Page 338 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

336 DIRECTORY

the story of love and jealousy among a Inextinguishable, 1916) and Fifth (1922) children. Born in Hungary, he studied at
troupe of actors, culminating in murder. were responses to the brutality of World Budapest’s Academy of Music alongside
Leoncavallo wrote several more operas, War I. The Sixth and last (Sinfonia Béla Bartók, with whom he went on
but none had the success of Pagliacci. semplice, 1925) was the most challenging, expeditions into the countryside to
perhaps reflecting Nielsen’s fatal heart collect folk music. The techniques they
condition. He also wrote operas, but his devised were influential for those who
FREDERICK DELIUS best works, outside the symphonies, are a followed in the study of indigenous music
1862–1934 Wind Quintet (1922) and two concertos, traditions. Later, Kodály also developed
for flute (1926) and clarinet (1928). a method to teach children to sight-read
The son of a German wool merchant, music when singing. As a composer, his
Frederick Delius started studying music major works are Psalmus Hungaricus
in his spare time while managing an FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1923) for tenor, chorus, and orchestra
orange plantation in Florida. Once back 1866–1924 and a comic opera, Háry János (1926).
in Europe, he continued his studies in
Leipzig then settled in France. His Partly Italian, partly German, Ferruccio
works included six operas, only two of Busoni gave his first piano recital aged ARTHUR HONEGGER
which, Koanga, composed in 1895–1897, 10 in Vienna. After studying in Leipzig, 1892–1955
and A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900– he became professor of piano in Helsinki
1901), were staged in his lifetime. His and later took up posts in Moscow, Born to Swiss parents living in France,
most successful pieces—introduced Boston, and Berlin. He was renowned as Honegger belonged to “Les Six,” a group
to British audiences by the conductor one of the great pianists of the time but of young composers who emerged in
Sir Thomas Beecham—were Sea Drift was also a teacher, musical theorist, and Paris in the 1920s, including Francis
(1904), a setting of a Walt Whitman composer. His book, The New Aesthetic Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. He is
poem, and a series of orchestral idylls and of Music (1907), was a key inspiration remembered for his five symphonies,
tone poems, including Brigg Fair (1907), for figures such as the avant-garde collectively regarded as one of the most
In a Summer Garden (1908), and North French composer Edgard Varèse. His impressive symphonic oeuvres of the
Country Sketches (1914). compositions include operas, orchestral 20th century. His other works include
pieces, and solo piano works, notably Pacific 231 (1923) and Rugby (1928), in
Fantasia after J.S. Bach (1909) and which he sought to express in music
PIETRO MASCAGNI Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910–1921). the impressions of a locomotive and a
1863–1945 rugby match, respectively. Honegger’s
dramatic works included film scores,
Pietro Mascagni’s one-act opera GUSTAV HOLST ballets, and an oratorio Jeanne d’Arc
Cavalleria rusticana (“Rustic chivalry”), 1874–1934 au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)
premiered in 1890, was the earliest (1935), with a libretto by the writer
major success of the Italian school of An influential teacher and composer, Paul Claudel.
verismo (“realism”). Based on a short Gustav Holst was one of the fathers of the
story by Giovanni Verga, it tells a tale of English school of the 20th century that
passion and betrayal in a Sicilian village, gave rise to figures such as Benjamin DARIUS MILHAUD
climaxing in a fatal duel between two Britten and Michael Tippett. Holst was 1892–1974
rival lovers. As with Leoncavallo’s interested in both English folk music and
Pagliacci, with which it is often Hindu mysticism, reflected in his Choral With more than 400 works to his credit,
performed as a double bill, it was the Hymns from the Rig-Veda (1912). His Darius Milhaud was one of the most
Tuscan-born Mascagni’s only major hit. most famous work is the orchestral suite, prolific 20th-century composers. From
The Planets (1916). His vocal works include a Jewish family living in Provence,
operas, song cycles, the choral piece The he studied in Paris and, in 1917–1918,
CARL NIELSEN Hymn of Jesus (1917), and Ode to Death traveled to Brazil with the poet,
1865–1931 (1919), based on a Walt Whitman poem. dramatist, and diplomat Paul Claudel.
He was a member of the group of
Danish composer Carl Nielsen was one composers known as “Les Six,” through
of the great symphonic writers of the ZOLTÁN KODÁLY whom he met the surrealist writer and
early 20th century. He completed his 1882–1967 designer Jean Cocteau. His collaboration
First Symphony in 1892, but it was the with Cocteau produced the ballets Le
Third (titled Sinfonia espansiva, 1911) Zoltán Kodály was a pioneer in the field Boeuf sur le toit (1919) and Le Train bleu
that started to establish his reputation of ethnomusicology (the study of music (1924), while his work with Claudel
as a composer with an original use of in its ethnic and cultural context) and in yielded musical dramas, including Les
tonality and harmony. The Fourth (The modern methods for teaching music to Choéphores (1915), Christophe Colomb

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