Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828)

was an Austrian composer. Schubert died at age 31, but was
extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over
600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven
complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and
a large body of chamber and piano music.

Appreciation of Schubert's music while he was alive was limited to

a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his
work increased significantly in the decades following his death.

Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part

of Alsergrund), Vienna, Archduchy of Austria on 31 January 1797.
His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of
a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth (Vietz), was the daughter of
a Silesian master locksmith and had been a housemaid for a Viennese family before marriage. Of
Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one of them illegitimate, born in 1783) Though he was not
recognised or even formally trained as a musician, he passed on certain musical basics to his gifted
son.

At the end of 1813, he left the Stadtkonvikt and returned home for teacher training at the St Anna
Normal-hauptschule. In 1814, he entered his father's school as teacher of the youngest pupils. For
over two years young Schubert endured such drudgery, dragging himself through it with resounding
indifference.[14] There were, however, compensatory interests even then. He continued to take private
lessons in composition from Salieri, who gave Schubert more actual technical training than any of
his other teachers, before they parted ways in 1817.

Significant changes happened in 1816. Schober, a student and of good family and some means,
invited Schubert to room with him at his mother's house. The proposal was particularly opportune,
for Schubert had just made the unsuccessful application for the post of kapellmeister at Laibach, and
he had also decided not to resume teaching duties at his father's school. By the end of the year, he
became a guest in Schober's lodgings.[citation needed] For a time, he attempted to increase the household
resources by giving music lessons, but they were soon abandoned, and he devoted himself to
composition. "I compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another."

FAMOUS WORKS

Ave Maria Schwanengesang

Erlkönig, D. 328 schubert impromptu

Erlkönig, D. 328 Ständchen

Trout Quintet Die Forelle

 Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi Verdi was
born near Busseto to a provincial family of
moderate means, and developed a musical
education with the help of a local patron. Verdi
came to dominate the Italian opera scene after
the era of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti,
and Gioachino Rossini, whose works significantly
influenced him, becoming one of the pre-eminent
opera composers in historyIn his early operas,
Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with
the Risorgimento movement which sought the
unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as
an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero"
from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar
choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and
the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An
intensely private person, Verdi however did not seek to ingratiate himself with
popular movements and as he became professionally successful was able to
reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in
his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success
with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874),
and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).
Verdi, the first child of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi (1785–1867) and Luigia Uttini
(1787–1851), was born at their home in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then
in the Département Taro and within the borders of the First French
Empire following the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1808.
The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo and
Luigia as "innkeeper" and "spinner" respectively. Additionally, it lists Verdi as
being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset,
this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Following his mother, Verdi always
celebrated his birthday on 9 October, the day he himself believed he was born.
FAMOUS WORKS

Verdi Requiem Verdi Requiem

La traviata Aida
Rigoletto Nabucco
Nabucco Don Carlo
 Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo
Maria Puccini was an
Italian opera composer who has been called "the
greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi".
was an Italian opera composer who has been
called "the greatest composer of Italian opera
after Verdi". Puccini's most renowned works
are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama
Butterfly (1904), and Turandot(1924), all of which
are among the important operas played as
standards. Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio
Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini
in Lucca, Italy in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina
Magi. The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by
Puccini's great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo (1712–1781).
his first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San
Martino in Lucca. He was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio
Puccini, and then by Antonio's son Domenico, and Domenico's son Michele
(father of the subject of this article). Each of these men studied music at Bologna,
and some took additional musical studies elsewhere. Puccini wrote an orchestral
piece called the Capriccio sinfonico as a thesis composition for the Milan
Conservatory. Puccini's teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the
work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July
1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccini's work was favorably reviewed in the
Milanese publication Perseveranza,[2] and thus Puccini began to build a
reputation as a young composer of promise in Milanese music circles. However,
when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, and thus not
capable of taking over his father's job. As a child, he nevertheless participated in the
musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys' choir and later as a
substitute organist.
FAMOUS WORKS

La bohème Tosca
Turandot Madame Butterfly
Nessun dorma Manon Lescaut
O mio babbino caro O mio babbino caro
Gianni Schicchi Tu che di gel sei cinta
 Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer,
theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is
chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his later
works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike
most opera composers, Wagner wrote both
the libretto and the music for each of his stage works.
Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of
works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von
Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner
revolutionised opera through his concept of
the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which
he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical
and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He
described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852.
Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der
Ring des Nibelungen.
His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their
complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use
of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places,
ideas, or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as
extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the
development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described
as marking the start of modern music.
Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which
embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered
here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the
annual Bayreuth Festival, run by his descendants. His thoughts on the relative
contributions of music and drama in opera were to change again, and he
reintroduced some traditional forms into his last few stage works, including Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg).
FAMOUS WORKS

Der Ring des Nibelungen Lohengrin

Tristan und Isolde Parsifal
Tannhäuser Die Walküre
Ride of the Valkyries Das Rheingold
Götterdämmerung Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
 Georges Bizet
Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, registered at birth as
was a French composer of the romantic era. Best
known for his operas in a career cut short by his early
death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final
work, Carmen, which has become one of the most
popular and frequently performed works in the entire
opera repertoire. During a brilliant student career at
the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes,
including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was
recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose
not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in
public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in
Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres
preferred the established classical repertoire to the
works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise
largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by
arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began
many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned.
Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de
perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful. During a brilliant
student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including
the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding
pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in
public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main
Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works
of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely
ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by
arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began
many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned.
Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de
perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful.

FAMOUS WORKS

Carmen Les pêcheurs de perles Les pêcheurs de perles

L'Arlésienne Symphony in C (Bizet) Toreador Song

Carmen Suites Jeux d'enfants (Bizet)

Habanera Au fond du temple saint