TDCM: June 30th - Johann Stamitz

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Johann Stamitz (1717-1757)

Bio

Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz was born in Deutschbrod, Bohemia which is Maribor, Slovenia today. He studied briefly at the University of Prague but was sufficiently capable on the violin to start a career. He served in the Mannheim court and is known as the founder of the Mannheim school of composition. His son is the next entrant in the dictionary.

Music

Symphony No. 2 in D

6 Trios for Orchestra

Flute Concertos

Sinfonia in A Maj Frühling

Missa Solemnis

TDCM: June 29th - John Stainer

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

John Stainer (1840-1901)

Bio

Sir John Stainer was born in London. His father built a small organ and John would assist him in playing hymns with their family.  He studied the organ at St. Sepulchre's Church and probably met Arthur Sullivan there; the two composers became good friends. He worked at Oxford for several years and gained significant notoriety for his organ playing and choral conducting. He was knighted in 1888 by Queen Victoria.

Music

The Crucifixion

The Daughter of Jairus

TDCM: June 27th - Gaspare Spontini

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851)

Bio

Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini was born in Maiolati which was part of the Papal State. He studied in Naples and gained early notoriety there. He then traveled to Paris and served under Empress Joséphine. He was lauded by his contemporaries such as Beethoven, Cherubini, and Rossini as one of the greatest Opera composers in history. 

Music

La Vestale

Olympie Overture

TDCM: June 26th - Louis Spohr

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Louis Spohr (1784-1859)

Bio

Ludewig Spohr was born in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He studied Violin with Franz Eck and served in the Duke of Brunswick's court. He married a harpist and they toured together playing his compositions. He made several European tours and along the way met Beethoven. He had a successful career as a prominent performer and teacher.  

Music

Clarinet Concerto No. 1

Violin Concerto No. 2

Concerto for String Quartet

Symphony No. 3 in C minor

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major

Symphony No. 7 in C major

Septet in A minor

Nonet for winds and strings in F major

Symphony No. 2 in D minor

Violin Concerto No. 1

Violin Concerto No. 3

Symphony No. 10

TDCM: June 23rd - Leo Sowerby

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)

Bio

Leo Salkeld Sowerby was born in Michigan. He was prodigious and taught himself Organ as a young man. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He was a bandmaster in World War I and taught at the American Conservatory for many years. He founded the College of Church Musicians in '62 and directed it till his death. 

Music

Symphony No. 3

Canticle of the Sun

Monotony

From the Northland

Theme in Yellow

Poem for Viola and Organ

TDCM: June 22nd - Fernando Sor

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)

Bio

Fernando Sor was born in Barcelona. His works have been published under several variants of his name including Joseph Fernando Macario Sor, Ferdinand Sor, Ferdinando Sor, and Ferran Sor. He is known for advancements in classical guitar composition and has been called "the Beethoven of the guitar."

Music

Grande Sonata

Fantasia on a theme by Paisiello

Fantasia in C minor

Studies for Guitar

TDCM: June 21st - Ethel Smyth

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)

Bio

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was born in Kent. The military was a strong tradition in her family as her father was Major General John Smyth, her youngest brother was Brigadier Bob Smyth, and her nephew was Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Eastwood. She studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and met many of the great composers of her time including Brahms, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Clara Schumann. She was a successful composer and active suffragette.

Music

String Quartet in E minor

Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra

Serenade in D major

String Quintet in E major

Violin Sonata

TDCM: June 20th - Bedřich Smetana

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)

Bio

Bedřich Smetana was born Litomyšl east of Prague. His father was a violinist and little Bedřich was prodigious. He was enormously inspired by a series of concerts he attended by Liszt and devoted to musical study in Prague. He rose to great prominence among Czech nationalists and is remembered as one of the greatest composers of the region. 

Music

Ma Vlast

Triumphal Symphony

Prague Carnival

String Quartet No. 1

Piano Trio in G minor

Czech Dances

TDCM: June 19th - Alexander Scriabin

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

Bio

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (or Skriabin) was born in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory but did not graduate due to differences with his instructor, Anton Arensky. He was a concert pianist and quickly gained notoriety as a composer. His career was cut short due to a skin infection which took his life at only 43. 

Music

Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 3

Symphony No. 4 The Poem of Ecstasy

Symphony No. 2 in C minor

Piano Concerto

Piano Compositions

TDCM: June 16th - Niko Skalkottas

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Niko Skalkottas (1904-1949)

Bio

Nickolaos Skalkottas was born on the Greek island of Euboea. He studied at the Athens Conservatory, then traveled to Germany and entered the Prussian Academy of Arts. His contemporaries rejected him, and very little of his music was performed during his short life. He passed at age 45 due to a ruptured hernia.

Music

Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra

Suite for Violin

32 Piano Pieces

Piano Concerto No. 3

TDCM: June 15th - Christian Sinding

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Christian Sinding (1856-1941)

Bio

Christian August Sinding was born in Buskerud, Norway. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and was considered the heir to fellow countryman Edvard Grieg. He spent a year in America at the Eastman School but spent much of his life in Germany. 

Music

Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 3

TDCM: June 14th - Robert Simpson

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Robert Simpson (1921-1997)

Bio

Robert Wilfred Levick Simpson was born in Warwickshire. He sat out of WWII as a conscientious objector and took music lessons from Herbert Howells. He graduated from Durham with both a Bachelor and Doctor of Music degree after the war. He worked for BBC for years and supported many modern British composers including Havergal Brian.

Music

Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 6

TDCM: June 13th - Elie Siegmeister

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991)

Bio

Elie Siegmeister was born in New York. He studied at Columbia University and then Juilliard before completing his studies with Nadia Boulanger. He served on the board of ASCAP and was the composer-in-residence at Hofstra for many years. He also composed under the pseudonym L.E. Swift.

Music

Symphony No. 4

Symphony No. 8

Symphony No. 6

TDCM: June 12th - Jean Sibelius

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Bio

Johan Julius Christian Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland. He initially studied law but switched to music at the Helsinki Music Institute which now bears his name. He met Busoni while at the Institute and then continued his studies with Becker in Berlin and Fuchs & Goldmark in Vienna. He rose to fame as a distinctly Finnish composer and produced many works across a career spanning nearly eight decades. 

Music

Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 3

Finlandia

Violin Concerto in D minor

Symphony No. 7

Piano Compositions

TDCM: June 9th - Dmitri Shostakovich

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Bio

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born in Saint Petersburg. He entered Glazunov's conservatory at Petrograd as a teenager. His compositions earned him both renown and political denunciation. For years his relationship with the Soviets waxed and waned with each new composition. He eventually joined the Communist Party and became the Chairman of the Union of Composers. He suffered from ALS for nearly three decades before passing from complications with lung cancer. 

Music

Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 7

TDCM: June 6th - Rodion Shchedrin

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932)

Bio

Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin was born in Moscow. His father was also a composer and taught theory. Rodion studied at the Moscow Conservatory and has been a successful composer and concert pianist for several decades. His wife, ballerina Maya Pilsetskaya, died in 2015 after their 57 years of marriage together. 

Music

Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 2

Non solo amore Suite

Concerto for Orchestra No. 3

TDCM: June 5th - Ralph Shapey

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Ralph Shapey (1921-2002)

Bio

Ralph Shapey was born in Philadelphia. He was a professor at the University of Chicago for nearly 30 years. He served in the Army in WWII and studied under Emanuel Zeitlin and Stefan Wolpe. He was a MacArthur Fellow and had a number of significant students.

Music

Ontogeny

Covenant (Playlist)

Rituals

TDCM: June 2nd - Harold Shapero

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Harold Shapero (1920-2013)

Bio

Harold Samuel Shapero was born in Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard under Walter Piston and Paul Hindemith and met Leonard Bernstein there. At Tanglewood, he furthered his study with Copland, and then during World War II he studied with Nadia Boulanger. He was also close friends with Igor Stravinsky. Copland named him among the "Stravinsky School" of American composers and he's also often listed in the "Boston School" along with Arthur Berger and Irving Fine. 

Music

Symphony for Classical Orchestra

Serenade in D for String Orchestra

Sonata in F

Serenade in D for String Quartet

TDCM: June 1st - Roger Sessions

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Roger Sessions (1896-1985)

Bio

Roger Huntington Sessions was born in Brooklyn. He studied at Harvard for his undergrad and at Yale for advanced study with Horatio Parker and Ernest Bloch. He held several teaching posts at Smith College, Princeton, Cal-Berkeley, Harvard, and the Juilliard School. He was friends with Schoenberg and his composition style evolved from neoclassicism into atonality and serialism. 

Music

Symphony No. 2

String Quartet No. 1

String Quartet No. 2

Symphony No. 7

Piano Sonata No. 1

Symphony No. 1