Obscure Music Mondays

Antonio Rolla (April 18, 1798 - March 19, 1837) was born in Parma, Italy, and played violin, viola, and composer. He was considered a virtuoso on both instruments. Continue reading →

André Caplet (Nov. 23, 1878 - April 22, 1925) was a French composer and conductor. He was the youngest child of a poor family, and got in to music as a child. By the age of 12, he was working as a rehearsal pianist, and eventually entered the Paris Conservatory in 1896. He won the Prix de Rome in 1901 (on his first try!) Continue reading →

Oskar Merikanto (Aug. 5, 1868 - Feb. 17, 1924) was a Finnish composer, pianist and conductor. He showed musical talent at a young age, with noted skills on piano and organ. Continue reading →

Alexander Dargomyzhsky (Feb. 14, 1813 - Jan. 17, 1869) was a Russian composer, educated in St. Petersburg. He was a talented amateur musician, and in 1833 he met Mikhail Glinka, who helped motivate him to compose more. He would go on to be the bridge in Russian opera, beween Glinka  and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. He wrote several operas, but with little recognition until the 1860s, in Belgium. Continue reading →

Sophie Menter (July 29, 1846 - Feb. 23, 1918) was a German pianist and composer, born to musical parents. At the age of fifteen she soloed with an orchestra, and her concertizing after that took her all around Germany and Switzerland. Continue reading →

Antonio Scontrino (May 17, 1850 - Jan. 7, 1922) was an Italian double bassist, composer, and professor. He studied at the Palermo Conservatory from ages 11 to 20, and also studied in Munich. He began performing as a double bassist in 1891, and eight years later taught composition at the Palermo Conservatory. He also taught counterpoint at the conservatory in Florence. Continue reading →

Armand Marsick (Sept. 20, 1877 - April 30, 1959) was a Belgian conductor, composer, violinist, musicologist, and professor. He began his musical studies with his father, Louis Marsick, and then composition at the Liege Conservatory at only ten years old, then the  Nancy Conservatory,  and eventually studied with Vincent d'Indy in Paris. Continue reading →

Rued Langgaard (July 28, 1893 - July 10, 1952) was a Danish composer and organist, born to musical parents. He began piano lessons at five years old, with his parents as his first teachers, and was playing Chopin Mazurkas at age seven. He started composing not long after for the piano, and began taking organ and violin lessons. Continue reading →

Maria Szymanowska (Dec. 14, 1789 - July 25, 1831) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. Born in Warsaw, the history of her musical studies is largely unknown, but we know that she gave her first public recitals in Paris and Warsaw in 1810. Continue reading →

Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (Aug. 7, 1868 - Oct. 16, 1946) was a British composer and conductor, born in London. His parents hoped he would enter the Indian Civil Service, but poor health would prevent him from that. He turned to chemical engineering, but around 20 years old, he started looking at musical manuscripts. His first teacher was at Trinity College of Music, and in 1888 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Frederick Corder. Continue reading →