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George Whitefield Chadwick

In 1854 George Whitefield Chadwick was born in Lowell, Mass. Along with Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell, he was a representative composer of what can be called the New England School of American composers of the late 19th century—the generation before Charles Ives. Chadwick’s works are influenced by the Realist movement in the arts, characterized by a down-to-earth depiction of people’s lives. Many consider his music to portray a distinctively American style. His works included several operas, three symphonies, five string quartets, tone poems, incidental music, songs and choral anthems. Along with a group of other composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Chadwick was one of those responsible for the first significant body of concert music by composers from the United States. The other five were Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell,John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker. 1

Sergei Taneyev

In 1856 Sergei Taneyev was born in Vladimir, to a cultured and literary family of Russian nobility. A distant cousin, Alexander Taneyev, was also a composer, whose daughter, Anna Vyrubova, was highly influential at court. Alexander was drawn closely to the nationalist school of music exemplified by The Five, while Sergei would gravitate toward a more cosmopolitan outlook as did Tchaikovsky. He began taking piano lessons at age five with a private teacher. His family moved to Moscow in 1865. The following year, the nine-year-old Taneyev entered the Moscow Conservatory. His first piano teacher at the Conservatory was Edward Langer. After a year’s interruption in his studies, Taneyev studied again with Langer. He also joined the theory class of Nikolai Hubert and, most importantly, the composition class of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In 1871, Taneyev studied piano with the Conservatory’s founder, Nikolai Rubinstein. Taneyev graduated in 1875, the first student in the history of the Conservatory to win the gold medal both for composition and for performing (piano). He was also the first person ever to be awarded the Conservatory’s Great Gold Medal; the second was Arseny Koreshchenko and the third was Sergei Rachmaninoff. That summer he travelled abroad with Rubinstein. That year he also made his debut as a concert pianist in Moscow playingBrahms’s First Piano Concerto, and would become known for his interpretations of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. In March 1876 he toured Russia with violinist Leopold Auer. Taneyev was also the soloist in the Moscow première of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in December 1875. He was chosen after Gustav Kross had given a dreadful performance at the concerto’s Russian premiere in St Petersburg three weeks earlier. The conductor on this later occasion was none other than Nikolai Rubinstein, who had famously lambasted the work less than a year earlier (5 January), but who had by now come to appreciate its merits. Tchaikovsky was clearly much more impressed by Taneyev’s performance; he later asked Taneyev to be soloist in the Russian premiere of his Second Piano Concerto and of his Piano Trio in A minor. After Tchaikovsky’s death, Taneyev edited sketches by Tchaikovsky that he completed with an Andante and Finale and premiered as a Tchaikovsky Third Piano Concerto.) Taneyev attended Moscow University for a short time and was acquainted with outstanding Russian writers, including Ivan Turgenev and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. During his travels in Western Europe in 1876 and 1877, he met Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, César Franck and Camille Saint-Saëns, amongst others. When Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, Taneyev was appointed to teach harmony. He would later also teach piano and composition. He served as Director from 1885 to 1889, and continued teaching until 1905. He had great influence as a teacher of composition. His pupils included Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Reinhold Glière, Paul Juon, Julius Conus, and Nikolai Medtner. The polyphonicinterweaves in the music of Rachmaninoff and Medtner stem directly from Taneyev’s teaching. Scriabin, on the other hand, broke away from Taneyev’s influence. Taneyev was also a scholar of notable erudition. In addition to music, he studied—for relaxation—natural and social science, history, mathematics, plus the philosophies of Plato and Spinoza. During the summers of 1895 and 1896, Taneyev stayed at Yasnaya Polyana, the home of Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofia. She developed an attachment to the composer that embarrassed her children and made Tolstoy jealous, though Taneyev himself remained unaware of it. However, this also released her from the distress of the isolation she experienced when Tolstoy grew distant from family concerns and devoted himself to the Christian anarchist-pacifism which shaped his last years. Sofia’s infatuation with Taneyev and his music echoes the story of Tolstoy’s great and penetrating dissection of marital relations in The Kreutzer Sonata. In 1905, the revolution and its consequent effect on the Moscow Conservatory led Taneyev to resign from the staff there. He resumed his career as a concert pianist, both as soloist and chamber musician. He was also able to pursue composition more intensely, completing chamber works with a piano part which he could play in concerts as well as some choruses and a substantial number of songs. His last completed work was the cantata At the Reading of a Psalm, completed at the beginning of 1915. Taneyev contracted pneumonia after attending the funeral of Scriabin, in Moscow, on 16 April 1915. While he was recovering, he succumbed to a heart attack in Dyudkovo, near Zvenigorod. A museum dedicated to Taneyev is located in Dyudkovo. There is also a section dedicated to Taneyev at the Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin. 2

In 1868 Gioachino Rossini died at 76 in Passy, near Paris. 

In 1893  Jean Sibelius’s “Karelia Suite” was premiered in Viborg, Finland. 

Joonas Kokkonen

In 1921 Joonas Kokkonen was born in Iisalmi, Finland, but spent the latter part of his life in Järvenpää at his home, which was known as “Villa Kokkonen”, designed by Alvar Aalto and finished in 1969. He served in the Finnish army during World War II with great distinction. He received his education at the University of Helsinki, and later at the Sibelius Academy, where he afterwards taught composition; his students there included Aulis Sallinen. In addition to his activities as a composer, he made a significant and powerful impact on Finnish cultural life, serving as a chairman and organizer, heading organizations such as Society of Finnish Composers, the Board of the Concert Centre, and others. His purpose was always to improve music education, as well as the status and appreciation of classical music as well as Finnish music. In the 1960s and early 1970s he won numerous prizes for his work. He was appointed to the prestigious Finnish Academy upon the death of Uuno Klami. His composition activity slowed down greatly after the death of his wife and increased alcohol consumption. He had long planned a Fifth Symphony but nothing was ever committed to paper and it died with him. The date of his death has been variously reported as October 1, 1996 (New Grove Dictionary, and various internet sources); October 2, 1996 (many internet sources, including the Finnish Music Center); and October 20, 1996 (New Grove Dictionary of Opera). According to his biographer Pekka Hako, he died on October 2, in the early hours of the day. He was one of the most internationally famous Finnish composers of the 20th century after Sibelius; his opera The Last Temptations has received over 500 performances worldwide, and is considered by many to be Finland’s most distinguished national opera. 3

In 1933 Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet was premiered by the New World String Quartet at the New School in New York City. 

In 1937 the first “official” radio broadcast by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, with Pierre Monteux conducting. Arthur Rodzinski had conducted a “dress rehearsal” broadcast on Nov. 2, 1937. Arturo Toscanini’s debut broadcast with the NBC Symphony would occur on Christmas Day, 1937. 

In 1940 Disney released “Fantasia,” an animated film based on classical music favorites ranging from Bach to Stravinsky. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded the soundtrack, and in one famous scene Stokowski shakes hands with Mickey Mouse.

In 1943 Bohuslav Martinu’s Symphony No. 1 was premiered by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. 

In 1951 Nicolas Medtner died at age 70 in London. 

In 1953 Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 5 was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow. 

In 1964 Richard Yardumian: Symphony No. 2 (“Psalms”) was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra and vocalist Lili Chookasian with Eugene Ormandy conducting. 

In 1997 Poul Ruders’ Symphony No. 2 was premiered by the Riverside Symphony, George Rothman conducting at Lincoln Center in New York. 

In 2002 John Tavener’s “Ikon of Eros” for soloists, chorus and orchestra was premiered at the St. Paul (Minnesota) Cathedral, with Jorja Fleezanis (violin), Patricia Rozario (soprano), Tim Krol (baritone), the Minnesota Chorale and Minnesota Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting. 

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “George Whitefield Chadwick,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Whitefield_Chadwick&oldid=687899694 (accessed November 13, 2015).
  2. Wikipedia contributors, “Sergei Taneyev,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sergei_Taneyev&oldid=682341549 (accessed November 13, 2015).
  3. Wikipedia contributors, “Joonas Kokkonen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joonas_Kokkonen&oldid=680498447 (accessed November 13, 2015).