Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
German pianist, composer and music editor. Son of the bassoonist and
Hamburg town musician, Johann Gottlieb Schwencke (1744-1823), he became a
proficient pianist at an early age and performed a concerto by his
father in Hamburg in 1779. In 1782 he went to Berlin, where he studied
with Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg and Johann Philipp Kirnberger. In 1787-78
he studied at the universities of Leipzig and Halle, and in 1788
succeeded C.P.E. Bach as Hamburg Stadtkantor, a post he held for the
rest of his life. He became a contributor to the 'Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung' in 1799. His compositions include incidental
music, settings of Klopstock’s Vater unser, performed at the poet’s
funeral, and the ode 'Der Frohsinn' (1799), oratorios and cantatas, two
piano concertos, an oboe concerto, three piano sonatas (1789), three
violin sonatas (1792), six fugues for organ and lieder. His sons Johann
Friedrich Schwencke (1792-1852) and Karl Schwencke (1797-1870) were
instrumentists and composers.
Polish composer. Little is known about his life beyond his musical
education. He received his training with the financial support of a
provost named 'Neuhaus' from the Saints Peter and Paul church in
Trzebinia. He was also associated with the Nysa Holy Sepulcher Band at
Jasna Góra. It is notable that the largest collection of his
compositions is not found in the archives of his native Silesia but
rather in the Jasna Góra archive, which holds over 30 manuscripts of his
works. The nature of his connection to this particular center is still
unknown. Most of these compositions were copied for the Jasna Góra
chapel in the last quarter of the 18th century, with some manuscripts
specifically dated to 1795. These works represent various forms of the
vocal and instrumental religious music of that era. The collection
primarily includes 7 litanies, 5 masses, 6 arias, 5 duets, and 5
concerted vocal-instrumental motets. Additionally, there are a 'Miserere
seu Opera pro Sacro Sepulchro' and a Stabat Mater. The significant
number of compositions dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary is
particularly noteworthy, including seven settings of the Marian antiphon
Salve Regina and two settings of Regina caeli. This fact alone suggests
a strong connection to the Jasna Góra monastery and warrants further
research into the composer's life and work.
Italian composer and teacher. A student of Nicola Porpora in Naples,
little is known about his early life. The first documented performance
of his music was of the opera 'Alessandro in Persia' (1738). The poor
reception of this work marked the beginning of a generally unsuccessful
career as a composer for the stage. During the 1739-40 season he moved
to Venice, where he was employed by the Conservatorio dei Mendicanti. In
1746 he settled in London where his series of operatic failures
continued in January of 1747, when his setting of Vanneschi’s Fetonte
encountered negative reaction during its nine performances at the King’s
Theatre. Charles Burney described the arias as ‘ill-phrased’ and
lacking in ‘estro or grace’. Although he continued to supply arias for
pasticcio productions at the King’s Theatre, he never met with success
as a composer of opera. He achieved some renown in England, however, as a
teacher of harpsichord and composition. His most distinguished student
was the elder Thomas Linley. By 1770 he had returned to Italy, where he
went into retirement. As a composer, his works include six operas, two
concertos for keyboard, several symphonies, and a set of '12 Sonate di
gravicembalo' (1754) that were considered some of the best of the time
when published in London.
German composer, critic and teacher. His father, a teacher and organist
who had fled to Switzerland from the Black Forest to avoid military
conscription during the Napoleonic wars, taught him to play the violin
and organ and to sing. He was educated at the Jesuit Gymnasium in
Schwyz. He later was a schoolteacher in Rapperswill (1840-44), but
pursued an interest in music. He sent some of his piano pieces to Felix
Mendelssohn (1843), who recommended them for publication; having met
Franz Liszt in Basel (1845), he received his encouragement and
assistance in finding employment; later was his assistant in Weimar
(1850-56), where he became an ardent propagandist of the new German
school of composition. He then went to Wiesbaden as a piano teacher and
composer, where he married the actress Doris Genast (1837-1912). He
subsequently was director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt
(1877-82), where he also taught composition; students flocked from many
countries to study with him, including Edward MacDowell and Alexander
Ritter. As a composer, he was a prodigious fecundity, and a master of
all technical aspects of composition. He wrote 214 opus numbers that
were published, and many more that remained in manuscript. In spite of
his fame, his music fell into lamentable desuetude after his death. Any
analysis of Raff's music must confront the historical criticisms of his
eclecticism and quantity of production. On the one hand, Raff considered
himself an independent creator and thus distanced himself from Liszt
and Richard Wagner, even though during his time in Weimar he did
circumspectly adopt elements of the New German style; on the other hand,
he clearly modelled his work on various predecessors. Raff was able to
give to his music a strong sense of drive and direction, and his
orchestration was quite effective, even though his forces did not
normally exceed Ludwig van Beethoven's in size. Raff's stylistic
eclecticism is particularly evident in his themes, which tend to be
diatonic and brilliant in his faster movements, but often adopt a
sentimental salon style in slow movements. Raff's only daughter, Helene
Raff (1864-1942), became a painter, writer and pianist of note. Upon her
death, Raff's entire estate of musical manuscripts, letters and other
literary and familial documents was bequeathed to the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
