1606–84, French Pierre Corneille, the renowned playwright, wrote verse dramas on heroic and classical themes that were tailor-made for operatic treatment. Corneille’s list of plays that were turned into libretti is not nearly as long as William Shakespeare’s or Sir Walter Scott’s, but it is impressive enough. Corneille’s verse dramas were still attracting composers in the early ...
(Pe-âr’ de La Rü) c. 1460–1518 Flemish composer Like Isaac, La Rue joined the Habsburg court after spending some years working in Italy. He served under four rulers: Maximilian, Philip le Beau (La Rue may have composed his Requiem for him), Margaret and Charles (the future Emperor Charles V). His works do not show the influence of Italian music, ...
1732–99, French Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, best known for two plays on the theme of ‘Figaro’, was an amateur musician as well as a playwright. His first Figaro play, Le barbier de Séville (‘The Barber of Seville’, 1775), was produced at the Comédie-Française and his second, La folle journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro (‘The Mad ...
The artistry, ingenuity and creativity of Pierre Cicéri (1782–1868), the greatest designer in early nineteenth-century France, made him an almost legendary figure in the world of Romantic opera. Originally, Cicéri trained as a singer, but turned to painting and became an assistant at the Paris Opéra in 1806. When he graduated to stage design, he made ...
1875–1964 French-American conductor As conductor of the Ballets Russes in Paris, Monteux conducted the premieres of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. During World War I he moved to the US, and had a long association with the Boston Symphony. He later took on the San Francisco Symphony, 1936–52, raising its ...
1906–86 French cellist Fournier studied the piano, but turned to the cello after an attack of polio. He was a student and a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1943 replaced Casals in the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals piano trio. His elegant and refined playing can be heard in recordings of the Bach suites and the Dvořák Cello Concerto. Introduction | ...
1922–2000 French flautist Rampal was principal flute in the Vichy Opera orchestra, 1946–50, and the Paris Opéra, 1956–62. He toured widely as a soloist, specializing in the music of the eighteenth century but using a modern flute. He founded the Quintette à Vent Française in 1945 and the Ensemble Baroque de Paris in 1953. Introduction | Modern ...
(Pe-âr’ Boo-lez’) b. 1925 French composer and conductor A student of Messiaen and René Leibowitz (1913–72), Boulez is perhaps the arch-modernist of the twentieth century. His early piano works clearly show the influence of Schoenberg (Notations, 1945). A visit from Cage in 1949 sparked a friendship and correspondence that was to be central to the progress of twentieth-century music. He ...
‘Medea’ Composed: 1797 Premiered: 1797, Paris Libretto by François Benoit Hoffman, after Pierre Corneille Act I At the palace of Corinth, Glaucé, daughter of King Créon, prepares for her approaching marriage to Jason. She fears the wrath of Médée, a sorceress who helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from Cholcis. Médée betrayed her family to ...
Composed in 1725, Rodelinda is remarkable for its quality. Handel composed many exceptional accompanied recitatives for Senesino throughout their collaborations, and in this opera the dethroned King Bertarido, believed dead by his steadfast wife, laments his misfortune in an accompanied recitative and aria, ‘Pompe vane di morte! … Dove sei amato bene’, which shows Handel ...
1606–51, Italian Florentine librettist Giacinto Cicognini followed in a famous father’s footsteps. Jacopo Cicognini (1577–1633), had been among the pioneers who introduced Spanish theatre to Italian audiences. Jacopo was also a librettist; he wrote Andromeda (1618) for another Florentine, the composer Domenico Belli. Giacinto Cicognini initially intended to become a lawyer, but the stage proved much more seductive ...
c. 1645–1704, French Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a Parisian, was on hand to step into the breach after Lully quarrelled with the French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622–73), whose works Lully had been setting to music. As a result, Charpentier wrote the music for Molière’s Le mariage forcé (‘The Forced Marriage’, 1672) and Le malade imaginaire (‘The Hypochondriac’, 1673). ...
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 word ‘Baroque’ is derived from the Portuguese barrocco, a term for a misshapen pearl, and it was still with this sense of something twisted that it was first applied – to the period between about 1600 and 1750 – in the nineteenth century. In 1768, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: ‘a Baroque music is that in which the harmony ...
The political structure of Europe changed greatly during the second half of the nineteenth century. Germany and Italy became united countries under supreme rulers. The Habsburgs’ Austrian Empire, ruled from Vienna, became fragmented into Austria-Hungary. The borders of this new confederation contained the cauldron of difficulties that eventually developed into the confrontations which culminated in World War I in ...
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.