Composers with last names beginning with H, I, J, K , or L listed here include:
Composers with last names beginning with A, B, C, D, E, F, or G listed here include:
Grieg, Edvard (1843 - 1907)
Edvard Grieg is the most important Norwegian composer of the later 19th century, a period of growing national consciousness. As a child, he was encouraged by the violinist Ole Bull, a friend of his parents, and studied at the Leipzig Conservatory on his suggestion. After a period at home in Norway he moved to Copenhagen and it was there that he met the young composer Rikard Nordraak, an enthusiastic champion of Norwegian music and a decisive influence on him. Grieg's own performances of Norwegian music, often with his wife, the singer Nina Hagerup, established him as a leading figure in the music of his own country, bringing subsequent collaboration in the theatre with Bjørnson and with Ibsen. He continued to divide his time between composition and activity in the concert-hall until his death in 1907.
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Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759)
George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Germany. He began to study music at quite a young age. In 1703 moved to Hamburg. At first he played violin in Hamburg's opera orchestra, but by 1704 he had composed Almira, his first opera. In 1706 Handel went to Italy, and spent the next four years in Europe. During this time he composed a large number of cantatas and oratorios, including The Resurrection, Agrippina and a number of other works. In 1710 Handel went back to Germany and became composer for the elector of Hannover. In 1711 he went to London, where his Italian opera, Rinaldo, was enthusiastically received. He returned to Hannover, where he was then dismissed from his post as court composer. Handel returned to London, where he composed Water Music.
During the 1720s and 1730s Handel worked mostly as a composer and producer of operas for the London stage. Handel started to concentrate on composing operas, and then produced Radamistro in 1720, Giulio Cesare in 1724, and Rodelinda in 1725. In 1727, Handel became a citizen of Britain. He then wrote several of his best operas, including Orlando in 1733, and Ariodante in 1735. Handel began to concentrate on oratorios in English in 1732, and by the 1740s he composed and average of two a year.
The most famous of Handel's oratorios is without doubt Messiah (1742), which is still performed today. He also composed a number of equally great oratorios, including Saul in 1739, Israel in Egypt, also in 1739, and Jephtha in 1752. He also wrote the Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749. While writing Jephtha in 1751, he began to lose his eyesight. During the last years of his life, Handel supervised revisions of his oratorios. Handel died in his home and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.
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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Joseph Haydn, the principal founder of the Viennese Classical School of
Music, was born on 31st March (or possible 1st April), 1732 in Rohrau,
Austria. Most of his ancestors were German and Austrian peasants. His
father was a wheelwright and music lover.
In 1760's Haydn's fame spread all over Europe. His symphonies (he was
the first composer to perfect symphonic forms) were well-known.
Aristocratic patrons collected his music, which was published in France
and London.
In the following two decades he traveled from one Esterhazy castle to
another. He always had to be available to his patron, Prince Nicholaus,
who happened to be Haydn's master for over thirty years.
During the next ten years Haydn was influenced be the works of his young
friend Mozart. Moreover, Haydn longed for artistic freedom. In 1790,
when the situation was becoming intolerable, his patron Prince Nicolaus
died. Thus Haydn was free to leave.
When Haydn was in his sixties, he still continued to compose. His
greatest oratorios - THE CREATION and THE SEASONS - were written over
the next four years. Both of these works found favour with the Viennese
public.
On 31st May, 1809 Haydn died peacefully and was buried two days later.
Sadly and inexplicably, not one Viennese conductor accompanied him on
his last journey.
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Liszt, Franz (1811-86)
Liszt was born on October 22, 1811, in the village of Raiding, near Sopron. He studied the piano first with his father, then with the Austrian pianist Carl Czerny in Vienna, where he also studied theory with the Italian composer Antonio Salieri. In 1823 he moved with his parents to Paris, where he soon established himself as a pianist. In 1833 Liszt met the French countess Marie d'Agoult, known as a writer under the pseudonym Daniel Stern. They formed a liaison that endured until 1844, and they had three children, one of whom, Cosima, became the wife of the German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow and later of the German composer Richard Wagner.
From 1839 to 1847 Liszt toured the Old World from Lisbon to Moscow and from Dublin to Istanbul. He became very famous. In 1847, however, he abandoned his career as a virtuoso, rarely playing in public again. From 1848 to 1861 he was musical director at the grand ducal court at Weimar, giving performances of works by Berlioz, Wagner, and others, as well as his own.
Departing from Weimar in 1861, Liszt for nearly ten years resided chiefly in Rome, where he studied theology and became a secular cleric. After 1871, dividing his time between Rome, Weimar, and Budapest, he continued to conduct, teach, and compose and to promote the music of Wagner. He died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, during the Wagner Festival there.
Among his well-known works for the piano are the Sonata in B Minor (1853), the 12 Transcendental Etudes (1851), the 20 Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1885; no. 20 unpublished), Six Paganini Etudes (1851), Concerto No. 1, in E-Flat (1849; revised 1853), Concerto No. 2, in A-Major (1848; revised 1856-1861), and the character pieces making up the three-volume Years of Pilgrimage (1855, 1858, 1877).
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