(1912),Die Csardasfurstin('The Csardas Princess',(1915),Grafin Mariza
('Countess Mariza',(1924) and Die Zirkusprizessin('The Circus Princeess',(1926).
Birth of FERDINAND HILLER
--1811 in Frankfurt
German pianist,conductor,and composer.He studied in Frankfurt with Alois Smchmitt and in Weimar with Hummel.He then made occasional concert tours and in the late 1820s and early 30s lived in Paris,where he gave recitals,composed,and became one of the circle round Berlioz,Liszt,and Chopin.
During 30 years in Rhineland he organized and conducted at many festivals and competitions,and was an influential teacher.His numerous compositions include chiefly songs and piano pieces,but he also wrote choral and orchestral music;among his operas is 'Die Katakomben(1867),an overambitious attempt at German grand
opera.
Birth of TITO GOBBI
--1913 in Bassano del Grappa
Italian baritone.He studied with Giulio Crimi in Rome and in 1935 made his deput there as Rodolfo in
'La Sonnambula'..From 1938 he sang regularly at the Rome Opera.In 1942 he sang the title part in the first Italian performance of Wozzeck.He also excelled in such comic roles as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore,with which
he made his La Scala deput in 1942.
From the early 1950s Gobbi became one of the most sought -after artists with an extremely wide repertory
of nearly 100 roles.He was particularly celebrated for his Scarpia,Gianni Schicchi,Iago,Riggoletto,Falst
aff,Posa,
and Don Giovanni.Some of his outstanding successes were at Covent Garden where a new generation of directors such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli made strong use of his charismatic and intelligent acting.
He was a frequent talevision broadcaster,director of a number of operas and a star of 26 films.
Death of CARL DITTERS von DITTERSDORF
--1799 in Neuhof,Pilgram,Bohemia
Austrian composer.He studied in Vienna and played the violin in a local church orchestra. From 1751 to 1761 he was a member of the Prince of Sachsen-Hildburghausen,studyin
g music with Giuseppe Bonno.After the prince left Vienna,Ditterstorf was successful as a solo and orchestral violinist;he went with Gluck to Italy in 1763
In 1770 he was made a Knight of the Golden Spur,and in 1773 he was enobled by Empress Maria Theresa,gaining the additional surname 'von Dittersdorf'.After the prince-bishop's death in 1795 Dittersdorf received only a small pension.He wrote some Singspiele for a new court theatre in Silesia,but in 1797 retired
to the estate of Baron Ignaz von Stillfried in Bohemia. His autobiography was published two years after his death.
* OCTOBER 25
Birth of GEORGES (Alexandre Cesar Leopold) BIZET
--1838 in Paris
French composer.His father was a singing teacher and modest composer and his mother was an excellant pianist and the sister of a much more distinuished singing teacher,Francois Delsarte.He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. There he won a long list of prizes.In 1857 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata 'Clovis et Clotilde',which gave him a bursary for five years.He spent the first three in Italy,a period
he gently enjoyed.On his return to Paris in 1860,he settled into the life that he was to pursue for his remaining
15 years:courting librettists,singers,and opera managers for commissions,playing the piano for rehearsals,composing smaller works such as piano pieces and songs for publicatio,and writing piano arrangements of operas.
In 1869Bizet married Genevieve,the daughter of his teacher Halevy.During the Franco-Prussian War,he served
in the National Guard and managed to escape from Paris during a part of the upheaval.When normal life resumed,he prodused two small masterpieces,the one-act opera comique'Djamleh,and the delicate suite of pieces for piano duet,Jeux d'enfants,five of which were orchestrated.There followed his affecting and colourful
incidental music for Daudet's play 'L'Arlesienne',scored for a small orchestra.
His masterpiece was his opera ''Carmen''commissioned by the Opera-Comique.It immediately caused controversy
being considered too risque for such a venue and the tragic implications of Carmen's death on stage being
unusually realistic for the lighter genre of opera comique.It was prodused in March 1875.
Bizet was by this time ill with a heart complaint accentuated by rheumatism,and although he was planning an oratorio,Genevieve de Paris,he made no progress and died quite suddenly within three months of the
opening of Carmen.
Birth of JOHANN(Baptist)STRAUSS II
--1825 in Vienna
The eldest son of JOHANN STRAUSS I showed early musical talent.His father was strongly opposed to him following his footsteps,but in 1844 the youth started his own orchestra with his mother's secret encouragement,
and it became a successful rival to his father's.When the elder Strauss died the two orchestras were amalgamated under the younger Johann,who likewise gained a universal reputation helped by many tours abroad.He was a more inventive composer than his father,and the besr of the dances that flowed from his
pen are as much at home in the concert hall played by the Vienna Philharmonic and other famous orchestras as they were in the ballroom.He wrote many waltzes and polkas.
Following the success of Offenbach's operettas in Vienna,the younger Johann was encouraged by his singer
wife to try his hand in the theatre..When the right librettos came along he wrote two perfect masterpieces
in Die Fledermaus(1874) and Der Zigeunerbaron(1885) as well as the charming Eine Nacht in Venedig(1883)
and others.
* OCTOBER 26
Death of LOUIS-NICOLAS CLERAMBAULT
1749 in Paris
French organist and composer.He began composing at an early age,writing a motet for large choir when only 13
From 1707 he was organist of the Grands-Augustins in Paris.In1714 he took overNivers's posts as organist ar St
Sulpice and as organist and teacher at Mme de Maintenon's school for the daughters of military officers at St Cyr
and in 1719 he succeeded Raison at St Jacques in Paris.He in turn was succeeded by two of his own sons.
During the 1690s he experimented with the sonata and published 'airs' in the Ballard series.In 1704 he published a collection of'pieces de clavecin and about 1710 a 'Livre d'orgue'.He also published five collections of French cantatas,several of which-'Orphee and Medee,for example- are considered the finest of their genre between 1710 and 1726.Clerambault also composed divertissements as well as numerous motets and a Te Deum
Death of PETER(Carl August)CORNELIOUS
1874 in Mainz
German composer.Like Wagner and Lottzing,he came of an acting family,also possessing literary gifts whose admirers included Berlioz.Moving to Weimar in 1852,he became part of Liszt's circle writing much in support of their ideas while retaining his independence.He also came to know Berlioz,for whom he translated 'Benvenuto
Cellini'' and who thereby influenced his charming and witty comedy 'Der Barbier von Bagdad'(1858).
To escape Lizst's influence Cornelius moved to Vienna.There he came under the still more influence of Wagner.
Although 'Der Cid'1865) has elements in common with Loengrin,it can stand independently as one of the most remarkable German grand operas of the day.He also wrote many excellent songs,some of which reflect his strong Christian faith.A third opera''Gunlod'' was left unfinished.
Birth of DOMENICO (Giuseppe)SCARLATI
--1685 in Naples
Italian composer,son of Alessandro Scarlatti,who attempted to exercise strict control of his life and career long after he had reached adulthood.Nothing is known of his early life and training but in 1701 he was appointed organist to the royal chapel in Naples,where his father was maestro. The following year he accompanied Alessandro to Florence,where he may have met the great keyboard instrument maker
Bartolomeo Cristofori but soon returned to Naples instead of going on with his father to Rome.In 1705 Alessandro,feeling that Naples had
nothing to offer so talented a musician,dispatched him to Venice,but no details have to light of his activities during his four years there.
In 1709,apparently in defiance of his father's wishes,Domenico entered the service of the exiled Polish Queen Maria Carisima in Rome;he
was also appointed maestro di cappella at the Basilica Giulia in 1713 and to the Portuguese ambassador at the Vatican the following year.
During this period in Rome he frequented the weekly concerts given by Cardinal Ottoboni,where he met such leading figures as Corelli and
Handel,and forged a long-lasting friendship with the English musician Thomas Roseigrave,who did much to popularize his music in Britain.
In 1717 Scarlati was obliged to take legal action to establish his independence from his father.He left Italy for Portugal,where he spent the
rest of his life in the service of Infanta Maria Barbara,who later became princess.He was created a Knight of the Oder of Santiago in 1738.
Although he began his career as a Neapolitan opera composer Scarlatti's posthumous reputation has rested almost entirely on his output of more than 500 key-board sonatas,all composed after he moved to Rortugal.
Νικκολό Παγκανίνι γεννήθηκε στη Γένοβα της Ιταλίας, 27 Οκτώβρη1782 γιος του λιμενεργάτη Αντόνιο Παγκανίνι και της Τερέζας Μποκιάρντο.Διάσημος Ιταλός βιολιστής, κιθαρίστας και συνθέτης. Είναι ένας από τους διασημότερος βιρτουόζους του βιολιού που ξεχώρισε για την τεχνική του και τη δεξιοτεχνία του, ασκώντας επίδραση σε άλλους συνθέτες του ρομαντισμού όπως ο Φραντς Λιστ, ειδικότερα σε ό,τι αφορά την αναγνώριση της σπουδαιότητας του στοιχείου της δεξιοτεχνίας. Οι συνθέσεις του περιέχουν κυρίως έργα για βιολί και ορχήστρα και μουσικής δωματίου.
* OCTOBER 27
Birth of YURY(Aleksandrovich)SHAPORIN
1887 in Glukhov
Ukrainian composer.Although he did not at first intend to become a professional musician,he persued activities
in his native country,then moved to St Petersburg where,after reading law,he entered the conservatory to study composition with Nikolay Sokolov(1859-1922),orchestrati
on with Maximilian Steiberg(1883-1946) and score-reading with Nikolay Tcherepnin.
His music is firmly rooted in the traditions he inherited at the St Petersburg Conservatory,and though he composed some instrumental music,a choral symphony(1928-32) other choral works and much incidental music he has retained prominence chiefly through his four-act lyric opera ''Dekabristy''(Tecembrists),a work which occupied him for more than 30 years,from the early 1920s to 1953 when it was given its premiere at the
Bolshoy theatre,Moscow.
Death of FRANCO ALFANO
1954 in San Remo
Italian composer.He studied at the Naples and Leipzig conservatories.His first great success came with the opera Risurrezione(Turin,1904, after Tolstoy), which betrays the influence of earlier verismo composers.La leggenda di Sakuntala(Bologna,1921,rev.195
2) is an exotic opera owing much to 'fin de siecle'French models.He also wrote ballets,orchestral works,and chamber music.
Alfano is now chiefly remembered for having completed Puccini's ''TURANDOT''from the composers sketches.
Death of JOHANN GOTTLIEB GRAUN
1771 in Berlin
German violinist and composer.He was appointed(c.1726) Konzertmeister at Merseburg,where he met J.S.Bach
and for a short period taught Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.In 1732,he joined the musical coterie of the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick at Ruppin and,on the latter's accession in 1740,became leader of the new Berlin Opera
orchestra.His numerous instrumental works-symphonies,concertos,and
trio sonatas-display striking individuality.
Death of JOHN JENKINS
1678 in Kimberley,Norfolk
English composer.Afine viol player,he took part in the masque' The Triumph of Peace' in London in 1634.In 1660 he was appointed as theorbo player in Charles II's'Private Musick',but spent more time at Kirtling,Cambridgeshire
,with the family of Roger North,who wrote warmly about him.Jenkins composed over 800 instrumental pieces,including superb fantasias for three,four five and six viols.He also wrote a few sacred and secular vocal
pieces.
* OCTOBER 28
Death of GINETTE NEVEU
1949 in San Miguel,Azores.
French violinist.A child prodigy who appeared with Pierne at the age of seven'she studied at the Paris Conservatoire,then with Enescu and Carl Flesch.Her career began after she won Wieniawski Competition
in 1935;she toured throughout Europe and the USA,making her London debut in 1945.She was killed in air crash on the way to the USA.Through her crafted interpretations and stylish virtuosity(in recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius concertos)she established herself as one of the finest postwar violinists.Poulenc composed his violin
sonata for her.
Death of FRANCESCO(Giuseppe Baldassare)MORLACCHI
1841 in Innsbruck
Italian composer.He studied first in Perugia,then Loreto,and finally with Padre Mattei in Bologna.His first
operatic works began to appear in 1807 and he soon established an important reputation within the Italian
peninsula.However,in 1810 he moved to Dresden,and the following year was appointed Kapellmeister of the Italian Opera there.His operatic output then showed down somewhat,constrained as he was towrite sacred
and ceremonial music.He did however,try intermittently to adapt his Italianate style to the very fifferent demands of the German-language theatre,at other times returning to the older,Paisiello-influenced style of his youth.
Death of JOSEPH BODIN de BOISMORTIER
1755 in Roissy-en-Brie
French composer.He spent his early years in Metz and Perpignan,settling in Paris in 1723. He was an immensly
prolific and technically polished composer whose opus numbers run to over 100,mostly sets of six sonatas.In
style his music shows marked Italian influence.His sacred works include a Christmas motet that incorporated
well-known 'noels' and was popular at the Concert Spirituel.Boismortier held positions leading the orchestra at the fair theatres,St Germain and St Laurent.His highly successful career left him a rich man.
Death of MICHEL BLAVET
1768 in Paris
French flautist and composer.He taught himself to play various wind istruments and in 1723 moved to Paris in the service of Duke Charles-Eugene Levis.In 1725 he helped to inaugurate the Concert Spirituel,appearing there regularly as a soloist.In about 1736 he became a member of the Musique du Roi and in 1740 he joined the Opera orchestra.
Blavet's chamber sonatas unite French and Italian styles,taking particular inspiration from the works of Corelli and Vivaldi.
* OCTOBER 29
Death of RUDOLF TOBIAS
1918 in Berlin
Estonian-born German conposer and organist.He obtained a thorough grounding in music from his father,a church organist,before moving to Tallinn for lessons from the cathedral organist;he then became the first Estonian to studu composition at the St Petersburg Conservatory(1893-7),with Rimsky-Korsakov;he also
had organ instruction A pioneer in composition too,he wrote the first Estonian orchestral work(the dramatic overtyre'Julius Ceaser,1896),cantata(Jonah's Mission,1904-9).He then moved west,first to Paris,settling in Leipzig in 1908 and taking up a teaching post at the Konigliche Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin in 1911.
Conscripted into the German army at the outbreak of World War I,he was discharged two years later because of ill health.His weak condition,combined with the straitened circumstances of wartime,led to his contracting
pneumonia;he died laeving unfinished his second oratorio,'Jenseits von Jordan('On the Other Side of Jordan)
Death of ANDREAS HAMMERSCHMIDT
1675 in Zittau
Bohemian-born organist and composer.As protestants he and his family were forced by the Thirty Years War
to migrate from Brux to Freiberg in Saxony.His most important post was at the Johanniskirche in Zittau which
he held from 1693 until his death.Aprolific church composer,he is renowned for his four sets of 'Musikalische Andachten'('Musical Devotions') of 1639-46 composing over 150 works,many of them close in style to Schutz.
Birth of HAROLD(Edwin)DARKE
1888 in London
English organist and composer.He studied at the RCM with Walter Parratt(organ) and Stanford(composition).
As organist of St Michael's Cornhill in London from 1916 to 1966,he gained a reputation for his playing of Bach and his regular Monday recitals;he also founded the St Michael's Singers(1919-66), whose festivals featured works by Parry,Vaughan Williams,and Howells.His large output of church music includes three settings of the Anglican Communion service,anthems,and motets,but he is perhaps best known for his popular setting of the carol''In the bleak mid-winter''.He also composed chamber music and an unpublished symphony.
* OCTOBER 30
Death of ALFRED(Francis)HILL
1960 in Sydney
Ausralian and New Zealand composer,conductor,and teacher.
He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and played the violin in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.He spent
the rest of his life conducting in New Zealand and Australia.He was the first composer to use Maori material
in his cantata'Hinemoa(1896).His vast output.over 500 works,includes 13 symphonies and nine operas
Death of JEAN MOUTON
1522 in Saint Quentin
French church musician and composer.His early career was spent at the collegiate church of Notre Dame,Nesle,where he was'maitre de chapelle'from 1483.Between 1494 and 1502 he held positions in
SaintOmer,Amiens,and Grenoble,then joined the chapel of Anne of Brittany,wifeof Louis XII.
Following the queen's death he transferred to the king's chapel,composing works for occasions of state during the reigns of both Louis and his successor,Francois I.
Mouton is important for his church music.15 masses and more than 100 motets survive,an output roughly equal to that of his almost exact contemporary,Josquin des Prez.His pupils included one of the leading composers of the next generation,Andrian Willaert
Birth of PETER [Philip (Arnold) Heseltine] WARLOCK
1894 in London
English composer,critic,and author.He was encouraged first by his music master at Eaton and later by Delius,who became his mentor.A conscientious objector,he took up with D.H.Lawrence in 1916 in Cornwall
though their friedship soon broke up in acrimonious circumstances..Back in London in 1916 he became frienly with Cecil Gray and Bernard van Dieren,who influenced him profoundly.At this time he also devised the
pseudonym'Peter Warlock',using it only for compositions from 1918.To escape military conscription he lived
in Dublin(1917-18),where he produced some of his finest works.After a period editing'The Sackbut(1920-21)
he lived at the family home in Wales.With E.J.Moeran he then lived at Eynsford(1925-8),but his precarious
financial situation forced him back to London.Depression and unemployment followed and he was found dead
from gas-poisoning in his Chelsea flat.An open verdict was recorded.
His musical personality has several dimensions.The influence of Delius and van Dieren is evident in the chromatic intensity of'Saudades(1916-17) and the magnificent partsong'The Full Heart(1916),and in his masterpiece,the melancholy cycle 'The Curlew(1920-22)His output includes carols,songs,poetry,and books.
* OCTOBER 31
Birth of ALEKSANDR PORFIRYEVICH BORODIN 1833
in St Peterrsburg
Russian composer and chemist.An illegitimate son of a Georgian prince,he received a well-rounded home education;he spoke several languages fluently,played the flute and the cello,and showed an aptitude for the natural sciences.From 1864 he was a professor of chemistry at the Academy,and in 1872 also took part in the foundation of the Women's Medical Courses,teaching there until 1885.
As a student Borodin participated in amateur music-making and wrote several chamber ensembles,among them
a Piano Quintet(1862),which provides evidence of his technical proficiency but also a debt to Mendelssohn
and Schumann.He began to take composition more seriously and to create an individual voice after meeting Balakirev in 1862;he joined the Balakirev circle of young composers(Musorgsky,Rimsky-Kor
sakov,Cui),which later became known as The Five.Under Blakirev's guidance he undertook a larger project,and in 1867 completed his First Symphony.Encouraged by the public success of the First Symphony(performed in 1869 under Balakirev),Borodin was sufficiently confident to undertake a more ambitious task:an opera on a Russian epic tale.''Prince Igor'',as the opera was to be called.
In spite of his dwindling productivity during the late 1870s and the 1880s(He wrote three symphonies),Borodin grew in fame as a composer and began to receive attention from abroad.Liszt was one of his first Western admirers,to whom Borodin paid several visits duringhis European trips,finding him as an agreeable host.
In 1887,at the peak of his double career in music and chemistry,Borodin had a fatal heart attack while attending a ball.His friends mourned a kind and generous man as well as a great talent.Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov
attended to his unfinished works:Acts III and IV of Prince Igor required further composional work,and Rimsky
Korsakov orchestrated the results.
Death of MIHALY(Michael Brand)MOSONYI
1870 in Pest
Hungarian composer.He studied at the teachers'training college in Bratislava in the early 1830s,taking private
lessons from the composer,pianist,and conductor Karoly Turanyi and teaching himself with Reicha's theoretical publications and Hummel's piano exercises.In 1835 he became music master in the household of Count Peter
Pejachevich in the village of Retfalu,where he continued his autodidactic activities.In 1842 he set himself up in Pest as a teacher of piano and composition.
He composed three operas,two symphonies,six string quartets among other chamber pieces,choral music,and
a generous amount of music for the piano. He is the third most important Hungarian composer of the 19th
century after Liszt and Erkel.
Death of FRANCESCO MARIA VERACINI
1678 in Florence.
Italian violinist and composer.A member of a notable violin-playing family,he travelled throughout Europe
as a virtuoso soloist.In 1712 he played at St Mark's,Venice,where he made a great impression on Tartini;he visited London in 1714 and Dusseldorf in 1715. From 1717 to 1722 he served as a violinist,with an exceptionally high salary,at the Dresden court,and from 1733 to 1738 he played for the Opera of the Nobility in L ondon,
where three of his own operas were performed.He was again in London from 1741 to 1745.In 1755 he settled in Florence as 'maestro di cappella'at S.Pancrazio,and is to have died an extremely wealthy man.He had a
reputation for arrogance and eccentricity verging on madness,as well as for exceptional virtuosity,andhis fine violin sonatas are full of idiomatic special effects.
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