Classical/ Romantic Composers John Wilkins Carl Philipp Emanuel

Classical/ Romantic Composers

John Wilkins

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach- 8 March 1714 ʹ 14 December 1788. He was a German musician and composer. He was the son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote oratorios, 24 settings of the passions, and several cantatas. In 1768 he became music director Hamburg, which made his primary music focus church music. He is credited for contributions to many musical schools but is of the early German school.

Franz Joseph Haydn-Born: March 31st 1732- Died: May 31st 1809. He was an Austrian composer. Was the Kapellmeister for the Esterhazy family and remained at this position for nearly 36 years. His most significant choral work was The Creation which was written in Vienna. His largest contribution to the music world was his development of the sonata allegro form.

Johann Michael Haydn- Born: September 14th 1737 Died August 10th 1806. He was an Austrian composer and the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn. He was appointed Kapellmeister at Nagyvárad and later, in 1762, at Salzburg. He held this position for nearly 43 years and wrote over 360 pieces for the church as well as instrumental music. He wrote 7 oratorios, 16 hymns, and 7 motets. Joseph Haydn thought his brothers sacred choral works far superior to his own.

William Billings- Born: October 7, 1746- Died: September 26, 1800. Was an American born composer and is known as the father of American choral music. Almost all his music was written for a cappella, four part chorus. His music was written with a lot of dissonance and is closer to that of the 20th century than that of the 18th. His most performed and well known piece is Chester. An American Revolution War anthem that still serves as an education tool.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- Born: January 27th 1756 ʹ December 5th 1791. He was a prolific Austrian composer of the classical period. He composed more than 600 works in his 35 years of life. He composed many choral and opera works including Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte. He influenced the works of Beethoven. He worked in Salzburg when he turned 17 and then he shortly was dismissed and went to Vienna. He was mostly financially unstable and worked as a free lance musician.

Ludwig van Beethoven- Born: December 17th, 1770 ʹ Died: March 26th, 1827. German composer and pianist. Beethoven was almost completely a free lance musician. He relied on his publications and patronage of nobles. Beethoven͛s most significant contribution to the choral world was possibly his 3rd movement of the Ninth Symphony and his choral Fantasy.

Romantic

Gioacchino Rossini- Born: February 29, 1792 ʹ Died:November 13, 1868 He was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces. His best-known opera is the Italian comedie Il barbiere di Siviglia. He was appointed musical director of the Teatro San Carlo and the Teatro del Fondo at Naples. He would compose one opera a year for each.

Lowell Mason-January 8, 1792 - August 11, 1872. Was an American church composer. Composed over 1600 hymn tunes. He was responsible for introducing music education in American schools and was the first music educator in the United States. He radically transformed American church music from a practice of having professional choirs and accompaniment to congregational singing accompanied by organ music. Franz Schubert- January 31, 1797 ʹ November 19, 1828 was an Austrian composer that composed over 600 Lieder, liturgical music, and operas. Although influenced by the symphony style of Bach and Beethoven, Schuberts music was mostly melodically driven instead of harmonic drama. Among Schubert's treatments of the poetry of Goethe, his settings of Gretchen am Spinnrade and Der Erlkönig are particularly striking for their dramatic content, forward-looking uses of harmony, and their use of eloquent pictorial keyboard figurations, such as the depiction of the spinning wheel and treadle in the piano in Gretchen and the furious and ceaseless gallop in Erlkönig.

Felix Mendelsohn-February 1809 ʹ 4 November 1847 was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He composed the famous oratorio Elijah and wrote many books dealing with criticism of Mozart͛s oratorios. Although he was a lover of opera and never gave up, he could never seem to write opera. All that exists are a few pages that are unfinished. Mendelssohn wrote many songs, both for solo voice and for duet, with piano. Many of these are simple, or slightly modified, strophic settings.

Robert Schumann- 8 June 1810 ʹ 29 July 1856 was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. His often referred to as one of the greatest composers of the romantic era. In 1850, Schumann succeeded Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Düsseldorf, but he was a poor conductor and quickly aroused the opposition of the musicians. According to Schonberg (The Great Conductors) "The great composer was impossible on the platform...There is something heartrending about poor Schumann's epochal inefficiency as a conductor."