Obscure Music Mondays

Antonio Scontrino (May 17, 1850 - Jan. 7, 1922) was an Italian double bassist, composer, and professor. He studied at the Palermo Conservatory from ages 11 to 20, and also studied in Munich. He began performing as a double bassist in 1891, and eight years later taught composition at the Palermo Conservatory. He also taught counterpoint at the conservatory in Florence. Continue reading →

Armand Marsick (Sept. 20, 1877 - April 30, 1959) was a Belgian conductor, composer, violinist, musicologist, and professor. He began his musical studies with his father, Louis Marsick, and then composition at the Liege Conservatory at only ten years old, then the  Nancy Conservatory,  and eventually studied with Vincent d'Indy in Paris. Continue reading →

Rued Langgaard (July 28, 1893 - July 10, 1952) was a Danish composer and organist, born to musical parents. He began piano lessons at five years old, with his parents as his first teachers, and was playing Chopin Mazurkas at age seven. He started composing not long after for the piano, and began taking organ and violin lessons. Continue reading →

Maria Szymanowska (Dec. 14, 1789 - July 25, 1831) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. Born in Warsaw, the history of her musical studies is largely unknown, but we know that she gave her first public recitals in Paris and Warsaw in 1810. Continue reading →

Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (Aug. 7, 1868 - Oct. 16, 1946) was a British composer and conductor, born in London. His parents hoped he would enter the Indian Civil Service, but poor health would prevent him from that. He turned to chemical engineering, but around 20 years old, he started looking at musical manuscripts. His first teacher was at Trinity College of Music, and in 1888 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Frederick Corder. Continue reading →

Francesco Paolo Tosti (April 9, 1846 - Dec. 2, 1916) was a composer and music teacher, born in Ortona, Italy. Tosti's musical education started at age 11, at the Royal College of San Pietro a Majella, where he studied both violin and composition. He also studied at the conservatory in Naples as well, but illness forced him to return home for a while. Continue reading →

Reynaldo Hahn (Aug. 9, 1874 - Jan. 28, 1947) was a Venezuelan, naturalized French composer, composer, conductor, and music critic. He predominantly wrote songs, written in the French tradition of the mélodie. Continue reading →

Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (Jan. 11, 1875 - June 23, 1956) was a Russian/Soviet composer and violinist born in Kiev, of German-Polish descent. Son of a wind instrument maker, Glière showed talent as a child, and entered the Kiev School of Music in 1891, studying the violin. In 1894 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, and graduated in 1900, after composing a one act opera entitled "Earth and Heaven", and winning a gold medal for it. Glière would later go on to teach in many conservatories, including those of Kiev and Moscow. Continue reading →

Jean-Féry Rebel (April 18, 1666 - Jan. 2, 1747) was a French composer, conductor, violinist, and harpsichordist. The son of a tenor in Louis XIV's private chapel, he was a child prodigy, and would go on to study with Jean Baptiste Lully. Rebel was highly innovative; he was the first composer to utilize a tone cluster (a musical chord made up of at least three adjacent tones in a scale}, and one of the first French composers to compose sonatas in the Italian style of the day. Continue reading →

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 - Dec. 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, born in New Orleans. He started piano at an early age, and was recognized as a prodigy. At thirteen, he traveled to Europe to further his studies, but was turned down from the Paris Conservatory due to his nationality. He eventually would gain access thanks to family friends. Gottschalk played across the US and in Central and South America, and was highly praised for this playing. Continue reading →