Archives: Composers

Josef Strauss was an Austrian composer, born on August 20, 1827, in Mariahilf (now part of Vienna), Austria. He was the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and the brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss1. Initially, Josef pursued a career in engineering and worked for the city of Vienna as an engineer and designer. He even designed a horse-drawn revolving brush street-sweeping vehicle and published two textbooks on mathematical subjects.

Despite his father’s wishes for him to have a career in the Austrian Habsburg military, Josef’s talents in music were undeniable. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries. He had a wide array of talents, including being an artist, painter, poet, dramatist, singer, composer, and inventor.

Josef joined the family orchestra in the 1850s, alongside his brothers. His first published work was “Die Ersten und Letzten” (The First and the Last). When Johann became seriously ill in 1853, Josef led the orchestra for a while. His compositions were well-received, and he decided to continue in the family tradition of composing dance music. Johann once remarked, “Pepi is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular…”.

Josef married Caroline Pruckmayer at the church of St. Johann Nepomuk in Vienna on June 8, 1857, and they had one daughter, Karolina Anna, born on March 27, 1858. As a composer, Josef wrote 283 opus numbers, including many waltzes like “Sphären-Klänge” (Music of the Spheres), “Delirien” (Deliriums), “Transaktionen” (Transactions), “Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb’ und Lust” (My Character is Love and Joy), and “Dorfschwalben aus Österreich” (Village Swallows from Austria), as well as polkas, most famously the “Pizzicato Polka” co-written with his brother Johann.

Unfortunately, Josef’s later life was plagued by illness. He suffered from fainting spells and intense headaches. During a tour in 1870, he fell unconscious from the conductor’s podium in Warsaw while conducting his ‘Musical Potpourri’, striking his head. He was brought back home to Vienna by his wife, where he died on July 22, 1870. The exact cause of death was not determined as his widow forbade any autopsy. Originally buried in the St. Marx Cemetery, Josef was later exhumed and reburied in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside his mother Anna.

Johann Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger, or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas, as well as a violinist. He was born on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austrian Empire, and passed away on June 3, 1899, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He is best known for his over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as “The Waltz King” and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Some of Johann Strauss’s most famous works include “The Blue Danube,” “Kaiser-Walzer” (Emperor Waltz), “Tales from the Vienna Woods,” “Frühlingsstimmen,” and the “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka.” Among his operettas, “Die Fledermaus” and “Der Zigeunerbaron” are the best known.

Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife, Maria Anna Streim. His two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brother. Despite his father’s wishes for him to follow a nonmusical profession, Strauss Jr. studied the violin secretly as a child and eventually conducted his own dance band at a Viennese restaurant in 18442. After his father’s death in 1849, Johann combined his orchestra with his father’s and went on tours that included Russia and England, gaining great popularity.

In 1870, he relinquished leadership of his orchestra to his brothers to focus on composing. In 1872, he conducted concerts in New York City and Boston. Strauss’s most famous single composition is “An der schönen blauen Donau” (1867; The Blue Danube), the main theme of which became one of the best-known tunes in 19th-century music2. His stage works, especially “Die Fledermaus” (1874; The Bat) and “Der Zigeunerbaron” (1885; The Gypsy Baron), became classical examples of Viennese operetta.

Strauss married three times and had a tumultuous personal life, which often reflected in his work. His legacy continues to influence music and culture, with his compositions still widely performed and celebrated around the world.

John Taverner was an English composer and organist, regarded as one of the most important English composers of his era. He was born around 1490 and passed away on October 18, 15451. Taverner is best known for his Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas, The Western Wynde Mass, and Missa Corona Spinea, which are often viewed as masterworks.

Taverner’s career began in earnest when he became the first Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1526, appointed by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Before this, he had been a clerk fellow at the Collegiate Church of Tattershall. His involvement with Lutherans in 1528 led to a reprimand, but he escaped punishment due to his status as a musician.

After Cardinal Wolsey fell from favor in 1529, Taverner left Oxford in 1530. He later married a widow named Rose Parrowe, likely in 1536, and she outlived him until 1553. Taverner became an alderman in the town council of Boston during the last five months of his life and was previously the treasurer of the Corpus Christi Guild there. It is believed that he ceased composition after leaving Oxford, as no known works can be dated to after that time.

Taverner’s burial place is under the bell tower at Boston Parish Church, where he is interred with his wife. In the few existing copies of his signature, the composer spelled his last name “Tavernor.” The 20th-century composer Sir John Tavener claimed to be his direct descendant.

Taverner’s legacy includes a significant body of work that has influenced the course of English Renaissance music, and his compositions continue to be performed and studied for their historical importance and musical value.

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Born: March 18, 1844, in Tikhvin, Russia.
Died: June 21, 1908, in Lyubensk, near St. Petersburg, Russia.

A highly influential Russian composer, teacher, and member of the “Mighty Handful” (also known as “The Five”), a group dedicated to creating a distinctively Russian style of classical music. He is particularly renowned for his mastery of orchestration, his operas based on Russian folklore, and for composing some of the most colorful and exotic music of the late Romantic period.

Though Rimsky-Korsakov initially pursued a naval career, he was deeply passionate about music and later devoted himself fully to it. As a self-taught composer, he was guided and mentored by Mily Balakirev, one of the leaders of the “Mighty Handful”.

His early music was influenced by nationalistic themes, Russian folk songs, and orientalism, often using vivid imagery and storytelling in his compositions.

Rimsky-Korsakov is most famous for his **orchestral works** and **operas**, many of which reflect Russian history, folklore, and mythology.

His Orchestral Works include

• Scheherazade” (1888)**: One of his most famous compositions, this symphonic suite is based on “One Thousand and One Nights” (also known as “Arabian Nights”). The piece is known for its lush orchestration, evocative themes, and the way it captures the exotic and magical tales of the East.
• “Capriccio Espagnol” (1887)**: A lively, Spanish-influenced orchestral work that highlights Rimsky-Korsakov’s extraordinary skill in orchestration. It is vibrant and filled with color and rhythmic energy.
• “Russian Easter Festival Overture” (1888)**: This work combines Russian Orthodox liturgical music with folk tunes, celebrating the Easter festival. It is rich in atmosphere and symbolism.

Rimsky-Korsakov composed 15 operas, many of which are based on Russian folk tales, history, and legends. Some of hi more well known ones are

• “The Snow Maiden” (Snegurochka, 1881): Based on a Russian fairy tale about a young girl made of snow who longs to experience love.
• “Sadko” (1896): This opera tells the story of a legendary minstrel from Novgorod who goes on fantastical adventures, including an underwater kingdom.
• “The Tsar’s Bride” (1899): A historical opera set in the time of Ivan the Terrible.
• “The Golden Cockerel” (1909): This satirical opera is based on a fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin and explores themes of despotism and political folly.

Rimsky-Korsakov was also a dedicated professor of composition and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he influenced a whole generation of Russian composers. His students included Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Alexander Glazunov, among others. He wrote an important textbook on orchestration, titled “Principles of Orchestration”, which remains a fundamental reference work in music education.

Rimsky-Korsakov was celebrated for his orchestration, which created rich, colorful soundscapes. His music often incorporated Russian folk melodies, oriental exoticism, and vivid, picturesque storytelling. He frequently used whole-tone scales, chromaticism, and other techniques that made his music stand out in terms of texture and color.

He was a central figure in shaping Russian classical music, not only as a composer but also as a teacher who influenced the next generation of Russian composers. His focus on creating a unique Russian sound—through his operas, orchestral works, and use of folk traditions—helped solidify his place as a towering figure in Russian music history. His music, especially pieces like “Scheherazade” and “Capriccio Espagnol,” remains widely performed and beloved for its vivid orchestral imagination and storytelling.

Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist, and impresario, renowned for his contributions to the development of operetta.

• Born: June 20, 1819, in Cologne, Prussia (now Germany)
• Died: October 5, 1880, in Paris, France

Offenbach showed early musical talent and was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 14. However, he found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year, but remained in Paris. From 1835 to 1855, he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre.

In 1855, finding the management of Paris’s Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, Offenbach leased a small theatre in the Champs-Élysées. There, he presented a series of more than two dozen of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. His first full-length operetta, “Orphée aux enfers” (“Orpheus in the Underworld”), produced in 1858 with its celebrated can-can, was exceptionally well received and has remained his most played work.

During the 1860s, he produced at least eighteen full-length operettas, including “La belle Hélène” (1864), “La Vie parisienne” (1866), “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein” (1867), and “La Périchole” (1868). The risqué humor and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, along with Offenbach’s facility for melody, made them internationally known.

Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, who personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion d’honneur. However, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the fall of the empire, Offenbach found himself out of favor in Paris due to his imperial connections and his German birth. Despite this, he remained successful in Vienna, London, and New York.

In his last years, he strove to finish “The Tales of Hoffmann,” but died before the premiere of the opera, which has entered the standard repertory in versions completed or edited by other musicians12. Offenbach’s legacy includes nearly 100 operettas and the influential opera “The Tales of Hoffmann,” which continues to be a part of the standard opera repertory.

Born in 1947 into a musical family, Tony Osborne studied at the Royal Academy of Music (London) with John Walton (double bass) and Richard Stoker (composition), and divided a busy career between composing, teaching, and performing.

A prolific composer and arranger, Tony’s original compositions include works in almost every genre, notably Chaconne Syncopations and Wainwright’s Ways for brass quintet, Celebration Fanfare for brass ensemble, the musical A Fine Time for Wine, a beautiful and dramatic Requiem, and many works for string orchestra.

Tony’s music for young bassists is very much at the heart of the teaching repertoire, particularly his jazzy and enjoyable bass trios and quartets, and he had the rare ability to create wonderful music which is always player and audience-friendly.

In 2001 Tony Osborne was elected an ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) for his pioneering and important work for double bass and was a featured composer at Bass-Fest for over ten years. He was a very successful BIBF Composer-in-residence in 2002-3, was a judge for the British Composer Awards and a judge for the BIBF Composition Competition from 1999 until 2015.

Tony Osborne died on 30 March 2019 at the age of 71.

Johann Pachelbel was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He was baptized on September 1, 1653, in Nuremberg, Germany, and died before March 9, 1706, in the same city1. Pachelbel composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.

Pachelbel’s music enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best known for the Canon in D; other well-known works include the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations.

He was influenced by southern German composers, such as Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Caspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French composers, and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition. Pachelbel preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude, although, like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features exceptionally rich instrumentation.

Pachelbel explored many variation forms and associated techniques, which manifest themselves in various diverse pieces, from sacred concertos to harpsichord suites. His legacy continues to influence the Baroque style and organ music to this day.

David Popper (1843-1913), a leading cello virtuoso of his day, was born in Prague, studied cello at the Prague Conservatoire with Julius Goltermann, subsequently toured throughout Europe as a soloist and became principal cellist of the Vienna Court Opera. He also performed as a chamber musician with Johannes Brahms, Jenő Hubay, Emil Sauret and Clara Schumann amongst others.

Popper was a prolific composer of cello music and his High School of Cello Playing Op.73, comprising forty etudes have remained essential study repertoire for more than a century and Pablo Casals declared that “no other composer wrote better for the instrument”.

Music publishers are rarely heaped with praise by composers, usually the exact opposite, so it is nice to discover a piece which commemorates the death of a publisher who was obviously also a good friend.

Daniel Rahter (1828-1891) initially managed the A. Büttner music publishing house in St. Petersburg before setting up his own publishing company in his native Hamburg in 1879. He was a great admirer of Tchaikovsky’s music and in 1888