http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Classical_Summary.html The term classical music is too broad and may have different connotations. It usually refers to music produced or that has its roots in European art and concert music. One of the main features of this music is that it was transmitted in written form or musical notation. This classical music is very complex; it goes deeper in the analysis of human condition and emotions, and the instruments are carefully selected. Another conception refers to the type of music that is learned from traditions or is taught through institutions that aims to transmit music. Artists such as Cello Suites, The 5 Browns, Yo-Yo Ma, and Boston Pops belong to this category. en-us http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_10846.html Fri, 05 May 2006 11:53:21 CST Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (Honfleur, May 17, 1966 – Paris, July 1, 1925) was a French composer and pianist. He introduced himself as a “gymnopedist” in 1887, soon before writing his most famous composition, the “Gymnopédies”.  He is best known as Erik Satie (he changed his name after his first composition in 1884, switching the final “c” of his name for a “k”). Although in his later years he was proud of always publishing his work using his proper name, it seems that was a short period in the late 1880s when he published works under the pseudonym “Virgine Lebeau”.

Erik Satie also worked writing articles for several newspapers. He called himself a “phonometrograph" (a person who measures and writes sounds), preferring to define himself like that than a musician. Erik Satie was one of the first people to in appear in a film, in 1924, in a move by René Clair.

Until the year of his death in 1925, absolutely no one, except Erik Satie himself, entered his room in Arcueil since he moved there. What his friends found there, after his burial in the Arcueil Cemetery, was very interesting. Besides dust and cobwebs (which indicated Satie never composed using his piano), they discovered several objects such as a great quantity of umbrellas, love letters, drawings, and fine clothing. However, the most valuable things were new compositions which no one had ever heard before or that were thought lost. These included Geneviève de Brabant and Vexations, among others. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_10834.html Fri, 05 May 2006 11:40:36 CST Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), also known as Il Prete Rosso or “the red priest”, was an Italian priest and baroque music composer. His father, Giovanni Battista, was a barber who became a musician, and it is assumed that he was Vivaldi’s first music teacher.

In 1703, Vivaldi became a priest and was nicknamed Il Prete Rosso because of his red hair. He soon left that life when due to a sickness that was very rare at that time, asthma, he couldn’t hold mass. It is when he decided to be a musician. In 1704, Vivaldi became a violin teacher for a girl orphanage called Ospedale della Pietà in Venetia, where he wrote many works for the orphanage girls.

Vivaldi was also into the opera business, where he was very successful and met Anna Giraud, a young opera singer, who would accompany him thereafter. Despite making a lot of money, mainly thanks to his opera businesses, Vivaldi died poor and his body was buried in a common grave.

One of his best known works is the Four Seasons, where Vivaldi expresses through music the feelings that he experiments in the different seasons of the year. Vivaldi is considered as one of the precursors of romantic music. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7782.html Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:54:37 CST
Born of English and Scottish descent, John Milton Cage’s birth place was Los Angeles; on September 5, 1912 he was born, and he became an experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. He comes from an Episcopalian family, with strict rules and a deep sense of society. Cage even planned, once, to become a minister.

He attended Pomona College. By the 1930’s, he went to Cornish School of the Arts, located in Seattle, Washington. He wrote for a wide variety of instruments, such as piano and percussion. He was influenced by one of his teachers, Henry Cowell.

He defined himself as an experimental composer because he indeed played with sounds and created new styles by chance, meaning that with the basis of the aleatoric music, several elements of it are given by chance, not planning them ahead. He used to combine Zen Buddhist principles, describing music as a “purposeless play” that helps us “wake up to the very life we are living.”

It would be pretty difficult to mention his best productions, due to two reasons; first, his compositions are too broad and too varied and the second reason is that they are more than two hundred and each piece of his music really pleases people with different tastes and shades.

Among his multiple talents, he had other sidelines too; he usually collected mushrooms and was the co-founder of the New York Mycological Society. He died on August 12, 1992. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7769.html Wed, 12 Apr 2006 03:37:48 CST
His fascination with music has taken Andre Rieu to the highest spots in the contemporary scene of the world of classical composition. Since he was a little child, his father became his principal tutor; he conducted a huge orchestra, and Andre was astounded by the sounds of instruments and the accuracy with which the members played. Nowadays, Rieu’s life revolves around music; even his wife has gotten involved with his appreciation for music.

He was born in October 1, 1949 in the Netherlands; he is a Dutch violinist and orchestra conductor. He actually began studying violin when he was five years old. His alma mater was the academy in Liege and from 1968 to 1973 he studied at the Conservatorium Maastricht.

His fame increased a lot when he decided to release a record called Johann Strauss Orchestra, the same name as the orchestra itself. This project became a reality in 1987, recruiting twelve members; nowadays it is made up by more than forty musicians. In his own words, he mentions that he wants “to make the whole of classical music accessible for everyone.” And this goal he has imposed to himself has been widely valued by many people around the world. His idealism makes him a person who is successful in any aspiration he has. He wants to make people happy with classical music.

The success of this orchestra has gone beyond the frontiers and its quality has been prized and internationally recognized; they have won the World Music Awards two times and their recordings have sold thousands of copies all around the world. The variety of genres they include in their repertoire is very wide; from classical music, to popular and folk music, soundtracks and theater musicals. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7765.html Wed, 12 Apr 2006 03:33:00 CST
In order to understand Bach’s music, it is necessary to pay special attention to his secular and prolific family background, as well as his multiple fruitful trips around different places in Germany. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, to a family whose extraordinary musical gift has transcended the barriers of time for more than two hundred years. He lived in a place called Thuringia, in Germany. His uncles were professional composers and musicians, and they were all involved with secular and church music.

Sebastian was granted a choral scholarship when he was fourteen years old; therefore, he studied at Saint Michael’s School, one of the schools with high-status in Hamburg. He and his school friend, Georg Erdmann took the long journey to this institution. It is very probable that he studied a variety of subjects, such as French, theology, Latin, geography and physics.

By 1703, and being a young boy, his status as a keyboardist increased considerably. By August of this same year, he accepted the position of organist at Saint Boniface’s Church in Arnstadt. At this time, Bach began writing serious compositions, such as Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Several years later, Sebastian felt the necessity of changing his environment, due to certain inconveniences with the standard of the choir’s singers.  Bach decided to start a journey through different cities in Germany, including Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, from 1703 to 1708; Weimar, from 1708 to 1717, Cöthen from1717 to 1723 and Leipzig from 1723 to 1750. He died on July 28, 1750. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7745.html Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:25:02 CST
Maurice Ravel was born in Cibourne in the year 1875. He was a French pianist and composer; he is very well known for his orchestral piece Bolero.

His years as a student he spent at the Conservatoire under Gabriel Fauré for fourteen years. During this long time at the conservatory, Ravel tried frequently to win the prominent Prix de Rome, but he never won and Ravel left the conservatory.

Ravel is considered as a classicist; he applied original accords and melodies to his musical compositions. His inspirations came from classic valses form Schubert. On the other hand, his piano concertos mirror Gershwin techniques and style. Some of his most prominent compositions are Jeux d'eau for piano in the year 1901; Histoires naturelles which from a song cycle in 1906; Rapsodie espagnole ('Spanish Rhapsody') for orchestra, 1907, Boléro a ballet from 1928. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7739.html Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:14:13 CST
With a fruitful career, not only as a musical composer, but also as a writer, conductor and pianist, Leonard Bernstein was born in the United States, specifically in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918. He comes from a family of Jewish background from Ukraine. Bernstein has been worldwide praised; he is specially known for conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Leonard’s childhood was very normal; he attended Garrison and Boston Latin School. At first, his father, Sam Bernstein was opposed to Leonard’s curiosity towards music; but then he started to understand his child’s preference and usually took him to orchestra concerts. Then, Leonard began his piano lessons.

Right after graduating in 1935, Bernstein went to Harvard University, where of course he studied music. The next step into his outstanding career was the Curtis Institute of Music, located in Philadelphia. In this institute, he studied piano next to Isabella Vengerova and Heinrich Gebhard.

His leap towards international recognition started after World War II; in 1949, he performed first as a conductor in the world première of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. Likewise, in 1957, he lead the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. He took part of one of the biggest events in contemporary history; Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, on December 25, 1989.

Among the awards he won, it is worth mentioning his eight Grammy Awards, mostly granted to him because of his virtuosity and Best Orchestral and Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Opera Performance, and so on.

His calling took him to walk through a variety of paths; one of those was writing. His legacy is profoundly shown in the lines of Findings, The Infinite Variety of Music, The Joy of Music and The Unanswered Question. Bernstein died on October 14, 1990. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7735.html Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:07:12 CST
The 18th century gave birth to one of its favorite children; born on January 27, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the greatest composers of European classical music with exceptional talent, developed completely naturally since his very early age. Actually, when he was three years old, he started to play melodies on the piano, and at age six, he started composing.

Though it sounds a little strange, Mozart was his own critic; he knew exactly how special he was and this is the reason why he kept on writing about any mediocrity he thought could be avoided. This deed facilitated him his own perfection, reaching the best of operatic, piano, chamber, symphonic and choral music.

His father, Leopold Mozart, wrote letters to him, trying to persuade him of getting a job in which he could be able to make money, emphasizing the rigidity of his narrow mind and trying to control Wolfgang’s genius. It is said that Mozart grew up being much of an undisciplined inexperienced young boy; he was taken out of his normal life, to be literarily exhibited in different courts of Europe, as the piano virtuoso he proved to be. While he took a trip with his mother, in 1777, he met the Webers; this family lived a bohemian life as musicians. Mozart fell in love with one of the daughters, Aloysia, who was only eighteen. By 1778, his mother died in Paris. He came back to Mannheim, looking for his beloved Aloysia, but she had no time for him since she became a prima donna of the opera.

In 1781, Mozart decided to marry Constanze, the middle daughter of the Weber family; they both matched because she had a flair for wasting money and being very naïve regarding the worldly situations of life. This period was very productive musically and artistically speaking. In his whole career, he composed twenty-seven piano concertos, (the most representative is no. 9), hundreds of symphonies, chamber music and so on.

There are several theories that explain the possible causes of Mozart’s death; some investigators say that he died from trichinosis, mercury poisoning and rheumatic fever. None of these have been totally proved or rejected. Mozart died on December 5, 1791, in Vienna. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7553.html Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:00:01 CST
Outstanding and unique; those are just two adjectives that help describe the magnificent talent of Andrea Bocelli. His voice has captivated the hearts of millions of people around the world; his many-sided career explains why he is considered one of the best contemporary singers, music producers and writers.

Andrea was born on September 22, 1958, in the beautiful region of Lajatico, in Tuscany, Italy. When he was a child, he usually played the church organ, and by his 12th birthday he won his first prize called the Margherita d’Oro, due to his interpretation of the song O sole mio. He graduated as a Doctor of Law at the University of Pisa. After working as a lawyer for one year, he continued his musical and vocal training, with the Maestro Luciano Bettarini; these lessons took much of his time.

Regarding his visual impairment, Andrea was born with glaucoma, and at age 12, while he was pleasantly playing soccer, he was hit on the head and suffered from a brain hemorrhage, which produced total blindness to him. But this situation did stop him from becoming one of the most successful contemporary tenors of the world.

He is internationally recognized for his interpretations of classical and opera songs; his duet with soprano Sarah Brightman, Con Te Partiro, which was a tremendous sensation, sold thousands of copies and opened the doors for his further presentations and fame. Actually, one of his latest performances was at the closing ceremony of the winter Olympic Games in Turin, 2006.

He has a broad discography; in only ten years, his production has gone in different directions, but all of them demonstrate the superiority of his voice and the friendship which characterizes him. Just to mention a few albums from his better known production we can find: Romanza, from 1996; Sogno from 1999 and which broke sales records and reached #4 in the US music charts; for 2001, he released his wisely called Cieli di Toscana, which was #11 in the United States, #3 in the United Kingdom and Italy.

Not only because of his voice, but also because of his charisma and sense of humanity, Andrea Bocelli is considered one of the best contemporary vocalists and an example of good disposition and hard work. http://www.vagmusic.com/articles/Genres_7608.html Tue, 11 Apr 2006 09:31:43 CST
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1827.  This German composer of classical music lived for the most part of his life in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven is extensively considered as one of history's highest composers; he produced outstanding masterpieces despite the fact that he was losing his hearing.

Beethoven is extremely recognized as one of the greatest personages in the midway epoch between the Classical and Romantic periods in music. His standing has stimulated or overawed the creative facility of thousands of composers, musicians, and audiences who met him through generations.

These are his most widely-recognized works: Third, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth symphonies (the last one includes "Ode to Joy"); Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"); a Violin Concerto; the Pathétique, Moonlight, Appassionata, and Hammerklavier piano sonatas; and the bagatelle Für Elise.

His career as a composer is divided into three different periods: early, middle and late. In the early period, he tried to imitate his predecessors Haydn and Mozart; the second or middle period is defined by a crisis due to deafness; it represents heroism and struggle. The late stage was from 1816 to 1827. This is the most admired because it represents his maturity not only intellectually but also his artistic expression of depth and the highest manifestation of his feelings. Though he was attracted to several aristocratic women, he never got married.

Beethoven died on 26 March 1827, after suffering from an extensive illness; after almost two years, Franz Schubert’s body was buried next to Beethoven’s in the Währinger cemetery. In 1888, their graves were relocated in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), where they lie next to Johann Strauss I and Johannes Brahms.