April 2017
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Obscure Music Monday: Delius' On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (Jan. 29, 1862 - June 10, 1934) was an English composer, born in to a wealthy family. Delius didn't want to go in to business and commerce like his family, and resisted it as much as possible. Continue reading → -
Obscure Music Monday: Bohm's Am Bergquell (By the Mountain Spring)
Carl Bohm (Sept. 11, 1844 - April 4, 1920) was a German pianist and composer. Little is known about him, though during his day his works were very popular. He's considered one of the great German songwriters from the 19th century, and has many works that achieved worldwide recognition, such as Still as the Night, Twilight, Maybells, Enfant Cheri, and The Fountain. Bohm's publisher, N. Simrock, said that the profits from his compositions provided the capital for the publication of those of Brahms". That goes to show the popularity and salability of his works during his time. Continue reading → -
Obscure Music Monday: Mason's Silver Spring
William Mason (Jan. 24, 1829 - July 14, 1908) was a composer and pianist, born in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in a musical family; his father Lowell Mason was an important figure in church music, and his brother Henry Mason was a co-founder of the piano manufacturers Mason and Hamlin. Continue reading → -
Obscure Music Monday: Goetz's Spring Overture
Hermann Gustav Goetz (Dec. 7, 1840 - Dec. 3, 1876) was a German critic, pianist, and composer. He didn't begin any formal music lessons until age seventeen, when he picked up the piano, but had begun composing a few years before that. He stared working towards a degree in mathematics at the end of the 1850s, but left to attend the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, where he studied piano, and composition with Hans von Bülow. He graduated in 1862. A year later he was appointed the city organist in Winterthur, Switzerland, and taught piano, and began to get his name out as a composer. He had the organist position until 1872, and from1870 - 74, he also wrote reviews for a music magazine. Continue reading →