! 0 0 Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach came from a very musical family but
his mom and dad died by the time he was
10.  He became a great keyboard player
(organ and harpsichord) and he became a
great father.
! 0 1 Bach
In the days before CD's and tapes, live
music was the only music.  Musicians
were expected to play and compose music
every day, just like any regular, full-time
job.
! 0 2 Bach
His first big job was for the Duke of
Weimar, composing mainly church music
for the organ.  He stayed there for 9 years.
Then, from 1717 to 1723 he worked for
Prince Leopold at Cothen and wrote lots
of instrumental music.  Finally, he was
hired as cantor by St. Thomas Church
in Leipzig.  He wrote 300 contatas in
this period.
! 0 3 Bach
Bach was famous only as a great
performer during his life.  Only much
later were his compositions seen as true
works of genius.
! 1 0 Ludwig Van Beethoven
Beethoven - the punk...the angry young
man.  He had no time for the phony
princes and nobility of Vienna.  He loved
freedom and nature and would often
compose as he walked in the country.
! 1 1 Beethoven
Beethoven composed many of his pieces
as he was slowly going deaf.  Even after
he was totally deaf, he conducted his own
music.  Imagine!  He never even heard
some of his greatest hits!
! 1 2 Beethoven
Beethoven was well respected and loved...
over 30,000 people came to his funeral.
! 2 0 Johannes Brahms
Like lots of other composers, Brahms went
"on-the-road" early in life.  He toured with
the famous gypsy violinist Remenyi and
was soon discovered by Robert Schumann.
! 2 1 Brahms
Also, like others, he moved to Vienna.
So why did everyone move to Vienna?
Was it the famous pub "Zur Roten IgI"
(The Red Eagle) where Brahms went
everyday at noon?  Was it the ghosts of
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven?
! 2 2 Brahms
Brahms wrote some great songs too...
you probably know some of his lullabies.
! 3 0 Frederic Chopin
Almost all Chopin's music was written for
the piano.  And what great piano music!
Mazurkas and Polonaises from his native
Poland, Nocturnes, Impromptus, Preludes,
Etudes - really good stuff...very romantic!
! 3 1 Chopin
Paris in the 1840's was a wild place.
Chopin's good friend was George Sand,
a woman writer who changed her name,
dressed in men's clothes and smoked
cigars.  Weird!
! 3 2 Chopin
Chopin Died at 39.
! 4 0 Claude-Achille Debussy
"Music is made up of colors and
rhythms."
Think of Debussy as a musical painter -
painting with sounds...blending sound
colors freely, to leave a soft impression
of an image.
! 4 1 Debussy
Debussy really liked to break the rules.
Rules of harmony, that is.  He loved
chords, just for the pure sound.  Almost
all his pieces were given names:
Spring, The Sea, In White and Black,
Children's Corner...etc.
! 4 2 Debussy
Close your eyes.  Listen to the original
New-Age music!
! 5 0 George Gershwin
Gershwin tried putting jazz melodies into
classical music forms.  And guess what?
People loved it!  He composed many
popular pieces and his brother Ira often
wrote the words.
! 5 1 Gershwin
Gershwin's first job was creating rolls
for player pianos - the original computer
music!  Later in life he also became a
painter and collected works of Picasso,
Modigliani and others.
! 5 2 Gershwin
George often played tennis with Arnold
Schoenberg but he didn't really like
Schoenberg's music.
! 6 0 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart was an amazing guy.  He was a
child prodigy.  He played keyboard at 4
years old and was composing music at 5.
When he was 7, his father took him on a
tour of Europe (by horse and carriage!),
playing concerts before royalty.  The
original rock star?
! 6 1 Mozart
He wrote many symphonies, chamber
pieces (quartets, quintets etc) concerti
and especially operas, but his wild
character prevented him from getting a
really good job.  He worked as a free-
lance composer and gave piano lessons
but by 1791 he had spent all his money
and died at only 35 years old.
! 7 0 John Philip Sousa
March - March - March
The pieces Sousa wrote were almost all
Marches.  And why not?  They were very
popular.  During his life-time he had
sold his music to over 18,000 school bands.
! 7 1 Sousa
For 12 years he was leader of the United
States Marine Corps Band and wrote more
than 200 tunes.
! 7 2 Sousa
He even invented a weird tuba called
(you guessed it) the Sousaphone.  You
hold it with your head through the
middle making it good for marching
bands.
!END
