By adapting their songwriting and sublime harmonies to different trends over four decades, The Bee Gees have maintained a hugely successful and lucrative career. The three eldest Gibb brothers – Barry (born 1 September 1947) and twins Robin and Maurice (born 22 December 1949, died 12 January 2003) – moved to Australia with their parents in 1958. They started ...
(Lood’-wig van Bat’-ho-fan) 1770–1827 German composer Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the greatest composers in history – perhaps the greatest. Standing at the crossroads between the classical and Romantic eras, he created music that belongs not just to its period but to all time. He excelled in virtually every genre of his day, and had enormous influence on the ...
(Ja’-ko-mo Mi’-er-bâr) 1791–1864 German composer Meyerbeer (like Mendelssohn) came from a wealthy German-Jewish family. He studied composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter and later with the renowned music theorist Georg Joseph Vogler. In 1831 he had a phenomenal success at the Paris Opéra with Robert le diable (‘Robert the Devil’), which within three years was performed in 77 theatres in 10 countries, ...
The years 1826–28 saw the deaths of the three greatest composers of their respective generations, Weber, Beethoven and Schubert. Only in the years that followed could early Romanticism really forge its own identity. The 1830s saw the flowering of a new generation of great composers, including Chopin, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt and Mendelssohn, and for ...
1770–1827, German Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn to a musical family, on 16 December 1770. He started composing at the age of 11 and experienced opera from the inside when he joined the Bonn court orchestra as a viola player in 1789. His letters reveal that from his early years in Vienna, where he moved in ...
Premiered at Vienna’s Kärntnertor Theater on 23 May 1814, the final version of Fidelio is a fundamentally different opera from the 1805 original. There is now much less emphasis on the gaoler’s daughter Marzelline and her world of Singspiel domesticity. Although the fate of Florestan and Leonore remains central, the individual characterization becomes more idealized and stereotyped. The human ...
1791–1864, German Neither Giacomo Meyerbeer’s first oratorio, nor his first opera, written in 1812 and 1813, was successful and his Singspiel Das Brandenburger Tor (1814) came too late to achieve its purpose – to celebrate the return home of the victorious Prussian army. It was a poor start for Meyerbeer but his fortunes changed dramatically after he ...
‘The Huguenots’ Composed: 1836 Premiered: 1836, Paris Libretto by Eugène Scribe, Emile Deschamps and Gaetano Rossi Act I Nevers, a Catholic, has invited the Huguenot Raoul to a feast, as the king desires peace between the two factions. The guests describe their experiences of love. Raoul has fallen for a lady whom he saved from some ...
Mozart was, with Handel, the composer Beethoven revered above all others. And Fidelio could hardly have been written without the example of Mozart’s mature operas. Yet with his strongly ethical, idealistic outlook, even to the point of priggishness, Beethoven regarded works such as Don Giovanni (1787) and, especially, Così fan tutte (1790) as flippant ...
1879–1961 English conductor Beecham conducted the operas of Richard Strauss at Covent Garden before World War I, and advocated the works of Delius. He founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1932 and the Royal Philharmonic in 1946. His conducting was admired for its rhythmic liveliness and elegant phrasing. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Karl Böhm | Modern ...
(Vocal group, 1987–97, 2004–present) Although Wyclef Jean and cousin Prakazrel ‘Pras’ Michel had Haitian backgrounds, The Fugees came together in New York, with Lauryn Hill completing this multi-instrumental compositional singing and production trio. Blunted On Reality (1994), released as Fugees Tranzlator Crew, contained most of the components of their sound blending in acoustic guitars and reggae ...
(Vocal group, 1961–77) The jewels in the crown of Motown’s golden years, The Supremes’ sophisticated act and sound were the TV-friendly face of soul music, winning them 12 No. 1s including a 1964–65 run of five in a row from hitmakers Holland-Dozier-Holland. Many, like: ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, became pop classics. ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1944) Regarded as one of Britain’s finest rock guitarists, Beck left The Yardbirds in 1968 to form The Jeff Beck Group, initially featuring Rod Stewart on vocals. The band’s second incarnation made two ground-breaking albums that mixed rock and pop with jazz and R&B. In 1972, the guitarist became part of the short-lived ...
The Afro wig. The mirror ball. Platform heels. A pair of lurid flares. The enduring iconography of the mass-market disco era might seem laughable now, but to reduce such a revolutionary social force, and creative musical explosion to a few items of fashion tat would be very short-sighted indeed. As has happened with many other musical forms, the ...
The early 1970s music scene saw rock and pop continue to separate, with the latter usually aiming for not only an ever-younger audience, but also an increasingly middle-aged one. Three major strands of new pop defined both this process and pop’s increased preoccupation with different forms of escapism. Glam rock was a peculiarly English phenomenon, signalling a return to ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.