(Ga-ôrg Ben’-da) 1722–95 Bohemian composer Born at Staré Benátky in Bohemia into a family of musicians (his brother Franz was a violinist and composer at Frederick the Great’s court in Berlin), Benda went to Germany as a young man and spent most of his working career as Kapellmeister at Gotha; he retired in 1778. He is remembered chiefly for his German operas ...
1722–95, Czech Georg Benda was a Czech composer who produced several stage dramas for the ducal court at Gotha, where he was Kapellmeister. His first – and only – Italian opera was Xindo riconosciuto (‘Xindo Remembered’, 1765). Subsequent works were distinctly innovative. In this phase of his career, Benda turned first to German ‘duodramas’, also known as ‘melodramas’. ...
Jazz and R&B star George Benson (b. 1943) seemed destined for a respected but low-key career in cool jazz until he adopted a funky hybrid of jazz and soul for the 1976 album Breezin’. Driven by accessible instrumentals and a smash reworking of Leon Russell’s ‘This Masquerade’, the album made Benson the biggest star to cross over from jazz to pop ...
With his wide range of standard and unorthodox techniques, George Lynch (b. 1954) became a guitarist’s guitarist as he cruised through the various incarnations of his bands Dokken and Lynch Mob. Born in Spokane, Washington, and raised in California, Lynch became lead guitarist of Dokken in 1980 after auditioning for Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and losing out ...
Pigeonholed as the ‘quiet one’, misunderstood as an adopter of Eastern religion and music, and overshadowed (sometimes maligned) by his prolific, trail-blazing bandmates Lennon and McCartney, George Harrison (1943–2001) might have become a footnote in musical history. But as a member of The Beatles, Harrison made the words ‘lead guitar’ a household term and steadily developed as ...
(Ga-ôrg’ Böm) 1661–1733 German composer Böhm was a Lutheran organist-composer who studied with members of the Bach family before becoming organist at Lüneburg. At an early age he travelled to Hamburg, where he encountered Johann Adam Reincken (1623–1722), one of the most influential North German organists. Böhm contributed to the principal forms popular with the organists of this region, notably ...
(Ga-ôrg’ Moo’-fat) 1653–1704 German composer During the 1660s, Muffat worked with Lully in Paris, later visiting Vienna, Prague, Salzburg and Rome. The deep impression that his Italian and French studies made is reflected in four important collections. Armonico tributo (1682) consists of five sonatas modelled on Corelli’s concertos. These were revised and included along with six new concertos ...
1685–1759 English composer George Frideric Handel is one of the best known of all Baroque composers. His gift for melody, his instinctive sense of drama and vivid scene-painting, and the extraordinary range of human emotions explored in his vocal compositions make his music instantly accessible. Works such as Messiah (1741), Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks ...
(Ga-ôrg’ Fe-lep’ Te’-le-man) 1681–1767 German composer Telemann was born in Magdeburg and showed early promise as a musician. While a law student at Leipzig Univeristy he founded a collegium musicum, directed the Leipzig Opera and was commissioned to write cantatas for St Thomas’s Church. In 1705 he became Kapellmeister to Count Erdmann of Promnitz, whose residence in Sorau (Zary) brought ...
(Mat-te’-as Ga’-ôrg Mon) 1717–50 Austrian composer Although he died at the middle of the century, Monn was an important figure in the development of the symphony. A Viennese (he was organist at the Karlkirche), he wrote some 21 symphonies, which make early use of the procedures of classical sonata form; all are in three movements except one, from 1740 ...
(Ga’-ôrg Kres’-tof Va’-gen-zil) 1715–77 Austrian composer A Viennese, and a pupil of Johann Joseph Fux (1660–1741), Wagenseil obtained a post as court composer in 1739 and held it all his life. His early compositions are largely sacred music, including richly scored, elaborately written Masses, and in 1745–50 he wrote several operas. He is principally important for his instrumental ...
(Zhôrzh Be-za’) 1838–75 French composer When Bizet died at the age of 37, he was considered a failure by the French musical establishment. He had had several operas produced in Paris, but none of them had been wholly successful; now his latest work, Carmen, had caused a scandal. Bizet’s reputation was at its lowest ebb, but already ...
(Vocals, piano, 1899–1993) Thomas A. Dorsey earned his greatest fame as the ‘Father of Gospel Music’ after leaving his blues career behind in 1932, but in his early days he was an important blues performer, songwriter, arranger and studio musician. In his youth in ragtime-era Atlanta and in Chicago from 1916, Dorsey developed his piano-playing ...
(Bass, 1892–1969) Known for his powerful, slap-bass sound and signature solos, Foster worked with the Magnolia Band and A.J. Piron before playing in Fate Marable’s riverboat band (1918–21) and collaborating with Kid Ory and others during the 1920s. In 1928 he played with King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators in New York and then joined the Luis Russell Orchestra ...
(Piano, composer, 1898–1937) One of the most enduringly popular composers of the twentieth century, Gershwin composed such enduring melodies as ‘Summertime’, ‘Embraceable You’ and ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’. His tuneful songs with their rich harmonic progressions are ideal for improvisation and were popular with jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, ...
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David Bowie
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