By Betsy Schwarm

Camille Saint-Saëns

Pronounce it "kam-MEEL san-SAHN." In his own time, he was called "the French Beethoven." Others preferred to compare him to Mozart, but both sides agreed that Camille Saint-Saëns was one of history's greatest musical talents. Born in 1835, he was the son of a government clerk and a carpenter's daughter. Because his father died before Camille's first birthday, the boy was raised by his mother and his aunt. His aunt played the piano, and taught her nephew to play when he was only two-and-a-half years old. Soon, the family discovered that little Camille was naturally talented. He even had "perfect pitch," which means he could tell when the piano was exactly in tune and could name the note that was being played, just by hearing it. The family loved to tell tales of the boy standing at the piano tuner's elbow and correcting his work. He began to compose when he was three years old and gave his first public piano concert when he was ten. At that concert, he asked the audience to choose one of Beethoven's piano sonatas for him to play: they could choose any one they wanted, since he had memorized all thirty-two.

Camille Saint-Saëns was truly an amazing young musician. But sometimes, amazing young musicians don't become amazing adult musicians. They may not have the discipline for an adult career, or the patience for the hours and hours of practice that are required. A marvelous ten-year-old musician might not be any better when he is twenty or thirty or forty. But Camille continued to improve, and as an adult, was extremely popular and successful. He composed over three-hundred compositions, including exciting piano music and grand symphonies for orchestra. He played his own piano works in concert. He was also a superb organist, who worked for many years at one of Paris' greatest churches, the Madeleine. Oftentimes, he would improvise his organ music, drawing it spontaneously out of his imagination, rather than playing from written notes.

Saint-Saëns had other interests, too. He wrote plays and poetry, and sometimes wrote articles for the newspapers. He was devoted to archaeology and astronomy. In addition, he loved to travel to see dramatic scientific events, such as volcanic eruptions and solar eclipses. He often visited northern Africa, and even traveled as far as Southeast Asia. Saint-Saëns was interested in almost everything. Although he could have made a career in many different professions, he devoted himself particularly to music, and his compositions are still enjoyed by audiences and musicians today. His career spanned many decades; in the last months before his death in 1921, he was still writing music in the styles that he had perfected long before, ignoring the radical new developments of the day.

His most famous composition, The Carnival of the Animals, was written to entertain his friends. Although it features different portrayals of animals, Saint-Saëns also worked in little musical jokes to make his friends laugh. For example, amongst the animals are pianists practicing their scales, the way beginning pianists always do. Also, to portray the tortoises, he used a famous dance tune that was usually played very, very fast and instead had it played very, very slowly, as if the tortoises couldn't move any faster. Saint-Saëns did not allow The Carnival of the Animals to be published during his lifetime, because he was afraid it would make people think he wasn't a serious musician. But now, we can appreciate that only a serious musician would have been able to think of such musical jokes and make them work. Even in his "jokes," Camille Saint-Saëns proved that he was a great musician.

Pablo de Sarasate

Born in Pamplona in 1844, Pablo de Sarasate was one of those colorful figures who so frequently populate the pages of music history. Born into a poor Spanish family, he showed an extraordinary talent for violin, an ability which brought him into the highest social circles and soon supported an extravagant style of living. He purchased a lavish Paris mansion, posed for paintings by James Whistler, and cultivated an image of flamboyant sophistication, a personal style much appreciated by the ladies. Sarasate was also notoriously absent-minded. He would agree to play three different concerts on the same evening, then would forget to turn up at any of them. Somehow, this eccentric approach endeared him to the public, and to other composers. Bruch, Saint-Saëns, and Dvorak all wrote music for him, and Sarasate was acknowledged as a pre-eminent master of the violin. In his time, Sarasate's own compositions, all violin showpieces and often based on Spanish dance rhythms, though also borrowing themes from popular operas, were sometimes panned as being superficial, but no one denied that they were virtuosic. His popularity was such that in one of his Sherlock Holmes short stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has the legendary detective and his friend Dr. Watson spend an evening at a Sarasate concert in London. Sarasate died in Biarritz in 1908.

Franz Schubert

The son of a schoolteacher, Franz Schubert, born in Vienna in 1797, was still a small boy when he learned to play the piano and the violin. With his father and brothers, he would entertain the family by playing music in the evenings at home. Young Franz was also a fine singer, and belonged to the group of singers now called the Vienna Choir Boys. As a choir member, he learned composition as well as singing, and even played violin in the school orchestra.

When he finished his studies, young Schubert dreamed of working as a composer, but it was a hard way to earn a living. Since he wasn't yet famous, it was difficult to persuade publishers to print his music. Orchestras, too, were reluctant to play Schubert's works, because they worried that the audiences would have never heard of him. So for many years, Schubert worked away at his compositions without any hope that people would ever know about his music. For most of his lifetime, only his friends heard his music at private gatherings in their homes. For these parties, Schubert would sit at the piano and play all his newest compositions so his friends could hear them. It was fair reward to those friends, who had been supporting Schubert, allowing him to live in their homes so that he could focus his attention on his music, rather than have to occupy himself with a day job.

Although he also wrote symphonies and chamber music, Schubert especially enjoyed writing songs. He loved taking poems and setting them to music, making songs that people could sing. Some of the songs were light-hearted and funny. Others were much more serious, proving that Schubert was able to write music in many different moods. He wrote over 600 songs. Perhaps he wrote so many songs because many of his friends were good singers, and he knew that they would enjoy performing his music.

For most of his short life, Schubert was not very famous. Only after his death in 1828 at the age of thirty-one, did people finally realize how wonderful his music is and how much they had neglected him. Now, he is considered one of the greatest of all composers, especially for his songs.

Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck Schumann

Robert and Clara Schumann were husband and wife, but both were famous in the world of music even before they married. Robert, born in 1810, was a composer who also published a music magazine with articles about composers and compositions. Clara, born in 1819, was a great pianist, even when she was a little girl. In fact, it was her musical ability that brought them together. When she was eleven and Robert was twenty, he moved to Leipzig, Germany to study piano with Clara's father. Robert felt that, if the little girl had learned so much from her father, then, he could learn from him, too. Actually, Robert didn't study piano for long, but he stayed friendly with the family. Before long, he and Clara were in love. They married in 1840, when Robert was thirty and Clara was almost twenty-one. At the time, she had the bigger reputation than he did.

Throughout the fourteen years of their marriage, Robert and Clara continued to devote themselves to music. He composed symphonies, string quartets, and lots of piano music. She traveled to the great cities of Europe performing his music on her piano concerts, and sometimes wrote her own compositions. Robert also continued to work on his music magazine, the New Journal for Music, through which he brought attention to talented though lesser-known composers, especially including Schubert and Brahms. Together, Robert and Clara studied music by famous composers from the past, such as Mozart. There was always music in the Schumann house.

The Schumanns had seven children, most of whom shared their parents' love of music. But the happy years together were all too short, because Robert, who had been suffering from emotional instability and various health problems, died in 1856. Clara lived forty more years, until 1896, teaching piano and performing Robert's music, as well as the music of other composers. Considered to be one of the greatest pianists of the century, she ensured that people never forgot about Robert and his music.

Dmitri Shostakovich

When Dmitri Shostakovich was a boy, his mother taught him to play the piano. She encouraged him to learn about music and helped him to begin studying at one of St. Petersburg's music schools when he was only thirteen. But the boy had to work, too, because his family had little money. When he wasn't doing homework or attending class, he played piano at the movie theater; this was before movies had their own music. Shortly after young Shostakovich graduated from the college in 1925 at the age of twenty, his First Symphony was performed in concert. When he took his bows to applause after the performance, many observers were astonished to find that such a young man had written such an excellent composition.

These first years of his adult career were very successful. But the country in which he had been born - Russia - had taken on a new name - the Soviet Union. With the new name came a new government, and the leader of this new government, Joseph Stalin, was not a music lover. This leader decided that he didn't like Shostakovich's music, and forced the newspapers under his control to write articles attacking Shostakovich. Since Stalin didn't like the music, musicians no longer dared to perform it, in fear of bringing Stalin's wrath down on their own heads. So orchestras and conductors that had supported Shostakovich stopped playing his music, and he found it difficult to support himself. Years passed before he became popular again, after Stalin's death in 1953. Fortunately, Shostakovich thoroughly outlived his opponent. He lived until 1975; thus, he had plenty of time to enjoy the rebirth of his reputation.

Even in those hard times, Shostakovich's music was famous. It couldn't be played in Russia, but European and American musicians were free to play it whenever they wished. They found that his music was filled with strong feelings, both happy ones and angry ones. It could make people laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. When the Russian people finally had the chance to hear his music again, they were astonished by its drama and power. They must have been sorry to find out what they had missed.

Jean Sibelius
When a composer is from Finland, one would think that he would speak the Finnish language. Jean Sibelius (here's how to say his name: "ZHOHN sih-BAY-lee-us") did speak Finnish, but he learned it as an adult, not in childhood. This was because, when the composer was born in 1865, Finland was a part of Sweden, so the Sibelius family, like many Finnish families, spoke only Swedish. It was only in later years that Sibelius began to learn what it really meant to be Finnish. Once he learned it, it changed his life forever.
As a teenager, young Sibelius studied the violin and wanted to become a violin virtuoso. He played well enough to do it, but found that he didn't like playing in public. This led him to switch to composition. Not long afterward, Sibelius became interested in Finnish culture and history, and decided that music would be a fine way to show his pride in his country. He began writing music inspired by old Finnish legends and events from the history of Finland. His Finnish-style music made him so famous that the Finnish government paid him a salary and the entire country celebrated his fiftieth birthday. Sibelius had become a hero to the Finnish people.
Of course, people outside of Finland also appreciate Sibelius' music. They love it because of his grand orchestras and long, flowing melodies, as we can hear in his most famous work "Finlandia." It is simply magnificent music, whatever language one speaks. Through his many compositions, Sibelius was able to communicate with music lovers around the world. When he celebrated his ninetieth birthday, he received over a thousand congratulatory telegrams, as well as a box of cigars from Winston Churchill. Sibelius had outlived the time in which his rich, Neo-Romantic style was born, but his works continued to be enjoyed.
Bed?ich Smetana

In the late 1800s, many composers began to write music inspired by their countries. They used folk songs and folk dances and folk stories to make their music sound like the country where they lived. A composer from Hungary might use Hungarian dances. A composer from Norway might take a Norwegian folk story and retell it through music. These composers were using their musical abilities to express their love of their country and to share that love with their audiences.

One of these composers was Bedrich Smetana. That's pronounced "SMET-ann-ah." He was born 1824 in Bohemia. Bohemia is now called the Czech Republic and is an independent country. Back then, it was part of the Austrian empire and was not independent. Even though the Bohemians had their own language and their own traditions different from those of Austria and predating the time when Austria had conquered them centuries earlier, they were still controlled by the Austrians. Smetana and his friends dreamed of independence, and worked to convince Austria to let them be free. One of the ways that Smetana worked toward this goal was by writing music that showed his pride in his country. His operas are sung in the Bohemian language. His piano music used rhythms from Bohemian country-dances. Even his orchestra music is written to sound Bohemian.

His most famous orchestra music is a set of six orchestra pieces. Together, they are called My Fatherland (Ma Vlast), but each piece has its own individual title and topic. The first one shows a famous castle from the days of knights in armor. The second, The Moldau, takes listeners on a journey along a river. The third concerns the adventures of a famous warrior maiden. The fourth portrays the beautiful countryside of Bohemia. The fifth and sixth pieces are inspired by battle scenes from the fifteenth century, back when Bohemia was a free country.

The Bohemian people loved Smetana's music, which made them dream of independence. But the Austrian government was not pleased. The government said Smetana was stirring up trouble, because people who heard his music began to wish that Bohemia could be free, and Austria didn't want to let Bohemia go. There were times when his music could not be performed in Bohemia, because the government was afraid of more trouble. But the Bohemian people always admired Smetana for his music, and for his love of his country. To the people of Bohemia, Bedrich Smetana was a musical patriot. He would have been delighted to know that Bohemia would eventually become independent. But that event did not arrive until about a century after Smetana's death in 1884.

Johann Strauss, Junior

An Austrian composer and conductor, he was born in 1825 in Vienna, Austria's capital city. His father, Johann Senior, was a famous composer and conductor especially known for his waltz music. Father Strauss did not want his son to study music. He hoped the boy would become a banker. But Mother Strauss, angered when her husband left her for another woman, encouraged her son to do what he loved, and that was music. Soon, there were two Strauss orchestras in Vienna: one conducted by the father and the other by the son. After Father Strauss died in 1849, Johann Junior became the city's most successful conductor of waltzes, writing hundreds of dances for his orchestra to play. His younger brother Josef often worked with him, helping to write the music that the orchestra needed in large quantity. The people of Vienna liked Strauss' music because it was happy and fun for dancing. He was so popular that he often conducted in other countries, and even came to the United States in 1872. He went home a millionaire. His most famous pieces are the Blue Danube Waltz and the operetta "Die Fledermaus," which means "The Bat." "Die Fledermaus" is about crazy things happening at a costume party. He died in 1899 in Vienna.

Richard Strauss

One of the most famous composers of the last hundred-and-eighty years, Richard Strauss was born to be a musician. His father played the French horn in the court orchestra in Munich. Wanting his son to love music as he did, Father Strauss began to bring the boy along to orchestra rehearsals. Young Richard would sit in the empty seats of the concert hall, listening to the orchestra play a special "concert" for which he was the entire audience. It was a remarkable experience. Many of his favorite composers, such as Wolfgang Mozart, were those whose music he heard in these early years.

But Richard was not only listening to music. He was also learning to play it and compose it. Having studied the piano and the violin, he was playing in a small orchestra by the age of thirteen. He also learned about composition, and began writing symphonies, string quartets and piano music. He was only sixteen when he heard three of his compositions played on three different professional concerts within two weeks, an impressive achievement for such a young man.

The next step in his career was to work as a conductor. He began by serving as assistant to older, more famous conductors. Gradually, though, he took his own place in the spotlight, conducting important orchestras in several large German cities. Famous composers and musicians heard about him and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

Richard Strauss became famous both for his conducting and for his compositions. He especially liked writing grand music for large orchestras. Many of these exciting works portrayed stories from literature. Others, such as An Alpine Symphony, were concerned with landscapes. Another composition, called the Symphonia domestica, showed life in the Strauss household, with his wife Pauline and baby son. Listeners can even hear the baby crying in the music. Some people thought it was silly to put nursery scenes into a symphony. But Strauss said that having pictures in mind helped him to compose, and most listeners enjoyed his works.

Strauss was so successful as a composer and conductor that he was able to build a beautiful home in Garmisch, a mountain town standing at the foot of the Alps. Although he often traveled to conduct concerts and sometimes was away for months at a time, Strauss returned to his home in Garmisch whenever he could. This house remained his home until the end of his life and now is a museum.

Although Richard Strauss lived a long and successful life, his last years were difficult. He was nearly seventy years old when the dictator Adolf Hitler took over Germany and Austria. Having spent most of his career working in those two countries, Strauss felt that he was too old to move away and start over in a new country. He continued to try to earn a living in Germany and Austria, even during World War Two, but it saddened him to see the destruction of the war. Some of his last compositions reflected these hard times. Yet the very last pieces that he composed were a set of beautiful songs inspired by his wife, who had been a singer. These songs show that, even in the darkest days, Richard Strauss could always remember the beauty that music brings.

Igor Stravinsky

Imagine a riot breaking out at the ballet. It happened to composer Igor Stravinsky. This Russian composer, born in 1882, was the son of an opera singer. His father, who knew it was difficult to make a living in the world of music, hoped his son would become a lawyer. But Igor was determined to study music. In his twenties, he started working as a composer. At first, success was slow to come. His compositions were performed sometimes, but not very often. Then, when he was almost thirty years old, Stravinsky began working with the Russian Ballet, writing music for the dancers. Some of his ballets were inspired by Russian fairytales and legends. His ballet called The Firebird is one of these. Other ballets just told stories that Stravinsky thought were interesting. His music, together with the dancing, was used to tell all these stories.

Several of these ballets were first performed in Paris, and that's where the riot happened. The year was 1913. Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring was so wild and new that it made some listeners very angry. Others, however, thought it was exciting and they loved it. The people who loved his music and the people who hated it began arguing at the theater, even before the ballet had ended. The argument became so heated that a riot broke out. The police had to come to stop the riot.

Stravinsky couldn't understand why people would be so angry about his music, but he didn't let their anger stop him. He went on writing music the way he thought it should be written. He lived a very long life - almost sixty years after the first performance of The Rite of Spring. In all that time, he continued to write exciting and sometimes controversial music. He also inspired many composers younger than himself to try the new musical ideas that he was suggesting. He was truly a modern composer.

Although Stravinsky was born in Russia, he didn't spend all of his life there. In 1917, when Stravinsky was thirty-five years old, there was a revolution in his homeland. A new government was set up and the country took on a new name: the Soviet Union. Stravinsky was concerned that his modern-sounding music might not be successful in this new country, so he moved to Paris, where he was already famous. Later, he moved to the United States, where he lived until the end of his life in 1971. But even though he lived away from Russia for more than half his life, Stravinsky always thought of himself as a Russian and one can hear the strong rhythms of Russian music in many of his compositions.

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