Interesting facts about Bach

Here you will find some interesting information about Bach.

Bach had two wives and 20 children, four of whom followed in their father’s footsteps to become famous composers themselves. It's hard to believe, but that's the truth.

Bach was made organist to the Duke of Saxeweimar.
At the Duke’s court there was a chapel with an organ. Bach composed many of his great organ works at this time. He had to write cantatas for church services. A few years later, he was offered a job in the town of Cöthen, where he would earn an even better salary. The Duke was angry and did not want him to go but Bach insisted, so the Duke put Bach in prison for a month. There he started his masterpiece, "The Well-Tempered Clavier". In the end he had to let the musician go.

He said: "I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well."


Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars.

Bye!

 

 

Bach's biography

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. He was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He was little-known and was mostly recognized for performing on the organ.

He spent his entire life there, working as an organist, teacher, and composer.

Bach was the youngest of eight children. His father had been a town musician, and probably gave Bach his early music lessons. It is believed that he taught him to play the violin.

When he was 10, Bach found himself an orphan after the death of both of his parents. His older brother, who was a church organist, took him in.

He probably taught Bach much about the organ. Bach had also a beautiful soprano singing voice. 

Bach wrote "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," one of his most popular pieces for the organ.

 

By 1740, Bach was struggling with his eyesight, but he continued to work despite his vision problems.

Nine years later, he started a new composition called "The Art of Fugue", but he did not complete it. He tried to fix his failing sight by having surgery, but the operation ended up leaving him completely blind.

A year later, Bach suffered a stroke. He died in Leipzig in 1750.

 

 

It is his work: "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor". I hope you like it!!

See you! :))

Interesting facts about Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn had a short but happy life.
He was an excellent watercolour painter. He also maintained an enormous correspondence which demonstrated his wit. Sometimes he drew sketches and cartoons in the text of his letters.
In 1829, he conducted Johann Sebastian Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" in Berlin.
Felix and his sister Fanny remained close throughout their lives. They often collaborated together. When Fanny died in 1847, Felix is said to have become so depressed and he died 6 months later.
It's thought that he never truly recovered.

 

Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life. A hectic final tour of England left him exhausted and ill. He once described death as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings".

One of his most famous works is "Venetianisches Gondellied (opus 30)".

 

 

It's one of the best songs that I've ever heard. I'd recommend you!!
See you soon!

"The Nazis and Me"

Hi!! Here you have a trailer about the film "The Nazis and Me".

Felix Mendelssohn was a passionate Christian. He was also born a Jew. This film, marking the 200th anniversary of his birth, tells the extraordinary story of what happened, generations later, both to Mendelssohn's family and to his music, when the Nazis remembered the Jewish roots of Germany's most celebrated composer.

 

I'd recommend you to watch this film and I am sure that you will like it.
See you!

Mendelssohn's biography

Hi everybody!! Here you will find some information about Mendelssohn, a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

I hope you like it! :))

Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy, like Mozart. He was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1809. When he was 9, he gave his first recital.

At the age of 15, he had already composed twelve symphonies!

His mum gave him his first piano lessons, and his older sister was talented as both a pianist and a composer. He produced one of his best known works, "Overture to a midsummer Night's Dream". 

Mendelssohn toured a lot around Europe and drew inspiration for his music from the places he visited.

Unfortunately, he ended up suffering from bad health and died early, at the young age of 38. However, he will be forever remembered as one of the best-loved composers of the Romantic era.

See you!

Interesting facts about Mozart

Hello again!! Are you interested in Mozart?! Here you will find some interesting information about him.

 

-Mozart could write music before he could write words.

-He wrote half the number of total symphonies he would create between the ages of 8 and 19.

-Wolfgang Mozart’s second name, Theophilus, means “loved by God” in Greek. He liked to use the Latin translation, “Amadeus".

-He traveled extensively. He spent 14 of his 36 years away from home.

-He had several pets, including a dog, a starling, a canary, and a horse.

-His wife destroyed many of his sketches and drafts after his death.

-Mozart was a tenor. He was also left handed.

-He wrote more music in his short career than many other composers who lived much longer.

 

-According to Mozart’s wife, Constanze, at the end of Mozart’s life, he believed that he was being poisoned and he was composing his Requiem for himself. He died before finishing it. His student Franz Süssmayr completed the work, and it is this version that is most often heard today. Scholars still debate which parts Mozart truly wrote.

 

I'd recommend you to listen to his Requiem. I think that you will like it.

See you! :)

 

"Amadeus"

Hi guys!! Here you have a trailer about the film "Amadeus". It's a drama film directed by Miloš Forman.

The story begins in 1823 as the elderly Salieri attempts suicide by slitting his throat for having killed Mozart. Salieri is visited by a young priest who seeks to take his confession. Salieri is sullen and uninterested but eventually warms to the priest and launches into a long "confession" about his relationship with Mozart.
Salieri always envied Mozart his musical talent and wished he could be like him. The Austrian Emperor hears of Mozart and decides to commission an opera from him.
Mozart stays in Vienna, prolonging Salieri's agony, writing music so perfect that Salieri likens it to the very voice of God.
Eventually though, too many parties, too much hard work and not enough rest affects Wolfy's health, so Salieri decides to make the most of his enemy's precarious condition by working him to death.



I hope you like it!!

Mozart's biography

Hello!! If you are interested in Mozart, you wil find some information about him.

Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. He was baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, but his parents and his big sister called him "Wolfie". His father was a fine composer and musician who taught both of his children to play instruments. Mozart wrote songs that were so good, no one would believe that a child really wrote them!
Sometimes he was irresponsible, he spent too much money and he was not treated fairly for his work.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position.
He created a string of operas, concertos, symphonies and sonatas that profoundly shaped classical music. He composed over 600 works.

His health deteriorated on 20 November, at which point he became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting. He was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem.
Mozart died in his home when he was 35. He did not finish this sad and beautiful work.

 

See you in the next post!

His hearing loss

Hi! Here you can find some interesting information about Beethoven.

Beethoven started losing his hearing in this early 30s. By 1819, he was completely deaf, but he composed some of his most renowned works during this time.

Beethoven completed thirty-two piano sonatas and seventeen string quartets. He wrote nine symphonies, five sonatas for the cello and piano, ten for violin and piano, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, one concerto for piano, violin and cello, ten overtures, two masses, one opera, and a ballet.

There is one thing we do know: he accepted his condition, but it depressed him. He wrote in a letter to his friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler: "... For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people 'I am deaf.' If I belonged to any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a frightful state..." 

I hope you like it!

"Immortal Beloved"

Hello again!

Here is another film, "Immortal Beloved", directed by Bernard Rose.

It's a 1994 film about the life of composer Beethoven.

PLOT:

When Beethoven dies, his assistant and close friend Schindler deals with his last will and testament. There remains a question as to who Beethoven's "immortal beloved", an unnamed woman mentioned in one of his letters, may be. Schindler embarks on a quest to find out who this woman is.

The conclusion ultimately is that the individual is Johanna Reiss, the daughter of Anton Van Reiss, a prosperous Viennese upholsterer. In the film, she becomes pregnant by Beethoven; when by an accidental turn of events he does not marry her in time, she marries his brother, Kaspar. Their son, Karl van Beethoven, is raised by Ludwig in the vain hope of making him an important musician in his

own right.

 

Look at this!! It's my favourite part of the film!

 

 

                               “Moonlight Sonata” Scene

 

 

It's an interesting film and I'd recommend you to watch it!!

Here is the trailer.

 



 

 

 

 

 See you! ^.^

"Copying Beethoven"

Hi guys!!
Here you have a trailer about the film "Copying Beethoven".
It's a 2006 dramatic film directed by Agnieszka Holland.

PLOT:

Beethoven is finishing his Ninth Symphony. He is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. Anna is a young student at the Vienna Music Conservatory and aspiring composer. She is engaged to help the composer finish preparing the score for the first performance. Her understanding of his work is such that she corrects mistakes he has made, while her personality opens a door into his private world. He develops a growing affection for his new companion, but she has plans to marry her longtime beau.
By the time the piece is performed, her presence is a necessity and she helps him conduct the premiere from a spot hidden amongst the orchestra.

 

I am sure you will enjoy this film!

Beethoven's biography

Hi!! :))
If you are interested in Beethoven, here you will find some information about him.

He was a German composer and a great pianist. He was born in Bonn in 1770 and his first music teacher was his father. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear.

He had a difficult childhood. His father was a raging alcoholic and he dreamed of turning his son into a child prodigy and cashing in on his success. Neighbours provided accounts of the small boy weeping while he played the clavier, standing atop a footstool to reach the keys, his father beating him for each mistake.

He died when he was 56. An autopsy revealed that the immediate cause of death was post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. The autopsy also provided clues to the origins of his deafness. While his quick temper, chronic diarrhea and deafness are consistent with arterial disease, a competing theory traces Beethoven's deafness to contracting typhus in the summer of 1796.

See you!