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Gustav Classens
Gustav Classens (12 October 189418 June 1977) was a German conductor who shaped musical life in Bonn. He was municipal music director and conductor of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn from 1933 to 1949, continuing concerts during World War II and reviving them after the war. He was then for decades conductor of the choir Chor der Bonner Bach-Gemeinschaft that he founded. Career Gustav Xavier Maria August Classens was born in Aachen, the son of the photographer August Classens (1849–after 1902) and his wife Maria Classens, née Jessen. He studied music at the Cologne Conservatory from 1913, piano with Otto Klauwell (1851–1917), music theory with Franz Bölsche (1867–1933) and Konrad Ramrath (1880–1972), and score playing with Ewald Strässer (1869–1935). His studies were interrupted by World War I. He served as ''Gefreiter'' and was severely injured in 1915. When he returned to his studies in 1919, he took conducting classes with Hermann Abendroth. He graduated in 1923 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th-largest city of Germany. It is the westernmost city in Germany, and borders Belgium and the Netherlands to the west, the triborder area. It is located between Maastricht (NL) and Liège (BE) in the west, and Bonn and Cologne in the east. The Wurm River flows through the city, and together with Mönchengladbach, Aachen is the only larger German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. Aachen is the seat of the City Region Aachen (german: link=yes, Städteregion Aachen). Aachen developed from a Roman settlement and (bath complex), subsequently becoming the preferred medieval Imperial residence of Emperor Charlemagne of the Frankish Empire, and, from 936 to 1531, the place where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Jahreszeiten
''The Seasons'' (German: ''Die Jahreszeiten'', Hob. XXI:3) is a secular oratorio by Joseph Haydn, first performed in 1801. History Haydn was led to write ''The Seasons'' by the great success of his previous oratorio '' The Creation'' (1798), which had become very popular and was in the course of being performed all over Europe. Libretto The libretto for ''The Seasons'' was prepared for Haydn, just as with ''The Creation'', by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an Austrian nobleman who had also exercised an important influence on the career of Mozart (among other things commissioning Mozart's reorchestration of Handel's ''Messiah''). Van Swieten's libretto was based on extracts from the long English poem " The Seasons" by James Thomson (1700–1748), which had been published in 1730. Whereas in ''The Creation'' Swieten was able to limit himself to rendering an existing (anonymous) libretto into German, for ''The Seasons'' he had a much more demanding task. Olleson writes, "Even when Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A German Requiem (Brahms)
''A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures'', Op. 45 (german: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift, links=no) by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest composition. ''A German Requiem'' is sacred but non-liturgical, and unlike a long tradition of the Latin Requiem, ''A German Requiem'', as its title states, is a ''Requiem'' in the German language. History Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well have inspired ''Ein deutsches Requiem''. Brahms's lingering feelings over Robert Schumann's death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain. His original conception was for a work of six movements; according to their eventual places in the final version, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seasons (Haydn)
''The Seasons'' (German: ''Die Jahreszeiten'', Hob. XXI:3) is a secular oratorio by Joseph Haydn, first performed in 1801. History Haydn was led to write ''The Seasons'' by the great success of his previous oratorio '' The Creation'' (1798), which had become very popular and was in the course of being performed all over Europe. Libretto The libretto for ''The Seasons'' was prepared for Haydn, just as with ''The Creation'', by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an Austrian nobleman who had also exercised an important influence on the career of Mozart (among other things commissioning Mozart's reorchestration of Handel's ''Messiah''). Van Swieten's libretto was based on extracts from the long English poem " The Seasons" by James Thomson (1700–1748), which had been published in 1730. Whereas in ''The Creation'' Swieten was able to limit himself to rendering an existing (anonymous) libretto into German, for ''The Seasons'' he had a much more demanding task. Olleson writes, "Even when Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messiah (Handel)
''Messiah'' (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Bible, Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western culture#Music, Western music. Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; ''Messiah'' was his sixth work in this genre. Although its Structure of Handel's Messiah, structure resembles that of Opera#The Baroque era, opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judas Maccabaeus (Handel)
''Judas Maccabaeus'' ( HWV 63) is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746). Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxii; and HHA 1/24. Synopsis Morell's libretto is based on the deuterocanonical (or apocryphal) book 1 Maccabees (2–8), with motives added from the ''Antiquitates Judaicae'' by Flavius Josephus. The events depicted in the oratorio are from the period 170–160 BC when Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire which undertook to destroy the Jewish religion. Being ordered to worship Zeus, many Jews obeyed under the threat of persecution; however, some did not. One who defied was the elderly priest Mattathias who killed a fellow Jew who was about to offer a pagan sacrifice. After tearing down a pagan altar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio, the choir often plays a central role, and there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. C. P. E. Bach was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father's Baroque style and the Classical style that followed it. His personal approach, an expressive and often turbulent one known as ' or 'sensitive style', applied the principles of rhetoric and drama to musical structures. His dynamism stands in deliberate contrast to the more mannered galant style also then in vogue. To distinguish him from his brother Johann Christian, the "London Bach", who at this time was music master to Queen Charlotte of Great Britain, C. P. E. Bach was known as the "Berlin Bach" during his residence in that city, and later as the "Hamburg Bach" when he suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnificat (C
The Magnificat (Latin for "y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical services of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion. Its name comes from the incipit of the Latin version of the text. The text of the canticle is taken from the Gospel of Luke () where it is spoken by Mary upon the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. In the narrative, after Mary greets Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, the latter moves within Elizabeth's womb. Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith (using words partially reflected in the Hail Mary), and Mary responds with what is now known as the Magnificat. The Magnificat is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn. Within the whole of Christianity, the canticle is most frequently rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easter Oratorio
The ''Easter Oratorio'' (), 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, beginning with ("Come, hasten and run"). Bach composed it in Leipzig and first performed it on 1 April 1725. History The first version of the work was completed as a cantata for Easter Sunday in Leipzig on 1 April 1725, then under the title .Alfred Dürr. 1971. ''Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach'', Bärenreiter (in German) It was named "oratorio" and given the new title only in a version revised in 1735. In a later version in the 1740s the third movement was expanded from a duet to a four-part chorus. The work is based on a secular cantata, the so-called ''Shepherd Cantata'' , which is now lost, although the libretto survives. Its author is Picander who is also likely the author of the oratorio's text. The work is opened by two instrumental movements that are probably taken from a concerto of the Köthen period. It seems possible that the third movement is based on the concerto's finale. Structu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Creation (Haydn)
''The Creation'' (german: Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio written between 1797 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn ( Hob. XXI:2), and considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis. The libretto was written by Gottfried van Swieten. The work is structured in three parts and scored for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and a symphonic orchestra. In parts I and II, depicting the creation, the soloists represent the archangels Raphael (bass), Uriel (tenor) and Gabriel (soprano). In part III, the bass and soprano represent Adam and Eve. The first public performance was held in Vienna at the old Burgtheater on 19 March 1799. The oratorio was published with the text in German and English in 1800. Inspiration Haydn was inspired to write a large oratorio during his visits to England in 1791–1792 and 1794–1795 when, alongside his close friend English music historian Charles Burney, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''; organ works such as the '' Schubler Chorales'' and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
