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November 1
Roger Quilter
Birth: November 1, 1877 in Brighton, England
Death: September 21, 1953 in London, England
Roger Quilter remains known primarily for his nearly 100
distinguished art songs, although he also produced choral, instrumental,
and stage works. He had to work hard at composition, for it never
came naturally, but his output shows a composer with exceptional
sensitivity and seemingly effortless grace. Quilter was educated
at prestigious Eton College, later going abroad to study at Frankfurt's
Hoch Conservatory. Quilter, along with fellow students, Percy Grainger,
Cyril Scott, Norman O'Neill and Balfour Gardiner, became known as
the "Frankfurt Group." As a song composer, Quilter became well established
in the 1900s with performances of his Songs of the Sea, To Julia
and Seven Elizabethan Lyrics. On occasion, Quilter would accompany
his songs in public, and he did record many of them with close friend
and colleague Mark Raphael. His only attempt at opera, Julia, was
a failure, but several pieces from it were extracted and published
as separate songs. His light orchestral music was more successful,
including A Children's Overture, written for the Promenade Concerts
and conducted by Henry Wood. Quilter never had to earn a living,
but he was a philanthropic artist, helping to found and administer
the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, as well as privately aiding his
colleagues. After a productive and benevolent artistic life, Quilter
experienced a period of mental decline that ended with his death.
November 8
Arnold Edward Trevor Bax
Birth: November 8, 1883 in Streatham, England
Death: October 3, 1953 in Cork, Ireland
Born of cultured and wealthy parents, Bax was insulated from
the anguish that many composers felt during, and immediately after,
the First World War. For him the pre-war world of Debussy, Ravel,
and Stravinsky was still alive in all its myth and mystery. Bax
described himself as "a brazen romantic," and in some respects could
be considered the last of the European post-Romantic school of composers.
During his years at the Royal Academy of Music, Bax was deeply impressed
by the poetry of W.B. Yeats, an influence that led to a close association
with Celtic culture and legend. His first mature work, In the Fairy
Hills, is typical of the fantastic and exotic nature of his orchestral
writing, chromatic and opulent, with a broad melodic sweep and luminous
harmonies. The Garden of Fand, an imaginative evocation of an ancient
legend of sea gods and goddesses, is similarly impressionistic.
Tintagel, a tone poem inspired by traditional English stories of
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table was composed in 1919
after a holiday in Cornwall and quickly became Bax's most frequently
performed work. Living in the shadow of composers of the stature
of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Bax received little public recognition
until late in life. Had it not been for a broadening of his style
and the support of Sir Adrian Boult, Bax would probably be remembered,
if at all, for his comparatively youthful works. Between 1922 and
1939 Bax turned to the symphonic form and produced 7 taut, structured
and contrapuntal masterworks that nevertheless retain elements of
fantasy and mysticism. Symphony No. 1, the only one recorded in
his lifetime, was first performed in 1922. The fifth is dedicated
to Sibelius and the sixth contains a theme from Sibelius' tone poem
Tapiola. Bax did not take well to approaching old age, and like
his friend Sibelius, became dependent on alcohol. In 1943, he wrote
a bitterly nostalgic memoir of his earlier years. He died while
on holiday in Cork, Ireland.
November 22
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Birth: November 22, 1710 in Weimar
Death: July 1, 1784 in Berlin
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is considered by some the most original
and interesting of the composer-sons of the great Johann Sebastian.
His music bridged the transitional period between Baroque and Classical
styles, but it was distinctive and personal. Naturally, he was taught
by his father, who also sent him to study violin with J.G. Graun
and saw to it that W.F. Bach's great successes in general education
at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the University of Leipzig did not
interfere with his music. After graduation he worked as a musical
assistant for his father, then left home at the age of 23 to become
organist of the Sophienkirche in Dresden. This was a part-time position,
allowing him to compose operas and ballets for the local Court.
In 1746, he became the organist at the Liebfrauenkirche in Hallé,
a more prestigious position which included organizing orchestral
performances in the city's three main churches. He became known
for his brilliant organ improvisations and is generally regarded
as the last great German Baroque organist. He courted trouble due
to his interests in emerging enlightenment philosophy and his inability
to adhere to the very pious manner of the town's rulers. Resisting
their attempts to restrict him, he applied for various jobs elsewhere,
further irritating the town fathers. In 1751 he married Dorothea
Elisabeth Georgi. In 1756 and the coming of the Seven Years' War,
Hallé became an open city and Bach and his family suffered depredations
from the various armies that passed through. Despite inflation,
the town fathers turned down his request for a raise in 1761. In
1762, he received an appointment as Kapellmeister in Darmstadt,
but Bach delayed leaving Hallé and lost the job. He finally resigned
from his position in Hallé in 1764, setting himself up as a teacher
in the town. He lived precariously after that and also managed to
lose many of the manuscripts of his father that had come into his
care. He treated his own music as carelessly, and much of it is
also lost. He died in poverty in 1784 from a pulmonary disease.
Joaquín Rodrigo
Birth: November 22, 1901 in Sagunto, Valencia, Spain
Death: July 6, 1999 in Madrid, Spain
Rodrigo was one of the most honored of 20th century Spanish
composers. Several of his compositions, in particular the Concierto
de Aranjuez, have attained worldwide fame. Blind from the age of
three due to diphtheria, Rodrigo undertook early musical studies
under Francisco Antich in Valencia and Paul Dukas at the École Normale
de Musique in Paris. While in Paris, Rodrigo befriended many of
the great composers of the time, and received particular encouragement
from his fellow Spaniard, Manuel de Falla. In 1933 he married the
Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi and they remained inseparable companions
until her death in 1997. After returning to Spain in 1934, Rodrigo
quickly won, with some help from Falla, the Conde de Cartagena scholarship
that allowed him to return to Paris to study musicology at the Conservatoire
and the Sorbonne. The Spanish Civil War period of the late 1930s
was a difficult time in Rodrigo's life. His scholarship was cancelled,
and he and his wife lived in France and Germany, virtually penniless.
By 1939, they were able to return to Spain. Due to his blindness,
Rodrigo always composed in Braille, and later painstakingly dictated
the music to a copyist. His real breakthrough as a composer came
with the Concierto de Aranjuez, which was acclaimed from its first
performance in Barcelona. Rodrigo was quickly recognized as one
of Spain's great composers, and the awards and commissions started
to pour in. In 1947, the Manuel de Falla Chair was created for him
at the University of Madrid, where he taught music history for many
years. He was much in demand as a pianist and lecturer, traveling
to Europe, Central America, the U.S., Israel, and Japan. Many of
the world's great instrumentalists commissioned concertos of him,
and he eventually wrote works for, among others, guitarist Andrés
Segovia, flutist James Galway, harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, and cellist
Julian Lloyd Webber. In 1953, he was awarded the Cross of Alfonso
X the Wise by the Spanish government, and as part of the celebration
of his 90th birthday in 1991, Rodrigo was raised to the nobility
by King Juan Carlos I with the title "Marqués de los jardines de
Aranjuez." He was ultimately given Spain's highest international
honor, the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts, in 1996. The government
of France also recognized Rodrigo's importance, making him a Chevalier
de la Légion d'honneur in 1960 and promoting him to Commandeur des
Arts et des Lettres in 1998. By the end of his life, he had also
received six honorary doctorates from universities worldwide. Rodrigo
died in 1999; he and his wife are both buried at the cemetery at
Aranjuez.
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Lord Benjamin Britten
Birth: November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England
Death: December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh, England
Britten is regarded by some as the greatest English composer
since Purcell. A man of wide-ranging talents, Britten found in the
human voice a special source of inspiration that resulted in a remarkable
body of work, in operas to song cycles, to the massive choral work,
War Requiem. He also produced music for orchestra, chamber ensembles
and solo performers. Britten's father was a prosperous oral surgeon
and his mother was a leader in the local choral society. When Benjamin's
musical genius became evident, the family engaged composer Frank
Bridge to supervise his musical education. Bridge's tutelage was
one of the formative and lasting influences on Britten's compositional
development. Britten would pay tribute to his teacher in his Variations
on a Theme by Frank Bridge. Britten's formal training also included
studies at the Royal College of Music. Upon graduation from the
RCM, Britten obtained a position scoring documentaries for the Royal
Post Office film unit. Working on a tight budget, he learned how
to extract the maximum variety of color and musical effectiveness
from the smallest combinations of instruments, producing dozens
of such scores from 1935 to 1938. He rapidly emerged as the most
promising British composer of his generation and entered into collaborative
relationships that exerted a profound influence upon his creative
life. Among the most important of his professional associates were
literary figures like W.H. Auden, and later, E.M. Forster. None,
however, played as central a role in Britten's life as the tenor
Peter Pears, who was Britten's closest partner, both personally
and professionally, from the late '30s to the composer's death.
Pears' voice inspired a number of Britten's vocal cycles and opera
roles, and the two often joined forces in song recitals and, from
1948, in the organization and administration of the Aldeburgh Festival.
A steadfast pacifist, Britten left England in 1939 as war loomed
over Europe. He spent four years in the United States and Canada,
his compositional pace barely slackening. He returned to England
and with a Koussevitzky Commission backing him, Britten wrote the
enormously successful opera Peter Grimes, which marked the greatest
turning point in his career. Over the next several decades Britten
wrote a dozen more operas, several of which - Albert Herring, Billy
Budd, The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Death in
Venice - became instant and permanent fixtures of the repertoire.
He also continued to produce much vocal, orchestral, and chamber
music. Britten suffered a stroke during heart surgery in 1971, which
resulted in a decline in his creative activities. Nonetheless, he
continued to compose until his death in 1976, by which time he was
recognized as one of the principal musical figures of the 20th century.
November 29
Gaetano Donizetti
Birth: November 29, 1797 in Bergamo, Italy
Death: April 8, 1848 in Bergamo, Italy
Donizetti was among the most important composers of bel canto
Italian and French opera in the first half of the 19th Century.
Many of Donizetti's more than 60 operas are still part of the modern
repertoire and continue to challenge singers with their musical
and technical demands. Donizetti stands stylistically between Rossini
and Verdi. His scenes are usually more expanded in structure than
those of Rossini, but he never blurred the lines between set pieces
and recitative as Verdi did in his middle-period and late works.
Often compared to his contemporary, Bellini, Donizetti produced
a wider variety of operas and showed a greater stylistic flexibility,
even if he never quite achieved the sheer beauty of Bellini's greatest
works. Donizetti studied in Bergamo with the opera composer, Simon
Mayr from 1806 to 1814. His youthful works include chamber operas,
religious works, and some chamber music. Donizetti's first opera
of note was La Zingara, which was premiered in Naples in 1822. He
continued to work in Naples throughout the 1820's and 1830's, where
he was active as both a conductor and composer. In 1830, Donizetti
finally achieved international fame with his opera Anna Bolena.
Notable for its expressive music and more extended scenes, it established
Donizetti as one of the leading contemporary opera composers. The
comic opera L'elisir d'amore and the tragic Lucrezia Borgia came
shortly after. Donizetti's next work was Maria Stuarda, followed
the same year by Lucia di Lammermoor, which became an internationally
recognized masterpiece. The Elizabethan tragedy Roberto Devereux
completed his trilogy of operas that chronicle the English court
from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. Donizetti's operas from the late
1830s were unable to match the success of Lucia, and when Donizetti
was passed over for the directorship of the Naples Conservatory
in 1840, he moved to Paris. There he composed the opera comique
La fille du Régiment, which was celebrated immediately for its charm
and virtuosity. Later that year he completed La favorite, another
major contribution to the French repertoire. In 1842 Donizetti was
appointed Kapellmeister of the Austrian court in Vienna, but retained
his association with Paris. Among Donizetti's last operas are Maria
di Rohan, and his French tragedy Dom Sébastian. Caterina Cornaro
is also one of his finest works for its strong dramatic content.
These late operas, although rarely performed, are serious works
that set the standard for Verdi.
December 20
Franz Xaver Pokorny
Birth: December 20, 1729
Death: July 2, 1794 in Regensburg Frantisek
Xaver Thomas Pokorny may have been related to some other
Bohemian musicians of the same surname. But as it is a very common
name (literally meaning "humble") it is difficult to confirm any
such connections. In particular, there seems to be no connection
between him and Frantisek Xaver Jan Pokorny (1797 - 1850). The older
Franz Xaver was sent by Count Philipp Karl of Oettingen-Wallerstein
to study with Johann Stamitz, Richter, and Holzbauer in the major
musical center of Mannheim. With the promise of a position as choral
director, the Count summoned him back in 1754. However, the Count
did not keep this promise, even when Pokorny petitioned him for
it in 1766. Perhaps exasperated, Pokorny applied to the court of
Thurn and Taxis at Regensburg. He was admitted as a member of the
royal Kapelle, and stayed there until his death. Over 100 symphonies
have been attributed to him, of which more than half are the subjects
of authorship disputes. The symphonies attributed to him are usually
four-movement works for strings, two flutes, and two horns, with
occasional use of clarinets, oboes, timpani, and trumpets. The melodies
are in a popular style, and he tends to use sequential repetition
in place of real symphonic development.
Vagn Holmboe
Birth: December 20, 1909 in Horsens, Denmark
Death: September 1, 1996 in Ramløse, Denmark
Few Scandinavian composers other than Sibelius and Nielsen
have succeeded in claiming international attention. Holmboe was
an exception and he is becoming widely recognized as the most important
Danish composer since Nielsen. His 13 symphonies, 20 string quartets
and other compositions, including three operas, 13 chamber concertos
and choral works, are increasingly regarded as significant contributions
to 20th century music. Holmboe's musical development was cosmopolitan.
He studied in Denmark, Berlin and in Romania, where he came into
contact with Balkan folk music and heard the works of Béla Bartók
whose style he assimilated. On returning to his homeland, he continued
to work as a composer and critic and was professor at the Royal
Danish Conservatory from 1950 - 1965 where he became immersed in
Medieval church music. Holmboe's approach, with its free use of
melodic and diatonic patterns was, however, basically neo-Classical,
though more austere and inward-looking than either Nielsen or Sibelius,
whose influence is less evident than that of Stravinsky and Bartók.
The First Symphony is a work of chamber proportions, while the third
and fourth (a choral work), respectively subtitled "Sinfonia rustica"
and "Sinfonia sacra," are precursors of a later, darker style in
which the idea of "metamorphosis" is reminiscent of Hindemith, and
at times, even Wagner. International attention came when his Fifth
Symphony was performed at the International Society for Contemporary
Music Festival in Copenhagen in 1947, after which Holmboe received
commissions in various parts of Europe. The seventh and ninth symphonies
are the most intense of Holmboe's orchestral output, and the Fourth
Quartet the most intimate of his chamber works. After his marriage
in 1931 to the pianist Meta Graf, he traveled to her homeland, Romania,
to collect folk tunes, and later to the Faeroe Islands on a similar
quest though, folk elements are rarely prominent in Holmboe's major
works
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WWUH Classics Programming
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera: Sundays 1:00 - 4:30pm
Evening Classics: Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 8:00pm
Drake's Village Brass Band: Mondays 7:00 - 8:00pm
WWUH: Program Guide 2007
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