Georg Philipp Telemann
“In the eyes of his 18th-century contemporaries, Georg Philipp Telemann was the greatest living composer,” stated by Britannica.com. Georg was among the numerous great artists throughout music history and is recognized worldwide for his sacred and secular church compositions. His extraordinary musical talents and abilities have aided in shaping today’s culture and has influenced the works of many musicians after him.
On March 14th, 1681, Georg Philipp Telemann was born to Maria Haltmeier and Heinrich Telemann in Magdeburg, Germany. Being the son of a Protestant minister in an age where composing music failed at being a successful career, Georg was highly discouraged to live out his dream. Although his family was strongly against him pursuing a career in music and refused to pay for lessons, he taught himself at the age of ten how to play the violin, flute, zither, recorder, oboe, and keyboard. He later composed his first opera, Sigismundus, within the following two years. While his family clearly realized his talents, they still opposed, driving him to work even harder.
Upon his mother’s desperate plea, Georg attended Leipzig University as an upcoming law student in 1701. While at the university, he composed more music and presented them at Collegium Musicum, a center created for concerts and recitals. By 1703 he
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was elected director of the school opera and became the organist for Neue Kirche, a major church located in Berlin, the following year. Abandoning his family’s dream of becoming a lawyer, Georg made the decision to turn his fantasy into a reality and become a composer. During the year of 1709, Telemann met and married his first wife, Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin, the daughter of musician Daniel Eberlin. Within the short time frame of their marriage, Amalie became pregnant and eventually died during the birth of their daughter in the January of 1711. This unfortunate event encouraged him to continue composing as he traveled to Frankfurt-am-Main, an imperial city in which he became Director of Municipal Music & Kapellmeister of the Barfüßerkirche. As he progressed in his music career, he traveled throughout all of Germany, gaining the title of Kapellmeister of the various towns he settled in. In 1714 he was appointed choir leader of the Prince of Bayreuth Church and fell in love with a woman named Maria Catharina Textor. They later married and gave birth to eight sons and two more daughters. Due to the fact that she was an American citizen, he therefore gained his citizenship as well. Georg and his family moved quite often, following his career.
After many years, he landed a job at the Hamburg Opera House composing music and directing it as well. Despite his long, successful employment there, he released a piece that was found to be controversial to the city fathers and elders. Knowing that they would be forced to give in, he threatened to take a job offer at the Leipzig Thomaskirche, where he had been chosen over good friends Handel and Bach. Subsequent to this affair, Telemann therefore continued to produce music there and eventually earned a raise in pay and improved the overall status of the opera
house. Georg Philipp Telemann resided in Hamburg until his death on June 25th, 1767. He left his knowledge of music and numerous strategies to successor and godson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, (son of Johann Sebastian Bach) who was partially named after him. Carl continued the legacy of his brilliant cantatas and compositions and ensured that his works were never forgotten. All in all, even though Georg was not as well known by the latter-day public, his attributes have aided in the formation and evolution of music all around the world. His works have inspired upcoming musicians and artists to strive for their dreams and push themselves when the odds are not in their favor. The impact he made on the world was in more than just music, it was in finding what truly makes you happy and pursing it when nobody believes it is possible to achieve it.
Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.
Born on May 7, 1833, Johannes Brahms is regarded as the foremost romantic composer of instrumental music in classical forms. He composed virtually every variety of music except opera. Although his music was the object of attacks by followers of Richard Wagner, and Franz Liszt, his popularity grew over time as a great composer of unique individuality (Weinstock 456). His life, influences on him and his music, and his outstanding musical works all take a part in the history of this famous composer.
According to the article, “Johann Sebastian Bach”, “his Lutheran faith would influence his late musical works.” A tragic event occurred as both of his parents had passed away a few years later, which prompted him to live with his brother’s family. It was there that he continued learning about music. He continued to live there for five years as he left his brother when he was 15. He soon was enrolled in a school at a place called Luneburg. He was enrolled there due to him having “a beautiful soprano singing voice.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) However, as he got older, his voice didn’t sound the way it used to be, so he quickly transitioned back to playing the violin. His first job had also to do with music as he began to work in Weimar as a musician. According to the article, “Johann Sebastian Bach”, there were various jobs he did like serve as a violinist or occasionally fill in
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
During his thirty-eight year life, Mendelssohn traveled the world as a concert pianist and musical director. Mendelssohn served as the conductor for the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig from 1835-1840, and then from 1845-1847, he also served the Berlin Philharmonic in various positions from 1840-1844. Felix Mendelssohn also founded the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, with faculty including Robert Schumann.
George Frideric Handel was born February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany, being born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach. His father was 73 years old at the time of his birth. George, at a young age, had a passion for music, but his father wanted him to pursue a career in civil law. George’s father believed that music would not provide a real source of income and he would not even allow his son to own an instrument. Although his father objected, George’s mother, Dorothy, supported his love for music and encouraged him to practice. With the help of his mother, he would practice secretly to develop his skill and talent. When George was seven, he had the opportunity to play the organ for a duke’s court and there was where he met Freidrich Zachow,
Beethoven, I believe, was ahead of his time. To me, he is the greatest composer of all time. His music is not just sounds of music played together in harmony, but a way of life. The music he created for the world is not just to listen to it, but grabs onto the emotion he was setting up. Beethoven's unordinary style cannot ever be copied by any composer or music artist.
Many prominent musicians produced major works during the romantic period. Among these are Beethoven, Strause, and Bach. But the musician that I think had the most impact, was Franz Schubert. Franz Peter, born on 31 January 1797 was one of fourteen children born of Franz Theodore Schubert and Elisabeth Vietz, four of which survived. He grew up in an apartment that daily converted to a classroom in which his father taught several elementary school classes. He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; family "String Quartet Parties" were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra. At nine years old, this inquisitive little boy auditioned and was accepted for a position as a chorister in the Royal Court Chapel Choir (which would later become the 'Vienna Boys' Choir). The young chorister gained the attention of Antonio Saliere, who saw to the nurture the young boy's education. After leaving the choir, he continued as a student at the school for one unhappy year. Schubert returned to live at home where it was decided that he would help his father teach. This did not last long. A disastrous episode with an unruly pupil was the last straw and Schubert at age nineteen left teaching and his home to pursue what he loved, composing. He moved in to the...
George Frideric Handel made an incredible impact on several other well known musical composers. “He has generally been accorded high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach apparently stated, “ He is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach.” Mozart is reputed to have said of him, “Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt,” and to Beethoven he was “the master of us all…the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb.” (Classic Cat, Legacy)
Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer, generally considered one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition. Born in Bonn, Beethoven was reared in to the capricious discipline of his father, a singer in the court chapel. In1789, because of his father's alcoholism, the young Beethoven became a court musician in order to support his family. His early compositions under the tutelage of German composer Christian Gottlob Neefe, particularly the funeral on the death of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph || in1790, signaled an important talent, and it was planned that Beethoven study in Vienna, Australia, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Although Mozart's death in 1791 prevented this, Beethoven went to Vienna in 1792, and he became a pupil of an Australian composer named Joseph Haydn.
At the age of five years his father began instruct him violin playing, and at eight the musical director, Pfeifer, undertook his training on the piano while the court organist Van den Eden and his successor Christian Gottlab Neefe instructed him in organ playing harmony and composition. As a pianist he made such rapid progress that in a few years he was able to interpret Bach's well-tempered Clavichord and his improvise in a masterly fashion. At thirteen years of age he gave forth his first compositions a set six sonatas. These and some other productions of his early youth later repudiated and destroyed. When he was fifteen Elector Maximilian whose assistant court organist he had in the meantime become unable young Beethoven to visit Vienna.
Besides composing, he also worked as a conductor in Düsseldorf (1833-35) and Leipzig (1835-40). And in 1843, he established a new conservatory in Leipzig. Up to this point, Mendelssohn was already a well-known pianist, composer and conductor.
George was a very talented composer but, unlike many others he didn’t come from a family with a long line of musicians. At very early age Handel had his mind set on studying music even though his father disapproved. Because his father wanted him to become a lawyer he didn’t allow Handel to play musical instruments. Despite his father’s wishes, historians believed he studied music by candlelight. To make his father proud he studied law for a short time but knew this was not what he wanted to do. George followed his dreamed and went on to join an orchestra in Germany that would change his life forever.
Undoubtedly, Franz Joseph Haydn is one of the greatest composers of all time. His music, widely acclaimed during his day, has since made him immortal. Very few can stand shoulder to shoulder with this great master.
Classical music was established by many great composers, but only one has been known as the “greatest composer”of the Classical time; Ludwig van Beethoven is a legendary figure who for many is considered