Jules Massenet, Quotes Prolific French composer Jules Massenet wrote operas, songs, oratorios, cantatas, ballets, orchestral works, and incidental music. His commercial success, judged as pandering to female singers and women-dominated audiences, beguiles his continuing musical admiration in our time. “It is pretty sure that if Massenet had not lived just when he did, when the […]
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Prolific French composer Jules Massenet wrote operas, songs, oratorios, cantatas, ballets, orchestral works, and incidental music. His commercial success, judged as pandering to female singers and women-dominated audiences, beguiles his continuing musical admiration in our time. Jules Massenet’s Early Years I was born May 12, 1842, in Montaud, France, on the Loire. Although my parents
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Jean-Baptiste Lully Quotes Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully served the French court as a composer, dancer, conductor, and performing musician. He composed operas, ballets, and sacred music lived a colorful bisexual lifestyle, and died a freak death due to a conducting accident. The Abbe Prevost wrote: “Some critics, however, accuse him (Handle) of having borrowed
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Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully served the French court as a composer, dancer, conductor, and performing musician. He composed operas, ballets, and sacred music lived a colorful bisexual lifestyle, and died a freak death due to a conducting accident. Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Early Life I was born November 28, 1632, in Florence, Italy. My father was
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Christoph Willibald Gluck Quotes Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer of Italian and French opera in the classical period. Gluck was popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera. His musical legacy includes approximately 35 complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas as well as numerous ballets and instrumental
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Christoph Gluck’s Childhood and Early Years I was born July 2, 1714, in Erasbach, Bavaria. The year of my birth was a politically strained one, with the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden being signed, thus ending the War of Spanish Succession. The financial well-being of the country – part of Germany in your time –
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Jean-Philippe Rameau Quotes Jean-Philippe Rameau was a French composer and music theorist of the 18th century. He was almost fifty years of age before he started his career in opera music. His debut, Hippolyte et Aricie, was something very different and was attacked by the supporters of Lully’s style of music for Rameau’s use of
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Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Early Years I was born on September 25, 1683, in Dijon, France. The seventh of eleven children, I was exposed to music at a young age, learning both keyboards and violin. Father was an organist who spent much of his career playing in several churches around our hometown. Family members persistently promoted learning
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Quotes Composer Giovanni Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known of the Roman School of musical composition. He influenced the development of the church and secular music in Europe. in his lifetime he composed over 105 masses and 250 motets. “I beg you to let me
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Giovanni Palestrina’s Studies & Early Work I believe that I was born circa February 1525. It is impossible to confirm as the war between Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement VII destroyed my municipality of Palestrina along with many of its records. Documents recording the births and deaths of the previous decades were lost. After
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