Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Bio
Debussy is known as the first and greatest Impressionist composer. He was a prodigy and began his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 10. He studied under Marmontel, Lavignac, Guiraud, Durand, and Franck. His style was a reaction to the German tradition of Wagner and others and heavily influenced the next generation including Bartók, Messiaen, and Benjamin.
Music
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Clair de Lune, Arabesque No. 1, Footprints in the Snow
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)
Bio
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music. He formed a contemporary music group with other composers including Birtwistle, Goehr, Howarth, and Ogdon. He was the 20th Master of the Queen's Music and conducted with the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941)
Bio
Sir Henry Walford Davies was born in England near the border of Wales. His father was the choirmaster of Christ Church Congregational where young Walford was a chorister. He served as the organist at the Royal Chapel of All Saints and earned a degree from Cambridge. He studied further at the Royal Academy and earned a doctor of music. He held several teaching positions and his compositions gained notoriety. When Sir Edward Elgar died in 1964, Sir Davies was appointed the 16th Master of the King's Music.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Harold Darke (1888-1976)
Bio
Darke was born in London and served in the RAF in World War I. Before the War, he was the organist at Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, and St Michaels Church, Cornhill. He briefly served as acting Director of Music at King's College and began the longest-running lunchtime organ concert series at St Michaels in 1916 that is still active today.
Music
Fantasy in E major
An Interlude
Meditation on 'Brother James Air'
Organ Sonata in G major (Elgar) played by Darke
In The Bleak Midwinter, arr. Darke
Chorale Fantasia on Darwall's 'Ye Holy Angels Bright'
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Alexander Dargomitzhsky (1813-1869)
Bio
Born in Troitskoye, Dargomitzhsky (or Dargomyzhsky) studied at Saint Petersburg and was heavily influenced by Mikhail Glinka. He is primarily remembered for his Operas though he composed other works and is seen historically as a predecessor to the golden age of Russian Romanticism, Tchaikovsky, and The Five.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975)
Bio
Dallapiccola studied at the Conservatorio Cherubini in Florence and after graduation stayed and taught piano. He taught several significant Italian 20th-century composers including Berio, Martino, Zallman, and others. He initially supported Mussolini but as it became clear what the Fascists were about he became an outspoken opponent of them. He traveled to the United States and taught at Queens College. He was influenced by Wagner, Debussy, Busoni, and Berg.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932)
Bio
D'Albert was born in Glasgow and was a descendant of the Italian composers Giuseppe and Domenico Alberti. He studied at the National Training School for Music and was a prodigy pianist. He worked with Gilbert and Sullivan, met Brahms and Liszt, and was made the Kapellmeister in the Court of Weimar. He was also the director of Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
César Cui (1835-1918)
Bio
Cui (kwee) was born in modern-day Vilnius to a French-Polish/Lithuanian family. His father marched in Napoleon's army but married a local woman after invading and settled in Russia. Cui was a polyglot who studied engineering at St. Petersburg and joined the military as a defensive fortification instructor. He taught many notable individuals including Nicholas II. He met Mily Balakirev in the late 1850s and began his "other life" as a composer. He is now known as one of The Five and worked closely with Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, and Borodin.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
George Crumb (1929-2022)
Bio
Crumb was an American composer who studied at Illinois and Michigan before taking teaching positions at Colorado, Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Tanglewood. He composed in an avant-garde style but rejected serialism for his own surrealist approach. He was awarded a Fullbright Fellowship, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, a Pulitzer, and a Grammy. He died at age 92 only two months ago this year.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Gordon Crosse (1937-2021)
Bio
Crosse was born in Lancashire and studied at Oxford under Wellesz and others. H taught at Birmingham, Essex, Cambridge, the Royal Academy, and briefly at Cal. He was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians' Cobbet Medal in '76 and passed last November at the age of 83.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Edward Cowie (b. 1943)
Bio
Cowie was born in Birmingham and rose to prominence after winning a Chopin fellowship to study in Poland. He worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as a composer-in-residence and traveled as a guest conductor around the US and the Commonwealth. He has held several academic posts and is still actively composing today and is an internationally renowned painter.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Henry Cowell (1897-1965)
Bio
Cowell was a son of immigrants who studied under Charles Seeger, Edwards G. Stricklen, and Wallace A. Sabin at Cal-Berkley. He embraced the avant-garde movement at a young age and quickly became one of its leading students. He traveled the world studying various cultural musical styles writing about his discoveries. He made a significant impact on the development of atonality, polytonality, polyrhythm, and non-Western modalities. His tone cluster technique impressed and influenced Bartók in particular and he was an influence on a litany of composers including Antheil, Schoenberg, Copland, Bowles, and his good friend Charles Ives.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Louis Couperin (c1626-1661)
Bio
The older Couperin to make the dictionary was born in Chaumes-en-Brie but eventually moved to Paris. There he became the organist in the Church of St. Gervais and was a court musician. He was a standout performer in several baroque instruments but none of his compositions were published during his tragically short 35-year life.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Bio
Couperin was born in Paris to a very musical family, François's uncle will be the next composer on the list. To distinguish the two, the younger Couperin was known as Couperin le Grand. He inherited the organist position at the Church of Saint-Gervais upon his father's death and he rose to prominence as a composer and organist until eventually serving in the court of Louis XIV. He was particularly influenced by Corelli and was cited as an influence by Bach, Brahms, Strauss, and Ravel.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Bio
Corelli was a virtuosic violinist and Baroque composer. Corelli gained the attention of European royalty such as Maximilian II Elector of Bavaria and the Queen of Sweden and various high-ranking individuals in the Catholic church such as Pope Alexander VIII. His work was studied and emulated by Handel, Bach, and other Baroque giants.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Bio
Aaron Copland was known as the "Dean of American Composers" and did more for creating a unique classical American sound than perhaps any man before or since. He studied with Rubin Goldmark in the states and then went to Paris to study with Isidor Philipp, Paul Vidal, and Nadia Boulanger. Copland's focus shifted from modernism to a utilitarian approach and eventually even began exploring serialism in his compositions. He worked closely with other giants of his time including Bernstein, Chávez, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Britten.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Arnold Cooke (1906-2005)
Bio
Cooke studied at Cambridge and the Berlin University of the Arts after showing an aptitude for composing at a young age. He served in the Navy in World War II and was on a Dutch vessel as a liaison that participated in D-Day. He was a founding member of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain and taught harmony and composition at Trinity College of Music.
