Mozart
Child Mozart in
Schönbrunn Palace
Composers Born on August
August-born Great Composers
Dear Readers and Friends, While I can provide more names, for now, here are some great composers who were born on August. I’ll add more as time goes by. We remember them for the legacy of their endearing music through time.
Sir Arthur Bliss (1891), born August 2, in London, English composer who was Musical Director of the BBC during World War II. He wrote the music for the film Things to Come and the ballet Checkmate.
Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946), born August 7, in London. Aside from being a composer, he was conductor and professor at Birmingham University. He composed the oratorio Omar Khayyam and Pagan Symphony, among others.
Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944), born August 8, in Paris. Most famous work: Scarf Dance.
Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936), Russian, born August 10, in St. Petersburg. He was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov. His teaching of orchestration and composition influenced a generation of Russian composers.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918), born August 22, at St Germain-en-Laye, France. Most famous work: The endearing melodic piece Claire de lune.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), born August 25, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. Most famous work: The stage and screen musical West Side Story.
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), baptized August 29, in Nuremberg, Bavaria. Most famous work: Piece Canon in D major. This piece has an airy serenity that has earned a status of a popular classic.
Source:
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1994.
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Eugene Ysaye, Belgian Composer
Belgian Composer Eugène Ysaÿe.
Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian Composer
Eugène Ysaÿe was born on July 16, 1858. He was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as “The King of the Violin”.
Among his celebrity relatives were his brother, pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe (1865–1918), and his great-grandson Marc Ysaÿe, drummer of rock band Machiavel.
Eugène Ysaÿe works include:
Solo violin
- 6 Sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27 (Each dedicated to a different famous violinist and written in their corresponding styles)
- Sonata No. 1 (“Joseph Szigeti”)
- Sonata No. 2 (“Jacques Thibaud”)
- Sonata No. 3 (“George Enescu”)
- Sonata No. 4 (“Fritz Kreisler”)
- Sonata No. 5 (“Mathieu Crickoom”)
- Sonata No. 6 (“Manuel Qiroga Losada”)
- 10 Preludes (Exercises for violin), Op. 35
- Étude posthume
Solo cello
- Sonata for solo cello, Op. 28
Violin and piano music
- 2 Mazurkas de Salon, Op. 10
- Lointain passé, Mazurka No. 3 in B minor, Op. 11
- Rêve d’enfant, Op. 14
- Caprice After the Study in the Form of a Waltz (Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, arranged by Ysaÿe)
- Deux célèbres Arias (Composed by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, arranged by Ysaÿe)
Orchestral
- Exil!, for string orchestra of only violins and violas, Op. 25
Operas
- “Piére li houyeû” 1931 (Original in Walloon language)
Resource:
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Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer
Austrian Composer and Conductor Gustav Mahler.
Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr
Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler is known for his symphonies and song-cycles. He was a composer of the late 19th-century century Romantic period. His most important works are his symphonies, in particular, Symphony No.8 ‘The symphony of a Thousand,’ and song-cycles including Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Song of a Wayfarer) 1883, Kindertotenlieder (Children’s Death Song)1903, and Das von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) 1909.
Born to Jewish parents in Kaliste, Bohemian-born (now Czech Republic) Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) began piano lessons at age six, and gave his first public recital four years later. Complicated family matter gave him a traumatic childhood, he grew up neurotic and temperamental, which he carried in his lifetime.
Aged 15, he entered the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied piano, harmony and composition. He also developed a lifelong interest in political and philosophical ideas, leading him to enrol at the university three later. The same year, he composed his first work, Das klagende Lied (The Song of Sorrow), a cantata to a text he wrote himself.
Mahler as Conductor and Composer
Mahler’s conducting career started in Upper Austria when he was 20, and subsequently, conducted in Prague, Leipzig, Budapest, and Hamburg. Throughout his life, Mahler earned most of his income as a conductor.
He achieved his first success as a composer in December 1895 after leading the Berlin first performance of his Resurrection symphony. Two years later, he converted from Judaism to Catholicism to obtain the music directorship of the Vienna Court Opera. He later became conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. His achievements in Vienna Opera House were considered one of the most glorious years in the Opera House’s prestigious history.
His conducting tenures didn’t last long due to his autocratic methods and artistic temper but he was praised for strong leadership. Although his greatness as a conductor was never contested, for many years, his compositions were regarded with opposing factions, fanatical adulation from admirers and an equal scorn from other fellow musicians.
Final Years of Gustav Mahler
In 1902, he married Alma Schindler, herself a fine musician. He left Vienna for the US five years later due to an increasingly anti-Semitic smear campaign. He also lost his daughter, and felt the first signs of heart ailment.
He conducted for the New York Philharmonic and the New York Met. After USA, Mahler returned to Europe for the last time, with severe blood bacterial infection that caused his premature death in 1911. He died in Vienna.
In the late 1950s, some conductors and critics gradually championed his works that led to a revival of interest in his works. However, Mahler’s music took many years before it gained public public acceptance.
Mahler’s Song-cycles (Lieder)
- Das klagende Lied (The Song of Sorrow), Cantata
- Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Song of a Wayfarer), Song-Cycle
- Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), Song-Cycle
- Kindertotenlieder (Children’s Death Song), Song-Cycle
- Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), Song Symphony.
Mahler’s Symphonic Works
- Symphony No.1 in D major, “Titan”, 1888
- Symphony No.2 in C minor, “Resurrection Symphony”, 1894
- Symphony No.3 in D minor, 1896
- Symphony No.4 in G major, 1900
- Symphony No.5 in C# minor, 1902
- Symphony No.6 in A minor, “Tragic”, 1904
- Symphony No.7 in E minor, 1905
- Symphony No.8 in Eb, “The Symphony of a Thousand”, large-scale orchestra and choir, 1907
- Symphony No.9 in D major, 1909
- Symphony No.10 started, unfinished at Mahler’s death. (A completion was made by Deryk Cooke in 1964.), 1910
Sources:
- Classical Music of John Stanley, Mitchell Meazley, 1994
- Grove Dictionary of Concise Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Publishers, 1994
G. Mahler Image: Wikimedia Commons
This article was originally written as “Gustav Mahler: Life and Works” at Suite101.
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Czech composer Leos Janacek
Leo Janácek: Conductor, Teacher, Late-Bloomer Natural Successor to Smetana.
Leo Janácek’s biography – his life and works. A late-bloomer, he was recognized and became famous only after the performance of opera Jenufa in Prague.
Leos Janácek was a Czech composer, conductor, teacher and musical administrator. A late-bloomer, his successes came quite late in his life. He became famous after his opera Jenufa was performed in Prague; he was past 50 years old. His operas Osud and Mr. Broucek’s Excursion to the Moon were also written that time. His best known Sinfonietta for orchestra, dedicated to the Czech Armed Forces, was written when he was over 70 years old.
Early Years of Leos Janácek
Born on July 3, 1854 in Hukvaldy, Moravia (now Czech Republic), Janácek was the ninth of fourteen children. His father was a village schoolmaster. He attended a monastery school in Brno and at 14 entered the Imperial and Royal Teachers’ Training Institute on a state scholarship, where he stayed for three years.
Janácek studied at the Leipzig Conservatory where he developed interest in composition under the strict supervision of Leo Grill. He also studied in Vienna. He returned to Brno and became engaged to one of his pupils, 15-year old Zdenka Schulzova whom he married. At the same time, he also founded an organ school. In 1919, he became director of the Conservatoire at Brno and professor at the Prague Conservatoire the following year.
Janácek Music
The later compositions, in particular, Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The Storm), 1921, and String Quartet No.2, ‘Intimate Letters’, were inspired by his unrequited love for Kamila Stosslova, 38 years his junior.
Janácek’s music is highly influenced by Moravian folk music. He worked in different musical styles: from established romantic techniques to dissonant combinations, and influences: from western European music to Czech and Moravian folk songs.
Janácek’s reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer. He has since been regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, but also as one of the most original and influential opera composers of the 20th-century.
Leo Jánacek’s Key Operas
- Jenufa, began 1896 and staged in Brno in 1904
- Osud (Fate) 1904
- Mr. Broucek’s Excursion to the Moon, satirical opera, 1920
- Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The Storm), 1921,
- The Cunning Little Vixen (Prihody lisky bystriusky), 1923
- The Makropoulos Affair, 1926
- From the House of the Dead, 1927
This article was originally written for Suite101, Czech Composer Leos Janacek
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