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American composers, Brahms, Carl Maria Von Weber, classical, classical music, composers, Dvorák, English composers, German composers, Johannes Brahms, opera, orchestra, philarmonic, Russian composers, Sir William Gilbert, Tchaikovsky
In 1786 Carl Maria Von Weber was thought to be born in Eutin, Oldenburg, Germany (the exact date is not certain). He was a composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school. Weber’s operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantische Oper (Romantic opera) in Germany. Der Freischütz came to be regarded as the first German “nationalist” opera, Euryanthe developed the Leitmotif technique to an unprecedented degree, while Oberon may have influenced Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and, at the same time, revealed Weber’s lifelong interest in the music of non-Western cultures. This interest was first manifested in Weber’s incidental music for Schiller’s translation of Gozzi’s Turandot, for which he used a Chinese melody, making him the first Western composer to use an Asian tune that was not of the pseudo-Turkish kind popularized by Mozart and others. A brilliant pianist himself, Weber composed four sonatas, two concertos and the Konzertstück in F minor (concert piece), which influenced composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn. The Konzertstück provided a new model for the one-movement concerto in several contrasting sections (such as Liszt’s, who often played the work), and was acknowledged by Stravinsky as the model for his Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. Weber’s shorter piano pieces, such as the Invitation to the Dance, were later orchestrated by Berlioz, while his Polacca Brillante was later set for piano and orchestra by Liszt. Weber’s compositions for woodwind instruments occupy an important place in the musical repertoire. His compositions for the clarinet, which include two concertos, a concertino, a quintet, a duo concertante, and variations on a theme (posthumously), are regularly performed today. His Concertino for Horn and Orchestra requires the performer to simultaneously produce two notes by humming while playing—a technique known as “multiphonics”. His bassoon concerto and the Andante e Rondo ungarese (a reworking of a piece originally for viola and orchestra) are also popular with bassoonists. Weber’s contribution to vocal and choral music is also significant. His body of Catholic religious music was highly popular in 19th-century Germany, and he composed one of the earliest song cycles, Die Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten ([Four] Temperaments on the Loss of a Lover). Weber was also notable as one of the first conductors to conduct without a piano or violin. Weber’s orchestration has also been highly praised and emulated by later generations of composers – Berlioz referred to him several times in his Treatise on Instrumentation while Debussy remarked that the sound of the Weber orchestra was obtained through the scrutiny of the soul of each instrument. His operas influenced the work of later opera composers, especially in Germany, such as Marschner, Meyerbeer and Wagner, as well as several nationalist 19th-century composers such as Glinka. Homage has been paid to Weber by 20th-century composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Mahler (who completed Weber’s unfinished comic opera Die drei Pintos and made revisions of Euryanthe and Oberon) and Hindemith (composer of the popular Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber). Weber also wrote music journalism and was interested in folksong, and learned lithography to engrave his own works. 1
In 1836 Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was born in London, England. While not a composer of music himself, he was a dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operas (known as the Savoy operas) produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theater, The Mikado. These, as well as several of the other Savoy operas, continue to be frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theater groups. Lines from these works have become part of the English language, such as “short, sharp shock”, “What, never? Well, hardly ever!”, and “Let the punishment fit the crime”. Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads, an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings. His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilbert’s “lyrical facility and his mastery of meter raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since”. 2
In 1875 Johannes Brahms premiered his Piano Quartet No. 3 in c, Op. 60, in Vienna, along with the Hellmesberger Quartet.
In 1883 Antonín Dvořák’s “Husitska” Overture was premiered at the opening of the Czech National Theater in Prague.
In 1891 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s symphonic balled “The Voyevode” premiered in Moscow (Julian date: Nov. 6).
In 1953 Peter Mennin’s Symphony No. 6 was premiered by the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky.
In 1968 Paul Creston’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra was premiered in Montevallo, Alabama.
In 1999 Paul Bowles died at age 88 in Tangier, Morocco.
- Wikipedia contributors, “Carl Maria von Weber,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Maria_von_Weber&oldid=682326548 (accessed November 18, 2015).
- Wikipedia contributors, “W. S. Gilbert,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._S._Gilbert&oldid=691037729 (accessed November 18, 2015).