1749–1832, German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, greatest of all German poets and dramatists, created what became almost a genre in its own right with his Faust (1808). The theme captured the imaginations of numerous composers and among the 122 operas based on Goethe’s writings, the Faustian legend formed the plot for 20 of them. Goethe did more ...
Throughout much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Germany had been experiencing a rise in ‘feeling’ that led straight to the Romantic movement, as exemplified in literature by Goethe and Schiller. What had begun as a religious movement known as Pietism, dedicated to the humanizing of worship, had developed into a generalized worship of ‘sensibility’. Unsurprisingly, ...
as composers responded to one of the most seductive themes of the early Romantic era: a pact with the devil for personal gain or, in the influential drama by Goethe, for the chance of immortality. Among these early Romantic operas, Weber’s achieved much greater impact than most, as well as far greater popularity. His treatment of the ...
‘Mephistopheles’ Composed: 1866–67 Premiered: 1867, Venice Libretto by the composer after Goethe’s Faust Prologue Mefistofele wagers with God that he can win Faust’s soul. Act I Crowds celebrate Easter Sunday in Frankfurt. The aged Faust is bored and watches a mysterious friar, who follows him back to his study. When Faust opens his bible the friar reveals himself as ...
In comparison to Manon, Werther is the romantic dreamer, totally lost as he sees his beloved Charlotte marry another man. But his music – a seductive, rocking melody where he and Charlotte at once express the strength of their love and the necessity to deny it in the face of social pressure – etches itself on the audience’s ...
(Am-brwaz’ To-mas’) 1811–96 French composer Thomas studied with Le Sueur at the Paris Conservatoire, where he became Director in 1871. After winning the 1832 Prix de Rome, he composed the first of his 20 operas, La double échelle (‘The Double Ladder’, 1837). His first successes, Le Caïd (‘The Cadi’, 1849) and Songe d’une nuit d’été (‘A Midsummer Night’s ...
(Kärl Lö’-ve) 1796–1869 German composer and singer Loewe studied first with his father and later with Daniel Türk at Halle. He was a gifted singer and performer and was appointed professor and Kantor at the Gymnasium and seminary in Stettin, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a devout Catholic, and his religion was an inspiration for ...
(Sharl Goo-no) 1818–93 French composer Gounod is best known as the composer of one of the most popular French lyric operas, Faust. His teachers at the Paris Conservatoire were the opera composers Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) and Jean François Le Sueur (1760–1837) and in 1839 he won the coveted Prix de Rome. Alongside much sacred music, such as the florid ...
first piece at the age of 11. There were also important non-musical inspirations for his composing at this time, including visitors to his parents’ salon and the writings of Goethe and Shakespeare. Indeed, literary, artistic and historical ideas continued to influence his dramatic and orchestral works throughout his life. His overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826), for ...
was in love and whom for a time he hoped to marry. Whether or not fired by his longing for Therese, he set a clutch of love poems by Goethe at this time, including his earliest masterpiece, ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ (‘Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel’). Schubert and Goethe Lied is simply the German word for song, but ...
a lyrical, intimate form, the subtle vocal melodies matched by an equally important, symphonic piano part. The first collections, settings of poems by Mörike (1889) and Goethe (1890), display an almost erotic chromatic idiom, contrasting with the more lucid lyricism and irony of the Spanish (1891) and Italian Songbooks (1892, 1896), based on translations by ...
French Academy instead of his rival Saint-Saëns. Massenet’s 28 operas include several enduring masterpieces: Manon (1884) remains one of the most popular French Romantic operas, while Werther (1892), after Goethe, arguably his finest work, is intensely dramatic. Thaïs (1894) displays a post-Wagnerian exoticism, described by D’Indy as ‘semi-religious eroticism’, illustrated in the seductive lyricism of its famous ...
1842–1912, French The son of a businessman, Jules Massenet had a musical mother and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11. He had a prolific career with varying degrees of success, but above all he became reputed for his orientalist excursions, his brilliant musical projection of the female character, and the ability ...
clarinet, before the guillotine falls with a crash and his head rolls into the basket. Faust in Paris In the mid-1820s, three translations into French of Faust by Goethe were published in Paris; there were also two melodramas based on the story for the popular stage, and a series of paintings of scenes from the legend by Delacroix ...
(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 ...
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.