1897–1965 American composer From his childhood, Cowell was interested in ‘New Musical Resources’ – also the title of an influential book he published in 1930 – experimenting in his teens with tone-clusters (groups of adjacent notes played on the piano with the fist, palm or forearm) and, not long after, with plucking or strumming the piano’s strings. ...
1491–1547 King of England and composer From his coronation in 1509 until his death in 1547 Henry VIII led his country in a permanent split from the Catholic church, and he depleted the savings accumulated by his parsimonious father in a series of wars he lost against France. On the brighter side, he was a generous patron of music. ...
1596–1662 English composer Henry Lawes served in the Chapel Royal of Charles I and, in the early part of his career, composed theatre music known as masques. By the early 1630s, Lawes had cultivated a friendship with the poet John Milton, with whom he collaborated on two masques, Arcades (1630), the music for which has not ...
1659–95 English composer Henry Purcell was, without doubt, the most distinguished English composer of the seventeenth century. Equally at home writing for the church, the theatre or the court, he also set a number of bawdy catches for which it is likely he also wrote the words. Unfortunately, little is known about Purcell’s private life. His ...
(Trumpet, 1908–67) The son of bandleader Henry Allen Sr., Henry ‘Red’ Allen was one of the greatest trumpeters to come out of New Orleans, although he remained eternally in the shadow of Louis Armstrong. He moved to New York in 1927 to join King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators and in 1929 the Victor label signed him as an answer ...
(Vocals, quills, guitar, 1874–1930) A son of former slaves, Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas specialized in the quills, a panpipe-like instrument made from hollow reeds. He was itinerant for most of his life, a fact reflected in songs such as ‘Railroadin’, in which Thomas names train stops from Fort Worth to Chicago. His ‘Bull Doze Blues’, renamed ‘Goin’ ...
(Alto saxophone, flute, composer, b. 1944) One of the most prolific and original composers of his generation, Chicago native Threadgill was a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the mid-1960s. During the 1970s he collaborated with several AACM colleagues and also worked with Air, his trio with drummer Steve ...
(Harmonica, guitar, vocals, 1892–1941) Competent harmonica player, average singer and guitarist, Whitter holds a place in history as one of country music’s pioneering disc artists, recording in 1923 strong sellers like ‘Fox Chase’ and ‘The Wreck Of The Old ’97’, which enabled him to quit his job at a Fries, Virginia, textile mill ...
1659–95, English Henry Purcell was one of the greatest Baroque composers and, as the diarist John Evelyn put it after his death, was ‘esteemed the best composer of any Englishman hitherto’. Often compared to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91), Purcell exercised a similar mastery over many different types of composition – dramatic, sacred, vocal and instrumental. Tragically ...
Although ostensibly ‘English’, Dido and Aeneas owes its ancestry to Italian and French operatic influences. Although the recitatives follow the rhythms and inflexions of the English language, they were clearly modelled on Italian monody. Purcell followed the already established tradition of taking the plots of operas from ancient myth and legend. This one came from ancient Rome, as the ...
1843–1916, American The most influential American writer of the nineteenth century, James was known for a style that brimmed with psychological study and character analysis. Not too surprising, then, that his father was a writer of philosophy, while his brother was considered among the most important philosophers of his day. After attending Harvard Law School for ...
1869–1944 English conductor After studying at the Royal Academy of Music and working with opera companies, Wood established the Queen’s Hall Promenade Concerts in 1895. These concerts, now held at the Royal Albert Hall, have become an enduring British tradition. He was noted for his adventurous choice of repertory and his professionalism. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical ...
(On-rikh Gor’-rets-ke) 1933–2010 Polish composer As a young composer, Górecki made a name for himself as a leading member of the Polish avant-garde in works such as Scontri (1960) for orchestra. During the following decade he moved towards a more emotionally expressive and modal musical language, incorporating elements of Polish traditional and sacred music. The Symphony No. 3 (Symphony ...
Composers of the early twentieth century sought out further percussion instruments to add to their sound palette. Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra (1913) requires a xylorimba: a composite instrument, with a top end sounding like a xylophone, the bass end like a marimba. Walton’s Façade (1926) requires wood blocks: stemming from Africa, these are a series of resonant ...
A drum machine is an instrument that uses synthesized or sampled sound to emulate drums or other percussion, and allows the user to programme rhythmic patterns that can be chained together into songs. Rhythm Machines The history of the drum machine dates back as far as the 1930s, when Leon Theremin (1896–1993) was commissioned by composer Henry Cowell (1897–1965) ...
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