(Kla-man’ Zhan-kan’) c. 1485–1558 French composer Janequin’s failure to procure a stable and lucrative job may have been due to the fact that he spent most of his career outside Paris, the centre of French culture. Nevertheless, he became the principal exponent of the narrative chanson, a form popular in the mid-sixteenth century. These songs are often relatively long ...
(Moodz’-yo Kla-man’-te) 1752–1832 Italian pianist and composer Born in Rome, at the age of around 15 Clementi went to England and spent seven years in Dorset becoming an accomplished keyboard player. Most of his career was spent in London, where he was involved in piano manufacture and publishing, playing and composing. He undertook extended concert tours on the continent ...
(Fiddle, 1928–2005) Vassar Clements was just 14 years old when he joined Bill Monroe And The Bluegrass Boys in 1949. His virtuosic fiddling won him jobs with Jim And Jesse in 1958 and Jimmy Martin in 1967, but it was Clements’ emergence as a key figure on 1972’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken album that led him to the ...
(Vocals, songwriter, 1911–94) Much underrated and overlooked, Zeke Clements combined cowboy songs with fine yodelling, and moved around the nation’s radio stations – WLS (Chicago), WSM (Nashville) and other locations – before arriving in Hollywood and voicing the cartoon character Bashful in Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937). After several movie appearances, he ...
1600–69, Italian Priest and librettist Giulio Rospigliosi served the opera-loving Barberini pope Urban VIII. Urban’s family gave Rospigliosi a magnificent setting for his libretto for Il Sant’Alessio (1632) by Stefano Landi, which was performed at the opening of the opera house in the Barberini palace in 1632. Three more libretti in the next decade included Rossi’s Il palazzo incantato. ...
(A-dre-a’-no Ban-kya’-re) 1568–1634 Italian composer Banchieri is known for his books of music theory and for his contribution to a small, but fascinating repertory: the madrigal comedy. L’organo suonarino (‘The Sound of the Organ’, 1605), a handbook for church organists, is one of the earliest sources of practical advice for realizing a basso continuo. His madrigal comedies – collections of ...
(Klo-dan’ da Sâr-me-se’) c. 1490–1562 French composer Sermisy spent most of his adult life in Paris and was the leading exponent of the genre known as the ‘Parisian chanson’. Mostly for four voices, his songs are similar in style to the early madrigal, which was developing at the same time. They are relatively easy to sing, with lively rhythms ...
(Hin’-rikh E’-zak) c. 1450–1517 Flemish composer Isaac worked in Florence from the mid-1480s until 1494, when the changing fortunes of the Medici family cost him his job. In 1497 he was hired by the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I, to the appointment of Hofkomponist (court composer). Although he remained in Maximilian’s pay for the rest of his life, he travelled ...
(Or-land’ de Las’soos) 1532–94 Franco-Flemish composer Lassus went to Italy at the age of 12 as a singer in the choir of Ferrante Gonzaga, a minor member of the important family of music patrons who ruled the duchy of Mantua. He spent the next 10 years in Italy, travelling to Naples and then Rome, where for a time he ...
The legend of Sun Records seems to expand and shine brighter with every passing year, as successive generations discover the almost unbelievable array of musical gems that were created at that modest little studio at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis. Sun was the brainchild of one man and it is no exaggeration to say that without his contribution, not ...
The revival and imitation of ancient theatrical genres in sixteenth-century Italy bore fruit in seventeenth-century England and France in the works of the great dramatists of those countries: William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine. In Italy, however, the sixteenth-century innovations in spoken drama were followed in the next century not by a great national ...
The seven centuries covered here saw, essentially, the making of modern Europe. They saw the rise of the papacy and its numerous conflicts. They saw the shaping and reshaping of nations and empires. Yet beyond, and often because of, these conflicts and changes, they also saw the formation of great cultures. As nation met nation in ...
Classical ideals began to emerge and take shape in musical treatises in the late fifteenth century. One of the most famous exponents of this was Johannes Tinctoris (1430–after 1511), who, in his writings, claimed that music had been reborn in the works of John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) and his followers around 1440. Also central to Renaissance thinking about music ...
(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 ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1939) Texas-born Williams worked in 1964 with folk trio The Pozo-Seco Singers. Encouraged by producer Cowboy Jack Clement, his solo career began in 1971, and resulted in gentle hits like ‘Amanda’ (1973), ‘You’re My Best Friend’ (1976) and ‘Tulsa Time’ (1978). He enjoyed immense popularity in the UK, where he had success with ...
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David Bowie
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