Polly Marino

Take Home Final Part IV- Take Home II

Gioachino Rossini was born in February 1792 and died November 1868. He was an
Italian composer. In his lifetime he wrote 39 operas and also composed many forms of
music including piano pieces, instrumental, sacred, and chamber music. He became a very
successful and popular composer and became known as The Italian Mozart. His most
famous works is his opera The Barber of Seville and Cinderella, which were Italian
comedies. Overture from William Tell was initially a flop, but later became one of Rossinis
best work. William Tell lived in Switzerland in the early1400s. he refused to salute to the
Hapsburgs and he was told to shoot an apple from his sons head, but after he shot the
Austrian ruler, and it symbolized the refusal of the people to listen to foreign authority. The
Barber of Seville was at first considered a remake of Beaumarchais play and his fans
destroyed Rossinis opening night, so it didnt look promising. But it is a two part opera
about a beautiful girl with money, Rosina and her uncle Bartolo who wants to marry her but
Count Almaviva falls in love with her and schemes up plans to marry her. He disguises
himself as Basilio. In the end Almaviva and Rosina marry, but Bartolo keeps her inheritance
and it satisfied.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 and died in 1893. He was a Russian
romantic, classical composer. He was the first composer of Russian ethnicity to make a
important impression in other countries, like Europe and the United States. He made it an
important shift in the audiences of the Russian people where he focused on the people
really listening and appreciating the music rather than flashy performances like they were
used to. He composed Romeo and Julie, which is an Overture-Fantasy and based of
Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. It is written in 3 strands based off of Shakespeares. The
first is written in primarily F-sharp minor and ends in E minor, while introducing Friar
Laurence. Then the second strand is in B minor and D, and it is about the Capulets and
Montagues dislike for each other and a sword fight. The B minor than turns to D-flat and
represents the love in the play, but also some notes to shadow the anxiety of the love.

The date of John Baylesss birth cannot be found on the internet, but he is
currently still alive. He is an American pianist, improviser, composer, entertainer, and
recording artist. He has four top selling albums, and wrote Romantica which is considered
one of the most Romantic albums of 1999. He wrote The Movie Album- Classical Pictures
which is based on some of the most beautiful pieces for music in movies ever written. He
wrote his first musical Grand Duchy which was performed in New York Citys Playwrights
Horizon. Penny Lane is a Beatles song but infused with Bach influence and was written in
1984.

Johannes Brahms was born May 7th, 1833 and died April 3rd, 1897. He was a German
composer and pianist. He is considered one of the Three Bs along with Bach and
Beethoven. His compositions were influenced both from Baroque and Classical roots. His
goal was to make bold new approaches to harmony and melody and to capitalize the purity
German music, but through Romanticism. He was a big inspiration for many composers to
come in Romanticism. Piano Quintet in f minor, Op. 34 was created during 1864 and
dedicated to the Royal Highness Princess Anna of Hesse. It is written for piano and a string
quartet. It starts with a string quintet and the outer movements are not necessarily in
harmony and have an unsettling effect and are said to be more adventurous. The finale is a
mixture between piano and strings. There are four total movements this piece. The first is
mainly C-sharp and D-flat. The second is more calm and A-flat major and E-major. The third
is in ternary form with C minor and C major. The fourth movement begins slow and goes to
C sharp minor, F minor, and D flat major. It ends intensely and more of an outburst.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born March 1685 and died July 28 th, 1750. He was an
important German figure in the Baroque period as a composer and musician. He brought
over many adaptions from Italy and France of new rhythms, forms, and textures. His music
was said to have a great influence on the intellectual depth of music. But he wasnt greatly
appreciated until 80 plus years after his death. Harpichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor, BWV
1052 is manly based off of a lost violin concerto produced by Bach. It has many string
crossings and open strings. The first and third movement both can be divied into four
sections and start in D minor and go to F major. The second section starts in A minor and
goes to C major. The third major is in G minor and B flat major. The fourth section has no
major key being played. Since the 18th century, the concerto was remade a few times.

Gyorgy Ligeti was born May 28th, 1923 and died June 12th, 2006. He was a Hungarian
contemporary classical composer. He was very influential and called out of the most
important composers of the twentieth century. He made many electronic works and made
the technique of micropolyphony and dubbing. His breakthrough and popular orchestras
were Atmospheres and the opera Le Grand Macabre. After that he wanted to focus more
on polyrhythm and became known for his music in movie soundtracks. One very popular
one was 2001: A space Odyssey. Volumina was made for organ soloist. He used cluster of
sounds as blocks and made general pitch areas and lengths using thick black lines and
wavy lines meant brief individual notes. The premiere of this piece was in May 1962 at
Bremen Cathedral. This piece lasts about 15 minutes long.

Gabriel Faure was born May 12th, 1845 and died November 4th, 1924. He was French and
best known as a composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. His most well known piano pieces
are Pavane, Requiem, and Noctures. His most well known sons are Apres un reve and
Clair de lune. He was well known for using a complex style between harmony and melody.
He was just at the end of the Romanticism time period and some part of the modernism of
the 20th century. He wrote the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians which made him
the most advanced composer in France and influenced many composers to come. Aprs un
rve (Op. 7, No. 1) was published in 1878.it is about a dream a person is having and
fighting with their lover and he sees the light but wakes up and realizes the his dream is not
real.

Thoinot Arbeau was born March 17th, 1519 and died July 23rd, 1595. He was a French cleric
and was most widely known for his study on French Renaissance dance, Orchesographie.
The book talks about the five positions of the feet in classical ballet, but also talks about
manners and social behavior for the sixteenth century. Pavane was a dance popular in the
Renaissance era in Europe and was a slow processional dance. The music originated with it
was fast, but over time became slower and slower. It has a slow duple meter, either 2/2 or
4/4. It usually follows the form A,A, B,B, C,C. It usually has some sort of drums playing and
no running passage, but there are some solo instruments. It was usually a dance for
couples or big ceremonies for royals.

Modest Mussorgsky was in 1839 and died in 1881. He was a Russian composer and known
as one of The Five. He is widely known for his contributions to Russian music in the
romantic time period, yet uniquely by being influenced by Western music. He is well known
for his opera Boris Godunov, Night on Bald Mountain, ad Pictures at an Exhibition. He
was a great influence among many other Russian composers. The Great Gate of Kiev was
written in an E-flat major and the meter is 4/4. It is about an escape that was designed for
Tsar Alexander II from his assassination attempt. It has two main movements, one being in
an ABAB pattern and the second in CADA pattern.

Thomas Tallis was born in 1505 and died in 1585. He was an English composer who
composed primarily chorus music. His early works were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. He
emphasizes on rhythm depending on the context and meanings of his works. He really
focused on putting together words and music and their relationship with each other. He was
one of the first musicians in the church to write anthems in English. He also wrote nine
psalm chant tunes, but he is well known for his work in Lamentations and writing Spem in
aliumm. Salvator Mundi was written for 5 voices and in Latin and is an accapella and was
published in 1575.

Charles Ives was born on October 20th, 1874 and died on May 19th, 1954. He was an
American composer and became known as an American original. He was famous for
putting together popular American music and church music and traditions with arts and
music of Europeans. He also was one of the first composers to mix experimental music with
other techniques such as polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, and quarter tones. Most of
his pieces didnt become popular until later on. In 1943 New World Records published 42 of
his tracks, one of them became very popular; They Are There! and it became popular
because of World War I, and then was revised for World War II in 1942.

George Frideric Handel was born on February 23 rd, 1685 and died on April 14th,
1759. He was a German composer who was well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems,
and organ centros in the Baroque period. He has written over 42 operas, 29 oratorios, over
120 cantatas, and 16 organ concerti. His most famous work became the Messiah and the
piece Hallelujah which is popular for Christmas time. Cara Sposa from Ronaldo was made
for 1 soprano voice. It is part of a secular opera sung in Italian. The instruments in it is
strings and continuo. People see this piece as the growth of confidence in Handel with aria
forms. It was written in 1711 and updated in 1731 and is written in A minor and E minor than
changed to D minor.

Luciano Berio was born on October 24th, 1925 and died on May 27th, 2003. He is an
Italian composer who is well known for his experimental work and his work in electronic
music. Some famous pieces are his composition Sinfonia and his solo pieces Sequenza.
His piece Thema is considered the first electro-acoustic piece in the history of voice and
technological means. His pieces often revolved around love or death and he made a
famous piece in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. called O King which then integrated into his
most famous work Sinfonia. This piece is not known for singing, but rather whispering and
shouting. Visagewas created in 1961 and is wordless but has some languages thrown in
such as English, Italian, Hebrew, and Neapolitan dialect. It is cut up and rearranged
recording of Cathy Berberians voice. It is symbolic and represents voice inflections of
laughing, singing, or crying.

Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director and conductor who was
born on May 22nd, 1813 and died on February 13th, 1883. He was very famous for writing
both the libretto and the music for his stage works, unlike most other opera composers. In
his Der Ring des Nibelungen he revolutionized his works from being romanticism to his
concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art by he highlighting the importance of
dramatic music and arts through poetics and visual music. He made advances such as
chromaticism and quick shifting of tones. His piece Tristan und Isolde is said to be the start
of modern music. The Ride of the Valkyries is the beginning of the third act in Die Walkure
and gained lots of popularity as an encore piece and is the second of the four operas. It is
about the family history of Gods and their journey of a golden, magical ring.

John Denver was born on December 31st, 1943 and died on October 12th, 1997. He was an
American singer and songwriter, and was also an actor. He became one of the best-selling
artists. He recorded and released about 300 songs, and nearly 200 he composed himself,
and sold over 33 million copies. He ranged on all music charts from folk, country and
Western, Billboard Hot 100, and got twelve gold and four platinum albums. Annies Song
was on Johns album Back Home Again. It was written for Johns wife and wrote it in ten
minutes in a ski lodge.