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Alexander Young (tenor)
Alexander Basil Young (London, 18 October 1920Macclesfield, 5 March 2000) was an English tenor who had an active career performing in concerts and operas from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. He was particularly admired for his performances in the operas of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini and of choral works of the 18th century.Blyth, Alan. Obituary - Alexander Young. ''Opera'', June 2000, Vol.51 No.6, p657. Life and career After vocal studies at the Royal College of Music with Steffan Pollmann,Rosenthal, Harold/Blyth, Alan. Alexander Young. In: ''The New Grove'', 2nd edition, 2001. and undertaking his war service, Young made his professional debut at the 1948 Edinburgh Festival as Scaramuccio in a production of ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' conducted by Beecham. In 1953 he performed the role of Tom Rakewell in the United Kingdom premiere of Stravinsky's ''The Rake's Progress'', a Third Programme broadcast. He would perform the role on stage at Covent Garden in 1962 and on record in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iain Hamilton (composer)
Iain Ellis Hamilton (6 June 1922 – 21 July 2000) was a Scottish composer. Hamilton was born in Glasgow, but was educated in London, where he became an apprentice engineer. He remained in that profession for the next seven years. He undertook the study of music in his spare time. After winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, which he entered in 1947,. Houghton Mifflin Company Reference Books, page 674; . (One or the other source had Royal Academy of Music or Royal College of Music wrong?) he decided to devote himself to a musical career. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of London and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Glasgow. Hamilton moved to the United States in 1962, but died in London, aged 78. Works Chamber and solo instrument *Antigone for Wind Octet (1991) *Aria for Horn and Piano *Brass Quintet (by 1991) *Capriccio for Trumpet and Piano *Five Scenes for Trumpet and Piano (1966) *Hyperio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Warlock
Philip Arnold Heseltine (30 October 189417 December 1930), known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occultism, occult practices, was used for all his published musical works. He is best known as a composer of songs and other vocal music; he also achieved notoriety in his lifetime through his unconventional and often scandalous lifestyle. As a schoolboy at Eton College, Heseltine met the British composer Frederick Delius, with whom he formed a close friendship. After a failed student career in Oxford and London, Heseltine turned to musical journalism, while developing interests in folk-song and Elizabethan era#High culture, Elizabethan music. His first serious compositions date from around 1915. Following a period of inactivity, a positive and lasting influence on his work arose from his meeting in 1916 with the Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren; he also gained creative impetus from a y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Curlew
''The Curlew'' is a song cycle by Peter Warlock on poems by W. B. Yeats. It is generally considered one of the composer's finest works. It was written between 1920 and 1922 for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor anglais and string quartet (two violins, viola and cello). Warlock completed the work in Cefn Bryntalch, his family home in Llandyssil, near Montgomery in Wales. There are four songs, with a short instrumental interlude. The poems they are based on (with the first line in parentheses) are: #"He Reproves the Curlew" ("O Curlew, cry no more in the air") #"The lover mourns for the loss of love" ("Pale brows, still hands and dim hair") #"The Withering of the Boughs" ("I cried when the moon was murmuring to the birds:") #Interlude #"He Hears the Cry of the Sedge" ("I wander by the edge of this desolate lake") "The Withering of the Boughs" was taken from '' In the Seven Woods,'' while the other poems were taken from '' The Wind Among the Reeds''. There is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social life. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Teutonic influences. Vaughan Williams is among the best ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Wenlock Edge (song Cycle)
''On Wenlock Edge'' is a song cycle composed in 1909 by Ralph Vaughan Williams for tenor, piano and string quartet. The cycle comprises settings of six poems from A. E. Housman's 1896 collection ''A Shropshire Lad''. A typical performance lasts around 22 minutes. It was premiered by Gervase Elwes, Frederick B. Kiddle, Frederick Kiddle and the Schwiller Quartet on 15 November 1909 in the Aeolian Hall, London. It was later orchestrated by the composer in a version first performed on 24 January 1924. Subsequent editions show a measure excised from the final movement (Clun): the third measure from the end. The Boosey and Hawkes 1946 score notes indicates this in a footnote on the last page. The cycle was recorded by Elwes, Kiddle and the London String Quartet in 1917. The Roman numerals in this list of the songs are taken from ''A Shropshire Lad'': # XXXI "On Wenlock Edge" # XXXII "From Far, from Eve and Morning" # XXVII "Is My Team Ploughing" # XVIII "Oh, When I Was in Love with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saul And David
Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tribal society to organized statehood. The historicity of Saul and the United Kingdom of Israel is not universally accepted, as what is known of both comes from the Hebrew Bible. According to the text, he was anointed as king of the Israelites by Samuel, and reigned from Gibeah. Saul is said to have died by suicide when he "fell on his sword" during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, in which three of his sons were also killed. The succession to his throne was contested between Ish-bosheth, his only surviving son, and David, his son-in-law; David ultimately prevailed and assumed kingship over Israel and Judah. Biblical account The biblical accounts of Saul's life are found in the Books of Samuel: House of King Saul According to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamerlano
''Tamerlano'' (Tamerlane, HWV 18) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's ''Tamerlano'' together with another libretto entitled ''Bajazet'' after Nicolas Pradon's ''Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet''. The opera was staged by the Royal Academy of Music in the King's Theatre at the Haymarket, London. History and context The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera ''Rinaldo''. A tremendous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. In 1719, Handel was appointed music director of an organisation called the Royal Academy of Music (unconnected with the present day London conservatoire), a company under royal charter to prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samson (Handel)
''Samson'' ( HWV 57) is a three-act oratorio by George Frideric Handel, considered one of his finest dramatic works. It is usually performed as an oratorio in concert form, but on occasions has also been staged as an opera. The well-known arias "Let the bright Seraphim" (for soprano), "Total eclipse" (for tenor) and "Let their celestial concerts" (the final chorus) are often performed separately in concert. Background and composition The German-born Handel had been resident in London since 1712 and had there enjoyed great success as a composer of Italian operas. His opportunities to set English texts to music had been more limited. He had spent the years 1717 to 1719 as composer in residence to the wealthy Duke of Chandos, where he had written church anthems and two stage works, '' Acis and Galatea'' and ''Esther''. He had composed vocal music to English words for various royal occasions, including a set of Coronation anthems for George II in 1727, which had made a huge impact. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patience (opera)
''Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride'', is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in England and, more broadly, on fads, superficiality, vanity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness; it also satirises romantic love, rural simplicity and military bluster. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, ''Patience'' moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the world to be lit entirely by electric light. Henceforth, the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas would be known as the Savoy Operas, and both fans and performers of Gilbert and Sullivan would come to be known as "Savoyards." ''Patience'' was the sixth operatic collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan. It ran for a total of 578 performances, which was seven more than the authors' earlier work, ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', and the seco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iolanthe
''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert and Sullivan. In the opera, the fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal; this is forbidden by fairy law. Her son, Strephon, is an Arcadia (utopia), Arcadian shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward (law), Ward of Court of Chancery, Chancery. All the members of the House of Lords, House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis. When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman (not knowing that it is his mother – immortal fairies all appear young), she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satire, satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gondoliers
''The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria'' is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances (at that time the fifth longest-running piece of musical theatre in history), closing on 30 June 1891. This was the twelfth comic opera collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan. The story of the opera concerns the young bride of the heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Barataria who arrives in Venice to join her husband. It turns out, however, that he cannot be identified, since he was entrusted to the care of a drunken gondolier who mixed up the prince with his own son. To complicate matters, the King of Barataria has just been killed. The two young gondoliers must now jointly rule the kingdom until the nurse of the prince can be brought in to determine which of them is the rightful king. Moreover, when the young queen arrives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
