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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, full name Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was an Austrian composer and virtuoso musician. Mozart is one of the greatest composers in music history on par with Beethoven and Haydn.
Wolfgang was born into the family of violinist and composer Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), at the age of five he had already begun composing and gave his first public performance. His older sister Maria Anna (1751-1829) was also a prodigy, and from 1763 Leopold and his children began traveling around Europe with performances.
Mozart had a phenomenal musical ear, memory and was a superb improviser. Unlike any other composer in music history, he was versatile and wrote in all musical genres of his time. During his short life, Mozart composed more than 800 works, many of which are recognized as the pinnacle of the symphonic, concert, chamber, opera and choral repertoire. The general public is familiar with the composer's three operas: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute.
Society did not immediately appreciate the scale of Mozart's genius. It was only many years later that the vivid image of a prodigy, a refined salon composer who could miraculously think through an entire work in his head, gave way to the image of a serious, meticulous and brilliant creator of music.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German pioneering composer, conductor and opera reformer.
His first proper Symphony in C major was performed at the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts in 1833. Wagner lived in a colony of poor German artists and made his living in music journalism. Nevertheless, in 1841 he wrote his first representative opera, The Flying Dutchman, based on the legend of a ship captain doomed to sail forever. In 1842 his Rienzi was triumphantly performed in Dresden, after which Wagner was appointed conductor of the court opera and held this position until 1849.
In 1848-49 Wagner became involved in the German Revolution, wrote a number of articles in support of it, and took an active part in the Dresden Uprising of 1849. When the uprising failed, he was forced to flee Germany. His subsequent years were occupied mainly with writing theoretical treatises on philosophy and music. Wagner held anti-Semitic and Nazi views. And reflecting on the future of music, he predicted the disappearance of opera as an artificial entertainment for the elite and the emergence of a new kind of musical stage work for the people, expressing the self-realization of free humanity. This new work was later called "musical drama."
By 1857 his style had been enriched with new interpretations, and Wagner had composed "Rheingold," "Die Walküre," and two acts of "Siegfried." By 1864, however, unwise financial habits had driven him into debt and ruin, and he was forced to flee from prison to Stuttgart. He was rescued by King Louis II, an ardent admirer of Wagner's work. Under his patronage for six years in Munich, the composer's operas were successfully staged. The King also practically ensured him a trouble-free life, thanks to his support Wagner built his own opera house (Bayreuther Festspielhaus), in which many new constructive ideas were realized. The premiere of "The Ring" and "Parsifal" took place here.
As a result of all Wagner's creative innovations and methods, a new kind of art emerged, the distinctive feature of which was a deep and complex symbolism, operating in three inseparable planes - dramatic, verbal and musical. He had a significant influence on European musical culture, especially on the development of opera and symphonic genres.
Richard Wagner's major works include The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), Tristan und Isolde (1865), Parsifal (1882), and his great tetralogy, The Ring of the Nibelung (1869-76).
Luís Tinoco is a Portuguese composer and producer of new music programs on radio.
Tinoco studied at the Escuela Superior de Musica de Lisboa, then at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the University of York, where he received his doctorate in composition. Since 2000 he has been working as a freelance composer. He is also the author and producer of new music radio programs for Antena 2/RTP and lectures at the Escuela Superior de Música de Lisboa (EMSL).
Luis Tinoco's major works include the operas Evil Machines and Color Me, as well as the cantata The Wanderings of a Lonely Dreamer.
Carl Maria von Weber, full name Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, was a German opera composer and conductor during the transition from classical to romantic music, pianist and music critic.
Weber was born into a musical and theatrical family, and his father cherished dreams of making him a second Mozart. The young Weber received his first appointment when he became the musical director of Duke Eugene of Württemberg, for whose private orchestra he wrote two symphonies, then he was secretary at the court of King Frederick I of Württemberg. At the same time he composed musical works, gaining experience and knowledge.
In 1813 Weber was appointed conductor of the opera in Prague, and four years later he was appointed director of the German opera in Dresden. Here he deployed his talents, taking on the entire job of preparing an opera production: he selected the repertoire, staff and actors; he handled the scenery, lighting and staging, as well as the orchestra and singers, taking special care to ensure that each performer fully understood the words and plot of each opera. The composer also found time to compose his own works.
During this period he created the opera The Free Rifleman (1821), where he was able to free German opera from French and Italian influences. The opera was first successfully staged in Berlin and then traveled throughout Europe. "The Free Rifleman" is the most popular German opera written to date, and it marked the beginning of German Romantic opera. Weber also wrote the operas Euryanthe (1823), Oberon (1826), and others.
Carl Weber composed many fugues, sonatas, concertos, and sacred music, and was also one of the significant piano virtuosos and music critics. From 1809 to 1818, he wrote a considerable number of reviews and quite incisive music criticisms. All his activities, music and critical writings promoted the ideals of Romanticism as an art in which feeling prevails over form and heart over head.
Edward William Elgar (Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet) was a British composer of the Romantic period.
The son of an organist, Elgar was a fine violinist, played the bassoon, and worked as a Kapellmeister and church organist. Then in Malvern, Worcestershire, he began composing music himself. He composed several major choral works, notably the oratorio The Light of Life (Lux Christi (1896,), and in 1898-99 he wrote the popular Enigma Variations for orchestra. Another major work followed in 1900, the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, which is considered his masterpiece.
From 1905 to 1908 Elgar was the first Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. During World War I, he periodically wrote patriotic works. His marches, introductions, symphonies, and concertos for strings are well known. Elgar's vibrant works contributed to the revival of English music in the 20th century during the transition from late Romanticism.
George Gershwin, born Jacob Gershwin, is an American composer and pianist.
George's parents emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1891, and he was about 12 years old at the piano, becoming virtually self-taught. Gershwin published his first song in 1916, but it was Swanee, written by a 20-year-old Gershwin in 1918, that made him famous. The income he received for it allowed Gershwin to concentrate on musical theater. In the 1920s, however, George, along with his older brother Ira, were major songwriters and hit songwriters on Broadway. The lyrics for all of Gershwin's films were written by Ira Gershwin, as were the lyrics for most of his musicals, although early in his career Gershwin worked with other lyric writers, including Irving Caesar and Buddy De Silva.
The Gershwin brothers' first Broadway hit was the song Lady Be Good in 1924. In his songs, Broadway shows, and movie scores, composer George Gershwin achieved unprecedented success with his masterful mastery of jazz, classical, and popular music styles. These include "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1924, "Concerto in F" in 1925, "An American in Paris" in 1928, and "Second Rhapsody" in 1931. Between 1919 and 1935. Gershwin wrote music for 31 musicals, one of which - Of Thee I Sing - in 1932 became the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Dramaturgy. Gershwin's songs have also been used in numerous films and award-winning musicals over the years.
The opera Porgy and Bess, co-written with Dubose, Dorothy Hayward, and Ira Gershwin, was the Gershwin brothers' most ambitious project, combining memorable songs with drama. It was first performed in Boston in 1935 and was made into a movie in 1959.
In 1937, at the age of only 39, the brilliant composer died of a brain tumor. George Gershwin was at the height of his career, leaving a significant and lasting mark on the world of classical music. Today, his orchestral works are performed by most of the world's prestigious symphony orchestras. Ira Gershwin, who was two years older, lived 46 years after George's death.
