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.
Polish violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. He received training
in violin and music from his father Feliks Lipiński (1765-1847). In 1809
he became concertmaster of the Lemberg Theater orchestra, where he
conducted from 1811 to 1815. In 1817 he traveled to Italy to hear
Paganini. In 1818 the two met in Padua, and Paganini was so impressed
with his talent as a violinist that the two performed together in
Piacenza. Between 1819 and 1828 he made tours of Poland, Germany, and
Russia, and then toured throughout the whole of Europe. On 25 April
1836, he appeared as soloist in his own Military Concerto for Violin and
Orchestra in London. In 1839 he settled in Dresden as concertmaster of
the Court Orchestra, a position he retained until his retirement in
1861. He also was active as a conductor, performed with his own string
quartet, and taught. Among his most famous pupils were Joseph Joachim
and Henryk Wieniawski. While Lipinski was praised as the equal in
technical virtuosity to Paganini, he became best known for upholding the
classical ideals of violin playing espoused by Viotti and Spohr. He
composed a comic opera, Klótnia przez zaklad (Lemberg, 1814), and other
stage works, 3 symphonies, 4 violin concertos, pieces for Violin and
Piano, Caprices for Violin, and numerous technical studies for violin.
He was regarded as one of the best violinists in the first half of the
19th century.
German composer, son of the organist Isaak Hassler (c.1530-1591) and
brother of Kaspar Hassler (1562-1618) and Jakob Hassler (1569-1622). He
began his musical training with his father, then in 1584 continued his
education in Venice, where he was a pupil of Andrea Gabrieli. He was
named chamber organist to Octavian II Fugger in Augsburg in January
1586, and quickly established himself as one of the leading musicians in
Germany. In 1591 the emperor granted him the privilege of copyrighting
his compositions. He was ennobled by the emperor in 1595, and was given a
coat of arms and the title of Hassler von Roseneck in 1604. While in
Augsburg, he also became active as a manufacturer of mechanical musical
instruments, an enterprise that led to numerous litigations with
business rivals. After Octavian's death in 1600, he was made director of
the town music in Augsburg. He also served as Kaiserlicher Hofdiener to
the court of Emperor Rudolf II, a position which may have been purely
honorary. He obtained a year's leave of absence from Augsburg for a stay
in Ulm in 1604, and then decided to remain there the following year;
became a citizen of Ulm in 1607 and a member of its merchants' guild in
1608. He was appointed the Saxon electoral chamber organist in Dresden
in 1608, and later assumed the duties of Kapellmeister. Following his
move to Dresden, he was stricken with tuberculosis. He died during the
visit of the court chapel to Frankfurt am Main for the election and
coronation of Emperor Matthias. Hassler excelled as a composer of both
sacred and secular vocal works. His sacred compositions reflect the
influence of Lassus and others of the Venetian school, while his secular
compositions display a pronounced individuality. His organ music
follows the precepts of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.
German composer. He received his early musical education from his older
brother Johann Adam Kreusser (1732-1792) in Heidingsfeld. Around 1759 he
settled in Amsterdam where his brother was the concertmaster of the
theater orchestra. He then completed his training in Italy, where he met
the Mozart family in Bologna (as mentioned by Léopold Mozart's father
in a letter to his wife) and undertook studies tours in Italy and France
(1770-1771). Returning to Amsterdam he lived as an independent
composer. On 13 December 1773 he became deputy Konzertmeister and on 21
February 1774 Konzertmeister of the electoral Kapelle in Mainz. He
distinguished himself as a composer of instrumental and vocal works,
being highly regarded by Joseph Haydn. For a long time he was the
foremost court musician in Mainz, and his works enjoyed great
popularity. When Vincenzo Righini became Mainz Kapellmeister in 1787 he
lost his pre-eminence and something of his creative fervour. After the
second occupation of Mainz by the French, he left the town in the winter
of 1798-99 and settled in Aschaffenburg, where he remained the rest of
his life. With Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel, he was the most significant
Mainz composer of the second half of the 18th century. His achievement
is most outstanding in his instrumental music. His style was formed by
quite varied influences, so that he cannot be ascribed to any national
school, and he stands somewhat apart from his contemporaries who formed
the early Classical style between 1760 and 1780. His best-known work was
the oratorio Der Tod Jesu (1783), but his extensive output also
includes 54 symphonies, an harpsichord concerto, a serenade,
instrumental quintets and quartets, 6 violin duets, 8 masses and 7
melodies, among others.
German princess and composer. She became the duchess of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach by marriage, and was also regent of the states of
Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to 1775. She transformed her
court and its surrounding into the most influential cultural center of
Germany. As a patron of the arts, Anna Amalia drew many of the most
eminent people in Germany to Weimar, including Johann Gottfried Herder,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Abel Seyler‘s
theatrical company. When she succeeded in engaging the Seyler Company,
this was “an extremely fortunate coup. The Seyler Company was the best
theatre company in Germany at that time.” Amalia von Helvig was also
later to be a part of her court. She hired Christoph Martin Wieland, a
poet and translator of William Shakespeare, to educate her son. She also
established the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, which is now home to some
1,000,000 volumes. The duchess was honoured in Goethe’s work under the
title Zum Andenken der Fürstin Anna-Amalia. Anna Amalia was a notable
composer who studied harpsichord and piano with Gottlieb Hayne, and
counterpoint with Johann Philipp Kirnberger. She also studied music with
Friedrich Gottlob Fleischer and Ernst Wilhelm Wolf. Among her
compositions is a divertimento for clarinet, viola, cello, and piano,
composed in 1780.
German singer and composer. His parents were actors, and the wandering
life led by the family did not allow him to pursue a methodical course
of study. He learned acting from his father Johann Gottlieb Lortzing
(1776-1841), and music from his mother Charlotte Sophie Seidel
(1780-1846) at an early age. After some lessons in piano with Griebel
and in theory with Rungenhagen in Berlin, he continued his own studies,
and soon began to compose. On 30 January 1823, he married the actress
Rosina Regina Ahles (1799-1854) in Cologne; they had 11 children. In
1824 he wrote his stage work, the Singspiel Ali Pascha von Janina, oder
Die Franzosen in Albanien, which was not premiered until 4 years later
(Münster, 1828). He then brought out the Liederspiel Der Pole und sein
Kind, oder Der Feldzuebel vom IV. Regiment (1832) and the Singspiel
Szenen aus Mozarts Leben (1832), which were well received on several
German stages. From 1833 to 1844 he was engaged at the Municipal Theater
of Leipzig as a tenor. His light opera Die beiden Schützen was first
performed there on 1837, with much success. It was followed there by the
work that is now considered his masterpiece, Zar und Zimmermann, oder
Die zwei Peter (1837). It was performed with enormous success in Berlin
(1839), and then in other European music centers. His next opera,
Caramo, oder Das Fischerstechen (1839), was a failure; there followed
Hans Sachs (1840) and Casanova (1841), which passed without much notice;
subsequent comparisons showed some similarities between Hans Sachs and
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, not only in subject matter, which was
derived from the same source, but also in some melodic patterns;
however, no one seriously suggested that Wagner was influenced by
Lortzing's inferior work. There followed a comic opera, Der Wildschutz,
oder Die Stimme der Natur (1842), which was in many respects one of the
best that Lortzing wrote, but its success, although impressive, never
equaled that of Zar und Zimmermann.
At about the same time, Lortzing attempted still another career, that of
opera impresario, but it was short-lived; his brief conductorship at
the Leipzig Opera (1844-45) was similarly ephemeral. Composing remained
his chief occupation, and he wrote Undine in Magdeburg (1845) and Der
Waffen schmied in Vienna (1846). He then went to Vienna as conductor at
the Theater an der Wien, but soon returned to Leipzig, where his light
opera Zum Grossadmiral was first performed (1847). The revolutionary
events of 1848 seriously affected his position in both Leipzig and
Vienna; after the political situation became settled, he wrote the opera
Rolands Knappen, oder Das ersehnte Gluck (1849). Although at least 4 of
his operas were played at various German theaters, Lortzing received no
honorarium, owing to a flaw in the regulations protecting the rights of
composers. He was compelled to travel again as an actor, but could not
earn enough money to support his large family, left behind in Vienna. In
the spring of 1850 he obtained the post of conductor at Berlin's
nondescript Friedrich-Wilhelmstadt Theater. His last score, the comic
opera Die Opernprobe, oder Die vornehmen Dilettanten, was premiered in
Frankfurt am Main on 20 January 1851, while he was on his deathbed in
Berlin; he died the next day. Lortzing also wrote an oratorio, Die
Himmelfahrt Jesu Christi (1828), and some incidental music to various
plays, but it is as a composer of characteristically German Romantic
operas that he holds a distinguished, if minor, place in the history of
dramatic music. He was a follower of Weber, without Weber's imaginative
projection; in his lighter works, he approached the type of French
operetta; in his best creations he exhibited a fine sense of facile
melody, and infectious rhythm; his harmonies, though unassuming, were
always proper and pleasing; his orchestration, competent and effective.
Italian composer. His surname was Mercandetti until his father changed
it when, bankrupt, the family moved to Rome. There Generali studied
counterpoint with Giovanni Masi, interrupted by four months spent at the
Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella at Naples. He graduated from the
Congregazione di Sancta Cecilia in Rome and began his career as a
composer of sacred music, but soon turned to opera. He traveled all over
Italy as producer of his operas, and also went to Vienna and Barcelona,
where he remained three years as director of the opera company at the
Teatro de la Santa Cruz. Returning to Italy, he became maestro di
cappella at the Cathedral of Novara, a position he held until his death.
He anticipated Rossini in the effective use of dynamics in the
instrumental parts of his operas, and was generally praised for his
technical knowledge. He wrote about 50 stage works, in both the serious
and comic genres, but none survived in the repertoire after his death.
The following were successful at their initial performances: Pamela
nubile (Venice, 1804), Lelagrime di una vedova (Venice, 1808), Adelina
(Venice, 1810), L'Impostore (Milan, 1815), I Baccanali di Roma (Venice,
1816; his best work), II Servo padrone (Parma, 1818), and Il divorzio
persiano (Trieste, 1828). From late 1820 to 1823 he was in Naples,
composing several operas and teaching; Luigi Ricci was among his pupils.
With the Naples period his activity as an opera composer came virtually
to an end. In 1823 he became music director of the Teatro Carolino in
Palermo.
Johann Schobert (1720-1767)
- Concerto IV pour le clavecin avec accompagnement de deux violons,
alto et basse et deux cors de chasse ad libitum... op. XV
Performers: Anne Marie Beckensteiner (1925-2021, clavecin); Jean
François Pаillаrd Chamber Orchestra;
German composer and keyboardist. Nothing is known about his origins or
youth; there is differing information on his birth date, which ranges
from 1720 to 1740. Gerber’s Historisch-biographisches Lexicon der
Tonkünstler, however, gives Strasbourg as his place of birth (though the
name occurs in no contemporary Alsatian records), and Schubart in his
autobiography claimed Schobert as a kinsman, supposedly from Nuremberg.
Schobert first appeared in Paris in 1760, where he began a career as a
keyboard virtuoso, eventually publishing 20 sets of works. In 1761 a few
of his pieces appeared in the pasticcio Le tonnelier, and in 1765 he
unsuccessfully attempted to become a composer of opéra comique with the
comedy Le garde-chasse et le braconnier. He found employment with Louis
François I de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, however. Throughout his career
he achieved some fame for his expressive performances and works, in
addition to being a rival of Johann Gottfried Eckard. He died along with
his family, a servant, and four friends as a consequence of eating
poisonous mushrooms. His musical style was influenced by that of
Mannheim, although he was noted for his expressive melodies. His works
include 21 violin sonatas, six symphonies, seven trio sonatas, five
harpsichord concertos, three keyboard quartets, and several sonatas and
miscellaneous works for harpsichord. Schobert greatly influenced
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who admired his music warmly. The work which
most impressed the seven-year-old composer seems to have been the D
major Sonata of op.3; imitation of this sonata and others can be traced
in Mozart’s subsequent Parisian and English sonatas. Movements from
Schobert’s sonatas also appear recast in Mozart’s earliest piano
concertos. His fascination for Schobert’s music was not merely fleeting:
when Mozart was in Paris in 1778 he taught his pupils Schobert’s
sonatas, and the A minor Sonata k310, composed in Paris, contains in its
Andante an almost literal quotation from a movement of Schobert’s op.17
no.1 that Mozart had already arranged years before in a concerto.
Italian composer and teacher. A priest at San Petronio, he studied first
plainsong and cantus figuralis and then, under Floriano Arresti,
counterpoint. In 1717 he was received into the Accademia Filarmonica as a
singer and in 1719 as a composer, serving six times as principe and
holding other important offices. In 1740 he was named deputy maestro di
cappella to G.A. Perti at S Petronio and in 1756, when Perti died,
succeeded him, holding the post until his death. He was a highly
regarded teacher and had many pupils. Carretti composed much sacred
music in both the strict and concertante styles, publishing a Credo
corali, for one and two voices and optional organ (Bologna, 1737), and
some sacre canzoni in the anthology La ricreazione spirituale (Bologna,
1730). The largest collection of his manuscript works is at S Petronio.
Flemish composer and violinist. Baptized in the St. Géry parish in 1729,
he received his earliest education from Baroque violinist Jean-Joseph
Fiocco before being accepted into the second violin section of the royal
chapel of Charles of Lorraine at the age of 17. In 1749 he was
appointed concertmaster and two years later embarked upon the first of
several concert tours, this one to Dublin where he published his first
compositions, six trios for two violins and basso, with William
Mainwaring. He also served as in-house composer for the Charitable Music
Society and Philharmonick Concerts. In 1754 he appeared as a soloist in
his own violin concerto at the Concerts spirituels in Paris, where the
Mercure de France proclaimed him a “great talent,” a sentiment later
echoed by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. In 1757 he accompanied his
patron to Vienna, and due to the success of his opera Les amours
champêtres, he decided to devote his attentions to the composition of
opera, becoming a codirector of the Grand Théâtre in Brussels. This was
made possible by an appointment as valet de chambre to Prince Charles,
which allowed him the freedom to explore opportunities outside of court.
By 1766, however, the enterprise had failed, but in the intervening
years he had attained a considerable reputation for his symphonies,
which were published in London and Paris and were lauded by theorists
such as Johann Adam Hiller. He also was much sought after as a teacher.
He died from a stroke at his home in Brussels. He composed around 60
symphonies, of which 26 were published during his lifetime. In addition,
he wrote six operas, an orchestral concerto, a flute concerto, two
violin concertos, 27 trio sonatas, 15 violin sonatas, and three keyboard
trios. His musical style, characterized by Hiller and others, was
described as “full of fire and invention ... and far more cohesive,
orderly, and weighty than the works of some others” and “uncommonly
brilliant.” The symphonies especially show dramatic elements that are
characteristic of the Sturm und Drang, including restless ostinati,
syncopations, abrupt dynamic changes, tremolo, and use of minor keys.
Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)
- Te Deum laudamus à 5 (c.1724)
Performers: Anne Sophie Petit (soprano); Hélène Walter (soprano);
William Shelton (alto); Gwilym Bowen (tenor); Stephan MacLeod (bass);
Les Ambasadeurs; La Grande Écurie; Alexis Kossenko (conductor)
Bohemian composer. He was the son of an organist and it is most probable
that he received his early music training from his father. About 1710
he went to Prague, where he attended the Jesuit Clementinum. He also
learned to play the double bass and was a member of the orchestra of
Count Hartog. Upon Hartog's recommendation in 1710, he was accepted as a
member of the Dresden court orchestra. In 1715 he went to Venice to
study with Lotti and, between 1716 and 1719, he spent considerable time
in Vienna studying with Johann Joseph Fux. With his training completed,
he remained at the Dresden court for the rest of his life. In 1721 he
became vice-Kapellmeister there, but was passed over as Kapellmeister in
1731 when Hasse accepted the court's appointment. In 1735 he was named
Kirchen-compositeur to the court. Zelenka was particularly known during
his lifetime as a composer of sacred music, winning the admiration of
Bach and Telemann. His extensive output of such music included the
oratorios Il serpente di bronzo (1730), Gesa al Calvario (1735), and I
Penitenti al sepolchro del Redentore (1736), about 20 masses, 2
Magnificats, over 35 cantatas, and various motets, Psalms, antiphons,
hymns, and other pieces. For the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor
Karl VI as King of Bohemia, he composed the Melodrama de Sancto
Wenceslao ("Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi Regia
Bohemiae Corona"), which was first performed in Frankfurt am Main on 12
November 1723. Almost all of the MSS of Zelenka's sacred music were lost
in 1945. Since several of his instrumental works were published in his
lifetime, copies have survived and today Zelenka is known as a
distinguished and refreshing composer of instrumental music. Among his
extant works for orchestra are 5 capriccios (1-4, 1717-18; 5, 1729), a
Simphonie a 8 Concertante (1723), a Concerto a 8 Concertante (1723), and
the Hipocondrie a 7 Concercante (1723). Also extant are 6 Trio or
Quadro Sonatas for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, and Basso Continuo (c.1720).
German lutenist and composer. A son of Johann Jacob Weiss (c.1662-1754)
and brother of Johann Sigismund Weiss (c.1690-1737), he was trained by
his father and in his seventh year he performed for Emperor Leopold I.
He began composing as early as 1706. From 1710 to 1714, he was in Rome
in the service of Polish Prince Alexander Sobieski, whose mother
employed both Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Doubtless, Weiss also
knew Arcangelo Corelli in Rome. He then served Carl Philipp, imperial
governor of the Tyrol, probably from 1715 to 1717, at which point he
went to Dresden with a considerable salary increase. About this time, he
married Maria Elizabeth (c.1700-1759), and they had 11 children. His
son Johann Adolf Faustinus Weiss (1741-1814) was also lutenist and
composer. Silvius Leopold Weiss was regarded as one of the greatest
lutenists of music history, he spent most of his career in the court of
the Elector of Saxony at Dresden, from 1718 to his death, but his fame
created demand for performances and instruction at the courts of Vienna,
Munich, Prague, and Berlin, among other places he visited. His legacy
of compositions is the largest in the history of the lute, more than 600
works: hundreds of dances organized into suites (“sonatas”) following
the “classic” suite pattern of allemande, courante, bourrée, sarabande,
minuet, and gigue, often preceded by an unmeasured prelude. Johann
Sebastian Bach arranged No. 47 as a violin sonata with harpsichord (BWV
1025).
Brazilian composer and organist. Son of the Portuguese José Lobo de
Mesquita and his slave Joaquina Emerenciana, he was active in the
province of Minas Gerais during the latter part of the 18th century,
spending most of his life at Arraial do Tejuco (now Diamantina), where
he settled in about 1776, and Vila Rica (Ouro Prêto). In 1788 he entered
the brotherhood of Nossa Senhora das Mercês dos Homens Crioulos in
Arraial do Tejuco, confirming that he was a mulatto. He served as
organist at the church of S Antonio (1783-4), at the Ordem Terceira de
Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1787-95) and was apparently the first organist
of the Irmandade do Ss Sacramento, all in the same city. In 1798 he
moved to Vila Rica, where he worked as a composer, conductor and
organist of the same Ordem Terceira brotherhood as well as for the
brotherhood of the Matriz (main church) of Nossa Senhora dos Homens
Pardos. There he was appointed alferes (a military rank corresponding to
second lieutenant) of the Terço de Infantaria dos Homens Pardos. In
1801 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he held the post of organist at
the church of Nossa Senhora de Carmo until his death. Mesquita was the
most prolific composer of the Brazilian captaincy. The oldest
manuscripts found to this date bear the date 1779 (Antiphona regina
coeli laetare and Antiphona zelus domus tuae), but many works were
copied throughout the 19th century in Minas Gerais and São Paulo as
well. Mesquita cultivated primarily an individual homophonic concertante
style, whose components often recall European Classical practices, and
‘possessed an extraordinarily expressive and advanced technique for his
epoch’ (Lange, 1965). He is the only composer whose works are found in
all of the sacred music archives of Minas Gerais, in several regional
centres. In recognition of his importance, he was made the patron of
Chair no.4 of the Brazilian Academy of Music.
German violinist, keyboard player and composer, son of Johann Christian
Hertel (1697-1754). He received his musical training from his father and
members of the Bach family. He also came to the attention of Franz
Benda, who heard him perform in 1742 in Strelitz, where his father had
moved. Upon Benda’s recommendation Hertel was trained in Berlin and at
the court of Zerbst before obtaining a position as Kapellmeister with
Duke Christian Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. From 1770 he was the
privy councillor in the service of Princess Ulrike but continued to
compose, arrange concerts at the court and give music instruction. In
his last years he gave up the violin and devoted himself to keyboard
instruments. As a theorist, Hertel wrote four volumes on musical
compositions, which were published in Leipzig between 1757 and 1758. In
his youth Hertel was considered one of the best violinists of Franz
Benda’s school. As a composer, he is best known for his craftsmanship
that blends a progressive harmonic language with technical display. His
music includes a Mass, five Passions, 12 secular cantatas (and seven
with nontraditional sacred texts), 11 Lutheran cantatas, numerous
chorales, 40 concert arias, 60 Lieder, three motets, three Psalms (in
German), two sets of incidental music for Shakespeare plays, 63
symphonies, 15 keyboard concertos (and 31 other concertos), three
partitas, five trios, 19 violin sonatas, and 30 keyboard sonatas.
Polish organist and composer. Born in a wealthy family, he studied music
with Andrzej Niestrawski (1778-1831) and later settled in Wroclaw where
he developed a successful career as a violinist. But a few years later
he got injured and it results in a partial paralysis of his right hand
motivating his return to Gostyń where he remained the rest of his life.
There he aroused the interest of the Saint Philip Neri congregation and
in 1839 he was appointed chapel master of the Kapeli Świętogórskiej
orchestra where, apart from having 24 musicians under his supervision,
he composed most of his works, mainly religious music in Latin and
Polish languages. As a composer he was close to the classicism masters
but with unexpected musical resources, unknown and innovative in those
times. Some sources depicted him as an 'extremely humble man' and his
deep interest was 'raise the level of religious music in order to
exclusively create music related to the liturgy'.
German violinist and composer. He first studied with his father, a
musician in the municipal band, making his first public appearance when
he was 6. After some lessons with Ludwig Spohr (1815), he studied with
Pietro Rovelli in Munich (1816-17). He made his formal debut in Vienna
on 28 December 1817, and then became a member of the orchestra of the
Theater an der Wien. He was made concertmaster of the Munich Court
orchestra (1820) and then of the Stuttgart orchestra, being granted the
title of Musikdirektor. He won fame abroad with extended tours in the
Netherlands, Russia, England and France. The political crisis of 1848
caused him to settle in London, where he was professor of composition at
the Royal College of Music (1861-66). After giving his farewell concert
at St. James's Hall (3 May 1866), he retired to Cannstadt. As a
composer, he was closer to Mendelssohn and disliked the modernism of the
New German School. His conservative leanings are also evident in his
somewhat old-fashioned 'Studies in Harmony' (London, 1862). His works
include 6 violin concertos (1827-46), 8 string quartets (1841-53),
pieces for violin and piano and for violin and flute, fantasias, rondos,
and other works for solo violin, and many songs. His eldest daughter
Caroline Molique (fl. 1827-1882) became known as an accomplished
pianist.
French cellist and composer, brother of Jean-Pierre Duport (1741-1818).
Son of a dancing master, he began to study the cello with his brother
and later with Martin Berteau, the founder of the French school of cello
playing. He soon was appointed as cellist at the Opera and at the
Concert Spiritual in Paris. He enjoyed the patronage of the Baron de
Bagge, thanks to their shared freemasonry associations, and he was
introduced to the violinist Viotti when he arrived in Paris in 1782. The
two became close friends, playing together frequently. In 1783 he
settled in London and in his return to Paris was recognized as the
nation’s foremost cellist. Political associations forced him to flee in
1790, and he took refuge with his brother at the Berlin court. Here he
became principal cellist in the opera orchestra and he also worked as a
cello teacher. Following the dissolution of the Berlin's Kapelle after
the Battle of Jena, and his wife’s death, he came back to Paris.
Although named Professeur Honoraire at the Conservatoire, he was
politically unemployable in Paris until 1812. Forced to retire when the
Conservatoire was reorganized, he continued to compose and to perform
both privately and at the revitalized Concert Spirituel until his death.
As a composer, he was greatly influenced by the playing of Viotti and
attempted to adapt the style of the great violinist to his instrument.
He wrote six cello concertos, sonatas, duos, airs variees and nine
nocturnes (for harp and cello). His 'Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle
et la conduite de l'archet, avec une suite d'exercices' was for decades a
standard textbook, and practically laid the foundations of modern cello
virtuosity.
Bohemian composer. He received his first musical training from his
father, organist at Kostelec, and probably studied in Prague, at the
Jesuit seminary. He likely sang as a tenor chorister under Bohuslav
Matěj Černohorský at the Minorite Church of St. James the Great, and he
is believed to have received musical instruction from him. He then went
to Vienna, where he was active as a church musician; according to
Marpurg he became a vice-Kapellmeister at Vienna in 1722. Tůma's name
first appears in Viennese records in April 1727, when he got married. In
1731 he became 'Compositor und Capellen-Meister' to Count Franz
Ferdinand Kinsky, who was the High Chancellor of Bohemia. Kinsky's
patronage made it possible for him to study counterpoint with Johann Fux
in Vienna. He participated in the premiere of Fux's opera Constanza e
Fortezza along with Georg Benda and Sylvius Leopold Weiss. In 1734,
Kinsky recommended him for the post of the Kapellmeister to Prague
Cathedral, but his recommendation arrived too late and he may have
remained in Kinsky's service until the latter's death in 1741. In that
year he was appointed Kapellmeister to the dowager empress, the widow of
Emperor Charles VI. On her death in 1750, Tůma received a pension. For
the next 18 years he remained in Vienna and was active as a composer and
as a player on the bass viol and the theorbo; he was esteemed by the
court and the nobility, and at least one work may have been commissioned
from him by the Empress Maria Theresa. After the death of his wife in
about 1768, Tůma lived at the Premonstratensian monastery of Geras, but
in his last illness he returned to Vienna and died in the hospital of
the Merciful Brethren in the Leopoldstadt.
English composer, organist and teacher. He probably was the son of
Thomas Tudway, a lay clerk of St George's Chapel, Windsor. He was a
Chapel Royal chorister whose voice broke shortly before 1668 so it's
deduced he was born circa 1650. In 1670 he succeeded Henry Loosemore as
organist of King's College, Cambridge, and acted as instructor of the
choristers from Christmas 1679 to midsummer 1680. He also became
organist at Pembroke College and Great St. Mary's. In 1681 he graduated
Music Bachiller. After the death in 1700 of Nicholas Staggins, the first
professor of music at Cambridge, he was chosen as his successor on 30
January 1705. His career was thus broadly based in Cambridge; he was
not, however, cut off from musical life in London. Noted for punning, on
28 July 1706, for an offensive comment of this nature slighting the
Queen, he was sentenced to be "degraded from all degrees, taken and to
be taken", and was deprived of his professorship and his three
organists' posts. On 10 March 1707 he publicly made submission and a
retraction in the Regent House. He was then formally absolved and
reinstated in all his appointments. Had he not offended the monarch, it
seems likely that he would have become a Composer to the Chapel Royal.
As a composer he focused almost wholly on church music, the greater part
of it occasional in character. There is no instrumental music by him,
and the secular part of his work consists only of a few songs printed in
the collections of his day, and a birthday ode addressed to Queen Anne.
Tudway died on 23 November 1726, and was succeeded as professor by
Maurice Greene in July 1730.
