Composers

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus (Salzburg 1756-Vienna 1791) First concert at age 6; first
opera at 12; Works include: Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Little Night Music, Requiem
Mass, Rescue From the Harem

VIVALDI, Antonio (Venice 1678-Vienna 1741) violinist; teacher and priest wrote major
part of concertos and cantatas for girls to perform at church; Works: Four Seasons, The
Night, The Hunt, Storm at Sea

BACH, Johann Sebastian (Eisenach 1685-Leipzig 1750) violinist and organist; “German
Baroque” era; Works: St. Matthew’s Passion, Brandenburg Concertos, Toccata, Art of
the Fugue

HANDEL, Georg Frideric (Halle 1685-London 1759) began composing at 10; known for
his 22 oratorios, 40 operas, sacred and instrumental chamber music; blind; Works: Israel
in Egypt, Jeptha, Messiah, Ether, Almira

HAYDN, Franz Joseph (Rohrau 1732-Vienna 1809) farmer’s son; boy soprano; 30 years
with the Hungarian royal family; Works: Russian Quartets, Prussian Quartets, London,
Paris

BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (Bonn 1770-Vienna 1827) Flemish born; 9 symphonies; 32

sonatas; 16 quartets; 1 opera, Fidelio

SCHUBERT, Franz (Vienna 1797-1828) orchestral, piano, chamber works; buried next
to Beethoven

CHOPIN, Fryderyk (Warsaw 1810-Paris 1849) piano debut in Vienna 1829; melancholy
composer; brief and intense works; Works: Nocturnes, Etudes

WAGNER, Richard (Leipzig 1813-Venice 1883) creator of the music drama; political
activist; Works: The Flying Dutchmen, Tannhauser, The Master Singers, Rienzi,
Lohengrin, The Ring of the Nibelungen

LISZT, Franz (Raiding 1811-Bayreuth 1886) composer, pianist, adventurer; creator of

the symphonic poem; Works: Faust Symphony, Dante Symphony

BRAHMS, Johannes (Hamburg 1833- Vienna 1897) played the piano in taverns to earn
money; his four symphonies are standard works for symphony orchestras today; Works:
German Requiem

BIZET, Georges (Paris 1838-Bougival 1875) studied sight reading at age 4; accused of
imitating Vivaldi and Wagner; Works: Don Procopio, Carmen, Don Rodrigue
VERDI, Guiseppe (Busetto 1813-Milan 1901) Works: Rigoletto, Attila, Ernani, Luisa
Miller, The Troubador, The Fallen Woman, The Masked Ball, Don Carlos, Aida, comic
opera Falstaff

PUCCINI, Giacomo (Lucca 1858-Brussels 1924) church organist; Milan conservatory;

Works: La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, The Girl of the Golden West

TCHAIKOVSKY, Pyotr Ilyich (Vatkinsk 1840-St. Petersburg 1893) ballets, Swan Lake,
Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker and operas, Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades

GRIEG, Edvard (Bergen 1843-1907) Norwegian; studied German romantic and

Scandinavian music culture; Works: Peer Gynt Suites, Norwegian Songs and Dances,
Lyric Suite

STRAUSS, Johann “The Waltz King” On the Blue Danube

DEBUSSY, Claude (Saint-Germaine-en-Laye 1862-Paris 1918) Work: La Mer (The

Sea), Images, Preludes, Etudes

STRAUSS, Richard (Munich 1864-Garmisch 1949) conductor before age 20; president
of the Musikkammer of Hitler’s Third Reich; composer of symphonic poems; Works:
Don Giovanni, Death and Transfiguration, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Don Quixote, Ein
Hledenleben (The Hero’s Life), Salome, Elektra, The Woman Without a Shadow

SCHONBERG, Arnold (Vienna 1874-Los Angeles 1951) worked in a bank; helped form
the “Blue Knights” group that advocated the new art form called Expressionism; formed
the “School of Vienna” by gathering other students of music; emigrated to U.S. after
World War I; professor at University of California; Works: Transfigured Night,
Expectation, The Knack, Moonstruck Pierrot

RAVEL, Maurice (Ciboure 1875-Paris 1937) of Basque origin; ballets, sonatas,

concertos, tone poems for voices; Works: Pavan for a Dead Infanta, La Valse, Bolero,
Spanish Rhapsody

STRAVINKSY, Igor Fedorovich (Oranienbaum 1882-New York 1971) studied at

University of St. Petersburg; remained in America during and after WW II; Works: The
Firebird, Perouchka, The Rite of Spring, A Soldier’s Story, Oedipus Rex, Apollon
Musagete, The Rake’s Progress

GERSHWIN, George (New York 1898-Hollywood 1937) raised in Brooklyn; wrote for
Broadway shows and movie background music; jazz symphonies; Works: “Swanee” for
Al Jolson in 1919; Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy & Bess

ELLINGTON, Duke (Washington 1899-New York 1974) first group “Washingtonians”

in 1923; first record 1925; leader of one of the most important Big Bands in America;
Works: Solitude, Sophisticated Lady, Creole Love Call
ARMSTRONG, Louis “Satchmo” (New Orleans 1900-New York 1971) trumpeter; made
first record with the Creole Jazz Band of King Oliver in Chicago; founded the “Hot Five”
which became the “Hot Seven” in 1925; symbol of jazz

GOODMAN, Benny (Benjamin) (Chicago 1909-New York 1986) clarinet; “The King of
Swing”

BRITTEN, Benjamin (Lowestoft 1913-Aldeburgh 1976) primarily a vocal composer;

first opera 1945 “Peter Grimes” Works: The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, War
Requiem, The Little Chimneysweep, Noyes Fluddes, many church parables, concertos,
choral works, songs and works for film