Famous Composers

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 […]

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

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 –

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

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

Gabriel Fauré’s Early Years In Music I was born May 2nd, 1845, in Pamiers, Ariège, France. As the youngest son in a family of six boys and one girl, “I grew up a rather quiet, well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty.” None of my brothers displayed any interest or talent in music. Indeed,

Charles Gounod’s Early Years Shaped by the Death of His Father I was born on June 17th, 1818, in Paris to an artistic family. My father was a painter, my mother a talented pianist who, on occasion, gave lessons to musically inclined students. Francois, my father, was, at one point, the official artist to a

Giacomo Puccini’s Early Years: Struggles with School & Musical Growth I was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, to a musically gifted family. My father, Michele Puccini, was well established in Lucca as part of a ‘musical dynasty’ founded by my great-great-grandfather, the first maestro di cappella at the Cattedrale do San Martino. 

César Franck Pushed To Perform on Piano from His Childhood Did I work myself to death? Perhaps so. Since my childhood, I used my talents as a pianist and composer to line my parents’ pockets, ensuring financial stability in financially hard times.  Like Beethoven, my father pushed my violinist brother to study music to generate

The Early Life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky I was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia, to a military family. My father worked as a mining engineer and served as a lieutenant colonel in the army. My mother leaned towards a career in the arts. She was French and German and had taught me