(Che-pre-a’-no da Ro’-ra) c. 1515–65 Franco-Flemish composer Rore spent much of his relatively short life in Italy, first in Ferrara and then in the brilliant musical circle around Willaert in Venice. Rore was cited by Monteverdi as a pioneer of the seconda pratica, and modern critics tend to emphasize the serious, intellectually rigorous side to his musical personality. But ...
adapted the Franco-Flemish style. He spent most of his career as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s, Venice. He gathered around him an influential group of musicians, including Rore and the great theorist Zarlino. His greatest publication was Musica nova, a collection of madrigals and motets probably composed some time before the book came out in 1559. Recommended ...
was already being sung in the Middle Ages. Among today’s harmonizations is one by the Renaissance composer and music theorist Michael Praetorius. Introduction | Renaissance | Classical Personalities | Cipriano de Rore | Renaissance | Classical ...
(Or-land’ de Las’soos) 1532–94 Franco-Flemish composer Lassus went to Italy at the age of 12 as a singer in the choir of Ferrante Gonzaga, a minor member of the important family of music patrons who ruled the duchy of Mantua. He spent the next 10 years in Italy, travelling to Naples and then Rome, where for a time he ...
herself. Ferrara was also an important musical centre in the early years of the sixteenth century, visited by the likes of Josquin des Prez (c. 1440–1521) and Cipriano de Rore (c. 1515–65). But it was at the end of the century that this city shone most brightly. With the accession of Duke Alfonso II in 1579, a new era ...
declamatory and chordal style. In the mid-sixteenth century, the final decades of the Netherlandish ‘golden age’ were populated by composers who made their mark mainly in Italy, including Rore and Monte. By combining the legacy of their native contrapuntal traditions with new expressive styles of writing, these composers made an invaluable contribution to the development of the Italian ...
1885–1935, Austrian The composer of just two operas, Berg was a man who took atonality and stretched it to its expressionistic limits. While Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) are often referred to as the First Viennese School, the so-called Second Viennese School consists of Berg together with fellow student Anton Webern (1883–1945) and their ...
Bessie Smith was one of the greatest vocalists of the twentieth century; her emotional delivery and exquisite phrasing has been an influence on instrumentalists as well as innumerable singers, both male and female. Many of her records, including ‘Gimmie a Pigfoot’, ‘Woman’s Trouble Blues’, ‘St. Louis Blues’ and the song that became an anthem of the Great Depression, ...
(Vocals, banjo, 1892–1931) A textile-mill worker and banjo player, Poole led one of the finest of old-time bands, The North Carolina Ramblers, with guitarist Roy Harvey (1892–1958) and a succession of fiddlers headed by Posey Rorer. Their first release, ‘Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues’ and ‘Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, ...
If swing in its most characteristic form was a hot and hard-driving music, William ‘Count’ Basie showed that there was a cooler and softer side to the music, an alter ego that even at swift tempos could move with a relaxed, almost serene restraint that subliminally mirrored the streamlined design forms of the Machine Age, in which ...
(Fri-drikh Fran’-zhek [Fra-da-rek’ Fran-swa’] Sho-pan) 1810–49 Polish composer Chopin was unique among composers of the highest achievement and influence in that he wrote all his works, with the merest handful of exceptions, for the solo piano. Leaving Warsaw, which at the time offered only restricted musical possibilities, and living most of his adult life in Paris, ...
1739–93, French The French tenor and composer Joseph Legros made his debut at the Opéra in Paris, singing Titon in Titon et Aurore by Jean-Joseph Mondonville (1711–72). Subsequently he built up a considerable repertoire of roles in operas by Lully, Rameau, Grétry and Gluck, among others. One of his greatest roles was as Gluck’s Orpheus – ...
(Vocals, 1889–1942) A mill-hand from Fieldale, Virginia, Harrell was a contemporary and acquaintance of Charlie Poole, but had little of his raunchy zest; instead he sang old parlour pieces like ‘In The Shadow Of The Pine’ with bleak sobriety. He made his finest recordings with Poole’s fiddler Posey Rorer – among them the ballad ‘Charles Guiteau’ about ...
The most successful female recording artist of all time, Madonna also reigns supreme as top female producer and songwriter. Madonna Louise Ciccone (b. 16 August 1958) spent her formative years in Detroit. After graduating from high school in 1976, she won a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan but dropped out after two years to seek a career ...
1714–74, Italian Jommelli scored successes with his first operas, L’errore amoroso (‘The Loving Mistake’, 1737) and Ricimero (1740) and Astianatte (1741), and before long these and other operas had won him recognition as an eminent composer. Jommelli’s services were eagerly sought and he wrote operas for Rome, where he was appointed maestro di cappella at St Peter’s 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.