Franz Liszt, Part 1

 

 
Period: Romantic
Country: Hungary
Born: 1811 in Raiding, Hungary 
Died: 1886 in Bayreuth, Germany
Contemporaries: Beethoven, Berlioz, Borodin, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Franck, Grieg, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Schumann, Sibelius, Smetana, J. Strauss, R. Strauss, Sullivan, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Wagner.
Specialist Genre: Tone-poems, programme symphonies, and piano works. 


What's Happening in History?

      The 1800’s started with the Second Great Awakening in a Kentucky camp meeting presided by James McGready (1800-1809), Europe was taken with Romanticism, in Russia someone killed Tsar Paul I (1801), ultraviolet rays were discovered by the German physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1801), Thomas Jefferson becomes the 3rd president of the United States of America (1801-1809), The Louisiana Purchase (1803), United Kingdom abolished the slave trade thanks in part to William Wilberforce (1807), War of 1812 between USA and England, Napoelon tried to take over the world, Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain, the Greeks struggle for independence from Turkey and with the help of Russia, France and Britain gain independence (1829), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints forms under Joseph Smith (1830), Charles Spurgeon the “Prince of Preachers” is born in England (1834-1892), Crawford Long uses ether as the first anesthetic (1842), U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India (1877). So many things happening in the world and in the midst of all these things classical music was transforming. One man was very influential in this changing musical world because of his incredible piano playing, fantastic teaching, and constant support of new music. His name is Franz Liszt.

Johannes Brahms: Composer of the Month

Brahms having fun!

Period: Romantic

Nationality: German

Born: May 7, 1833 A.D. in Hamburg, Germany.

Died: April 3, 1897 A.D. in Vienna, Austria

Family: Johann & Henrika Brahms (parents), he never married.

Contemporaries: Anton Bruckner, Franz Liszt, Robert and Clara Schumann, Piotr Tchaikovski, Richard Wagner.

Specialty: A German Requiem, Hungarian Dances, 4 Symphonies, and Piano Sonatas.

His Beginning

     Johannes was born to Johann Jakob Brahms. His dad liked his name very much, so he gave it to his son with a little difference, adding "es." His dad played the double bass, that big string instrument in the orchestra you have to stand to play most of the time.
Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen was Johann Jakob's housekeeper.  Even though she was 17 years older than him, Johann like her so much he decided to marry her. So Johannes' dad got a good deal, he married Johanna so that he did not have to keep paying for the cleaning and had Johannes.

Johannes was born in 1833 A.D. in the country of Germany in a continent called Europe.  Now the cool thing is that he got to live in Hamburger, Germany.  Just kidding, it was called Hamburg, though kind sounds like hamburger.  This was around this time Andrew Jackson was the president of the United States for the second term.

His Education

     Johannes started learning the piano at age 7 from a man named Otto Friedrich Willibald after his dad taught him some things.  The cool thing was that Brahms got good enough to play for people at restaurants and theaters (different from today because they did not watch movies). After Johannes got a little older even started teaching piano lessons to people. And do you know what he did with part of the money he earned? He helped his parents by paying some of the bills, cool stuff!

Later on Johannes Brahms took lessons from the famous Eduard Marxsen, but why is this important? Well, Marxsen’s teacher learned how to play the piano from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so Brahms got to hear from his teacher about Mozart.

His Career

Brahms worked hard at playing the piano, conducting orchestras and composing music because he was passionate about it. Always work hard at the good things you are interested in and are responsible for.

Here are some of the pieces that Brahms wrote, conducted and played: 
4 symphonies, 2 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 2 serenades, A German Requiem for the choir and orchestra, 1 Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello, 3 string quartets, 2 string quintets, 2 string sextets, 3 violin sonatas, 2 violoncello sonatas, 2 clarinet sonatas, piano sonatas and many others.

We do not even have all of Brahms' pieces because he was a perfectionist (very picky) about what he wrote, so some pieces he just burned up!
                                             
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