Sorry!

I'm afraid that I might not be able to post on my blog for a couple of days as I have family round, and am just a busy person!!
Emily x

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky was born in 1882 and died in 1971 at the age of 89. Stravinsky was a Russian, and later French and American composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
          Stravinsky worked through three musical periods. These were the Russian period, Neoclassical period and the Serial period.
Russian period (c. 1908-1919)
Stravinsky's first period began with Feu d'artifice and included the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev. These pieces have several things in common: they are scored for an extremely large orchestra; they use Russian folk themes and motifs.
Neoclassical period (c. 1920-1954)
The next phase of Stravinsky's compositional style extends from the opera Mavra, which is regarded as the start of his neo-classical period, until 1952, when he turned to serialism.
Serial period (1954-1968)
In the 1950's, Stravinsky began using serial compositional techniques such as dodecaphony, the twelve-tone technique originally devised by Arnold Schoenberg. He first experimented with non-twelve-tone serial techniques in small scale vocal and chamber works such as the Cantata, the Septet,and Three Songs from Shakespeare.

Oops!

Sorry guys,
I'm afraid that I might not be able to upload a new blog tomorrow as it's my little bro's birthday and we're going out to Pizza Express (mmmm...)!! I'll try to upload one but I'm sorry if I don't. Don't forget to contact me if you have any queries, questions, or suggestions!!
Emily x

Antonio de Cabezón

Cabezón was born in 1510 and died in 1566 at the age of 56. He was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist.Surprisingly Cabezón was blind, although this didn't seem to stop him, he quickly rose to fame and was later employed by the royal family. He was among the most important composers of his time and was also the first major Iberian keyboard composer.
            The majority of Cabezón's works were published by his son Hernando in a volume called Obras de música para tecla, arpa y vihuela. Together these collections contain 257 pieces, most for organ or other keyboard instruments. He also composed instrumental music for plucked string instruments and ensembles, and vocal music, but only a single vocal piece survives: Invocaión a la letanía, in the Cancionero de la Casa de Medinaceli.

This was Antonio de Cabezón

This was  one of Cabezón's composistions

Johann Sebastian Bach

I thought that I should start off with a classic, so here we go!
Bach was born in 1683 and died in 1750 at the age of 67. He was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque period. Many of his pieces are very well known today, such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Mass in B minor.
Bach was born in Eisenach in Germany. He was born into a very musical family, with his father being director of the towns musicians and all his uncles being professional musicians. His father taught him to play the harpsichord and violin, and his brother taught him the clavichord.
I hope this is enough to get you started, there's so much to write! If there is anything else you would like me to add me comment below!!

This was Bach in his old age, as you can see he is holding a sheet of music, this he might have composed.

This was Bach's seal. He wrote it on all his music that he composed.

My Composers

Everyday I will be uploading a new blog about different composers, from baroque to modern day. I guess that it will be like a little fact file. If you have any comments, queries, or suggestions please contact me!
Emily x