Johann Strauss II

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook:  25 October

 

A brief biography of  Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer and conductor, known as "The Waltz King", his waltzes rich in melody and charm.

Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), is also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (German: Sohn). He was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. 

His most famous of all waltzes, 'TheBlue Danube' was originally entitled 'On the Beautiful Blue Danube', and first performed with verses. Whatever this master of light music set his hand to, the same graceful and elegant Viennese mood of melody shine through. Strauss's other key works include: waltzes 'Roses from the South' and 'Emperor', operetta 'Die Fledermaus' and 'A night in Venice', among others

In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer" (Emperor Waltz), "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known. 

Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife Maria Anna Streim. Two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brother.

Below, enjoy Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube Waltz Op 314".  YouTube, uploaded by Lifting Dreams. Accessed October 25, 2022.  With paintings slideshow.  'The Blue Danube' is the common English title of 'An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314' (German for "By the Beautiful Blue Danube"), a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. (Johann Strauss II has no relation to composer Richard Strauss, famous for symphonic tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra.)

Gustav Mahler

Classical Music / Composers Datebook:  July 7

Late Romantic Czech-Born Austrian Composer

"A symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything." ~ Gustav Mahler, a remark to Sibelius, Helsinki, 1907.


A brief profile of Gustav Mahler 

Mahler is famous for symphonies, in particular, "The Symphony of a Thousand" and lieder (songs).

Gustav Mahler  (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911), was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation.  A Jew, he was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. His family later moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava), where Mahler grew up.

He composed some large-scale symphonies, for instance, The Song of the Earth, and many with voices,including Symphony No. 2 Resurrection, Symphony No. 6 in A minor, sometimes referred to as "Tragic" or Tragische, Symphony No. 8 The Symphony of a Thousand, and Symphony No. 10, left unfinished at his death. Mahler also composed orchestral lieder songs. His Symphony No. 5 was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at his holiday cottage at Maiernigg. 

Joseph Lanner

Classical Music Composer Dateline: April 12

Joseph Lanner, Austrian Dance Composer and Violinist

Austrian composer Joseph Lanner (1801-1843), is born on April 12, 1801, in Vienna. He is credited, along with Johann Strauss, Sr., in founding the Viennese waltz.

In 1820, he built a full orchestra that performed popular dance music in taverns in Vienna and in the Prater --- from a quintet in which he played the violin and Johann Strauss, Sr., the viola. Later, the duo Strauss Sr. and Lanner split forming rival dance bands - laying the foundations of the classical Viennese waltz. 

Featuring: VIENNA STATE BALLET - "Die Romantiker, Waltz" 

(by Joseph Lanner).  Youtube, uploaded by Poesia della Danza. Aaccessed April 12, 2024. 

Franz Schubert

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: January 31

Austrian Composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828), considered greatest melodist of all-time

Franz Peter Schubert (Jan 31, 1797 – Nov 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer, born in Lichtenthal near Vienna. He wrote some six hundred beautiful Lieder (art songs), seven symphonies including the famous "Unfinished Symphony" (No. 8), liturgical music, operas, and a large body of solo piano and chamber music. He is particularly noted for his genius in original melodic and harmonic writing. 

 

Many of his melodies sound effortless: they flow from his symphonies, string quartets, sonatas. But their natural home is in his songs - that ever famous Schubert Lieder. At the end of his life, Schubert wrote a collection of 14 songs: Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D 957, and published posthumously. 

While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work, wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert's work increased dramatically following his death.

Fritz Kreisler

Classical Music / Composers Datebook:  February 2  

 

Fritz Kreisler was an Austrian and later American composer and violinist. At the age of 13, he made his American debut in Steinway Hall, New York City.

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962), Austrian-born American violinist and composer. He was one of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Kreisler was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although it derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich (cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna. 

Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, some of them in the style of other composers, in particular, emotionally committed performances of the Beethoven and Brahms violin concerti. Many of these works were originally ascribed to earlier composers such as Giuseppe Tartini and Antonio Vivaldi until Kreisler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him.

He is famous for romantic short pieces, for example:  "Liebesfreud" (Love's joy), "Liebesleid" (Love's sorrow) and "Schön Rosmarin", among others.  

Franz Joseph Haydn

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: March 31
 

 

Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent of the Classical period. He was known as the 'Father of the Symphony.'

Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria. Along with that of Mozart, he epitomised the early Classical era. The son of a wheelwright, he went to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna as a chorister. He was mainly self-taught in composition however gained maturity as a composer. Haydn was married to Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (m. 1760–1800.) His younger brother, Michael Haydn was also a composer. He was known affectionately as "Papa" Haydn to his young friend Wolfgang Mozart. He was a tutor of Ludwig van Beethoven for a brief period.

In 1761, at the age of 29 (his young friend Mozart was then five years old), Haydn took employment with the Esterhazy family, a post he held for the rest of his life. On the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790, he accepted an invitation to go to England from the impresario Salomon, where he composed many symphonies.

 

Joseph Haydn was a major exponent of sonata form in his numerous chamber and orchestral works having written more than 100 symphonies. He was also the first great master of the string quartet.  

Haydn is famous for his oratorio "The Creation" (German: Die Schöpfung) and "The Seasons" (German: Die Jahreszeiten). He wrote many symphonies and string quartets.  He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe.

Related Article: 

What "Papa" Haydn Taught Mozart
   

Listening pleasure:

Pianist Martha Argerich performing Haydn's Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11.  YouTube, uploaded by Roberto Carvalho de Magalhães. Accessed February 9, 2018.  (Added info from  Hyperion for those who want to know more about this concerto by Haydn - Here.)  

Mozart and Classical Music

1 February 2014

To our Readers and Friends, 

The blog "Mozart Life and Times" will no longer be populated as new posts relating to Wolfgang A. Mozart will be published at Suite.IO's "Classical Music, Choral Singing, Musicals" effective immediately.

Old posts have been imported here at InspiredPenWeb.Com.      
 
Thank you for your continued support through the years, not only for Mozart's blogs but for Inspired Pen Web niche sites  in general. 

Best regards,
Tel 

InspiredPenWeb.com 

Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart

Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart (1751-1829)

Her family called her "Nannerl."  She was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister. Whether her birthday is the 30th or 31st  of  July, 1751,  I'm talking about Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart, the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Nannerl and Wolfgang were the only two of their parents' seven children to survive.  Their father, Leopold Mozart, encouraged his children's musical talent.

Nannerl Mozart's Music Book. Leopold Mozart wrote "Nannerl's Music Book" for his daughter this book. It was written from 1759 to about 1764, when his younger son Wolfgang Mozart was 3 to 8 years old. Wolfgang also used the book in which his earliest compositions were recorded (some penned by his father). 

 

From letters of Wolfgang Mozart to his sister, it's apparent that like her younger sibling, she also wrote music. Wolfgang praised her compositions as shown in his letters to her. Unfortunately, none of her work survives. Nannerl was an underdeveloped composer, whose talents might have shone if not for the social climate of the time.

The Mozart Children: Wolfgang and Nannerl

When they were young, Wolfgang and Nannerl were very close — they made up a secret language and invented a kingdom all their own where they were king and queen. But as Nannerl grew older, she was expected to end her musical career and get married as dictated during those times. Their father poured all his energies building up the musical career for his son, who at the young age of three already showed enormous talent and genius.

Something special about Mozart

 Mozart!

(c) By Agnes Selby, Guest Writer-Friend

I can't remember a time when I was not "acquainted" with Mozart. What with the wonderful Mozart biscuits my grandmother baked and the special Viennese chicken coated in breadcrumbs and fried in butter, Mozart came to me first through my stomach. My grandmother's Mozart recipe book is now mine and although we do not fry in butter in a cardiologist's household, the pleasant memories still persist.

As time went on it was his music that engaged my heart. His piano concertos were my staple diet throughout both of my pregnancies for his music was the food I craved.

Later still, when "Amadeus" played in all the theatres around the world, I became alarmed that my Mozart had chosen a silly girl like Constanze for a wife. We lived in Philadelphia at the time and I read all about Constanze in the Curtis Institute's Library. I bought all the books I could find. Then I left for Salzburg where, through the courtesy of the Mozarteum, I spent a month locked up in the Mozarteum archives reading Constanze's letters and her diaries and all I could find about her in that vast library.

Leopold Mozart

Mozart's Father: Leopold Mozart 

German Violinist, Teacher, Composer and Theorist, Wolfgang Mozart's father

While Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), is best known as the devoted father of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was a distinguished violinist, a violin teacher, composer and theorist.  Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was born on November 14, 1719 in Augsburg, Germany, to a respectable family of tradesmen. Today he is best known as the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.

The Vienna Four Composers Among the Top 10

Top 10 Composers: The Vienna Four

After listening to a favourite "Trout" music by Schubert, today I decided to further tidy up one of my older folders of classical music. I found this note from a fellow writer and friend Karen Lotter who passed on this information to me, an article she found from New York Times, some 2 years back. Certainly, nothing much has changed really. It is, and has always been these same "Vienna Four Composers."

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart

 Wolfgang A Mozart Family / Mozart's Son

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (born 26 July 1791 – died 29 July 1844), born in Vienna, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr.. He was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children, the elder son, Karl Thomas Mozart. Franz Xaver was born five months before his father died and he almost did not know him. He was called ‘Franz’ as his great-grandfather and his great-uncle, who died the same year of his birth but his father Wolfgang nicknamed him ‘Wowi ‘.  He studied music in Prague, and also with Hummel, Salieri and others in Vienna. Like his father, he was a prodigious child; he published a piano quintet when he was only eleven years old.  

 

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (left)

Carl Thomas Mozart (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher of the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, heavily influenced by his father's mature style. Franz Xaver was successful as a music teacher and there were years when he didn’t compose a single piece, so it is rather hard to compare his output (around 30 works) to his father’s over 600 works. His last opus number is around 30. His early works are heavily influenced by his father, just like Wolfgang Sr.'s early pieces were influenced by Leopold’s style. Franz Xaver Mozart's pivotal piece seems to be Piano Concerto no. 1 in C major, op. 14, which could easily be mistaken for his father’s late piano concerto KV 500 and above. The pieces Franz Xaver wrote after op. 14 gradually shift to Romanticism, seemingly looking for his own style. 

 

 

Listening Pleasure: 

 

Franz Xaver Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 14 (1808). Youtube, uploaded by Bartje Bartmans. accessed July 26, 2023.

Franz Xaver Mozart - Piano Quartet in G-minor, Op.1 (c. 1800). Youtube, uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng4. Accessed July 26, 2023.

 

Franz Xaver Mozart spent most of his years in various posts in or near Lemberg in the Ukraine. In 1838, Mozart left for Vienna and then for Salzburg, where he was appointed as the Kapellmeister (master of the chapel choir) of the Mozarteum. From 1841, he taught the pianist Ernst Pauer. Mozart died from stomach cancer on 29 July, 1844 in the town of Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) where he was buried. 

 

 

 

Like his brother, he never married and died childless. Upon death, his will was executed by Josephine de Baroni-Cavalcabò, his lover and longtime patron to whom he had dedicated his cello sonata. The shadow of his father loomed large over him even in death as evidenced by the epitaph which was etched upon his tombstone: "May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."

 

Photo Credit: 

 

1/ The two surviving sons of Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze Mozart: Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart and Karl Thomas; painting by Hans Hansen, Vienna, 1800. Wiki. Public Domain.

2/ Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1825) by Karl Gottlieb Schweikart (1772–1855). Wiki / Public Domain

3/ Grave of Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang in Karlovy Vary ( Ger. Karlsbad / Eng. Carlsbad ) in Czech republic. He wanted on his tombstone the name of his great father.

 

 

Resources: 

 

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Wikipedia.org 

Mozart: A Life. Maynard Solomon. New York: HarperPerrenial Publishers. 1995. 

The Mozart Compendium, edited by H.C. Robbins Landon. London: Thames and Hudson Publishers. 1990. 

 

 

(c) September 2010.  Updated July 26, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

That's Mozart to me!

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: January 27

 

That's Mozart to me! 

 

By Tel Asiado

 

 

(Note: I originally published this piece for eZineArticles.com, March 24, 2010. The website is now close./Tel. January 2015.)

 

This year 2006 is a significant milestone to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lovers as the musical world celebrates his 250th birthday anniversary. A lifelong Mozart enthusiast, I believe Mozart was the most comprehensively gifted musician who has ever lived. This piece is another one of my tributes to the Wunderkind.

Recently, a friend's question took me by surprise. "What's your favorite Mozart music?" She knows how I feel about Mozart, the only composer I consider "immortal." In fact, I've loved the master's music from childhood even before I knew anything more about his life. I looked at my friend, speechless. She repeated her question, while my thoughts maneuvered some answers.

"Hmm, not an easy question," I said, "I simply love his music."

"Surely you have a favourite," my friend replied, this time more persistent.

"Well," I said, "I love his Clarinet Concerto, Flute and Harp Concerto, Quartets and Quintet for clarinet and strings. Of course, I also love his symphonies mostly ones he composed in later years. And please, don't get me started with operas."

My friend stayed silent for a while before asking me about piano concertos.

"Piano concertos? I love them all. Ok, ok. I’ll name one. Piano Concerto No.21. You'll probably know this by 'Elvira Madigan', popularized by the movie of the same name. That’s the Andante movement of the concerto."

"Oh yeah? So it's Mozart's, huh?" my friend mused and added, "there was a time when I was crazy about that music after seeing the film, I even wanted it played in my elegy."

"But you know what? my all-time favourite Mozart piano concerto is actually Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. It appeals to me immensely, hmm, so dramatic and impassioned." 

Video:  Mozart's Piano Concerto for piano and Orchestra (d-minor) K.466, performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida with Camerata Salzburg. (YouTube, uploaded by forye. Accessed January 26, 2024.)

"Oh, I do love his symphonies. There are Nos. 40 and 41 simply called Jupiter. You can also include No. 39."

I was now unstoppable; noticed my friend turned very quiet, intently looking at me with my passionate enumeration of Mozart's music, one after the other.

"Oh, can I also add his violin concertos and sonatas? Yes, and his Requiem. By the way, it's not fair if I don't include my favourite operas, ok?"

"I'm sure you'll include Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro," my friend once again interjected.

"They're all fantastic but my top choice for opera is actually The Magic Flute." My friend didn't push the issue anymore. Made me wonder if I satisfied her very first question.

Oh, I do love and admire a lot of other composers, among them: Tchaikovsky (who openly adored Mozart as his musical god), Schubert, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler, and some days Liszt, Chopin, and many more. But only Mozart can fill the emptiness. Other composers are too dangerous for me. They give me turbulence (like Beethoven, sometimes) and upheaval instead of gently touching my soul. Please, I need no criteria or tonal design analysis to support Mozart's greatness. The pure delight and enjoyment that flow into my being is enough.

So much has been written of this composer. To me, he was the most comprehensively gifted musician who has ever lived. This year, two and a half centuries after his birth, millions of people throughout the world continuously play and listen to his music. While there had been other prodigies, none has approached his ability to combine a dazzling musical imagination with a total mastery of style and form, unified by his strong musical personality. He combined the perfect musical blending of the German knowledge, Italian art, and the French elegance.

Mozart belonged to the Classical period of the latter half of the 18th century. He began to play the harpsichord at the age of three and to compose at the age of five. His musical education began when he was four, along with his older sister Anna Maria. He also played both the violin and viola to soloist standard. Sadly, he died at the young age of 35.

This paramount composer never had good health, and his life was filled with difficulties. Yet, there was hardly any evidence of these in his compositions. We do not hear any raging or angry sounds in his music. His love of fun and lively disposition that enabled him to carry gracefully his cares of genius came from his mother.

To all Mozart lovers out there, what can I say about my fixation with the music of this short-lived and long-gone beloved composer, this wunderkind who wrote his music for a world so different from our own? That it makes me happy? That it touches my innermost being? That it gives me a glimpse of higher power? Yes!

Join me to a toast in remembering the 250th birthday of this Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, who gave us so much in his short-lived life of 35. To celebrate Mozart's birthday last 27th of January, I chose listening to Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622 with its ethereal perfection, one of the immortal's last works just a month before his death. I find the mood of the second movement that of profound melancholy. Finally, I honoured him with Jupiter Symphony, the culmination of his symphonic output - powerful yet gentle, elegant yet romantic, intense yet tender.

The music of Mozart brings me closer to God and nearer to beauty. I thank Mozart for his gift of music.

 

(c) March 24, 2010. Updated January 27, 2024. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography

Classical Music / Composers Datebook:  January 27 

 

Arguably, the greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Mozart composed more than 600 works including: 21 theatre/stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos (many more violin sonatas),  27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, concertos for clarinet and other wind instruments, chamber music, and many other pieces. Together with the work of his older contemporary he called "Papa" Haydn, Mozart's music marks the height of the Classical era in its supposed purity of melody and symmetricality of form. Since his early death in 1791, the popularity of Mozart keep soaring that even younger musicians continue to translate his music to suit their generation.   

Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, better known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was born in Salzburg, Austria, to a musician father Leopold Mozart and mother, Anna Pertl. Of the seven children, only Mozart and his older sister (Maria Anna or "Nannerl" as family called her) survived infancy. Leopold Mozart was himself a composer and an excellent teacher. He was a court musician of the archbishop's chapel in Salzburg, and the author of a well-known book on violin-playing. 

 

 Mozart's Younger Years

Mozart's birthplace (German: geburtshaus) was at No. 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg. As children, Nannerl and Wolfgang showed early musical promise.  

Taught by his father, Mozart was an infant prodigy. He began to play the harpsichord at the age of three, compose at the age of five, and wrote his first minuet at six. This time Mozart went on his first tour with his family. The family lived like this for years, touring and playing over Europe. Before his ninth birthday, he composed his first symphony, wrote his first oratorio at 11, and the first opera the following year.  

 

 Mozart's Youthful Years and First Love

 In Mannheim, Germany, he fell in love with a young soprano, Aloysia Weber. His love was not reciprocated. A year later, in 1778, his beloved mother died in Paris. With heartache from the double loss of his mother and first love, he returned to Salzburg. He found work at the court but unhappy with the court restrictions, Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna in  1781, and decided to go solo, a freelance musician.

 

 

Anton Webern

Classical Music / Composer Datebook: December 3

Austrian composer Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was born in Vienna. . He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known proponents of the twelve-tone technique. His innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative in the musical style later known as serialism.

Webern was born as Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern. He never used his middle names, dropping the von in 1918. He attended Vienna University from 1902 where he studied musicology with Guido Adler, writing his thesis on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac. This interest in early music greatly influenced his compositional technique in later years.

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.

 

Link:  Bruckner: Complete Symphonies. YouTube, uploaded by Brilliant Classics. Accessed September 4, 2025.  

 

 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. 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. Updated September 4, 2025.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Percy Grainger

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: July 8 

Brief biography of Australian-born American Percy Aldridge Grainger, prolific composer, music educator, virtuoso pianist, innovator, and facilitator for languages.

 

(George) Percy Aldridge Grainger (b. Brighton, Melbourne, July 8, 1882- d. White Plains, New York, February 20, 1961), American composer of Australian descent, he was a virtuoso pianist, music educator, and a designer and facilitator of languages.  of Australian origin. He was a prolific composer and a virtuoso pianist with an international reputation. He is remembered as Australia's greatest composer. In England he is considered an important figure in the preservation and arrangement of English folk song, and in the United States, where he lived most of his life, he is highly regarded as a music educator, composer and arranger of band music. 

Grainger's genius encompassed an extraordinary facility for languages, a strong talent for design and an innovative approach to museology.  The evidence of his creative life - his thoughts, compositions, recordings, archive and eclectic collection of artifacts - forms the Grainger Collection at the University of Melbourne. 

 

As a Composer and Music Educator

 

Grainger pioneered work in electronic music around 1937 and noted for his “free music” works, but he was more known as an outstanding pianist and interpreter of Edvard Grieg's music, the Norwegian composer. His major works include: The Warriors, "Irish Tune from County Derry" and "Molly on the Shore." Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was born in Melbourne, Australia. He received his first piano lessons from his mother. In later years he left for Europe to study at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt where he became close friends with Busoni, and then Grieg and Delius.  

 

The American Music Teacher and Conductor

 

He settled in London in 1901 and started his career as a concert pianist, and then left for the USA, becoming an American citizen in 1918, aged 36, although he's probably considered the greatest Australian composer. He taught in Chicago and New York. In his mid-40s, he married Swedish painter and poet Ella Strom during a Hollywood Bowl concert and on that occasion, he conducted his To a Nordic Princess, which he dedicated to his wife.

Grainger Museum of Australian Music in Melbourne

Despite busy schedules in the U.S., he still visited Australia several times, helping the establishment of the Grainger Museum of Australian Music in Melbourne which he founded in 1935. Some of his manuscripts and other memorabilia are preserved there.

The Concert Pianist and Experimental Composer

Grainger was known to be eccentric in private life and as a performer. During the next decade he appeared widely as a concert pianist. 

 

He was an experimental composer and pianist remembered for piano transcriptions, for his piano arrangements of folk songs such as Irish Tune from County Derry inspired by Londonderry Air (which dates back to 1855), Molly on the Shore (1921), and instrumental pieces drawing on folk idioms, including Country Gardens, Green Bushes, and Shepherds' Hey. 

  

Lyrics of Irish Tune from County Derry 

Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone and all the roses falling
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
And I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny Boy, oh, Danny Boy, I love you so

But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me

And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me

Source: LyricFind. Songwriters: Brian Byrne

Danny Boy lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

 

Suggested listening pleasure: 

Country Gardens, performed by Hastings College Wind Ensemble. Uploaded by Nimbus Records TV. Accessed July 8, 2015. 

 
Grainger Irish Tune from County Dairy (arranged). Performed by "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band - Tour 2018. YouTube, Uploaded by U.S. Marine Band. Accessed July 8, 2020. 

 

Encore - Grainger - Irish Tune from County Derry. Uni String Ensemble. Accessed July 8, 2026.  

 
 

 

Folk Song Movement

 

Grainger also took part in the folk song movement, collecting and arranging numerous songs, by using the gramophone to record harmonic variations. He shared his friend Busoni’s vision of this “free music”, devising a synthesizer and composing machine far ahead of its time.

 

Resources:  

 

Grainger, George Percy (1882-1961).  Australian Dictionary of Biography.  

 

Grainger Museum. About the Grainger Museum (To get access, you may need to register to Univ of Melbourne's website): http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/grainger/museum/

 

Percy Grainger.  en.wikipedia.org 
 

Percy Grainger Biography.  www.britannica.com. 

Note: This abridged article was originally published in full for Suite101.com (now close), February 24, 2008. 


(c) July 2008.  Updated July 8, 2026. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Franz Lehár

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: April 30

 

Brief biography of Franz Lehár, Hungarian-born Austrian composer, leading composer of light operettas, famous for Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow"). His waltz "Gold and Silver" is often included in  recordings for short musical pieces.

   

 

Austrian composer and conductor Franz Lehár (April 30, 1870 – October 24, 1948), was a leading operetta composer of the 20th-century. He was famous worldwide for his sensational light operetta Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow"), his music tuned into the traditional Viennese spirit of charm and elegance, of love and romance like Johann Strauss. Lehár was Hungarian born but Viennese in every respect.

Lehár's Early Years

Born in Komáron, he was the son of a Hungarian military bandmaster and composer. The continual move of his father compelled him to study and do his best as much as he could. At 12 years old, Lehár won a scholarship to the Music Academy in Prague, studied with Josef Bohuslav Foerster (theory), Zdenek Fibich and Antonin Bennewitz (violin), stayed there for six years, becoming a proficient theatre violinist. 

 

Career in the Army

Despite his musical training and education, he still followed his father in an army career. In 1889 he joined the Austrian army becoming the youngest ever military bandmaster. He was just 20. He resigned in 1902 to work in Vienna as a conductor and composer, and made Vienna his adopted home. 

 

Musical Career and Influence

It was Antonin Dvorak who advised him to concentrate on composition.

After unsuccessful attempts at dances and marches, including songs and an opera Kukuschka, his Gold und Silver (Gold and Silver) waltz was well-received in Vienna. Lehár began a career in operetta with Wiener Frauen. He achieved international success overnight from his light operetta Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow). He composed some other operas but were not as successful, for one thing, those were the years of World War I, which restricted normalcy of activities.   

 

Franz Lehár's Operettas

Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), 1905

Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg), 1909

Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love), 1910

Friderike (Frederica), 1928

Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles), 1929

Lehár also wrote the full-scale opera and his last major work, Giuditta (1934), was first performed in Vienna State Opera. His other works include: Sonatas, Symphonic poems, Violin concerto, Marches, Songs, Waltzes, and Dances, including the popular concert-waltz Gold und Silver ("Gold and Silver"), 1902

 

TRIVIA:

The Merry Widow was not only successful at its Vienna premiere in 1903, but extremely popular all over the world ever since.

In 1924 he married Sophie Meth. He was 54 years old.

His villa in Bad Ischl, where he died, is now a museum where an annual Lehar Festival is held in the spa.

Lehár was associated with the operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who sang in many of his operettas.

 

Photo Credit:

Franz Lehar. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.  Lehár, likely sometime between 1915 and 1920

 

Resources:

• Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern (2002)
  
• Latham, Alison, Ed. (2002) The Oxford companion to Music. Oxford OUP.
• Sadie, Stanley, Ed. (1994). The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. London: Macmillan Publishers.
  

 

(c) April 2008. Updated April 30, 2024. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.