Obscure Music Mondays

Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (Jan. 29, 1862 - June 10, 1934) was an English composer, born in to a wealthy family. Delius didn't want to go in to business and commerce like his family, and resisted it as much as possible. While the family was heavily involved in commerce, the Delius household liked to entertain musicians often, and Delius found...

Scott Joplin (c. 1867/68 - April 1, 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist, who came to be known as the "King of Ragtime Writers". Joplin was born in to a family of railroad laborers in Texas, but got as much musical knowledge as he could from local teachers, and ended up  forming a vocal quartet, and teaching mandolin and...

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Sept. 5, 1867 - December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist.  Extremely gifted from a young age, Beach's talents seemed to run in the family, with various members playing instruments or singing, and showing great aptitude for music. Continue reading →

Florence Beatrice Price (April 9, 1887 - June 3, 1953) was an African-American pianist and composer, and the first African-American woman to have a piece played by a major symphony orchestra. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price's first piano teacher was her mother, a music educator, and Price's first recital was at the age of 4. After high school (which she...

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

Ernő Dohnányi (July 27, 1877 - Feb. 9, 1960) was a Hungarian composer, conductor, and violinist. You might see his name as Ernst von Dohnányi, which is the German form of his name. Continue reading →

Louise Farrenc (May 31, 1804 - Sept. 15, 1875) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer. Born in Paris, she started the piano at an early age, and later on also showed a knack for composition. At the age of fifteen, her parents let her study composition with Anton Reicha at the Paris Conservatory. Later on she embarked upon a...

Edward Alexander MaDowell (Dec. 18, 1860 - Jan. 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist, born in New York City. He was a part of the Second New England School, known more commonly as the Boston Six. MacDowell wasn't born in to a musical family, but he took music lessons from a Columbian violinist, Juan Buitrago, who lived with the MacDowell...

William Mason (Jan. 24, 1829 - July 14, 1908) was a composer and pianist, born in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in a musical family; his father Lowell Mason was an important figure in church music, and his brother Henry Mason was a co-founder of the piano manufacturers Mason and Hamlin. Mason grew up playing the piano, but didn't start...

Emilie Luise Friderica Mayer (May 14, 1812 - April 10, 1883) was a German composer of Romantic music. While she studied music growing up, it was nothing serious. It wasn't until 1840 when her father died that she took music and composing seriously; she moved to Stettin to study with Carl Loewe, and then later moved to Berlin to study...