Pelléas survives because it challenges its interpreters to peel away layers and discover new depths. Its story can be written on the back of a postage stamp: brother marries girl; other brother falls in love with her; brother kills brother; girl dies. But of what ? Her wound would not have killed a sparrow, we are told. It is the ...
(Klod De’-bu-se) 1862–1918 French composer Debussy was one of the father figures of twentieth-century music, often associated with the Impressionist movement. He was not only influential on subsequent French composers such as Ravel and Messiaen, but also on other major European figures, including Stravinsky and Bartók. His early songs experimented with an intimate kind of word-setting, while ...
1862–1918, French Debussy wrote only one opera that has entered the repertoire, but there were many other compositions without which this masterpiece among masterpieces may never have come into being. His lover, the singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier, some years his elder, had deepened his understanding of literature in his early twenties, and his interest in poetry ...
(Klod Goo-de-mel’) c. 1514–72 French composer Goudimel worked with the French music publisher Nicolas du Chemin, first as proofreader and later as partner. He corresponded with French humanists and writers such as Pierre Ronsard, some of whose verse he set. However, he is most important for his psalms, based on French translations begun by Clement Marot and published ...
(Klod Le Zhön) c. 1530–1600 French composer Le Jeune mixed in French humanist circles, participating in the Académie de Poésie et de Musique, a circle of poets and musicians dedicated to reviving the ideals of classical sung verse. He was the principal composer to experiment with musique mesurée, the attempt to set text according to the principles of ancient ...
(E-les-a-bet’ Klod Zha-ka’ de la Gâr) 1665–1729 French composer and harpsichordist Jacquet de la Guerre was a child prodigy. The daughter of an organ builder, she was described by the Mercure Galant in 1678 as la merveille de notre siècle (‘the marvel of our century’). After performing for Louis XIV, she was taken to live at Versailles, where her ...
As ensemble music became more popular during the sixteenth century there was increased demand for wind instruments that could elegantly negotiate the lower ranges. Large versions of wind instruments intended for the higher registers lacked volume and agility and were often difficult to play. Various elements of existing instruments – the bass recorder’s crook and the shawm’s double reed, for ...
The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...
Cymbals are thin metal discs played by being struck together or placed on a stand (suspended) and hit with sticks or beaters. They are made from beaten metal and so are distinct from crotales or antique cymbals, which are tuned cast metal discs. Turkish and Chinese Cymbals Suspended and crash cymbals used in western orchestral music, rock, pop ...
A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who have come together to play music. In theory, an ensemble could contain any number of instruments in any combination, but in practice, certain combinations just don’t work very well, either for musical reasons or because of the sheer practicality of getting particular instruments and players ...
In the history of musical instruments, the keyboard is something of a Johnny-come-lately, having first appeared some 2,250 years ago. The earliest instrument of all is the human voice, and some form of rudimentary percussion probably came next. The plucked string – ancestor of the harpsichord family – is likely to have arrived with the firing of ...
(Fri-drikh Fran’-zhek [Fra-da-rek’ Fran-swa’] Sho-pan) 1810–49 Polish composer Chopin was unique among composers of the highest achievement and influence in that he wrote all his works, with the merest handful of exceptions, for the solo piano. Leaving Warsaw, which at the time offered only restricted musical possibilities, and living most of his adult life in Paris, ...
1863–1938, French D’Annunzio’s most famous influence on music was Debussy’s elaborate incidental music for his extraordinarily long play The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (1911). In fact, his connections with music were far wider. He was an extravagant eccentric and continually sought the company of musicians. The French pianist Raoul Pugno and the composer Nadia Boulanger collaborated on a setting ...
(Loo-e’-je Dal’-la-pek’-ko-la) 1904–75 Italian composer Of the Italian composers of his generation, Dallapiccola was the first to adopt the radical new ideas based in Schoenbergian serialism; he was also the only one who actively opposed the regime of the dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy. His use of serialism is lyrical and Italianate. Many of his works are vocal, often subtle ...
1875–1937, French A meticulous craftsman whose constant reworking and rewriting may have accounted for his relatively small body of work, Ravel composed music that consciously moved away from the influence of Richard Wagner. Along with Claude Debussy, he invented a highly personalized French style. Ravel also imbued his music with his love for Spanish culture (perhaps because his ...
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