BaroqueJohann SebastianBachAntonioVivaldi

Classical

Franz Joseph Haydn

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Romantic

Ludwig van Beethoven

Frdric Chopin

Antonin Dvork

Franz Liszt

Franz Schubert

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Giuseppe Verdi

Richard Wagner

March 5, 1685 - July 27, 1750 - Baroque Period

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, where his father was a town musician. Bach came from a long line of composers - over 300 years' worth of Bachs all worked as professional musicians. By the time Johann was 10, both his parents had died, so he was brought up by his older brother, who was a church organist. Johann became a very good organist, too.

Johann Sebastian Bach held three major jobs in his life: first he worked for a duke, then for a prince, and finally, he became director of music at the St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, Germany. Even though his job in Leipzig kept him very busy, in his spare time, Bach conducted a group of musicians who liked to get together to perform at a local coffee house.

During his lifetime, people thought of Bach as just an ordinary working musician. No one really knew much about his music until 100 years after his death, when another composer, Felix Mendelssohn, conducted a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

Bach is now seen as one of the greatest geniuses in music history. He wrote all kinds of music -- for organ and other keyboard instruments, orchestras, choirs, and concertos for many different instrumental combinations.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Gelmi gemi en byk besteci ve orgculardan biri olan Johann Sebastian Bach, mziin matematikisi olarak da bilinir.

1685 ylnda dnyaya gelen Johann Sebastian 10 yanda yetim kald. Klavye ve org konusundaki ilk eitimini aabeyinden alarak , 1700de Kilise korosunda almaya balad. 1707 ylnda evlendi ve en gzel eserlerinden biri olan Re Minr Toccata ve Fg bu dnemde besteledi.

1708de Weimar saraynda Prens Leopoldun mzik ynetmeni oldu.

1721de ikinci evliliini yapt. San Thomas kilisesinde koro yneticisi oldu ve mrnn sonuna kadar bu grevi devam ettirdi. Bu dnemde 250nin zerinde kantat besteledi.

1740 ylnda gzleri az grmeye balamt. Bunun zerine Haendelin de saln berbat eden John Taylora iki kez ameliyat olduktan sonra, mrnn son yllarn tamamen kr olarak geirdi.

Bach yaarken, org virtz olarak n yapmt, mzii ise eski tarz olarak grldnden, besteci olarak pek sevilmedi. Gnmzde yzlerce eserinin yaynlanmasna ramen, hayattayken sadece 12 eseri baslmtr.

Bach mr boyunca hi ara vermeden, bitmek bilmeyen bir verimlilikle beste yapmtr. Mzik tarihinde en ok eser veren bestecilerin banda gelmektedir. Verimliliini aile hayatnda da srdren Bachin 2 einden toplam 20 ocuu olmutur.

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February 7, 1685 - April 14, 1759 - Baroque Period

Georg Friedrich Hndel was born in Halle, Germany. But since he spent most of his professional life in England, he's better known as George Frederick Handel.

Even though Handel was very interested in music, his father (who was a barber and surgeon) was not. There's a story that Handel smuggled a clavichord -- a VERY quiet instrument -- into the house so that he could practice in secret. Handel's father insisted that his son become a lawyer, until the day that Handel sat down at the keyboard and dazzled a duke. The duke convinced Handel's father to let his son study music.

What Handel really loved was opera. At the time, Italy was the place to learn about that, so Handel went to Italy for four years. After he got home to Germany, he was hired as court composer to a prince. But he immediately asked for time off to go to England, where people really liked Italian opera. (When the English got tired of opera, Handel built a whole new career for himself composing oratorios.)

Through a strange set of circumstances, Handel's princely German employer wound up becoming king of England. When he got to London, he didn't need to hire a court composer, because he found his court composer from Germany -- namely Handel -- was there!

February 14, 1678 - July 25, 1741 Baroque Period

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy, which is where he spent most of his life. His father taught him to play the violin, and the two would often perform together.

Antonio continued to study and practice the violin, even after he became a priest. He was called the "Red Priest" because of his flaming red hair. However, after a while, his bad asthma kept Antonio from saying Mass.

After that, Vivaldi spent all his time writing music and teaching. He taught at an orphanage for girls, and wrote a lot of music for the girls to play. People came from miles around to hear Vivaldi's talented students perform the beautiful music he had written.

Many people think Vivaldi was the best Italian composer of his time. He wrote concertos, operas, church music and many other compositions. In all, Antonio wrote over 500 concertos. His most famous set of concertos is The Four Seasons

March 26, 1736 - May 31, 1809 - Classical Period

Franz Joseph Haydn was the most famous composer of his time. He helped develop new musical forms, like the string quartet and the symphony. In fact, even though he didn't invent it, Haydn is known as the "Father of the Symphony."

Haydn was born in the tiny Austrian town of Rohrau, where his father made huge wooden carts and wagonwheels. His mother was a cook. When he was 8, Joseph (he didn't go by Franz) went to Vienna to sing in the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral, and to attend the choir school. His younger brother Michael joined him a short time later. Joseph could never resist a playing a joke, which got him in trouble at school. Since Michael Haydn was much better behaved than his brother, everyone thought he would be the more successful musician. Wrong!

At first, Haydn struggled to earn a living as a composer. Then, he got a job with a rich, powerful family named Esterhazy. It was Haydn's job to write music for the Esterhazy princes, and to conduct their orchestra. Haydn composed symphonies, operas, string quartets, and all kinds of other music for performance at the Esterhazy court.

Haydn was also a good businessman. Music publishing made him and his music famous all over Europe. After he retired from working for the Esterhazy family, Haydn made two very successful trips to England, where audiences at concerts of his music treated him like a superstar.

January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791 - Classical Period

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, where his father Leopold was a violinist and composer. Wolfgang (or Wolferl, as his family called him) was a child prodigy. He composed his first piece of music at age five; he had his first piece published when he was seven; and he wrote his first opera when he was twelve. By the time Wolfgang was 6, he was an excellent pianist and violinist. He and his sister Maria Anna (known as Nannerl) traveled all over Europe performing for royalty.

When he grew up, Mozart moved to Vienna, and tried to earn a living as a pianist and composer. But he had a lot of trouble handling the fact that he was no longer a child prodigy. Mozart was still a musical genius, but after he stopped being a cute kid, people stopped making a big fuss over him. Back then, musicians were treated like servants, but Mozart did not, and could not think of himself as a servant.

Mozart was only 35 when he died. During his short life, he composed in all different musical forms, including operas, symphonies, concertos, masses, and chamber music. Today, he is still considered a genius!

December 16, 1770 - March 26, 1827 - Romantic Period

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany. His father, who was a singer, was his first teacher. After a while, even though he was still only a boy, Ludwig became a traveling performer, and soon, he was supporting his family.

In his early twenties, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. Beethoven was one of the first composers to make a living without being employed by the church or a member of the nobility. At first, he was known as a brilliant pianist. But when he was around 30 years old, Beethoven started going deaf. Even though he could no longer hear well enough to play the piano, Beethoven composed some of his best music after he was deaf!

Beethoven is considered one of the greatest musical geniuses who ever lived. He may be most famous for his nine symphonies, but he also wrote many other kinds of music: chamber and choral music, piano music and string quartets, and an opera.

May 7, 1840 - November 6, 1893 - Romantic Period

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Russia's Ural Mountains. When he was 8 years old, his family moved to the capital city of St. Petersburg. Even though Tchaikovsky was a good musician as a kid, that wasn't considered an "acceptable" profession, so his parents made him study law instead.

But even in law school, Tchaikovsky continued to study music. Eventually, he gave up his legal job and went to the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After he graduated, he moved to Moscow to teach at the new conservatory there. It's now named for him.

For years, Tchaikovsky had a patroness named Nadezhda von Meck -- a wealthy widow who was a big fan of Tchaikovsky's music. She regularly sent him money so that he could concentrate on composing without having to worry about making a living. But Nadezhda von Meck didn't want to meet Tchaikovsky. For 14 years, they only communicated by writing letters to each other. Tchaikovsky dedicated his Fourth Symphony to his patroness.

Tchaikovsky traveled all over Europe for performances of his music. In 1891, he even came to America for the opening of Carnegie Hall, where he was invited to conduct his music.

March 1, 1810 - October 17, 1849 - Romantic Period

Frdric Chopin was one of the greatest pianists of his day. Chopin was born in a town just outside of Warsaw, Poland. His mother introduced him to the piano; by the time he was six, Chopin played extremely well and was starting to compose. He gave his first concert at the age of eight.

When Chopin was 20, he left Poland to seek fame and fortune in other European cities. When Chopin got to Paris, he decided to stay.

There's a story that when Chopin left his native country, his friends gave him some Polish soil, which he carried around with him for the rest of his life. That's probably not true, but Chopin did continue to be passionatly patriotic about Poland, even though he never went back there.

Chopin was never healthy, and he was only thirty-nine when he died of tuberculosis. When he was buried -- in France -- a special box of earth was brought from Poland to sprinkle on his grave. But Chopin's heart is in Poland -- literally. His heart was put in an urn and taken to the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.

September 8, 1841 - May 1, 1904 - Romantic Period

Antonin Dvorak was born in a village just north of Prague. He was the oldest of nine children. His father was a butcher, and he wanted Antonin to become a butcher, too. Fortunately, an uncle noticed how musical Antonin was, and paid for him to take organ lessons.

Dvorak got a job as a church organist, but what he really wanted to do was compose. So he entered his compositions in a government-sponsored contest and won! The prize money allowed Dvorak to quit his church job, and made him well known as a composer.

In spite of the fact that he never took composition lessons, Dvorak taught composition at the Prague Conservatory. And he also taught in New York City for a couple of years. The last of Dvorak's nine symphonies was written in the United States, and is nicknamed for the fact that it hails "From the New World."

Antonin Dvorak- Slavonic Dance No. 7