Great German Composers

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The Great German Composers

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Title: The Great German Composers
Author: George T. Ferris
Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17461]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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GREAT GERMAN COMPOSERS ***

Produced by David Widger

THE GREAT GERMAN COMPOSERS
By George T. Ferris

Copyright 1878, by D. Appleton and Company

NOTE.
The sketches of composers contained in this volume may seem
arbitrary in the space allotted to them. The special attention given to
certain names has been prompted as much by their association with
great art-epochs as by the consideration of their absolute rank as
composers.
The introduction of Chopin, born a Pole, and for a large part of his life
a resident of France, among the German composers, may require an
explanatory word. Chopin's whole early training was in the German
school, and he may be looked on as one of the founders of the latest
school of pianoforte composition, whose highest development is in
contemporary Germany. He represents German music by his affinities
and his influences in art, and bears too close a relation to important
changes in musical form to be omitted from this series.
The authorities to which the author is most indebted for material are:
Schoelcher's "Life of Handel;" Liszt's "Life of Chopin;" Elise Polko's
"Reminiscences;" Lampadius's "Life of Mendelssohn;" Chorley's
"Reminiscences;" Urbino's "Musical Composers;" Franz Heuffner's
"Wagner and the Music of the Future;" Haweis's "Music and Morals;"
and articles in the leading Cyclopædias.

CONTENTS.
Bach
Handel
Gluck
Haydn

Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert, Schumann, and Franz. Chopin
Weber
Mendelssohn Wagner

THE GREAT GERMAN COMPOSERS.

BACH.
I.
The growth and development of German music are eminently
noteworthy facts in the history of the fine arts. In little more than a
century and a half it reached its present high and brilliant place, its
progress being so consecutive and regular that the composers who
illustrated its well-defined epochs might fairly have linked hands in one
connected series.
To Johann Sebastian Bach must be accorded the title of "father of
modern music." All succeeding composers have bowed with reverence
before his name, and acknowledged in him the creative mind which not
only placed music on a deep scientific basis, but perfected the form
from Which have been developed the wonderfully rich and varied
phases of orchestral composition.
Handel, who was his contemporary, having been born the same year,
spoke of him with sincere admiration, and called him the giant of music.
Haydn wrote: "Whoever understands me knows that I owe much to
Sebastian Bach, that I have studied him thoroughly and well, and that I
acknowledge him only as my model." Mozart's unceasing research
brought to light many of his unpublished manuscripts, and helped

Germany to a full appreciation of this great master. In like manner have
the other luminaries of music placed on record their sense of obligation
to one whose name is obscure to the general public in comparison with
many of his brother composers.
Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach on the 21st of March, 1685, the
son of one of the court musicians. Left in the care of his elder brother,
who was an organist, his brilliant powers displayed themselves at an
early period. He was the descendant of a race of musicians, and even at
that date the wide-spread branches of the family held annual gatherings
of a musical character. Young Bach mastered for himself, without
much assistance, a thorough musical education at Lüne-burg, where he
studied in the gymnasium and sang in the cathedral choir; and at the
age of eighteen we find him court musician at Weimar, where a few
years later he became organist and director of concerts. He had in the
mean time studied the organ at Lübeck under the celebrated Buxtehude,
and made himself thoroughly a master of the great Italian composers of
sacred music--Palestrina, Lotti, Vivaldi, and others.
At this period Germany was beginning to experience its musical
renaissance. The various German courts felt that throb of life and
enthusiasm which had distinguished the Italian principalities in the
preceding century in the direction of painting and sculpture. Every little
capital was a focus of artistic rays, and there was a general spirit of
rivalry among the princes, who aspired to cultivate the arts of peace as
well as those of war. Bach had become known as a gifted musician, not