Hector Berlioz

(1803 - 1869) Leading French romantic composer, also a brilliant writer and critic whose ememirs are a case-study in  romantic sesibility.His compositions are mostly programmatic and notable for their range of literary derivation, often massive scale and imaginative orchestral colour. A characteristic unifying feature is his use of recurring theme or idee fixe in his symphonic fantastique

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William S Bennett

A leading younger British composer who studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He composed in dissonant style, a successful melo-dramatic opera  The Mines of Sulphur.His other works include the operas The Ledge and Victory, a symphonies, chamber music and film scores.

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Beethoven (German Composer)

(1770 - 1827)

Beethoven is often considered to have been the last classical and the first romantic composer. Troubled by failling hearing from about 30, he nevertheless produced his greater string quartets after he became totally deaf at 45.Beethoven developed the sonatas and symphony from the point reached by Haydn and Mozart, expanding their scale and intensifying their emotional content. He greatly widened the range of expression of the piano and the orchestra, demanding in such works as his 9th symphony for larger forces than had ever used before. This symphony broke new ground in having a choral finale. In his work, a steady progression can be traced from the style he inheritated from his immediate predeccessors toward the romanticism oh his successors.

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Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

Hungarian composer, Bartok was one of the leading nationalists and modernists of the earlier 20th century . He studied at the Budapest Conservatory and became known as a brilliant pianist .

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Johann Sebastien Bach (1685-1750 )

1685-1750



A German composer, Bach was born at Eisenach. In his life time, Bach was chiefly famous as an organist and his style of composition was regarded as over elaborated and old-fashioned. He combined extraordinary contrapuntal skill with mastery of picturesque and passionate expression. His music was always written for a practical purpose-for church services, patrons or instruction of his sons. Bach's output can be divided into 3 groups- organ works, instrumental and orchestral works (including concertos, suites and keyboard) and religious choral works (including motets, cantatas, passion, oratorios and masses).

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Igor Stravinsky

" I compose," says Igor Stravinsky, one of the most important leaders in twentieth century music, "because I am made for that and cannot do otherwise." He believes in inspiration, but does not wait for it. For him, composition is a gaily fuction which he must discharge.
The man whose music has caused near-riots when it was first performed, who has been praised and misunderstood and argued over, is slight and thin, with nervous gestures and penetrating eyes behind strong lenses. He has great energy and leads a vigorous life.
As a boy he grew up in a musical atmosphere. His father was the leading bass in the Russian Imperial Opera, his mother was a trained pianist. He often went to the opera to hear his father sing, and early learned to read and enjoy the scores. In the winters there was the exciting musical world of St. Petersburg, in the summers the family went to the country where young Igor heard stirring national folk song which were later to influence his music
His father wanted him to study law because it was a safer career than art. But when Stravinsky met Rimsky- Korsakov and studiedunder him, he was encouraged to give up law for music. For the wedding of Rimsky's daughter, Stravinsky wrote Fireworks  and sent it as a surprise to the master. It was a great blow to have the package returned unopened because of Rimsky sudden death.
A lifelong friendship with Diaghilev, the impresario of Russian ballet, brougt both men fame. For Diaghilev, Stravinsky wrote numerous ballets which established his reputation and influenced the development of modern music.

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Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

In his Budapest home, Bela Bartok had a studio with two doors- one heavely padded to keep out all sounds. There he composed by the hour, sitting on a window-seat where the sun could beat down on him.
The folk songs he loved and had discovered in a two-year trip throughout the countryside formed the basis of much of his composition. Wherever he went in later years, he studied the folk music particularly. He believed that there was a relation between the folk music of Hungary and that of Turkey. The Turks had occupied Hungary during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and had a strong effect on its culture. So one of his trips was to Anatolia. He and a friend jounced in primitive horse-drawn carts over the rocky roads to remote districts where nomadic tribes lived. Bartok carefully carried the old-fashioned Edison phonograph with its wax cylinders on his lap all the way

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Gerog Phillip Telemann

Salah seorang komponis Jerman yang penting selain Bach dan Hendel pada masa Barok aadalah Georg Phillip Telemann. Operanya pertama diciptakan pada saat ia berusia 12 tahun. Walaupun ia belajar hukum di Universitas Leipzig, kegiatan musiknya tidak terhenti, ia diminta untuk menciptakan sebuah kantata setiap dua muinggu sekali untuk gereja Lutheran. Tahun 1721 ia dilantik menjadi pemimpin musik untuk kota Frankfurt. Kemudian ia pindah ke kota Hamburg dan disinilah ia terus berkarya sampai meninggal dunia pada tahun 1767.

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Antonio Vivaldi

Pada tanggal 4 Maret 1678, bertepatan terjadinya gempa bumi di kota Venezia, Italia, Antonio Vivaldi lahir. Ayahnya bernama Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, seorang pemain biola dan ibunya Camilla. Vivaldi dilahirkan dengan kondisi kesehatan yang kurang baik.
Tahun 1703 ia ditahbiskan menjadi seorang pastor (Imam Katolik), tetapi karena alasan kesehatan ia tidak pernah menjadi pastor jemaat, malahan ia menjadi guru biola di Pio Ospedale della Pieta, sebuah panti asuhan yang dikelola oleh gereja. Disanalah ia berkarya menghasilkan kumpulan sonata trio, konserto, opera dll.
Tahun 1711-1716 ia menjadi dirigen orkes. Sebahagian waktunya juga dihabiskan dalam dunia opera di Venezia dan tahaun 1741 Vivaldi meninggal dunia di Wina.

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Pianis dan Guru Musik

CONSTANCE KEENE

Pada tanggal 9 Februari  1921, Constance Keene dilahirkan di Brooklyn, New York. Pada usia empat tahun ia mulai belajar musik. Pada usia 13 tahun ia menjadi murid Abram Chasins, seorang pianis, komponis yang terkenal di kota New York, yang akhirnya menjadi suaminya lima belas tahun kemudian. Pada usia 21 tahun pertama kali ia menjadi perhatian masyarakat Amerika dengan memenangkan Naumburg Award, suatu kompetisi piano yang terkenal di dunia.
Constance Keene tampil diberbagai negara bahkan pernah datang ke Indonesia. Namanya masuk ke dalam buku "The Most Wanted Piano Teacher". Beberapa murid yang dihasilkannya hingga menjadi pianis terkenal diantaranya seperti Peter Nero, Minoru Nojima, Steven Mayer, Anne Marie McDermot, avid Bar-Illan, Marc Silverman.
Pada malam Natal, 24 Desember 2005, dunia telah kehilangan beliau karena sakit.

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Lang Lang - Pianis

Pianis asal Cina ini pada usia yang relatif mudah telah menguncang publik Amerika Serikat, Eropa, Cina dan Jepang  dengan  Musik Klasik. Ia dijuluki "The Roalcoaster" oleh Wall Street Journal karena permainannya yang sangat cepat, bahkan majalah Teen People's menempatkannya padadaftar Top Twenty Teens Who will change the World. Pada usia 3 tahun Lang Lang telah belajar piano dibawa bimbingan Prof. Zhu Ya-Fen dari Shen Yang Conservatory of Music. Pada usia 5 tahun ia telah menjadi juara I Shen Yang Piano Competation, dan begitu banyak lagi juara-juar yang diraihnya. Pada tahun 1997 ia belajar di Curtis Institute di Philadelpia bersama Gary Grafmann. Ia tampil di Carnegie Hall pada tahun 2001.

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Zoltan Kodaly, Pendidik Musik dan Humanis

Zoltan Kodaly lahir pada tanggal 16 Desember 1882 di Kecskemet, Hungaria. Ayahnya, seorang musisi amatir mengajari Kodaly musik, terutama dalam hal komposisi.
Zoldan Kodaly merupakan komposer Hungaria yang sangat terkenal. Selain Bella Bartok dan Ligeti, Kodali merupakan salah satu dari tokoh penting asal Hungaria yang memberi pengaruh besar dalam musik Hungaria.
Dalam perjalanan hidupnya, ia banyak mengunjungi sekolah-sekolah musik. Ia lebih banyak mendedikasikan hidupnya dalam pendidikan musik dari pada membuat komposisi musik. Konsep dan teknik pendidikan piano menjadi pegangan bagi banyak guru-guru piano di dunia.

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Komponis Besar Periode Romantik dalam Musik

Zaman Romantik dalam musik muncul pada tahun 1820 sampai tahun 1900 .

Beberapa komponis-komponis besar di zaman ini antara lain :

1.      Franz Schubert

2.      Robert Schumann

3.      Clara Wieck Schumann

4.      Frederick Chopin

5.      Franz Lizt

6.      Felix Mandelssohn

7.      Hector Berlioz

8.      Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky

9.      Bedrich Smetana

10.  Antonin Dvorak

11.  Johannes Brahms

12.  Giuseppe Verdi

13.  Giacomo Puccini

14.  Richard Wagner

15.  Gustav Mahler

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Related Post :
 

Zoltan Kodaly, Pendidik Musik dan Humanis 

Alexander Scriabin 

 

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Alexander Scriabin

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