Johann Sebastian Bach
Born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. In 1723 he was appointed as choir Director of the Thomas School and also as an organist in Leipzig. It was here that his genius reached its greatest heights and his fame was spread throughout the land. Bach was a very prolific composer and many of his greatest creations were written for the church like The B Minor Mass and St. Matthew’s Passion. Due to the great amount of work he had been doing he became blind in 1749 and on July 28, 1750, he died.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born on May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk. In 1844 he wrote his first song Our Mama in Petersburg, Dances of the Serving Maids are his first orchestral composition performed in public. Among his great compositions are The Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and his tenth opera The Queen of Spades. In 1892, he finished The Nutcracker ballet and cholera ended his life on November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg.
Johann Strauss Jr.
Born on October 25, 1825. Strauss was extremely prolific as a composer. During his lifetime he produced more than 500 songs of which 165 are Waltzes; one of them is An der Schȍnen Blauen Donau (1867). Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote some 15 operettas and the best known is Die Fledermaus (1874). His supreme compositions are unbeatable in richness of melody. He died on June 3, 1899.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner
Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig. He was a remarkable innovator both in harmony and in the structure of his work, creating his own version of the Gesamtkunstwerk, dramatic compositions in which the arts were brought together into a single unity. Wagner’s involvement in the Revolution of 1848 and subsequent escape from Dresden led to the staging of his next dramatic work, Lohengrin. His other music dramas are Tristan und Isolde, and his final work, Parsifal. He died on February 13, 1883 in Venice.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
The Greatest Classical Musician (part1)
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn on Rhine and is reverenced as the greatest instrumental composer of all times. About 1800 a malady, which later resulted in total deafness caused Beethoven acute mental suffering. In spite of this condition his opera Fidelio and Missa Solemnis are created with unique power. His works comprise of 138 opus-numbers and about 70 unnumbered compositions. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827 of Pneumonia.
Franz Schubert
Born on January 31, 1797 in Liechtental, Austria. In 1810 he wrote a fantasy for piano four-hands and in 1813 he composed his first symphony. His first great song is Gretchen am Spinnrade which he created in 1814. In a year (1815) of enormous productivity he composed his second and third symphonies, 4 operas and 150 songs including Erlkȍnig. He organized his public concert, the only one in his lifetime on March 1828. He died on November 19, 1828 of Typhoid fever.
Frederic Francois Chopin
Born on February 22, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola-Poland. He made his first public appearance playing a concerto by Gyrowetz when he was nine years old. In 1825 he published his first work The Rondo in C Minor Opus I. Chopin reached greater heights with the piano than any of his predecessors. The beauty and the originality of his melodies prompted Rubenstein’s: Chopin is the soul of the piano. His failing health did not interfere with his composing until 1847. From then on, racked by Tuberculosis he waxed progressively weaker and died on October 17, 1849.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. At the age of 5 he started creating his first composition. He started to compose The Marriage of Figaro in 1785 and produced it with a huge success in Vienna and Prague in 1786. Despite ill health he composed without cease and produced The Magic Flute in 1791. Mozart worked feverishly but his condition deteriorated. He died on December 5, 1791 of Nephritis, leaving The Requiem unfinished.
Born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn on Rhine and is reverenced as the greatest instrumental composer of all times. About 1800 a malady, which later resulted in total deafness caused Beethoven acute mental suffering. In spite of this condition his opera Fidelio and Missa Solemnis are created with unique power. His works comprise of 138 opus-numbers and about 70 unnumbered compositions. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827 of Pneumonia.
Franz Schubert
Born on January 31, 1797 in Liechtental, Austria. In 1810 he wrote a fantasy for piano four-hands and in 1813 he composed his first symphony. His first great song is Gretchen am Spinnrade which he created in 1814. In a year (1815) of enormous productivity he composed his second and third symphonies, 4 operas and 150 songs including Erlkȍnig. He organized his public concert, the only one in his lifetime on March 1828. He died on November 19, 1828 of Typhoid fever.
Frederic Francois Chopin
Born on February 22, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola-Poland. He made his first public appearance playing a concerto by Gyrowetz when he was nine years old. In 1825 he published his first work The Rondo in C Minor Opus I. Chopin reached greater heights with the piano than any of his predecessors. The beauty and the originality of his melodies prompted Rubenstein’s: Chopin is the soul of the piano. His failing health did not interfere with his composing until 1847. From then on, racked by Tuberculosis he waxed progressively weaker and died on October 17, 1849.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. At the age of 5 he started creating his first composition. He started to compose The Marriage of Figaro in 1785 and produced it with a huge success in Vienna and Prague in 1786. Despite ill health he composed without cease and produced The Magic Flute in 1791. Mozart worked feverishly but his condition deteriorated. He died on December 5, 1791 of Nephritis, leaving The Requiem unfinished.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Classic Author Stephen Crane
When Stephen Crane was born in 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, he was the last in a big family of fourteen children. His minister father was very strict and wouldn’t permit his children any amusements except reading.
Although Stephen enjoyed reading, along with writing and baseball, he rebelled against a formal education and dropped out of college. He then moved to New York City, where some free-lance writing for newspapers kept him from always being broke and hungry.
Then a series of magazine articles on Civil War battles gave him the idea of writing a war novel. While the veterans who wrote these articles described what happened, they never described how they felt. Stephen Crane would change all that in his novel.
So, although the 21-year old writer had never been in a war and was writing about one that was fought before he was born, Crane described with uncanny accuracy the fears and sorrows, the cowardice and courage of the soldiers as they fought one of the war’s bloodiest battles-Chancellorsville.
Crane couldn’t interest book publishers in his story, so he sold it to a newspaper syndicate, and in December, 1894, The Red Badge of Courage appeared in serial form in over 700 newspapers. For his 18,000 word story, Crane was paid a half cent a word, for a total of $90!
The story was greeted with great enthusiasm, especially by many Civil War veterans, who insisted that Crane had to have been in the war himself to have described so accurately all that the soldiers felt.
Stephen Crane later did report on wars, in Cuba and in Greece. But these assignments left him with his own red badge-malaria and tuberculosis. These diseases led to his death in 1900, at the young age of 28.
During his short life, Crane also published four books of short stories and two books of poetry. But, he is best remembered for his classic American novel of the Civil War.
Although Stephen enjoyed reading, along with writing and baseball, he rebelled against a formal education and dropped out of college. He then moved to New York City, where some free-lance writing for newspapers kept him from always being broke and hungry.
Then a series of magazine articles on Civil War battles gave him the idea of writing a war novel. While the veterans who wrote these articles described what happened, they never described how they felt. Stephen Crane would change all that in his novel.
So, although the 21-year old writer had never been in a war and was writing about one that was fought before he was born, Crane described with uncanny accuracy the fears and sorrows, the cowardice and courage of the soldiers as they fought one of the war’s bloodiest battles-Chancellorsville.
Crane couldn’t interest book publishers in his story, so he sold it to a newspaper syndicate, and in December, 1894, The Red Badge of Courage appeared in serial form in over 700 newspapers. For his 18,000 word story, Crane was paid a half cent a word, for a total of $90!
The story was greeted with great enthusiasm, especially by many Civil War veterans, who insisted that Crane had to have been in the war himself to have described so accurately all that the soldiers felt.
Stephen Crane later did report on wars, in Cuba and in Greece. But these assignments left him with his own red badge-malaria and tuberculosis. These diseases led to his death in 1900, at the young age of 28.
During his short life, Crane also published four books of short stories and two books of poetry. But, he is best remembered for his classic American novel of the Civil War.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Steinway Piano (part 2)
The Duke of Brunswick personally purchase a Steinweg piano for 300 talers and master Heinrich no longer has to worry about the strength of his reputation. After making 482 pianos and advancing to become a sought-after manufacturer, the lean years suddenly set in. Famines, bad harvest and customs duties cripple trade.
Steinweg looks for a way out and therefore sends his son Karl to New York. The boy is supposed to find out whether the country of unlimited possibilities holds similar prospects for the Steinweg family. Karl’s forecast is extremely positive-he implores his father to make the courageous move to the New World.
On May 19, 1850 53-year-old Heinrich Steinweg, his wife and his children embark on their long voyage from Hamburg. Six weeks later the family lands in New York. The city is big, and the neatly clad, bow-tied gentlemen is uncertain. Unable to read or write, will he be able to find his feet here? As competent workers, luck is on their side. Heinrich and his sons find work with an American piano maker. The Steinwegs know their trade, they are hard-working and their pianos are of high quality. But the rewards are low and so, on March 5, 1853, they again risk founding their own business. “Build the best possible piano,” instructs the father who Americanizes their name in the following year. Heinrich Steinweg is 57 when he renames himself Henry Steinway. Steinway & Sons benefit from the spirit of the age.
In America, the most popular instrument is the piano. The first Steinway piano to be produced, correctly numbered 483, is sold to an American family for 500 dollars-it now stands in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Demand and profits continue to increase, the original premises soon become too small. Steinway & Sons moves to the district of Queens in 1860, the year that the piano makers from Germany beat all their American competitors for the first time. In Queens the company still manufacturer pianos in one of the largest factories in the whole of New York. Time seems to have stood still: grand pianos are still made by hand, and it often takes over a year to produce one instrument. So, it is hardly surprisingly that present-day prices start at 40,000 dollars.
Parallel to their progress in America, the Steinway also secured their market lead in the old continent and was appointed as suppliers of European monarchies, the German and Austrian emperors and the Tsar of Russia. Recalling its family roots in the 19th century, Steinway again set up a factory, this time in Hamburg. This company now sells about ten percent of its piano in the family’s old home country.
Steinweg looks for a way out and therefore sends his son Karl to New York. The boy is supposed to find out whether the country of unlimited possibilities holds similar prospects for the Steinweg family. Karl’s forecast is extremely positive-he implores his father to make the courageous move to the New World.
On May 19, 1850 53-year-old Heinrich Steinweg, his wife and his children embark on their long voyage from Hamburg. Six weeks later the family lands in New York. The city is big, and the neatly clad, bow-tied gentlemen is uncertain. Unable to read or write, will he be able to find his feet here? As competent workers, luck is on their side. Heinrich and his sons find work with an American piano maker. The Steinwegs know their trade, they are hard-working and their pianos are of high quality. But the rewards are low and so, on March 5, 1853, they again risk founding their own business. “Build the best possible piano,” instructs the father who Americanizes their name in the following year. Heinrich Steinweg is 57 when he renames himself Henry Steinway. Steinway & Sons benefit from the spirit of the age.
In America, the most popular instrument is the piano. The first Steinway piano to be produced, correctly numbered 483, is sold to an American family for 500 dollars-it now stands in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Demand and profits continue to increase, the original premises soon become too small. Steinway & Sons moves to the district of Queens in 1860, the year that the piano makers from Germany beat all their American competitors for the first time. In Queens the company still manufacturer pianos in one of the largest factories in the whole of New York. Time seems to have stood still: grand pianos are still made by hand, and it often takes over a year to produce one instrument. So, it is hardly surprisingly that present-day prices start at 40,000 dollars.
Parallel to their progress in America, the Steinway also secured their market lead in the old continent and was appointed as suppliers of European monarchies, the German and Austrian emperors and the Tsar of Russia. Recalling its family roots in the 19th century, Steinway again set up a factory, this time in Hamburg. This company now sells about ten percent of its piano in the family’s old home country.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Steinway Piano (part 1)
Steinway-a resounding name: pianists and composer throughout the world love it. It stands for the finest quality and expert crafting, for concert grand and luxury-class pianos. And nothing has changed for 150 years. Steinway grand can be found in the world’s great concert halls, everywhere between Tokyo and New York.
But the Steinway story had its beginnings in the tiny town of Wolfshagen in the Harz mountains in the central Germany, on that bitterly cold day in 1797 when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg was born. Little Heinrich, the youngest of twelve children in he family of Steinweg the forester, is slightly different from the rest. Of delicate build and highly musical, he is not exactly suited to his father’s kind of work. He thinks of becoming a carpenter-yes, that would be more to his liking. But first of all his country calls, and he dutifully goes to war.
Instead of a rifle he is armed with a bugle which he blows on June 18, 1815 at the legendary battle of Waterloo. And while his fellow soldiers are cleaning their weapons, Heinrich sits in camp skillfully making zithers and mandolins.
The war ends and Heinrich Steinweg returns in mourning. All of his seven brothers and his father have lost their lives in the war. As the only remaining man in the family he now bears heavy responsibilities. He begins his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His dream is to build musical instruments, but the strict rules of the guilds prevent this. Heinrich finds work in an organ builders’ workshop and decides to learn to play the organ. He spends every one of his rare free moments practicing until he becomes a church organist. All men are equal in the eyes of God and the rich and the poor meet at church. Heinrich Steinweg is still one of the poor when, one day, he catches sight of a charming young lady, Julianne Thiemer, who comes from a prosperous family. In February 1825, he married the love of his life. The happy groom has thought up something very special as a wedding present: he proudly presents his first Tafelklavier. A square piano of the highest quality secretly constructed in months of meticulously work.
The Steinweg marriage is happy-and fertile. Their first son Christian Friedrich Theodor is born on November 6th in their wedding year. In the following years, Juliane has four more boys and two girls while Heinrich steadily earns the money needed for the growing family. Ten years after the wedding he fulfills his lifelong dream and opens his first piano workshop in Seesen in the Harz mountains.
But the Steinway story had its beginnings in the tiny town of Wolfshagen in the Harz mountains in the central Germany, on that bitterly cold day in 1797 when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg was born. Little Heinrich, the youngest of twelve children in he family of Steinweg the forester, is slightly different from the rest. Of delicate build and highly musical, he is not exactly suited to his father’s kind of work. He thinks of becoming a carpenter-yes, that would be more to his liking. But first of all his country calls, and he dutifully goes to war.
Instead of a rifle he is armed with a bugle which he blows on June 18, 1815 at the legendary battle of Waterloo. And while his fellow soldiers are cleaning their weapons, Heinrich sits in camp skillfully making zithers and mandolins.
The war ends and Heinrich Steinweg returns in mourning. All of his seven brothers and his father have lost their lives in the war. As the only remaining man in the family he now bears heavy responsibilities. He begins his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His dream is to build musical instruments, but the strict rules of the guilds prevent this. Heinrich finds work in an organ builders’ workshop and decides to learn to play the organ. He spends every one of his rare free moments practicing until he becomes a church organist. All men are equal in the eyes of God and the rich and the poor meet at church. Heinrich Steinweg is still one of the poor when, one day, he catches sight of a charming young lady, Julianne Thiemer, who comes from a prosperous family. In February 1825, he married the love of his life. The happy groom has thought up something very special as a wedding present: he proudly presents his first Tafelklavier. A square piano of the highest quality secretly constructed in months of meticulously work.
The Steinweg marriage is happy-and fertile. Their first son Christian Friedrich Theodor is born on November 6th in their wedding year. In the following years, Juliane has four more boys and two girls while Heinrich steadily earns the money needed for the growing family. Ten years after the wedding he fulfills his lifelong dream and opens his first piano workshop in Seesen in the Harz mountains.
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