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Top 10 Musicians
Before 1840
By: Deshone Stinson
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What type of music did they make?
What were some of there major works?
When were they born and when did they die?
What were their occupation?
#10 Musician – Henry Russell
Was born on December 24, 1812 and died
on December 8, 1900, he was an English
pianist, baritone singer and composer.
Henry Russell wrote the songs, “A life on
the Ocean Wave”, “The Ivy Green”, The
Old Arm Chair”, “Our Native Song”, A Life
by de Galley Fire”, and “Cheer, Boys,
Cheer”, and the tune to George Pope
Morris’s poem Woodman. Many of his
songs were about different social causes
like abolition, temperance, and reform of
mental asylums. He began his career as a
child singer in Elliston’s Children’s Opera
company. While playing the organ at a
church in Rochester, New York, he
discovered that sacred music, played
quickly. He was a very talented man that
people loved so after his retirement they
made a painting of him and put it in in the
Institute of Oil Painters in London in 1889 and at the Grafton Galleries in
1897.
#9 Musician - Robert Lucas de Pearsall
He was born on March 14, 1795
into a rich Quaker family , after
his mother had died he took
over the Iron Mill that his
Mother bought from his brother
In law, since his brother wasn’t
very successful with what he
was doing in the mill, so he
converted it into a flour mill.
After years with the company
he then got married to his wife,
Harriet Eliza Hobday in 1817,
they had four children 2 girls
and 2 boys, but one of the boys
died in infancy. He was at first a
Barrister in Bristol, Southwest
New England, then they moved
to Southwest Germany. After moving to Germany he was inspired to become a
composer by the Austrian violinist and composer Joseph Panny, the success that he
had led him to the creation of the foundation, “Bristol Madrigal Society, for the
many songs he made in the period of 1836-1841, were all composed. From the
success of his earlier composed songs it encouraged him to write more, like, “The
Hardy Norseman”, “Sir Patrick Spens”, “Great God of Love”, “Lay a Garland”, and,
“In dulci jubilo”. Many of his songs that he composed were not published until after
he died. “Robert Lucas Pearsall wrote instrumental and orchestral music, he is best
known for his vocal works, particularly for his madrigals and part songs, which he
composed as a means of reviving Renaissance-era styles. He expanded on, rather
than copied, them, adding structural features from the Classical period to forge a
unique pastiche style, which yielded several masterly works, including the madrigals
'Great god of love' and 'Lay a garland,” Robert Cummings, wrote this about Robert
Lucas de Pearsall.
#8 Musician – Felix Mendelssohn
He was born of February 3, 1809, in
Hamburg, Germany. Felix Mendelssohn
was a German composer, pianist and
conductor he founded the Leipzig
Conservatory of Music. “Felix
Mendelssohn is best known by classical
music aficionados and critics alike, as
one of the most prolific and gifted
composers the world has ever
known. Even those who could not name
any of his works have heard it, as his
"Wedding March" from "A Midsummer
Night's Dream", which has accompanied
many a bride down the aisle.”
(www.felixmendelssohn.com) he wrote a violin sonata, two piano sonatas,
multiple songs, a cantata, a brief opera and a male quartet. In 1826,
Mendelssohn produced one of his best known works, “Overture to a
Midsummer Night's Dream”. He presented his only opera, “The Marriage of
the Camacho”, the following year in Berlin.
#7 Musician – Louis Spohr
Louis Spohr born on April 5, 1784 and
died on October 22 1859, he was a
German composer, violinist, and
conductor. He composed ten
symphonies, ten operas, eighteen violin
concerts, four clarinet concerts, four
oratorios and various works for small
ensemble, chamber music and art
songs. Spohr was the inventor of both
the violin chinrest and the orchestral
rehearsal mark. His output occupies a
pivotal position between Classicism and
Romanticism. He was born in Northern
Germany, by age 15 he was a
member of the ducal orchestra at
Braunschweig. At 18 he was sent
by the Duke for a year of study
with well-known violinist Franz Anton Eck, at the end of which time Spohr
was considered ripe for a concert tour of his own. He was the leader of
the orchestra at Gotha from 1805-1812, leader of the orchestra at
Theater an der Wien in Vienna from 1813-1815, director of the Frankfurt
Opera from 1817-1819, and Hofkapellmeister at the city of Kassel from
1822 to 1857.
#6 Musician – Michele Carafa
He was born in Naples, Italy on November
17, 1787, and he died in Paris, France on July
26, 1872. His most popular operas were,
Gabriella di Vergy, Berenice in Siria,
Elisabetta in Derbyshire ossia II castello de
Fotheringhay, I due Figaro, Jeanne d’Arc a
Orleans, Le solitaire, Le valet de chamber, II
sonnambulo, Masaniello, and Le nozze de
Lammermoor. He was an Italian opera
composer, and studied in Paris with Luigi
Cherubini, he was a professor of
counterpoint at the Paris Conservative from
1840 to 1858.
#5 Musician – Albert Lortzing
He was a German composer, actor and
singer, he is considered to be the main
representative of the German Spieloper,
he was born on October 23, 1801 and he
died on January 21, 1851. He established
the 19th century style of light German
opera that remained in favor until the mid20th century. Lortzing’s parents were
actors, and he was largely self-taught as a
musician. His most successful opera was
Zar (originally Czaar) und Zimmermann
(1837; “Tsar and Carpenter”), based on an
episode from the life of Peter the Great.
Other operas include Undine (1845), a
romantic opera in the style of Carl Maria
von Weber and Heinrich August
Marschner, Der Waffenschmied (1846;
“The Military Blacksmith”), and Rolands Knappen (1849). His style derives from that
of the German Singspiel and from the early 19th-century French opera comique,
which enjoyed a great vogue in Germany.
#4 Musician – Temistocle Solera
Temistocle Solera was born on December 25,
1815, and died on April 21, 1878, he was a
Italian opera composer and librettist. He was
born in Ferrara, Italy. He went to college at
Imperial College in Vienna, Austria and also at
the University of Pavia. In the life that he lived
he actively participated in anti-Austrian
resistance, one time in his life he was
incarcerated because of this action. He did a
numerous amount of literary works, including
the novel Michelino, his style is influenced by
Alessandro Manzoni, he had a major
collaboration with the composer Giuseppe
Verdi and it began in 1839 and it lasted for a
few years. Some of the major works that he
has done were, Ildegonda (1840), Il contadino
d’Agleiate (1841), Genio e sventura (1843), Le
Hermana de Pelayo (1845),
#3 Musician – Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 10, 1813 in
Le Roncole, Italy and died on January 27, 1901 he
was an Italian Romantic composer, he was mainly
known for his operas. His works are frequently
performed in opera houses throughout the world
and, transcending the boundaries of the genre,
some of his themes have long since taken root in
popular culture, Verdi was given private lessons
in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster.
Verdi wrote Messa da Requiem in 1874 in
Manzoni's honour, a work now regarded as a
masterpiece of the oratorio tradition and a
testimony to his capacity outside the field of
opera. Giuseppe Verdi first developed musical
talents at a young age, after moving with his
family from Le Roncole to the neighboring town of Busseto, the there he began
studying musical composition.
#2 Musician – Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt was born on October 22,
1811 in Raiding, Hungary, and died
on July 31, 1886. He was a
Hungarian pianist and composer, he
was an enormously popular
composer during the Romantic
movement. By the time Liszt was 9
years old, he was performing in
concert halls. As an adult, he toured
extensively throughout Europe.
Frank Liszt was one of the most
impressive figures in all of music
history, by the age of 6 young Liszt
was recognized as a child prodigy;
by the age of 8, he was composing
elementary works; and by the age of
9, he was appearing in concerts. As
an adult, he toured extensively throughout Europe. He had an affair and
children with Marie díAgoult, and later lived with Princess Carolyne zu SaynWittgenstein. By his death, he had written more than 700 compositions.
Inspired by love and nature, he composed several impressions of the Swiss
countryside in "Album d'un voyageur," which would later surface as the
"Années de Pèlerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage"). In 1834, Liszt debuted his
piano compositions "Harmonies poétiques et religieuses" and a set of three
"Apparitions."
#1 Musician – Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donisetti was born on
November 29, 1797 and died on April 8,
1848, he was an Italian composer from
Bergamo in Lombardy, He was a leading
composer of the bel canto opera style
during the first fifty years of the
Nineteenth Century. Gaetano Donizetti
Italian opera composer whose numerous
operas in both Italian and French
represent a transitional stage in operatic
development between Gioachino Rossini
and Giuseppe Verdi. Gaetano Donizetti
was among the most important
composers of bel canto opera in both
Italian and French in the first half of the
nineteenth Century. Many of Donizetti's
more than 60 operas are still part of the
modern repertoire and continue to
challenge singers for their musical and
technical demands. Donizetti stands stylistically between Gioachino Rossini and
Giuseppe Verdi.