Karl Goldmark (born Károly Goldmark , Keszthely , 18 May 1830 – Vienna , 2 January 1915) was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer .
122-442: Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer , pianist , conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition. From an early age, Busoni was an outstanding, if sometimes controversial, pianist. He studied at
244-461: A Magyar march in the first movement and passages reminiscent of Dvořák and Mendelssohn in the second and third movements. The concerto has started to re-enter the repertoire with recordings by such prominent violin soloists as Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell . Nathan Milstein also championed the work. Milstein's recording of the Concerto (1957) is widely considered the definitive one. He wrote
366-532: A singer in a choir , as a player in a youth orchestra , or as a performer on a solo instrument (e.g., piano , pipe organ , or violin ). Teens aspiring to be composers can continue their postsecondary studies in a variety of formal training settings, including colleges, conservatories, and universities. Conservatories , which are the standard musical training system in countries such as France and Canada, provide lessons and amateur orchestral and choral singing experience for composition students. Universities offer
488-414: A violin concerto . Antony Beaumont notes that Busoni wrote virtually no chamber music after 1898 and no songs between 1886 and 1918, commenting that this was "part of the process of freeing himself from his Leipzig background ... [evoking] worlds of middle-class respectability in which he was not at home, and [in which] the shadows of Schumann, Brahms and Wolf loomed too large." The first decade of
610-401: A band collaborates to write a song, or in musical theatre , where the songs may be written by one person, the orchestration of the accompaniment parts and writing of the overture is done by an orchestrator, and the words may be written by a third person. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st centuries, computer programs that explain or notate how
732-623: A book he had received from his former pupil, the ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis Burlin during his 1910 tour of the US. The work was premiered with Busoni as soloist in March 1914, in Berlin. From June 1914 to January 1915, Busoni was in Berlin. As a native of a neutral country (Italy) living in Germany, Busoni was not greatly concerned, at first, by the outbreak of war. During this period, he began to work seriously on
854-518: A brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer , and conducted a performance of his own composition Stabat Mater , Op. 55 in the composer's initial numbering sequence, ( BV 119 , now lost) in 1879. Other early pieces were published at this time, including settings of Ave Maria (Opp. 1 and 2; BV 67 ) and some piano pieces. He was elected in 1881 to the Accademia Filharmonica of Bologna ,
976-452: A clarinettist, and Anna (née Weiss), a pianist. Shortly afterwards, the family moved to Trieste . A child prodigy , largely taught by his father, he began performing and composing at the age of seven. In an autobiographical note he comments "My father knew little about the pianoforte and was erratic in rhythm, so he made up for these shortcomings with an indescribable combination of energy, severity and pedantry." Busoni made his public debut as
1098-433: A companion piece for his revision of Turandot as an opera. He began serious work on his opera Doktor Faust in 1916, leaving it incomplete at his death. It was then finished by his student Philipp Jarnach , who worked with Busoni's sketches as he knew of them. In the 1980s Antony Beaumont created an expanded and improved completion by drawing on material to which Jarnach did not have access; Joseph Horowitz has described
1220-616: A composer and the profundity of his theoretical writings make [him] one of the most interesting figures in the history of 20th-century music." The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition was initiated in Busoni's honour in 1949, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death. Notes Composer A composer is a person who writes music . The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music , or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. The term
1342-426: A composition professor , ensemble experience, and graduate courses in music history and music theory, along with one or two concerts featuring the composition student's pieces. A master's degree in music (referred to as an M.Mus. or M.M.) is often a required minimum credential for people who wish to teach composition at a university or conservatory. A composer with an M.Mus. could be an adjunct professor or instructor at
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#17328956285491464-404: A composition to every other phrase and to the whole, was the truest artist of all the pianists [I] had ever heard." Busoni's works include compositions, adaptations, transcriptions, recordings and writings. Busoni gave many of his works opus numbers ; some numbers apply to more than one work (after the composer dropped some of his earlier works from his acknowledged corpus). Furthermore, not all
1586-515: A conventional Western piece of instrumental music, in which all of the melodies , chords , and basslines are written out in musical notation, the performer has a degree of latitude to add artistic interpretation to the work, by such means as by varying their articulation and phrasing , choosing how long to make fermatas (held notes) or pauses, and — in the case of bowed string instruments, woodwinds or brass instruments — deciding whether to use expressive effects such as vibrato or portamento . For
1708-593: A dancer and remained a friend. His experience in Vienna in 1907 was less satisfactory, although amongst his more rewarding pupils were Ignaz Friedman , Leo Sirota , Louis Gruenberg , Józef Turczyński and Louis Closson; the latter four were dedicatees of pieces in Busoni's 1909 piano album An die Jugend . But arguments with the Directorate of the Vienna Conservatoire, under whose auspices the classes were held, soured
1830-505: A free fantasy in a pianistic style which owes far more to Busoni than to Bach." On the death of his father in 1909, Busoni wrote in his memory a Fantasia after J. S. Bach ( BV 253 ); and in the following year came his extended fantasy based on Bach, the Fantasia contrappuntistica . Busoni wrote a number of essays on music. The Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst ( Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music ), first published in 1907, set out
1952-528: A hundred on completion. The next morning, Busoni turned up at Schwalm's office, and asked for 150 marks, handing over the completed work, and saying "I worked from nine at night to three thirty, without a piano, and not knowing the opera beforehand." In 1888, the musicologist Hugo Riemann recommended Busoni to Martin Wegelius , director of the Institute of Music at Helsingfors (now Helsinki , Finland, then part of
2074-463: A late romantic style, but after 1907, when he published his Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music , he developed a more individual style, often with elements of atonality . His visits to America led to interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies which were reflected in some of his works. His compositions include works for piano, among them a monumental Piano Concerto , and transcriptions of
2196-607: A letter of recommendation for Sorabji. When Busoni's former pupil Leo Kestenberg , by then an official at the Ministry of Culture in the German Weimar Republic , invited him to return to Germany with the promise of a teaching post and productions of his operas, he was very glad to take the opportunity. In 1920, Busoni returned to the Berlin apartment at Viktoria-Luise-Platz 11 that he had left in 1915. His health began to decline, but he continued to give concerts. His main concern
2318-495: A more mature style, including the Elegies (BV 249; 1907), the suite An die Jugend (BV 252; 1909) and the first two piano sonatinas , BV 257 (1910) and BV 259 (1912). In a series of orchestral concerts in Berlin between 1902 and 1909, both as pianist and conductor, Busoni particularly promoted contemporary music from outside Germany (though he avoided contemporary music, except for his own, in his solo recitals). The series, which
2440-441: A performer of Western popular music creates a "cover" of an earlier song, there is little expectation of exact rendition of the original; nor is exact faithfulness necessarily highly valued (with the possible exception of "note-for-note" transcriptions of famous guitar solos ). In Western art music, the composer typically orchestrates their compositions, but in musical theatre and pop music, songwriters may hire an arranger to do
2562-543: A physician and was later involved in the Revolution of 1848 , and forced to emigrate to the United States. Karl Goldmark's early training as a violinist was at the musical academy of Sopron (1842–44). He continued his music studies there and two years later was sent by his father to Vienna, where he was able to study for some eighteen months with Leopold Jansa before his money ran out. He prepared himself for entry first to
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#17328956285492684-520: A pianist in a concert with his parents at the Schiller-Verein in Trieste on 24 November 1873 playing the first movement of Mozart 's Sonata in C major , and pieces by Schumann and Clementi . Commercially promoted by his parents in a series of further concerts, Busoni later said of this period, "I never had a childhood." In 1875, he made his concerto début playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 . From
2806-537: A pianist was in Berlin in May 1922, playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Among his composition pupils in Berlin were Kurt Weill , Wladimir Vogel , and Robert Blum, and during these last years Busoni also had contact with Varèse, Stravinsky , the conductor Hermann Scherchen , and others. Busoni died in Berlin on 27 July 1924, officially from heart failure , although inflamed kidneys and overwork also contributed to his death. Doktor Faust remained unfinished at his death and
2928-535: A private performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire which was attended by, amongst others, Willem Mengelberg , Edgard Varèse , and Artur Schnabel . In Paris in 1912 Busoni had meetings with Gabriele D'Annunzio , who proposed collaboration in a ballet or opera. He also met with the Futurist artists Filippo Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni . Following a series of concerts in Northern Italy in spring 1913, Busoni
3050-609: A pupil of Dvořák , was also a composer, who spent his career in New York. Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), along with many other notable composers. Many of his autograph manuscripts are in the collection of the National Széchényi Library , with "G" catalogue numbers attached to various works (including those without opus number.) (Note: All above works have been recorded by
3172-473: A range of composition programs, including bachelor's degrees, Master of Music degrees, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. As well, there are a variety of other training programs such as classical summer camps and festivals, which give students the opportunity to get coaching from composers. Bachelor's degrees in composition (referred to as B.Mus. or B.M) are four-year programs that include individual composition lessons, amateur orchestra/choral experience, and
3294-466: A recitalist initially raised concerns in some of Europe's musical centres. His first concerts in London, in 1897, met with mixed comments. The Musical Times reported that he "commenced in a manner to irritate the genuine amateurs [i.e. music-lovers] by playing a ridiculous travesty of one of Bach's masterly Organ Preludes and Fugues, but he made amends by an interpretation of Chopin's Studies (Op. 25) which
3416-492: A second violin concerto, but it was never published. A second symphony in E-flat, Op. 35, is much less well known. Goldmark also wrote an early symphony in C major, between roughly 1858 and 1860. That work was never given an opus number and only the scherzo seems to have ever been published. Goldmark's chamber music, in which the influences of Schumann and Mendelssohn are paramount, although critically well received in his lifetime,
3538-453: A sequence of courses in music history, music theory, and liberal arts courses (e.g., English literature), which give the student a more well-rounded education. Usually, composition students must complete significant pieces or songs before graduating. Not all composers hold a B.Mus. in composition; composers may also hold a B.Mus. in music performance or music theory. Master of Music degrees (M.mus.) in composition consists of private lessons with
3660-490: A side career as a music journalist. "His writing is distinctive for his even-handed promotion of both Brahms and Wagner, at a time when audiences (and most critics) were solidly in one composer's camp or the other and viewed those on the opposing side with undisguised hostility." (Liebermann 1997) Johannes Brahms and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmark's prominence in Vienna grew. Goldmark, however, ultimately distanced himself because of Brahms' prickly personality. Among
3782-438: A singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed "interpretation". Different performers' interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen and the playing or singing style or phrasing of the melodies. Composers and songwriters who present their music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform
Ferruccio Busoni - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-630: A small round cap perched proudly on his thick artist's curls". Between 1888 and 1890, Busoni gave about thirty piano recitals and chamber concerts in Helsingfors; amongst his compositions at this period were a set of Finnish folksongs for piano duet (Op. 27). In 1889, visiting Leipzig, he heard a performance on the organ of Bach 's Toccata and Fugue in D minor ( BWV 565), and was persuaded by his pupil Kathi Petri—the mother of his future pupil Egon Petri , then only five years old—to transcribe it for piano. Busoni's biographer Edward Dent writes that "This
4026-459: A tendency to cluster in specific cities throughout history. Based on over 12,000 prominent composers listed in Grove Music Online and using word count measurement techniques, the most important cities for classical music can be quantitatively identified. Paris has been the main hub for western classical music in all periods. It was ranked fifth in the 15th and 16th centuries but first in
4148-795: A theme from Giacomo Meyerbeer 's opera Le Prophète ) and concert versions of two of the Hungarian Rhapsodies . Busoni also made keyboard transcriptions of works by Mozart, Franz Schubert , Niels Gade and others in the period 1886–1891 for the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel . Later, during his earliest contacts with Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, he made a 'concert interpretation' of the latter's atonal Piano Piece, Op. 11 , No. 2 (BV B 97) (which greatly annoyed Schoenberg himself). Busoni's own works sometimes feature incorporated elements of other composers' music. The fourth movement of An die Jugend (1909), for instance, uses two of Niccolò Paganini 's Caprices for solo violin (numbers 11 and 15), while
4270-676: A university, but it would be difficult in the 2010s to obtain a tenure track professor position with this degree. To become a tenure track professor, many universities require a doctoral degree . In composition, the key doctoral degree is the Doctor of Musical Arts , rather than the PhD ; the PhD is awarded in music, but typically for subjects such as musicology and music theory . Doctor of Musical Arts (referred to as D.M.A., DMA, D.Mus.A. or A.Mus.D) degrees in composition provide an opportunity for advanced study at
4392-487: A very difficult time breaking through and getting the credit they deserve." During the Medieval eras, most of the art music was created for liturgical (religious) purposes and due to the views about the roles of women that were held by religious leaders, few women composed this type of music, with the nun Hildegard von Bingen being among the exceptions. Most university textbooks on the history of music discuss almost exclusively
4514-604: A virulent counter-attack from the German composer Hans Pfitzner and an extended war of words. Busoni continued to experiment with microtones : in America he had obtained some harmonium reeds tuned in third-tones , and he claimed that he "had worked out the theory of a system of thirds of tones in two rows, each separated from each other by a semitone". Although he met with many other artistic personalities also based in Switzerland during
4636-444: A whole. Across cultures and traditions composers may write and transmit music in a variety of ways. In much popular music, the composer writes a composition , and it is then transmitted via oral tradition . Conversely, in some Western classical traditions music may be composed aurally—i.e. "in the mind of the musician"—and subsequently written and passed through written documents . In the development of European classical music ,
4758-639: A work that was kept in the repertory by Sir Thomas Beecham , includes five movements, like a suite composed of coloristic tone poems: a wedding march with variations depicting the wedding guests, a nuptial song, a serenade, a dialogue between the bride and groom in a garden, and a dance movement. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 28, was once his most frequently played piece. The concerto had its première in Bremen in 1877, initially enjoyed great popularity and then slid into obscurity. A very romantic work, it has
4880-520: Is a matter of some dispute. Many of his colleagues and students expressed disappointment with the recordings and felt they did not truly represent Busoni's pianism. Egon Petri was horrified by the piano roll recordings when they first appeared on vinyl and said that they were a travesty of Busoni's playing. Similarly, Petri's student Gunnar Johansen who had heard Busoni play on several occasions, remarked, "Of Busoni's piano rolls and recordings, only Feux follets (no. 5 of Liszt's Transcendental Études )
5002-531: Is descended from Latin , compōnō ; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the Oxford English Dictionary is from Thomas Morley 's 1597 A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music , where he says "Some wil [ sic ] be good descanters [...] and yet wil be but bad composers". "Composer" is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it
Ferruccio Busoni - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-652: Is difficult to analyse ... on account of the way in which themes are transferred from movement to another. The work has to be considered as a whole, and Busoni always desired it to be played straight through without interruption." The press reaction to the premiere of the concerto was largely one of outrage: the Tägliche Rundschau [ de ] complained of "Noise, more noise, eccentricity and licentiousness", while another journal opined that "the composer would have done better to stay within more modest boundaries". The other major work during this "creative pause"
5246-945: Is now rarely heard. It includes the String Quintet in A minor Op. 9 that made his first reputation in Vienna, the Violin Sonata in D major Op. 25, two Piano Quintets in B-flat major, Op. 30 and C-sharp minor, Op. 54, the Cello Sonata Op. 39, and the work that first brought Goldmark's name into prominence in the Viennese musical world, the String Quartet in B-flat Op. 8 (his only work in that genre). He also composed choral music, two Suites for Violin and Piano (in D major, Op. 11, and in E-flat major, Op. 43), and numerous concert overtures , such as
5368-473: Is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who work in the tradition of Western classical music . Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms ' songwriter ' or ' singer-songwriter ' are more often used, particularly in popular music genres. In other contexts, the term 'composer' can refer to a literary writer, or more rarely and generally, someone who combines pieces into
5490-399: Is really something unique. The rest is curiously unconvincing. The recordings, especially of Chopin, are a plain misalliance". Busoni's impact on music was perhaps more through those who studied piano and composition with him, and through his writings on music, than through his compositions themselves, of whose style there are no direct successors. Alfred Brendel has opined: "Compositions like
5612-570: Is used for Busoni's transcriptions and cadenzas . For example, BV B 1 refers to Busoni's cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 . In 1917, Hugo Leichtentritt suggested that the Second Violin Sonata Op. 36a ( BV 244 ), completed in 1900, "stands on the border-line between the first and second epochs of Busoni", although van Dieren asserts that in conversation Busoni "made no such claims for any work written before 1910. This means that he dated his work as an independent composer from
5734-588: The Accademia di Santa Cecilia , Rome. Goldmark's opera Die Königin von Saba ("The Queen of Sheba"), Op. 27 was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years thereafter. First performed in Vienna on 10 March 1875, the work proved so popular that it remained in the repertoire of the Vienna Staatsoper continuously until 1938. He wrote six other operas as well (see list). The Rustic Wedding Symphony ( Ländliche Hochzeit ), Op. 26 (first performed in 1876),
5856-450: The B-A-C-H motif . Busoni revised the work a number of times and arranged it for two pianos. Busoni also drew inspiration from North American indigenous tribal melodies drawn from the studies of Natalie Curtis, which informed his Indian Fantasy for piano and orchestra of 1913 and two books of solo piano sketches, Indian Diary . In 1917, Busoni wrote the one-act opera Arlecchino (1917) as
5978-589: The Baroque music era, many composers were employed by aristocrats or as church employees. During the Classical period , composers began to organize more public concerts for profit, which helped composers to be less dependent on aristocratic or church jobs. This trend continued in the Romantic music era in the 19th century. In the 20th century, composers began to seek employment as professors in universities and conservatories. In
6100-519: The Renaissance music era, composers typically worked for aristocratic employers. While aristocrats typically required composers to produce a significant amount of religious music, such as Masses , composers also penned many non-religious songs on the topic of courtly love : the respectful, reverential love of a great woman from afar. Courtly love songs were very popular during the Renaissance era. During
6222-505: The Russian Empire ), for the vacant position of advanced piano instructor. This was Busoni's first permanent post. Amongst his close colleagues and associates there were the conductor and composer Armas Järnefelt , the writer Adolf Paul , and the composer Jean Sibelius , with whom he struck up a continuing friendship. Paul described Busoni at this time as "a small, slender Italian with chestnut beard, grey eyes, young and gay, with ...
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#17328956285496344-1043: The Sakuntala Overture Op. 13 (a work which cemented his fame after his String Quartet), the Penthesilea Overture Op. 31, the In the Spring Overture Op. 36, the Prometheus Bound Overture Op. 38, the Sappho Overture Op. 44, the In Italy Overture Op. 49, and the Aus Jugendtagen Overture, Op. 53. Other orchestral works include the symphonic poem Zrínyi , Op. 47, and two orchestral scherzos, in E minor, Op. 19, and in A major, Op. 45. Goldmark's nephew Rubin Goldmark (1872–1936),
6466-577: The Tonhalle Orchestra ) and Philipp Jarnach . His friend José Vianna da Motta also taught piano in Geneva at this time. Andreae arranged for Busoni to give concerts with his orchestra. Jarnach, who was 23 when he met Busoni, in 1915, became Busoni's indispensable assistant, among other things preparing piano scores of his operas; Busoni referred to him as his famulus . While in America, Busoni had carried out further work on Doktor Faust , and had written
6588-676: The Vienna Conservatory and then with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke . After brief periods teaching in Helsinki , Boston , and Moscow , he devoted himself to composing, teaching, and touring as a virtuoso pianist in Europe and the United States. His writings on music were influential, and covered not only aesthetics but considerations of microtones and other innovative topics. He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent much of World War I in Switzerland. He began composing in his early years in
6710-427: The 17th to 20th centuries inclusive. London was the second most meaningful city: eighth in the 15th century, seventh in the 16th, fifth in the 17th, second in the 18th and 19th centuries, and fourth in the 20th century. Rome topped the rankings in the 15th century, dropped to second in the 16th and 17th centuries, eighth in the 18th century, ninth in the 19th century but back at sixth in the 20th century. Berlin appears in
6832-569: The 1920 piece Piano Sonatina No. 6 ( Fantasia da camera super Carmen ) is based on themes from Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen . Busoni's output on gramophone record as a pianist was very limited, and many of his original recordings were destroyed when the Columbia Graphophone Company 's factory burned down in 1912. Busoni mentions recording the Gounod-Liszt Faust Waltz in a letter to his wife in 1919. This recording
6954-482: The 20th century is described by Brendel as being for Busoni "a creative pause" after which he "finally gained an artistic profile of his own" as opposed to the "easy routine which had kept his entire earlier production on the tracks of eclecticism". During this period, Busoni wrote his Piano Concerto, one of the largest such works he ever wrote in terms of duration and resources. Dent comments "In construction [the Concerto]
7076-422: The 20th century, composers also earned money from the sales of their works, such as sheet music publications of their songs or pieces or as sound recordings of their works. In 1993, American musicologist Marcia Citron asked, "Why is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?" Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from
7198-429: The 20th century, such as John Cage , Morton Feldman , and Witold Lutosławski . The nature and means of individual variation of the music are varied, depending on the musical culture in the country and the time period it was written. For instance, music composed in the Baroque era , particularly in slow tempos, often was written in bare outline, with the expectation that the performer would add improvised ornaments to
7320-462: The Beaumont completion as "longer, more adventurous and perhaps less good." In the last seven years of his life Busoni worked sporadically on his Klavierübung , a compilation of exercises, transcriptions, and original compositions of his own, with which he hoped to pass on his accumulated knowledge of keyboard technique. It was issued in five parts between 1918 and 1922 An extended version in ten books
7442-511: The Biblical wanderer). The musicologist Antony Beaumont considers Busoni's six Liszt recitals in Berlin of 1911 as the climax of his pre-war career as a pianist. Busoni's performing commitments somewhat stifled his creative capacity during this period: in 1896 he wrote "I have great success as a pianist, the composer I conceal for the present." His monumental Piano Concerto (whose five movements last over an hour and include an offstage male chorus)
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#17328956285497564-734: The Conservatory to close down. Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer, and he supported himself in Vienna playing the violin in theatre orchestras, at the Carlstheater and the privately supported Viennese institution, the Theater in der Josefstadt . This gave him practical experience with orchestration , an art he more than mastered. He also gave lessons: Jean Sibelius studied with him briefly. Goldmark's first concert in Vienna (1858) met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest, returning to Vienna in 1860. To make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued
7686-493: The Vienna Technische Hochschule and then to the Vienna Conservatory to study the violin with Joseph Böhm and harmony with Gottfried Preyer . Until he became a member of Vienna's Carl Theatre in 1850, Goldmark was impoverished, surviving on menial odd jobs and handouts. [Douglas Townsend, liner notes to Columbia Records MS7261, Rustic Wedding (Leonard Berstein, NY Philharmonic)] The Revolution of 1848 forced
7808-425: The ages of nine to eleven, with the help of a patron, Busoni studied at the Vienna Conservatory . His first performances in Vienna were glowingly received by the critic Eduard Hanslick . In 1877, Busoni heard the playing of Franz Liszt , and was introduced to the composer, who admired his skill. In the following year, Busoni composed a four-movement concerto for piano and string quartet . After leaving Vienna, he had
7930-503: The atmosphere. In the autumn of 1910 Busoni gave masterclasses and also carried out a series of recitals in Basel. In the years before World War I, Busoni steadily extended his contacts in the art world in general as well as amongst musicians. Arnold Schoenberg , with whom Busoni had been in correspondence since 1903, settled in Berlin in 1911 partially as a consequence of Busoni lobbying on his behalf. In 1913 Busoni arranged at his own apartment
8052-456: The composer's intentions. Busoni adds tempo markings, articulation and phrase markings, dynamics and metronome markings to the originals, as well as extensive performance suggestions. In his edition of Bach's Goldberg Variations (BV B 35), for example, he suggests cutting eight of the variations for a "concert performance", as well as substantially rewriting many sections. Kenneth Hamilton comments that "the last four variations are rewritten as
8174-450: The composer's numbers are in temporal order. The musicologist Jürgen Kindermann has prepared a thematic catalogue of his works and transcriptions which is also used, in the form of the letters BV (for Busoni Verzeichnis ("Busoni Index"); sometimes the letters KiV for Kindermann Verzeichnis are used) followed by a numeric identifier, to identify his compositions and transcriptions. The identifier B (for Bearbeitung , " arrangement ")
8296-517: The definition of composition is broad enough for the creation of popular and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces and to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as Ewe drummers . During the Middle Ages, most composers worked for the Catholic church and composed music for religious services such as plainchant melodies. During
8418-602: The depths of our humanity and is returned to the high regions whence it has descended on mankind." Sir Henry Wood was surprised to hear Busoni playing, with two hands in double octaves , passages in a Mozart concerto written as single notes. At this, Donald Tovey proclaimed Busoni "to be an absolute purist in not confining himself strictly to Mozart's written text", that is, that Mozart himself could have taken similar liberties. The musicologist Percy Scholes wrote that "Busoni, from his perfect command over every means of expression and his complete consideration of every phrase in
8540-559: The financial support of a patron, the Baronin von Tedesco. He also continued to compose, and made his first attempt at an opera, Sigune , which he worked on from 1886 to 1889 before abandoning it. He described how, finding himself penniless in Leipzig, he appealed to the publisher Schwalm to take his compositions. Schwalm demurred, but said he would commission a fantasy on Peter Cornelius 's opera The Barber of Baghdad for fifty marks down, and
8662-517: The function of composing music initially did not have much greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive enormous attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In the Western world, before the Romantic period of the 19th century, composition almost always went side by side with a combination of either singing, instructing and theorizing . Even in
8784-503: The guidance of faculty composition professors. Some schools require DMA composition students to present concerts of their works, which are typically performed by singers or musicians from the school. The completion of advanced coursework and a minimum B average are other typical requirements of a D.M.A program. During a D.M.A. program, a composition student may get experience teaching undergraduate music students. Some composers did not complete composition programs, but focused their studies on
8906-552: The highest artistic and pedagogical level, requiring usually an additional 54+ credit hours beyond a master's degree (which is about 30+ credits beyond a bachelor's degree). For this reason, admission is highly selective. Students must submit examples of their compositions. If available, some schools will also accept video or audio recordings of performances of the student's pieces. Examinations in music history, music theory, ear training/dictation, and an entrance examination are required. Students must prepare significant compositions under
9028-574: The libretto for his proposed opera Doktor Faust . In January 1915 he left for a concert tour of the US, which was to be his last visit there. During this time he continued work on his Bach edition, including his version of the Goldberg Variations . Upon the composer's return to Europe, Italy had entered the war. Busoni therefore chose to base himself from 1915 in Switzerland. In Zurich, he found local supporters in Volkmar Andreae (conductor of
9150-621: The libretto of his one-act opera Arlecchino . He completed it in Zurich and, to provide a full evening at the theatre, reworked his earlier Turandot into a one-act piece . The two were premiered together in Zurich in May 1917. In Italy in 1916, Busoni met again with the artist Boccioni, who painted his portrait; Busoni was deeply affected when a few months later Boccioni was killed (in a riding accident) whilst on military training, and published an article strongly critical of war. An expanded re-issue of Busoni's 1907 work A New Esthetic of Music let to
9272-463: The librettos of his four operas. Writing in 1917, Hugo Leichtentritt described Busoni's mature style as having elements in common with those of Sibelius, Debussy, Alexander Scriabin , and Schoenberg, noting in particular his movement away from traditional major and minor scales towards atonality . The first landmarks of this mature style are the group of piano works published in 1907–1912 (the Elegies ,
9394-593: The local authorities. After the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, he asked for a year of absence to play an American tour; in fact he was never to return. Virtually his sole permanent achievement at the school was to have modernized its sanitary facilities. He had however during this time composed another concertante work for piano and orchestra, the Indian Fantasy . The piece is based on melodies and rhythms from various American Indian tribes; Busoni derived them from
9516-416: The maxim that "Music was born free; and to win freedom is its destiny". It therefore takes issue with conventional wisdom on music, caricatured by Busoni as the constricting rules of the "lawgivers". It praises the music of Beethoven and JS Bach as the essence of the spirit of music ("Ur-Musik") and says that their art should "be conceived as a beginning , and not as an unsurpassable finality." Busoni asserts
9638-494: The melody line during a performance. Such freedom generally diminished in later eras, correlating with the increased use by composers of more detailed scoring in the form of dynamics, articulation et cetera; composers became uniformly more explicit in how they wished their music to be interpreted, although how strictly and minutely these are dictated varies from one composer to another. Because of this trend of composers becoming increasingly specific and detailed in their instructions to
9760-400: The mid-20th century was Nadia Boulanger . Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts." Women today are being taken more seriously in the realm of concert music, though the statistics of recognition, prizes, employment, and overall opportunities are still biased toward men. Famous composers have
9882-468: The monstrously overwritten Piano Concerto ... obstruct our view of his superlative late piano music. How topical still – and undiscovered – are the first two sonatinas... and the Toccata of 1921 ... Doktor Faust , now as ever, towers over the musical theatre of its time." Helmut Wirth has written that Busoni's "ambivalent nature, striving to reconcile tradition with innovation, his gifts as
10004-417: The music of others. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice , whereas interpretation is generally used to mean the individual choices of a performer. Although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when
10126-483: The musical industry [was to] develop an atmosphere which [Busoni] detested more than the deepest pool of stagnant convention". Berlin proved an excellent base for Busoni's European tours. As in the previous two years in the US, the composer had to depend for his living on exhausting but remunerative tours as a piano virtuoso; in addition at this period he was remitting substantial amounts to his parents, who continued to depend on his income. Busoni's programming and style as
10248-635: The musical influences Goldmark absorbed was the inescapable one, for a musical colorist, of Richard Wagner , whose anti-semitism stood in the way of any genuine warmth between them; in 1872 Goldmark took a prominent role in the formation of the Vienna Wagner Society. He was made an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde , received an honorary doctorate from the University of Budapest and shared with Richard Strauss an honorary membership in
10370-523: The noblest persons of our time", and in which he explained that " Falstaff provoked in me such a revolution of spirit that I can ... date the beginning of a new epoch in my artistic life from that time." In 1894, Busoni settled in Berlin, which he henceforth regarded as his home base, except during the years around World War I . He had earlier felt unsympathetic toward the city: in an 1889 letter to Gerda he had described it as "this Jewish city that I hate, irritating, idle, arrogant, parvenu ". The city
10492-435: The orchestration. In some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and, instead, compose the song in their mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by the examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but
10614-475: The organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor , and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue . These transcriptions go beyond literal reproduction of the music for piano and often involve substantial recreation, although never straying from the original rhythmic outlines, melody notes and harmony. This is in line with Busoni's own concept that the performing artist should be free to intuit and communicate his divination of
10736-452: The performance of voice or an instrument or on music theory , and developed their compositional skills over the course of a career in another musical occupation. Karl Goldmark Goldmark came from a large Jewish family. His father, Ruben Goldmark, was a chazan (cantor) to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely , Hungary, where Karl was born. Karl Goldmark's older brother Joseph became
10858-408: The performer, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composer's written intention came to be highly valued (see, for example, Urtext edition ). This musical culture is almost certainly related to the high esteem (bordering on veneration) in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The historically informed performance movement has revived to some extent
10980-415: The period Busoni undertook teaching at masterclasses at Weimar , Vienna and Basel. In 1900 he was invited by Duke Karl-Alexander of Weimar to lead a masterclass for fifteen young virtuosi. This concept was more amenable to Busoni than teaching formally in a Conservatory: the twice-weekly seminars were successful and were repeated in the following year. Pupils included Maud Allan , who later became famous as
11102-553: The piano pieces An die Jugend ... and the Berceuse in its original version for piano." (These works were actually written in 1909.) The Kindermann Busoni Verzeichnis lists over 200 compositions in the period to 1900, which are met with very rarely in the contemporary repertoire or in recording, mostly featuring piano, either as solo instrument or accompanying others, but also including some works for chamber ensemble and some for orchestra, amongst them two large-scale suites and
11224-427: The possibility of the performer elaborating seriously the music as given in the score, particularly for Baroque music and music from the early Classical period . The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise . In genres other than classical music, the performer generally has more freedom; thus for instance when
11346-474: The principles underlying his performances and his mature compositions. A collection of reflections which are "the outcome of convictions long held and slowly matured", the Sketch asserts that "The spirit of an artwork ... remains[s] unchanged in value through changing years" but its form, manner of expression, and the conventions of the era when it was created, "are transient and age rapidly". The Sketch includes
11468-479: The received ' canon ' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers. According to Abbey Philips, "women musicians have had
11590-399: The right of the interpreter vis-à-vis the purism of the "lawgivers". "The performance of music, its emotional interpretation , derives from those free heights whence descended Art itself ... What the composer's inspiration necessarily loses through notation, his interpreter should restore by his own." He envisages a future music that will include the division of the octave into more than
11712-430: The role of male composers. As well, very few works by women composers are part of the standard repertoire of classical music. In Concise Oxford History of Music , " Clara Shumann [ sic ] is one of the only female composers mentioned", but other notable women composers of the common practice period include Fanny Mendelssohn and Cécile Chaminade , and arguably the most influential teacher of composers during
11834-441: The singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples of this range from wind chimes jingling in a breeze, to avant-garde music from the 20th century that uses graphic notation , to text compositions such as Aus den Sieben Tagen , to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music , and is associated with contemporary composers active in
11956-484: The suite An die Jugend and the first two piano sonatinas) and Busoni's first completed opera, Die Brautwahl ; together with the rather different Bach homage, the 1910 Fantasia contrappuntistica , Busoni's largest work for solo piano. About half an hour in length, it is essentially an extended fantasy on the final incomplete fugue from Bach's The Art of Fugue . It uses several melodic figures found in Bach's work, most notably
12078-440: The top ten rankings only in the 18th century and was ranked third most important city in both the 19th and 20th centuries. New York City entered the rankings in the 19th century (in fifth place) and stood at second rank in the 20th century. The patterns are very similar for a sample of 522 top composers. Professional classical composers often have a background in performing classical music during their childhood and teens, either as
12200-477: The traditional 12 semitones . However, he asserted the importance of musical form and structure: His idea of a 'Young Classicism' "aimed to incorporate experimental features in "firm, rounded forms" ... motivated each time by musical necessity." (Brendel). Another collection of Busoni's essays was published in 1922 as Von der Einheit der Musik , later republished as Wesen und Einheit der Musik , and in 1957 translated as The Essence of Music . Busoni also wrote
12322-764: The two- and three-part Inventions . In the same year he won the prize for composition, with his Konzertstück ("Concert Piece") for piano and orchestra, Op. 31a ( BV 236 ), at the first Anton Rubinstein Competition , initiated by Anton Rubinstein himself at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory . As a consequence he was invited to visit and teach at the Moscow Conservatoire . Gerda joined him in Moscow where they promptly married. His first concert in Moscow, when he performed Beethoven 's Emperor Concerto ,
12444-404: The victory of reflection over bravura " after the more flamboyant era of Liszt. He cites Busoni himself: "Music is so constituted that every context is a new context and should be treated as an 'exception'. The solution of a problem, once found, cannot be reapplied to a different context. Our art is a theatre of surprise and invention, and of the seemingly unprepared. The spirit of music arises from
12566-455: The war (including Stefan Zweig , who noted his extensive drinking, and James Joyce ), Busoni soon found his circumstances limiting. After the end of the war, he again undertook concert tours in England, Paris and Italy. In London, he met with the composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji who played his Piano Sonata No. 1 for him (he had dedicated it to Busoni). Busoni was sufficiently impressed to write
12688-535: The works of others, notably Johann Sebastian Bach (published as the Bach-Busoni Editions ). He also wrote chamber music , vocal and orchestral works, and operas—one of which, Doktor Faust , he left unfinished when he died, in Berlin, at the age of 58. Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was born on 1 April 1866 in the Tuscan town of Empoli , the only child of two professional musicians, Ferdinando,
12810-492: The youngest person to receive this honour since Mozart. In the mid 1880s, Busoni was based in Vienna, where he met with Karl Goldmark and helped to prepare the vocal score for the latter's 1886 opera Merlin . He also met Johannes Brahms , to whom he dedicated two sets of piano Études , and who recommended he undertake study in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke . During this period, Busoni supported himself by giving recitals, and also by
12932-626: Was Arthur Nikisch , whom he had known since 1876 when they performed together at a concert in Vienna. Busoni's first son, Benvenuto (known as Benni), was born in Boston in 1892, but Busoni's experience at New England Conservatory proved unsatisfactory. After a year he resigned from the Conservatory and launched himself into a series of recitals across the Eastern US. Busoni was at the Berlin premiere of Giuseppe Verdi 's opera Falstaff in April 1893. The result
13054-526: Was eventually to form a volume of the Bach-Busoni Edition , an undertaking which was to extend over thirty years. Seven volumes were edited by Busoni himself; these included the 1890 edition of the Two- and Three-Part Inventions . Busoni also began to publish his concert piano transcriptions of Bach's music, which he often included in his own recitals. These included some of Bach's chorale preludes for organ,
13176-582: Was held at the Beethovensaal (Beethoven Hall), included German premieres of music by Edward Elgar , Sibelius, César Franck , Claude Debussy , Vincent d'Indy , Carl Nielsen and Béla Bartók . The concerts also included premieres of some of Busoni's own works of the period, among them, in 1904, the Piano Concerto, in which he was the soloist under conductor Karl Muck ; in 1905, his Turandot Suite , and, in 1907, his Comedy Overture . Music of older masters
13298-465: Was included, but sometimes with an unexpected twist. For example, Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the eccentric first movement cadenza by Charles-Valentin Alkan (which includes references to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony ). The concerts aroused much publicity but generated aggressive comments from critics. Couling suggests the programming of the concerts was "generally regarded as a provocation". During
13420-407: Was never released. He never recorded any of his own works. Busoni made a considerable number of piano rolls ; a few of them have been re-recorded and released on vinyl LP and CD . These include a 1950 recording by Columbia sourced from piano rolls made by Welte-Mignon including music of Chopin and transcriptions by Liszt. The value of these recordings in ascertaining Busoni's performance style
13542-647: Was not only the beginning of [his] transcriptions, but ... the beginning of that style of pianoforte touch and technique which was entirely [Busoni's] creation." Returning to Helsingfors, in March of the same year Busoni met his future wife, Gerda Sjöstrand, the daughter of the Swedish sculptor Carl Eneas Sjöstrand , and proposed to her within a week. He composed Kultaselle ("To the Beloved") for cello and piano for her ( BV 237 ; published in 1891 without an opus number). In 1890, Busoni published his first edition of Bach works:
13664-704: Was of course unequal but, on the whole, interesting". In Paris, the critic Arthur Dandelot commented "this artist has certainly great qualities of technique and charm", but strongly objected to his addition of chromatic passages to parts of Liszt's St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots . Busoni's international reputation rose swiftly, and he frequently performed in Berlin and other European capitals and regional centres (including Manchester, Birmingham, Marseilles, Florence, and many German and Austrian cities) throughout this period, as well as returning to America for four visits between 1904 and 1915. This journeying life led van Dieren to call him "a musical Ishmael " (after
13786-645: Was offered the directorship of the Liceo Rossini in Bologna. He had recently moved to an apartment in Viktoria-Luise-Platz in Schöneberg , Berlin, but took up the offer, intending to spend his summers in Berlin. The posting proved unsuccessful. Bologna was a cultural backwater, despite occasional visits from celebrities such as Isadora Duncan . Busoni's piano pupils were untalented, and he had constant arguments with
13908-583: Was premiered in Berlin in 1925, completed by Jarnach. Busoni's Berlin apartment was destroyed in an air-raid in 1943, and many of his possessions and papers were lost or looted. A plaque at the site commemorates his residence. Busoni's wife, Gerda, died in Sweden in 1956. Their son Benni, who, despite his American nationality had lived in Berlin throughout World War II, died there in 1976. Their second son Lello, an illustrator, died in New York in 1962. The pianist Alfred Brendel said of Busoni's playing that it "signifies
14030-505: Was published posthumously in 1925. Apart from his work on the music of Bach, Busoni edited and transcribed works by other composers. He edited three volumes of the 34-volume Franz Liszt Foundation's edition of Liszt's works, including most of the études, and the Grandes études de Paganini . Other Liszt transcriptions include his piano arrangement of Liszt's organ Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" (BV B 59) (based on
14152-463: Was swiftly growing in population and influence during this period and determined to stake itself as the musical capital of the united Germany, but as Busoni's friend the English composer Bernard van Dieren pointed out, "international virtuosi who for practical reasons chose Berlin as their abode were not so much concerned with questions of prestige", and for Busoni the city's development as "the centre of
14274-535: Was the Turandot Suite . Busoni employed motifs from Chinese and other oriental music in the suite, though, as Leichtentritt points out, the Suite is "in fact the product of an Occidental mind, for whom the exact imitation of the real Chinese model would always be unnatural and unattainable ... the appearance is more artistic than the real thing would be." The suite was first performed as a purely musical item in 1905; it
14396-591: Was to complete Doktor Faust , the libretto of which had been published in Germany in 1918. In 1921 he wrote "Like a subterranean river, heard but not seen, the music for Faust roars and flows continually in the depths of my aspirations". Berlin was the heart of the musical world of the Weimar Republic. Busoni's works, including his operas, were regularly programmed. Health permitting, he continued to perform; problems of hyperinflation in Germany meant that he needed to undertake tours of England. His last appearance as
14518-416: Was to force on him a re-evaluation of the potential of Italian musical traditions which he had so far ignored in favour of the German traditions, and in particular the models of Brahms and the orchestral techniques of Liszt and Wagner . Busoni immediately began to draft an adulatory letter to Verdi (which he never summoned the courage to send), in which he addressed him as "Italy's leading composer" and "one of
14640-525: Was used in a production of the play in 1911, and was eventually transformed into a two-act opera in 1917. 1894 saw the publication in Berlin of the first part of Busoni's edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach for the piano; the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier . This was equipped with substantial appendices, including one " On the Transcription of Bach's Organ Works for the Pianoforte ". This
14762-607: Was warmly received. But living in Moscow did not suit the Busonis for both financial and professional reasons; he felt excluded by his nationalistically-inclined Russian colleagues. So when Busoni received an approach from William Steinway to teach at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he was happy to take the opportunity, particularly since the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at that time
14884-403: Was written between 1901 and 1904. In 1904 and 1905, the composer wrote his Turandot Suite as incidental music for Carlo Gozzi 's play of the same name . A major project undertaken at this time was the opera Die Brautwahl , based on a tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann , first performed (to a lukewarm reception) in Berlin in 1912. Busoni also began to produce solo piano works that clearly revealed
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