What 's important to know about each Composer ?

[m1469]

I am wishing to be a little more detailed and thorough in my study as well as be up on some basica history.  So, I have started a checklist of things that seem important to know about each composer whose pieces we are working with.  I know this list is incomplete, but it's a start.  Perhaps you will add more ideas ?

I don't think there is a thread like this yet.  There is one for pieces specifically here (with some cross over into knowing about the composer but not just composers) : https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3833.msg34775.html#msg34775


Birth and Death Dates

Place of Birth

Place of Death

Total years lived

Number of Parents

Number of Siblings

Family's social status and class

Major Musical Influences

Major Educational Influences

At what age Music Education Began

Major Literary Influences of the Time

Major Philosophical/Religious Influences of the Time

World Events




Thanks for your contributions  ,

m1469

[steve jones]

Sexuality?

Sorry, jesting (although it seems to be a freakishly popular question!) 

Maybe it would be interesting to note any collaborations during their artistic carreer's? Or close competitors? Chopin and Liszt for example.

[Bob]

What they did that changed music.  Hadyn invented the sonata -- Mozart perfected it.  That sort of thing.  Beethoven and his radical modulations for the time.

Aspects of their style and how it changed over time.

I don't think all those details are important, unless it's relevant -- Bach has the family/clan thing going on and they did music parties when they got together, so that is more relevant for Bach.  Mahler had death all around him, so that's more relevant for him.

Things that influenced their style. 

How the single composer relates to the general style.

Genes they wrote in, or didn't write in. (like piano)

The most important works they composed.


Then more detailed information if you're playing a piece -- when they wrote that piece, why, etc.


Those are some thoughts.  I don't think everything needs to be specific unless it really relates to their music.  And that's just for general knowledge about the composer's -- a "lite" version.

If you want to be more specific, support the idea about their style and its change with specific examples from specific pieces.  Then it relates directly to the literature.  (a lot of work though)

[arpeggiosnake]

Lets begin with the MASTER:

LV Beethoven

Birth and Death Dates = 16 December 1770 and 26 March 1827

Place of Birth = Bonn

Place of Death = Vienna

Total years lived = 57 years

Number of Siblings = 2: Kaspar Anton Karl and Nikolaus Johann

Family's social status and class  = "Working and Poor Class"

Major Musical Influences = Handel and Bach

Instruments: He was a the gretest pianist of his time. A virtuoso organist and violinist.

Major Educational Influences = He took lessons with:

Christian Gottlob Neefe - Keyboard Technique. (Under his trusteeship he learned all the preludes and fugues of WTC by JS Bach)

Franz Joseph Haydn -  Counterpoint. (Beethoven didnt like the lessons with Haynd, he said Haydn was a bad teacher

Antonio Salieri =  Opera

At what age Music Education Began  = 5 years old

Pupils - Czerny, Liszt and others.

Major Literary Influences of the Time = Goethe and Schiller

Major Philosophical/Religious Influences of the Time = Hegel and Fitche

World Events : The Peninsular War, Napoleon's invasion of Russia, The French Revolution , Darwin´s  Theory of evolution etc

[ted]

Details of the composer are completely irrelevant to me in relation to the music, which is simply abstract sound on which my brain imposes what it pleases. Whether it was composed now or two hundred years ago, by a human being, a chimpanzee or a computer doesn't matter. Like most people, I am naturally curious about facts and anecdotes but over the years I have concluded that programmatical, biographical and sundry emotional associations with composers hinder rather than help my enjoyment of the music.

Of course, many people assert the contrary, and good luck to them.

[jas]

OK, I'll do Chopin.

Birth and Death Dates: 1 March 1810 - 17 October 1849

Place of Birth: Zelazowa Wola, Poland

Place of Death: Paris

Total years lived: 39

Number of Parents: ... What?

Number of Siblings: 3 - Ludwika, Justyna & Emilia; the latter died when she was young of tuberculosis

Family's social status and class: Working class

Major Musical Influences: Bach, Mozart

Major Educational Influences: None - had a brief infatuation with Kalkbrenner's playing and was going to take lessons, but he was talked out of it

At what age Music Education Began: 6 years old - began taking lessons from Wojciech Zywny

Major Literary Influences of the Time: Hugo, Sand, Balzac, Stendhal

Major Philosophical/Religious Influences of the Time: Karl Marx, Engels

World Events: The French Revolution was in 1789, the July Revoluton was in 1830, another revolution was in 1849

[arpeggiosnake]

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy


Birth and Death Dates: 3 February 1809 -  4 November 1847

Place of Birth: Hamburg

Place of Death: Leipzig

Total years lived: 38

Number of Siblings: 1 - Fanny Mendelssohn

Family's social status and class: High and Rich Class

Major Musical Influences: Bach and Beethoven

Major Educational Influences:

Piano and Organ: Marie Bigot, Ignaz Moscheles and Ludwig Berger

Composition: Carl Friedrich Zelter

He also was a very good chess player, pool player, and swimmer. Multilingual.

At what age Music Education Began: Since the first day of his life. He is considered the greates musical prodigy in history of mankind. 

Major Literary Influences of the Time: Hugo, Sand, Balzac, Stendhal

Major Philosophical/Religious Influences of the Time: Karl Marx, Engels

World Events: The French Revolution was in 1789, the July Revoluton was in 1830, another revolution was in 1849