The Impossible Dream (Song)

Song / Down Memory Lane

"The Impossible Dream" - from the film Man of La Mancha

"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics by Joe Darion. It is the most popular song from the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and is featured in the 1972 film of the same name starring Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, and James Coco. (refer video below). 

The song, which is awarded the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, is first sung by Don Quixote as he stands vigil over his armor, in response to Aldonza (Dulcinea)'s question about what he means by "following the quest."  It is reprised partially three more times – the last by prisoners in a dungeon as Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant mount the drawbridge-like prison staircase to face trial by the Spanish Inquisition.

Emily Dickinson

Literature / Writers Datebook: December 10

 

Brief biography and a list of poems of famous poet Emily Dickinson, one of the finest.

 

Emily Dickinson was an American poet, considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.

Though virtually unknown in her lifetime, along with Walt Whitman, she has been regarded as one of the two quintessential American poets of the 19th century. Dickinson lived a hermetic life. Although she wrote numerous poems, only a handful of them were published during her lifetime, anonymously or probably without her knowledge. 

 

Early Life of Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a prominent family well-known for their political and educational influence. Her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, was one of the founders of Amherst College. Her father, Edward Dickinson, politically well-placed, was a lawyer and treasurer for the college. He also served on the Massachusetts General Court, the Massachusetts Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, to which in 1852 he was elected as a Whig candidate. Emily's mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was chronically ill.   

Siblings

Her older brother, William Austin Dickinson, was usually known by his middle name. In 1856, he married Emily's best friend, Susan Gilbert, and made his home next door to the house in which Emily lived most of her life. Their younger sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, called "Vinnie," encouraged the posthumous editing and publishing of her sister's poetry.

Education

In 1840, Emily was educated at the nearby Amherst Academy, a former boys' school which opened to female students just two years earlier. She studied English and classical literature, learned Latin and read the Aeneid over several years. She also learned other subjects including religion, history, mathematics, geology and biology.

At 17, Dickinson began attending Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Female Seminary which  later become Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. In less than a year at the seminary, she went back home and did not return to school. There is a speculation that she was homesick or that she refused to sign an oath stating she would devote her life to Jesus Christ.

Later Years

After that, Dickinson left home only for short trips to visit relatives in Boston, Cambridge, and Connecticut. For decades, popular wisdom portrayed Dickinson as an agoraphobic recluse. She lived most of her life in the family's houses in Amherst, which have been preserved as the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Emily Dickinson asked Susan, her best friend and sister-in-law to critique her poems. She died on May 15, 1886, from nephritis, reported as Bright's disease. After her death, her family found some 40 hand-bound volumes of more than 1700 of her poems.

Here's Dickinson's quotation about pain, its timelessness and dominance:

"Pain has an Element of Blank;

It cannot recollect

When it begun, or if there was

A time when it was not."

 

"It has no future but itself;

Its infinite realms contain

Its past, enlightened to perceive

New periods of pain."

(From Pain)

 

Poems by Emily Dickinson

(Published after she died) 

Poems by Emily Dickinson, 1890

Poems: Second Series

Poems: Third Series, 1896

Then Single Hound, 1914

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, 3 vols.), 1955

The Letters of Emily, 3 vols, 1958

Final Harvest, 1961

 

Image Credit:

Emily Dickinson. Wikipedia / Public Domain

 

Resources:

1. Goring, Rosemary, editor. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994

2. McGovern, Una, editor. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002 

3. Emily Dickinson. Poetry Dickinson. Accessed December 10, 2022 

4. Emily Dickinson. en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed December 10 2008

(c) December 10, 2008. Updated December 10, 2022. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Composer and Pianist Manuel Ponce

Classical Music Dateline: December 8

Manuel Ponce, Mexican Pianist and Composer

Mexican pianist and composer Manuel Ponce was best known for his composition, Estrellita (Litte Star).

Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (December 8, 1882 – April 24 1948) was a distinguished Mexican composer. His work as a composer, music educator and Mexican music enthusiast researcher, connected the concert scene with a usually forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Constant citation of harmonic and formal traits from traditional song within his works characterised some of his compositional periods.

An important group of Ponce's works were previously unknown to the public, as self-proclaimed heir Mr. Carlos Vásquez, Mexican piano performer and educator who studied with Ponce, kept most of the original manuscripts under his possession. Most of them were finally donated to the National School of Music (UNAM) in Mexico City, as an analytic catalogue of his works could still be published.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Literature / Poets Datebook: December 4

 

Brief biography and work of Rainer Maria Rilke, Czech-Austrian poet, novelist and writer, famous for Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies.  

Rainer Maria Rilke was an outstanding lyric poet, one of the most important figures in modern German literature. He belonged to the Symbolist movement, who used images to represent what a person felt or thought.

Early Life of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke was born on December 4, 1875, in Prague, at that time a part of the Austrian Empire, and now the capital of Czech Republic. He was sent to a military academy, but this was apparently not his interest. He left to study art history in Germany. He was rather shy, and did not make friends easily, not a sociable young man, and in times of social difficulties his response was to stay away.

The Wanderer: European Travels

Rilke became a constant wanderer through Europe. He made two journeys to Russia, where he met Leo Tolstoy and was deeply impressed by what he learned of Russian religion. However, he settled in Paris where he became secretary to the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and in 1901 he married one of the pupils of Rodin.

Writing Style

Rilke's work was highly influenced by his education and classic authors. Ancient gods Apollo, Hermes and Orpheus are found in his poems according to his lyrical interpretations. He also represented his work with metaphors. 

Below,  Rilke's 'On the Beauty and Difficulty of Solitude'. YouTube, uploaded by That you are here now. Accessed December 4, 2022.  Solitude is a painful and beautiful thing. Rainer Maria Rilke thought so. In his 'Letters To A Young Poet', Rilke speaks of the beauty and difficulty of solitude - and its necessity in our lives.

Prose and Poetry

Rilke consecrated his life to poetry. His first book of poems, Life and Songs, was published when he was 19. His earliest poems were about nature and traditional religion. Later, these simple themes were left behind as his poems became increasingly mystical, and poems became things to him, particularly the sacred ones. Between the ages of 30 and 40 he produced some of his finest poetry and the important prose, The Tale of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke. He also wrote the book Journal of My other Self, which is the story of an imaginary poet. Rilke's two masterpieces are verse sequences, Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies, written shortly before his premature death from blood poisoning.  He died on December 29, 1926 at the age of 51, in Montreux, Switzerland.   

Rainer Maria Rilke's influence has been far and wide – often quoted and celebrated by literary greats, quoted in music, television, and films.

He chose his own epitaph:

"Rose, oh the pure contradiction, delight, of being no-one's sleep under so many lids."

 

Works by Rainer Maria Rilke

Life and Songs, 1894

Stories of God, 1900

The Book of Hours, 1905

The Tale of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke, 1905

New Poems, 1907

The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge, 1910

Journal of My Other Self, 1910

Sonnets to Orpheus, 1923

Duino Elegies, 1923

Where Silence Reigns, 1978 (Published after his death)

 

Resources:

1. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary edited by John Clark. London: Chancellor Press, 1994

2. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una Mcgovern, Chambers Harrap, Edinburgh, 2002

3. Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. Larousse, 1994

4. The A-Z of Great Writers, by Tom Payne. Carlton Book, 1997

(c) December 2008. Updated December 4, 2022. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Handel and Hendrix Unlikely Neighbours

Imagine Handel and Hendrix as Neighbours

By Liz Ringrose, Guest Writer 

Most visitors to London will have seen a few of the famous blue plaques attached to a variety of buildings.  These plaques, now maintained by English Heritage, commemorate, historical figures who have lived in the houses they adorn. 

In west London, on Brook Street, two plaques can be viewed on adjoining houses.  At number 25 Georg Frideric Handel the composer lived from 1723 until he died thirty-six years later.  Next door, at number 23, American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix moved in during 1968 and stayed for a year.  When Hendrix took up residence he noticed the plaque on the neighbouring house but admitted that he hadn't heard much of "the fella's stuff."  I doubt Handel could have imagined the sounds that would emanate through the walls of his house over two hundred years later, although I'm sure he would applaud his neighbour's dedication to his music. 

The idea of the commemorative tablets came originally from a member of parliament, William Ewart, in 1863 and four years later the first one was erected, for Lord Byron.  It wasn't until the 1920s that the distinctive blue colour was adopted.  Each ceramic tablet is hand made and takes about two months to complete.  To be eligible for a plaque a person must have been dead for at least twenty years and members of the public can nominate a historical figure to be commemorated.

In south west London on the walls of 180 Ebury Street a plaque proudly boasts that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his first symphony there in 1764.  I suspect that Handel might have preferred Mozart as a neighbour but maybe a Handel/Mozart/Hendrix collaboration might be interesting - if a little loud. Further details about the blue plaque scheme can be found on the English Heritage website: www.english-heritage.org.uk

 
Thanks Liz for this very interesting piece.

 (c) November 2008. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

John Keats

Literature / Writer's Datebook: October 31

One of the Best English Romantic Poets, Famous for Odes

Brief biography of the life and works of English poet John Keats, one of the world's best Romantic poets known for odes. Including 'Ode to a Nightingale' and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn.'  

 

John Keats was one of the finest poets of the Romantic school of writing. He was born in London (October 31, 1795), the eldest of five children.  His father kept horses for hire, a livery-stable keeper, but died when Keats was only 8 years old. He then grew up in his grandmother's home at Edmonton, near London.  

Early Training, Education and Influence

At school he read widely, won prizes and learned to love poetry. He loved reading works of Edmund Spenser in particular. He studied medicine at Edmonton, at Guy's Hospital, London, and apprenticed to a surgeon. Meanwhile he was composing verses and meeting other young romantic writers, including Leigh Hunt, famous for Story of Rimini. It was Hunt who introduced Keats to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Early career as a Poet

Keats gave up medicine to write, living poorly off a little money left by his grandmother. He also published his first sonnets in The Examiner. His first volume of poems combined 'Hymn to Pan' and the 'Bacchic procession' anticipating his future great odes. His first published poem, 'O Solitude,' appeared in a magazine when he was 21.

Something about Baroque Period

The word 'baroque' is derived from the Portuguese Barroco or "oddly shaped pearl." In general, the term applied to the ornate architecture of Germany and Austria during the 17th and 18th centuries, and borrowed to describe comparable music developments from about 1600 in particular to the deaths of J.S. Bach and F.G. Handel in mid 18th century.

Baroque music then is used to describe a particular musical style, a term originally borrowed from the style of architecture popular between 1600 and 1750. The buildings were ornate or elaborately decorated, and often flamboyant. The music of the time can be seen in this way too, that is, elaborate and heavily ornamented.

Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1

Classical Music / Piano Concerto

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in  E, Op. 11, premiered with the composer himself as soloist.

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, was first performed on 11 October 1830, in Warsaw Theatre, Poland, with the composer himself as soloist, during one of his "farewell" concerts before leaving his native land. It was the first of Chopin's two piano concertos to be published, and therefore given the designation of Piano Concerto "No. 1" at the time of publication. It was written immediately after what was later published, his famous Piano Concerto No. 2.

The legendary Martha Argerich plays Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E. Jacek Kaspszyk conducting Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra.  YouTube, uploaded by ClassicalRarities. Accessed November 16, 2019.

Mozart Opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

The Magic Flute Premiered, September 30, 1791

Wolfgang A. Mozart conducted his opera 'The Magic Flute' in its first performance on September 30, 1791, in Vienna. His librettist, Schikaneder, was also the first Papageno.

Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (The Magic Flute / Die Zauberfloete), is an opera in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German Libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. This opera is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form which included both singing and spoken dialogue. It premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden.

The first performance was at an out-of-town but not obscure theatre. Schikaneder himself played Papageno, while the Queen was played by Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer. The opera was not an immediate success, but slowly, it gained popularity. By November 1792, Schikaneder announced the opera's 100th performance. Unfortunately, Mozart did not have the pleasure of attending his masterpiece as he died December 5, 1791.

On January 11, 1904, The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte) is first performed at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. 

Today, Die Zauberflöte remains one of the most performed works of Mozart worldwide.

Below is a performance by The Royal Opera, with German soprano opera singer Diana Damrau superb as the queen singing 'Der Hölle Rache', the famous Queen of the Night aria. Interested with the lyrics to the 'Queen of the Night' aria? Here. (classicfm.com. 2 June 2018.)





 

Recommended Magic Flute Overture:

 

Magic Flute overture- Mozart - Muti - Wiener philharmoniker. YouTube, uploaded by vexillum1. Accessed October 8, 2018.

 

 

Recommended arias: 

Detlef Roth performs "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" (English: "A Girl or a Little Wife"). YouTube, uploaded by FoxyGrandpa. Accessed October 8, 2018.

Erich Kunz sings "Der Vogelfänger bin ich" in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. YouTube, uploaded by liederoperagreats. Accessed 18 August 2018. 

Simon Keenlyside as Papageno in Mozart "Die Zauberflöte" singing: "Papagena! Papagena! Papagena!". YouTube, uploaded by Priezza. Accessed 30 September 2014.




Video Credit:

Die Zauberflöte 1971(English subs), Stein, Ustinov, Gedda, Mathis, Deutekom, Workman. Youtube uploaded by Herur22. Accessed September 30, 2016. (This video was published on 1 Feb 2013. In 1971 there was an acclaimed new production of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) at the Hamburg Opera directed by Peter Ustinov. This was during that house's golden period under the artistic direction of Rolf Liebermann. The production was taken into a TV studio and filmed, using the original sets and costume. Hamburg State Opera, conducted by Horst Stein.)

Mozart - DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE - Queen of the Night aria, with The Royal Opera. Youtube, uploaded by The Royal Opera. Accessed 2 June 2018.

Note: I originally wrote and published this abridged version for Suite101, 30 September 2008. / Tel


Resources:

Various books from my private collection of Mozart books and other documentary materials. / Tel


 

(c) September 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved. 

Opera Singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Debut in Der Rosenkavalier

Classical Music Dateline: Sept 20.

Sept 20, 1955.  German opera singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf makes her American debut in San Francisco, starring in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.  

Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf DBE (December 9, 1915 – August 3, 2006), was a German opera singer (who later took British citizenship). She was one of the leading soprano of the post-World War II period, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Strauss and Hugo Wolf. .

She was born in Jarotschin in Prussia (now part of Poland) to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth Fröhling. Christened Olga Maria Elisabeth Frederike Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf showed an interest in music from an early age.

In 1928, she performed in her first opera as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hockschule für Musik. At the suggestion of the baritone Karl Schmitt-Walter, she switched teachers and started working with the celebrated coloratura soprano Maria Ivogün as well as with her husband, the noted pianist Michael Raucheisan. Ivogün's advice to her new pupil was, "Be noble, my child!"


Resources:

Elisabeth Schwarskopf (Soprano).  Bach Cantatas Website.  Accessed September 20, 2008.

Kennedy, Michael & Joyce & Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Eds. (2012). Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press.

Unchained Melody (Song)

Songs / Down Memory Lane 

The song "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 melody with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become a standard and became one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists in multiple languages.

In 1955, three versions of the song charted in the Top 10 Billboard in the United States, and four versions appeared in the Top 20 in the UK simultaneously, an unbeaten record for any song.  Of the hundreds of recordings made, it was the July 1965 version by the Righteous Brothers, performed as a solo by Bobby Hatfield that became a jukebox standard for the late 20th century. This version acahieved a second round of great popularity when it was featured in the 1990 film Ghost starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, and Whoopi Goldberg. It finished at number 27 on AFI's 100 years ... 100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema in 2004. 



Video Credit:

Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody. YouTube, uploaded by Andrei V. Accessed September 11, 2008.


Resource:

Unchained Melody. en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed September 11, 2008.


(c) 2008.  Tel Asiado.  Written for Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Mozart Children and their Playing Fields

A rainbow in the fields where the Mozart children used to play
(Image: Courtesy of Liz Ringrose)

This image was taken in the fields behind the hotel where Liz recently stayed whilst visiting Salzburg with husband Nigel. The Mozart children used to play in these fields. They visited friends at Schloss Aigen. Liz tells me that the schloss is now crumbling into disrepair. Sad to think about.

Johann Christian Bach

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: September 5

 

Brief biography of German Classical composer and performer,  Johann Christian Bach, popularly called 'London Bach' or 'English Bach.' 

 

Johann Christian Bach's Early Years

Johann Christian Bach, German composer of the Classical Era, was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach by his second wife Anna Magdalena Bach. JC Bach, as he was commonly called, was born on September 5, 1735,  in Leipzig. JC Bach studied with his father until aged 15, then in Berlin with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel, considered the best musician in the Bach family that time.

In 1754 he went to Italy, abandoned Protestantism for Roman Catholicism, and became organist in Milan Cathedral. He left for Italy in 1754, became an organist at Milan Cathedral and converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

JC Bach's Move to London

Johann Christian Bach went to London in 1762 and was appointed music master to Queen Charlotte Sophia, wife of George III. Since then he has been called the 'English Bach' or 'London Bach.' 

In London, he became friends with the boy genius Mozart who was on his first European tour with family. He introduced Mozart to English musical society. Mozart wrote his first three symphonies under the influence of Johann Christian Bach.

 

JC Bach's Significant Milestones:

1762 - He was invited to London to write Italian operas.

1763 – On Feb 19, his opera Orione was performed at the King's Theatre in London. It was so successful that it continued on for three months, and was followed in May by the equally successful Zanaida.

Early 1770s was the height of his career as a performer and composer. Many of his works were published.

 

JC Bach's Career and Health Decline

JC Bach made London his permanent home. Sadly, his popularity faded in the late 1770s, and his health declined following financial troubles. He was soon forgotten after he died in London, 1 Jan 1782, aged 46. He was buried in St Pancras' Churchyard.

 

Johann Christian Bach's Musical Legacy

His music appealed to Mozart as it provided a blend of the Italian fluency and grace along with well founded German techniques.

Johann Christian Bach, sometimes regarded as hedonistic compared to his half-brother CPE Bach, produced elegant music simply suited to its social purpose.

 

Johann Christian Bach's Operas

 

Artaserse, opera  1761, he was 26 years old

Catone in Utica, opera  1761

Allessandro nell'Indie, opera  1762

Orione, opera  1763

Zanaida, opera  1763

Adriano in Siria, opera  1765

Carattaco, opera  1767

Temistocle, opera  1772

Lucio Silla, opera 1776

Amadis des Gaules, opera  1779

 

Johann Christian Bach's Other Works:

Symphonies

Concerti

Sextets

Quintets

Quartets

Duets for violin

Trios

Sonatas for piano and violin

Military marches

Church music

Vocal music   

 

Image Credit:

Johann Christian Bach by Thomas Gainsborough. Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain. 

 

Resources:

Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie,Macmillan (1994)

The Chronicle of Classical Music, Thames & Hudson (2000) 

 

 

(c) September 2008. Updated September 5, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved

Anton Bruckner

 Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: September 4

Brief biography of Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer and organist of the Romantic Period. As a composer or as a person, it's not easy to categorize Anton Bruckner. His life and music is full of fascinating yet absorbing paradox.  He did not win wide recognition for many years, but is now regarded as one of the great symphonic composers of the 19^th century. 

Austrian composer and organist Anton Bruckner spent most of his life quietly teaching and composing. Unlike Wagner who greatly influenced him and he admired, Anton Bruckner was not a man of the world who openly promoted his pursuits. He did not exude the Vienna sophistication although he moved in Viennese circles, remaining much like an outsider until his death on October 1896.   

 

 

Early Years

Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, September 4, 1824. His music training started at four with lessons in violin. He was the son of a schoolmaster and organist. After his father died, (Bruckner was 13), he became a chorister at St. Florian’s monastery school and an organist at 21 years of age. By this time, he began to compose and went to study in Vienna in 1855. Although he was an outstanding organist, he composed very little for the instrument.

 Career & Influences 

A staunch Roman Catholic, Anton Bruckner was a deeply religious man who wrote music solely for the church until the age of 40 when he met Wagner, becoming the latter's admirer and friend. Bruckner then took to writing symphonies of epic-length proportions. 

Bruckner was cathedral organist at Linz and professor at the Vienna Conservatoire.  

In the early 1860s, at 37, he studied with Kitzler whose methods were based on the new composers of the Romantic Movement, such as Beethoven. He was greatly influenced by this and from here, his compositions evolved from the old-fashioned church organist to an innovator of originality. Bruckner's second and final transformation happened after seeing Wagner’s opera Tannhauser in 1865. Amazed at the way Wagner could break the rules of formal composition, at the same time create such overpowering music, was a revelation to him. Bruckner immediately amended his own approach. 

His symphonies, as well as his early religious choral pieces (masses and motets), and the late Te Deum still reflect his profound religious outlook. Symphony no.4: The “Romantic”, a traditionally piece of Romantic orchestral work is quite popular too. Symphony no.9, his last, was left unfinished when he died. 

 Bruckner Legacy

Bruckner achieved success much later than many of his contemporaries. He was overshadowed by Brahms throughout his life. He was already 60 when his first performance of Symphony no.7  finally claimed success. For his place in the history of music, although still refuted by some critics, he has now been considered one of the “Magnificent Seven” Viennese symphonists - the others being Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Mahler.

 Anton Bruckner's Symphonic Works:

Symphony in F minor (unnumbered, known as No 00) 1863

Symphony in D minor (known as No 0, revised 1869) 1864

Symphony No 1 in C minor (revised 1891) 1866

Symphony No 2 in c minor (revised 1891) 1872

Symphony No 3 in D minor, Wagner (revised 1877 and 1888) 1873

Symphony No 4 in Eb major, Romantic (revised 1880) 1874

Symphony No 5 in Bb major (revised 1878) 1877

Symphony No 6 in A major 1881

Symphony No 7 in E major 1883

Symphony No 8 in C minor, Apocalyptic (possibly 1887, revised 1890) 1884

Symphony No 9 in D minor (unfinished) 1894

 

Image Credit:

Anton Bruckner. Karadar.com / Public Domain

 

Resources:

Music by Frank G. Barker, Windward (1981)

Teach Yourself Series, Classical Music, Helicon Publishing (2000)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)

 

 (c) September 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Amilcare Ponchielli

 Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: August 31

 

Brief biography of Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli, regarded as founder of Modern School of Italian Opera. He is famous for opera 'La Gioconda' (The Joyful Girl), and he was teacher of Puccini and Mascagni.

 

Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886) is considered the most important Italian composer of the opera between Verdi and Puccini, and founder of modern school of Italian opera.    

 

Early Life

Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Paderno Fasolano (now Paderno Ponchielli) near cremona, on August 31, 1834. Ponchielli's early musical training came from his father, a shopkeeper, who played the organ in the village church, although a businessman by profession.

 

Early Musical Training

At the age of nine, Ponchielli studied music theory, composition, and piano at the Milan Conservatory. After Milan Conservatory, he settled in the province as a church organist, municipal band conductor.

Ponchielli's Career and First Success 

In 1854, aged 20, Ponchielli was music director of the Cremona Theater, where his first opera was premiered.  

Success didn't come early in Ponchielli's life. After he was maneuvered out as a professor at the Milan Conservatory, he took odd jobs, and composed several operas. None of these were successful, until he was 38 years old, with the much-revised I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) in 1872. A year later, his ballet Le due gemelle was also well-received.     

 

Ponchielli's Works:

I Lituani (The Lithuanians) with the Ricordi commission, and above all, with La Gioconda (Gioconda), considered his masterpiece on a text drawn from French writer Victor Hugo. La Gioconda is a melodramatic opera of passion, love, and murder that includes the famous act 3 ballet "Dance of the Hours."

His other works include operas Bertrando, La savoiarda (The Savoyard Woman), I mori di Valenza (The Moors of Valencia), Il figliuol prodigo (The Prodigal Son).

Ponchielli also composed ballets, cantatas, songs, orchestral and chamber music, piano works, and  numerous sacred music. Of his works, only his best known work La Gioconda is in the modern repertory.

 

Later Years

During the last ten years of Ponchielli, he was professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory and maestro di cappella of Bergamo Cathedral.  He taught Giacomo Puccini and briefly, Pietro Mascagni, of Cavalleria Rusticana fame.

Although Amilcare Ponchielli lacks a strong personality, his work shows remarkable imagination and craftsmanship. He is remembered with La Gioconda. He died in Milan, 16th of January, 1886

 

Ponchielli's Operas

I promessi sposi, 1856

Bertranda del Barnia, 1858  (scheduled but not performed)

La Savaiarda, 1861

Roderico, re dei Goti, 1863

I promessi sposi, 1872.  (Success in a revised version) 

Il parlatore eterno, 1873

I Lituani, 1874 (revised as Aldona)

La Gioconda, 1876, (includes the "Dance of the Hours")

Il figliuol prodigo, 1880

Marion Delorme, 1885

 

Ponchielli's Cantatas

 

A Gaetano Donizetti, cantata  1875

In Memoria di Garibaldi, cantata  1882

 

Image Credit:

Amilcare Ponchielli. Karadar.com / Public Domain

 

Resources:

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2^nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994) 

Amilcare Ponchielli. en.wikipedia.org 

August 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.