Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Niels Gade (1817-1890)
Bio
Gade was born in Copenhagen and was a violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra. His compositions opened doors both occupationally as he took a teaching position at the Conservatory in Leipzig and relationally as he developed friendships with Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Robert Franz. Gade was the premier Danish composer of his time and directed the Copenhagen Musical Society and the Copenhagen Conservatory.
Music
Symphony No. 1 in C minor "On Sjoland's Fair Plains"
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Giovanni Gabrieli (c1557-1612)
Bio
Giovanni Gabrieli was born in Venice and likely studied with his uncle, yesterday's composer Andrea Gabrieli. He took several prominent church positions and his compositions gained notoriety which drew students to him in Venice. A direct line can be drawn between Gabrieli's ideas in the Venetian School and Bach's ultimate culmination in the German Baroque tradition.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Andrea Gabrieli (c1532-1586)
Bio
Gabrieli first appeared on the scene as the organist at the church of St Geremia in 1558. He is mostly known today because his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli collected and archived his compositions. He is considered the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741)
Bio
Fux studied at the Jesuit Ferdinandeum University in Graz before taking a post as an organist in Ingolstadt. He gained the attention of Emperor Leopold I and remained a fixture in the Imperial court for three consecutive monarchs. He was widely popular at the height of the Baroque movement and his music was influential on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)
Bio
Froberger was born near Stuttgart to a musical family serving in the Württemberg court. His father maintained a vast musical library which is likely where Johann studied. He moved to Vienna to serve in the Imperial court and took several trips to Italy to study under Frescobaldi, Kircher, and perhaps Carissimi. He had a close relationship with Emperor Ferdinand III but did not connect as well with his successor Leopold I. He is one of the most important Baroque composers, a noted influence of Pachelbel, Couperin, Handel, Bach, Mozart, and even Beethoven.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990)
Bio
Fricker was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music. He served in the RAF during World War II and then took a post as a professor at the RCM. He moved to two other teaching posts at Morley College and then UC Santa Barbara where he spent the rest of his life composing and working with the International Society for Contemporary Music.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Bio
Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, Italy to a musical family. He showed promise with various keyboard instruments and made a living playing the Organ in several churches and in several courts throughout his life. His compositional career is considered highly influential on the next generation of composers including Froberger, Bach, and Purcell.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973)
Bio
Benjamin Frankel was born in London and as a teenager was a pupil of American pianist Victor Benham. He worked as a Jazz musician while composing for the BBC Dance Orchestra and theatre and film scores. After World War II, his composing career took off and he eventually became the Chairman of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
César Franck (1822-1890)
Bio
César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck was born in Liège which at the time was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. He and his brother Joseph showed early promise and performed before King Leopold I as teenagers before studying in Paris. By age 50 he had achieved notoriety and took a teaching position at the Paris Conservatoire where he had many notable students including d'Indy, Chausson, Vierne, and Duparc.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
Bio
Françaix's father was a musicologist and the director of the Conservatoire of Le Mans. Jean studied there and at the Paris Conservatory and began composing at the age of six. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Isidor Philipp and was a concert pianist. He was constantly composing and though he was influenced by Ravel, Chabrier, Stravinsky, and others he established a unique neoclassical style of his own.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Lukas Foss (1922-2009)
Bio
Foss was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin and was quickly noted to be a prodigy pianist. He eventually came to America and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was a close friend of Leonard Bernstein and replaced Schoenberg as professor of music at UCLA. He is included in the Boston school and held posts with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883)
Bio
Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was born in Teutendorf and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. He composed for the stage, penning 4 Ballets and almost 30 Operas. His primary influences were Rossini, Gounod, Offenbach, and Auber among others.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Bio
Finzi was born in London and studied under Ernest Farrar at Christ Church, High Harrogate. He met Holst, Bliss, and Vaughan Williams and owed his Royal Academy teaching position to the latter. He moved around England and gained some notoriety but his life was cut short by Hodgkin's disease.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Michael Finnissy ( b.1946 )
Bio
Finnissy was born in London and has taught at the Royal Academy and the University of Sussex. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of composition at the University of Southhampton. He was President of the International Society for Contemporary Music for six years and is an honorary member of the society - the only Brit since Vaughn Williams.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
Bio
Irving Fine was born in Boston and attended Harvard studying under Walter Piston. He worked under Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and then went to Paris and studied under Boulanger. He was a member of the Boston School of composers along with Copland, Bernstein, and others. He taught with his associates at Harvard, Brandeis, and Tanglewood.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
John Field (1782-1837)
Bio
John Field was born in Dublin to a musical family and was quickly paired with celebrity instructors Tommaso Giordani and Muzio Clementi. He became a famous concert pianist and settled in Moscow selling Clementi Pianos. He has been named an influence by many of the greats succeeding him including Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Brian Ferneyhough (b. 1943)
Bio
Ferneyhough was born in Coventry and has lived in California since 1987. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley and has taught at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, at UC San Diego, and currently teaches at Stanford. He is considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
Bio
Feldman was born in Queens and was exposed to 20th-century composing ideas at an early age. He was friends with John Cage who introduced him to Cowell, Antheil, and others. He taught at the University of Buffalo and UC San Diego. He was a pioneer of indeterminism and arhythmic notation systems but gravitated back to more precise rhythmic patterns later in his life.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Bio
Fauré was one of the most important French composers of the late-19th early-20th centuries. He showed early talent in music and was boarded in a school run by Louis Niedermeyer in Paris. While Fauré was there Niedermeyer died and Camille Saint-Saëns took over and was a close mentor to the young student. After serving in the Franco-Prussian War, he took several church posts and composed until eventually founding the Société Nationale de Musique with a litany of other French musical giants including Bizet, Chabrier, d'Indy, Duparc, Franck, Massenet, and of course Saint-Saëns. Fauré taught at the Conservatoire and had many notable students, including Ravel, Casella, Enescu, and Nadia Boulanger.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Giles Farnaby (c1563-1640)
Bio
Farnaby was a friend and contemporary of John Bull, they were both in the 1592 graduating class of Christ Church, Oxford. He was also one of the preeminent keyboard composers of the late Renaissance period.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Bio
Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Mattheu was born in Cádiz. He studied in the Real Conservatorio de Música y Declamación in Madrid. He was a contemporary of several Spanish composing standouts including Turina and Granados, he also lived in France briefly and met Ravel, Debussy, Dukas, Stravinsky, and Albéniz. He is considered one of, if not the greatest Spanish composer of the 20th century.
Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music
George Enescu (1881-1955)
Bio
George Enescu (or Georges Enesco) was born in Liveni, Romania. He was a prodigy with documented compositions prior to his 6th birthday. He was enrolled in the Vienna Conservatory at seven years old, the second youngest to ever attend. He met Brahms and studied under Marsick, Gedalge, Massenet, and Fauré. He traveled the world and is considered one of, if not the, greatest Romanian musician in history.
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