Harald Sæverud

His full name was Harald Sigurd Johan Sæverud, but the New Groves puts brackets around the 'Sigurd Johan' bit, indicating optionality: they are therefore left out when cataloguing as far as I'm concerned! You can spell the last name with a ligature between the 'a' and 'e' -though the New Groves uses two distinct letters. Perhaps there's a typographical reason for doing so, but Wikipedia is happy to use the ligature. Last.fm does not, but they're always odd -and in any case have at least 10 different ways of referencing the same man! So: on these pages, as in my collection, the ligature is very much in use, despite the New Groves' rather lackadaisical approach to typesetting his surname.

As you can tell from the photo at the left, he lived to an advanced age. His dates are actually 1897 to 1992, so he was practically 95 when he died. He was born and died in Bergen (Norway) and was, for much of the 20th Century, that country's most lauded composer. His style ranges from being (early on) quite tonal and decidedly late romantic to an astringent atonalism in the 1930s. Post-war, his style developed into what New Groves describes as 'freely tonal', with 'extensive polyphony and thematic material that often grows by degrees from concentrated motifs'. [...] 

Continue Reading

Gottfried August Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius (1714–1785) stands as a prominent figure in the musical landscape of the Baroque era, contributing significantly to the rich tapestry of German sacred music. Born in Rosenthal, Saxony, on February 2, 1714, Homilius demonstrated early musical aptitude, eventually becoming a renowned composer and esteemed organist. His legacy endures through a prolific output of choral works, instrumental compositions, and a deep commitment to his role as a church musician. He is generally considered by musicologists to be one of the most important post-Bach church composers ...which is a bit ironic, since the average Joe classical music listener is, I think, somewhat unlikely ever to have heard of him!

Homilius' career unfolded primarily within ecclesiastical settings. His first significant appointment came in 1742 when he assumed the position of organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche, a prestigious role that allowed him to immerse himself in the sacred musical traditions of the time. Later, in 1755, he ascended to the position of cantor at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, solidifying his reputation as a masterful composer and conductor. It was thus in Dresden, on June 2nd 1785, that he was to die. [...] 

Continue Reading

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

A Dutch composer, he was born in the small town of Deventer (just east of Amsterdam) in 1562; he died in Amsterdam proper in 1622. Those dates basically mean he was a near-contemporary of Shakespeare. He was also alive at the same time as Claudio Monteverdi, and rather as Monteverdi did in Italy, Sweelinck straddles the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque musical eras. There are a variety of possible spellings of his surname (New Grove offers, for example, Zwelinck and Sweeling amongst others), but there's no real doubt about how to catalogue him: all three names are required and the generally-accepted spelling is as you see it here: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelink (pronounced 'Sway-link').

Rather as Bach is primarily associated with his tenure at St. Thomas's Leipzig, Sweelinck is always thought of as 'organist at the Ould Kirk, Amsterdam': he is known to have been employed there from 1580 onwards, until the day of his death. He was then buried in the same church where he'd worked most of his life. [...] 

Continue Reading

Frederic Cliffe

Frederic Cliffe is one of that clutch of people who, at the end of the 19th Century, helped usher in the 'English Musical Renaissance' of the early 20th Century, without themselves taking part in it. In his day, he was a famed symphonist and composer of a violin concerto, but he gave up composing about 30 years before he died, concentrating instead on teaching music to the next generation. He accordingly died in obscurity.

His dates are 1857 to 1931, being born in Bradford and dying in London. He was playing piano at 6, was a church organist by 11, and became a member of the piano teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Music in 1883, aged just 26. His pupils included John Ireland (who went on to torment the young Benjamin Britten!) and Arthur Benjamin. He continued to tour as a concert pianist. His first symphony premiered at the Crystal Palace in 1889; his second premiered at the Leeds Festival of 1892. [...] 

Continue Reading

Alexander Vasilyevich Mosolov

A mostly-forgotten Soviet composer. Born in Kiev (Ukraine) 1900, died in Moscow, 1973. He had a reasonably privileged background (his mother sang in the Bolshoi Theatre; his step-father was a painter: he was therefore exposed from an early age to artists and their cosmopolitan lifestyle). Nevertheless, he fought bravely for the Red Army during the post-revolution civil war. Only at 21 did he begin formal music education and composition. Initially, he made his name as a pianist; but from aged 27 onwards, he concentrated on composition.

Unfortunately, just as Soviet Realism became the Authorised Gospel of the day, Mosolov discovered folk tunes amongst the Turkmen, Tajik and Kyrgyz peoples, setting them in polytonal 'barbarist' style. This put him at odds with the musical establishment, and in 1936 he was expelled from the Composers' Union (allegedly for treating waiters poorly!). Worse followed when, in 1938, he was tried and convicted of counter-revolutionary activities and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag. He ended up serving only eight months, but was thereafter exiled from being able to live in Moscow or other large cities. [...] 

Continue Reading

Alexander Dmitriyevich Kastalsky

Born in Moscow in 1856 and died in the same city in 1926, Kastalsky was the son of a priest and entered the Russian Conservatory when he was about 20, in 1875. There, he was a pupil of the likes of Tchaikovsky and Taneyev. Afterwards, he became a teacher of music and a director of choirs -which probably accounts for almost all of his compositional output being choral music. His affinity for sacred choral music didn't go down too well with the new Bolshevik authorities after the revolution of 1917, though -meaning that, for example, his monumental tribute to the dead of the First World War, Requiem for Fallen Brothers, was pretty much banned after its premier and lay unplayed for a further hundred years or so.

His name, for cataloguing, purposes is the usual Cyrillic-to-English transliteration nightmare. His name in Cyrillic is Александр Дмитриевич Кастальский, which is literally Alexsandr Dmitriyevich Kastalski. Almost everyone tends to spell the surname 'Kastalsky', however -though The New Grove thinks adding an apostrophe to achieve 'Kastal'sky' is a good idea. It isn't, but they're trying to point out the soft-l in the middle of the name, and hence the position of the stress. That is, he's pronounced kastAL-ski, not kastalSKEE... but the apostrophe is not necessary for that and is not otherwise in general use. So it gets dropped. [...] 

Continue Reading

Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov

Born in 1864, in the small town of Kaluga, south-west (and these days, practically a suburb of) Moscow, and died an American citizen at the advanced age of over 91, in New York, as recently as 1956. Grechaninov studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who conducted his first symphony in 1895. The New Grove calls his style 'decadent', more reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky than Mussorgsky. In any event, he's probably most well-known these days for his liturgical choral works than for much else.

The usual issues of how you catalogue a Russian apply. His full Cyrillic name is Алекса́ндр Ти́хонович Гречани́нов, which can be transliterated as 'Alexandr Tikhonovich Grechaninov' -which happens to be precisely how the New Grove does spell his names! The New Grove also does not bracket or otherwise indicate optionality for the Patronymic (middle) name, so it should be used. The real trouble, however, on this occasion is his first name: in English, we'd use 'Alexander' more than 'Alexandr', for example. Wikipedia also lists him as 'Alexander'; but the New Grove drops the final 'e', and thus catalogues him as 'Alexandr'. The Encyclopedia Britannica opts for Aleksandr, just to mix things up a little! Last.fm is its usual incoherent self, offering practically all conceivable options -but with the majority of listeners seeming happy with the 'Alexander' version. [...] 

Continue Reading

Vasily Kalafati

A bit of a cataloguing conundrum, Kalafati was born in Ukraine (well, technically, on the western side of the Crimean peninsular, which was Russian-owned at the time, in February 1869, but is now de jure Ukrainian, though de facto Russian once more)! His parents, however, were of Greek extraction (his mother's maiden name was, for instance, Chryssikopoulou). At the age of 23, he decided to settle permanently in St. Petersburg -where he died, though it was called Leningrad at the time, during the Siege of Leningrad in 1942. He is not exactly a household name, but in his day, he was considered one of the most important musical figures in Russia -having been taught himself by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and, in his turn, going on to teach the likes of Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Scriabin. What little music of his that has been recorded sounds very much 'High Russian 19th Century', very much in the tradition of Rimsky-Korsakov or Mussorgsky. He is, accordingly, best thought of as a strictly Russian composer, regardless of ethnic origin or birth place.

Cataloguing him is a little tricky, because the usual Russian issues arise: for example, do we use his Patronymic (or middle) name? On this occasion, the question is made more complex because my edition of The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians contains an error at this point! They list him as Kalafati, Vasily Pavovlich: all three names in bold print, no brackets. That usually indicates 'Patronymic is not optional'... but it is an oddly-spelled Patronymic! Pavovlich is quite awkward to say, for example, and makes one think, 'did they mean Pavlovitch?' which would be a lot easier to pronounce. Well, in Cyrillic, his name is Василий Павлович Калафати -and that middle name can definitely be more accurately rendered as 'Pavlovich'. The fourth letter is an 'l', so the New Grove (1980 edition) can simply be declared incorrect, or containing a typo (which is unusual!) [...] 

Continue Reading