(Zhan Se-bal-yoos) 1865–1957 Finnish composer When Jean (Johan) Sibelius, Finland’s greatest composer, was born on 8 December 1865 at Hämeenlinna, his homeland had been ruled by Russia since Napoleon snatched it from Sweden. As a child he composed and played the violin, but he was 14 before taking up the instrument seriously. He enrolled in 1886 at the ...
(Zhan Moo-tôn’) c. 1459–1522 French composer Having held various church jobs in France, Mouton joined the French royal court in 1502 and remained there for the rest of his life. Many of his motets are occasional works – written for a particular personage or special event that was taking place at court. He was probably among the musicians present at the ...
(Zhan Ba-test’ Lü-le’) 1632–87 French composer Lully was an Italian by birth, but as a youth he accompanied the Chevalier de Guise to Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1653, Lully danced with the young King Louis XIV in the Ballet de la nuit, and it was from this point that he began ...
(Zhan Mar-re Le-klâr) 1697–1764 French composer and violinist Born in Lyons, Leclair came from a family of musicians. He studied the violin in Italy under Giovanni Battista Somis (1686–1763). By the 1720s he was establishing a reputation as a violinist in Paris. In 1728 he made his debut at the Concert Spirituel, playing his own sonatas and concertos. In 1733 ...
(Zhan Fi-lep’ Ra-mo’) 1683–1764 French composer and theorist Rameau was born in Dijon, where he was first taught music by his father. During his early years he held organist’s posts in several places, including Avignon and Clermont-Ferrand, Paris (where he published his first harpsichord pieces in 1706), Dijon (1709), Lyons (c. 1713), and once more at Clermont-Ferrand (1715). He ...
(Zhan Fa-re’ Re-bel’) 1666–1747 French composer Rebel belonged to a family of court musicians. At the age of eight, his violin playing attracted the attention of Lully. From then onwards he occupied posts both at the Académie Royale de Musique and at court. Rebel’s Sonates à II et III parties, written towards the end of the seventeenth century, but ...
(Vocals, b. 1933) Born Ollie Imogene Shepard, in St. Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, Shepard was a pioneer whose honky-tonk earthiness and musical topicality broke new ground in the 1950s. A long-time member of the Grand Ole Opry, she first broke into the charts with ‘A Dear John Letter’ in 1953 and followed this with a string of ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1937) Alabama-born Norma Jean Bowman moved to Nashville with her husband, Jack Pruett (guitarist with Marty Robbins for 14 years), in 1956. In 1963, she became a songwriter for Robbins, gaining her own record deal with Decca in 1971. ‘Satin Sheets’ (1973) was her biggest hit, a three-week No. 1 that also ...
1632–87, French Jean-Baptiste Lully was a French composer with an Italian background. He was born in Florence on 28 November 1632. His original name, later gallicized, was Giovanni Battista Lulli. In 1646, aged 14, he was placed with a noble household in Paris as a singer, dancer and violinist, and he became familiar with ...
‘Alceste, or the Triumph of Alcide’ Composed in 1674, Lully’s Alceste, ou le triomphe d’Alcide, a tragédie lyrique with a prologue and five acts, had a double link with ancient Greek culture. The libretto, by Philippe Quinault, was based on Alcestis, a tragedy by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides that in turn derived ...
1622–73, French The playwright, actor and impresario Molière was the brightest star in seventeenth-century French theatre, writing plays that lived on long after his time, some of them in the form of operas. In all, 17 of Molière’s plays have been turned into 75 operas since 1706, over half of them in the twentieth century. ...
1683–1764, French A respected theorist and composer of keyboard music, Rameau did not compose his first opera until he was 50 years old. Consistently adventurous in his operas, he equally inspired passionate admiration and hostility from Parisian audiences and was a comparably powerful figure between the 1730s and 1750s. The Wanderlust Years Rameau was born at Dijon in ...
Rameau’s magnificent Hippolyte et Aricie is a rare example of a major composer’s first attempt at opera also being one of his greatest achievements. However, Rameau was nearly 50 years old and already a respected and experienced musician when he composed it, and had evidently been contemplating the project for several years. The impressive literary quality of Pellegrin’s libretto ...
‘The Gallant Indians’ Composed in 1735, Les indes galantes is an opéra-ballet in which each act has its own setting and self-contained plot. Its four entrées include a scene set in a Turkish garden, Incas worshipping the sun in a Peruvian desert, a flower festival at a Persian market and a village ceremony in a North American forest. ...
Castor et Pollux was considered Rameau’s greatest achievement after he revised it in 1754. The storyline revolves around the generosity of one twin brother willing to forsake his unique immortality so that the other may live, but their complex situation creates strong portraits of inner conflict and tension between other characters, Rameau conveys the magical forces of Hades, ...
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.