The stories behind the works...

[exigence]

I'm having a hard time thinking of all the famous (or not famous) bits that have rather powerful stories attached, like Scriabin's first sonata and the death of his son / hand injury.

And then, of course, there's Schumann's suicide attempts and such, and a few others I'm not mentioning; can anyone jog my memory on the other instances where there were these significant/touching real-life events that coincided with the creation/publication of whatever piece of music?

[mcgillcomposer]

Uhm...how about the symphonies of Shostakovich...in fact, I think that is one of the most universal examples that exists.

[ilsa]

How about Beethoven's Op. 81a Les Adieux Sonata... dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, his pupil and friend, written to commemorate the Archduke's departure from Vienna to escape the battering of Napoleon’s forces in May 1809.

The history behind a work really does make it more fun to intepret...

[pianistimo]

how about musicologist David Buch's (from university of northern iowa) findings on the 'borrowings' of composers such as mozart in 'the magic flute' and it's similarities to 'the beneficent dervish.'  it was composed before the magic flute and one of it's protagonists was papageno.  for more similarities, you can read the article here:

www.slate.com/id/2061711

it goes on to say dervish's overture opens with three stately chords, features an aria almost identical to papageno's famous anthem, and bells are used in both pieces.  he goes on to say that mozart isn't actually a plagarist because back then, musical borrowing was the norm.  think of how many times the dies irae has been used! and, beethoven used pachabel's canon in the rondo of op. 28 piano sonata.  richard strauss took 50 themes from Gnecchi's 1905 opera 'cassandra' for use in 'elektra.'  shostakovich 'we wish you a merry christmas' in his prelude 15 in d flat, op. 87. 

it is interesting what is found about european folk tunes in many pieces, as well...including dvorak's 'moldau.'  one of my favorite pieces, and what i thought was a genuinely inspired piece.  guess that it's ok, though, because we sometimes don't realize we might be composing something similar to what we've heard - but it's always uniquely ours and different (so never exactly).  i started composing a piece one day - and then realized it was sort of like fur elise but used some retrograde inversions after the first three paris of eighth notes.

[pianistimo]

speaking of dvorak, on page 281 of 'a history of the piano concerto' it says "extramusical events often bear directly on musical content; in this case dvorak had already begun work on the cello concerto no. 2  when her learned of the serious illness of his sister-in-law, josephina kaunitzova.  as a teenager in 1865, josephina had studied piano with the composer and he fell in love with her.  he composed several songs with her in mind and determined to use the melody, transformed, of one of her favorite songs 'leave me alone' (published as op. 82, #1) in the middle movement of the cello concerto.  a month after his return from the united states, his former love died; the even so deeply gripped dvorak that he revised the conclusion by adding further reference to this theme, creating a most touching requiem.