Obscure Music Mondays

Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (Aug. 15, 1890 - Feb. 5, 1962) was a French composer, born in Paris. His father a businessman, and mother a talented pianist, young Ibert was encouraged in his musical journeys. He started piano and violin at age four, and entered the Paris Conservatory in 1910. His studies were interrupted by World War I, where he was a naval officer, but he resumed his studies later on, and won the famous Prix de Rome on his first attempt in 1919.  Continue reading →

Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (Dec. 3, 1883 - Sept. 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Along with Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, Webern was a key figure in the Second Viennese School. Continue reading →

César Antonovich Cui (Jan. 18, 1835 - March 13, 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, and also an army officer, and military academic. He's widely known for being a part of the "The Five" (also known as the Mighty Five, or the New Russian School), along with Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin.  Continue reading →

Toivo Ilmari Hannikainen (Oct. 19, 1892 - July 25, 1955) was a Finnish composer, born in to a musical family. His father Pekka Junani Hannikainen was a composer, as was his  brother Väinö Hannikainen. His brother Tauno Hannikainen was a conductor. Ilmari studied music at the University of Helsinki, and went on to study in Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Paris. He taught piano at the Helsinki Conservatory, and was later a professor at the Sibelius Academy.  Continue reading →

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (May 29, 1860 - May 18, 1909) was a Spanish conductor, composer, and pianist. He was a child prodigy, and was performing at only four years old.  Continue reading →

Sir Arnold Trevor Bax (Nov. 8, 1883 - October 3, 1953) was an English author, poet, and composer. Born in a suburb of London to a wealthy family, his parents encouraged him to study music. As he had a private income,  he followed his own whims when it came to composition. He attended the Hampstead Conservatoire, and the Royal Academy of Music. While at the academy, he became an admirer of the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Claude Debussy (the latter two were frowned upon by the faculty). Bax became highly interested in Ireland and Celtic culture, and lived in Dublin for a time, and grew an interest in Nordic culture as well. Later on Bax would travel to Russia, and some of his works were influenced by his travels there. Continue reading →

Edvard Grieg ( June 15, 1843 - September 4, 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Raised in a musical family, his mother was his first piano teacher at age six. Grieg later on enrolled in the Leipzig Conservatory where he focused predominantly on the piano.  Continue reading →

Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (Aug. 8, 1857 - April 13, 1944) was a French pianist and composer. Her mother was her first piano teacher, and she also took violin and composition; sadly her father disapproved. Continue reading →

Vasily Prisovsky (1861 - 1917) was a Ukranian composer and bandmaster, of whom we know very little about. He wrote several popular piano works in the early 1900s, and conducted the brass band of the 132 Bender Infantry Regiment. Continue reading →

Edward Alexander MacDowell (Dec. 18, 1860 - Jan. 23. 1908) was an American pianist and composer. Born in New York City, he took piano lessons from various people as a child, and when he was 17, his mother decided to take him to Paris, where he attended the Paris Conservatory. He studied there for two years, before continuing in Germany a Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt. While he was there, Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann visited the university, and MacDowell played Robert Schumann's Quintet, and later on played his own works for Liszt, who would go on to recommend him for performance and introduce him to major music publishers.  MacDowell would go on to teach at Columbia University, and was their first professor of music. Continue reading →