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An important pioneer in the field of still-life painting, Clara Peeters is the only known Flemish woman to specialize in this form during the early Baroque period. Peeters was baptized in Antwerp in 1594 and married there in 1639. Peeters' earliest dated oils, from 1607 and 1608, are small-scale, detailed images representing food and beverages. The skill with which this 14-year-old artist executed such pictures indicates that she was probably trained by a master who may have been Osias Beert, a noted still-life painter from Antwerp. By 1612 the 18-year-old artist was producing large numbers of painstakingly rendered still lifes, typically displaying a group of valuable objects (elaborately decorated metal goblets, gold coins, exotic flowers) on a narrow ledge, as seen from a low vantage point, against a dark background. - Malaspina BiographyBooks from Alibris: Clara Peeters
The greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, born at Palestrina (ancient Praeneste) in 1514 or 1515, according to Baini, Riemann, and others, according to Haberl, in 1526; died at Rome, 2 February, 1594. His early history is practically unknown. Giuseppe Ottavia Pittoni (1657-1743), in "notizie dei maestri di cappella si di Rome che ultramontani", 1600-1700", a manuscript in the Vatican, relates that young Pierluigi sang in the streets of Rome while offering for sale the products of his parents farm and that he was heard on such an occasion by the choirmaster of Santa Maria Maggiore, who, impressed by the boy's beautiful voice and pronounced musical talent, educated him musically. As to the identity of the choirmaster, tradition gives no clue. Some hold that Palestrina was taught by Jacques Arcadelt (1514-60), choirmaster and composer in Rome from 1539 to 1549. The opinion, so long held, that Claude Goudimel (1505-72) was his principal teacher has now been definitively abandoned. As far as is known, he began his active musical life as organist and choirmaster in his native city in 1544; his reputation increasing, in 1551 he was called to Rome, entrusted with the direction and musical formation of the choirboys at St. Peter's, and within the same year was advanced to the post of choirmaster. In 1554, he dedicated to Julius III (1549-55) his first compositions, a volume of masses for four voices, and was rewarded with the appointment as a member of the papal chapel in contravention of the rules governing that body. The pope had set aside the rule requiring those who held membership in the papal choir to be in Holy Orders, and also used his authority to exempt him from the usually severe entrance examination. These circumstances and the further fact that his voice was much inferior to those of the other singers, aroused the opposition, and antagonism of his fellow-members. The papal singers did not appreciate the object of the pope, which was to secure for the gifted young man the necessary leisure to compose.
In the course of the same year, Palestrina published a volume of madrigals. The texts of some of these the composer himself in later years considered too free. In the dedication of his setting of the Canticle of Canticles to Gregory XIII, he expresses not only regret but repentance, for having caused scandal by this publication. Marcellus II, as cardinal, had protected and admired Palestrina, but died after a reign of only twenty-one days. Paul IV, shortly after his accession, re-inforced the former rules for the government of the papal choir. Besides Palestrina, there were two other lay married members in the choir. All were dismissed with a small pension, in spite of the understanding that these singers were engaged for life.
The worry and hardship caused by the dismissal brought on a severe illness; restored, the composer took charge, 1 October, 1555, of the choir at St. John Lateran, where he remained until February, 1561. During this period he wrote, beside Lamentations and Magnificats, the famous "Improperia". Their performance by the papal choir on Good Friday was ordered by Paul IV, and they have remained in its repertoire for Holy Week ever since. This production greatly increased Palestrina's fame. In 1561 he asked the chapter of St. John Lateran for an increase in salary, in view of his growing needs and the expense of publishing his works. Refused, he accepted a similar post at Santa Maria Maggiore, which he held until 1571. It is not know at what period of his career Palestrina came under the influence of St. Philip Neri, but there is every reason to believe it was in early youth. As the saint's penitent and spiritual disciple, he gained that insight into the spirit of the liturgy, which enabled his to set it forth in polyphonic music as it had never before been done. It was his spiritual formation even more than his artistic maturity, which fitted him for the providential part he played in the reform of church music.
The task of hastening the reforms decreed by the Council of Trent was entrusted by Pius IV to a commission of eight cardinals. A committee of two of these, St. Charles Borromeo and Vitellozzo Vitelli, was appointed to consider certain improvement in the discipline and administration of the papal choir, and to this end they associated to themselves eight of the choir members. Cardinal Vitelli caused the singers to perform certain compositions in his presence, in order to determine what measures could be taken for the preservation of the integrity and distinct declamation of the text in compositions in which the voices were interwoven. St. Charles, as chancellor of his uncle, Pius IV, was the patron of Palestrina, increasing his pension in 1565. He celebrated a solemn Mass in presence of the pontiff on 19 June, 1565, at which Palestrina's great "Missa Papae Marcelli" was sung. These historical data are the only discoverable basis for the legends, so long repeated by historians, concerning the trial before the cardinals and pope of the cause of polyphonic music, and its vindication by Palestrina, in the composition and performance of three masses, the "Missa Papae Marcelli" among them. Haberl's studies of the archives conclusively demolished these fictions, but their continued repetition for nearly two hundred years emphasizes the fact of Palestrina's activity, inspired by St. Philip and encouraged by St. Charles, in the reform of church music, an activity which embraced his entire career and antedated by some years the disciplinary measures of the Church authorities.
The foundation of his reform is the two principles legitimately deduced from the only references to church music in the Tridentine decrees:
* the elimination of all themes of reminiscent of, or resembling, secular music;
* the rejection of musical forms and elaborations tending to mutilate or obscure the liturgical text.
Pius IV created for Palestrina the office of "Composer of the Papal Chapel" with an increased salary. In this office he had only one successor, Felice Anerio. When in 1571 Giovanni Animuccia, choirmaster at St. Peter's, died, Palestrina became his successor, thus being connected with the papal choir and St. Peter's at the same time. An attempt of his jealous and intriguing colleagues in the papal chapel to have him dismissed by Pius V was unsuccessful. During this year he wrote a number of motets and laudi spirituali for the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Besides the duties of choirmaster at St. Peter's, composer to the papal chapel, director of music at St. Philip's Oratory, he also taught at the school of music of Giovanni Maria Nanini. In addition, Gregory XIII commissioned him to prepare a new version of the Gregorian chant. His exact share in this edition, afterwards published under the name of "editio Medicaea" because printed in a press belonging to Cardinal de' Medici, and what was prepared by his pupil Giovanni Guidetti, Felice Anerio, and Francesco Suriano, has long been a matter of controversy. The undertaking was not particularly congenial to Palestrina and kept him from original production, his real field of activity. His wife's death in 1580 affected him profoundly. His sorrow found expression in two compositions, Psalm 136, "By the waters of Babylon", and a motet on the words "O Lord, when Thou shalt come to judge the world, how shall I stand before the face of Thy anger, my sins frighten me, woe to me, O Lord". With these he intended to close his creative activity, but with the appointment in 1581 as director of music to Prince Buoncompagni, nephew of Gregory XIII, he began perhaps the most brilliant period of his long life. Besides sacred madrigals, motets, psalms, hymns in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and Masses, he produced the work which brought him the title of "Prince of Music", twenty-nine motets on the words from the "Canticle of Canticles". According to his own statement, Palestrina intended to reproduce in his composition the Divine love expressed in the Canticle, so that his own heart might be touched by a spark thereof. For the enthronement of Sixtus V, he wrote a five-part motet and mass on the theme to the text "Tu es pastor ovium", followed a few months later by one of his greatest productions, the mass "Assumpta est Maria". Sixtus had intended to appoint him director of the papal choir, but the refusal of the singers to be directed by a layman, prevented the execution of his plan. During the last years of his life Palestrina wrote his great "Lamentations", settings of the liturgical hymns, a collection of motets, the well-know "Stabat Mater" for double chorus, litanies in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the offertories for the ecclesiastical year. His complete works, in thirty-three volumes, edited by Theodore deWitt, Franz Espagne, Franz Commer, and from the tenth volume on, by Haberl, are published by Breitkopf and Hartel; Msgr. Haberl presented the last volume of the completed edition to Pius X on Easter Monday, 1908. Palestrina's significance lies not so much in his unprecedented gifts of mind and heart, his creative and constructive powers, as in the fact that he made them the medium for the expression in tones of the state of his own soul, which, trained and formed by St. Philip, was attuned to and felt with the Church. His creations will for all time stand forth as the musical embodiment of the spirit of the counter-reformation, the triumphant Church.Sheet music: Giovanni da Palestrina
German organist and composer Johann Pachelbel, b. August 1653, d. Mar. 3, 1706, is noted by music historians for his influence on Johann Sebastian Bach. Pachelbel was himself a composer of importance, and his works are still played. His best works are his chorale variations and chorale preludes. His son Carl Theodorus Pachelbel, (born November 24, 1690, death Charleston, September 14, 1750) immigrated to the American colonies in about 1730 and became a prominent musician in Newport, New York, and Charleston. - Malaspina BiographySheet music: Johann Pachelbel
Daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus, wife of Philip II. of Macedon, and mother of Alexander the Great. Her father claimed descent from Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. It is said that Philip fell in love with her in Samothrace, where they were both being initiated into the mysteries (Plutarch, Alexander, 2). The marriage took place in 359 B.C., shortly after Philip's accession, and Alexander was born in 356. The fickleness of Philip and the jealous temper of Olympias led to a growing estrangement, which became complete when Philip married a new wife, Cleopatra, in 337. Alexander, who sided with his mother, withdrew, along with her, into Epirus, whence they both returned in the following year, after the assassination of Philip, which Olympias is said to have countenanced. During the absence of Alexander, with whom she regularly corresponded on public as well as domestic affairs, she had great influence, and by her arrogance and ambition caused such trouble to the regent Antipater that on Alexander's death (323) she found it prudent to withdraw into Epirus. Here she remained until 317, when, allying herself with Polyperchon, by whom her old enemy had been succeeded in 319, she took the field with an Epirote army; the opposing troops at once declared in her favour, and for a short period Olympias was mistress of Macedonia. Cassander, Antipater's son, hastened from Peloponnesus, and, after an obstinate siege, compelled the surrender of Pydna, where she had taken refuge. One of the terms of the capitulation had been that her life should be spared; but in spite of this she was brought to trial for the numerous and cruel executions of which she had been guilty during her short lease of power. Condemned without a hearing, she was put to death (316) by the friends of those whom she had slain, and Cassander is said to have denied her remains the rites of burial.Books from Alibris: Queen Olympias
After a successful early career as a virtuoso cellist, he spent most of his time working in theatres such as the Theatre Francais and Bouffes Parisiens. In 1855 he opened his own theatre, where his light-hearted stage-works were performed. He continued a successful career, devoted largely to operetta and operas comiques, until his death in 1880. Out of 90 or so operettas, few of which have survived, the best known is Orphee aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), which is remembered especially for its famous can-can. Other operettas include La Belle Helene (Fair Helen) and La Vie Parisienne. Offenbach's final opera, Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), completed after the composer's death by Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud, is based on stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann, including the tale of Dr. Coppelius and his life-like creation, the doll Coppelia. The most popular melody in it is the Barcarolle. Although completely identified with France, Offenbach was of German-Jewish origin. He is buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre, Paris, France.Sheet music: Jacques Offenbach
Ockeghem was one of the most respected composers of the fifteenth century, and along with Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez, one of the most influential composers of the early Renaissance. Ockeghem was probably born in the current Belgium, in what was then the Duchy of Burgundy, estimates for the year of his birth vary from 1400 to c.1430, but written sources from the period indicate that he was a very old man by the time of his death in 1497. He was premier chaplain to three kings of France, as well as holding the prestigious position of treasurer at the great cathedral and monastery of St. Martin de Tours. During his lifetime, Ockeghem was known for his personal refinement and fine bass voice. He was long identified as one of the fathers of Renaissance music, his influence finally fading only years after his death. Ockeghem's surviving musical output is relatively small, comprising a mere handful of motets, several masses, and a couple of dozen secular chansons. His style is marked by a careful handling of vocal ranges in a primarily four-voice texture, and an emphasis on complex and expressive bass lines. This emphasis on lower textures opened up a new world of structural possibilities for Renaissance composers, and Ockeghem's compositions exploit these potentials in a variety of ways.
Today he is best known for his masses and his ability to integrate large-scale forms in ways which were as unparalleled then as they are now. By the sixteenth century, Ockeghem was known primarily as an accomplished technical master, famous for his complex lines and polyphonic structures, which had the appearance of intractable puzzles for all but the most accomplished musicians. This perception of difficulty, as well as the unique texture of his works, is due in part to his emphasis on long lines which gradually unfold with the formal development of a piece - a development accomplished by a carefully executed structural plan which includes the supression of cadential features in one or more voices at otherwise "planned" cadences. Ockeghem's reputation as a purely technical master was also earned by the relatively long survival of his more intricate polyphonic explorations as textbook sources. These include his incomparable Missa Prolationum, constructed entirely in canon; his Missa Cuiusvis toni, designed to be performable in any of the available modes (catholicon); and his chanson Prenez sur moi, which is both a strict canon and a catholicon. However, Ockeghem's music is by no means dominated by these technical features (and even in these works, the result is astonishing); his contrapuntal language is extremely varied and complex, largely abandoning the simpler fauxbourdon style of Dufay, but not resting exclusively on the pervasive imitation characteristic of Josquin and the successive continental masters. Today, Ockeghem is regarded not only as one of the pioneers of Western polyphony, but as one of the supreme masters of both lyrical and contrapuntal invention.Sheet music: Johannes Ockeghem
It is an offence against Mozart and against the young student of music, therefore, for a teacher to set his pupil to play Mozart’s sonatas and quartets as soon as he has acquired a modicum of technique. It is barbarous, in fact, and will only spoil the pupil’s desire to study Mozart subsequently. How can we expect young people to appreciate the exquisitely alternating moods of this music, or feel the beauty of an art which expresses itself with such restraint and in so strangely spiritual a manner! What youth wants, above all else, is something it can grasp, something it can lay hold on with both hands. But the content of Mozart’s music is the least tangible, and so it is better to let the young musician get his fingers into Chopin and Liszt than choke the life out of Mozart. Later, however, when a measure of spiritual maturity has been attained, and the executive musician must learn to exercise not only his fingers but his mind and his soul, then the music of Mozart will be infinitely instructive. . . - from Mozart and Our Time, an essay by Carl NielsenSheet music: Carl Nielsen
Nicomachus of Gethisrasa is mentioned in a small number of sources and we can date him fairly accurately from the information given. Nicomachus himself refers to Thrasyllus who died in 36 AD so this gives lower limits on his dates. On the other hand Apuleius, the Platonic philosopher, rhetorician and author whose dates are 124 AD to about 175 AD, translated Nicomachus's Introduction to Arithmetic into Latin so this gives an upper limit on his dates. One of the most interesting references is by Lucian, the rhetorician, pamphleteer and satirist who was born about 120 AD, who makes one of his characters say: You calculate like Nicomachus. Clearly Nicomachus had achieved fame for his arithmetical work! Nicomachus was a Pythagorean. This is obvious from his writings on numbers and music, but we are also told this by Porphyry who says that he was one of the leading members of the Pythagoreans School. Nicomachus wrote Arithmetike eisagoge (Introduction to Arithmetic) which was the first work to treat arithmetic as a separate topic from geometry. Unlike Euclid, Nicomachus gave no abstract proofs of his theorems, merely stating theorems and illustrating them with numerical examples. However Introduction to Arithmetic does contain quite elementary errors which show that Nicomachus chose not to give proofs of his results because he did not in general have such proofs. Many of the results were known by Nicomachus to be true since they appeared with proofs in Euclid, although in a geometrical formulation. Sometimes Nicomachus stated a result that is simply false and then illustrated it with an example that happens to have the properties described in the result. We must deduce from this that some of the results are merely guesses based on the evidence of the numerical examples (and in some cases perhaps even based on one example!). - from Malaspina BiographyBooks from Alibris: Nicomachus
Except for the Carolingian dynasty, early middle ages rulers did not concern themselves with any cultural interest. This was partly because the majority of non-religious people could not read or write. It was left up to the monks, particularly the Benedictines, and the Church to preserve history. Of particular note are St. Benedict (c. 480-c. 550) who was considered one of the best scholars of this era and St. Jerome who, with assistance, translated the Old and New Testament into Latin. Because the official language of church and state activities was Latin, much of the literature of the period consisted of commentaries on the lives of the saints or were essays on points of faith.
Stories began to appear in the vernacular along with the Latin works after 1200. Much of this literature is mythological in content, telling stories of great heroes, real or imagined, whose deeds are models for children and adults to admire. Much of the vernacular literature is bound with the music of the day. Traveling poet/musicians called troubadours went from court to court telling stories they heard on their trips. Coming from the Minnesanger and Trouveres, The Song of Roland recreates the final battle between Charlemagne and the Saracens of which Roland and all of his men are killed. Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied (Song of the People of the Dead) are epic stories of such heroes from England and Germany, respectively. - Malaspina BiographyBooks from Alibris: The Nibelungenlied
