Born in Liège, Dec 10, 1822
Died in Paris, Nov 8, 1890
Franck was born in Belgium and spent most of his career in France.1
Era: Romantic
Born in Frauental, near Deutschlandsberg, Styria, Feb 15, 1847
Died in Vienna, Feb 19, 1927
- Fuchs was an organist, conductor of Vienna’s Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde (an orchestral society) and a professor of harmony at the Vienna Conservatory. His students included Mahler, Sibelius, and Hugo Wolf.
- Fuchs was a friend of Brahms, who admired Fuchs’s music.
“Fuchs is a splendid musician; everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.”
Johannes Brahms (1891)2
Born in Prague, July 18, 1872
Died in Berlin, Sept 25, 19163
Born in Copenhagen, Feb 22, 1817
Died in Copenhagen, Dec 21, 1890
- Gade was the foremost musical figure in 19th C. Denmark.
- Gade worked with Mendelssohn in Leipzig as the assistant conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and as a Leipzig Conservatory instructor before returning to Denmark to found one of the country’s first permanent orchestras.
- Gade was responsible for the Danish premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and he helped raise the musical culture in Denmark to an international level.4
Pieces
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GAUBERT, Philippe
Born in Cahors, Lot, July 5, 1879
Died in Paris, July 8, 1941
- Gaubert was a French flutist, composer and conductor. He won first prize for flute at the Paris Conservatory in 1894 and second prize for composition in the Prix de Rome in 1905.
- Gaubert enjoyed a successful career as an orchestral and solo flutist, a conductor and artistic director at the Paris Opéra, and professor of flute at the Paris Conservatoire.
- In addition to flute music, Gaubert composed operas, ballets, songs, and works for orchestra.
- With his teacher Paul Taffanel, he wrote the influential flute method, Méthode complete de flúte.5
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GLAZUNOV, Alexander
Born in St Petersburg, 29 July/Aug 10, 1865
Died in Paris, March 21, 1936
- Glazunov studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov at the recommendation of Mily Balakirev.
- Part of a circle of young Russian composers supported by arts patron Mirtofan Belyayev, Glazunov and his colleagues built on the Russian music tradition pioneered by The Five while also finding ways to integrate Western musical styles.
- In addition to composing, Glazunov was a conductor, and the Director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1905-1930. His students included Dmitri Shostakovich.
Born in Novospasskoye, nr Yelnya, Smolensk district, 20 May/June 1, 1804
Died in Berlin, Feb 15, 1857
- Glinka is often referred to as the “father of Russian music,” from which many prominent 19th and 20th-century Russian composers identify as their forefather, including Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky.
- Born into the Russian ruling class, Glinka was trained to be a civil servant but pursued his love of music as a hobby. He never received a formal musical education.
- In his youth, Glinka was influenced by the folk music of the Russian serfs who worked for his family (in fact, his uncle had a “serf orchestra”) and by Russian Orthodox church music and bells.
- Glinka traveled Europe to hear Italian and German music styles, but he became one of the first Russian composers to utilize folk idioms and create a Russian orchestral style.
- His music, particularly his operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Ludmilla, inspired the next generation of Russian composers, including “The Five,” who were more overtly nationalist.
- At the same time, Glinka’s ability to successfully combine Western music traditions with Russian idioms was a model for more cosmopolitan composers like Tchaikovsky.7
- In his memoirs, Glinka wrote that after spending time abroad, he felt “a longing for my own country [which] led me gradually to the idea of writing in a Russian manner.”
- Fun fact – Glinka was one of the first Western composers to use the whole-tone scale in his music.8
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Born in Paris, Aug 18, 1849
Died in Cannes, Jan 10, 1895
- Godard was a musical prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatory at 14.9
- Godard composed symphonies, operas and other large-scale works, but today is best known for his salon music and songs.10
- Godard was also well known for his performances of chamber music as a violist.11
- It has been suggested that Godard’s early death from tuberculosis may have contributed to his relative obscurity today, by preventing him from reaching full maturity as a composer.12
Born in Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], Dec 7, 1840
Died in Hottingen, near Zürich, Dec 3, 187611
- Hermann Goetz was born in (then) East Prussia, receiving his formal musical training in Berlin and settling in Switzerland for much of his adult life.
- Goetz is best known today for his opera, Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung (“Taming of the Shrew”), though his compositional output included symphonic works, chamber music, choral works, Lieder, and pieces for piano.
- Goetz contracted tuberculous during childhood and consequently developed severe depression that plagued him throughout his short adult life.
- Sad/ morbid fact – Like Mozart, Goetz died just shy of his 36th birthday.
- George Bernard Shaw wrote the following of the composer:
“You have to go to Mozart’s finest quartets and quintets on the one hand, and to Die Meistersinger on the other, for work of the quality we find, not here and there, but continuously, in the [Second] Symphony and in [Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung], two masterpieces which place him securely above all other German composers of the last hundred years, save only Mozart and Beethoven, Weber and Wagner.”12
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GOLDMARK, Karl
Born in Keszthely, May 18, 1830
Died in Vienna, Jan 2, 191513
Born in New Orleans, May 8, 1829
Died in Tijuca, Brazil, Dec 18, 1869
- Born in New Orleans to a mother of French-Haitian ancestry and a father of German-Jewish ancestry, Gottschalk was a virtuoso pianist and one of the first American composers lauded in Europe.
- Gottschalk’s music draws on the rhythms of Haitian and Cuban, music which he learned from his grandmother’s enslaved maid Sally. Sally was brought from Haiti along with Gottschalk’s mother’s family in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. The “creole” syncopations in Gottschalk’s music were new and appealing to his European audiences. For the same reason, his music is also considered a precursor of ragtime.14
Born in Paris, June 17, 1818
Died in Saint-Cloud, Oct 18, 1893
Born in Goffontaine, near Saarbrücken, c.July 5, 1819
Died in Leipzig, April 21, 1898
- Gouvy didn’t study music as a child. He came to Paris to study law in 1836, took piano lessons while he was there, lost interest in law, flunked out of his law classes and decided to become a composer.
- Gouvy was independently wealthy, so he could devote his time to composing and promoting his works (he often funded performances himself).
- Gouvy produced over 90 compositions over the course of his life.16
Born in St Rémy-des-Monts, Sarthe, Jan 21, 1828
Died in Paris, Jan 15, 1907
Born Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset
This video contains an interview and pronunciation of the composer’s name.
- The composer was born into a wealthy family and studied music from the age of six. One of her teachers was Friedrich von Flotow, composer of the opera Martha. After her marriage, she studied with Camille Saint- Saëns.17
- She acquired the title of Vicomtesse de Grandval when she married the Vicomte Charles de Grandval, a military officer.18
- The composer published under many pseudonyms, as well as publishing as “Clémence de Grandval” and “Marie de Grandval.”19
- In 1880, Clémence de Grandval won the inaugural Concours Rossini award for her oratorio La fille de Jaïre.20
Born in Bergen, June 15, 1843
Died in Bergen, Sept 4, 1907
- Cool fact: Grieg’s mother, Gesine Judith Hagerup, was a professional pianist and his first piano teacher.20
Pieces
- Holberg Suite, Op. 40
- In Autumn (Concert Overture), Op. 11
- Lyric Pieces, Op. 65, No. 6: “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen”
- Lyric Pieces, Op. 68
- Norwegian Bridal Procession (Orch. Halvorsen)
- Peer Gynt
- Peer Gynt: “Morning Mood”
- Peer Gynt: “Solveig’s Song”
- Piano Concerto in a minor, Op. 16
- Symphony (1864)
- Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34: “The Wounded Heart;” “To Spring”
Born in Copenhagen, May 14, 1805
Died in Copenhagen, March 10, 1900
- J.P.E. Hartmann was a Danish composer of German heritage. His father and grandfather were both professional musicians as well.
- Hartmann was organist of the Vor Frue Kirke, (the cathedral in Copenhagen) and was joint director of the Copenhagen Conservatory.
- Hartmann’s music was well regarded in Denmark but due to his strong Danish Nationalism, his work wasn’t mainstream enough to achieve much fame in Europe.
- Fun fact: Hartmann grew up as a playmate to the future Danish King Frederik VII because Hartmann’s mother was a royal governess.
- Cool fact: Hartman’s wife, Emma Sophie Amalia Zinn, was also a composer, writing songs under the pseudonym Frederik Palmer.
- Fun fact: his son-in-law was the Danish composer Niels Gade.
“What composer in Scandinavia with genuine feeling for the spirit of Scandinavia does not remember today what he owes to Hartmann! The best, the most profound thoughts that a whole posterity of more or less consequential spirits has lived on have been first expressed by him, have been made to resound in us by him.”
Edvard Grieg, on the occasion of Hartmann’s 80th birthday 21
Born in Vienna, April 9, 1855
Died in Vienna, April 26, 1907
- Part of a family of Austrian musicians, Hellmesberger was a violinist and composer who became known popularly as “Crown Prince Pepi” by the time he was 18 (“heir” to his family’s musical legacy).
- Hellmesberger held various conducting posts throughout his life, including working with Mahler at the Vienna Philharmonic (that is, until a scandalous affair forced him to resign and settle for less impressive conducting posts)
- Fun fact: in 1867 (he was about 12) he led his father’s string ensemble in a performance of Mozart’s Musical Joke. The whole group wore 18th C. garb and powdered wigs. This performance was such a hit that it overshadowed the premiere of Strauss Jr.’s The Beautiful Blue Danube, which came earlier in the same concert.22
Born in Paris, Dec 16, 1847
Died in Paris, Jan 28, 1903
This video contains an interview and pronunciation of the composer’s name.
- The composer’s parents emigrated from Ireland to France. The composer added the French accent mark to her surname.
- Holmès was an influential member of artistic circles in Paris. She was a devotee of César Frank and a defender of Wagner’s music. Camille Saint- Saëns once called her “France’s muse.”
- Holmès was a vocal supporter of independence efforts in many European nations, including her ancestral home of Ireland. She composed several nationalistic pieces of music in support of these causes.
- Like several other Romantic composers (Berlioz comes to mind), Holmès had a tendency to mythologize her life as part of her artistic identity. It remains difficult to distinguish fact from fiction in her biographical record. Rumors she supported during her lifetime included that she was the natural daughter of poet Alfred de Vigny, and that she was forbidden to study music as a child.23
- Fun fact: Holmès’s partner was the poet and critic Catulle Mendès. Three of the couple’s daughters appear in a famous painting by Renoir, The Daughters of Catulle Mendès.
- Biography from the Royal College of Music
Born in Siegburg, Sept 1, 1854
Died in Neustrelitz, Sept 27, 1921
- Despite being talented enough to compose his first piece at the age of 7, Humperdinck’s parents insisted he study architecture, and he was only able to enroll instead at the Colonge Conservatory with the intervention of conservatory director Ferdinand Hiller.
- Humperdinck was a friend of Wagner, working with him at Bayreuth and teaching Wagner’s son Siegfried.
- In addition to writing operas and songs, Humperdinck taught at the conservatories at Barcelona and Frankfurt, and worked as a music critic for the Frankfurter Zeitung.24
Born in Breslau [now Wrocław], Aug 13, 1831
Died in Leipzig, Feb 1, 190226
Biography from the Jewish Virtual Library
Pieces
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JOACHIM, Joseph
Born in Kitsee, near Pressburg [now Bratislava], June 28, 1831
Died in Berlin, Aug 15, 190727
- Violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher28. Historically, Joachim was more famous as a virtuoso violinist than as a composer.
- Joachim formed connections and relationships with many notable musicians of the day, such as Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms.29
- Joachim’s friendship with Brahms was a significant source of inspiration for his compositional output. His most prolific years of writing coincided with his closest years of friendship with Brahms.30
Born Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda
Born in Prague, Feb 21, 1801
Died in Karlsruhe, Dec 3, 1866
- Kalliwoda was a Bohemian violin virtuoso and conductor active in Germany.
- Kalliwoda was Kapellmeister to the court of Prince Egon II von Fürstenburg at Donaueschingen, where he served the musical life of the entire town, directing the opera, orchestra, and cathedral music, and arranging for guest artists like Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann to play at court.29
Name Pronunciation
Born in Wiszniew, Święcany district, Lithuania, Dec 11, 1876
Died near Zakopane, Tatra Mountains, Feb 8, 1909
- Karłowicz was a violinst, composer and conductor, and was involved with the Warsaw Music Society, a Polish group which published music composition and music research and arranged concerts.
- In addition to composing, Karłowicz did musicological work: in 1904 he published Nie wydane dotychczas pamiątki po Chopinie (‘Previously Unpublished Memorabilia of Chopin’).
- Fun fact: His father, Jan Karłowicz, was a philologist, ethnographer, composer, and writer on Polish folk music.31
Born in Lille, Jan 27, 1823
Paris, April 22, 1892
- Lalo worked throughout his life to achieve commercial success as a composer, enduring a series of rejections and failures until at last, four years before his death, his opera Le roi d’Ys became a hit in 1888.32
‘It’s hard enough doing my own kind of music and making sure that it’s good enough. If I started to do someone else’s I’m sure it would be appalling.’
Lalo, on originality 33
‘While I do not know exactly what I am, I do know what I am not. I am not a member of any school, and I do not adhere to any system. I agree with the poet Musset: ‘My glass is small, but I drink from my glass.’
Lalo on originality, again 34
Born in Paris, 1858
Died in 1945
- Lambert Jr. (or Lambert fils) was the son of Louisiana-born composer of Creole descent, Charles Lucien Lambert Sr. (c. 1828 – 1896).
- Lambert Jr. was a pianist as well as a composer. His teachers included his father, Theodore Dubois and Jules Massenet.
- Lambert Jr. Spent the first portion of his career in Paris, composing piano music, orchestral music and a Requiem, among other works. He spent the latter part of his career in Portugal, employed as a pianist for the Portugese royal court.33
- Lambert Jr. made several wax cylinder recordings in 1905; as such, he is thought to be the first classical musician of African descent to appear in music recordings.35
Born in St Ulrich, Vienna, April 11, 1801
Died in Oberdöbling, near Vienna, April 14, 1843
- Along with Johann Strauss I, Lanner is known as one of the fathers of the Viennese Waltz.36
- Lanner and Strauss Sr. worked together in a chamber ensemble founded by Lanner (at the age of 17) in the first couple decades of the 1800s. The group grew into an orchestra, and eventually they were successful enough for to split into two orchestras, one directed by each composer.37
- Fun fact: Franz Schubert was a fan of Lanner and Strauss Sr.’s dance ensemble.38
- Lanner and his orchestra were well regarded throughout Europe, touring to perform at everything from court occasions to cafés to grand balls.39
Born in Raiding, (Doborján), Oct 22, 1811
Died in Bayreuth, July 31, 1886
Pieces
- Grandes études de Paganini
- Hungarian Rhapsodies
- Hungarian Rhapsody for Orchestra No. 3 in D Major
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in c-sharp minor
- Hymne de l’enfant à son réveil
- Les préludes
- Mephisto Waltz No. 1
- Orpheus (Symphonic Poem No. 4)
- Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, S. 124
- Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major
- Weihnachtsbaum (“Christmas Tree”)
Born in London, Aug 7, 1818
Died in Bois-Colombes, Aug 5, 1891
- Litolff was a touring concert pianist, piano teacher and composer.
- Litolff was born in London, and was based in a series of European cities throughout his career, eventually ending up in Paris.
- At various times he worked as a conductor of the Warsaw National Theatre Orchestra; Kapellmeister of the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and owned a music publishing house.
- Fun (Weird?) Fact: his father, Martin Louis Litolff, was a dance violinist from Alsace who ended up in London because he was taken prisoner by the British during the Peninsular War in Spain. Martin married a Scottish lady in London, so Litolff was Alsatian-Scottish.37
Born in St Petersburg, 29 April/May 11, 1855
Died in Polïnovka, Novgorod district, 16/Aug 28, 1914
- Lyadov was a composer and conductor who studied under Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Prokofiev was one of his students.
- As a composer, Lyadov developed a reputation for being lazy and failing to produce a respectable number of compositions. In reality, Lyadov was extraordinarily detail oriented and self-critical, to the detriment of his own productivity. He spent years, and even decades in some cases, working out the details of a work that lasted less than five minutes.40
- Fun Fact: Lyadov was infamous for procrastination, so much so that he was expelled from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1876 for not attending classes (he managed to get back in). Diaghilev invited him to compose the score for The Firebird, but he procrastinated and finally turned down the commission. Diaghilev then invited Stravinsky to write the score instead, and The Firebird helped jumpstart Stravinsky’s career.41
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Born in Greenock, Scotland, March 22, 1868
Died in London, August 2, 1916
*Pronounced “HAY-mish mac-KUNN”
- Hamish (born James) MacCunn was born into a musical family–his father was an amateur cellist (as well as a shipowner professionally), and his mother was a pianist. MacCunn grew up receiving a thorough musical education, and at age 15, he won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. His composition professors included Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford.
- While in college, MacCunn changed his name from “James” to the Gaelic version, “Hamish.”
- As a composer, MacCunn’s first public success was the premiere of The Land of the Mountain and the Flood at the Crystal Palace in 1887.
- The bulk of MacCunn’s compositional output was written for voice, including cantatas, operas, and works for choir. The subject matter for much of his work was heavily influenced by his native Scotland.
- *The charcoal drawing of MacCunn seen above was drawn by artist John Pettie in 1886. Pettie became the composer’s father-in-law just a couple of years later after MacCunn married Pettie’s daughter, Alison.42
- MacDowell was born in America and trained in Paris and Germany.
- In the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, MacDowell was the best-known American composer internationally.
- MacDowell’s early supporters included Franz Liszt and Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño, who programed his works in her American recitals.43
- Sir George MacFarren was one of the 19th century’s most prolific English composers, particularly popular in his time for his choral works.
- MacFarren was one of the first English musical nationalists, influenced by folk song, and by English history and folklore.
[I] “worked hard, not for the sake of work, but for the love of work”
Sir George MacFarren, on his prolific output 44
Born in Edinburgh, Aug 22, 1847
Died in London, April 28, 193545
Born in Capua, Jan 6, 1856
Died in Naples, June 1, 1909
- Martucci was a prominent composer of concert music at a time when opera dominated Italy’s musical culture.
- Martucci won early fame throughout Europe as a piano virtuoso, garnering praise from Liszt. In 1877, one of his patrons founded an orchestra specifically for Martucci to conduct, the Orchestra Napoletana.
- As an orchestral conductor, Martucci introduced many non-Italian works to Italy, including works by Stanford, Sullivan, Brahms and Franck. He also directed the Italian premiere of Tristan und Isolde, and programmed historical works (unusual for the time) by Bach, Rameau and others.
- Fun fact: Martucci met Brahms in Bologna in 1888. The story goes that neither knew the other’s language, so they communicated by singing to each other.46
Born in Montaud, St Etienne, May 12, 1842
Died in Paris, Aug 13, 1912
- Massenet was the leading French opera composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Fun fact: Early in his career Massenet played timpani at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. In this position he got to know the operas of Gounod, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and Weber.
- Massenet won the Prix de Rome in 1863, had his first opera produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1867. In 1877 he won success with his grand opera La roi de Lahore, and was also appointed a professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire47
Born in Friedland, Mecklenburg, May 14, 1812
Died in Berlin, April 10, 1883
- Mayer studied composition with Carl Loewe and Adolf Bernhard Marx.
- Mayer composed works in most of the major genres of her day, including songs, chamber music, symphonies, sonatas, and a Singspiel.
- Mayer was the “most prolific German woman composer of the Romantic period” (Grove Music Online), and during her lifetime her music was performed in Brussels, Budapest, Leipzig, Munich, and many other European cities. Mayer also promoted her work through home concerts, as many middle-class women composers did in Europe in the 19th century.
- Mayer was also a professional sculptor.48
Born in Hamburg, 14 Nov 1805
Died in Berlin, 14 May 1847
Baptized Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Regarding how to refer to the composer: “Fanny Mendelssohn,” “Fanny Hensel,” and “Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel” are all used. In her published works, the composer had her name printed as “Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn-Bartholdy”, or “Fanny Cäcilia Hensel, geb. (“geboren,” i.e. “born”) Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.”
- Hensel received a thorough training in piano and counterpoint as a child, along with her brother Felix Mendelssohn. At age 13, she was able to play the entirety of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier from memory.
- In addition to composing, Hensel was a salon hostess whose private concert series was one of the most sought-after musical events in Berlin.
- Hensel’s status as an upper-class lady made professional work socially taboo for her. Despite objections from her father (and some from her brother Felix) she finally decided to publish compositions at the age of 41, the year before her sudden death from a stroke.49
Illustrated Biography from the Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft
Catalogue
- Hensel’s works that were published during her lifetime were assigned opus numbers when published. Works that were not published during Hensel’s lifetime may be identified by their assigned number in R. Hellwig-Unruh’s catalogue of Hensel’s works (abbreviated H or H-U).50
Born in Hamburg, Feb 3, 1809
Died in Leipzig, Nov 4, 1847
Full name given upon baptism in 1816: Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Pieces
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Overture, Op. 21 & Incidental Music, Op. 61)
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Scherzo
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Wedding March
- Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27
- Concert Piece No. 1 in f minor for Clarinet, Basset Horn & Strings, Op. 113
- Concerto for Two Pianos in E Major
- Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave), Op. 26
- Hexenlied (Witch’s Song), from 12 Gesänge, Op. 8
- Lied ohne Worte (Song without Words), Op. 109
- Lieder ohne Worte (“Songs without words”)
- Octet, Op. 20
- Overture for Wind Instruments in C Major, Op. 24
- String Symphonies
- Symphony No. 1 in c minor, Op. 11
- Symphony No. 2: Lobgesang, Op. 52
- Symphony No. 3 in a minor, “Scottish,” Op. 56
- Symphony No. 4 in A Major, “Italian”
- Symphony No. 5 in D Major, “Reformation,” Op. 107
- The Fair Melusina, Overture, Op. 32
- Violin Concerto in e minor, Op. 64