Composers

Ella Adayevskaya

2011-07-14T01:08:00.001-07:00

Ella Adayevskaya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya (Russian: Елла (Елизавета) Георгиевна Адаевская; 22 February 1846 [O.S. 10 February] – 26 July 1926) was a Russian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. Adayevskaya was a pseudonym; the composer derived it from the notes A, D, and A, played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila. She was also known as Elisabeth (von) Schultz-Adaïewsky, as well as by the pseudonym Bertramin.
Adaïewsky wrote piano concertos, vocal music (including choral settings of the Russian Orthodox liturgy), and two operas. She also edited a collection of Italian dance songs and published her writings on folk music and the music of ancient Greece.

Life

Born in St. Petersburg on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta von Schultz, Adayevskaya began taking piano lessons with Adolf von Henselt at the age of eight, and also studied with Nicolas von Martinoff. From 1862 until 1866 she continued her studies with Anton Rubinstein and Alexander Dreyschock at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Her other teachers included Alexander Famintsyn, Nikolai Zaremba, and Ignaz Vojácek.
She also studied composition with Zaremba and Famintsyn, and in about 1870 began writing music for the Imperial Chapel Choir. Two operas soon followed. The first, titled variously Neprigozhaya (The Homely Girl) and Doch' boyarina (The Boyar's Daughter), was a one-act piece produced in 1873. The more ambitious Zarya svobody (The Dawn of Freedom) followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to Tsar Alexander II, but was rejected by the censor because it depicted a scene of a peasant uprising. Adayevskaya wrote one more opera, the comic Solomonida Saburova, but this remained in manuscript. Later, she embarked on several solo concert tours of Europe and settled in Venice in 1882. In 1881, she composed her Greek Sonata for clarinet and piano. This piece, which used quarter tones, was inspired by the composer's study of the music of ancient Greece, the Greek Orthodox Church and Slavic folk music.
In 1882 she went to Italy, collected national songs (among others waltz songs of the Resianer (Rhaetians) in 5-4 time).^[1]
On the invitation of Franziska von Loë, she moved to Neuwied, on the Rhine, in 1909. Together they joined the more liberal-minded artistic circle formed around the poet Carmen Sylva. Adayevskaya's musical pursuits eventually came to be dominated by folk music research, which resulted in a substantial output of publications on the subject.
Adayevksaya died in Bonn in 1926. She was buried in the Alter Friedhof Bonn.

[edit] Works

[edit] Operas

Neprigozhaya (The Homely Girl)/Doch' boyarina (The Boyar's Daughter), 1873
Zarya svobodï (The Dawn of Freedom), 1877
Solomonida Saburova, unperformed

[edit] Vocal music

Yolka (The Fir Tree), cantata, c. 1870; also

other choral works, songs

[edit] Chamber music

Svabednï khor (Wedding Chorus) overture, c. 1870
Greek Sonata for clarinet and piano, 1881
piano pieces

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Thomas Adams

2011-07-14T01:07:00.001-07:00

Thomas Adams (musician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Thomas Adams, see Thomas Adams (disambiguation).

Thomas Adams (5 September 1785 – 15 September 1858) was an English organist and composer for organ.
Born in London, Adams studied under Thomas Busby, and served as organist at several prominent London churches. His published organ works include many fugues, voluntaries, 90 interludes, and several variations on popular airs; he also wrote variations for piano, and many anthems, hymns, and sacred songs. He was known for his skill in improvisation, and for years was in charge of performances on Flight & Robson's Apollonicon.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

John Luther Adams

2011-07-14T01:06:00.001-07:00

John Luther Adams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Alaskan composer. For the California-based composer, see John Adams (composer). For other persons named John Adams, see John Adams (disambiguation).

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2009)

John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953 in Meridian, Mississippi) is a composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska where he has lived since 1978.^[1]

Biography

Like many composers of his generation, John Luther Adams did not grow up immersed in scored music. Adams began playing music as a teenager, as a drummer in rock bands. Through his experience in rock bands, friends introduced him to the music of Frank Zappa, through which he discovered Edgard Varèse and Morton Feldman (Kosman 2001). Similarly, Varèse's liner notes brought him to John Cage.^{[citation needed]} But it was not until Adams discovered Morton Feldman that he found his calling.
Adams attended Cal Arts as an undergraduate in the early 1970s, where he studied with James Tenney and Leonard Stein, graduating in 1973 (Kosman 2001). His group of classmates includes the composers Lois V Vierk and Peter Garland.^{[citation needed]}
After graduating from Cal Arts, Adams began work in environmental protection. This work first brought him to Alaska in 1975. His deep love for the location led to his permanent migration there in 1978. It continues to be the driving force in his music to this day.^[1] From 1982 to 1989, he performed as timpanist and principal percussionist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra (Kosman 2001).
In 2006 Adams was named one of the first United States Artists Fellows. Previously he has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.^[1]
Adams's musical work spans many genres and media. He has composed for television, film, children's theater, voice, acoustic instruments, orchestra, and electronics.
His frequent use of static textures and subtle changes show his obvious affinities with minimalism, and his tendencies toward extended, meditative, and intuitive structures convey his true love of the music of Morton Feldman.^{[citation needed]}
Lou Harrison said he is "one of the few important young American composers,"^[2] while Adams himself says: "My music has always been profoundly influenced by the natural world and a strong sense of place. Through sustained listening to the subtle resonances of the northern soundscape, I hope to explore the territory of 'sonic geography' - that region between place and culture...between environment and imagination."^[3]

[edit] List of works

Green Corn Dance (1974) for percussion ensemble
Night Peace (1976) for antiphonal choirs, solo soprano, harp, and percussion
songbirdsongs (1974–80) for 2 piccolos and 3 percussion
Strange Birds Passing (1983) for flute choir
up into the silence (1978/84) (poem by e. e. cummings) for voice and piano
How the Sun Came to the Forest (1984) (poem by John Haines) for chorus and alto flute, English horn, percussion, harp, and strings
The Far Country of Sleep (1988) for orchestra
Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter, Coyote Builds North America (1986–90) for theater
magic song for one who wishes to live and the dead who climb up to the sky (1990) for voice and piano
Dream in White On White (1992) for orchestra
Earth and the Great Weather (1990–93) for theater, libretto published in the book "Inukshuk" edited by ARBOS - Company for Music & Theater, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85266-126-9
Five Yup'ik Dances (1991–94) for solo harp
Crow and Weasel (1993–94) (story by Barry Lopez) for theater
Sauyatugvik: The Time of Drumming (1995) for orchestra
Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991–95) for orchestra
Five Athabascan Dances (1992/96) for harp and percussion
Strange and Sacred Noise (1991–97) for percussion quartet
Make Prayers to the Raven (1996/98) flute, violin, harp, cello, and percussion
In the White Silence (1998) for orchestra
Qilyaun (1998) for four bass drums
Time Undisturbed (1999) for 3 shakuhachis, 3 kotos, and shō
In a Treeless Place, Only Snow (1999) for celesta, harp, 2 vibraphones, and string quartet
The Light That Fills the World (1999–2000) for orchestra
Among Red Mountains (2001) for solo piano
The Immeasurable Space of Tones (1998–2001) for violin, vibraphone, piano, sustaining keyboard, contrabass instrument
The Farthest Place (2001) for violin, vibraphone, marimba, piano, double bass
After the Light (2001) for alto flute, vibraphone, harp
Dark Wind (2001) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, marimba, piano
Red Arc / Blue Veil (2002) for piano, mallet percussion and processed sounds
The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002) for solo percussion and processed sounds
Poem of the Forgotten (2004) (poem by John Haines) for voice and piano
for Lou Harrison (2004, premiere 2005) for string quartet, string orchestra, and 2 pianos
...and bells remembered... (2005) for bowed crotales, orchestra bells, chimes, vibraphone and bowed vibraphone
for Jim (rising) (2006) for three trumpets and three trombones
Always Very Soft (2007) for percussion trio
Dark Waves (2007) for orchestra and electronic sounds
Little Cosmic Dust Poem (2007) for voice (medium) and piano
Nunataks (Solitary Peaks) (2007) for solo piano
Three High Places (2007) for solo violin
Sky with Four Suns and Sky with Four Moons (2008) for four choirs
the place we began (2008)- four electro-acoustic soundscapes
Inuksuit (2009) for nine to ninety-nine percussion
Four Thousand Holes (2011)

[edit] Awards and Recognition

2010 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition - John Luther Adams has been named the recipient of the 2010 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. JLA was cited by the selection committee "for melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique artisitc vision that transcends stylistic boundaries."

[edit] Discography

songbirdsongs (1981)
A Northern Suite/Night Peace (1983)
Forest Without Leaves (1987)
The Far Country (1993)

Dream in White on White
Night Peace
The Far Country of Sleep

Earth and the Great Weather (1995)
Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1997) - nominated for the 1999 Grammy awards in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition and Best Orchestral Performance categories
Dark Wind (2002)
The Light That Fills the World (2002)

The Farthest Place
The Light That Fills the World
The Immeasurable Space of Tones

In the White Silence (2003)
Strange and Sacred Noise (2005)
The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2006)
for Lou Harrison (2007)
red arc/blue veil (2007)
The Place We Began (2009) - appears on 2009's Best (Mostly) 'New Music', from WNYC

[edit] Writings

"The Immeasurable Space of Tones," Musicworks 91 (Spring, 2005)
"Sonic Geography Alaska," Musicworks 93 (Fall, 2005)
"Winter Music: Composing the North" (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)
"Global Warming and Art," Orion (September - October, 2003)
"Global Warming and Art," Musicworks 86 (Summer, 2003)
"Winter Music. A Composer's Journal," The Best Spiritual Writing 2002 (Harper Collins, 2002)
"Winter Music. A Composer's Journal," Musicworks 82 (February, 2002)
"The Place Where You Go to Listen," The Book of Music and Nature (Wesleyan University Press, 2000) pp 181-182.
"Winter Music. A Composer's Journal," Reflections on American Music (Pendragon Press, 2000) pp 31-48.
"Strange and Sacred Noise," Yearbook of Soundscape Studies (Vol. 1: "Northern Soundscapes," ed. R. Murray Schafer and Helmi Järviluoma, 1998), pp 143-146.
"The Place Where You Go to Listen," Terra Nova, 2/3, 1997, pp 15-16.
"From the Ground Up," The Utne Reader, March-April, 1995, p 86.
"Resonance of Place, Confessions of an Out-of-Town Composer," The North American Review, January/February, 1994, pp 8-18.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

John Adams

2011-07-14T01:05:00.001-07:00

John Adams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the politician and second president of the United States. For his son, the 6th president of the United States, see John Quincy Adams. For other uses, see John Adams (disambiguation).

2nd President of the United States
John Adams

In office March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
Vice President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	George Washington
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson
1st Vice President of the United States
In office April 21, 1789* – March 4, 1797
President	George Washington
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson
United States Ambassador to Great Britain
In office April 1, 1785 – March 30, 1788
Appointed by	Congress of the Confederation
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Thomas Pinckney
United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
In office April 19, 1782 – March 30, 1788
Appointed by	Congress of the Confederation
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Charles Dumas (Acting)
Delegate from Massachusetts to the Second Continental Congress
In office May 10, 1775 – June 27, 1778
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Samuel Holten
Delegate from Massachusetts Bay to the First Continental Congress
In office September 5, 1774 – October 26, 1774
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	None
Personal details
Born	October 30, 1735 Braintree Massachusetts Bay (now Quincy), British America
Died	July 4, 1826 (aged 90) Quincy, Massachusetts, United States
Political party	Federalist Party
Spouse(s)	Abigail Smith
Children	Nabby John Quincy Susanna Charles Thomas Elizabeth (Stillborn)
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Unitarianism
Signature
*Adams' term as Vice President is sometimes listed as starting on either March 4 or April 6. March 4 is the official start of the first vice presidential term. April 6 is the date on which Congress counted the electoral votes and certified a Vice President. April 21 is the date on which Adams began presiding over the U.S. Senate.

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States (1797–1801). Hailing from New England, Adams, a prominent lawyer and public figure in Boston, was highly educated and represented Enlightenment values promoting republicanism. A Federalist, he was highly influential and one of the key Founding Fathers of the United States.
Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence, and assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a representative of Congress in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam bankers. A political theorist and historian, Adams largely wrote the Massachusetts state constitution in 1780, but was in Europe when the federal Constitution was drafted on similar principles later in the decade. One of his greatest roles was as a judge of character: in 1775, he nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief, and 25 years later nominated John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the United States.
Adams' revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election in 1796 as the second president. During his one term, he encountered ferocious attacks by the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party led by his bitter enemy Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army and navy especially in the face of an undeclared naval war (called the "Quasi War") with France, 1798–1800. The major accomplishment of his presidency was his peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamilton's opposition.
In 1800 Adams was defeated for reelection by Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts. He later resumed his friendship with Jefferson. He and his wife, Abigail Adams, founded an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family. Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as those of other Founders.

Early life

John Adams, Jr., the eldest of three sons,^[1] was born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735 Old Style, Julian calendar), in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts (then called the "north precinct" of Braintree, Massachusetts), to John Adams, Sr., and Susanna Boylston Adams.^[2] The location of Adams's birth is now part of Adams National Historical Park. His father, also named John (1691–1761), was a fifth-generation descendant of Henry Adams, who emigrated from Braintree, Essex, in England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1638. His father was a farmer, a Congregationalist (that is, Puritan) deacon, a lieutenant in the militia and a selectman, or town councilman, who supervised schools and roads. His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams,^[3] was a descendant of the Boylstons of Brookline.
Adams was born to a modest family, but he felt acutely the responsibility of living up to his family heritage: the founding generation of Puritans, who came to the American wilderness in the 1630s and established colonial presence in America. The Puritans of the great migration "believed they lived in the Bible. England under the Stuarts was Egypt; they were Israel fleeing ... to establish a refuge for godliness, a city upon a hill."^[4] By the time of John Adams's birth in 1735, Puritan tenets such as predestination were no longer as widely accepted, and many of their stricter practices had mellowed with time, but John Adams "considered them bearers of freedom, a cause that still had a holy urgency." It was a value system he believed in, and a heroic model he wished to live up to.^[5]
Young Adams went to Harvard College at age sixteen in 1751.^[6] His father expected him to become a minister, but Adams had doubts. After graduating in 1755, he taught school for a few years in Worcester, allowing himself time to think about his career choice. After much reflection, he decided to become a lawyer and studied law in the office of John Putnam, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. In 1758, Adams was admitted to the bar. From an early age, he developed the habit of writing descriptions of events and impressions of men which are scattered through his diary. He put the skill to good use as a lawyer, often recording cases he observed so that he could study and reflect upon them. His report of the 1761 argument of James Otis in the superior court of Massachusetts as to the legality of Writs of Assistance is a good example. Otis's argument inspired Adams with zeal for the cause of the American colonies.^[7]
On October 25, 1764, five days before his 29th birthday, Adams married Abigail Smith (1744–1818), his third cousin^[8] and the daughter of a Congregational minister, Rev. William Smith, at Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their children were Abigail (1765–1813); future president John Quincy (1767–1848); Susanna (1768–1770); Charles (1770–1800); Thomas Boylston (1772–1832); and the stillborn Elizabeth (1777).
Adams was not a popular leader like his second cousin, Samuel Adams. Instead, his influence emerged through his work as a constitutional lawyer and his intense analysis of historical examples,^[9] together with his thorough knowledge of the law and his dedication to the principles of republicanism. Adams often found his inborn contentiousness to be a constraint in his political career.

Career before the Revolution

Opponent of Stamp Act 1765

Adams first rose to prominence as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765, which was imposed by the British Parliament without consulting the American legislatures. Americans protested vehemently that it violated their traditional rights as Englishmen. Popular resistance, he later observed, was sparked by an oft-reprinted sermon of the Boston minister, Jonathan Mayhew, interpreting Romans 13 to elucidate the principle of just insurrection.^[10]
In 1765, Adams drafted the instructions which were sent by the inhabitants of Braintree to its representatives in the Massachusetts legislature, and which served as a model for other towns to draw up instructions to their representatives. In August 1765, he anonymously contributed four notable articles to the Boston Gazette (republished in The London Chronicle in 1768 as True Sentiments of America, also known as A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law). In the letter he suggested that there was a connection between the Protestant ideas that Adams's Puritan ancestors brought to New England and the ideas behind their resistance to the Stamp Act. In the former he explained that the opposition of the colonies to the Stamp Act was because the Stamp Act deprived the American colonists of two basic rights guaranteed to all Englishmen, and which all free men deserved: rights to be taxed only by consent and to be tried only by a jury of one's peers.
The "Braintree Instructions" were a succinct and forthright defense of colonial rights and liberties, while the Dissertation was an essay in political education.
In December 1765, he delivered a speech before the governor and council in which he pronounced the Stamp Act invalid on the ground that Massachusetts, being without representation in Parliament, had not assented to it.^[11]

Boston Massacre

In 1770, a street confrontation resulted in British soldiers killing five civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre.^[12] The soldiers involved were arrested on criminal charges. Not surprisingly, they had trouble finding legal counsel to represent them. Finally, they asked Adams to defend. He accepted, though he feared it would hurt his reputation. In their defense, Adams made his now famous quote regarding making decisions based on the evidence "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."^[13] Six of the soldiers were acquitted. Two who had fired directly into the crowd were charged with murder but were convicted only of manslaughter. Adams was paid eighteen guineas by the British soldiers, or about the cost of a pair of shoes.^[14]
Despite his previous misgivings, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (the colonial legislature) in June 1770, while still in preparation for the trial.^[15]

Dispute concerning Parliament's authority

In 1772, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson announced that he and his judges would no longer need their salaries paid by the Massachusetts legislature, because the Crown would henceforth assume payment drawn from customs revenues. Boston radicals protested and asked Adams to explain their objections. In "Two Replies of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to Governor Hutchinson" Adams argued that the colonists had never been under the sovereignty of Parliament. Their original charter was with the person of the king and their allegiance was only to him. If a workable line could not be drawn between parliamentary sovereignty and the total independence of the colonies, he continued, the colonies would have no other choice but to choose independence.
In Novanglus; or, A History of the Dispute with America, From Its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time Adams attacked some essays by Daniel Leonard that defended Hutchinson's arguments for the absolute authority of Parliament over the colonies. In Novanglus Adams gave a point-by-point refutation of Leonard's essays, and then provided one of the most extensive and learned arguments made by the colonists against British imperial policy.
It was a systematic attempt by Adams to describe the origins, nature, and jurisdiction of the unwritten British constitution. Adams used his wide knowledge of English and colonial legal history to argue that the provincial legislatures were fully sovereign over their own internal affairs, and that the colonies were connected to Great Britain only through the King.

Continental Congress

Massachusetts sent Adams to the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and from 1775 to 1777.^[16] In June 1775, with a view of promoting union among the colonies, he nominated George Washington of Virginia as commander-in-chief of the army then assembled around Boston. His influence in Congress was great, and almost from the beginning, he sought permanent separation from Britain.
On May 15, 1776, the Continental Congress, in response to escalating hostilities which had started thirteen months earlier at the battles of Lexington and Concord, urged that the colonies begin constructing their own constitutions, a precursor to becoming independent states. The resolution to draft independent constitutions was, as Adams put it, "independence itself."^[17]
Over the next decade, Americans from every state gathered and deliberated on new governing documents. As radical as it was to write constitutions (prior convention suggested that a society's form of government needn't be codified, nor should its organic law be written down in a single document), what was equally radical was the nature of American political thought as the summer of 1776 dawned.^[18]

Thoughts on Government

"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves."

– John Adams, 1785^[19]

Several representatives turned to Adams for advice about framing new governments. Adams got tired of repeating the same thing, and published the pamphlet "Thoughts on Government" (1776),^[20] which was subsequently influential in the writing of state constitutions.^[21] Using the conceptual framework of Republicanism in the United States, the patriots believed it was the corrupt and nefarious aristocrats, in the British Parliament, and their minions stationed in America, who were guilty of the British assault on American liberty.^[22]
Adams advised that the form of government should be chosen to attain the desired ends, which are the happiness and virtue of the greatest number of people. With this goal in mind, he wrote in "Thoughts on Government",

There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.

The treatise also defended bicameralism, for "a single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual."^[23] He also suggested that there should be a separation of powers between the executive, the judicial, and the legislative branches, and further recommended that if a continental government were to be formed then it "should sacredly be confined" to certain enumerated powers. "Thoughts on Government" was enormously influential and was referenced as an authority in every state-constitution writing hall.

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence depicts the five-man committee presenting the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. Adams is seen standing in the center with his hand on his hip.

Declaration of Independence

On June 7, 1776, Adams seconded the resolution of independence introduced by Richard Henry Lee which stated, "These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," and championed the resolution until it was adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776.^[24]
He was appointed to a committee with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, to draft a Declaration of Independence. Although that document was written primarily by Jefferson, Adams occupied the foremost place in the debate on its adoption. Many years later, Jefferson hailed Adams as "the pillar of [the Declaration's] support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered."^[25]
After the defeat of the Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, General William Howe requested the Second Continental Congress send representatives to negotiate peace. A delegation including Adams and Benjamin Franklin met with Howe on Staten Island in New York Harbor on September 11, where Howe demanded the Declaration of Independence be rescinded before any other terms could be discussed. The delegation refused, and hostilities continued. In 1777, Adams resigned his seat on the Massachusetts Superior Court to serve as the head of the Board of War and Ordnance, as well as many other important committees.^[26]

In Europe

Passport for ministers plenipotentiary John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay for safe passage to negotiate treaties, 1783

Congress twice dispatched Adams to represent the fledgling union in Europe, first in 1777, and again in 1779. Accompanied, on both occasions, by his eldest son, John Quincy (who was ten years old at the time of the first voyage), Adams sailed for France aboard the Continental Navy frigate Boston on February 15, 1778. The trip through winter storms was treacherous, with lightning injuring 19 sailors and killing one. Adams' ship was then pursued by and successfully evaded several British frigates in the mid-Atlantic. Toward the coast of Spain, Adams himself took up arms to help capture a heavily armed British merchantman ship, the Martha. Later, a cannon malfunction killed one and injured five more of Adams' crew before the ship finally arrived in France.^[27]
Adams was in some regards an unlikely choice in as much as he did not speak French, the international language of diplomacy at the time.^[28] His first stay in Europe, between April 1, 1778, and June 17, 1779, was largely unproductive, and he returned to his home in Braintree in early August 1779.
Between September 1 and October 30, 1779, he drafted the Massachusetts Constitution together with Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin. He was selected in September 1779 to return to France and, following the conclusion of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, left on November 14th ^[29] aboard the French frigate Sensible.
On the second trip, Adams was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary charged with the mission of negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with Britain. The French government, however, did not approve of Adams's appointment and subsequently, on the insistence of the French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay and Henry Laurens were appointed to cooperate with Adams, although Jefferson did not go to Europe and Laurens was posted to the Dutch Republic. In the event Jay, Adams, and Franklin played the major part in the negotiations. Overruling Franklin and distrustful of Vergennes, Jay and Adams decided not to consult with France. Instead, they dealt directly with the British commissioners.^[30]
Throughout the negotiations, Adams was especially determined that the right of the United States to the fisheries along the Atlantic coast should be recognized. The American negotiators were able to secure a favorable treaty, which gave Americans ownership of all lands east of the Mississippi, except East and West Florida, which were transferred to Spain. The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782.
After these negotiations began, Adams had spent some time as the ambassador in the Dutch Republic, then one of the few other Republics in the world (the Republic of Venice and the Old Swiss Confederacy being the other notable ones). In July 1780, he had been authorized to execute the duties previously assigned to Laurens. With the aid of the Dutch Patriot leader Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, Adams secured the recognition of the United States as an independent government at The Hague on April 19, 1782.^[31] During this visit, he also negotiated a loan of five million guilders financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink.^[32] In October 1782, he negotiated with the Dutch a treaty of amity and commerce, the first such treaty between the United States and a foreign power following the 1778 treaty with France. The house that Adams bought during this stay in The Netherlands became the first American-owned embassy on foreign soil anywhere in the world.^[33] For two months during 1783, Adams lodged in London with radical publisher John Stockdale.^[34]
In 1784 and 1785, he was one of the architects of far-going trade relations between the US and Prussia. The Prussian ambassador in The Hague, Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer, was involved, as were Jefferson and Franklin, who were in Paris.^[35]
In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James's (ambassador to Great Britain). When he was presented to his former sovereign, George III, the King intimated that he was aware of Adams's lack of confidence in the French government. Adams admitted this, stating: "I must avow to your Majesty that I have no attachment but to my own country."
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom referred to this episode on July 7, 1976, at the White House. She said:

John Adams, America's first Ambassador, said to my ancestor, King George III, that it was his desire to help with the restoration of 'the old good nature and the old good humor between our peoples.' That restoration has long been made, and the links of language, tradition, and personal contact have maintained it.^[36]

While in London, John and Abigail had to suffer the stares and hostility of the Court, and chose to escape it when they could by seeking out Richard Price, minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church and instigator of the Revolution Controversy. Both admired Price very much, and Abigail took to heart the teachings of the man and his protegee Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.^[37]
Adams's home in England, a house off London's Grosvenor Square, still stands and is commemorated by a plaque. He returned to the United States in 1788 to continue his domestic political life.

Constitutional ideas

John Adams, as depicted on a two-cent American president U.S. Postage stamp

Massachusetts's new constitution, ratified in 1780 and written largely by Adams himself, structured its government most closely on his views of politics and society.^[38] It was the first constitution written by a special committee and ratified by the people. It was also the first to feature a bicameral legislature, a clear and distinct executive with a partial (two-thirds) veto (although he was restrained by an executive council), and a distinct judicial branch.
While in London, Adams published a work entitled A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (1787).^[39] In it he repudiated the views of Turgot and other European writers as to the viciousness of the framework of state governments. Turgot argued that countries that lacked aristocracies needn't have bicameral legislatures. He thought that republican governments feature "all authorities into one center, that of the nation."^[40] In the book, Adams suggested that "the rich, the well-born and the able" should be set apart from other men in a senate—that would prevent them from dominating the lower house. Wood (2006) has maintained that Adams had become intellectually irrelevant by the time the Federal Constitution was ratified. By then, American political thought, transformed by more than a decade of vigorous and searching debate as well as shaping experiential pressures, had abandoned the classical conception of politics which understood government as a mirror of social estates. Americans' new conception of popular sovereignty now saw the people-at-large as the sole possessors of power in the realm. All agents of the government enjoyed mere portions of the people's power and only for a limited time. Adams had completely missed this concept and revealed his continued attachment to the older version of politics.^[41] Yet Wood overlooks Adams's peculiar definition of the term "republic," and his support for a constitution ratified by the people.^[42] He also underplays Adams's belief in checks and balances. "Power must be opposed to power, and interest to interest," Adams wrote; this sentiment would later be echoed by James Madison's famous statement that "[a]mbition must be made to counteract ambition" in The Federalist No. 51, in explaining the powers of the branches of the United States federal government under the new Constitution.^[43]^[44] Adams did as much as anyone to put the idea of "checks and balances" on the intellectual map.
Adams's Defence can be read as an articulation of the classical republican theory of mixed government. Adams contended that social classes exist in every political society, and that a good government must accept that reality. For centuries, dating back to Aristotle, a mixed regime balancing monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy—that is, the king, the nobles, and the people—was required to preserve order and liberty.^[45]
Adams never bought a slave and declined on principle to employ slave labor.^[46] Abigail Adams opposed slavery and employed free blacks in preference to her father's two domestic slaves. John Adams spoke out in 1777 against a bill to emancipate slaves in Massachusetts, saying that the issue was presently too divisive, and so the legislation should "sleep for a time."^[47] He also was against use of black soldiers in the Revolution, due to opposition from southerners.^[47] Adams generally tried to keep the issue out of national politics, because of the anticipated southern response.^[47]^[48] Though it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date on which slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, a common view is that it was abolished no later than 1780, when it was forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights that John Adams wrote into the Massachusetts Constitution.^[49]

Vice Presidency

Portrait of Adams by John Trumbull, 1792–93

While Washington won the presidential election of 1789 with 69 votes in the electoral college, Adams came in second with 34 votes and became Vice President. According to David McCullough, what he really might have wanted was to be the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He presided over the Senate but otherwise played a minor role in the politics of the early 1790s; he was reelected in 1792. Washington seldom asked Adams for input on policy and legal issues during his tenure as vice president.^[50]
In the first year of Washington's administration, Adams became deeply involved in a month-long Senate controversy over the official title of the President. Adams favored grandiose titles such as "His Majesty the President" or "His High Mightiness" over the simple "President of the United States" that eventually won the debate. The pomposity of his stance, along with his being overweight, led to Adams earning the nickname "His Rotundity."
As president of the Senate, Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes—a record that only John C. Calhoun came close to tying, with 28.^[51] His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees and influenced the location of the national capital. On at least one occasion, he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint. When the two political parties formed, he joined the Federalist Party, but never got on well with its dominant leader Alexander Hamilton. Because of Adams's seniority and the need for a northern president, he was elected as the Federalist nominee for president in 1796, over Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party. His success was due to peace and prosperity; Washington and Hamilton had averted war with Britain with the Jay Treaty of 1795.^[52]
Adams's two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. He complained to his wife Abigail, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."^[53]

Election of 1796

Main article: United States presidential election, 1796

The 1796 election was the first contested election under the First Party System. Adams was the presidential candidate of the Federalist Party and Thomas Pinckney, the Governor of South Carolina, was also running as a Federalist (at this point, the vice president was whoever came in second, so no running mates existed in the modern sense). The Federalists wanted Adams as their presidential candidate to crush Thomas Jefferson's bid. Most Federalists would have preferred Hamilton to be a candidate. Although Hamilton and his followers supported Adams, they also held a grudge against him. They did consider him to be the lesser of the two evils. However, they thought Adams lacked the seriousness and popularity that had caused Washington to be successful and feared that Adams was too vain, opinionated, unpredictable, and stubborn to follow their directions.^[54]
Adams's opponents were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who was joined by Senator Aaron Burr of New York on the Democratic-Republican ticket.
As was customary, Adams stayed in his home town of Quincy rather than actively campaign for the Presidency. He wanted to stay out of what he called the silly and wicked game. His party, however, campaigned for him, while the Democratic-Republicans campaigned for Jefferson.
It was expected that Adams would dominate the votes in New England, while Jefferson was expected to win in the Southern states. In the end, Adams won the election by a narrow margin of 71 electoral votes to 68 for Jefferson (who became the vice president).^[55]

Presidency: 1797–1801

President's House, Philadelphia. The presidential mansion of George Washington before him, Adams occupied this Philadelphia mansion from March 1797 to May 1800.

As President, Adams followed Washington's lead in making the presidency the example of republican values, and stressing civic virtue; he was never implicated in any scandal. Some historians consider his worst mistake to be keeping the old cabinet, which was controlled by Hamilton, instead of installing his own people, confirming Adams' own admission that he was a poor politician because he "was unpractised in intrigues for power."^[56] Yet, there are those historians who feel that Adams' retention of Washington's cabinet was a statesmanlike step to soothe worries about an orderly succession. As Adams himself explained, "I had then no particular object of any of them."^[57] Adams spent much of his term at his home in Massachusetts, ignoring the details of patronage and communication that were not ignored by his opponents in both parties.
Adams' combative spirit did not always lend itself to presidential decorum, as Adams himself admitted in his old age: "[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."^[58]
Adams continued not just the Washington cabinet but all the major programs of the Washington Administration as well. Adams made no major new proposals. His economic programs were thus a continuation of those of Hamilton, who regularly consulted with key cabinet members, especially the powerful Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, Jr.^[59]

Foreign policy

Adams's term (1797–1801) was marked by intense disputes over foreign policy and a limited naval war with France. Britain and France were at war; Hamilton and the Federalists favored Britain, while Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored France.^[60]
When Adams entered office, he realized that he needed to protect Washington's policy of staying out of the French and British war. Indeed, the intense battle over the Jay Treaty in 1795 permanently polarized politics up and down the nation, marking the start of the First Party System, with most elections now contested.^[61]
The French saw America as Britain's junior partner and began seizing American merchant ships that were trading with the British in what became known as the "Quasi-War." Neither nation declared war officially, but the risk was high and the Federalists re-armed the nation in preparation for war—and perhaps in preparation for suppressing the anti-war Republicans.^[62]
The humiliation of the XYZ Affair, in which the French demanded huge bribes (specifically $250,000 to French foreign minister Talleyrand) before any discussions could begin, led to serious threats of full-scale war with France and embarrassed the Jeffersonians, who were friends to France. An undeclared naval war between the U.S. and France, called the Quasi-War, broke out in 1798, and there was danger of invasion from the much larger and more powerful French forces. The Federalists built up the army, bringing back Washington as its head and Hamilton as its leading force. Adams rebuilt the Navy, adding six fast, powerful frigates, such as USS Constitution. To pay for it all, Congress raised taxes.^[63] Nevertheless, Adams was extremely proud of having kept the nation out of war; later in life he even asked that his tombstone read "Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of Peace with France in the year 1800." ^[64]

Presidential Dollar of John Adams

Alien and Sedition Acts

Federalists in Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were signed by Adams in 1798.^[65]^[66]
There were four separate acts:

The Naturalization Act, passed on June 18
The Alien Act, passed on June 24
The Alien Enemies Act, passed on July 6
The Sedition Act, passed on July 14

These four acts were passed to suppress Republican opposition. The Naturalization Act changed the period of residence required before an immigrant could attain American citizenship to 14 years (naturalized citizens tended to vote for the Democratic-Republicans). The Alien Friends Act and the Alien Enemies Act allowed the president to deport any foreigner he thought dangerous to the country. The Sedition Act made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials. Punishments included 2–5 years in prison and fines of up to $5,000. Although Adams had not originated or promoted any of these acts, he nevertheless signed them into law.
Those acts, and the high-profile prosecution of a number of newspaper editors and one member of Congress by the Federalists, became highly controversial. Some historians^[who?] have noted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were relatively rarely enforced, as only 10 convictions under the Sedition Act have been identified and as Adams never signed a deportation order, and that the furor over the Alien and Sedition Acts was mainly stirred up by the Democratic-Republicans. However, other historians^[who?] emphasize that the Acts were highly controversial from the outset, resulting in many aliens leaving the country voluntarily, and created an atmosphere where opposing the Federalists, even on the floor of Congress, could and did result in prosecution. The election of 1800 became a bitter and volatile battle, with each side expressing extraordinary fear of the other party and its policies.^[67]

Army

The Federalist party was deeply divided over the leadership of the Army. Adams was forced to name Washington as commander of the new army, and Washington demanded that Hamilton be his second-in-command. Adams reluctantly gave in.^[68] Major General Hamilton assumed a high degree of control over the War department. The rift between Adams and the High Federalists (as Adams's opponents were called) grew wider. The High Federalists refused to consult Adams over the key legislation of 1798;^{[clarification needed]} they changed the defense measures which he had called for, demanded that Hamilton control the army, and refused to recognize the necessity of giving key Democratic-Republicans (like Aaron Burr) senior positions in the army (which Adams wanted to do to gain some Democratic-Republican support). By building a large standing army the High Federalists raised popular alarms and played into the hands of the Democratic-Republicans. They also alienated Adams and his large personal following. They shortsightedly viewed the Federalist party as their own tool and ignored the need to pull together the entire nation in the face of war with France.^[69]
For long stretches, Adams withdrew to his home in Massachusetts. In February 1799, Adams stunned the country by sending diplomat William Vans Murray on a peace mission to France. Napoleon, realizing the animosity of the United States was doing no good, signaled his readiness for friendly relations. The Treaty of Alliance of 1778 was superseded and the United States could now be free of foreign entanglements, as Washington advised in his own Farewell Letter. Adams avoided war, but deeply split his own party in the process. He brought in John Marshall as Secretary of State and demobilized the emergency army.^[70]

Fries's Rebellion

To pay for the new Army, Congress imposed new taxes on property: the Direct Tax of 1798. It was the first (and last) such federal tax. Taxpayers were angry, nowhere more so than in southeast Pennsylvania, where the bloodless Fries's Rebellion broke out among rural German-speaking farmers who protested what they saw as a threat to their republican liberties and to their churches.^[71]

Reelection campaign 1800

Main article: United States presidential election, 1800

The death of Washington, in 1799, weakened the Federalists, as they lost the one man who symbolized and united the party. In the presidential election of 1800, Adams and his fellow Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, went against the Republican duo of Jefferson and Burr. Hamilton tried his hardest to sabotage Adams's campaign in hopes of boosting Pinckney's chances of winning the presidency. In the end, Adams lost narrowly to Jefferson by 65 to 73 electoral votes, with New York casting the decisive vote.
Adams was defeated because of better organization by the Republicans and Federalist disunity; by the popular disapproval of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the popularity of his opponent, Jefferson, and the effective politicking of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the electoral college) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican on the basis of a few wards in New York City controlled by Burr's machine.^[72]
In the closing months of his term Adams became the first President to occupy the new, but unfinished President's Mansion (later known as the White House), beginning November 1, 1800.^[73] Since 1800 was not a leap year, he served one less day in office than all other one-term Presidents.

Midnight Judges

The lame-duck session of Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of 1801, which created a set of federal appeals courts between the district courts and the Supreme Court. The purpose of the statute was twofold -- first, to remedy the defects in the federal judicial system inherent in the Judiciary Act of 1789, and, second, to enable the defeated Federalists to staff the new judicial offices with loyal Federalists in the face of the party's defeat in presidential and congressional elections in 1800.^[74] As his term was expiring, Adams filled the vacancies created by this statute by appointing a series of judges, whom his opponents called the "Midnight Judges" because most of them were formally appointed days before the presidential term expired. Most of these judges lost their posts when the Jeffersonian Republicans enacted the Judiciary Act of 1802, abolishing the courts created by the Judiciary Act of 1801 and returning the structure of the federal courts to its original structure as specified in the 1789 statute. Adams's greatest legacy was his naming of John Marshall as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States to succeed Oliver Ellsworth, who had retired due to ill health. Marshall's long tenure represents the most lasting influence of the Federalists, as Marshall infused the Constitution with a judicious and carefully reasoned nationalistic interpretation and established the Judicial Branch as the equal of the Executive and Legislative branches.^[75]

Major presidential actions

Built up the U.S. Navy
Fought the Quasi War with France, 1798-1800
Signed Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
Ended war with France through diplomacy, 1799-1800
Appointed John Marshall to Supreme Court, 1801

Speeches

Inaugural Addresses

Inaugural Address (March 4, 1797)

State of the Union Address

First State of the Union Address (November 22, 1797)
Second State of the Union Address, (December 8, 1798)
Third State of the Union Address, (December 3, 1799)
Fourth State of the Union Address, (November 22, 1800)

Administration, Cabinet and Supreme Court Appointments 1797–1801

The Adams Cabinet
Office	Name	Term

President	John Adams	1797–1801
Vice President	Thomas Jefferson	1797–1801

Secretary of State	Timothy Pickering	1797–1800
Secretary of State	John Marshall	1800–1801

Secretary of Treasury	Oliver Wolcott, Jr.	1797–1801
Secretary of Treasury	Samuel Dexter	1801

Secretary of War	James McHenry	1796–1800
Secretary of War	Samuel Dexter	1800–1801

Attorney General	Charles Lee	1797–1801

Secretary of the Navy	Benjamin Stoddert	1798–1801

Supreme Court Appointments by President
Position	Name	Term

Chief Justice	John Jay	1800 (declined)
Chief Justice	John Marshall

Associate Justice	Bushrod Washington
Associate Justice	Alfred Moore

John Adams, ca 1816, by Samuel F.B. Morse (Brooklyn Museum)

Post presidency

Following his 1800 defeat, Adams retired into private life. Depressed when he left office, he did not attend Jefferson's inauguration, making him one of only four surviving presidents (i.e., those who did not die in office) not to attend his successor's inauguration. Adams's correspondence with Jefferson at the time of the transition suggests that he did not feel the animosity or resentment that later scholars have attributed to him. He left Washington before Jefferson's inauguration as much out of sorrow at the death of his son Charles Adams (due in part to the younger man's alcoholism) and his desire to rejoin his wife Abigail, who had left for Massachusetts months before the inauguration. Adams resumed farming at his home, Peacefield, near the town of Quincy, which had absorbed his birthplace, Braintree. He began to work on an autobiography (which he never finished), and resumed correspondence with such old friends as Benjamin Waterhouse and Benjamin Rush. He also began a bitter and resentful correspondence with an old family friend, Mercy Otis Warren, protesting how in her 1805 history of the American Revolution she had, in his view, caricatured his political beliefs and misrepresented his services to the country.^[76]
After Jefferson's retirement from public life in 1809 after two terms as President, Adams became more vocal. For three years he published a stream of letters in the Boston Patriot newspaper, presenting a long and almost line-by-line refutation of an 1800 pamphlet by Hamilton attacking his conduct and character. Though Hamilton had died in 1804 from a mortal wound sustained in his notorious duel with Aaron Burr, Adams felt the need to vindicate his character against the New Yorker's vehement attacks.^[77]
In early 1812, Adams reconciled with Jefferson. Their mutual friend Benjamin Rush, a fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence who had been corresponding with both, encouraged each man to reach out to the other. On New Year's Day 1812, Adams sent a brief, friendly note to Jefferson to accompany the delivery of "two pieces of homespun," a two-volume collection of lectures on rhetoric by John Quincy Adams. Jefferson replied immediately with a warm, friendly letter, and the two men revived their friendship, which they conducted by mail. The correspondence that they resumed in 1812 lasted the rest of their lives, and thereafter has been hailed as one of their greatest legacies and a monument of American literature.^[78]

John Adams was nearly 89 when, at the request of his son, John Quincy Adams, he posed a final time for Gilbert Stuart (1823).

Their letters are rich in insight into both the period and the minds of the two Presidents and revolutionary leaders. Their correspondence lasted fourteen years, and consisted of 158 letters.^[78] It was in these years that the two men discussed "natural aristocracy." Jefferson said, "The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of society. May we not even say that the form of government is best which provides most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?"^[79] Adams wondered if it ever would be so clear who these people were, "Your distinction between natural and artificial aristocracy does not appear to me well founded. Birth and wealth are conferred on some men as imperiously by nature, as genius, strength, or beauty. . . . When aristocracies are established by human laws and honour, wealth, and power are made hereditary by municipal laws and political institutions, then I acknowledge artificial aristocracy to commence."^[80] It would always be true, Adams argued, that fate would bestow influence on some men for reasons other than true wisdom and virtue. That being the way of nature, he thought such "talents" were natural. A good government, therefore, had to account for that reality.
Sixteen months before John Adams's death, his son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the United States (1825–1829), the only son of a former President to hold the office until George W. Bush in 2001.
Adams's daughter Abigail ("Nabby") was married to Representative William Stephens Smith, but she returned to her parents' home after the failure of her marriage. She died of breast cancer in 1813. His son Charles died as an alcoholic in 1800. Abigail, his wife, died of typhoid on October 28, 1818. His son Thomas and his family lived with Adams and Louisa Smith (Abigail's niece by her brother William) to the end of Adams's life.^[76]

Death

Tombs of Presidents John Adams (distance) and John Quincy Adams (foreground) and their wives, in a family crypt beneath the United First Parish Church.

Less than a month before his death, John Adams issued a statement about the destiny of the United States, which historians such as Joy Hakim have characterized as a "warning" for his fellow citizens. Adams said:

My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.^[81]

On July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. Told that it was the Fourth, he answered clearly, "It is a great day. It is a good day." His last words have been reported as "Thomas Jefferson survives". His death left Charles Carroll of Carrollton as the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams died while his son John Quincy Adams was president.^[82]
His crypt lies at United First Parish Church (also known as the Church of the Presidents) in Quincy. Originally, he was buried in Hancock Cemetery, across the road from the Church. Until his record was broken by Ronald Reagan in 2001, he was the nation's longest-living President (90 years, 247 days) maintaining that record for 175 years.

Religious views

Adams was raised a Congregationalist, becoming a Unitarian at a time when most of the Congregational churches around Boston were turning to Unitarianism. Adams was educated at Harvard when the influence of deism was growing there, and used deistic terms in his speeches and writing.^[83] He believed in the essential goodness of the creation, but, being a Unitarian, his beliefs excluded the divinity of Christ. He also believed that regular church service was beneficial to man's moral sense. Everett (1966) concludes that "Adams strove for a religion based on a common sense sort of reasonableness" and maintained that religion must change and evolve toward perfection.^[84] Fielding (1940) shows that Adams's beliefs synthesized Puritan, deist, and humanist concepts. Adams thought Christianity had originally been revelatory, but was being misinterpreted and misused in the service of superstition, fraud, and unscrupulous power.^[85] Goff (1993) acknowledges Fielding's "persuasive argument that Adams never was a deist because he allowed the suspension of the laws of nature and believed that evil was internal, not the result of external institutions."^[86] Frazer (2004) notes that, while Adams shared many perspectives with deists, "Adams clearly was not a deist. Deism rejected any and all supernatural activity and intervention by God; consequently, deists did not believe in miracles or God's providence....Adams, however, did believe in miracles, providence, and, to a certain extent, the Bible as revelation."^[87] Fraser concludes that Adams's "theistic rationalism, like that of the other Founders, was a sort of middle ground between Protestantism and deism."^[88] By contrast, David L. Holmes has argued that John Adams, beginning as a Congregationalist, ended his days as a Christian Unitarian, accepting central tenets of the Unitarian creed but also accepting Jesus as the redeemer of humanity and the biblical account of his miracles as true.^[89]

United First Parish Church

In common with many of his contemporaries, Adams criticized the claims to universal authority made by the Roman Catholic Church.^[90]
In 1796, Adams denounced political opponent Thomas Paine's criticisms of Christianity in his book The Age of Reason, saying, "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will."^[91]
The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society provides information about Adams's religious beliefs.^[92] They quote from his letter to Benjamin Rush, an early promoter of Universalist thought, "I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard." The Society also relates how Rush reconciled Adams to his former friend Thomas Jefferson in 1812, after many bitter political battles. This resulted in correspondence between Adams and Jefferson about many topics, including philosophy and religion. In one of these communications, Adams told Jefferson, "The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion." In another letter, Adams reveals his sincere devotion to God, "My Adoration of the Author of the Universe is too profound and too sincere. The Love of God and his Creation; delight, Joy, Tryumph, Exaltation in my own existence, tho' but an Atom, a molecule Organique, in the Universe, are my religion." He continues by revealing his Universalist sympathies, rejection of orthodox Christian dogma, and his personal belief that he was a true Christian for not accepting such dogma, "Howl, Snarl, bite, Ye Calvinistick! Ye Athanasian Divines, if You will. Ye will say, I am no Christian: I say Ye are no Christians: and there the Account is ballanced. Yet I believe all the honest men among you, are Christians in my Sense of the Word." The Society also demonstrates that Adams rejected orthodox Christian doctrines of the trinity, predestination, yet equated human understanding and the human conscience to "celestial communication" or personal revelation from God. It is also shown that Adams held a strong conviction in life after death or otherwise, as he explained, "You might be ashamed of your Maker."^[92]

Ancestry

[show]Ancestors of John Adams

Biographies

The first notable biography of John Adams appeared as the first two volumes of The Works of John Adams, Esq., Second President of the United States, edited by Charles Francis Adams and published between 1850 and 1856 by Charles C. Little and James Brown in Boston. This biography's first seven chapters were the work of John Quincy Adams, but the rest of the biography was the work of Charles Francis Adams^{[disambiguation needed]}. The first modern biography was Honest John Adams, a 1933 biography by the noted French specialist in American history Gilbert Chinard, who came to Adams after writing his acclaimed 1929 biography of Thomas Jefferson. For a generation, Chinard's work was regarded as the best life of Adams, and it is still a key factor in determining the themes of Adams biographical and historical scholarship. Following the opening of the Adams family papers in the 1950s, Page Smith published the first major biography to use these previously inaccessible primary sources; his biography won a 1962 Bancroft Prize but was criticized for its scanting of Adams's intellectual life and its diffuseness. In 1975, Peter Shaw published The Character of John Adams, a thematic biography noted for its graceful prose and its psychological insight into Adams's life. The 1992 character study by Joseph J. Ellis, Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, was Ellis's first major publishing success and remains one of the most useful and insightful studies of Adams's personality. In 1993, the Revolutionary War historian and biographer John E. Ferling published his acclaimed John Adams, also noted for its psychological sensitivity; many scholars regard it as the best biography to date. In 2001, the popular historian David McCullough published a large biography of John Adams that won various awards and general acclaim and was developed into a 2008 TV miniseries). The most recent life, and one of the most thoughtful and accessible biographies of Adams, was John Adams, Party of One, a 2005 study by James Grant.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Adolphe Adam

2011-07-14T01:04:00.002-07:00

Adolphe Adam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maestro Adolphe Adam. Paris, circa 1855

Adolphe Charles Adam (24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1844) and Le corsaire (1856, his last work), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836), Le toréador (1849) and Si j'étais roi (1852, often regarded as his finest work), and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!" ("O Holy Night") (1847). Adam was also a noted teacher. Léo Delibes was among his pupils.

Biography

Adolphe Adam (Royal College of Music, London).

Adolphe Adam was born in Paris to Louis Adam (1758–1848), who was also a composer, as well a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. His mother was the daughter of a physician. As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music on his own rather than study music seriously. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1821, where he studied organ and harmonium under the celebrated opera composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. Adam also played the triangle in the orchestra of the Conservatoire; however, he did not win the Prix de Rome and his father did not encourage him to pursue a music career.
By age 20, he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses and playing in the orchestra at the Gymnasie Dramatique, where he later became chorus master. Like many other French composers, he made a living largely by playing the organ. In 1825, he helped Boieldieu prepare parts for his opera La dame blanche and made a piano reduction of the score. Adam was able to travel through Europe with the money he made, and he met Eugène Scribe, with whom he later collaborated, in Geneva. By 1830, he had completed twenty-eight works for the theatre.
Adam is probably best remembered for the ballet Giselle (1841). He wrote several other ballets and 39 operas, including Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852).
After quarreling with the director of the Opéra, Adam invested his money and borrowed heavily to open a fourth opera house in Paris: the Théâtre National (Opéra-National). It opened in 1847, but closed because of the Revolution of 1848, leaving Adam with massive debts (Théâtre National later was resurrected under the name of Théâtre Lyrique at the Boulevard du Temple). His efforts to extricate himself from these debts include a brief turn to journalism. From 1849 to his death in Paris, he taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire.
His Christmas carol "Cantique de Noël", translated to English as "O Holy Night", is an international favorite, and is said to have been the first music broadcast on radio.^[1]
Adam is buried in Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.

[edit] Works

See List of operas by Adam and List of ballets by Adolphe Adam.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Adam de la Halle

2011-07-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

Adam de la Halle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adam de la halle

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Adam de la Halle, also known as Adam le Bossu (Adam the Hunchback) (1237?–1288) was a French-born trouvère, poet and musician, whose literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis (poetic debates) in the style of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony, and a musical play, "The Play of Robin and Marion", which is considered the earliest surviving secular French play with music. He was a member of the Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras.
Adam's other nicknames, "le Bossu d'Arras" and "Adam d'Arras", suggest that he came from Arras, France. The sobriquet "the Hunchback" was probably a family name; Adam himself points out that he was not one.^[1] His father, Henri de le Hale, was a well-known Citizen of Arras, and Adam studied grammar, theology, and music at the Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai. Father and son had their share in the civil discords in Arras, and for a short time took refuge in Douai. Adam had been destined for the church, but renounced this intention, and married a certain Marie, who figures in many of his songs, rondeaux, motets and jeux-partis. Afterwards he joined the household of Robert II, Count of Artois; and then was attached to Charles of Anjou, brother of Charles IX, whose fortunes he followed in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Italy.
At the court of Charles, after Charles became king of Naples, Adam wrote his Jeu de Robin et Marion, the most famous of his works. Adam's shorter pieces are accompanied by music, of which a transcript in modern notation, with the original score, is given in Coussemaker's edition. His Jeu de Robin et Marion is cited as the earliest French play with music on a secular subject. The pastoral, which tells how Marion resisted the knight, and remained faithful to Robert the shepherd, is based on an old chanson, Robin m'aime, Robin m'a. It consists of dialogue varied by refrains already current in popular song. The melodies to which these are set have the character of folk music, and are more spontaneous and melodious than the more elaborate music of his songs and motets. Fétis considered Le Jeu de Robin et Marion and Le Jeu de la feuillée forerunners of the comic opera.^[2] An adaptation of Le Jeu Robin et Marion, by Julien Tiersot, was played at Arras by a company from the Paris Opéra-Comique on the occasion of a festival in 1896 in honour of Adam de le Hale.
His other play, Le jeu Adan or Le jeu de la Feuillee (ca. 1262), is a satirical drama in which he introduces himself, his father and the citizens of Arras with their peculiarities. His works include a congé, or satirical farewell to the city of Arras, and an unfinished chanson de geste in honour of Charles of Anjou, Le roi de Sicile, begun in 1282; another short piece, Le jeu du pelerin, is sometimes attributed to him.
His known works include thirty-six chansons (literally, "songs"), forty-six rondets de carole, eighteen jeux-partis, fourteen rondeaux, five motets, one rondeau-virelai, one ballette, one dit d'amour, and one congé.

[hide]

[edit] Notes

^ Robert Falck, "Adam de la Halle", s.v., Grove Music Online [1] (subscription access), visited 25 March 2007.
^ François-Joseph Fétis, Revue Musicale 1.1, 1827.

[edit] Example

	Adan, d’amour vous demant By Adam de la Halle, performed by Capilla Flamenca
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

[edit] Recording

2004 – Zodiac. Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior in the Low Countries and Europe Capilla Flamenca. Eufoda 1360.
Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Joseph Achron

2011-07-13T00:16:00.002-07:00

Joseph Achron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron (Russian: Иосиф Юльевич Ахрон) (May 13, 1886 – April 29, 1943) was a Russian composer and violinist of Jewish origin, settled in USA. His preoccupation with Jewish elements and his desire to develop a 'Jewish' harmonic and contrapuntal idiom, underscored and informed much of his work. His friend the composer Arnold Schönberg described Achron in his obituary as "one of the most underrated modern composers".^[1]^{[unreliable source?]}, ^[2]

Biography

Achron was born in Lozdzieje, Russian Empire (now Lazdijai, Lithuania) and began the study of the violin under his father, an amateur violinist, at the age of five. His first public performance followed three years later at age seven in Warsaw. This was followed by a prodigious childhood career including performances throughout Russia. Between 1899 and 1904 he studied violin under legendary teacher Leopold Auer and composition under Anatoly Ljadov, at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg.
He joined the Society for Jewish Folk Music (formed in 1908) in 1911 and from that point occupied himself in theory and practice with the Jewish music tradition. His first 'Jewish' work ’’Hebrew Melody’’ became immediately recognised through the interpretation of violinist Jascha Heifetz. In 1913 Achron became the head of the violin and chamber music departments at the Kharkiv Conservatory in Russia, and served in the Russian Army between 1916 and 1918. In the years after World War I he toured extensively as a concert artist in Europe, the Near East and Russia, performing over 1000 concerts between 1919 and 1922. During this period he was appointed head of the violin masterclass and chamber music department at the Leningrad Artists' Union. In 1922 Achron moved to Berlin, where he, together with Michail Gnesin, ran the Jewish music publishing company "Yivneh". In 1924 Achron spent some months in Palestine.
In 1925 he emigrated to the United States and settled in New York, where he taught the violin at the Westchester Conservatory. He performed his Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1927. His incidental music suite from H. Leivick's The Golem, also written during this period, was chosen by the ISCM for performance in Venice in 1932.
In 1934 he moved to Hollywood, where he composed music for films and continued his career as a concert violinist. He performed his Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Philhamonic Orchestra in 1936 and his third (commissioned by Jascha Heifetz) with the same orchestra in 1939. Atonality and polytonality are among the techniques used in his later works. His final work was the Concerto for solo piano, Op. 74. He died in Hollywood, CA in 1943.
He was the brother of the pianist and composer Isidor Achron, who became Jascha Heifetz's accompanist.

[edit] Selected works

[edit] Orchestral

Hebrew Melody, Op. 33, for violin and orchestra (1911)
Hazzan, Op. 34, for cello and orchestra (1912)
2 Hebrew Pieces, Op. 35 (1913)
Dance Improvisation, Op. 37 (circa 1913)
Shir, Op. 42, dance for clarinet and orchestra (1917)
2 Pastels, Op. 44, for violin and orchestra (1917)
The Fiddle's Soul, Op. 50 (1920)
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 60 (1925)
Konzertanten-Kapelle, Op. 64, for violin and orchestra (1928)
Two Tableaux from Belshazzar (1931)
The Golem, suite for chamber orchestra (1932)
Dance Overture (1932)
Little Dance Fantasy (1933)
Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 68 (1933)
Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 72 (1937)

[edit] Choral

Epitaph (in memory of Skryabin), Op. 38, for four voices and orchestra (1915)
Salome’s Dance, Op. 61, for mixed voices, piano and percussion (1925) / (1966)
Evening Service of the Sabbath, Op. 67, for baritone voice, four voices and organ (1932) - commissioned by Congregation Emanue-El of New York City, published by Bloch Publishing Company.

[edit] Chamber and Instrumental

1ère Suite en Style Ancien, Op. 21, for violin and piano (circa 1914) / (1923)
Chromatic String Quartet, Op. 26 (circa 1915)
Sonata No. 1, Op. 29, for violin and piano (circa 1915)
Symphonic Variations and Sonata on a Palestinian Theme, Op. 39, for piano (circa 1916)
Suite Bizarre, Op. 41, for violin and piano (circa 1917)
Sonata No. 2, Op. 45, for violin and piano (circa 1917)
Children's Suite, Op.57, for clarinet, string quartet and piano (circa 1925)
Elegy, Op. 62, for string quartet (1927)
4 Improvisations, Op. 65, for string quartet (1927)
Statuettes, Op. 66, for solo piano (1930)
The Golem, for cello, trumpet, horn and piano (1931)
Sinfonietta, Op. 71, for string quartet (1935)
Concerto for solo piano, Op. 74

[edit] Miscellaneous

Spring Night, ballet music for a short film (1935)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Jean-Baptiste Accolay

2011-07-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

Jean-Baptiste Accolay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)

Jean-Baptiste Accolay (17 April 1833 (Brussels, Belgium) – 19 August 1900 (Brugge, Belgium) was a Belgian violin teacher, violinist, conductor, and composer of the romantic period . His best known composition is a student concerto with only one movement in A minor. It was written in 1868 originally for violin and orchestra.
Accolay's Concerto in A minor has been played by many well-known violinists, including Itzhak Perlman. The liner notes for Perlman's recording of "Concertos from My Childhood" indicate that there are at least "seven works by the long forgotten French violinist and teacher Jean-Baptiste Accolay, whose concertos (including the one in question) were edited for publication by the Walloon virtuoso Mattieu Crickboom, a protege of the great Eugène Ysaÿe, and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels." Accolay's Concerto in A minor (1868) is "one of the most enduring of all tutorial violin concertos, it is still regularly studied today.Though its executant demands are slight, this agreeably spontaneous piece highlights one of music's great paradoxes - that expressive power often derives from the simplest of technical means."

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Henry Abyngdon

2011-07-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Henry Abyngdon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Abyngdon, Abingdon or Abington (c. 1418 – September 1, 1497) was an English ecclesiastic and musician, perhaps the first to receive a university degree in music.

Biography

He may have been connected with the village of Abington in Cambridgeshire.^[1] Our earliest records of him state that he was a member of the household chapel of Duke of Gloucester from 1445-1447. He then succeeded John Bernard as succentor of Wells Cathedral on Nov. 24, 1447 (holding that post till his death) and a was a canon from 1458.^[1] He was admitted a Bachelor of Music at Cambridge on Feb. 22, 1463,^[2] this being the first musical degree recorded at any university. In addition to the succentorship at Wells, Abyngdon held the office of 'Master of the Song' of the Chapel Royal in London, to which he was appointed in May 1465 at an annual salary of forty marks, confirmed to him by a subsequent Act of Parliament in 1473-74. He was also made Master of St. Catherine's Hospital, Bedminster, Bristol, in 1478.^[1]

[edit] Reputation

He is said to have been pre-eminent both as a singer and an organist, although none of his works are known to have survived. Two Latin epitaphs on Abyngdon by Sir Thomas More have been preserved. In these he himself is styled 'nobilis,' and his office in London 'cantor'. One of them calls him

“

The best singer among thousands,
and besides this the best organist too.
(Millibus in mille cantor fuit optimus ille,
Praeter et haec ista fuit optimus orgaquenista.)

”

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Franz Abt

2011-07-13T00:14:00.001-07:00

Franz Abt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait of Franz Abt, from the cover of an edition of his songs

Franz Wilhelm Abt (22 December 1819 – 31 March 1885) was a German composer and choral conductor.^[1] He composed roughly 3,000 individual works mostly in the area of vocal music. Several of his songs were at one time universally sung, and have obtained a more or less permanent place in the popular repertory. During his lifetime, Abt was a renowned choral conductor and he spent much of the last three decades of his life working as a guest conductor with choirs throughout Europe and in the United States.

Biography

Abt was born at Eilenburg in Prussian Saxony, and showed musical talent at an early age. His father was a clergyman and a talented pianist, and it is he who gave Franz his earliest instruction in music. Like his father, Abt was interested in both music and theology, and he followed both pursuits at the Thomasschule Leipzig and the University of Leipzig with the ultimate intention of becoming a member of the clergy. While in school, Abt became friends with Albert Lortzing, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann.^[2]
Upon the death of his father in 1837, Abt abandoned his theological studies and decided to concentrate entirely on music. It is at this time that he began to compose and publish music, mostly works for the piano which were written for performance in Leipzig's salons. In 1841 Abt became kapellmeister at Bernburg, then moved to Zurich in the same year where he became an immensely popular and skilled choirmaster, often conducting his own compositions. While in Zurich he was appointed director of almost all of the city's numerous choral societies in succession, often winning prizes for them. In 1852 Abt returned to Germany to become musical director at the court theater in Braunschweig where he served until 1882.^[2]
Abt also remained active as a choral conductor during his time in Braunschweig. He was appointed director of the Hofkapelle in 1855, serving in that position for many years. He was also frequently invited to conduct choirs in many capital cities of Europe during the 1850s through the 1880s, having at this point developed an international reputation. He notably toured the U.S. in 1872 where he was received with overwhelming enthusiasm by music critics and the public alike. By 1882, his busy schedule wore him down to a state of ill health and he was forced to retire to Wiesbaden where he died in 1885.^[2]

[edit] Music

Abt's compositions comprise more than 600 opus numbers which make up over 3,000 individual items. He was primarily a composer of vocal music and was particularly prolific in writing music for male choirs which he thought was lacking in sufficient literature. Indeed, his greatest successes in Germany and Switzerland were obtained in part-songs for men's voices. Abt was also successful in writing choral music for mixed choruses both a cappella and with either piano or orchestral accompianement. He also wrote numerous popular vocal art songs for solo voice, part songs for multiple voices, and several songs for children.^[2]

Franz Wilhelm Abt monument from 1960

Abt's compositional style betrays an easy fluency of invention, couched in pleasing popular forms, but without pretence to depth or individuality. Many of his songs, were at one time universally sung, and have obtained a more or less permanent place in the popular repertory. Due to their simple and melodic style some of Abt's songs, such as Wenn die Schwalben heimwärts ziehn and Die stille Wasserrose are easily mistaken for genuine folksong.^[2]
Abt's other compositions include three operas: Des Königs Scharfschütz, Die Hauptprobe, and Reisebekanntschaften. In the early part of his life Abt composed much for the piano, chiefly pieces of light salon character. These have never had the same popularity as his vocal works.^[2]

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Jean Absil

2011-07-13T00:13:00.001-07:00

Jean Absil

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Absil (October 23, 1893 – February 2, 1974) was a Belgian modernist music composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatory.

Biography

Absil was born in Bonsecours, Hainaut, Belgium. He was a pupil of Alphonse Oeyen, organist at the basilica of Bonsecours. From 1913 he studied organ and harmony at the Brussels Conservatory , but upon graduating, decided to concentrate on composition instead. In 1922 Absil won the Belgian Prix de Rome and in 1934 the Prix Rubens, which allowed him to travel to Paris, France. Here, he met fellow contemporary composers Ibert, Milhaud, and Honegger. Absil gained international prominence with the premiere of his first piano concerto (op. 30).^[1] In 1930, Absil began teaching harmony at the Brussels Conservatory, becoming a professor of Fugue 6 years later. Amongst his pupils there was Paul Danblon. He also taught at Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth and the Etterbeek Music School. In 1955, he was elected to the Belgium Royal Academy. In 1974, at the age of 80, Absil died in Uccle, Brussels.

[edit] Compositions

Initially, Absil was influenced by the late Romantic school, particularly Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Around the time Absil made his trip to Paris in 1934, Absil began to adopt a more modern style. This included the use of polyphony and polymodal structures, influenced by contemporary composers such as Milhaud and Schoenberg.^[2]
The ear never suffers from an impression of tonal insecurity when listening to Absil’s music: while it is no longer possible to find a reference to the classical major or minor tonalities, the composer invents new modes, which he replaces for each piece. From these modes emerge chords which, even if they are different from the classical ones, also have an expressive sense (tension or resolution). Absil never practised a real atonality: the apparent tonal independence of the voices always resolves itself into a unique tonality.^[3]
Among his many compositions are the Ballade, op. 129, for solo piano (which is played with the left hand only) as well as 3 Pièces (played with the right one only).
Being a skilled pianist Absil composed a lengthy repertoire for the instrument, including three sonatinas (written in 1937, 1939, and 1965 respectively) and two Grand Suites. The Grand Suites (Op.110, composed in 1965) served as a tribute to Frederic Chopin. In 1946, he composed another work, Hommage à Schumann and eleven years later the Passacaglia in Memoriam Alban Berg, both of them for piano. He also composed one opera, Les voix de la mer, and a cycle of five symphonies, the first of which (op. 1) he composed at 27, when he was a pupil of Paul Gilson. It won the Prix Agniez in 1921. His last composition was the Piano Concerto no. 3, op. 162.

[edit] List of works (alphabetical)

based on the list of scores available at the Belgian Documentation Centre for Contemporary Music :

A cloche-pied op. 139 - 1968, for children's voice and piano
Alcools op. 43 - 1940, for 4 mixed voices a cappella
Allegro brillante op. 132 - 1967, for 2 pianos
Allegro brillante op. 132 - 1967, for piano and orchestra
Alternances op. 140 - 1968, for piano
Asymétries op. 136 - 1968, for 2 pianos
Ballade op. 129 - 1966, for piano (left hand)
Ballade op. 156 - 1971, for alto saxophone, piano and small orchestra
Berceuse - 1932, for alto saxophone or viola or cello and small orchestra
Berceuse - 1932, for cello or viola or alto saxophone and piano
Bestiaire op. 58 - 1944, for mixed Choir a cappella
Burlesque op. 100 - 1958, for oboe and piano
Cache-cache op. 117 - 1963, for middle voice and piano
Chacone op. 69 - 1949, for violin
Chanson de quatre sous - 1942, for middle voice and piano
Chansons de bonne humeur op. 49 - 1942, for two-part women's choir (S.-Mz.) and orchestra
Chansons de bonne humeur op. 49 - 1942, for two-part women's choir and piano
Chansons plaisantes - 2e recueil op. 94 - 1956, for two-part children's choir and piano
Chansons plaisantes op. 88 - 1955, for 2 children's voices
Cimetière - 1927, for middle voice and piano
Cinq bagatelles op. 61 - 1944, for piano
Cinq chansons de Paul Fort op. 18 - 1935, for 2 equal voices and piano
Cinq choeurs - 1930, for three-part women's choir and piano
Cinq mélodies - 1927, for middle voice and piano
Cinq mélodies op. 12 - 1933, for Mezzo-Soprano and string quartet
Cinq pièces faciles op. 138 - 1968, for clarinet or alto saxophone and piano
Colas Chacha - ?, for large orchestra
Colindas op. 87 - 1955, for three-part choir a cappella
Concert à cinq op. 38 - 1939, for flute, violin, viola, cello and diatonic harp
Concertino op. 42 - 1940, for cello and orchestra
Concertino op. 42 - 1940, for cello and piano
Concertino op. 122 - 1964, for viola and piano
Concertino op. 122 - 1964, for viola and string orchestra
Concerto grosso op. 60 - 1944, for wind quintet and string orchestra
Concerto n°2 op. 124 - 1964, for violin and orchestra
Concerto n°2 op. 124 - 1964, for violin and piano
Concerto n°2 op. 131 - 1967, for 2 pianos
Concerto n°2 op. 131 - 1967, for piano and orchestra
Concerto n°3 op. 162 - 1973, for 2 pianos
Concerto n°3 op. 162 - 1973, for piano and orchestra
Concerto op. 11 - 1933, for violin and orchestra
Concerto op. 11 - 1933, for violin and piano
Concerto op. 30 - 1937, for 2 pianos
Concerto op. 30 - 1937, for piano and orchestra
Concerto op. 54 - 1942, for viola and orchestra
Concerto op. 54 - 1942, for viola and piano
Concerto op. 155 - 1971, for guitar and small orchestra
Contes op. 76 - 1951, for trumpet and piano
Contrastes op. 143 - 1969, for 2 guitars
Croquis pour un carnaval op. 137 - 1968, for clarinet quartet and diatonic harp
Croquis sportifs op. 85 - 1954, for band
Danses bulgares op. 103 - 1961, for band
Danses bulgares op. 103 - 1959, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon
Danses bulgares op. 103 - 1959, for piano
De tijd - ?, for Children's choir and piano
Déités op. 160 - 1972, for orchestra
Deux danses rituelles op. 105 - 1960, for small orchestra
Deux mélodies - 1933, for middle voice and piano
Deux poèmes op. 53 - 1942, for Soprano and piano
Divertimento op. 86 - 1955, for saxophone quartet and orchestra
Du rythme à l'expression I op. 108 - 1961, for piano
Du rythme à l'expression II op. 108 - 1961, for piano
Echecs op. 96 - 1957, for piano
Enfantines op. 52 - 1942, for middle voice and piano
Epouvantail op. 74 - 1950, for orchestra
Epouvantail op. 74 - 1950, for piano
Esquisses sur les 7 péchés capitaux op. 83 - 1954, for piano
Etude n°3 - 1963, for concert drum and piano
Etude XI - ?, for 4 timpani and piano
Etude XI - ?, for concert drum and piano
Evasion op. 8 - 1927, for high voice and piano
Fanfares op. 118 - 1963, for band
Fantaisie - Caprice op. 152 - 1971, for alto saxophone and band
Fantaisie - Caprice op. 152 - 1971, for saxophone and piano
Fantaisie - Humoresque op. 113 - 1962, for clarinet and piano
Fantaisie - Humoresque op. 113 - 1962, for clarinet and string orchestra
Fantaisie concertante op. 99 - 1958, for violin and orchestra
Fantaisie concertante op. 99 - 1958, for violin and piano
Fantaisie rhapsodique op. 21 - 1936, for cello quartet
Fantaisie op. 40 - 1939, for violin, viola, cello and piano
Féeries op. 153 - 1971, for piano
Grande suite n°2 op. 110 - 1962, for piano
Grande suite op. 62 - 1944, for piano
Heure de grâce op. 98 - 1958, for high voice and piano
Hommage à Lekeu op. 35/bis - 1939, for orchestra
Hommage à Schumann op. 67 - 1946, for piano
Humoresques op. 126 - 1965, for piano
Images stellaires op. 161 - 1973, for violin and cello
Introduction et Valses op. 89 - 1955, for orchestra
Jeanne d'Arc op. 65 - 1945, for orchestra
L'album à colorier op. 68 - 1948, for two-part children's choir and piano
La mort de Tintagiles op. 3 - 1926, for orchestra
Le chant à l'école op. 144 - 1969, for Choir a cappella
Le chapeau chinois (extr.) op. 64 - 1944, for Tenor and piano
Le chapeau chinois op. 64 - 1944, for opera
Le chapeau chinois op. 64 - 1944, for S. 2T. Bar. B. and piano
Le cirque volant op. 82 - 1953, for choir (2 children's voices), Narrator and piano
Le miracle de Pan op. 71 - 1949, for orchestra
Le miracle de Pan op. 71 - 1949, for piano
Le zodiaque op. 70 - 1949, for piano, choir (4 mixed voices), Soloists and orchestra
Le zodiaque op. 70 - 1949, for Soloists, choir and 2 pianos
Légendes op. 91 - 1956, for band
Les bénédictions op. 48 - 1941, for Soloists, choir and piano
Les bénédictions op. 48 - 1941, for Soloists, choir, large orchestra and organ
Les chants du mort op. 55 - 1943, for mixed vocal quartet and orchestra
Les chants du mort op. 55 - 1943, for mixed vocal quartet and piano - Soprano - Alto - Tenor - Bass
Les météores op. 77 - 1951, for orchestra
Les voix de la mer op. 75 - 1951, for opera
Les voix de la mer op. 75 - 1951, for Soli, mixed choir speech choir and piano
Les voix de la mer: Choeur aérien op. 75 - 1951, for women's choir
Marines op. 36 - 1939, for piano
Mythologie op. 84 - 1954, for large orchestra
Nymphes et faunes op. 130 - 1966, for band
Ouverture op. 75 - 1965, for opera
Passacaille op. 101 - 1959, for piano
Peau d'Ane op. 26 - 1937, for band
Peau d'Ane op. 26 - 1937, for Soloists, speaking parts and orchestra
Peau d'Ane op. 26 - 1937, for theatre music
Peau d'Ane: Air de Peau d'Ane op. 26 - 1937, for Soprano and orchestra
Peau d'Ane: Air de Peau d'Ane op. 26 - 1937, for Soprano and piano
Peau d'Ane: Air du Prince op. 26 - 1937, for Tenor and orchestra
Peau d'Ane: Air du Prince op. 26 - 1937, for Tenor and piano
Peau d'Ane: Air du Roi op. 26 - 1937, for Bass and orchestra
Peau d'Ane: Air du Roi op. 26 - 1937, for Bass and piano
Peau d'Ane: Airs de ballet op. 26 - 1937, for chamber orchestra
Peau d'Ane: Final du 3e acte op. 26 - 1937, for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Bass and piano
Peau d'Ane: Suite op. 26 - 1937, for chamber orchestra
Petit bestiaire op. 151 - 1970, for guitar
Petite suite op. 20 - 1935, for band
Petite suite op. 20 - 1935, for chamber orchestra
Petite suite op. 20 - 1935, for fanfare
Petites polyphonies op. 128 - 1966, for 2 equal voices and piano
Phantasmes - 1936, for Contralto, alto saxophone, percussion and piano
Philatélie op. 46 - 1940, for mixed vocal quartet and 14 instruments
Philatélie op. 46 - 1940, for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Bass and piano
Pièces caractéristiques op. 123 - 1964, for guitar
Pièces en quatuor op. 35 - 1938, for saxophone quartet
Pierre Breughel l'Ancien op. 73 - 1950, for Soloists, choir and piano
Pierre Breughel l'Ancien op. 73 - 1950, for Soloists, mixed choir, speech choir, Narrator, large orchestra and organ
Poésie et vélocité op. 157 - 1972, for piano
Prélude et barcarolle - ?, for guitar
Printemps op. 59 - 1944, for children's voices with piano accompaniment
Quatre esquisses op. 154 - 1971, for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon
Quatre pièces op. 150 - 1970, for guitar
Quatre poèmes op. 12 - 1933, for middle voice and piano
Quatuor à clavier op. 33 - 1938, for violin, viola, cello and piano
Quatuor à cordes n°1 op. 5 - 1929, for 2 violins, viola and cello
Quatuor à cordes n°2 op. 13 - 1934, for 2 violins, viola and cello
Quatuor à cordes n°3 op. 19 - 1935, for 2 violins, viola and cello
Quatuor à cordes n°4 op. 47 - 1941, for 2 violins, viola and cello
Quatuor n°2 op. 28 - 1937, for cello quartet
Quatuor op. 31 - 1937, for 4 saxophones
Quatuor op. 132 - 1967, for 4 clarinets
Quintette op. 16 - 1934, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon
Rêves op. 80 - 1952, for middle voice and piano
Rhapsodie brésilienne op. 81 - 1953, for band
Rhapsodie brésilienne op. 81 - 1953, for orchestra
Rhapsodie bulgare op. 104 - 1960, for orchestra
Rhapsodie flamande op. 4 - 1928, for band
Rhapsodie flamande op. 4 - 1928, for orchestra
Rhapsodie n°2 op. 34 - 1938, for orchestra
Rhapsodie n°5 op. 102 - 1959, for 2 pianos
Rhapsodie n°5 op. 102 - 1959, for band
Rhapsodie n°6 op. 120 - 1963, for horn and piano
Rhapsodie roumaine op. 56 - 1943, for violin and orchestra
Rhapsodie roumaine op. 56 - 1943, for violin and piano
Rites op. 79 - 1952, for band
Roumaniana op. 92 - 1956, for band
Sicilienne - 1950, for flute or clarinet or saxophone and piano or harp
Silhouettes op. 97 - 1958, for flute and piano
Six choeurs I op. 18 - 1935, for children's choir and piano (1 voice)
[divers], for
Six choeurs II op. 18 - 1935, for two-part children's choir and piano
Paul Fort, for
Six poèmes de Maurice Carême op. 109 - 1961, for 3 equal voices
Maurice Carême, for
Sonate op. 115 - 1963, for alto saxophone and piano
Sonate op. 134 - 1967, for violin
Sonate op. 146 - 1970, for violin and piano
Sonatine en duo op. 112 - 1962, for violin and viola
Sonatine n°2 op. 37 - 1939, for piano
Sonatine op. 27 - 1937, for piano
Suite bucolique op. 95 - 1957, for string orchestra
Suite mystique op. 145 - 1969, for flute quartet
Suite n°2 op. 141 - 1968, for cello and piano
Suite pastorale op. 37 - 1939, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon
Suite pastorale op. 37 - 1939, for piano
Suite sur des thèmes populaires roumains op. 90 - 1956, for saxophone quartet
Suite op. 51 - 1942, for cello and piano
Suite op. 78 - 1952, for trombone, tuba or cello and piano
Suite op. 92 - 1956, for small orchestra
Suite op. 114 - 1963, for guitar
Suite op. 135 - 1967, for 2 guitars
Suite op. 149 - 1970, for trumpet in C or B flat and piano
Sur un paravent chinois op. 147 - 1970, for guitar
Symphonie n°1 en ré mineur op. 1 - 1920, for orchestra
Symphonie n°2 op. 25 - 1936, for large orchestra
Symphonie n°3 op. 57 - 1943, for orchestra
Symphonie n°4 op. 142 - 1969, for large orchestra
Symphonie n°5 op. 148 - 1970, for large orchestra
Tahi - Taho op. 8 - 1932, for middle voice and piano
Thrène op. 66 - 1945, for two-part choir (equal voices), organ and 2 Narrators
Trente études préparatoires à la polyrythmie op. 107 - 1961, for piano
Trente études préparatoires à la polyrythmie op. 107 - 1961, for piano
Trio à cordes n°1 op. 17 - 1935, for violin, viola, cello
Trio à cordes n°2 op. 39 - 1939, for violin, viola, cello
Trio n°2 op. 158 - 1972, for violin, cello and piano
Trio op. 7 - 1931, for violin, cello and piano
Triptyque op. 106 - 1960, for small orchestra
Trois choeurs op. 15 - 1934, for 4 men's voices a cappella
Trois impromptus op. 10 - 1932, for piano
Trois pièces op. 32 - 1938, for piano
Trois pièces op. 32 - 1938, for piano (right hand)
Trois pièces op. 119 - 1963, for 2 guitars
Trois pièces op. 121 - 1964, for bandoneon
Trois Pièces op. 127 - 1965, for organ
Trois poèmes d'Arthur Cantillon op. 9 - 1932, for 4 unaccompanied mixed voices
Trois poèmes de Tristan Klingsor op. 45 - 1940, for middle voice and piano
Trois poèmes de Tristan Klingsor op. 45 - 1940, for middle voice and small orchestra
Trois vocalises op. 116 - 1963, for middle voice and piano
Ulysse et les Sirènes op. 41 - 1939, for 1 Bar., 2 Narr., men's choir, women's choir and piano
Ulysse et les Sirènes op. 41 - 1939, for Soloists (1 Bar., 2 Narrators), men's choir, women's choir and small orchestra
Variations symphoniques op. 50 - 1942, for large orchestra
Variations op. 93 - 1956, for piano
Zoo op. 63 - 1944, for vocal quartet a cappella

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Kornél Ábrányi

2011-07-13T00:12:00.003-07:00

Kornél Ábrányi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kornél Ábrányi, or Ábrányi Kornél in Hungarian iteration (15 October 1822, Szentgyörgyábrány – 20 December 1903, Budapest) was a Hungarian pianist, music writer and theorist, and composer. A pupil of Frédéric Chopin, and a close friend of Franz Liszt, whose music he championed, Ábrányi chiefly wrote music for piano, but also composed chamber music, choral works, and lieder. He began teaching at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music at its founding in 1875 and became its Secretary.
His grandson was the composer Emil Ábrányi.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Alexander Abramsky

2011-07-13T00:12:00.001-07:00

Alexander Abramsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Abramsky (January 22, 1898 – August 28, 1985) was a Soviet composer.^[1] He was known for his adaptation of Russian folk music within his compositions. He wrote numerous symphonic works, chamber music pieces, and one opera. His most well known work is his piano concerto which premiered in 1941.^[2]

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Hans Abrahamsen

2011-07-13T00:11:00.003-07:00

Hans Abrahamsen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Abrahamsen (born December 23, 1952) is a Danish composer.
Born in Copenhagen, Abrahamsen first got to know music through playing the French horn at school. He went on to study music theory at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.^[1] His music is inspired by his mentors Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, who were two of his composition teachers, and in the 1980s he became close both personally and stylistically (partly through another period of study) to György Ligeti.
Abrahamsen is considered to have been part of a trend called the "New Simplicity", which arose in the mid-1960s as a reaction against the complexity and perceived aridity of the Central European avant-garde.^[2]^[3] Abrahamsen’s first works conformed to the tenets of this movement, which was a Danish reaction against the complexity emanating from central Europe, particularly the circle around the Darmstadt School. For Abrahamsen this meant adopting an almost naive simplicity of expression, as in his orchestral piece Skum ("Foam", 1970). His style soon altered and developed, at first through a personal dialogue with Romanticism (audible in works such as the orchestral Nacht und Trompete (1984)), and later - after a hiatus of around a decade in which he composed little and released nothing - into something entirely personal, combining a modernist stringency and economy into a larger individual musical universe.^[1] Notable works since his return to composition include a piano concerto written for his wife Anne-Marie Abildskov, and the extended chamber work Schnee, where the paring-down of material appears to reach a new extreme.

[edit] Works

Winternacht (1976–78)
Nacht und Trompete (1984)
Marchenbilder (1984)
Lied in Fall (1987) for Cello and 13 instruments
Carl Nielsen: Three Piano Pieces recomposed for 10 instruments (1990)
10 Studies for Piano
6 Pieces for Violin, Horn and Piano
String Quartets (with Poul Ruders)
Symphony (1974) - released on a CD of the Kontakt label (No 32194)
4 Pieces (1983 Piano Studies, Orchestrated 2000-2003)
Schnee (2006)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Paul Abraham

2011-07-13T00:11:00.001-07:00

Paul Abraham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Paul Abrahams.

Paul Abraham (Pál Ábrahám) (2 November 1892 in Apatin, Austria-Hungary (today Serbia) – 6 May 1960 in Hamburg) was a composer of operettas.
Abraham studied at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest from 1910 to 1916. He studied cello with Adolf Schiffer and composition with Viktor Herzfeld.
Like many other composers of operettas, Paul Abraham started with works of a serious nature. During the decade following his studies he wrote,among other things, sacred music, string quartets and a concerto for violoncello. When he was appointed conductor at the Budapest Operetta Theatre in 1927 he found his way to this more popular art form which was more suited to his talent.
His first operetta, Der Gatte des Fräuleins, was written in 1928. With his third, Viktoria und ihr Husar (1930), he already achieved a resounding success. Through this work, and the next two operettas from 1931 and 1933 Die Blume von Hawaii and Ball im Savoy he became renowned worldwide. He also wrote numerous film scores.
The events of 1933 forced the artist to abandon his domicile in Berlin and leave Germany. Via Vienna and Paris he moved to Cuba where he earned a modest living as a pianist and later emigrated to New York City. After a mental breakdown he was committed to a hospital in February 1946. In May 1956 he returned to live in Hamburg, Germany, where he died four years later.

[edit] Works

Zenebona (together with other composers) Operette in 3 acts, 2 March 1928, Budapest. Libretto: Lakatos László/Bródy István
Az utolsó Verebély lány (also known as Az elsö Verebély lány or Der Gatte des Fräuleins) 13 October 1928 Libretto: Harmath Imre-Drégely Gábor
Szeretem a felségem (Es geschehen noch Wunder) Magyar Színház 15 June 1929, Libretto: Birabeau André-Dolley Georges (after: Stella Adorján)
Viktoria und ihr Husar, Operette, 3 acts and prologue. 21 February 1930 Budapest, Operettentheater. Libretto: Földes, Imre / Harmath, Imre, (German: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda)
Die Blume von Hawaii, Operette 3 acts, 24 July 1931 Leipzig, Neues Theater. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda, after Imre Földes
Ball im Savoy, Operette 3 acts and prologue. 23 December 1932 Berlin, Großes Schauspielhaus. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda. English: Ball at The Savoy, 8 September 1933 London, Drury Lane Theatre
Märchen im Grand-Hotel, Lustspieloperette 3 acts 29 March 1934 Vienna, Theater an der Wien. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda
Viki 26 January 1935 Magyar Színház, Libretto:Harmath Imre-Adorján Bónyi
Történnek még csodák 20 April 1935 Magyar Színház, Libretto: Halász Imre-Békeffi István
Dschainah, das Mädchen aus dem Tanzhaus, Operette 3 Acts. 21 December 1935 Vienna, Theater an der Wien. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda
3:1 a szerelem javára 18 December 1936 Király Színház, Libretto: Harmath Imre-Kellér Dezső-Szilágyi László
Roxy und ihr Wunderteam Musikalischer Fußballschwank, 25 March 1937 Vienna, Theater an der Wien, Libretto: Hans Weigel and Alfred Grünwald^[1]
Julia Operette in 2 parts and a Nachspiel, 23 December 1937 Városi Színház Budapest, Libretto: Harmath Imre-Földes Imre
A Fehér hattyu (The White Swan), 1938
Zwei glückliche Herzen Libretto: Robert Gilbert and Armin L. Robinson. Premiere date unknown
Tambourin Musical in 2 parts (unperformed) Libretto: Alfred Grünwald

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Girolamo Abos

2011-07-13T00:09:00.001-07:00

Girolamo Abos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Girolamo Abos, last name also given Avos or d'Avossa and baptized Geronimo Abos (16 November 1715 – May 1760), was a Maltese-Italian composer of both operas and church music.
Born in Valletta, Malta, Abos studied under Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante in Naples. In 1756, he became Maestro al Cembalo (Director of Music) at the Italian Theatre in London. In 1758 he returned to Italy as a teacher at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini in Naples, where Giovanni Paisiello was one of his pupils. He wrote 14 operas for the opera houses in Naples, Rome, and London, of which Tito Manlio (Naples, 1751) was most successful. After 1758 he composed a good deal of church music, including seven masses and several litanies. He died in Naples.

[edit] List of operas composed by Abos

Le due zingare simili (1742, Naples)
Le furbiere di Spilletto (1744, Florence)
La serva padrona (1744, Naples)
La moglie gelosa (1745, Naples)
Artaserse (1746, Venice)
Pelopida (1747, Rome)
Alessandro nelle Indie (1747, Ancona)
Arianna e Teseo (1748, Rome)
Adriano in Siria (1750, Rome)
Tito Manlio (1751, Naples)
Erifile (1752, Rome)
Lucio Vero o sia Il vologeso (1752, Naples)
Medo (?, Turin)
Andromeda (?)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Johann Joseph Abert

2011-07-13T00:08:00.003-07:00

Johann Joseph Abert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Joseph Abert.

Johann Joseph Abert (20 September 1832, Kochowitz, Bohemia, now Kochovice, Hoštka, Czech Republic – 1 April 1915, Stuttgart) was a German composer. An ethnic German from the Sudetenland, he is also known by his Czech name Jan Josef Abert.
Abert studied double bass at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Hrabě and also received lessons in theory from Johann Friedrich Kittl and August Wilhelm Ambros. In 1853, Peter Josef von Lindpaintner selected him as a double bassist for the Court Orchestra at Stuttgart, the royal capital of Württemberg. He became the Court Kapellmeister in 1867 and remained in this office, previously occupied by Lindpainter, Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken, and Carl Anton Eckerts, until 1888.
Abert composed chamber music and lieder, as well as several successful operas. Of his seven symphonies, the Frühlingssinfonie (Spring Symphony, No. 7) in C, the program symphony Columbus (No. 4), and the Symphony in C minor (No. 2) are generally considered to be the best. The Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach currently share responsibility for the preservation of his manuscripts and other personal papers.
Abert's son, Hermann, became a noted music historian.

Recordings

Little of Abert's oeuvre has so far been recorded. However, there are recordings available of the String Quartet in A (together with a collection of songs), the opera Ekkehard, the 4th Symphony (Columbus), and the concertante works for double bass and orchestra.

[edit] Selected list of works

Symphonies
- Symphony No.1 in B minor (1852)
- Symphony No.2 in C minor (1854)
- Symphony No.3 in A major (1856)
- Symphony No.4 in D major, Op. 31 (1865), "Columbus (Musikalisches Seegemälde in Form einer Sinfonie)"
- Symphony No.5 in C minor (1870)
- Symphony No.6 in D minor (1890), "Lyrische Sinfonie"
- Symphony No.7 in C major (1894), "Frühlingssinfonie"

Other works for orchestra
- Overture in E major for large orchestra (1850)
- Overture in D minor for large orchestra (1851)
- Jubilation Overture for large orchestra, dedicated to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria (1855)
- Festive Overture in D major, composed at the occasion of the Württemberg royal wedding (1874)
- Concert Overture
- Tragic March, dedicated to the soldiers fallen in 1866 war (1866)
- Celebration March, for the 25-year anniversary of the reign of King Karl I (1889)
- Festive March for Harmony Band for the anniversary of the Ulanen Regiment of Queen Olga of Württemberg (1883)

Concertos
- Polonaise and Introduction in D major for double bass and orchestra (1848)
- Variations and Rondo in C major for double bass and orchestra (1849)
- Introduction and Polonaise in C major for double bass and orchestra (1849)
- Concertino in F major for double bass and orchestra (1851)
- Rondeau for double bass and orchestra in C major (1852)

Chamber Music
- String Quartet in A, dedicated to Karl Eckert (1862)

Operas
- Anna von Landskron, libretto by Christian Gottfried Nehrlich, premiered 1858, Stuttgart
- König Enzio, libretto by Friedrich Albert Bernhard Dulk, premiered 1862, Stuttgart
- Astorga, libretto by Ernst Pasqué, premiered 1866, Stuttgart
- Enzio von Hohenstaufen, premiered 1875, Stuttgart
- Ekkehard, based on the novel by Joseph Viktor von Scheffel about Ekkehard von St. Gallen, premiered 1878, Hofoper Berlin
- Die Almhoaden, based on the play The Clock of Almudaina by Don Juan Palon y Col, libretto by A. Kröner. Premiered 1890, Leipzig
Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

John Abell

2011-07-13T00:08:00.001-07:00

John Abell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Abell (b. Aberdeenshire, 1653 — d. Cambridge? after 1724) was an Scottish countertenor, composer and lutenist.
Born in London, Abell became a member of the Chapel Royal in 1679. During the Glorious Revolution of 1688 he fled to continental Europe, where he won fame and wealth by his singing. There are several anecdotes relating to his travels from this time, several from the writings of Hawkins.

Upon his arrival at Warsaw, the king having notice of it, sent for him to his court. Abell made some slight excuse to evade going, but upon being told that he had everything to fear from the king’s resentment, he made an apology, and received a command to attend the king next day. Upon his arrival at the palace, he was seated in a chair in the middle of a spacious hall, and immediately drawn up to a great height; presently the king with his attendants appeared in a gallery opposite to him, and at the same instant a number of wild bears were turned in; the king bade him then choose whether he would sing or be let down among the bears: Abell chose the former, and declared afterwards that he never sang so well in his life.

In Kassel he was made Intendant of Music (1698–1699), before returning to England around 1700, where in 1701 he performed the title role in Daniel Purcell's The Judgment of Paris: in the following year his coronation song for Queen Anne, Aloud proclaim the cheerful sound, was performed. He also gave public and private concerts, and taught music. Furthermore, he wrote and compiled songs in the Italian style of the time, with a collection of his being published in 1701 and another posthumously in 1740.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Ludwig Abel

2011-07-13T00:07:00.003-07:00

Ludwig Abel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludwig Abel (14 January 1835, Eckartsberga – 13 August 1895) was a German violinist, composer, and conductor.
Born in Eckartsberga, Province of Saxony, he was a pupil of Ferdinand David. He became a member of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and in 1853 moved to the court orchestra of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in Weimar. In 1867, he became the concertmaster at the Bavarian royal court in Munich. He took up teaching at the Musikschule in Munich managed by Hans von Bülow, where he became Professor in 1880 and retired in 1894.
Abel's compositions included a violin concerto and a violin method as well as études and duos for violin.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Carl Friedrich Abel

2011-07-13T00:07:00.001-07:00

Carl Friedrich Abel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait of Carl Friedrich Abel by Thomas Gainsborough, 1777

Carl Friedrich Abel (22 December 1723 – 20 June 1787) was a German composer of the Classical era. (The Chambers Biographical Dictionary gives his year of birth erroneusly as 1725.)^[1] He was a fine player of the viola da gamba, and composed important music for that instrument.

Life

Abel was born in Köthen, the son of Christian Ferdinand Abel, the principal viola da gamba and cello player in the court orchestra of Johann Sebastian Bach. There is no proof that Abel studied at the Thomasschule Leipzig, but it was on Bach's recommendation that in 1748 he was able to join Johann Adolph Hasse's court orchestra at Dresden where he remained for ten years. In 1759 (or 1758 according to Chambers),^[1] he went to England and became chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte. He gave a concert of his own compositions in London, performing on various instruments, one of which was a five-string cello known as a pentachord, which had been recently invented by John Joseph Merlin.^[2]
In 1762, Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of J.S. Bach, joined him in London, and the friendship between him and Abel led, in 1764 or 1765, to the establishment of the famous Bach-Abel concerts, England's first subscription concerts. In those concerts, many celebrated guest artists appeared, and many works of Haydn received their first English performance.
For ten years the concerts were organized by Mrs. Theresa Cornelys, a retired Venetian opera singer who owned a concert hall at Carlisle House in Soho Square, then the height of fashionable events. In 1775 the concerts became independent of her, to be continued by Abel and Bach until Bach's death in 1782. Abel still remained in great demand as a player on various instruments new and old. He traveled to Germany and France between 1782 and 1785, and upon his return to London, became a leading member of the Grand Professional Concerts at the Hanover Square Rooms in Soho. Throughout his life he had enjoyed excessive living, and his drinking probably hastened his death, which occurred in London on 20 June 1787.
One of Abel's works became famous due to a misattribution: in the 19th century, a manuscript symphony in the hand of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was catalogued as his Symphony no. 3 in E flat, K. 18, and was published as such in the first complete edition of Mozart's works by Breitkopf & Härtel. Later, it was discovered that this symphony was actually the work of Abel, copied by the boy Mozart—evidently for study purposes—while he was visiting London in 1764. That symphony was originally published as the concluding work in Abel's Six Symphonies, Op. 7.

[edit] Works list

Collapsed list [show]

[edit] Selected works by opus number

(adapted from the listing in the article on Abel at fr.wikipedia.org)

Op. 1: 6 Overtures or Sinfonias (1761)
Op. 2: 6 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin and Cello (ad libitum) (1760)
Op. 3: 6 Trio Sonatas for 2 Violins and Basso Continuo (1762)
Op. 4: 6 Overtures or Sinfonias (1762)
Op. 5: 6 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin and Cello (ad libitum) (1762)
Op. 6: 6 Sonatas for Keyboard and Flute (1763)
Op. 7: 6 Symphonies (1767)
Op. 8: 6 String Quartets (1768)
Op. 9: 6 Trio Sonatas for Violin, Cello and Basso Continuo (1771)
Op. 10: 6 Symphonies (1771)
Op. 11: 6 Concerti for Keyboard and Strings (1771)
Op. 12: 6 Flute Quartets (1774)
Op. 13: 6 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin (1777)
Op. 14: 6 Symphonies (1778)
Op. 15: 6 String Quartets (1780)
Op. 16: 4 Trio Sonatas for 2 Flutes and Basso Continuo (1781)
Op. 16: 6 Trio Sonatas for Violin, Viola and Cello (1782)
Op. 17: 6 Symphonies (1785)
Op. 18: 6 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin (1784)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Clamor Heinrich Abel

2011-07-13T00:06:00.003-07:00

Clamor Heinrich Abel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clamor Heinrich Abel (1634 – 25 July 1696) was a German composer, violinist and organist.
Abel was born in Hünnefeld, Westphalia, Germany. He worked as a court musician in Köthen, an organist in Celle and from 1666, as a ducal chamber musician in Hanover. From 1694, he was Obermusicus in Bremen and he remained at this post until his death at Bremen in 1696.
Among his most outstanding works are compositions for string orchestra and chamber music. He composed a collection of 59 individual works under the title Erstlinge musikalischer Blumen. They included works for four instruments and basso continuo - allemandes, courantes, preludes, sarabandas and sonatinas. First they were published in three volumes in Frankfurt (1674, 1676, 1677) and later they were published together as Drei Opera musica (Brunswick, 1687).
He was the father of the violist and violinist Christian Ferdinand Abel and grandfather of the viol virtuoso and composer Carl Friedrich Abel and Leopold August Abel.

[edit] Works

Erstlinge musikalischer Blumen
Bataille D Major for 2 violins and basso continuo
Sonata Sopra Cuccu for violin and basso continuo
Folie d'Espagne (1685)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Keiko Abe

2011-07-13T00:06:00.001-07:00

Keiko Abe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keiko Abe (安倍圭子 Abe Keiko^?, born April 18, 1937) is a Japanese composer and marimba player. She has been a primary figure in the development of the marimba, in terms of expanding both technique and repertoire, and through her collaboration with the Yamaha musical instrument company, developed the modern five-octave concert marimba.

[edit] Biography

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Abe began playing the xylophone while in elementary school. She studied xylophone with Eiichi Asabuki in Tokyo. At age 13, she won an NHK talent contest and began performing professionally on live radio. She attended Tokyo Gakugei University where she completed a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Music Education. She began working in the Columbia Japan, NHK and other recording studios while in college.
In 1962, she and two friends (who were also students of Asabuki) founded the Xebec Marimba Trio, performing popular music, arrangements of folk songs and some of Abe's arrangements. They recorded more than seven albums between 1962 and 1966. During this period she had her own show on Japanese television, instructing schoolchildren in xylophone playing, as well as a radio show called "Good Morning Marimba". She also began her recording career with a bang, putting out 13 albums in a five-year span.
In 1963, the Yamaha Corporation sought Japanese marimba players to assist in the design of their new instruments; Keiko Abe was chosen for her original and clear ideas of the marimba sound and design, particularly her concept of how the marimba should be able to blend in ensembles, for example, moving away from the inconsistencies and lack of focus of folk percussion instruments. Her ideas for the desired sound of the instruments guided Yamaha's design, and in the 1970s began production. In addition, at her urging, the range of the new marimba was stretched from four octaves to five, which has become the standard for soloists. Abe has been closely associated with Yamaha ever since, and their first ever signature series of keyboard percussion mallets bears her name.
Her compositions, including "Michi", "Variations on Japanese Children's Songs", and "Dream of the Cherry Blossoms", have become standards of the marimba repertoire. Abe is active in promoting the development of literature for the marimba, not only by writing pieces herself, but also by commissioning works by other composers and encouraging young composers. She has added at least 70 compositions to the repertoire. She uses improvisation as an important element in developing her musical ideas which she then uses in her compositions.
In addition to her heavy composing, touring, and recording schedule, Abe has been a lecturer, then professor, at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo since 1970. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993.
She uses the YM-6000 Marimba made by Yamaha: The alligators
Her music is mainly published by Xebec Music Publishing and Schott, Japan.

[edit] References

J. Michele Edwards. "Keiko Abe", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed February 14, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
Rebecca Kite. "Keiko Abe, A Virtuosic Life: Her Musical Career and the Development of the Concert Marimba", published 2007, GP Percussion

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah

2011-07-13T00:05:00.001-07:00

Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2011)

Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah (Arabic: محمد عبدالوهاب عبدالفتاح‎; b. Giza, Egypt, 1962) is an Egyptian composer of contemporary classical music and educator. He is a member of Egypt's third generation of classical composers.

Biography

Abdelfattah graduated with a B.A. degree from the College of Applied Arts of Helwan University, Orman campus in Egypt and went on to attain second and third B.A. degrees from the Faculty of Composition and Department of Ear Training (Solfege) at the same year 1986, from the Cairo Conservatoire, with "excellent honors." In Egypt he studied composition under Gamal Abdel-Rahim, music history under Samha El-Kholy, harmony under Awatef Abdel Karim, counterpoint under Laiela El-Saiyad, instrumentation under Gihad Dawoud, orchestration under Youssef Elsisi, score reading under Gamal Salama, Schenkerian analysis under Ahmed El-Saedi, music education under Ikram Matter and solfege under Aiyda Danial.^{[citation needed]}
Abdelfattah was appointed to the faculty at Cairo Conservatoire in 1987, and he later obtained his M.A. degree, with his thesis entitled "Dodecaphony and Maqamat" from the Academy of Arts in Cairo in 1990, supervised by Awatef Abdel Karim.^{[citation needed]}
Abdelfattah received a scholarship in 1990 to study composition in Austria. He first studied composition in Graz and later in Vienna studied electroacoustic and experimental music under Dieter Kaufmann, where he obtained the terminal qualification of Master of Arts in composition, from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna in 1996. This degree was transferred from to a Ph.D. in Egypt in 1998 from academy of Arts University and Minister of Higher Education. After his return to Egypt, he was promoted at the Cairo Conservatoire to assistant professor in 1989 and to associate professor in 2003.^{[citation needed]}
Abdelfattah is a multidisciplinary artist combining many fields in his compositions such as: poetry, painting, photography, and cinema montage, and present them simultaneously and unconventionally using computer technology. He mixes the tone color of Egyptian traditional melodies with sound effects of machines, tools, and the ambient sounds of daily life. He presented his first experimental and acoustic music concert in Egypt at the Cairo Opera House on November 22, 1999. Abdelfattah's works have been covered in both public and cultural media, where he has been quoted as being an all-around comprehensive artist and a multi-media music pioneer in Egypt and the Arab countries . He has written some movements of his composition in modern graphic notation, under the title Nine Miniatures for String Quartet, which was premiered in Rome on December 2, 1999. He is also the first Egyptian composer to have written a composition with a specific music notation for the deaf. He has established a chamber percussion ensemble consisting entirely of deaf students in Egypt where he conducted them to perform a visual music composition under the title Seeing the Sound in a public concert at the Cairo Opera House on March 29, 2005.^{[citation needed]}
Over the last five years, Abdel-Wahab has focused on research, and published two books about orchestration and creating the sound. In his most recent booklet "Sound Scenography",entitled also Seeing the Sound, published in two volumes, (Academy of Arts University in Cairo), 2005, he writes about his unique experience related to embodied art and music. In this book he discusses new sound and musical terms, what he calls "Sound Theatricalization & Filmlization"--the translation of the dramatic feeling of any sound event into a specific visual display upon the stage. He has also written several articles in Arabic cultural journals about contemporary composition and how to find practical functions for music within society. His interests include writing applied music composition for the deaf and comic music for depression. He has cooperated with several Egyptian biologists and physicians to study the effectiveness of sound vibrations on the human bones and sound frequencies on blood pressure and brain function. He composed a therapeutic work utilizing water sound effects for depression, which was performed at Maadi hospital in Cairo in 2006.^{[citation needed]}
During the 2007–2009 academic year, he was a visiting professor at Boston University.He is currently a visiting lecturer at Salem State University.^{[citation needed]}
He frequently combines Eastern and Western elements, reflecting his view of the importance of cross-cultural experience. Beyond merely creating art for art's sake, Abdelfattah envisions a vital social role for his art in establishing cross-cultural dialogue and understanding, particularly between the Western and Arab peoples.

[edit] Writings

Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab (1993). "Melody in the Music of Gamal Abdel-Rahim." In Festschrift for Gamal Abdel-Rahim, ed. Samha El-Kholy and John Robison (The Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt), pp. 85–117.
Abdelfattah, Mohamed Abdelwahab (1999). "Tone-Color Composition." Afaaq, Magazine of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. Supreme Cultural Council, Cairo.

[edit] CDs

La Tache Alea-01-97, various composers,
La Tache Alea-01-97, works by Gerhard Präsent, Iván Eröd, Herbert Blendinger, M.Abdel-Fattah / Alea-Quartett
1995 - Conserved Ex 256-2, various composers, (Extraplatte)

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Antonio Maria Abbatini

2011-07-13T00:04:00.001-07:00

Antonio Maria Abbatini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antonio Maria Abbatini (26 January 1595 – ? after 15 March 1679) was an Italian composer, active mainly in Rome.
Abbatini was born in Città di Castello. He served as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. John Lateran from 1626 to 1628; at the cathedral in Orvieto in 1633; and at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome between 1640 to 1646, 1649 to 1657, and 1672 to 1677^[1]. He composed a good deal of church music, and published three books of Masses, four of Psalms, various 24-part Antiphons (1630, 1638, 1677), five books of Motets (1635), and a dramatic cantata, Il Pianto di Rodomonte (1633). He also worked with Athanasius Kircher on the Musurgia Universalis.
In addition, he produced three operas: Dal male il bene (Rome, 1654; in collaboration with Marco Marazzoli), which was one of the earliest comic operas, and historically important as it introduced the final ensemble; Ione (Vienna, 1666); and La comica del cielo, also called La Baltasara (Rome, 1668).
Antonio Cesti was among his pupils ^[2].

References

Nicolas Slonimsky, ed (1958). "Abbatini, Antonio Maria". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (5th edition ed.). pp. p. 2.

[edit] Note

This article or an earlier version incorporates text from the 3rd edition (1919) of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, a publication now in the public domain.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Juhan Aavik

2011-07-13T00:03:00.002-07:00

Juhan Aavik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Juhan Aavik (b. Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire, 29 January 1884 – d. Stockholm, Sweden, 26 November 1982) was an Estonian composer.
Aavik studied music composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He later served as a conductor in Tartu, Governorate of Livonia (1911–1925), a musical conservatory professor and director in Tallinn (1928–1944), and an Estonian song festival conductor in Sweden (1948–1961) (after arriving there in 1944). He wrote nearly 200 Opus numbers, among them two symphonies; a Cello concerto (1949); a Double bass Concerto (1950); a Piano trio (1957); a Requiem (1959); and various choral works, songs and chamber music. In Stockholm at age 81 (1965–1969), he published a history of Estonian music in four volumes.

Taken from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Composers

Ella Adayevskaya

Ella Adayevskaya

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Thomas Adams (musician)

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John Adams

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Adolphe Adam

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Joseph Achron

Joseph Achron

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Jean-Baptiste Accolay

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Jean Absil

Jean Absil

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