Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Life of Gustav Mahler
Life of Gustav Mahler
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Life of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was born in 1860 in the small town of Kalischt, Bohemia. He was a late romantic-era composer. He was one of the leading conductors of his generation. Mahler was a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. In 1897 he was the director of the Vienna Court Opera. He stayed in Vienna for 10 years, but during that time he got a lot of opposition from the Anti- Semitic Press. His awesome productions and high production standards gave him the name of Greatest of Opera Conductors. Composing was only his part time job as living as a conductor was his full time. Most of his pieces are for large orchestra forces, symphonic choruses, and operatic soloists.
Mahler’s family belonged to a German-speaking minority in Bohemians. They were also Jewish. His father and mother moved when he was still an infant and his father started a business. Their family grew fast but of the 12 children they had only 6 lived through the year of infancy. Iglua the town in which they moved when Gustav was only a baby was now a town of 20,000 people of which introduced him to music. He watched street dance, dance tunes, folk melodies, and the trumpet calls and marches of the local military band. At 4 years old Gustav was introduced to the piano and immediately loved it at the age of 10 he had his first public show, but Gustav’s school performance was doing as well so his father sent him to another one but Gustav was very unhappy and soon returned home. Later that year he suffered the horrible loss of his brother to a long illness. After Gustav tried to express his feelings in music he began to work on an opera of his lost brother. Neither the music nor play ever got recognized much.
Gustav’s fat...
... middle of paper ...
...ian Opera and in June signed a contract with him. In August he left the Hofoper. With his 10 years in Vienna Mahler brought a new life to opera houses and got them out of debt, but also in those 10 years had made very few friends many said this was because of how he treated them.
In 1910 Mahler got a sore throat, which never went away… In 1911 with a temperature of 104 degrees F Mahler insisted on going forward with a previous engagement. This would be Mahler’s last concert. After laying in a bed for weeks he was told to have bacterial endocarditis a disease in which at the time the survival rate was zero. Mahler did not give up hope he would constantly talk about up and coming concerts. On May 18th Mahler died. Mahler’s wife out lived him by about 50 years dying in 1964. After marrying 2 different guys and publishing a book about her marriage with Gustav Mahler.
Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an English composer well known for his orchestral suite The Planets. Holst began his trip into the musical world as a young pianist. His father, Adolph Holst, was a skilled pianist who wanted Gustav to succeed at playing as he did. Gustav, however, was impaired by neuritis making it difficult to play for long hours. As Gustav aged he began trying to compose music instead. Gustav failed to gain scholarships to any colleges and his father, after hearing one of Gustav’s small town operettas, borrowed money to pay for his college. Gustav’s influences were pieces such as Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Tristan and Isolode as well as Bach’s Mass in B Minor in his younger years. He began playing trombone when his neuritis became unbearable.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as W.A. Mozart, was a very well-known composer of the Classical Period as well as still to this day. Wolfgang Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He was known for his sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos, and operas. He set the standards high for all composers following in his footsteps.
Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
Claudio Monteverdi was born on May 15, 1567, in Cremona Italy, Monteverdi was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and the Early Baroque, and is known as the first great composer of the operas. Monteverdi is often view as a composer of the Renaissance and of the Baroque, there is a similar pattern in that is continuous that is often viewed through his work in both styles. Monteverdi often was known as a dramatic composer, while bringing a tremendous meaning from the text he set that often turned each of his pieces into a believable musical and also produced a dramatic statement.
Felix Mendelssohn was brought up in a wealthy family, with a strong Jewish faith, and was one of four children. He was born in 1809, in Hamburg, Germany, and died in Leipzig, Germany in 1847. Soon after he and his sister Fanny were born, the family moved to Berlin, to elude the French troops of Napoleon. While in Berlin, the Mendelssohn family experienced some wealth; because of this Felix was able to encounter many artists, musicians, philosophers, and writes. By the young age of thirteen, Mendelssohn was an adept composer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most prolific and important musical innovators we have ever seen. His style of music helped re-shape music and the Classical period. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1756. Mozart was a child prodigy, claiming most success as a youth. At the age of six, Mozart could play the harpsichord and violin, improvise fugues, write minuets, and read music perfectly. At the age of eight, he wrote a symphony and at eleven, an oratorio. Then amazingly, at the age of twelve he wrote an opera. Mozart's father was Leopold Mozart, a court musician. Both Mozart and Beethoven had help from their fathers in different ways. Mozart's father helped him travel around as a young musician and with this he traveled many places and seen many well-known people and aristocrats. With Mozart's early successes came many challenges to his life. He had greater expectations from the community and from his father. Unlike, Beethoven, Mozart was a bit spoiled as a youth and because of this he would not tolerate to be treated as a servant. He completely relied on his father to help him and would not work with the archbishop. This would become a problem when Mozart did not develop enough initiative and could not make decisions on his ow...
Handel became a proficient composer of oratorio in part to his early success in composing opera. To elaborate on the histological influences on Handel, his career and education path must be noted. Born in Halle, Germany in 1685, Handel began his career in music as an organist, studying under Friedrich Zachow, one of the most renowned organists of his time. In 1702, he began attending the University of Halle while taking on the position as Organist at Calvinist church, Domkirche. After only a year, he tired of this and decided to travel to Hamburg to study opera. To support this endeavor, while in Hamburg, he played in orchestras as a harpsich...
Mahler was born in Kalischt, Bohemia, on July 7, 1860. At the time, Bohemia (later to form a major component of Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic) was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, then enduring its final crumbling decades, and the region where Mahler spent his youth was strongly associate with the Czech independence movement. However, Mahler also was a Jew, and Jews in the region were associated by ethnic Czechs with Germans. Mahler famous quote is: "I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed." Then add to that the fact that the public considered Mahler to be a gifted conductor with a habit of writing over-long symphonies, while Mahler considered himself to a composer forced to spend most of his year conducting.
Gustav Holst once said that, “Failure is the most important part of an artist's training, and one you cannot afford to do without”. A composer’s life is often one of many peaks and valleys that, in the end, help to forge them into a world renowned composer whose legacy stands the test of time. The life of composer Gustav Holst is no exception to this. From an early age he had to overcome several physical and emotional hurdles. However, by the time of his death Holst had become a mainly self-taught composer, who learned from experience and experimentation, constantly searching for the right sound.
Arnold Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874, to a Jewish family in Vienna. He taught himself composition, with help in counterpoint from the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky, and in 1899 produced his first major work, the tone poem Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string sextet. In 1901 he married Zemlinsky's sister Mathilde, with whom he had two children. The couple moved to Berlin, where for two years Schoenberg earned a living by orchestrating operettas and directing a cabaret orchestra. In 1903 Schoenberg returned to Vienna to teach. There he met his most successful students, the Austrian composers Anton Webern and Alban Berg, who became his close friends.
Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl Zelter, who was the professor of the University of Berlin. Under their proper guidance, he completely showed his music talent- he first appeared as pianist at nine and as a composer at ten. At his age of twelve, he already composed nine fugues, five symphonies for strings, two operas and a huge number of smaller pieces. When he was sixteen, the publication of his Octet in E-flat Major for strings and Overture to A Mid Summer Night’s Dream marked his full maturity.
“Grant me the strength, time and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend indefinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements.” - Oath of Maimonides
George Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany. Handel was known as the greatest composer during the Baroque era. Handel was most famous for the Messiah a English Ontario. This great composer also wrote the great opera seria known as “Julius Caesar” which was performed first in London, England in 1724. The opera seria quickly became popular and was toured in several other cities.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of not only the classical era, but of all time. On January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart was born into an already musically talented family. His father Leopold, a composer and musician, and sister Nannerl toured parts of Europe giving many successful performances, including some before royalty. At the young age of 17, Mozart was appointed Konzertmeister at the Salzburg Court. It was there that young Mozart composed two successful operas: “Mitridate” and “Lucio Silla”. In 1981 he was dismissed from his position at the Salzburg Court. He went on to compose over 600 works including 27 piano Concertos, 18 Masses (including his most famous, the Requiem), and 17 piano sonatas. Mozart was not often known for having radical form or harmonic innovation but rather, most of his music had a natural flow, repetition and simple harmonic structure.