Obscure Music Mondays

Amanda Maier (February 19, 1853 - July 15, 1894) was born in the Swedish town of Landskrona, and was quite an accomplished violinist, cellist, organist, and composer. Her initial studies in piano and violin were with her father, and later studied at the Royal School of Music at Stockholm, and was their first female music graduate.  While she was there, she won...

Samuel Colderidge-Taylor (Aug. 15, 1875 - Sept. 1, 1912) was born in London, England, to Alice Hare Martin, an English woman, and Dr. Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, from Sierre Leone. They weren't married, and Daniel Taylor returned to Africa before 1875, unaware he had a son. Martin named her child after the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and was raised in Croydon...

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Sept. 5, 1867 - December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist.  Extremely gifted from a young age, Beach's talents seemed to run in the family, with various members playing instruments or singing, and showing great aptitude for music. Beach was exceptionally talented, having learned 40 songs around the age of one, and at two...

Clara Schumann (Sept. 13, 1819 - May 20, 1896) was a German composer and pianist, born to musical parents in Leipzig. Her father was well-known throughout Leipzig, where he sold and repaired pianos, and gave piano lessons. She took lessons from him, and he also made sure she was educated in music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. She had her first recital...

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (Jan. 6, 1872 - April 27, 1915) was a composer and pianist, born in Moscow to a Russian noble family. He was exposed to the piano at a young age, as his mother was a concert pianist. He went on to serve as a military attaché, and later attended the Moscow Conservatory, studying both piano and composition...

Cyril Meir Scott (Sept. 27, 1879 – 31 December 31, 1970) was an English composer, author, and occultist. In addition to composing music for many genres, he also wrote many books on the occult, and natural/alternative heath. Born in Oxton, Cheshire, Scott's musical talent was apparent at a young age. His parents were supportive of his endeavors, and sent him to...

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...

Henry Thacker "Harry" Burleigh (Dec. 2, 1866 - Sept. 12, 1949) was an African-American composer, arranger, and baritone born in Erie, Pennsylvania. Burleigh is well known for introducing spirituals and folk songs to classically trained singers, in more classically arranged versions for them. He grew up hearing spirituals and slave songs from his grandfather, who suffered the deep injustice of slavery...

Toivo Ilmari Hannikainen (Oct. 19, 1892 - July 25, 1955) was a Finnish composer, born in to a musical family. His father Pekka Junani Hannikainen was a composer, as was his  brother Väinö Hannikainen. His brother Tauno Hannikainen was a conductor. Ilmari studied music at the University of Helsinki, and went on to study in Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Paris. He...

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.Just five years after her first public recital, her professional career began, with tours all throughout Europe, and a few performances in private for royalty. One of the first virtuosos of the 19th century, her playing was well received. She was also one of the first pianists to play performances from memory, far ahead of Liszt and Clara Schumann. After touring for a while, she relocated to Moscow, and then St. Petersburg, where she was court pianist to the tsarina. Continue reading →