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Tonkünstler-Societät
The Tonkünstler-Societät ("Society of Musicians") was a benevolent society for musicians in Vienna, which lasted from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th. Its purpose was "to support retired musicians and their families". Beginning in 1772, the Society mounted a series of benefit concerts, often with large forces of performers, at which were performed works by leading Classical-period composers, including Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. History The Society was founded by Florian Gassmann in 1771. It was also known as the "Gesellschaft der Wiener Tonkünstler zum Unterhalte ihrer Witwen und Waisen"; i.e. "Society of Viennese Musicians for the Support of their Widows and Orphans."http://www.wien.gv.at/kultur/archiv/geschichte/zeugnisse/haydnverein.html(in German) Until 1811 (the year that the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde was founded), it was the only private organization offering concerts in Vienna. The Society was strongly supported by the ari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Ritorno Di Tobia
' (''The Return of Tobias'') is an oratorio in two parts composed in 1775 by Joseph Haydn ( Hob. XXI:1). The work is the first oratorio the composer wrote and, according to Jones, was "his most extended and ambitious composition up to that time".Jones (2009:166) The Italian-language libretto of the work is by , brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini. This libretto is harshly criticized by Olleson, who notes that the author de-dramatizes vivid episodes in the source (the story of Tobit in the Apocrypha), depriving Haydn of the opportunity for highly dramatic musical utterance. The work was premiered in Vienna on 2 April 1775, under the sponsorship of the Tonkünstler-Societät, a musician's benevolent society. The musical forces were substantial: Smither writes: "characteristic of the large forces used for the Tonkünstler-Societät concerts, the orchestra, chorus, and soloists possibly numbered more than 180 performers." He adds that the premiere was "enormously successful."Sm ... [...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] |
Davide Penitente
''Davide penitente'', K. 469 (also ''Davidde penitente''), is a cantata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to texts by . The cantata was commissioned by the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät, and first performed on 13 March 1785 in the Vienna Burgtheater. Most of the music is derived from the unfinished Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (1782–83), although two arias ("A te, fra tanti affanni" and "Fra l'oscure ombre funeste") and a cadenza for the last movement ("Chi in Dio sol spera") were newly composed for the work. It has a duration of approximately 45 minutes. Authorship of text The theme of the work is based on the Psalms and the ''First Book of Samuel'' of the Old Testament. The text was previously attributed to Lorenzo Da Ponte, following a report by Vincent Novello. However, it is now known that the text is taken from Italian translations of the Psalms by (1742–95).Saverio Mattei, ''I libri poetici della Bibbia'', 5 volumes, Naples: Simoniana, 1766–1774. Structure # Alzai l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String quartet, String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was Haydn and Mozart, a friend and mentor of Mozart, Beethoven and his contemporaries#Joseph Haydn, a tutor of Beethoven, and the elder brother of composer Michael Haydn. Biography Early life Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, Rohrau, Habsburg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florian Gassmann
Florian Leopold Gassmann (3 May 1729 – 21 January 1774) was a German-speaking Bohemian opera composer of the transitional period between the baroque and classical eras. He was one of the principal composers of ''dramma giocoso'' immediately before Mozart. He was one of Antonio Salieri’s teachers. Life and career Gassmann was born in Brüx, Bohemia, and was most likely trained by Johann Woborschil, the local chorus master. His father was a goldsmith who may well have opposed his son's choice of a musical career. From 1757 until 1762, he wrote an opera every year for the carnival season in Venice, and was also appointed choirmaster in the girls’ conservatory in Venice in 1757. Many of the librettos he set were by the renowned Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. In 1763 he was called to Vienna as court ballet composer, and was held in great affection by Emperor Joseph II. In 1764 he was appointed chamber composer to the Emperor, and in 1772 court conductor. In 1766 G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haydn And Mozart
The composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) and Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) were friends. Their relationship is not very well documented, but the evidence that they enjoyed each other's company is strong. Six string quartets by Mozart are dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465, the "Haydn" Quartets). Background Haydn was already a fairly well-known young composer in Mozart's childhood. His six string quartets Opus 20 (1772), called the "Sun" Quartets from the drawing of the sun on the cover of the first edition, were widely circulated and are conjectured (for instance, by Charles Rosen) to have been the inspiration for the six early string quartets K. 168–173 the 17-year-old Mozart wrote during a 1773 visit to Vienna. The two composers probably weren't able to meet until after Mozart's permanent relocation to Vienna in 1781. Haydn's presence was required most of the time at the palace of Eszterháza in Hungary some distance from Vienna, where his employe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seven Last Words Of Christ (Haydn)
''The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross'' (German: ) is an orchestral work by Joseph Haydn, commissioned in 1786 for the Good Friday service at Oratorio de la Santa Cueva (Holy Cave Oratory) in Cádiz, Spain. Published in 1787 and performed then in Paris, Rome, Berlin and Vienna, the composer adapted it in 1787 for string quartet, approved a version for solo piano in the same year, and finally adapted it in 1796 as an oratorio (with both solo and choral vocal forces). The seven main meditative sections are based on seven expressions attributed to Jesus during his crucifixion. The seven sections are labelled "sonatas" and are all slow. They are framed by a slow Introduction and a fast "Earthquake" conclusion, for a total of nine movements. Origin Haydn himself explained the origin and difficulty of writing the work when the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel issued (in 1801) a new edition and requested a preface: Some fifteen years ago I was requested by a canon of Cà ... [...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] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Symphonies
The London symphonies, sometimes called the Salomon symphonies after Johann Peter Salomon who introduced London to Joseph Haydn, were composed by Joseph Haydn between 1791 and 1795. They can be categorized into two groups: Symphonies Nos. 93–98, which were composed during Haydn's first visit to London, and Symphonies Nos. 99–104, composed in Vienna and London for Haydn's second visit.Webster, James: ‘Haydn, Joseph’, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 8 March 2008). Every London Symphony, apart from No. 95, has a slow introduction to the first movement. * Symphony No. 93 in D major (1791) * Symphony No. 94 in G major, ''The Surprise'' (1791) * Symphony No. 95 in C minor (1791) * Symphony No. 96 in D major, ''The Miracle'' (1791) * Symphony No. 97 in C major (1792) * Symphony No. 98 in B major (1792) * Symphony No. 99 in E major (1793) * Symphony No. 100 in G major, ''Military'' (1793–1794) * Symphony No. 101 in D major, ''The Clock'' (1793–1794) * Sympho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Storace
Anna (or Ann) Selina Storace (; 27 October 176524 August 1817), known professionally as Nancy Storace, was an English operatic soprano. The role of Susanna in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'' was written for and first performed by her. Born in London, her singing career as a child prodigy began in England by the age of 12. This led to further study in Italy and to a successful singing career there during the late 1770s. While in Monza (or shortly before in Milan) in 1782,Pesqué 2017, p. 56-57 quotes a letter dated November 1785 from Poet Giovanni Battista Casti who informs his correspondent that Storace and Benucci have been already recruited for Vienna. she was recruited to form part of Emperor Joseph II's new Italian opera company in Vienna, where the assembled singers who joined her "created in the two years leading up to the premiere of ''The Marriage of Figaro'', were welded into the finest buffa ensemble anywhere." In Vienna, she befriended both Mozart and Joseph Hayd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
