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.