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TEXTS FOR READING
TEXTS FOR READING
FAMOUS COMPOSERS’ FACTS
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (German) 1770–1827
• Beethoven preferred not to listen to his contemporaries’ works, for fear it would infl uence his
own writing.
• Beethoven called his smaller pieces “bagatelles” – meaning trifl es.
• The symphonies he wrote are numbered one through nine. It’s not known why the odd numbers
are dynamic, while the even
numbers are aesthetic or peaceful.
• All of Beethoven’s symphonies have four movements.
• Beethoven wrote only one violin concerto in his life time.
• At about the age of 30 Ludwig van Beethoven became deaf.
• Beethoven was entirely deaf by the time he wrote his Ninth Symphony – considered to be one
of his greatest works.
• He conducted the orchestra when he presented the Ninth Symphony. Reportedly, the audience
was on its feet applauding, but
due to his deafness, Beethoven didn’t realise it until someone turned him around to face the
audience.
• In the August of 1845, the Beethoven Monument was inaugurated in Bonn, his birthplace. This
was the fi rst time ever that a
statue of a music composer was erected in Germany.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (German) 1685–1750
• Johann Sebastian Bach could play the organ, clavichord, violin, and other stringed instruments.
• During Bach’s lifetime, he was most famous as an organ virtuoso, rather than a composer.
• Bach was a keyboard virtuoso. He mastered organ and later harpsichord.
• He wrote music for the voice (solo and chorus) and for many different instruments.
• While in school, Bach studied orthodox Lutheranism, logic, rhetoric, Latin and Greek,
arithmetic, history, geography and German
poetry.
• His father and mother died when he was 10 years old and he lived with his brother.
• As a little boy, he sang in the streets, begging from door to door.
• At the age of 20, in 1705, Bach walked 200 miles from Arnstadt, Germany to hear Dietrich
Buxtehude playing the organ. Many
of Buxtehude’s works infl uenced Bach.
• When you see “C.P.E. Bach” this refers to music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s son,
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Similarly,
W.F. Bach is J.S. Bach’s other son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Both sons were composers.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (Austrian) 1756–1791
• Mozart never used his long, baptised name of Johannes Chrysostomus WolfgangTheophilus.
He shorted it to Wolfgang Amadé.
He never used the “Amadeus” that we commonly use now for his name.
• Mozart’s nickname was Wolfi e.
• Mozart was good at mathematics and could speak up to 15 languages.
• Mozart wrote his fi rst musical composition at age 5, his fi rst symphony at age 9, and his fi rst
opera at age 12.
• In Mozart’s short lifetime, he produced over 600 compositions – over 40 of which were
symphonies.
• Mozart was known to take familiar musical lines from one piece of music and insert them into
another piece of music.
• “Mozart and Salieri” is an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in which Mozart is poisoned by
Salieri. Mozart and Antonion Salieri
(1750–1825) were contemporaries and bitter rivals. After Mozart’s death, rumors circulated that
Salieri poisoned Mozart. After
the opera was written, even more people believed it was true. The rumor has been investigated
and the conclusion is that it is
not true.
• Mozart wrote fi ve trumpet concertos for his friend Joseph Leutgeb.
• If you listened to Mozart’s music for 8 hours a day every day, it would take you 1487.5 days to
hear it all! That would be more
than 4 years of listening!
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (German-British) 1685–1759
• Handel was born in the same year as Bach in a town Halle 50 miles away.
• His father actually wanted him to become a lawyer. His father worked as a surgeon and a
barber.
• Handel wrote pieces of music for every genre of his time and even invented English oratorio.
• Handel is most famous for his English oratorio, Messiah.
• Most people are familiar with Handel’s Messiah, written in 1741. It is a choral piece, and has
the famous Hallelujah Chorus –
where the word “Hallelujah” is repeated over and over again.
• Handel composed “Water Music” for King George I of England in 1717. The king liked it so
much he had the orchestra play it
three times.
• In February of 1727, Handel applied to become a naturalised British citizen.
• Handel wrote the “Fireworks Suite” for King George II of England in 1749. This was to be a
performance in the park with a
specially designed wooden backdrop and fi reworks. The music was a hit, but the building
collapsed and caught fi re during the
performance.
• George Frederick Handel became blind toward the end of his life.
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (Austrian) 1732–1809
• Haydn didn’t like people falling asleep during his concerts, so he wrote the Surprise
Symphony. It is really quiet and relaxing until
the end when the music gets louder and ends with a bang.
• Joseph Haydn composed a song which will always be famous. It is called “The Emperor’s
Song”.
• Haydn and Mozart were friends. They respected each other’s music and occasionally invited
one another to their performances.
• Haydn composed 104 symphonies.
• Haydn’s symphony 101 in D major is known as the “Clock Symphony”. It has a tick tock, tick
tock rhythm to it.
• Haydn died in 1809, but in 1820, his body was exhumed to have his remains moved. It was
discovered that his head was
missing. Joseph Carl Rosenbaum and Johann Neponuk Peter stole the head for scientifi c
purposes. They were interested in
phrenology and wanted to study his skull.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com
Compiled by Tatyana Makhrina