Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
1756-1791
Mozart was born in Salzburg, at a young age it
became obvious that he was a child prodigy. Mozart was
probably the greatest composer that ever lived for he had a
gift that no one else has ever had. He could compose a
perfect piece of music, while playing cards with his
friends. On Mozart originals there are absolutely no
corrections, he could hear all his music in his head!
His career really began when he heard his sister
playing at her piano lesson. He noticed that she was
having trouble with the piece she was learning. Asking if
he could try, his father, Leopold Mozart agreed, just to
humour the young Mozart. Surprisingly he played the piece
perfectly without even looking at the notes. More
astounding was the fact that he was only five years old.
Before this it had been noticeable that he was talented at
music, for when he was four years old he picked up his
father's violin and played it perfectly without a single
lesson.
After these events Mozart's father decided to take
Mozart and his sister on a tour of Europe performing for
the aristocracy and the King and Queen. During these tours
the most comical part was when he proposed marriage to
Princess Marie Antoinette! Even though he wasn't even
seven years old. During these tours he composed widely,
and when he was seven his first symphony was performed!
Mozart's genius was so great that it got him in trouble
with the police. Once he and his father visited the
Sistine Chapel to here the boy's choir sing. Mozart
memorized the music perfectly and when he returned home he
wrote it all down! It was then that the police came
calling, as the music belonged to the Pope's Choir. One
can imagine the difficulty Mozart's father had explaining
how a fourteen year old memorized the music and wrote it
all down. Yet the day was saved when Mozart was awarded
the Order of the Golden Star, from the Pope himself!
He was married to Constanze Weber when he was
twenty-five. As you hear it seems fit that he would be
rich, yet he was not. Being a poor money manager Mozart
died at the young age of thirty-five from over work. Most
sadly of all the genius was buried in a pauper's grave.
Bach, Johann Sebastian
1685 - 1750
Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany and came from a
long line of respected musicians, he of course was the
most famous of these. His father was a court trumpeter for
the Duke there. Bach was taught the violin and harpsichord
by his Uncle Johann Christoph Bach.
Bach had a hard life for his mother died when he was
only nine years old, and his father died a mere nine
months later. So he moved along with one of his brothers
to the house of the family's eldest son. His name was
Johann Christoph, just like he and Bach's Uncle.
Bach had an excellent voice that found him a place in
the choir of the rich Michaelis monastery in Luneburg.
This monastery was known to provide a free place for boys
who were poor but had musical talent.
Unfortunately his voice broke when he was only fourteen
years old, yet he was kept at the monastery as a
violinist. Bach finally left the monastery when he was
eighteen.
Bach spent his entire life as a head musician or
organist at many churches throughout Germany. His first
wife, who just happened to be his second cousin, was Maria
Barbara Bach. She died when he was forty-five, and a year
later he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken. With them both
combined he had twenty children! A few of his children
followed in his footsteps and became composers while one
made his living as an artist. In 1723, he moved to
Leipzig, where he lived the rest of his life as the
choirmaster and musical director of Saint Thomas's Church.
Unfortunately after Bach died his music was unpopular
for one hundred years, with few people enjoying it. One of
the few exceptions was Mozart. Yet in the mid 1800's it
was rediscovered, today Bach's music is still much
cherished.
Bach's most famous works are probably the Brandenburg
Concertos and the St. Matthew Passion. He was born in
Einich, Germany, Bach was the most famous Baroque
composer, most surprisingly of all he had 20 children!
Beethoven, Ludwig van
1770 - 1827
Beethoven was born in Bonn in Germany. His father was a
heavy drinker, yet he recognized the boy's talent. He
started Beethoven on the piano when he was only three,
starting two years before Mozart who had started at the age
of five. So his father was disappointed when Beethoven
failed to pass Mozart as a child prodigy.
Beethoven's career as a pianist started off well. He
made his first appearances in Vienna in 1795 playing his
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, and was soon recognized as
the city's brightest performer. Beethoven completed his
first symphony five years later in 1800.
Begining in 1798, Beethoven experienced a continual
humming and whistling in his ears that gradually grew
stronger, eventually making him realize that he was going
deaf. In 1802,he considered suicide. Yet he bounced back
dramatically afterwards, this was the time that he
composed some of his most famous pieces. Including all his
symphonies except for his ninth. Yet after 1812 the number
of pieces Beethoven wrote dropped enormousy, he became
involved in a number of lawsuits, including one over
royalties for what was most likely his worst published
work entitled Wellington's Victory.
In 1820 he won custody of his nephew Karl, following
the death in 1815 of Beethoven's brother. Although there is
no doubting his good intentions and love for the boy the
arrangements were not a success. Beethoven had never married
and wanted to treat Karl as his own son, but his deepening
poverty and the fact that he resumed composition meant that
his nephew was neglected. The year before Beethoven's death
the boy attempted suicide. After the performance of Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony he stood stone deaf on the stage, unaware
of everything, until one of the soloists turned him around
to see the thunderous applause. Beethoven died in 1827.
Peter Illich Tchaikovsky
1840 - 1893
Tchaikovsky was born in Vyatka, Russia. The second son in
what would be a family of five sons and one daughter. He was
incredibly loyal to his mother country Russia, once he
kissed the map of Russia then spat on all the other
countries. When his nurse reminded him that she was French,
he replied "Yes, I covered France with my hand."
Like Schumann Tchaikovsky took up law and found it
incredibly boring, even though for a time he was a clerk in
the Ministry of Justice. Yet, in his early twenties he quit
law and chose to study music at the St. Petersburg
Conservatory. Not surprisingly, he excelled at his musical
studies there. He had a great sense of harmony even though
he did not have a clue to how many symphonies Beethoven had
wrote until he was twenty-one. Tchaikovsky was a hard
worker, when his teacher of composition Anton Rubinstein
gave him a piece and asked for variations he wrote two
hundred over night!
In early 1866, he moved permanently to Moscow, and there he
obtained a teaching job with the Moscow Conservatory of
Music. Soon after, he wrote his first symphony, "Winter
Dreams". On July 6, 1877, he committed an act that would
ruin him. He married a woman named Antonina Ivanovana
Milyukoff. Quickly though he realized that they could not
live together happily, on the twenty sixth of June he wrote
that a few more days of life like this would drive him mad.
Therefore, he left her for most of the summer, until he
attempted to revive their tattered relationship in
September. Soon he fled how back to St. Petersburg in a
state of a complete nervous collapse. He even became
unconscious for 48 hours. His physicians then ordered him
out of Russia.
After this he regained his strength at Clarens, which was a
quiet village by Lake Geneva here he later did some of his
best work. Tchaikovsky was helped along in his career by a
widow of a wealthy railway engineer, who had heard his music
the year before and was enchanted with it. Her name was
Nadejda Fillaretovna von Meck (also spelled Nadezhda von
Meck) and she nine years older than Tchaikovsky. She gave
Tchaikovsky several commissions and began corresponding with
him. The pair exchanged many letters even though they only
met once face to face. Even then, it was by pure luck (they
bumped into each other on the street and they quickly
departed). This relationship lasted till the end of 1890
when she with drew her support. Yet, this did not distress
Tchaikovsky greatly as he was then financially independent.
Yet, all tales come to an end on Nov. 6, 1893 Tchaikovsky
passed away from cholera after he drank a glass of
unfiltered water.
Purcell, Henry
1659 - 1695
Throughout his life, English born Henry Purcell composed music in all forms and styles.
He is most known for his lively trumpet voluntaries and sweet vocal airs. He was also a composer of multiple forms, such
as court, church, stage, and chamber music. At age six he became a choirboy in the Chapel Royal. When his voice changed
at age fourteen, he then became the "keeper, maker, mender, repairer and tuner of the regalls, organs, virginals, flutes,
and recorders and all other kind of wind instruments, in ordinary, without fee, to
His Majesty (Kaufmann, 103)."
By the time Purcell was fifteen years old, he was paid two pounds (or ten dollars) a year to tune the organ in
Westminster Abbey. By age twenty, he became organist of Westminster Abbey. Additionally, it was his job to compose
music for the King's violins. This task helped him to attain an audience for his organ works, songs, and instrumental
compositions.
Some of Henry Purcell's more famous works are A Song to Welcome Home His Majesty from Windsor and They That Go Down
to the Sea in Ships. Dido and Aenas is his only surviving opera. This opera contains the powerful musical pieces "Lament"
and "When I Am Laid in Earth." It is still performed often today. His last anthem, Thou Knowest Lord, the Secrets of
our Hearts, was so emotionally written that it was played at the funeral of Queen Mary. Six months later, this piece
was performed in Westminster Abbey at Purcell's own funeral. Today he is remembered as one of the greatest composers
who ever lived and is known for his exceptional and pleasant use of harmonies.
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