1900–90 American composer Born in Brooklyn of Russian Jewish parents (his surname is an immigration officer’s mishearing of the family name, Kaplan), Copland became the archetypal composer of the American West, his style much imitated by the writers of Hollywood film scores. Trained in Paris by Nadia Boulanger, he was strongly influenced by Stravinsky and began using jazz ...
Bill Frisell (b. 1951) is a North American guitarist and composer who built an eclectic career creating guitar music in several disciplines and genres. He was born William Richard ‘Bill’ Frisell in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of his youth in the Denver area. He went to the University of Northern Colorado, where he studied guitar with Johnny ...
(Fran-chas’-ko Che-la’-a) 1866–1950 Italian composer Although Francesco Cilea is usually classified as one of the verismo (‘realist’) school of music, of his two well-known operas only L’Arlesiana (‘The Woman of Arles’, 1897), based on Alphonse Daudet’s story of obsessive love set in a peasant community in southern France, really answers to that description. His other opera, more famous ...
By the turn of the twentieth century, Western classical music seemed to have reached a crisis in language. Tonality had become enfeebled by its own progressive tendency, via increasing chromaticism, toward subtler and more complex forms of expression. European society had become similarly enervated by the familiar comforts of a bourgeois existence. In many quarters across the Continent ...
The Modern Age was characterized by rapid and radical change and political turmoil. By 1918 the Russian tsar, the Habsburg emperor and the German kaiser had lost their thrones. The two Russian revolutions of 1917 resulted in a Communist government led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was fragmented to allow self-determination to the newly formed countries of Czechoslovakia ...
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) is said to have written the first film score with L’assassinat du duc de Guise (‘The Assassination of the Duke of Guise’, c. 1908). Many composers in the US and Europe followed suit, although few wished to make a career in films. A famous exception was Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), whose scores include the Academy Award-winning The ...
The influence of jazz on concert music stretches back almost to the emergence of jazz itself from roots in gospel, ragtime and blues. One of the most popular black American dances of the 1890s was taken up by Debussy in his ‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk’ (from the piano suite Children’s Corner, 1906–08). Ragtime found its way into Satie’s ballet Parade and ...
A small number of Handel’s dramatic works are known as the ‘magic operas’, including Rinaldo, Teseo (1712), Amadigi (1715), Orlando (1733) and Alcina. These operas feature protagonists who use sorcery to manipulate love, usually for evil ends. Most common among these operas is the prima-donna sorceress figure, who attempts to compel a castrato hero away from his true ...
Benny Goodman was the first of the great bandleader virtuosos of the 1930s to achieve global success. Through a combination of personal connections, nerve, enormous talent and sheer luck, he parlayed a sequence of opportunities in 1934–35 into a payoff that changed American music. After forming his first band in New York in 1934, he won a ...
(A’-no-yo-hä’-ne Rau’-te-vä’-rer) b. 1928 Finnish composer Rautavaara studied at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and then at the Juilliard School, New York, with Copland, Sessions and others. His early works show the influences of neo-classicism and serialism. His atmospheric Cantus arcticus (1972) for orchestra with taped birdsong marked the onset of a mystical phase, characterized by ...
Elvis Aaron Presley was born in his family’s shot-gun shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935. His twin brother died at birth, and his mother doted on her sole son. He showed musical aptitude early, and loved to sing at the local First Assembly of God church. His mother, Gladys and father, Vernon, ...
It’s hard to fathom now – 70 years on – the enormous impact that the laid-back, unassuming Gene Autry (1907–98) had when he rose to national stardom in 1935. Cowboys and western music had enjoyed a certain currency and mystique before he came along, but the first singing movie cowboy’s phenomenal rise inspired an entire generation and changed the ...
(Yo’-zef Yo’-a-khem) 1831–1907 German violinist Joachim studied with Ferdinand David, leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, where he made his debut in 1843. After a spell as leader of the Court Orchestra in Weimar under Liszt (1850–51), he distanced himself from Liszt’s ‘New German School’ in favour of Brahms’ classicism. Appointed violinist to the king in Hanover (1852), he ...
(Le-le’ Boo-lan-zha’) 1893–1918 French composer Despite being an invalid for most of her short life, Lili Boulanger composed some outstanding works, in particular her gripping setting of Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abïme (‘Out of the Depths’, 1910–17) for soloists, choir and orchestra. Her talent was widely acknowledged, especially when, in 1913, she became ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1990–present) Fronted by Aaron Stainthorpe (vocals), this goth metal outfit formed in 1990 and released their first EP, Symponiare Infernus Et Spera Empyrium (1991). With dark lyrical concerns and matching music, they spent the 1990s building up a strong loyal following. Like Gods Of Sun (1996) aptly showcase this period sound. In recent years albums like ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.