Guelph Musicfest — the composers

About the composers

BRAHMS, Johannes (1833–1907)

Brahms was born in the German town of Hamburg in 1833. As the son of a double bassist, he began studying music at an early age, soon proving himself to be an excellent student of the pianoforte. At age eleven, Brahms began to compose, playing his pieces in sailors' taverns and saloons to earn money for the family. In 1853, he toured with the famous Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi (Hoffman) who introduced him to Gypsy music; the music of the Gypsies was to become one of Brahms' major influences. On this tour, he also met Liszt, Schumann, Joachim and other artistic luminaries of his time. In 1862, Brahms visited Vienna which he chose to make his permanent home. By 1864, he had devoted himself to composition and the performance of his own works. During this period, Brahms established his success as a composer, his works garnering international success. He earned a Ph.D. in music from Breslau in 1879. He had also been offered a Mus.D. from Cambridge in 1877, but refused it because he did not wish to travel there in person to receive it. In 1896, he began to suffer from cancer of the liver, to which he succumbed the following year. The music of Brahms successfully merges Classicism and German Romanticism. In his compositions, he sought to create works of craftsmanship and coherence, qualities which spoke of his excellent musical workmanship.

CHAUSSON, Ernest (1855–1899)

The child of a wealthy Parisian family, Chausson intended to become a lawyer, to please his father. But he really had little interest in the law, preferring to dabble in writing and drawing, and frequenting the salons of Paris where he met celebrities of the time such as Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, and Vincent d'Indy. At age 25, having already composed some piano pieces and songs, Chausson began attending composition classes of the opera composer Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire where he also studied with César Franck. Franck, who favoured composing orchestral and chamber works rather than opera, became Chausson’s mentor. He travelled in 1882 and 1883, making the pilgrimage to Bayreuth to attend the operas of Richard Wagner. His first visit was with d’Indy to see the premier of Parsifal, and his second was with his new bride Jeanne Escudier. From 1886 until his death, Chausson was secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique. His social circle included many of the Parisian artistic elite, including composers Henri Duparc, Fauré, Debussy, and Isaac Albéniz, the poet Mallarmé, the Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev, and Claude Monet. Chausson also assembled an important collection of impressionist art. Chausson died in a bicycle accident at age 44 in Limary, Seine-et-Oise. He was buried in the Paris’s famous Cimetière du Père Lachaise.

Chausson’s music is distinctive, but shows the influence of both Franck and Wagner, and to a lesser degree, Massenet and Brahms. His style bridges the Romanticism of Massenet and Franck and the Impressionism of Debussy. He wrote many songs, as well as one opera, “Le Roi Arthus” (King Arthur). His few orchestral works include a single Symphony in B Flat, Poème for violin and orchestra, and Poème de l'amour et de la mer (for voice and orchestra).

DEBUSSY, Claude (1862–1918)

Debussy was one of the greatest composers of all time, but also one who knew the piano intimately. His piano music exploits the beauty and potential of the instrument in a way that only a pianist could. Indeed, Debussy’s first music instruction was in the form of piano lessons from, of all people, the mother-in-law of the renowned French poet Paul Verlaine. This connection led to his entry into the Paris Conservatoire in 1873. While in his twenties, he spent two years in Rome where he met Liszt, Verdi and Boito, and heard Wagner’s Lohengrin. In 1988 and 1989, he attended the Bayreuth Festival where Wagner’s mammoth four opera Ring cycle is performed each year to this day. Another influence on his future style was hearing the Javanese gamelan orchestra with its assortment of gongs, chimes, marimbas and drums at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Debussy also became associated with the group of painters, writers and poets who were later to be called impressionists. In many ways, the term impressionism suited the art. In painting, the blurred images of Monet suggested the subject rather than trying to portray it realistically. In Debussy’s music, there are many examples of the impressionist tendency to portray nature in an almost dream-like manner. La cathédral engloutie is a good example. It paints a picture in sound of the legendary ruins of a French cathedral now submerged beneath water, and the fleeting glimpses of its outlines as seen from the surface of the lake. Debussy’s music sounds even more mysterious and exotic by his use of the whole tone scale (rather than major or minor) and chord intervals of fifths and octaves.

GRIEG, Edvard Hagerup (1843–1907)

Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on June 15, 1843. He was educated in music first at home by his mother, then at the Leipzig Conservatory where he learned piano and musical theory. His music, steeped in German Romanticism, reflects this training. He was a master of miniature musical forms. His music also speaks of the emergence of Norwegian nationalism, capturing the melodic and rhythmic flavor of the proud nordic country. His nationalistic style earned him the nickname “Chopin of the North.” Grieg was a Scandinavian nationalist. He, along with fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak, organized the Euterpe Society, which promoted Scandinavian music. In 1867, a year after the premature death of Nordraak (he was age 23), Grieg started the Norwegian Academy of Music. In that year, he also married his cousin Nina Hagerup to whom he dedicated his ensuing works. Because of his nationalistic style, the Norwegian government granted him an annual salary of 1600 crowns to fuel his compositional efforts. His popularity throughout Europe increased, and he was admired by such greats as Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Grieg's success, however, did not affect his reclusive nature. He spent his later years in seclusion from public attention, though he continued to regularly compose music. He lived the remainder of his life in his house in Troldhaugen, near his hometown of Bergen. The day of his death, Sept. 4, 1907 was a day of national mourning in Norway and he was given a state funeral. His cremated remains rest on the side of a cliff over the fjords of Troldhaugen.

RACHMANINOV, Sergei (1873–1943)

Sergei Rachmaninov, the great Russian pianist and composer, was born in Oneg, district of Novgorod, on April 1, 1873. His musical talents were discovered early, as both his grandfather and father were amateur pianists. His parents took him to St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 where he studied until 1885 under Demiansky. He then went to the Moscow Conservatory to study with Zverev where he remained until his graduation as a pianist in 1891. While in Moscow, he happened to meet Tchaikovsky who showed interest in the young composer’s talent. At age nineteen, he wrote his famous Prelude in C-sharp minor. In 1902, Rachmaninov married his cousin Natalie Satina and they lived for several months in Switzerland. He then returned to Russia to conduct the Bolshoi Theater for the seasons of 1904–6. He moved to Dresden in 1906, working there in the winters and spending his summers in Russia. In 1909, he toured the United States for the first time. From 1910–17, he conducted the Philharmonic Society Orchestra in Moscow but left Russia after the Revolution in 1917. After the Revolution, Rachmaninov lived in Switzerland. In 1935, he moved to New York and then to Los Angeles which became his permanent home. A few weeks before his death on March 28, 1943, he became an American citizen. Rachmaninov’s music was inspired by the Romantic Russian music of the 19th century. It was often melancholic, dwelling largely in minor keys, with broad, memorable elodies and resonant harmonies.

SARASATE, Pablo de (1844–1908)

Spanish violin virtuoso and composer Sarasate was born in Pamplona. He began violin lessons with his father (an artillery bandmaster) at age five, and later took lessons from a local teacher. He musical talent showed early on, and he appeared in his first public concert at age eight. The performance caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided money for Sarasate to study with Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid where he gained the favor of Queen Isabel II. At age twelve, he was sent to study with Delfín Alard at the Paris Conservatoire where, at age seventeen, Sarasate won the Premier Prix, the Conservatoire’s highest honor. In 1860, Sarasate made his debut as a concert violinist, and performed in London the following year. His career had him performing throughout Europe, North America, and South America. Sarasate’s playing was known for purity of tone, and virtuosic execution. Early in his career, he mainly performed opera fantasies (notably the Carmen Fantasy) and other pieces that he had composed. A tribute to the Spanish flavour of his compositions is the number of famous works dedicated to Sarasate, including Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.

Playwright and critic Bernard Shaw wrote of Sarasate’s talents as performer and composer that he “left criticism gasping miles behind him.” Sarasate’s compositions are mainly violin showpieces designed to show his exemplary technique. Perhaps his best known work is Zigeunerweisen (1878) for violin and orchestra. His Carmen Fantasy (1883), also for violin and orchestra, uses themes from Bizet’s opera Carmen. Often performed encores are his two books of short and showy Spanish dances. He also arranged a number of other composers’ works for violin, and composed sets of variations on “potpourris” drawn from familiar operas, such as his “Fantasia on La Forza del Destino,” “Souvenirs of Faust” and Variations on themes from Die Zauberflöte. He made a small number of recordings in 1904.

After his death in 1908 from chronic bronchitis, Sarasate’s 1724 Stradivarius, dubbed “The Sarasate” in his memory, was left to the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música of Madrid. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Madrid.

SCARLATTI, Domenico (1685–1757)

Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti came from a large musical family being the sixth of ten children. He was an accomplished composer, keyboard teacher and performer. At age sixteen, he was appointed organist and composer of the Naples Royal Chapel of which his father Alessandro Scarlatti was maestro. By age eighteen, he was writing operas. From 1709-14, Scarlatti lived in Rome under the patronage of Maria Casimira, the Queen of Poland. He later worked for the Portuguese Embassy and then for the Julian Chapel at the Vatican in 1715. After some travel, the last years of his life were spent in Madrid where the Queen of Spain, Maria Barbara (his former student) employed him. She also generously paid his debts and provided for his impoverished family at the time of his death. Scarlatti left behind over 555 keyboard sonatas, many stage works and much church music. His music explored new musical ends, such devices as hand-crossing, rapid repetition of notes and arpeggios traversing the length of the keyboard. The most characteristic of his harmonic mannerisms was the acciaccatura (a lower auxiliary note struck together with its resolution).

SZYMANOWSKI, Karol (1882–1937)

Polish composer and pianist Szymanowski was born in Tymoszówka. He had private music lessons with his father before going to the Elizawetgrad School of Music in 1892, and the State Conservatory in Warsaw in 1901, where he was to be the director from 1926–1930. Musical opportunities in Poland were limited, so he travelled throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the USA. These travels, especially those to the Mediterranean area, inspired Szymanowski to create not only musical works, but poetry and a novel, Efebos, parts of which were subsequently lost in a fire in 1939. He translated the remaining bulk of the novel into Russian and gave it to Boris Kochno, a 15-year-old infatuation, as a gift in 1919. he also wrote a number of French love poems to the boy. Szymanowski died in a sanatorium in Lausanne, Switzerland from tuberculosis.

Szymanowski’s music shows the influence of Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Alexander Scriabin, as well as Debussy and Ravel. He also drew from the music of fellow countryman Frédéric Chopin and Polish folk music. Like Chopin, Szymanowski wrote mazurkas for piano. He was specifically influenced by Polish Highlander folk music, which he discovered in Zakopane in the southern Tatra highlands.

His orchestral works include four symphonies and two violin concertos. Stage works include the ballet Harnasie and the operas Hagith and Król Roger. His piano music, includes four Etudes, Op. 4, mazurkas and his Métopes. Other works include the Three Myths for violin and piano, his dramatic Violin Sonata, a number of songs (some on texts by James Joyce) and his Stabat Mater.