The World of Music: The Great Composers |
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Page 33 - Bach, the famous town organist and musician of Eisenach, was married to the virtuous maiden Maria Barbara Bach, the youngest surviving unmarried daughter of the late very respectable and famous artist Herr Johann Michael Bach, organist at Gehren, here in our house of God', by the favor of our gracious ruler, after their banns had been read in Arnstadt.
Page 8 - French master's favour, acknowledges in this opera ' the bold effects in the instrumentation, particularly in the treatment of the strings, the drastic grouping of the choral masses which here for the first time take an important part in the action, no less than original harmonies and happy strokes of dramatic characterisation.1 Various conjectures have been propounded to account for this singular and never-again-attained flight of inspiration.
Page 90 - I shall try to reduce music to its real function, that of seconding poetry by intensifying the expression of sentiments and the interest of situations without interrupting the action by needless ornament.
Page 147 - ... variety of styles. During the Venice Carnival of 1815, he heard Rossini's Tancredi. Enraptured by it, he immediately altered his own style and in practically no time produced a series of highly successful Italian operas. His friend and fellow pupil, Carl Maria von Weber, wrote to him, "My heart bleeds to see a German composer of creative power stoop to become an imitator in order to win favor with the crowd," but the facile Meyerbeer was undeterred.
Page 91 - Gluck's eyes flashed with rage, as he sprang threateningly to his feet. "The custom in Germany, sir, is to rise only for those whom we esteem!" he said; then turning to Sophie, who had been stopped in the middle of an air, "I perceive, madame, that you are not mistress in your own house. I leave you, and shall never set foot here again.
Page 35 - ... if the skill of his feet alone earned him such a gift, what would the prince have given him had he used his hands as well ? ' One of the best of these show pieces is the Prelude and Fugue in D major (vi., 10).
Page 11 - Schumann's, that he was a man " to whom music owes almost as great a debt as religion owes to its founder.
Page 78 - M. Pichon (a name Frederic assumed) appeared at the musical assembly at Szafarnia, at which were present several persons, big and little : he played Kalkbrenner's Concerto, but this did not produce such a furore, especially among the youthful hearers, as the song which the same gentleman rendered.
Page 6 - doing nothing." He gave up writing when he was a little over thirty. Auber began serious work when he was nearer forty than thirty, in fact, his first opera — not a success — was produced when he was thirty-seven years old. He had the good sense to live to eighty-nine, and thereby made up the time which he had lost at the beginning of his life. I remember having seen at Paris Heine, the poetical singer, or the singing poet, whose verses were so melodiously written that music for them arose spontaneously...
Page 242 - You are a man of genius but you write such eccentric stuff, it is hardly possible to sing it.