Romantic Period Composers

These Composers included:

And many other Romantic Period composers.

Ludwig van Beethoven
1770-1827

Beethoven was born in Bonn, in 1770. His childhood and adolescence was very difficult due to his father's disipline and alcoholism. In 1792, Beethoven travelled to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn, and stayed there for the rest of his life. Beethoven's music is full of forceful, dramatic, power with dreamy introspection. He started to recieve a hearing loss in 1802. During the last decade of his life, Beethoven had almost completely lost his hearing, and he was increasingly socially isolated.Beethoven maintained a sense of humor and often amused himself with jokes and puns. He continued to work at a high level of creativity until he contracted pneumonia. He died in Vienna in March 1827.

Some of Beethoven's works:

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major op. 55 "Eroica"
Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67
Symphony No. 6 in F major op.68 "Pastorale"
Fidelio, op. 72
Wellington’s Victory op. 91
Sonata in B-flat major op. 106
Missa Solemnis in D major op. 123
Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125 "Choral"

A full list of his works.

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Hector Berlioz

1803-1969

Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803 in the district of Dauphine, France. Growing up, he learned to play the flute and guitar, but music was encouraged to be a hobby by his parents: they wanted him go into the medical field. Unfortunately, he was also disgusted with hospitals and corpses, so he pursued another path. Eventually he was accepted as a student at Paris Conservatoire, thus officially choosing music as a career choice. During his life he took music lessons and English lessons, so that he could understand Shakespeare, which he had grown to enjoy. He continued though life writing music. He got married, but then later divorced, and remarried again. In 1862, Berlioz completed his last work, the comic opera Beatrice et Benedict, based on Shakespeare. Berlioz became ill in January 1869, and died in March that year.

Some of Berlioz's Works:

Symphonie Fantastique
Corsaire
Symphonie funebre et triomphale
Harold in Italy
Benvenuto Cellini
Les Nuits D'Ete
Lelio (The return to life)
Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem)

A full list of his works.

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Georges Bizet
1838-1875

Georges Bizet was born near Paris on October 25, 1838, his name was Alexandre Cesat Leopold Bizet. As Bizet grew up, he trained at the Paris Conservatoire, under the French composer Jacques Halévy. At 14, Bizet was considered a master of piano, winning a 1st prize for piano. Bizet many other compositions for the piano, and he won several other awards. The most famous of Bizet’s operas was Carmen. Bizet died in France, on June 3, 1875, just as his opera, Carmen, was gaining favor. Carmen is still performed all over the world.

Some of Bizet's works:

Carmen
The Fair Maid of Perth
Symphony in C
Jeux d'Enfants
Chromatic Variations

A full list of his works.

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Johannes Brahms

1833-1897

Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in Hanburg, Germany. He spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria, and his work was greatly influenced by the music of Beethoven in particular and other composers such as Schütz, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti and Couperin. He was also influenced by folk songs. These elements produced Brahms’ distinctive style. His music mostly consists of his chamber music and songs and lieder as well as religious and secular choral compositions. He had distinguished himself as a child piano virtuoso, and died in Vienna on April 3, 1897.

Some of Brahms' works include:

Orchestral music:

4 symphonies (1867, 1877, 1883, 1884-1885)
Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1873)
2 overtures (Academic Festival, 1880 and Tragic, 1886)4 concertos (2 for piano, 1858, 1881; 1 for violin, 1878;1 double concerto for violin and cello 1887)

Chamber music:

string quartets, quintets, sextets; piano trios, quartets, and 1 quintet
1 clarinet quintet; sonatas (violin, cello, clarinet/viola)

Piano music:

sonatas, character pieces, dances and variation sets (on a theme by Handel, 1861; on a theme by Paganini, 1862-1863)

Choral music:

A German Requiem (1868)
Alto Rhapsody (1869)

Lieder:

Vergebliches Ständchen (Futile Serenade, 1881)
Four Serious Songs (1896)
Folk song arrangements

A full list of his works.

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Frederic Chopin

1810-1849

Frederic Chopin was born in Zelasowa Wola, Poland in 1810. As a child, his life revolved around music. As a teenager, he started to publish his own compositions. His music celebrated his Polish heritage, featuring waltzes, mazurkas,scherzos, ballades, sonatas, and polonaises. His Waltz in D-flat was written for George Sand’s (her real name was Aurore Dudevant) dog and is known as the “Minute Waltz” because it takes only one minute to play. Chopin never married, but he lived next door to Sand in Paris. He gave few public concerts, though his playing was much praised. He died at age thirty-nine of tuberculosis in Paris, France, in 1849. He helped establish the piano as a solo instrument and his has become the most frequently played piano music in history.

Chopin

Some of Chopin's works:

Waltz in D-flat
Polonaises in G minor
Polonaises in B flat Major
op. 14, the Fantaisie
Sonata in C minor
Trio in G minor, op. 8 for piano, violin and cello

A full list of his works.

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Edvard Grieg
1843-1907

Born in 1843, Grieg painted the people, the scenery, and the moods of Norway with music. In the immortal Peer Gynt Suites, Grieg captured the rising of the sun, the lamenting of a death, and, in "In The Hall of the Mountain King," from an old Norwegian story, the imagery of being chased by trolls out of the depths of a mountain cavern. His works contained what are yet today readily recognizable "tunes."

Some of Grieg's works:

Peer Gynt Suite #1
In The Hall of The Mountain King

A full list of his works.

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Felix Mendelssohn
1809-1847

Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg Germany in 1809. Fleeing from the Napoleon's troops, the family came to Berlin, Germany. When he was seventeen, he composed the overature of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1837 he married Cecile Jearmud, and later had five children. His music grew to be very popular and he traveled to many different places to play. He became good friends with Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. In 1847 he composed Elijah, his best known work. Later in life he had a series of strokes and died in 1847.

Some of Mendelssohn's works:

A Midsummer Night's
DreamOctet for Strings, Op.20
Spinnerlied, Op. 67 No. 4
Venetian Boat Song No. 1 Op. 16 No. 6
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
The Adieu Op. 85 No. 2

A full list of his works.

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Modest Mussorgsky
1839-1881

Modest Mussorgsky was born in 1839 to a well-to-do landowner and began taking piano lessons from his mother around the age of six. When he was nine, he had learned to play to well that he began performing for friends and family. In 1852 he went to the Cadet School of the Guards in St. Petersburg to study history, and German philosophy, and while there he sang in the choir and composed. Later he entered Prebrazhensky Regiment of the Guards. Composer Balakirey gave him composition lessons a year later, but in 1858, he suffered a nervous or spiritual crisis and left the guards to go home. During this time, he composed various songs and operas. He continued throughout his life composing, and he left the government in January of 1880. In 1881 he suffered from an alcoholic epilepsy and died a month later after being removed from the hospital. Many of his works were unfinished at his death. His works were edited, revised, and later published for the public.

Some of Mussorgsky's works:

Boris Godunov
Khovanshchina
Night on Bald Mountain
Italian

A full list of his works.

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Sergei Prokofieff
1891-1953

b. April 23 [April 11, old style], 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire -- d. March 5, 1953, Moscow) was 20th century Russian (and Soviet) composer who wrote in a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concerti, film music, operas, ballets, and program pieces. His "Peter and The Wolf" shows the Romantic Period ideals of telling a story; leitmotif, or themes for people, places, or things; and even theme instruments for the featured characters. The cat, for example is played by the clarinet.

Some of Prokofieff's works:

Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, "Classical"
Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64

A full list of his works.

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Gioacchino Rossini
1792-1868

Born in 1792, both of Rossini's parents were musicians. He was a prolific composer and wrote some of the most beloved operas of all time, notably William Tell and The Barber of Seville. The revolution of 1830 prevented the fulfilment of French royal commissions for the theatre, but in his later life he continued to enjoy considerable esteem, both in Paris, where he spent much of his last years, and in his native Italy. There he spent the years from 1837 until 1855, before returning finally to France, where he died in 1868.