December 31, 2012.Forgotten birthdays.Throughout the year we’ve celebrated dozens of composers, the great ones, whose work form the foundation ofwestern musical tradition, as well as some minor ones along the way.We try to do it on the weeks of their birthdays, but that creates a problem: we don’t know when some of the composers were born!Here’s an incomplete list of very influential composers who never made it on our pages for that very reason: Josquin des Prez, who was born sometime around 1450, the supreme master of the Renaissance polyphonic form; Thomas Tallis, one of the greatest early English composers, born around 1505; Orlando di Lasso, sometime spelled as Orlande de Lassus, born around 1530, a Franco-Flemish/Netherlandish composer as Des Prez and also a great master of polyphony; Giovanni Gabrieli, the Venetian born around 1550 and the master of San Marco; Tomás Luis de Victoria, the most famous (and important) Spanish composer of his time, who was also born around 1550;DietrichBuxtehude, born around 1637, one of the most interesting German Baroque composers of the era preceding Johann Sebastian Bach’s; and there are many more.
We’ll write about these composers in the future, but in the mean time here’s from one of our personal favorites, Tomás Luis de Victoria. It’s a short piece for four voices called O vos omnes (Oh, all ye) and it comes from his liturgical setting, Tenebrae Responsories, which is celebrated on early mornings of the last three days of Holy Week.It’s performed by The Tallis Scholars (here, courtesy of YouTube).
The angel playing the violin, above, is by Caravaggio, from his Rest on the Flight into Egypt.He painted it around 1597 in Rome, about 10 years after Victoria left the city, where he lived and studied the previous 20 years, to return to his native Spain.
Forgotten Birthdays
December 31, 2012. Forgotten birthdays. Throughout the year we’ve celebrated dozens of composers, the great ones, whose work form the foundation of western musical tradition, as well as some minor ones along the way. We try to do it on the weeks of their birthdays, but that creates a
problem: we don’t know when some of the composers were born! Here’s an incomplete list of very influential composers who never made it on our pages for that very reason: Josquin des Prez, who was born sometime around 1450, the supreme master of the Renaissance polyphonic form; Thomas Tallis, one of the greatest early English composers, born around 1505; Orlando di Lasso, sometime spelled as Orlande de Lassus, born around 1530, a Franco-Flemish/Netherlandish composer as Des Prez and also a great master of polyphony; Giovanni Gabrieli, the Venetian born around 1550 and the master of San Marco; Tomás Luis de Victoria, the most famous (and important) Spanish composer of his time, who was also born around 1550; Dietrich Buxtehude, born around 1637, one of the most interesting German Baroque composers of the era preceding Johann Sebastian Bach’s; and there are many more.
We’ll write about these composers in the future, but in the mean time here’s from one of our personal favorites, Tomás Luis de Victoria. It’s a short piece for four voices called O vos omnes (Oh, all ye) and it comes from his liturgical setting, Tenebrae Responsories, which is celebrated on early mornings of the last three days of Holy Week. It’s performed by The Tallis Scholars (here, courtesy of YouTube).
The angel playing the violin, above, is by Caravaggio, from his Rest on the Flight into Egypt. He painted it around 1597 in Rome, about 10 years after Victoria left the city, where he lived and studied the previous 20 years, to return to his native Spain.
Happy New Year to all!