Documents for "Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies":

• Abbado, Claudio 1933-, Italian conductor, b. Milan. He debuted (1960) in his native city, conducting the orchestra at La Scala, where he subsequently served (1968-86) as musical director. He was appointed (1971)...

• Adam de la Halle or Adam le Bossu , c.1240-1287, French dramatist and poet-musician, one of the great trouvères. Many of his songs and polyphonic motets are preserved, as is the pastoral comedy with music...

• Adam le Bossu see Adam de la Halle.

• Adam, Adolphe Charles 1803-56, French composer of the popular song Cantique de Noël. He composed more than 50 stage works, including comic operas such as Le Postillon de Longjumeau (1836) and the ballet Giselle...

• Adams, John (John Coolidge Adams), 1947-, American composer, b. Worcester, Mass. A clarinetist, he studied composition at Harvard (B.A. 1969, M.A. 1971). Often regarded as the most outstanding, technically...

• Adler, Larry (Lawrence Cecil Adler) ăd´ler , 1914-2001, American harmonica player, b. Baltimore. Adler, whose career spanned seven decades, is generally credited with elevating the harmonica to concert status in the classical music world. As...

• Albéniz, Isaac 1860-1909, Spanish pianist and composer. He made his debut as a pianist at the age of four. When still young, he ran away from home and traveled in North and South America and Spain, supporting...

• Alberti, Domenico c.1710-c.1740, Venetian singer, harpsichordist, and composer. The Alberti bass (which he used but probably did not invent) is a broken, left-hand chord accompaniment frequently employed in...

• Albinoni, Tomaso 1671-1751, Italian violinist and composer. He wrote more than 50 operas, 40 cantatas, and instrumental works of many kinds. His orchestral music was admired by Bach, who used several of Albinoni's...

• Albrechtsberger, Johann Georg 1736-1809, Austrian musical theorist, teacher, and composer. He became (1772) court organist in Vienna and later was chief organist, conductor, and choirmaster of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna...

• Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin 1813-88, French pianist and composer; his original surname was Morhange. He was a pianist of great virtuosity and wrote mainly for the piano. His most influential works were the technically...

• Alypius or Alypios , fl. c.360, Greek author of Introduction to Music, chief source of modern knowledge of Greek musical notation.

• Ameling, Elly (Elisabeth Sara Ameling), 1933-, Dutch soprano. Although she has sung opera, she is noted for her sensitive interpretations of French and German art songs, particularly the lieder of Schubert. She...

• Anderson, Marian 1897-1993, American contralto, b. Philadelphia. She was the first African American to be named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, as well as the first to perform at the White...

• Ansermet, Ernest 1883-1969, Swiss conductor. For several years he was a high-school mathematics teacher. He began his conducting career in Germany and toured with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1915 to 1923. In...

• Antheil, George 1900-1959, American composer, b. Trenton, N.J. He went to Europe in 1920 and became known for his iconoclastic approach to music. In 1927 a performance of his Ballet mécanique, scored for player...

• Arcadelt, Jacob c.1505-1568, Flemish composer, b. Liège. He spent much of his time at the Papal court in Rome. After 1555 he was in Paris in the service of the duke of Guise. Arcadelt was one of many Netherlander...

• Arensky, Anton Stepanovich 1861-1906, Russian composer; pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After 1882 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and became (1895) conductor of the Imperial Chapel Choir...

• Aretinus, Guido see Guido d'Arezzo.

• Aristoxenus of Tarentum fl. 4th cent. BC, pupil of Aristotle. He marks a turning point in Greek musical theory by being the first to base theory on analysis of musical practice. In his two extant treatises, Elements of Rhythm...

• Arne, Thomas Augustine 1710-78, English composer. Arne composed the song Rule, Britannia, based on an ode by James Thomson. He composed new music for an adaptation of Milton's masque Comus (1738) and for some of the songs...

• Arrau, Claudio 1903-91, classical pianist, b. Chile. In 1911 he was sponsored by the Chilean government to study with Martin Krause in Berlin, where his talent attracted attention. Returning to Chile in 1921,...

• Auber, Daniel-François-Esprit 1782-1871, French operatic composer. His greatest successes resulted from his collaboration with the librettist Scribe. Their first success together was Le Maçon (1825), and among the long...

• Auer, Leopold 1845-1930, Hungarian violinist and teacher, studied at the conservatories of Budapest and Vienna and with Joseph Joachim in Hanover. He taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, 1868-1917. Among...

• Böhm, Karl 1894-1981, Austrian conductor. He studied with the musicologist Eusebius Mandyczewski and took a law degree before turning to conducting. After successful appearances with leading German...

• Bülow, Hans Guido, Freiherr von 1830-94, German pianist and conductor. After hearing Wagner 's Lohengrin in 1850 at Weimar under Liszt 's direction, he studied piano with Liszt and later conducted the premieres of several of Wagner's operas. In 1857 he married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who left him in 1869 and later became the wife...

• Babbitt, Milton 1916-, American composer, b. Philadelphia. Babbitt turned to music after studying mathematics. He was a composition pupil of Roger Sessions at Princeton. Babbitt has attempted to apply twelve-tone...

• Baccaloni, Salvatore 1900-1970, Italian operatic bass, b. Rome. Baccaloni studied architecture before he made his singing debut in Rome in 1921. In 1926 he joined La Scala in Milan under Arturo Toscanini. In 1940 he...

• Bach German family of distinguished musicians who flourished from the 16th through the 18th cent., its most renowned member being Johann Sebastian Bach (see separate article). Johannes or Hans Bach, c.1550-1626, was a Thuringian carpetweaver and a musical performer at festivals. His sons and descendants were noted organists and composers. One of his grandsons was Johann Ambrosius Bach, 1645-95, violinist, town musician at Eisenach, and father of Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian's eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, 1671-1721, was organist at Ohrdruf. When his parents died he took his youngest brother, Johann Sebastian, into his home and taught him. Of the 20 children of Johann Sebastian, several were well...

• Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel 1714-88, German composer; second son of J. S. Bach, his only teacher. While harpsichordist at the court of Frederick the Great, where his chief duty for 28 years (1738-67) was to accompany the...

• Bach, Johann Christian 1735-82, German musician and composer; son of J. S. Bach. He went to Italy in 1754, became a Roman Catholic, and composed church music and operas. In 1760 he became organist of the Milan...

• Bach, Johann Sebastian 1685-1750, German composer and organist, b. Eisenach; one of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world. He brought polyphonic baroque music to its culmination, creating...

• Badings, Henk 1907-87, Dutch composer, b. Bandung, Java (now Indonesia). Badings studied with Willem Pijper after working as a mining engineer. An extremely prolific composer, he started writing electronic...

• Baker, Dame Janet 1933-, English mezzo-soprano. She made her singing debut in 1956 with the Glyndebourne Chorus. In 1966 she made her American debut at Town Hall in New York City, winning critical acclaim for the...

• Balakirev, Mili Alekseyevich 1837-1910, Russian composer and conductor, leader of the group called the Five. He founded (1862) the Free School of Music in St. Petersburg and conducted (1867-69) the Russian Music Society and (1883-94) the Imperial Chapel Choir and Imperial Music Society. His works include...

• Balfe, Michael William 1808-70, Irish composer. Of his many operas, very popular in their time, the best known was The Bohemian Girl (1843).

• Barber, Samuel 1910-81, American composer, b. West Chester, Pa. Barber studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His music is lyrical and generally tonal; his later works are more chromatic and...

• Barbirolli, Sir John 1899-1970, English conductor and cellist, b. London. After being cellist (1920-24) in the International String Quartet, he organized the Barbirolli String Orchestra. Barbirolli held positions as...

• Barenboim, Daniel 1942-, Israeli pianist and conductor, b. Buenos Aires, Argentina. He made his debut in Buenos Aires at seven. His family settled in Israel in 1952, and he studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Academy...

• Barrère, Georges 1876-1944, French-American flutist and conductor, grad. Paris Conservatory, 1895. In Paris he was solo flutist (1897-1905) of the Colonne Concerts and the Paris Opera, and he taught at the Schola...

• Bartók, Béla 1881-1945, Hungarian composer and collector of folk music. He studied (1899-1903) and later taught piano at the Royal Academy, Budapest. In 1905 he and Zoltán Kodály began to collect folk music of...

• Bartoli, Cecilia 1966-, Italian mezzo-soprano, b. Rome. Bartoli debuted at Verona (1987), first performed in the United States at Lincoln Center (1990), and in 1996 made her Metropolitan Opera debut. She is...

• Battle, Kathleen 1948-, African-American soprano, b. Portsmouth, Ohio. She studied voice at the Conservatory of Music at the Univ. of Cincinnati and made her debut at the Spoleto Festival in 1972. Battle came to New...

• Bauer, Harold 1873-1951, Anglo-American pianist. He was first a successful violinist, but in 1892 he studied the piano with Paderewski and then earned international recognition as a pianist. He also promoted...

• Bax, Sir Arnold Edward Trevor 1883-1953, English composer, studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. His early works, in an elaborately chromatic style, did not find great favor with the public, but works in a simpler...

• Beach, Mrs. H. H. A. 1867-1944, American composer and pianist, b. Henniker, N.H., as Amy Marcy Cheney. A child prodigy, she received rather meagre training as a pianist in the United States, and toured there and in...

• Beecham, Sir Thomas 1879-1961, English conductor. Beecham was educated at Oxford but did not attend any formal music school. Early in his career as a conductor and producer, he introduced his fellow countrymen to the...

• Beeson, Jack 1921-, American composer, b. Muncie, Ind. Beeson studied at the Eastman School of Music and privately in New York with Béla Bartók. Beginning to teach at Columbia Univ. in 1945, he was named...

• Beethoven, Ludwig van 1770-1827, German composer. He is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the Western European music tradition. Beethoven's work crowned the classical period and also...

• Bellini, Vincenzo 1801-35, Italian opera composer. He acquired his musical training from his grandfather and father, and began composing religious and secular music in his childhood. His first opera, Adelson e Salvini, was successfully performed in 1825. His most celebrated works are the operas La Sonnambula and Norma (both 1831). In their profusely melodic style they exemplify the bel canto tradition of the 18th cent., and their roles demand great virtuosity of the singers. Bellini's last opera, I Puritani (1835), was influenced by the dramatic style of French grand opera. Unlike that of his immediate predecessors, Rossini and Donizetti, his operatic output was small. It was characterized by careful...

• Benda, Georg Anton 1722-95, Bohemian composer. Benda, whose Bohemian name was Jiří Antonín Benda, came from a musical family that moved to Prussia in 1742. His brother, the violinist Franz (in Bohemian, František)...

• Benevoli, Orazio 1605-72, Italian composer. From 1646 until his death Benevoli was maestro di cappella at the Vatican. He wrote a large quantity of sacred music, much of it scored for many vocal parts—a mass (1628) for Salzburg Cathedral has 52 vocal parts. Benevoli was strongly influenced by...

• Bennett, Sir William Sterndale 1816-75, English musician. Bennett was a friend of Mendelssohn and Schumann, both of whom influenced his work. Besides composing, he was active as a pianist and conductor. He founded the Bach...

• Berg, Alban 1885-1935, Austrian composer. In his youth he taught himself music but in 1904 he became the pupil and close friend of Arnold Schoenberg. Later Berg himself taught privately in Vienna. He adopted...

• Berio, Luciano 1925-2003, Italian composer, b. Oneglia. After studying at the Milan Conservatory and working as a coach and conductor in Italian opera houses, Berio was introduced in 1952 to serial music by Luigi Dallapiccola , and a nondoctrinaire serialism subsequently pervaded his music. In 1954, he began working in electronic music at Milan Radio with Bruno Maderna , and founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale, an important electronic music center. Despite the uncompromising modernism of his innovative and analytically avant-garde compositions, their richly...

• Berlioz, Louis-Hector 1803-69, French romantic composer. He abandoned medical study to enter the Paris Conservatory as a composition student. In 1830 his Symphonie fantastique was first performed in Paris, marking a bold new development in program music. This work, with its recurring basic theme, departed from traditional symphonies in its loose form and highly...

• Bernstein, Leonard 1918-90, American composer, conductor, and pianist, b. Lawrence, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1939, and Curtis Institute of Music, 1941. A highly versatile musician, he was the composer of symphonic...

• Berwald, Franz 1796-1868, Swedish composer. His music, which is highly original in its use of rhythm, harmony, and orchestration, had little popular success. Best known for his four surviving symphonies, he also...

• Biber, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von 1644-1704, Austrian musician. Biber was one of the first notable Central European violinists and may have been the first to employ scordatura, an unusual tuning of the violin to obtain special effects....

• Biggs, E. Power (Edward George Power Biggs), 1906-77, Anglo-American organist. Biggs studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He emigrated to the United States in 1930. Through many recitals, radio...

• Billings, William 1746-1800, American hymn composer, b. Boston. A tanner by trade, he was one of the earliest American-born composers. He wrote popular hymns and sacred choruses of great vitality using simple...

• Binchois, Gilles c.1400-1460, Flemish composer. From about 1430 until his death Binchois served Philip the Good of Burgundy. His secular chansons are considered his best work. The 15th-century theorist Tinctoris...

• Bing, Rudolf 1902-97, Austrian operatic manager. Naturalized a British subject in 1946, he was general manager of the Glyndebourne operatic festivals (1934-49) and artistic manager of the Edinburgh...

• Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley 1786-1855, English operatic conductor, composer or arranger of 120 dramatic works. He is known today for a setting of Shakespeare's "Lo, here the gentle lark" and the melody of Home, Sweet Home...

• Bispham, David Scull 1857-1921, American baritone, b. Philadelphia. He made his operatic debut in London in 1891 and was leading Wagnerian baritone of the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York City, from 1896 to 1903...

• Bizet, Georges 1838-75, French operatic composer. The son of professional musicians, he entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of nine and won the Prix de Rome in 1857. He was a gifted pianist and composed...

• Björling, Jussi 1911-60, Swedish tenor. He studied at the Royal Opera School in Stockholm, making his debut there in 1930 as Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni. He made guest appearances in leading roles with opera companies in Copenhagen, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Paris, and Buenos Aires. In the United States he was acclaimed at a recital in 1937 in...

• Blacher, Boris 1903-75, Estonian-German composer, b. Yingkou, China. Blacher lived for six years in Siberia. He studied in Berlin and in 1953 became the director of the West Berlin Conservatory of Music. Blacher...

• Bliss, Sir Arthur 1891-1975, English composer. Bliss's teachers included Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gustav Holst. He was made Master of the Queen's Musick in 1953. His early works, including...

• Bloch, Ernest 1880-1959, Swiss-American composer. Among his teachers were Jaques-Dalcroze and Ysaÿe. He taught at the Geneva Conservatory, 1911-15, and at the Mannes School, New York, 1917-19; he was director...

• Blow, John 1649-1708, English composer. He was organist and choirmaster at Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal and the teacher of Henry Purcell. He wrote more than 100 anthems and 10 sacred services,...

• Boccherini, Luigi 1743-1805, Italian composer and cellist. Together with the violinist Filippo Manfredi he made a highly successful concert tour of Italy and France. After 1769 he was a composer and cellist in...

• Boieldieu, François Adrien 1775-1834, French composer. He studied with the organist of the cathedral in Rouen and composed one successful opera, Le Calife de Bagdad (1800), before he went to St. Petersburg. There he conducted...

• Boito, Arrigo 1842-1918, Italian composer and librettist. His opera Mefistofele (1868, rev. 1875), influenced by Wagner's music-drama, helped to bring about a new dramatic style in Italian opera. Its first performance, at La Scala, Milan, caused a riot, but it subsequently...

• Bolcom, William (William Elden Bolcom), 1938-, American composer, b. Seattle, Wash. He attended the Univ. of Washington (B.A., 1958) and studied composition at Mills College and Stanford (D.M.A., 1964). Teaching...

• Bond, Carrie Jacobs 1862-1946, American songwriter, b. Janesville, Wis. A self-taught musician, she composed about 175 songs, both words and music, gave concerts of them, and even published them herself. Eventually...

• Bononcini or Buononcini , musical family of Modena, Italy. Giovanni Maria Bononcini, 1642-78, choirmaster and organist at Bologna and Modena, was a composer and the author of Musico prattico (1673). His son Giovanni Bononcini, 1670-1747, was a composer, chiefly of operas. In London he was the associate and later the rival of Handel. The opera Muzio Scevola (London, 1721) was a pasticcio by Bononcini, Filippo Mattei, and Handel. His opera Camilla (London, 1706), often erroneously attributed to Antonio Mira, helped begin the English fashion for Italian opera. After failing in his operatic ventures Bononcini, charged with plagiarism, left...

• Bori, Lucrezia 1887-1960, Spanish soprano, whose real name was Borja (Ital. Borgia ). She made her debut (1908) in Rome as Micaela in Carmen, later sang Manon Lescaut opposite Caruso in Paris (1910), and was long a leading performer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (1912-15; 1920-36). After 1935 she was a director of the Metropolitan Opera Association...

• Borodin, Aleksandr Porfirevich 1833-87, Russian composer, chemist, and physician. He studied at the academy of medicine in St. Petersburg, where he later taught chemistry. He also helped found a school of medicine for women. An...

• Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich 1751-1825, Russian composer, studied with Galuppi in St. Petersburg and Venice. After producing two operas in Italy, in 1779 he returned to St. Petersburg. There, in 1796, he became director of...

• Boulanger, Nadia 1887-1979, French conductor and musician, b. Paris. Boulanger was considered an outstanding teacher of composition. She studied at the Paris Conservatory, where in 1945 she became professor...

• Boulez, Pierre 1925-, French composer and conductor. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen (1944-45) and studied twelve-tone technique with René Leibowitz (1946). Boulez has been a leader...

• Boult, Sir Adrian 1889-1983, English conductor. Boult studied conducting in Leipzig with Arthur Nikisch (1912-13). In 1930 he became conductor of the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchestra, and he was conductor of the...

• Boyce, William c.1710-1779, English composer. After studying in London, he became a composer (1736) and later an organist (1758) of the Chapel Royal and Master of the King's Music in 1755. Although overshadowed...

• Bradbury, William Batchelder 1816-68, American hymn composer and music editor, b. York, Maine; pupil of Lowell Mason. He organized the Juvenile Music Festivals in New York, and later, after studying in Germany, he started...

• Brahms, Johannes 1833-97, German composer, b. Hamburg. Brahms ranks among the greatest masters of the romantic period. The son of a musician, he early showed astonishing talent in many directions; he chose as a...

• Brain, Dennis 1921-57, British horn player. Brain studied with his father, Aubrey, at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He played principal horn with first the Royal Philharmonic and then the Philharmonia...

• Bream, Julian (Julian Alexander Bream) , 1933-, English guitarist and lutenist. Bream was first taught guitar by his father and studied piano and cello at the Royal College of Music. He made his debut at the age of 12. An outstanding...

• Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh 1913-76, English composer. Britten is considered the most significant British composer since Purcell. As a youth he composed instrumental works, displaying technical brilliance and colorful orchestration....

• Broschi, Carlo see Farinelli, Carlo Broschi.

• Bruch, Max 1838-1920, German composer. He conducted the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1880-83) and taught at the Berlin Hochschule (1892-1910). His Violin Concerto in G Minor (1868) and his variations on...

• Bruckner, Anton 1824-96, Austrian composer. He was appointed organist at the Linz cathedral in 1856 before becoming court organist in Vienna in 1868, where he later taught at the conservatory and university. He...

• Bull, Ole Bornemann 1810-80, Norwegian violinist. After his debut in Paris (1832) he toured in Europe and in the United States, playing mainly his own compositions and Norwegian folk music. He founded a theater for...

• Buononcini Italian musicians: see Bononcini.

• Burleigh, Henry Thacker 1866-1949, American baritone and composer, b. Erie, Pa.; pupil of Dvořák at the National Conservatory, New York, where he later taught. He was soloist at St. George's Church, New York City, from...

• Burlin, Natalie Curtis 1875-1921, American writer and musician, b. New York City, studied music in France and Germany. She was one of the leading transcribers of the indigenous music of America and Africa, and it was...

• Burney, Charles 1726-1814, English music historian, composer, and organist. His General History of Music (1776-89; 2d ed. 1935) was one of the first important music histories in English. He wrote The Present State...

• Busch, Adolf 1891-1952, German-Swiss violinist. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory. From 1919 to 1935 he headed outstanding chamber music groups, including the Busch Quartet, one of the greatest of the...

• Busoni, Ferruccio Benvenuto 1866-1924, Italian pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he gave a concert in Trieste at the age of eight, which was followed by many appearances conducting and performing his own compositions...

• Buxtehude, Dietrich c.1637-1707, Danish composer and organist. From 1668 until his death he was organist at Lübeck, where he established a famous series of evening concerts that attracted musicians from all over...

• Byrd, William 1543-1623, English composer, organist at Lincoln Cathedral and, jointly with Tallis, at the Chapel Royal. Although Roman Catholic, he composed anthems and services for the English Church in...

• Caballé, Montserrat 1933-, Spanish soprano, b. Barcelona. After voice study with Eugenia Kemeny and Conchita Badia in Barcelona, she made her operatic debut in Basel, Switzerland, in 1956, singing Mimi in Puccini's La...

• Caccini, Giulio c.1546-1618, Italian composer and singer. Both he and Peri composed settings of Ottavio Rinuccini's Euridice (1600), the earliest operas of which the music is extant. Nuove musiche (1601), a collection...

• Cadman, Charles Wakefield 1881-1946, American composer, b. Johnstown, Pa. Although he is known to the public principally for two songs— From the Land of the Sky-blue Water, based on Native American themes, and At Dawning...

• Cage, John 1912-92, American composer, b. Los Angeles. A leading figure in the musical avant-garde from the late 1930s, he attended Pomona College and later studied with Arnold Schoenberg , Adolph Weiss, and Henry...

• Caldara, Antonio c.1670-1736, Italian composer. In 1714, Caldara obtained a position at the imperial court in Vienna, where he remained until his death. He composed many operas and oratorios, other sacred and...

• Caldwell, Sarah 1924-2006, American opera director and conductor, b. Maryville, Mo. In 1957 she founded the Boston Opera Group, later renamed the Opera Company of Boston, and headed it until its demise in 1990...

• Callas, Maria Meneghini 1923-77, Greek-American soprano, b. New York City. At 13, Callas moved to Greece, where she studied at the Royal Conservatory in Athens. Her professional debut took place in 1947 at Verona. In...

• Calvé, Emma 1858-1942, French operatic soprano; pupil of Mme Marchesi. She sang in the principal opera houses of Europe and between 1893 and 1904 sang often at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, where her...

• Cambert, Robert c.1628-1677, French composer; pupil of Chambonnières. His Pastorale d'Issy (1659) and other works are among the first real French operas. With the librettist Pierre Perrin (1625-75) he created French recitative in operas, including Pomone (1671), which contains all the elements of later French opera such as short symphonies, airs, and dialogues. Both men founded the first French opera company in 1669, but after losing control of...

• Campian, Thomas see Campion, Thomas.

• Campion, Thomas 1567-1620, English poet, composer, and lutenist, a physician by profession. Campion wrote lyric poems that he and other composers set to music. His graceful, simple lute songs were published in five...

• Carissimi, Giacomo 1605-74, Italian composer. Most of his life was spent in Rome, where he wrote chamber cantatas in a style that lasted for over a century. His Latin oratorios, of which Jephtha is best known, are among...

• Carpenter, John Alden 1876-1951, American composer, b. Park Ridge, Ill.; pupil of J. K. Paine at Harvard and of Elgar. His music, refined and skillfully written, influenced by French impressionism, often conveys the...

• Carreño, Teresa 1853-1917, Venezuelan pianist; pupil of L. M. Gottschalk and Anton Rubinstein. Her debut was made in New York in 1862. She appeared as an opera singer for a brief period but thereafter continued...

• Carter, Elliott Cook, Jr. 1908-, American composer, b. New York City. Carter is considered by many to be the most important contemporary American composer. He studied with Walter Piston , E. B. Hill, and Gustav Holst at Harvard and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1932-35). Carter's complex mature music is organized into highly intellectualized contrapuntal patterns to which sympathetic listeners attribute great emotional power. He...

• Caruso, Enrico 1873-1921, Italian operatic tenor, b. Naples. The natural beauty, range, and power of his voice made him one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. He studied for three years with...

• Casadesus, Robert 1899-1972, French pianist and composer, b. Paris. Casadesus was born into a family remarkable for its numerous celebrated musicians. After study at the Paris Conservatory, he embarked in 1922 on a...

• Casals, Pablo (Pau) 1876-1973, Spanish virtuoso cellist and conductor. Casals is considered the greatest 20th-century master of the cello and a distinguished composer, conductor, and pianist. A prodigy, he began his...

• Casella, Alfredo 1883-1947, Italian composer, pianist, conductor, and writer on music; pupil of Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatory. He taught piano at the Paris Conservatory (1911-15) and at the St. Cecilia...

• Cavalieri, Lina 1874-1944, Italian operatic soprano. After her debut in Lisbon in 1900 she achieved great success throughout Europe and in the United States in the lyric French and Italian roles. Renowned as much...

• Cavalli, Pietro Francesco 1602-76, Italian composer, whose real name was Caletti-Bruni; pupil of Monteverdi, whom he succeeded as choirmaster of St. Mark's, Venice. He wrote many operas, including Didone (1641), Giasone...

• Chávez, Carlos 1899-1975, Mexican composer and conductor. In 1928, Chávez established the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, which he conducted until 1949. He was also director (1928-34) of the National Conservatory...

• Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel 1841-94, French composer. His best-known works are an orchestral rhapsody, España (1883); an opera, Le Roi malgré lui (1887); and piano pieces, such as Habanera (1885) and Bourrée...

• Chadwick, George Whitefield 1854-1931, American composer, b. Lowell, Mass., studied in Germany. In 1882 he joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, of which he was director from 1897 until his death. His...

• Chaliapin, Feodor Ivanovich 1873-1938, Russian operatic bass. His powerful and supple voice, together with his tremendous physique, his gusto, and his superb ability as a naturalistic actor, made him one of the greatest...

• Chaminade, Cécile Louise Stéphanie 1857-1944, French composer and pianist. She was a popular concert pianist and wrote many graceful, romantic piano pieces and songs. Among her more ambitious compositions are a lyric symphony, Les Amazones,...

• Chapin, Schuyler G. 1923-, American operatic manager, b. New York City. He studied music with Nadia Boulanger. In 1953 he joined Columbia Artists as tour manager; he also served with Columbia Records as director of artists and repertoire. From 1963 until 1968 he was vice president in charge of programming...

• Charpentier, Gustave 1860-1956, French composer; pupil of Massenet. His best-known works are the opera Louise (1900), portraying bohemian Parisian life, and his orchestral suite Impressions d'Italie (1892).

• Chausson, Ernest Amédée 1855-99, French composer. His music reflects the influence of César Franck and also suggests Debussy. Of his songs, perhaps the best known are Les Heures (1896) and Oraison (1896). His Symphony...

• Cherubini, Luigi 1760-1842, Italian composer, who lived in Paris after 1788. Before he was 16 he wrote masses and other sacred works; he later composed Italian opera. In Paris he assimilated French operatic...

• Chopin, Frédéric François 1810-49, composer for the piano, b. near Warsaw, of French and Polish parentage. His lyrical, often melancholy, compositions brought romantic piano music to unprecedented expressive heights. A...

• Cimarosa, Domenico 1749-1801, Italian operatic composer. He wrote almost 80 operas, which were successfully produced in Rome, Naples, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. His works, of which Il matrimonio segreto (1792) is the...

• Clementi, Muzio 1752-1832, Italian composer, pianist, and conductor, b. Rome. He wrote more than 100 keyboard sonatas, which set the definitive form, and he had an enormous influence on almost everything...

• Cliburn, Van (Harvey Lavan Cliburn) , 1934-, American pianist, b. Shreveport, La. Until 1951, Cliburn studied with his mother, a concert pianist, and became a pupil of Rosina Lhévinne at the Juilliard School of Music. Cliburn won the...

• Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel 1875-1912, English composer. He studied violin and composition at the Royal College of Music in London. He wrote many songs, orchestral works, piano pieces, and some chamber music but is best known...

• Colonne, Édouard 1838-1910, French conductor and violinist. He appeared as a conductor in Europe and England and was for several years first violinist of the Paris Opéra. In 1873 he founded in Paris the Concert...

• Converse, Frederick Shepherd 1871-1940, American composer, b. Newton, Mass., studied with J. K. Paine and G. W. Chadwick and in Germany with Rheinberger. His Pipe of Desire (Boston, 1906) was performed at the Metropolitan Opera...

• Copland, Aaron 1900-1990, American composer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Copland was a pupil of Rubin Goldmark and of Nadia Boulanger, who introduced his work to the United States when she conducted his Symphony for Organ...

• Corelli, Arcangelo 1653-1713, Italian composer and violinist. Famed for his virtuosity and his elegant style of composition, he spent most of his life in Rome, where he was court violinist to Cardinal Ottoboni. His...

• Corelli, Franco 1921-2003, Italian tenor. He made his operatic debut at Spoleto in 1952 as Don José in Bizet's Carmen and debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in 1961, singing Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore....

• Corigliano, John Paul 1938-, American composer, b. New York City. The son of New York Philharmonic first violinist and concertmaster John Corigliano, he attended Columbia Univ. (B.A., 1959) and the Manhattan School of...

• Cornelius, Peter 1824-74, German composer and poet; follower of Liszt and Wagner. He wrote music criticism, songs, and poetry but is best known for his operas Der Barbier von Bagdad (1858) and Der Cid (1865).

• Cortot, Alfred Denis 1877-1962, French pianist and conductor. Among his appearances as a conductor were those at Bayreuth (1898-1901). He joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatory in 1907 and in 1919 founded the...

• Couperin, François 1668-1733, French harpsichordist and composer, called "le Grand" to distinguish him from the other musicians in his family. His harpsichord music, in its charm, delicacy, and graceful ornamentation, represents the culmination of French rococo. He published four...

• Cowell, Henry Dixon 1897-1965, American composer and pianist, b. Menlo Park, Calif., largely self-educated, studied musicology in Berlin (1931-32). Cowell experimented with new musical resources; in his piano...

• Crawford, Ruth 1901-53, American composer, b. East Liverpool, Ohio. Crawford attended music schools in Jacksonville, Fla., and Chicago. Her most frequently performed composition is a string quartet (1931). She...

• Crespin, Régine 1927-, French soprano. She made her debut at the Paris Opéra in 1950. The range, flexibility, and richness of her voice were critically acclaimed after her performance as Kundry in Wagner's...

• Creston, Paul 1906-85, American composer, b. New York City as Guiseppe Guttoveggio. Creston was largely self-taught in composition. His music is generally tonal and conservative. Among Creston's many works are...

• Crumb, George Henry 1929-, American composer, b. Charleston, W.Va., grad. Mason College of Music, Charleston (B.A. 1950); Univ. of Illinois (M.A. 1953); Univ. of Michigan (D.M.A. 1959). In his compositions, Crumb...

• Cui, César Antonovich 1835-1918, Russian composer and critic, a military engineer by profession. As a music critic in St. Petersburg and Paris, he championed the group of nationalist Russian composers known as The Five , consisting of Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and himself. Of these, he was the least distinctive composer. He was largely self-taught, and his best works are songs and short...

• Czerny, Karl 1791-1857, Austrian pianist; pupil of Beethoven and teacher of Liszt. He is known for his technical studies for the piano; his numerous other works are seldom performed.

• Dallapiccola, Luigi 1904-75, Italian composer, b. Pazan, Istria (now in Croatia). Dallapiccola was in a detention camp during World War I; because his wife was Jewish, he suffered persecution under Mussolini. He was...

• Damrosch, Frank Heino 1859-1937, German-American conductor and educator, attended the College of the City of New York; son of Leopold Damrosch. In 1885, after a few years in Denver, he became chorus master and...

• Damrosch, Leopold 1832-85, German conductor. After taking a degree in medicine, he became (1857) first violinist in the ducal orchestra at Weimar, where he was a friend of Liszt and Wagner. In 1871 he came to New...

• Damrosch, Walter Johannes 1862-1950, German-American conductor and composer; son of Leopold Damrosch. At his father's death in 1885, he finished the season as conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, and...

• Dargomijsky, Aleksandr Sergeyevich 1813-69, Russian composer. He and Glinka brought nationalism to Russian music, strongly influencing the next generation of composers. Among his works are three operas: Esmeralda, (1847); Russalka...

• David, Félicien César 1810-76, French composer. His ode-symphony Le Desert (1844) and his opera Lalla-Roukh (1862) contain Eastern elements, presaging the exoticism of late 19th-century French romantic music.

• Davies, Sir Peter Maxwell 1934-, English composer and conductor, b. Salford. He was co-founder (1967) of the Pierrot Players instrumental ensemble, later reinvented as the Fires of London (1970-87), which he directed and...

• Davis, Sir Colin Rex 1927-, English conductor. Davis began his musical career as a clarinetist; he is a self-taught conductor. After serving with the Sadler's Wells Opera, he was conductor of the British Broadcasting...

• de los Angeles, Victoria 1923-2005, Spanish soprano, b. Barcelona. After a concert debut in Madrid in 1944, de los Angeles toured Scandinavia, France, England, and South America. Her debut in the United States was made at...

• Debussy, Claude Achille 1862-1918, French composer, exponent of musical impressionism. He studied for 11 years at the Paris Conservatory, receiving its Grand Prix de Rome in 1884 for his cantata L'Enfant Prodigue. After traveling in Europe and Russia, Debussy settled down in Paris in 1887 and devoted himself to composing for the rest of his life. In his music he developed a new fluidity of form and explored...

• Del Tredici, David 1937-, American composer, b. Cloverdale, Calif. Originally a pianist, he made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony at 16, and studied composition with Darius Milhaud (1958). He taught at Harvard...

• Delibes, Léo 1836-91, French composer. After studying at the Conservatory in Paris, he became an accompanist at the Théâtre-Lyrique in 1853, and, ten years later, at the Paris Opéra. He achieved great success...

• Delius, Frederick 1862-1934, English composer, of German parentage. Influenced by Grieg, Delius combined romanticism and impressionism in his music, which is characterized by rather free structure and rich...

• Deller, Alfred 1912-79, English countertenor. He began his career as a chorister in his parish church. From 1940-47 he was a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1947 he was appointed to the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral in London...

• Dent, Edward Joseph 1876-1957, English musicologist. He studied and taught at Cambridge. Dent wrote biographies of Alessandro Scarlatti (1905), Busoni (1933), and Handel (1934), and many critical works. In 1922 he...

• Des Prés, Josquin see Josquin Desprez.

• Dessau, Paul 1894-1979, German conductor and composer. As a conductor he worked (1919-23) in Cologne before moving to Berlin from 1925 until 1933. A fervent socialist, he left Germany for the United States...

• Destinn, Emmy (Ema Kittl) , 1878-1930, Czechoslovakian soprano. She debuted in Berlin in 1898 before singing the title role in the London production of Madame Butterfly in 1905. She also sang the title role in...

• Dett, Robert Nathaniel 1882-1943, American composer and pianist, b. Drummondville, Que. After receiving degrees from Oberlin College and the Eastman School of Music, Dett studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He wrote...

• Diabelli, Antonio 1781-1858, Austrian music publisher. He published works by Beethoven and Schubert and composed the waltz theme of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

• Diamond, David 1915-2005, American composer, b. Rochester, N.Y. Diamond was trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School; he also studied with Roger Sessions in New York and Nadia Boulanger...