Great Composers and their Lives

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Mikhail Glinka 1804 – 1857
2008-06-05 19:17:00
    Born in the village of Novospasskoe near Smolensk in Belarus Russia to a wealthy family, this composer’s first contact with music had to most certainly be Russian folk songs and the sound of church bells which rang every day in his small and quaint little village. At the age of 13, he was sent to a school in St. Petersburg for noble families where he studied for a period of five years. During this time, he had his first piano lessons with composer John Field, who was residing in St. Petersburg and teaching. He only had a few lessons with Field until he continued his instruction with a pianist by the name of Charles Meyer. Mikhail Glinka started composing music on his own shortly after. His early compositions were not very refined on account of the fact that he had never really studied composition seriously, yet the characteristics of folk melody in his pieces could easily be recognised even at this time. After completing his studies in 1822, he ended up staying in St. Pete...

Intro and Welcome
2008-06-01 12:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Gregorio Allegri 1582 – 1652
2008-05-26 18:04:00
Little is known about the early life of Gregorio Allegri. At the age of 9, he was a choirboy in Rome until his voice broke. He then went on to become a tenor at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where he remained between the ages of 14 and 22. It was during this time that he started studying music under the composer Giovanni Nanini, who was believed to have been a former student of Palestrina. Palestrina’s music was of a very great influence on Allegri’s style of composing. His studies were carried out quite intensely up until he was 30 years of age.     At the age of 35, he was a singer and composer at the cathedral of Fermo, then at Tivoli. It was not until he was 46 years old that he was given the rank of Maestro di Cappella (Choir Director) at the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia located in Rome. By this time, he had had 37 years of practice and training in the field of music. A large number of motets and sacred music were composed during that time.      Two years late...

Intro and Welcome
2008-05-23 12:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Guillaume de Machaut approx. 1300 - 1377
2008-05-17 19:52:00
    To understand the composer Guillaume de Machaut, it is essential to understand the period in which he lived. It was the time when the Ars nova(new art) Period of music was flourishing in France and then throughout Europe. The term itself correlates to its predecessor the Ars antiqua (old art) Period(1240-1320). Both of these periods refer to the earliest developments of polyphony, the usage of several voices in music.  Before this, the idea of playing music was still based on a single voice and melody(monophonic - plainchant). - If you can imagine a single or a group of priests chanting in Catholic church(Gregorian Chant), this is exactly what that was.     The first attempt at polyphony was called Parallel-Organum. It was VERY simple… A second voice was used to ornament the chant, but did not vary its rhythm whatsoever. It was almost like a ‘shadowing voice’. After this, composers started to make this second voice a bit more rhythmically independent and more voices...

Intro and Welcome
2008-05-14 12:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Gaetano Donizetti 1797 – 1848
2008-05-08 16:20:00
    This composer came from a very poor family and a completely unmusical background. Born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, he was taken from the streets and given a proper musical education by the composer and conductor Johannes Simon Mayr. At the time, Mayr had the position of music director at the Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo’s main church. He was a person who had been quite fond of his spirit and recognised his talent straight away. As a young adult, Donizetti travelled to Bologna to study with a priest, Padre Mattei, who had been a renowned counter-point teacher.  Yet, Donizetti never took a liking to him and returned to Bergamo in 1817, still harbouring a great deal of affection for his first teacher, Johannes Mayr.     It was during this time that he started composing a great deal of works, at times accomplishing an entire piece in the course of a single day. His string quartets were excellent, but it was his opera works that showed the ability of a true master. A year...

Intro and Welcome
2008-05-01 12:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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François Couperin 1668 - 1733
2008-04-30 11:41:00
    This composer was born in Paris to a family that had been active in the field of music for generations. He was the son of an organist, Charles Couperin, from whom he began his musical training from a very young age. He also learned a great deal from his uncle with the same name, François Couperin. At the age of 10, his father died and he was then taught by an organist by the name of Jacques Thomelin.     His family had a musical tradition going back two centuries before he had been born. In fact, the family’s church, St. Gervais, had successively employed a member of the Couperin family as organist, non-stop, for a period of 173 years. As a sign of how advanced his musical ability had been, it is interesting that the post was officially offered to François at the age of 10 upon his father’s death, yet postponed until his 18th birthday. At the same time, there is information leading to the assumption that that the young Couperin played for services and received wages ...

Intro and Welcome
2008-04-29 12:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Tomaso Albinoni 1671 – 1751
2008-04-28 11:26:00
    Tomaso, born in 1671, was the eldest child of a man by the name of Antonio Albinoni, a successful paper merchant who owned a number of shops and properties around Venice. He started studying the violin and singing at the age of nine. Although he received a thorough musical education during his youth, contrary to a great deal of other musicians in his era, he did not seek employment within a church. He enjoyed taking advantage of his personal freedom much to much to have wanted this. Many composers did not have the financial means to compose independently, yet Albinoni did have these resources available on account of the wealth generated by his father’s business and was able to compose for himself, making his music quite individual and ‘untouched’.     It was not until the age of 23 that he really started making a name for himself as a musician, having written the opera, Zenobia Regina de Palmireni, which was even brought to the stage. Shortly after this, he wrote 12 ...

Franz Schubert 1797 – 1828
2008-03-14 14:39:00
There have been a great deal of classical composers that were centred in Vienna, Austria, whom we associate with the city itself. Among them are Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert , and Mozart, although  Franz Schubert was only one of the above-mentioned who was actually born in the city. Unfortunately, he was also the only one of these composers who had never received the well-deserved recognition and fame during his lifetime. On the other hand, his works and everything he created cannot be appreciated enough today.     Having been born in a suburb in Vienna, known as Lichtental, he was the fourth son of a schoolmaster. He actually learned to play piano and violin from his family, although he had already surpassed them at a very early age. At age eleven, he won a choral scholarship to the Konvikt, Vienna’s Imperial College, a type of elite boarding school. Schubert was taught by Antonio Salieri, a famous composer at the time, who recognised the talents of the young man. By the age of ...

Intro and Welcome
2008-03-12 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Muzio Clementi 1752 – 1832
2008-02-17 00:47:00
    Muzio Clementi was born in Rome. His father,  who was quite fond of music and an amateur musician himself, had been a successful silversmith. He recognized his son’s talent right away and started him up playing the organ at the age of 7. Only 2 years after, in direct competition with adults, he was appointed organist at his local church.     Seven years later, Sir Peter Beckford, a wealthy Englishman, heard Clementi play and was so impressed by his music that he wanted to become his patron. He offered to take him to England and sponsor his studies as well as offer him room and board. His father agreed and allowed him go. The only think that Clementi had to do in return for this grand gesture of kindness was to entertain with his playing at the nobleman’s  country residence of Steepleton Iwerne, just north of Blandford Forum in Dorset . It was here that the Muzio Clementi became a fine player, receiving not only a great deal of musical knowledge but also receiving qui...

Intro and Welcome
2008-02-14 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Franz Berwald 1796 –1868
2008-02-04 11:19:00
    Franz Berwald was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1796. Having been largely self-taught, he did study music with his father, who had been a German violinist in the Royal Opera Orchestra, and composition with J. B. E. De Puy, the conductor of the court orchestra. The story of this composer is unique on account of the fact he never gave up as a musician. He achieved greatness and made his name in history despite many setbacks and disappointments.      Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Royal Opera Orchestra at the age of 16, having held the position until he composed his Grand Septet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, and string quartet in 1828. It was at this time that, due to the lack of enthusiasm for his music in Sweden and financial difficulty on account of  his father’s death in 1825, he travelled abroad to make his career in music. After a tour in Norway, he studied in Berlin for a time, having received a scholarship from Sweden’s king. To make a living...

Intro and Welcome
2008-01-27 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest. There are recordings, a resource page, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others. 
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Daniel-François-Esprit Auber 1782 – 1871
2008-01-26 11:08:00
    Auber was the son of a hunter that became quite wealthy by going into the business of dealing art in Paris. Auber was actually born in Normandy. This was on account of his parents once making a trip from Paris to Caen, the capital of lower Normandy.       Showing a great deal of talent on the piano at an early age, by the time he was a teenager, he had already written concert arias(-elaborate songs for solo voice), a piano sonata(-composition containing 3 or 4 contrasting movements), and a string quartet(-instrumental containing 2 violins, a viola and cello). Nevertheless, his father was quite determined to make his son a businessman like himself.      It was in 1802, that France signed a treaty with England, known as the Treaty of Amiens. Auber’s father seized the chance to send his son to England to study commerce. Yet, seeing that the treaty was breached after only one year and war broke out, Auber was forced to return home, giving him the opportunity to concent...
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Intro and Welcome
2008-01-22 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest for it. There are recordings, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others.         
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George Gershwin 1898-1937
2008-01-20 13:40:00
    Born with the name Jacob Gershowitz in 1898 to a  poor Jewish family that immigrated to the United States from Russia in the year 1891, George Gershwin was a very unique composer and gained not only fame but the respect of many great musicians and listeners from around the world. His music is also representative of American society between WW I and WW II.     It all started at the age of 12 when his family bought a piano for Gershwin’s brother, Ira, who had been expected to become the musician in the family. Gershwin surprised everyone when he started playing a song he had learned on the neighbours piano. Due to his great interest, the family arranged for him to have lessons.  After going through a few different teachers, in 1913, he began studying piano with Charles Hambitzer who was undoubtedly Gershwin’s strongest musical influence. Hambitzer introduced him to the music of Debussy, Chopin, and Ravel, along with the early works of Arnold Schoenberg, and a broad...

Intro and Welcome
2008-01-15 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest for it. There are recordings, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others.           
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Johann Pachelbel 1653 – 1706
2008-01-13 21:51:00
   Anyone who reads the name of this composer immediately thinks of the Canon in D. Of course, Johann Pachelbel wrote many great pieces, but the 3-part canon he had once written will come to mind every time we hear his name. And vice versa, when we hear this piece at a wedding, we will think of him. Interestingly enough, although he penned a great deal of works, the Canon in D composed for 3 violins and continuo was the only canon he had ever written. The piece can be described as 3 violins taking turns to elaborate on a simple theme, resulting in a musical climax which moves the soul.     What many people do not realize is that Johann Pachelbel is not considered a great composer on account of this work alone. Having written a great deal of other things, the famous Canon in D, although a beautiful piece,  actually has very little importance in regards to his musical gifts to humanity. His works on the organ were much more important, for they were not only great pieces, but gre...

Hugo Wolf 1860 – 1903
2008-01-04 22:43:00
Hugo Philipp Jakob Wolf was a very interesting Austrian composer. A true picture of how detrimental it can be for a  composer to get a venereal disease. Yet, due to his genius, he was able to truly give a lot to the world in an incredibly short time.     Having been taught violin and piano by his father since the age of 4, at the age of 8, he was taken to see his first opera, Belisaro by Donizetti. He was so taken back by the work, that he went home and started trying to play pieces of it on the piano. To everyone’s amazement, he was able to play large portions of the opera by heart after having only heard it for the first time. He was sent to an array of different schools to support his musical education, but on account of his stubbornness, he proved to be an incredibly difficult student. - So difficult, that he was not able to keep from getting expelled from the various schools he attended.     It was not until the age of 15 that he was enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory...
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Intro and Welcome
2008-01-01 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest for it. There are recordings, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others.        
More About: Intro

Luigi Boccherini 1743 - 1805
2007-12-15 09:49:00
    This Italian composer was actually born into a family full of artists. Amazingly enough, he wrote 300 chamber works, 18 symphonies,  and 93 string quartets. His chamber works also included 9 guitar quintets, which guitarists are quite grateful for.     What made this composer special was the fact that he not only came from Italy during the classical era, which was full of liveliness and elegance, but he travelled to Vienna and discovered the beginnings of the Romantic Era. Along with this, he went to Spain, discovering the guitar music of Andalusia along with its rhythm , which influenced his music a great deal.     This passion and drama he found in Vienna with regard to music and literature was part of a movement known even in English under the German phrase ‘Sturm und Drang’. This was also known as the ‘Time of Genius’. In order to understand this term, it is important to know what was going on during the 18th century, namely another movement known as the Ag...
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Hector Berlioz 1803 – 1869
2007-12-09 00:57:00
   Now, I thought it was time to write about a composer from the Romantic period again. The person we are going to talk about today is a Frenchman. Interestingly enough, during his childhood, Hector Berlioz was not considered to be a very talented musician, better said, he was talented but not the typical child prodigy composer. He tried playing the piano and the flute, but to no avail. Yet, he started playing guitar, and found a passion for the instrument and became quite good on it. It is interesting that although he learned the guitar and flute, he never learned to play the piano, which is quite a rarity for a composer.      Born in Grenoble in the French Alps, he was know to be an intensive reader. He read all the classics; among them Virgil, Shakespeare and Goethe. As time went by during his childhood, he had had a growing desire to play music and become a musician. His parents, of course, wanted him to take up medicine and sent him to study in Paris. And yet, his will to ...

Franz Xaver Gruber 1787 - 1863
2007-12-07 17:58:00
Up until now, we have always talked about prolific composers that have written a lot of music for the world. Well, this one had written a single ‘hit’ and went down in history for composing one of the most famous tunes in all the world. You know the song for sure!   Franz Gruber was born on the 25th of November, 1787 in a small Austrian city known as Hochburg. His family was very poor and made a living as linen weavers. As far as his father was concerned, he was to follow in his footsteps and take up the same trade. He tried his hardest and convinced his father that his true calling was to become a musician. Well, his father gave in and he started studying music.   After completing his musical training in Burghausen and his teaching degree, he became an elementary teacher in a small village by the name of Arnsdorf in 1807.  At the same time, he also worked there as an organist as well as in a near-by village called Oberndorf.   The song he was noted for writing originated i...

Intro and Welcome
2007-12-07 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar.com . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest for it. There are recordings, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others.         
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Orlande de Lassus, approx. 1532 – 1594
2007-12-01 14:47:00
Here is a wonderful composer that did quite a bit. Not only had he composed a immense quantity of  works, but he composed each of them with stunning quality. Due to his extensive travels throughout his life, he gained a lot of experience which he was able to intertwine into his music. Along with his own ingenuity, he was able to combine several styles of music including those originating from Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium, making his music full of variation.   Orlande de Lassus was born in the Franco-Flemish province of Hainaut located in present day Belgium. His hometown and birthplace was a city by the name of Mons. He was incredibly talented and had been blessed with a gorgeous voice. As a child, having been a choir boy at the Church of Saint Nicolas in Mons, his voice was so amazing that he had supposedly been abducted three times by people looking for talent to play in the courts of Europe. His parents were able to have him returned two of the three times. At the age of...

Intro and Welcome
2007-11-25 11:43:00
I hope you like the blog. Please, feel free to make comments. And, if you have time, don’t forget to visit my site, www.ferrisguitar . It is a website dedicated to inspiring guitarists, but in my opinion, all musicians could have interest for it. There are recordings, interesting reading, photos, a forum and more. All in all, it is a great piece of my life that I am sharing with others.      
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