music

Beethoven

piano composition, Germany, studied with Haydn

Schubert

Erlkonig, wrote a lot of piece at a young age, lived in Vienna, Lied

Felix Mendelssohn

extremely successful at a young age, in England and Germany, travelled most of Europe like Mozart, came from a not so musical family

Belioz

autobiographical music, father wanted him to be a doctor, sent him to school in paris and ended up enrolling in the national conservatory of music, Symphonie Fantastique

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

woman, older sister to Felix, struggled being Felix's sister and being a woman, published under Felix's name for a while

Chopin

Mazurka (polish folk dance), Character pieces, nationalism, training in Poland and paris, western Europe extended tour, made a living from teaching and selling works, popular for solo piano pieces, lived on an isolated island with someone and died there f

Gottschalk

Union, native of New Orleans, studied piano in Paris, orchestras would feature him in pieces, nationalism

Verdi

La Traviata (about a prostitute), reform political conventions, Italy, traveling doing operas, Italian Parliament

Brahms

a recluse, the hedgehog- prickly composer, unknown until shumann introduced him as the savior of music, instant celebrity

Debussy

Voiles, outskirts of Paris, studied at the Conservatory of Paris, pushed the boundaries of composition, impressionism, not out in public very much

Ives

the unanswered question, born in Danbury, Connecticut, learned pieces in peoples parlors, worked them into pieces, tonal vs, atonal, modernism, against the grain

Schoenberg

Columbine from Pierrot Lunaire, expressionism, Sprechstimme (halfway between song and speech), an outsider and tourtured soul, Austrian by birth, travelled between Vienna and berlin, moved to LA and worked at UCLA, discovered the twelve tone music

Stravinsky

the rite of spring, ballet russe, modernism, many people hated the piece, pentatonic scale,

Still

Black Pierrot, African American, with many firsts, art song, born in Woodville, Mississippi, and grew up in Little Rock, AR, studied at the Wilberforce University, Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory of Music

Copland

Hoedown from Rodeo, born in Brooklyn, had European traditional training, wrote many movies scores

Cage

born in LA, studied with Arnold Scheonburg, Sonata II, electronic music, made people rethink music

Glass

Knee play 1 from Einstein on the Beach, minimalist, ostinato, born and raised in Baltimore, Peabody Conservatory of Music and Julliard in NY