biography of classical composers

8/6/2019 Biography of Classical Composers

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GIOVANNI BATTISTA SAMMARTINI

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700 or 1701 15 January 1775) wasan Italian composer, organist, choirmaster and teacher. He counted Gluck among his students,and was highly regarded by younger composers including Johann Christian Bach. It has also been noted that many stylizations in Joseph Haydn's compositions are similar to those of

Sammartini, although Haydn denied any such influence.[2]

Sammartini is especially associatedwith the formation of the concert symphony through both the shift from a brief opera-overturestyle and the introduction of a new seriousness and use of thematic development that prefigureHaydn and Mozart. Some of his works are described asgalant, a style associatedwith Enlightenment ideals, while "the prevailing impression left by Sammartini's work... [is that]he contributed greatly to the development of a Classical style that achieved its moment ofgreatest clarity precisely when his long, active life was approaching its end".

He is often confused with his brother, Giuseppe, a composer with a similarly prolificoutput (and the same first initial).

Life

Giovanni Battista Sammartini was born to French emigrant and oboist Alexis Saint-Martin and Girolama de Federici in Milan, in what was Austria during most of his lifetimeand Italy today. He was the seventh of eight children. He received musical instruction from hisfather and wrote his first work in 1725, which was a set of vocal works (now lost). Not longafter, he acquired the positions of maestro di cappella at Sant'Ambrogio and to theCongregazione del Santissimo Entierro in 1728. He held the position at Sant'Ambrogio until hisdeath.

Sammartini quickly became famous as a church composer and obtained fame outside ofItaly by the 1730s. Over the course of the years, he joined many churches for work (8 or more byhis death[5]) and wrote music to be performed at state occasions and in houses of nobility.Although he never strayed far from Milan, he came into contact with many notable composers

including J.C. Bach, Mozart, Boccherini, and Gluck, the latter of whom became his student fromthe years 1737 to 1741.Sammartinis death in 1775 was unexpected. Although he was highly regarded in his

time, his music was quickly forgotten, and Sammartini wasnt to be restudied until 1913 byresearchers Fausto Torrefranca, Georges de Saint-Foix, and Gaetano Cesari. Ironically, most ofhis surviving works have been recovered from published editions from outside his hometown ofMilan.


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FRANOIS-ANDR DANICAN PHILIDOR

Franois-Andr Danican Philidor (September 7, 1726 August 31, 1795) wasa French composer who contributed to the early development of the opra comique. He was also

regarded as the best chess player of his age. Philidor's bookAnalyse du jeu des checs wasconsidered a standard chess manual for at least a century. He was commonly referred to as AndrDanican Philidor during his lifetime.

MusicalfamilyFranois-Andr Danican Philidor came from an extraordinary musical family, which

included:Jean Danican Philidor (ca.1620-1679), Andr Danican Philidor's grandfather, was a

musician at the Grande curie(literally, the Great Stable; figuratively, the Military Band)in Paris. The original name of his family was Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scottish origin(Duncan). Philidor was a later addition to the family name. Jean Danican Philidor was given the

nickname of Philidor by Louis XIII because his oboe playing reminded the king of an Italianvirtuoso oboist coming from Siena named Filidori.

Michel Danican (died ca.1659), Andr Danican Philidor's great-uncle, was arenowned oboist and, together with Jean Hotteterre, coinvented the oboe by modifyingthe shawm so that the bore was narrower and the reed near could be held near the end by theplayer's lips.

Andr Danican Philidor (ca.1647-1730), Franois-Andr Danican Philidor's father, wasalso known asPhilidorl'ain (Philidor the Elder). He was an oboist andcrumhorn player. He wasa member of the Grande curie military band and later performed at the Court, at the RoyalChapel, in the employ of Louis XIV.

Jacques Danican Philidor (16571708) was the younger brother of Andr Danican

Philidor (Philidor the Elder) and, being a musician, too, was logically known asPhilidorlecadet(Philidor the Younger).

Pierre Danican Philidor (16811731), also a musician, was the son of Jacques DanicanPhilidor.

Anne Danican Philidor (16811728) was Andr Danican Philidor's oldest brother. AnneDanican Philidor is best remembered today for having founded theConcert Spirituel, animportant series of public concerts held in the palace of the Tuileries from 1725 to 1791.

Franois-Andr Danican Philidor was born to his fathers second wife, Elizabeth Le Roy,whom he wed in 1719 when she was 19 years old and he 72. When Franois-Andr was born, hisfather was 79 years old; he died 4 years later and left his son fatherless.


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CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Berching (UpperPalatinate) 15 November 1787 in Vienna) was an opera composer of the early classical period.After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of

opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years.With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice andAlceste, hebroke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century.

The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris,which he did in November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French nationalgenre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last ofthese,Iphignie en Tauride, was a great success and is generally acknowledged to be his finestwork. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution inFrench opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after thepoor reception of hisEcho et Narcisse he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live outthe remainder of his life.

EarlyyearsGluck was born in Erasbach (now a district of Berching, Bavaria) the first of six

surviving children. His father, Alexander Johannes, came from a long line of foresters, andmarried Gluck's mother, Maria Walburga, in about 1711. During 1717 the family movedto Bohemia, where the father became head forester in the service of Prince Philipp Hyazinth vonLobkowitz in 1727. According to J. C. von Mannlich, who shared rooms with Gluck in Paris, itwas as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training, both as a singer inthe church choir and by learning. Gluck later wrote:

My father was a head forester in [Eisenberg] in Bohemia and he had brought me up tofollow in his footsteps. At that time music was all the rage. Unfortunately, inflamed with a

passion for this art, I soon made astounding progress and was able to play several instruments.My whole being became obsessed with music and I left all thoughts of a forester's life behind."

A childhood flight from home to Vienna is included in several contemporary accounts ofGluck's life, including Mannlich's, but recent scholarship has cast doubt on Gluck's picturesquetales of earning food and shelter by his singing as he travelled. Most now claim that, if thisincident happened at all, it occurred later, and the object of Gluck's journeying was not Viennabut Prague, and connected to his studies at the University of Prague, where according to early biographies he began studying logic and mathematics in 1731. At that time the Universityboasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera andoratorio.Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the historical recorduntil 1737, a possible year (likely to have been 1736) in Vienna apart.


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CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH

When he was ten years old he entered the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where his fatherhad become cantor in 1723, and continued his education as a student ofjurisprudence at theuniversities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). In 1738, at the age of 24, he tookhis degree, but at once abandoned his prospects of a legal career and determined to devote

himself to music.A few months later (armed with a recommendation by Sylvius Leopold Weiss) heobtained an appointment in the service of Frederick II of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"), thethen crown prince, and upon Frederick's accession in 1740 Emanuel became a member of theroyal orchestra. He was by this time one of the foremostclavier-players in Europe, and hiscompositions, which date from 1731, include about thirty sonatas and concert piecesfor harpsichord and clavichord. During his time there, Berlin was a rich artistic environment,where Bach mixed with many accomplished musicians, including several notable formerstudents of his father, and important literary figures, such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, withwhom the composer would become close friends.

In Berlin he continued to write numerous musical pieces for solo keyboard, including a

series of character pieces, the so-called "Berlin Portraits," including La Caroline.His reputation was established by the two published sets of sonatas which he dedicatedrespectively to Frederick the Great and to the grand duke of Wrttemberg. In 1746 he waspromoted to the post of chamber musician, and served the king with the likes of Carl HeinrichGraun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda.

His publication, An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments was adefinitive work on technique. It broke with rigid tradition in allowing, even encouraging the useof the thumbs, and became the standard on finger technique for keyboards. The essay basicallylays out the fingering for each chord and some chord sequences. The techniques are largelyfollowed to this day. The first part of theEssay has a chapter explaining the variousembellishments in work of the period, e.g., trills, turns, mordents, etc. The second part presentsEmanuel Bach's ideas on the art of figured bass and counterpoint, where he gives preference tothe contrapuntal approach to harmonization over the newer ideas of Rameau's theory of harmonyand root progressions. Emanuel Bach's work was influential on, among others, Haydn, Mozart,and Beethoven.

He married Johanna Maria Dannemann in 1744. Only three of their children lived toadulthood Johann Adam (174589), Anna Carolina Philippina (17471804) andJohannSebastian (174878). None became musicians. Emanuel Bach died in Hamburg on 14 December1788. He was buried in the Michaeliskirche (Church of St. Michael) in Hamburg.


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JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH

Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 January 1, 1782) was a composer ofthe Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimesreferred to as 'the London Bach' or 'the English Bach', due to his time spent living in the Britishcapital. He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart.

LifeJohann Christian Bach was born to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in

Leipzig, Germany. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth, which wouldperhaps contribute to the sharp differences between his music and that of his father. Even so, hisfather first instructed him in music and that instruction continued until his death. After his

father's death, when Johann Christian was 15, he worked with his second-oldest half brother CarlPhilipp Emanuel Bach, who was twenty-one years his senior and considered at the time to be themost musically gifted of Bach's sons.

He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playingalongside Carl Friedrich Abel, the notable player of the viola da gamba. He composed cantatas,chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas and symphonies.

J.C. Bach's memorial St Pancras Churchyard, London.Bach lived in Italy for many years starting in 1756, studying with Padre

Martini in Bologna. He became organist at the Milan cathedral in 1760. During his time in Italy,he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism. In 1762, Bach travelled to London to premirethree operas at the King's Theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763. That established his

reputation in England, and he became music master to Queen Charlotte. He met soprano CeciliaGrassi in 1766 and married her shortly thereafter. She was his junior by eleven years. They hadno children.

Johann Christian Bach died in London on New Year's Day, 1782. He was buried in theSt. Giles in the Fields Burial-ground, St Pancras, London.

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