(Vocal/instrumental group, 1962–69) This multifaceted ensemble – Paul Jones (vocals, harmonica), Mike Vickers (guitar, woodwinds), Manfred Mann (keyboards), Dave Richmond (bass) and Mike Hugg (drums) – first reached the national Top 20 with 1963’s ‘5-4-3-2-1’. After Richmond was replaced by Tom McGuinness, there was hardly any let-up of hits, both home and overseas, including a ...
(Yo-han Hâr’-man Shin) 1586–1630 German composer Schein trained at Dresden, Naumburg and Leipzig and finally took charge of the music at St Thomas’s, Leipzig, in 1616. His first vocal music collection, Cymbalum Sionium (1615), brings together settings of Latin and German texts in a variety of styles. A more modern outlook, embracing the Italian idiom and demonstrating ...
(Ga-ôrg’ Fe-lep’ Te’-le-man) 1681–1767 German composer Telemann was born in Magdeburg and showed early promise as a musician. While a law student at Leipzig Univeristy he founded a collegium musicum, directed the Leipzig Opera and was commissioned to write cantatas for St Thomas’s Church. In 1705 he became Kapellmeister to Count Erdmann of Promnitz, whose residence in Sorau (Zary) brought ...
One of the catalysts of eighteenth-century music was the Palatine court at Mannheim under Elector Carl Theodor, who reigned from 1742 until he became Elector of Bavaria in 1778 and the court dissolved. Carl Theodor appointed Johann Stamitz (1717–57) leader of the orchestra in the 1740s and director in 1750. Stamitz assembled an orchestra of unprecedented skill, many of ...
(Vil’-helm Fre’-da-man Bakh) 1710–84 German composer The eldest son of J. S. Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann sadly did not have the opportunities to establish himself as a gifted musician that his brothers found. He studied with his father and at Leipzig University, was organist at the Dresden Sophienkirche and, from 1746, at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. In the 1760s ...
(Arnst Ta’-o-dôr A-ma-da’-oos Hof’-man) 1776–1822 German writer and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann’s wide-ranging talents were the source of great inspiration throughout the nineteenth century, and composers who drew on his stories include Schumann (Kreisleriana) and Offenbach (Les contes d’Hoffmann). He was also an astute and perceptive critic, and his review in 1810 of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is justly famous. ...
(Kla’-ra Shoo’-man) 1819–96 German pianist Clara made her debut at the age of 11 and soon became famous as a virtuoso soloist. She also composed music – usually for herself to perform. Early works include a piano concerto (1833–35) and several piano pieces. After a fierce battle with her father, she married Robert Schumann in 1840 and continued to perform, ...
(Ro’-bârt Shoo’-man) 1810–56 German composer Robert Schumann, in his life and music, embodied many of the central themes of the German Romantic movement: steeped in German literary Romanticism, he composed Lieder combining the melodic simplicity of German folk tradition with expressive harmonic setting, wrote poetically titled miniatures, and composed music rich in literary inspiration and allusion. His ...
(Tenor saxophone, flute, 1930–2003) Flautist Herbie Mann was a popularizer of the flute in jazz, an investigator of far-flung ethnic music traditions and a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion. Mann began as a tenor saxophonist but eventually became the most commercially successful of the few jazz players to concentrate exclusively on the flute. He fronted an Afro-Latin group in ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1950) One of Holland’s premier country artists, Hermanns recorded with the folk group Heating, before joining country act The Tumbleweeds, whose eponymous 1975 album went platinum. Their cover of Merle Haggard’s ‘Somewhere Between’ topped the Dutch pop chart. In 1977, he formed his own country band, Tulsa, touring Europe and ...
1681–1767, German Telemann was born in Magdeburg, and created his first opera at the age of 12, in which he sang the title role and organized its informal performance in the street. Telemann was influenced by the operas he heard at the Brunswick court and Berlin. He attended university in Leipzig, and became the director of the ...
1785–1838, Austrian This Austrian soprano studied in Vienna with Antonio Salieri. In 1803, she made her debut in Vienna as Juno in Der Spiegel von Arkadien (‘The Mirror of Arcadia’, 1794) by Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803), a one-time pupil of Mozart. In 1805 Milder-Hauptmann created the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She was, however, dissatisfied with ...
1776–1822, German E.T.A. Hoffmann, the German novelist, critic, composer and conductor was among the most influential literary figures of the Romantic movement. He was the first to suggest that Mozart’s Don Giovanni was a Romantic rather than a Classical opera because of its strong associations between love and death. Hoffmann wrote several operas with dialogue ...
‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ Premiered: 1881, Paris Libretto by Jules Barbier after the play by Barbier and Michel Carré Act I Hoffmann has neglected poetry in his search for love. His muse is transformed into a companion named Nicklausse in order to protect him. Hoffmann’s latest love, Stella, an opera singer, is also admired by Counsellor Lindorf. ...
1874–1929, Austrian Hofmannsthal was a precocious talent. His first published poem appeared when he was just 16 and he rapidly made the acquaintance of some of the leading literary figures of the day. Most important was a paternalistic relationship with the German poet Stefan George (1868–1933). Hofmannsthal’s youthful ability led to a creative crisis in his mid-twenties from which he ...
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