Clara Schumann : A Modern Artist Named Carly Simon

Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1805 and is the oldest of four children. Fanny was brought up at a young age to revolve around music education along with her younger brother Felix Mendelssohn .She is known for being a German composer and pianist . Both Fanny and Felix were considered prodigies at the time but she was limited to her brother due to favoritism in males. Due to this she performed many of her works under her brothers name. Even with such a disadvantage she composed over 450 pieces of music and now are regraded with a higher class of thought. She later married Wilhelm Hensel and took her husbands last name so she was now known as Fanny Hensel. She still composed many works after the marriage due to her husbands

Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.

Beethoven is perhaps the most famous musician of all time. His influence on later composers was extremely huge, to the extent where many composers were intimidated by his music. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 into a family of musicians. His father and grandfather were both musicians at the court of Elector in the German town of Bonn. His grandfather was very respected, but his dad not so much given that he was an alcoholic. At a young age, Beethoven was put in charge of his family’s finances and started a job at the court. He composed music and helped look after the instrumentation. Around the same time, he began to write music. In 1790, an important visitor passed through Bonn: this was Franz Joseph Haydn. He was on his way to London for a visit when he stopped to meet Beethoven and agreed to take him on as a student when he came back from London to Vienna. In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with Hayden. Apparently, it did not go as planned. Hayden was old fashion and a little overbearing, while Beethoven was rebellious and headstrong. Beethoven found support among the rich arts who lived in Vienna. Prince Lichnowsky gave him board and lodging at his place for in return, Beethoven would compose music and preform at evening parties.

In W.C. Handy’s early life he had been a composer, musician and music publisher. William Christopher Handy was born to Elizabeth Brewer and Charles Barnard Handy. At a very young age Handy had shown his love of music, and was supported in the pursuit of his dream only by his maternal grandmother, everyone else

I have chosen these two cycles to analyse because they represent the two side of one story, the masculine and feminine points of views of love.

19.  Franz Schubert. Born in 1797, died in 1828 from Vienna. Wrote well over 600 works. Was the Master of the Art Song. He wasn’t financially successful and his symphonies were performed after he died. 
20.  Robert Schumann. Born in 1810, died in 1856 from Germany. Wrote piano pieces and symphonies. Known for his gift of melody. Eventually was committed and later died. 
21.  Clara Schumann. Born in 1819, died in 1896 from Germany. First well known female composer. Married to Robert Schumann. Stop composing at age 36. Mainly wrote piano pieces. After husbands death she dedicated the rest of her career to promoting her husbands work. 
22.  Frederic Chopin. Born in 1811, died in 1849 from Poland. Came to Paris at age 21, wrote exclusively for piano. Wrote free form preludes, nocturnes etudes and impromptus. Composed mainly chamber music. Had and affair

Her father was a piano teacher and taught Clara to play piano. Clara was also trained by Christian Weinlig and Heinrich Dorn.

Clara Josephine Wieck was born on September 13, 1819 in Leipzig, Germany into a musical family. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was “a first-rate piano teacher.” Her mother, Marianne Tromlitz, was a soprano and one of Wieck’s piano students. Clara Wieck’s parents divorced when she was five years old, leaving her and her four brothers in her father’s custody. Tromlitz married Adolf Bargiel and moved to Berlin, but she still kept in contact with Clara through letters.

Looking back in time at the great composers of the world, only one foreign composer stands out for his many contributions to classical music and in helping America to find its own music. Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born on September 8th, 1841, in a small village of Nelahozeves in Bohemia that lies on the bank of the Mauldau River. The village Dvorak was born into was in good company and surroundings however also retained much of its native luster even through the worst times of political oppression (1).

Elgar soon traveled to Leipzig Germany and Paris France where he spent most of his time attending concerts. During his travels he became greatly influenced by Richard Wagner who was a famous composer of the time. This inspired Elgar to increase his following and to publish some of his pieces. He often found himself financially unable to accomplish this goal. At age 29 he met Caroline Alice Roberts who was the daughter of General Sir Henry Roberts. She began taking music lessons from him and they married 3 years later. Although she was 8 years older than Elgar, and her parents did not approve, she had faith in him and married below her “class”. With his wife’s support he kept pursuing his dreams of becoming a famous composer.

Who is the composer (full name and dates)? List three points about his life and environment.

Felix Mendelssohn is a well-known German composer, pianist and organist of the early Romantic Era. At a very young age, Felix Mendelssohn quickly established himself as a musical prodigy and is now studied by people across the world. What many do not know is that Felix had an older sister who was also a musical prodigy; however, unfortunately, she does not get the same credit as her older brother. Due to the gender politics of this time, women who performed after the age of one who should be married were looked at negatively in society. Women were meant to serve their husbands and take care of the children, not to compose or perform at musical venues. Pieces from both Songs without Words composed by Felix Mendelssohn and Das Jahr composed by Fanny Mendelssohn have so many similarities. When taking a closer look at Felix’s compositional work, it is sometimes indistinguishable to the works of Fanny.

In 1876, Tchaikovsky entered into a correspondence relationship with a wealthy widow, Madame Nedezhda von Meck, who was an admirer of his music. First off, she merely commissioned works for him to compose and

(2) Schubert was one of the most prominent composers in the Romantic era. He was the first composer to live off only the money he got from composing. He wrote many compositions during his short lifetime, especially art songs (“OnMusic”).

Unlike many of Schumann 's earlier piano cycles, Kinderszenen received quite a favorable public reception. In fact, it was Schumann 's most financially successful collection to date, which was especially important since at that time he was attempting to prove himself both professionally and financially to Friedrich Wieck, Clara 's father, so he could marry Clara. This success may have been a result of the differences made between the Kinderszenen and his previous works as outlined above, but perhaps also the favorable reception may have been a result of Schumann 's return to simplistic forms and ideas instead of over-complicating his