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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Jacob Ter Veldhuis – JacobTV Quotes Jacob TV composes classical music that often goes against the grain of current trends in classical music and often incorporates forms of expression using “sampled” voices from a variety of sources in the compositions. The compositional material includes electronics, incorporating sound bytes from political speeches, commercials, interviews, talk shows, and …
Gabriel Fauré Quotes Gabriel Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and educator. He was one of the most well-known French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced composers to come. His best-known works are Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune”. Towards the end of his life he started …
Georges Bizet Quotes Georges Bizet was a French composer of the Romantic era. He is known for his operas but his musical career was short due to his early death. Composer Georges Bizet work Carmen, has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works. “Religion is a means of exploitation employed by the …
Giacomo Puccini Quotes Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer known mostly for his operas. His most known works are La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, all are among the most frequently performed and recorded of all operas. Composer Giacomo Puccini’s musical career was from end of the Romantic period into the modern period. “Inspiration …
Charles Gounod Quotes Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been Faust; his Romeo and Juliette are two of his international knowns works. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces. Charles Gounod was born in Paris into a …