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Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor. Life Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga from 1914 to 1916 and in Königsberg from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in protest of the new Nazi regime and worked in Switzerland. Along with the philanthropist Werner Reinhart, Scherchen played a leading role in shaping the musical life of Winterthur for many years, with numerous premiere performances, the emphasis being placed on contemporary music. From 1922 to 1950, he was the principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur (today known as Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur). Making his debut with Arnold Schoenberg's '' Pierrot Lunaire'', he was a champion of 20th-century composers such as Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Edgard Varèse, and actively promoted the work of younger contemporary compo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalised citizen of France eighteen years later. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances. Among his most important works are '' Metastaseis'' (1953–54) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as '' Psappha'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Travis
Francis Travis (9 July 1921 – 28 April 2017) was an American-born Swiss orchestral conductor. Born in Detroit, Michigan, his advanced musical studies were at the University of Zurich, with a Ph.D. in musicology after writing a dissertation on Giuseppe Verdi. He was a pupil of Hermann Scherchen, later his assistant. He was opera director in Basel for two years, then Trier, Germany, for two years and was regular guest conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. His discography includes works by Joachim Raff, Heinz Holliger with whom he collaborated, and Berlioz and Ravel. He also premiered Swiss and Swedish music. From 1990 to 1995, he lived in Tokyo with many concerts with Japanese orchestras and choruses. He was professor for Orchestral Conducting at Tokyo National University for Music and the Fine Arts. Travis has returned virtually each year to Japan for engagements, including concerts at the Kusatsu Summer Music Festival in 2001 and 2006. Travis later lived i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miserae
''Miserae'' is a symphonic poem by the German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Composed in 1933–34, it was written in response to the plight of (and dedicated to) those who died in the first Nazi internment camps. As the title suggests (''miserae'' is Latin for 'wretched' or 'miserable') the work reflects not only Hartmann's humanist credentials but his early awareness of what was starting to happen in Germany at the time. The dedication on the autograph manuscript reads My friends, who had to die a thousand times over, who sleep for all eternity – we shall not forget you. The work lasts around fourteen minutes. Cast in four brief sections, the two outer sections are quiet, lyrical passages. The two interior sections are quasi-march pastiches, almost parodying goose-stepping. It was premiered at the 1935 festival of the International Society for New Music in Prague, where it was chosen as the opening work.http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/collections/moldenhauer/2428130.pdf The cond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simplicius Simplicissimus
''Simplicius Simplicissimus'' (german: link=no, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is a picaresque novel of the lower Baroque style, written in 1668 by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and probably published the same year (although bearing the date 1669). Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language and the first German novel masterpiece. The full subtitle is "The account of the life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will." Plot overview The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist Simplicius, a rogue or picaro typical of the picaresque novel, as he traverses the tumultuous world of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. Raised by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. ''Libretto'' (; plural ''libretti'' ), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word ''libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15 to 40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by sce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (2 August 1905 – 5 December 1963) was a German composer. Sometimes described as the greatest German symphony, symphonist of the 20th century, he is now largely overlooked, particularly in English-speaking countries. Life Born in Munich, the son of Friedrich Richard Hartmann, and the youngest of four brothers of whom the elder three became painters, Hartmann was himself torn, early in his career, between music and the visual arts. He was much affected in his early political development by the events of the unsuccessful Workers’ Revolution in Bavaria that followed the collapse of the German empire at the end of World War I (see Bavarian Soviet Republic). He remained an idealistic socialism, socialist for the rest of his life. At the Munich Academy in the 1920s, Hartmann studied with Joseph Haas, a pupil of Max Reger, and later received intellectual stimulus and encouragement from the conductor Hermann Scherchen, an ally of the Second Viennese School, Scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frieda Belinfante
Frieda Belinfante (May 10, 1904 in Amsterdam – March 5, 1995 age 91 when she died in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a Portuguese Sephardic-Dutch cellist, philharmonic conductor, a prominent lesbian and a member of the Dutch resistance during World War II. After the war, Belinfante immigrated to the United States and continued her career in music. She was the founding artistic director and conductor of the Orange County Philharmonic. Genealogy The daughter of Aron Belinfante and Georgine Antoinette Hesse, Frieda descended from a line of Sephardic Jews who arrived in Holland in the 17th century and whose ancestry can be traced back to 16th-century Portugal. Other well-known descendants include the writers Emmy Belinfante, Isaac Cohen Belinfante, and Moses Cohen Belinfante, and the journalist Emilie Belinfante (the younger). Many of the Belinfante descendants perished during the Holocaust. Early career Belinfante was born into a musical family. Her father, Aron, was a prominent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Renfer
Anna Margaretha Spoerri Renfer (1896-1984) was a Swiss composer who wrote music for cello, piano, and voice. Renfer was born in Biel/Bienne. She studied piano as a child, then attended the Bern Conservatory, the University of Bern, the Conservatory of Bienne, and studied privately in Gstaad. Her teachers included Adrian Aeschbacher, Edwin Fischer, Ernst Levy, Josef Pembauer, Hermann Scherchen, and Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in t .... Renfer's music was published by Hug (today Gebrüder Hug & Co.) Her compositions included: Chamber *''Sonata in c minor'' (cello and piano) Piano *''Studies for the Left Hand'' Vocal *''44 Songs'' *“Bridal song for High Voice” *''Eight Songs for Soprano'' *''Sacred Chants'' (a cappella and for chorus; text b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Françoys Bernier
Françoys Joseph Arthur Maurice Bernier (12 July 19273 February 1993) was a Canadian pianist, conductor, radio producer, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals from 1956 to 1960 and was an active conductor and a producer for CBC Radio during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 1960 to 1966 and then the orchestra's Music Director from 1966 to 1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa. Family background and education Bernier was born into a prominent family of musicians in Quebec City. He was the son of cellist and music critic Maurice Bernier, the brother of cellist Pierre Bernier and pianist Gabrielle Bernier, and the nephew of pianist Gabrielle Bernier and of keyboardist and composer Conrad Bernier. His earliest musical education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Bélanger (musician)
Marc Bélanger (born 30 July 1940) is a Canadian violinist, violist, conductor, arranger, composer, and music educator. Life and career Born in Quebec City, Bélanger is the son of violinist and conductor Edwin Bélanger and the brother of musician Guy Bélanger. It is from his father that he received his initial musical training. At the age of eight he began studying the violin with Calvin Sieb and singing with Claude Létourneau at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec. He continued to study at the conservatoire through 1961, earning a diploma in 1960 with premier prizes in both harmony and chamber music. He also studied conducting at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana under Hermann Scherchen. Bélanger began his career working as an ensemble musician, conductor, and arranger for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Between 1956-1971 he played the violin and viola in various orchestras at the CBC in Quebec and from 1972-1976 he played in the CBC Orchestra in Mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egisto Macchi
Egisto Macchi (4 August 1928 – 8 August 1992) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Grosseto, Macchi moved to Rome to study composition, piano, violin and singing with Roman Vlad (1946–51) and Hermann Scherchen (1949–54), among others. It was around this period that he also studied literature and human physiology at La Sapienza University. From the late fifties, he began his collaboration with a group of musicians ( Franco Evangelisti, Domenico Guaccero and Daniele Paris), to whom he was bound by intense friendship. Together with Domenico Guaccero, Daniele Paris and Antonino Titone, he was one of the editors of the magazine ''Orders'', which first appeared in 1959. With Bertoncini, Bortolotti, Clementi, De Blasio, Evangelisti, Guaccero, Paris, Pennisi, and Franco Norris, he founded the Association of New Consonance in 1960. He made a frequent hand at directing the association, and he held the office of President from 1980 to 1982, and also in 1989. From the day of it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
