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String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)
The String Quartet No. 14 in C minor, Op. 131, was completed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1826. It is the last-composed of a trio of string quartets, written in the order Opp. 132, 130 (with the ''Große Fuge'' ending), 131. It was Beethoven's favourite of the late quartets: he is quoted as remarking to a friend that he would find "a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before". It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?" Schumann said that this quartet and Op. 127 had a "grandeur ... which no words can express. They seem to me to stand ... on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination." This work is dedicated to Baron as a gesture of gratitude for taking Beethoven's nephew Karl into the army after a suicide attempt. Beethoven died before the work's publication by Schott Music and before its first performance, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late String Quartets (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's late string quartets are: :*Opus 127: String Quartet No. 12 (Beethoven), String Quartet No. 12 in E major (1825) :*Opus 130: String Quartet No. 13 (Beethoven), String Quartet No. 13 in B major (1825) :*Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven), String Quartet No. 14 in C minor (1826) :*Opus 132: String Quartet No. 15 (Beethoven), String Quartet No. 15 in A minor (1825) :*Opus 133: ''Große Fuge'' in B major (1825; originally the finale to Op. 130; it also exists in a piano four-hands transcription, Op. 134) :*Opus 135: String Quartet No. 16 (Beethoven), String Quartet No. 16 in F major (1826) These six works are Beethoven's last major completed compositions. Although dismissed by musicians and audiences of Beethoven's day, they are now widely considered to be among the greatest musical compositions of all time, and have inspired many later composers. Overview Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzine, Nikolai Galitzine commissioned the first three quartets (12, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cello Sonata No
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 and A3. The viola's four strings are each an octave higher. Music for the cello is generally written in the bass clef, with tenor clef, and treble clef used for higher-range passages. Played by a '' cellist'' or ''violoncellist'', it enjoys a large solo repertoire with and without accompaniment, as well as numerous concerti. As a solo instrument, the cello uses its whole range, from bass to soprano, and in chamber music such as string quartets and the orchestra's string section, it often plays the bass part, where it may be reinforced an octave lower by the double basses. Figured bass music of the Baroque-era typically assumes a cello, viola da gamba or bassoon as part of the basso continuo group alongside chordal instruments s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pascal Quartet
The Pascal Quartet was a French string quartet musical ensemble which took shape during the early 1940s and emerged after World War II to become a leading representative of the French performance tradition. It was named after its founder, the viola player Léon Pascal, and was occasionally termed the Leon Pascal Quartet. Personnel Throughout its recording career during the 1940s and 1950s, the personnel comprised: 1st violin: Jacques Dumont 2nd violin: Maurice Crut viola: Léon Pascal violoncello: Robert Salles Origins During the 1930s Léon Pascal occupied the viola desk in the celebrated Calvet Quartet, with Joseph Calvet, Daniel Guilevitch (i.e. Daniel Guilet of the Beaux Arts Trio) and Paul Mas (cello). Pascal appears in the 1931-1938 recordings made by that ensemble. The recordings of the Pascal Quartet begin before 1945. The quality of the soloists with whom they recorded attest to the standing of the Pascal Quartet. McNaught said of them that 'due praise would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Band Of Brothers (miniseries)
''Band of Brothers'' is a 2001 American war drama miniseries based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name. It was created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also served as executive producers, and who had collaborated on the 1998 World War II film ''Saving Private Ryan.'' Episodes first aired on HBO starting on September 9, 2001. The series won the Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries. The series dramatizes the history of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, from jump training in the United States through its participation in major actions in Europe, up until Japan's capitulation and the end of World War II. The events are based on Ambrose's research and recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans. The series took some literary license, adapting history for dramatic effect and series structure. The characters portrayed are based on members of Easy Company. Ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Late Quartet
''A Late Quartet'' (released in Australia as ''Performance'') is a 2012 American drama film directed by Yaron Zilberman and co-written by Zilberman and Seth Grossman. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir and Imogen Poots. Inspired by and structured around Beethoven's Op. 131, the film follows the world-renowned Fugue String Quartet after its cellist Peter Mitchell (Walken) is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Frederick Elmes served as cinematographer and Angelo Badalamenti composed the score. The Brentano String Quartet played the quartet music for the soundtrack and Anne Sofie von Otter appears as the cellist's late wife, singing Korngold's " Marietta's Song" from ''Die tote Stadt''. The film premiered in the Special Presentation program at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, and was theatrically released in over 30 countries. It received generally positive reviews. Plot As the Fugue String quartet approaches its 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 123, is a Solemn Mass composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819 to 1823. It was first performed on 7 April 1824 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei were conducted by the composer. It is generally considered one of the composer's supreme achievements and, along with Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the most significant Mass settings of the common practice period. Written around the same time as his Ninth Symphony, it is Beethoven's second setting of the Mass, after his Mass in C major, Op. 86. The work was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria, archbishop of Olmütz, Beethoven's foremost patron as well as pupil and friend. The copy presented to Rudolf was inscribed "Von Herzen—Möge es wieder—Zu Herzen gehn!" ("From the heart – may it return to the heart!") Structure Like ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schuppanzigh Quartet
The Schuppanzigh Quartet was a string quartet formed in Vienna in the 1790s by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. It continued, with breaks and changes of members, for many years. Schuppanzigh was a close friend and admirer of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the quartet gave the first performances of many of Beethoven's string quartets. Origins Ignaz Schuppanzigh assembled an informal string quartet for Prince Lichnowsky in 1795. Its membership varied; the more regular players, all aged under 20, were Louis Sina playing second violin, Franz Weiss playing viola and Nikolaus Kraft playing cello. Beethoven's first set of string quartets, Op. 18, which were completed in 1800, were first performed by Schuppanzigh's quartet. In 1805 Schuppanzigh formed his own quartet; the other players were Joseph Mayseder (second violin), Anton Schreiber (viola) and Antonín Kraft, the father of Nikolaus Kraft (cello). Their first concerts took place in ''Heiligenkreutzerhof'', a private house; later in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Holz (violinist)
Karl Holz (1798 – 9 November 1858) was an Austrian violinist. He played second violin in Ignaz Schuppanzigh's string quartet and served as secretary to Ludwig van Beethoven during the last few years of the composer's life. Early career In Vienna in 1819, the violinist Joseph Böhm assembled a new string quartet, and Holz – a civil servant in the Austrian government by profession – joined as second violin. In 1823, the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh returned to the city after several years away. He had formed a string quartet in Vienna in the 1790s; Schuppanzigh was an old friend of Beethoven's and had given the first performance of the composer's String Quartets Nos. 1–6, Op. 18 (Beethoven), first six string quartets Op. 18. Böhm's quartet disbanded, and Holz joined Schuppanzigh's reformed quartet. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motif (music)
In music, a motif IPA: ( /moʊˈtiːf/) (also motive) is a short musical phrase, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity". The ''Encyclopédie de la Pléiade'' regards it as a "melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic cell", whereas the 1958 ''Encyclopédie Fasquelle'' maintains that it may contain one or more cells, though it remains the smallest analyzable element or phrase within a subject. It is commonly regarded as the shortest subdivision of a theme or phrase that still maintains its identity as a musical idea. "The smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity". Grove and Larousse also agree that the motif may have harmonic, melodic and/or rhythmic aspects, Grove adding that it "is most often thought of in melodic terms, and it is this aspect of the motif that is connoted by the term 'fig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Latrobe
Christian Ignatius Latrobe (12 February 1758 – 6 May 1836) was an English clergyman of the Moravian Church, as well as an artist, musician and composer. He created a large number of works for, and most famously edited, a ''Selection of Sacred Music'' in six volumes between 1806 and 1826, introducing the sacred music of Haydn, Mozart and Pergolesi and other European continental composers who were largely unknown to English audiences. Life He was born in the Fulneck Moravian Settlement, near Leeds, to the Reverend Benjamin Latrobe, of Huguenot descent, and the American-born Anna Margaretta Antes. His brother was Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the noted architect responsible for the United States Capitol and the Catholic cathedral of Baltimore, Maryland. In 1771 Christian Latrobe went to Niesky in the Upper Lusatia region of Saxony in Germany, to attend the Moravian College there. On completion of his training he taught at the high school attached to the college for a while, after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octet (Mendelssohn)
The String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, was written by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn during the fall of 1825 and completed on October 15. Written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, this work created a new chamber music genre. Conrad Wilson summarizes much of its reception ever since: "Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music." This was one of the first works of Mendelssohn to be very well-received. Background Mendelssohn wrote his octet and gave a signed score to his friend and violin teacher as a birthday present. Rietz copied parts from the score to use for the premiere. The string octet was a fairly new genre of chamber music at the time, the most widely known genre of chamber music still being the string quartet. The genre was rapidly gaining popularity among other composers. When Mendelssohn composed his octet, it was a rather new genre, and he may have been inspired by Louis Spohr's Double Quarte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
