Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

What love is to man, music is to the arts and to mankind.

Sheet music: Carl Maria von Weber

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and likewise their disciples and apostles; - I believe in the Holy Spirit and the truth of the one, indivisible Art; - I believe that this Art proceeds from God, and lives within the hearts of all illumined men; - I believe that he who once has bathed in the sublime delights of this high Art, is consecrate to Her for ever, and never can deny Her; - I believe that through Art all men are saved.

Sheet music: Richard Wagner

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901)

They were all churning out operas of mine. It was clearly impossible for me to work under such conditions, so I hired the organs from their owners. It will cost me about 1,500 lire for the summer, but that is not too large a price to pay for peace.

Sheet music: Giuseppe Verdi

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.

Sheet music: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky

Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900)

For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening's experiments. Astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever.

Sheet music: Arthur S. Sullivan

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Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)

The eldest son of Johann Strauss I, who became a musician against his father's wishes. At the age of 19 he formed his own orchestra and amalgamated it with his father's in 1849. He established an unrivalled reputation as a composer of Viennese light music and went on tours in Austria and abroad. His two younger brothers, Joseph and Eduard, came to his aid in the management and direction of the dance orchestras when the workload became too much for him. In later years he dedicated himself to the composition of operettas. Johann Strauss the Younger wrote some sixteen operettas between 1871 and 1897. Of these the best known is Die Fledermaus (The Bat). Other operettas are more familiar from dances derived from them, although Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) remains second in order of popularity to Die Fledermaus. His dance music includes waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches and other works. Among these the most familiar remains An der schonen, blauen Donau (The Blue Danube), originally a choral waltz-sequence. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Johann Strauss II

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)

By the grace of God and with His help, I shall one day be a Liszt in technique and a Mozart in composition.

Sheet music: Bedrich Smetana

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Talent works, genius creates.

Sheet music: Robert Schumann

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)

My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art.

Sheet music: Clara Schumann

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

I never force myself to be devout except when I feel so inspired, and never compose hymns of prayers unless I feel within me real and true devotion.

Sheet music: Franz Schubert

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

There is nothing more difficult than talking about music.

Sheet music: Camille Saint-Saens

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind.

Sheet music: Gioacchino+Rossini

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (also Nikolai, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff) (born March 18, 1844, died June 21, 1908) was a Russian composer and teacher of classical music particularly noted for his fine orchestration. - See More in Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840)

I am not handsome, but when women hear me play, they come crawling to my feet.

Sheet music: Nicolo Paganini

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

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

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity.

Sheet music: Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847)

Quotation

If nobody ever offers an opinion or takes the slightest interest in one's production, one loses not only all pleasure in them, but all power of judging their value.

It must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts.

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Biographical

Born on 14 November 1805 in Hamburg to parents Abraham Mendelssohn, a banker and litterateur, and Leah Solomon, an amateur musician and artist. The oldest of four children, Fanny's siblings included Felix, a prolific composer and conductor, Rebekka, and Paul. Her paternal grandfather was Moses Mendelssohn, an influential German philosopher of the Enlightenment. Fanny's early years in Hamburg were overshadowed by years of Napoleonic oppression, and in 1811 the family fled Hamburg for Berlin. To escape possible anti-Semitic views, the family was Abraham Mendelssohn had his children baptized in 1816. Following this, they took the family name Bartholdy. Growing up in the safe environment of the Mendelssohn home, Fanny enjoyed the luxuries of an affluent upper class family. The Mendelssohn home became quickly the most important salon in Berlin. A cultural atmosphere was provided by the weekly theatrical performances, literary readings, and regular Sunday musicales. Guests included the natural scientist Alexander Von Humboldt, Goethe , Hegel, and the critic Adolf Bernard Marx. At an early age, it was discovered that both she and Felix had an incomparable musical talent. Undoubtedly, her first teacher was her mother, who had upon her birth commented on her 'Bach fugue fingers.' Along with her brother, she enjoyed a broad education with the best tutors in Berlin. She studied piano with the acclaimed pianist and teacher Ludwig Berger and studied theory and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter, a violinist and principal of the Berlin Singakedemie. During her youth, her comparable talent to her brother's was encouraged as an ornament and musical gift. In 1816, the family traveled to Paris and Fanny was given the opportunity to study piano with Marie Bigot, a teacher who had been esteemed by both Haydn and Beethoven. She was thought to be an excellent pianist, and it was noted that by the age of 13 she could play the entire length of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier from memory. She composed small works in the style of Bach and Mozart throughout her youth, but was forbidden from pursuing any public display by both her father and Felix -although the family was greatly anticipating a career for her younger brother. In 1822, the family traveled to Switzerland. In 1825, she attended Alexander Von Humboldt's lectures on physical geography and Holtei's on experimental physics at the Berlin Singakademie. By 1828, her family began expressing their desire for her to give up any desire for a music career and to prepare for what were to be her 'mature' occupations - of housewife and mother. In 1829, she married the German painter Wilhelm Hensel, who was a great supporter of her music. Perhaps not coincidentally, she chose someone who was not a musician. In addition, it was at this time that she became an avid and somewhat vicarious follower of her brother's career. On 16 June 1830, she gave birth to her only child, Sebastian, who would go on to become a prominent biographer of the Mendelssohn family. It has been indicated that in the following years she would miscarriage several times. During the years of 1831-32, Fanny attempted the composition of larger scale works for voice and instruments, most likely under the direction of her brother. She abandoned several cantatas and overtures for the smaller domain of piano and lieder. In 1837, she disobeyed the wishes of her brother and published a song in a collection. Although initially displeased with her disobeyal, Felix expressed joy that she did publish the work, although he convinced her not to try to publish anything further. In 1838, at the age of 33, she performed in public the first time, performing Felix's piano concerto no.1 in G minor, Op. 25. In 1839-40, Fanny and her family traveled to Italy, spending time in Milan, Venice, Naples, Rome, and Genoa. It was during this period that Fanny considered the high point of her life, she felt that she was able to compose freely. Following the death of her mother in 1842, Fanny became the central figure in the Mendelssohn household and led the Sonntagsmusik concerts in the Mendelssohn home in Berlin. Fanny worked to make these performances of the highest caliber, and often she made appearances as a pianist and conductor of a small choral group. These performances often included her own compositions, and she continued to compose for voice and piano. During this time she occasionally made appearances as a piano soloist in Berlin. In 1846, bids by two rival publishing companies spurred her to publish a small number of what she considered her best works: two books of solo songs, a variety of piano compositions, and a book of part songs. The success of these publications urged her to compose a work of larger scale, this, her Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11, was first performed in April of 1847. Fanny Hensel died during a rehearsal of her brother's Walpurgis Nacht on 14 May 1847. Her final diary entries are committed to her happiness and desire to continue composing larger and more varied works. Interestingly, one week later, a favorable view of her published works appeared in a prominent Leipzig music journal. Today, Fanny is remembered as a major talent whose familial and societal restrictions curbed her development. Although the majority of her works still remain unpublished, her contributions as a historical influence are important, as her diaries and letters provided the main source of biographical information for her brother.

She composed 300 songs during her career. Her songs were influenced by the study of Bach and her brother's compositions. She quickly developed her own distinctive song writing style. Her songs bear a confidence and melodic ease lacking in Felix Mendelssohn's works of the same genre. Six of her songs were published under her brother's name in his Op. 8 and 9 (Heimweh, Italien, Sulieka und Hatem, Sehnsucht, Verlust, and Die Nonne). Several volumes of her songs were published in 1847, but the majority remain unpublished. [Adapted from Suzy Smith]

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Quotation

These seem to me so ambiguous, so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison to genuine music, which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words.

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Biographical

Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (born February 3, 1809, died November 4, 1847) was a German composer of classical music. He was perhaps the greatest child prodigy after Mozart. Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the son of a banker, Abraham, who was himself the son of the famous Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn. Felix's family, however, converted to Christianity, and moved to Berlin in 1812. His sister was Fanny Mendelssohn (later Fanny Hensel), who was a well known pianist and amateur composer herself. Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. From 1817 he studied composition with Zelter in Berlin. He probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music? concert. He was also a prolific composer as a child, writing his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was thirteen. Goethe met the young Mendelssohn and took quite a shine to him, saying to him "When I am sad, come and cheer me with your playing." Mendelssohn wrote his first symphony at the age of fifteen, and at seventeen he wrote an overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is probably the earliest well known work by him (he later wrote more incidental music for the play). In 1827 he saw the first production of one of his operas, Die Hochzeit des Camacho, having written several others before then. In 1830, Mendelssohn wrote the concert overture The Hebrides, otherwise known as Fingal's Cave, a piece which remains popular today. It was inspired by visits he made to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. These visits also inspired his Symphony No. 3, The Scottish Symphony, which was written intermittently between around 1830 and 1842. Mendelssohn travelled widely in Europe throughout his life, and a visit to Italy inspired one of his best known works, the Symphony No. 4, known as the Italian, the final version of which was completed in 1834. In all, Mendelssohn wrote five symphonies. He also wrote two piano concertos and a famous violin concerto which is often seen as an essential piece for young prodigies to play. As well as orchestral music, Mendelssohn wrote chamber music, including the string octet in 1825, solo piano music, including the Songs Without Words, and two large oratorios, St. Paul in 1836 and Elijah in 1846. These were greatly influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music he brought to the public's notice, it being relatively obscure at that time. In particular, a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in 1829 under Mendelssohn's direction was a great success. Although Mendelssohn is not generally seen as a particularly influential composer, his works were very popular in his own lifetime, and remain so today. Mendelssohn suffered from bad health in the final years of his life, and it is said he was greatly depressed by the death of his sister Fanny in May 1847. Felix Mendelssohn died on November 4, 1847 in Leipzig. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.]

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Quotation

Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.

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Biographical

Considered to be one of the world's greatest pianists, Franz Liszt's career spanned virtually the whole of the Romantic period. He taught and aided two generations of younger musicians and laid the foundation for much of the 20th century's composition. He was the son of a talented amateur musician who was a steward in the service of the Esterhazy family. Liszt was a child prodigy at the piano and, by the time he was eleven, he had performed in many parts of Europe. In 1821 he left Hungary and moved to Vienna where he studied piano with Czerny and composition with Salieri. Two years later he went with his family to Paris where he was recognised as a brilliant performer and quickly became a favourite of the wealthy French families. In 1830 he met Chopin, Berlioz and the violinist Paganini, whose virtuosity inspired Liszt to explore the expressive possibilities of the piano. As a young man in Paris, Liszt was as famed for his affairs of the heart as for his piano technique. In 1835 he eloped with his mistress, the Countess Marie d'Agoult, to Switzerland and they spent the next few years in the Alps and in Italy. Soon Liszt began a vagabond life that took him to every capital in Europe where he achieved tremendous success as a pianist. In 1844 he separated from his mistress, by now the mother of his three children, and four years later he settled in Weimar, with Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, and was appointed Court Kapellmeister. In Weimar he abandoned his performing career and turned his attention to composition. Public denouncements on his relationship with the princess forced Liszt to move to Rome in 1861. Here he found expression for his long-held spiritual leanings and he composed many religious works. In 1865 he joined the Franciscans and was given the title of Abbe. From then on he divided his time between Rome, Weimar, where he had many pupils, and Budapest, where he was regarded as a national hero. Liszt's symphonic poems were denigrated by supporters of pure music, who took exception to his attempts to translate into musical terms the greatest works of literature.

The best known of the symphonic poems are Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, based on Victor Hugo, Les Preludes, based on Lamartine, works based on Byron's Tasso and Mazeppa, and Prometheus, with the so-called Faust Symphony in Three Character-Sketches after Goethe and the Symphony on Dante's Divina Commedia. Other orchestral works include two episodes from Lenau's Faust, the second the First Mephisto Waltz, to which a second was added twenty years later, in 1881. Liszt wrote two piano concertos, and, among other works for piano and orchestra, a Totentanz or Dance of Death and a Fantasy on Hungarian Folk-Melodies. Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, written for piano, have been effectively arranged for orchestra. Liszt wrote a great deal of music for the piano, some of which was later revised, and consequently exists in a number of versions. In addition to original piano music, he also made many transcriptions of the work of other composers and wrote works based on national themes. The violinist Paganini was the immediate inspiration for the Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini, dedicated to Clara Wieck Schumann, wife of the composer Robert Schumann, and based on five of the 24 Caprices for solo violin by Paganini and on the latter's La campanella. The Transcendental Studies, revised in 1851, Etudes d'execution transcendante, form a set of twelve pieces, including Wilde Jagd (a Wild Hunt), Harmonies du soir (Evening Harmony), and Chasse-Neige. The three collections, later given the title Annees de pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), wander from Switzerland, in the first book, to Italy in the other two, a series of evocative poetic pictures, inspired by the landscape, poems and works of art. The earlier volumes stem from the years of wandering with Marie d'Agoult, and the last from the final period of Liszt's life, based in Rome. The Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, written between 1845 and 1852, represent, in the ten pieces included, something of the composer's lasting religious feelings, evident also in the Legendes of 1863, the first representing St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds and the second St. Francis de Paul walking on the water. The remarkable Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, based on a theme from a Bach cantata, mourns the death of his elder daughter Blandine. His Fantasia and Fugue on the letters of the name of Bach - B flat - A - C - H (which is B natural in English notation) was originally written for organ. Liszt wrote one sonata, novel in its form. The Hungarian Rhapsodies, eventually appearing as a set of nineteen pieces, are based on a form of art music familiar in Hungary and fostered by gypsy musicians, although these works are not, as Liszt thought, a re-creation of true Hungarian folk- music. The Rhapsodie espagnole makes use of the well known La folia theme, used by Corelli and many other Baroque composers, and the jota aragonesa. Transcriptions of his own orchestral and choral compositions include a version of the second of his three Mephisto Waltzes. Of the many other transcriptions for piano those of the Beethoven Symphonies are among the most remarkable. There are a number of operatic transcriptions and fantasies, including Reminiscences de Don Juan, based on Mozart's Don Giovanni, one of a number of bravura piano works using themes from opera, that include a dozen or so based on the work of his friend and son-in-law Wagner. [Adapted from Karadar]

Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Quotation

After unusually hard work I have finished my latest opera. I don’t know whether they will call it The Thunderstorm or Katĕrina. Against The Thunderstorm is the argument that another opera of that name already exists; against Katĕrina that I write nothing but ‘female’ operas. Jenůfa – Katĕrina. The best thing, instead of a title would be to have three asterisks. - from a letter to Kamila Stösslová

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Leos Janacek was born at Hukvaldy on 3 July 1854 and died at Moravska Ostrava on 12 August 1928. He was a chorister at the Augustinian 'Queen's' Monastery in Old Brno, where the choirmaster Pavel Krizkovsky took a keen interest in his musical education. After completing his basic schooling he trained as a teacher and, except for a period at the Prague Organ School, he spent 1872-9 largely as a schoolteacher and choral conductor in Brno. In 1879 he enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he developed his interest in composition. After a month in Vienna he retumed to Brno in May 1880; there he became engaged to one of his pupils, Zdenka Schulzova, whom he married in July 1881. In Brno, Janacek took up his former activities, and he also founded and directed an organ school and edited a new musical journal. After composing his first opera, Sarka, he immersed himself in collecting and studying Moravian folk music, which bore fruit in a series of orchestral suites and dances and in a one-act opera, The Beginning of a Romance. This was favourably received in 1894, but Janacek withdrew it after six performances and set to work on Jenufa. During the long period of composition of Jenufa (1894-1903), Janacek rethought his approach to opera and to composition in general.

Jenufa was soon followed by other operatic ventures, but his reputation in Brno was as a composer of instrumental and choral music and as director of the Organ School. Outside Moravia he was almost unknown until the Prague premiere of Jenufa in 1916. Between 1919 and 1925 Janacek composed three of his finest operas, all on subjects with special resonances for him: Katya Kabanova with its neglected wife who takes a lover, The Cunning Little Vixen with its sympathetic portrayal of animals (and particularly the female fox), and The Makropoulos Affair with the 'ageless' woman who fascinates all men. Each was given first in Brno and soon after in Prague. His 70th birthday was marked by a doctorate from the Masaryk University in Brno. Early in 1926 he wrote the Sinfonietta for orchestra, characteristic in its blocks of sound and its forceful repetitions, and later that year his most important choral work, the Glagolitic Mass. While performance of his music carried his fame abroad, he started work on his last opera, From the House of the Dead, which he did not live to see performed: it received its premiere in April 1930. Janacek's reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer. He has since come to be regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Smetana and Dvorak, but also as one of the most original opera composers of the 20th century. [Adapted from Karadar]

Sheet music: Leos Janacek