Fun Facts

BEETHOVEN

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony wasn’t performed regularly for fifty years after its premiere. Richard Wagner had the work performed at the dedication of his opera house in Bayreuth in 1872. Since then, the symphony has been a beloved part of the standard orchestral repertoire. 

Beethoven often attributed his deafness to a fall he suffered. Most likely, it resulted from a childhood disease such as typhus or smallpox. By the age of 27, he had already begun to lose his hearing.

Beethoven hated giving piano lessons unless they were for extremely talented students or very attractive women.

Beethoven died during a thunderstorm. His last words were “Pity, pity, too late.” His response to having just received a case of wine from his music publisher.

Beethoven left school at eleven and never learned how to multiply or divide. Until the end of his life, he would lay things out in sets to come up with the answer.

“Ode to Joy” is the National Anthem of Europe.

Beethoven was very precise about his morning cup of coffee, he used exactly 60 beans each day.

Beethoven’s funeral was attended by over 20,000 people and schools in Vienna were closed for the day. His monument at the cemetery simply reads “BEETHOVEN.”

J.S. BACH

The Bach family had been musicians for over 300 years by the time Johann Sebastian was born. He learned violin from his father.

Bach was orphaned at age ten and was brought up by his older brother Johann Christoph who taught J.S. to play the organ.

Bach had twenty children, seven with his first wife and thirteen with his second. Only nine survived to adulthood, including four who became musicians.

Bach was arrested and thrown in jail by his employer the Duke of Weimar when he found out Bach had been offered a new job and had asked to be released from his contract. While in jail, Bach wrote a cycle of organ preludes. He was eventually released from jail and permitted to resign.

In 1607, Bach walked 280 miles to hear a concert by organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude. Bach then stayed for four months to study with the master. Bach hoped to succeed Buxtehude as organist at the local church. However, marriage to one of Buxtehude’s daughters was a requirement. Bach declined and walked the 280 miles home.

BRAHMS

Brahms’ piano teacher often complained that he would be a good pianist if he could just stop composing.

Brahms attended a concert in Weimar, Germany where Liszt played his Sonata in B minor. Brahms fell asleep, offending Liszt. Brahms blamed travel fatigue.

At the premiere of the German Requiem, the timpanist ruined part of the performance. He misread the dynamic marking pf (very quiet) as ff (very loud) drowning out the rest of the orchestra.

Brahms became wealthy, but he never flaunted his success. He lived in a modest apartment, ate at cheap restaurants, and wore clothes until they fell apart. He was generous with his good fortune, however, giving his money to aspiring musicians and treating the children on his street to candies.

Brahms was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in a special area near Beethoven and Schubert. Later Johann Strauss and Schöneberg were buried there as well.

Brahms enjoyed a drink daily at the Red Hedgehog Tavern in Vienna.

The conductor Hans von Bulow was an ardent supporter of Brahms’ work. In an article von Bulow called Brahms’s First Symphony Beethoven’s Tenth. Von Bulow was also the first to lionize the three Bs of classical music; Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

MOZART

In October 2024, librarians in Leipzig revealed they discovered a previously unknown work by Mozart. Researchers were working on a new edition of Mozart’s catalog of music when they found the manuscript. The piece is a seven-movement string trio written in the mid to late 1760s. The piece is now called Ganz kleine Nachtmusik. The first performance was given in Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace.

It would take over 200 hours to listen to all the music Mozart wrote in his lifetime. 

The oboist at the court of Salzburg was paid more than Mozart in 1777.

Mozart had a pet starling whose songs he often transcribed. He used one tune as the theme in his Piano Concerto No. 17. When the bird died, Mozart had an elaborate funeral including a procession, hymns, and poetry that Mozart wrote specifically for the occasion.

Over 100 different hypotheses have been given by various researchers as the cause of Mozart’s untimely death.

While visiting the Vatican, Mozart heard a performance of Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere. After the performance, Mozart wrote the entire score out from memory. The score had never been released outside of the Vatican before. He did compare his work to the score in the Vatican Library and had to make a few minor corrections.

Mozart died before finishing his Requiem Mass which had been a commission by an anonymous benefactor. Many believe the wealthy patron wanted to pass off the work as his own.

Mozart’s wife, Constanze, and his three sisters-in-law, Josepha, Sophie, and Aloysia, were trained singers who often performed Mozart’s works.

Apparently Mozart hated the sound of the trumpet. His father said that as a boy Mozart  “would turn pale and begin to collapse at the mere sound of it.” There is only one composition for trumpet in Mozart’s catalogue, and its authorship is disputed.

At age 6 Mozart performed at the summer palace of the Habsburg family where he met Archduchess Marie Antoinette, who was only two months older. After Mozart slipped and fell, Marie Antoinette helped him up and he promptly proposed to her in thanks.

HAYDN

Upon hearing him sing as a boy Empress Maria Theresa said, “That boy doesn’t sing, he crows!”

Haydn left the St. Stephen’s Choir in rather spectacular fashion. He snipped off the pigtail of a fellow chorister and was punished by being publicly caned.

Haydn’s wife, Maria Anna Keller, did not understand music nor did she seem interested at all in her husband’s job. She occasionally used his manuscripts to line cake tins or use as paper to curl her hair.

Symphony no. 96 is nicknamed the “Miracle” since during its premiere a large chandelier fell but no one was injured.

Inspired by hearing “God Save the King” while in London, Haydn wrote a hymn to accompany lyrics in honor of Emperor Francis II. He later used this hymn as the basis of the slow movement of his String Quartet Op. 76, no. 3 called the “Emperor.”  The music was at one point the Austrian National Anthem and the basis of the current German National Anthem, “Deutschlandlied.”

When Napoleon invaded Vienna in 1809, Haydn was such a revered figure throughout Europe, Napoleon posted two sentries in front of Haydn’s home so he wouldn’t have to move.

Mozart’s Requiem Mass was played at Haydn’s funeral.

Haydn wrote his “Farewell” symphony while the Esterházy court was at their summer palace. Most of the wives and families of the musicians had been left at home and the trip was lasting longer than expected. Haydn helped urge his employer to return home through the performance of a new symphony. During the second movement, one by one each musician would stop playing, blow out the candle on their stand, and then walk off the stage. Eventually only two violins were left to finish the work. The prince apparently got the message and the court returned home the next day.

Haydn’s skull was stolen by phrenologists, followers of pseudoscience who believed that much could be learned by measuring the skull, shortly after his burial. The skull was finally reunited with the rest of Haydn’s remains in 1954.

SCHUBERT

Schubert was one of fourteen children, however only five survived infancy.

The family performed together as a string quartet with Franz playing viola, his brothers Ignaz and Ferdinand playing violin, and his father the cello.

After spending the evening at a “Schubertiaden,” concert party playing works by Schubert, Schubert and four of his friends were arrested. The Austrian police were suspicious of groups that might be meeting to discuss revolution because of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars. One friend was imprisoned for a year and exiled from Vienna. The others, including Schubert, were “severely reprimanded” for “inveighing against (officials) with insulting and opprobrious language.”

Schubert was just over five feet tall. His friends nicknamed him “Schwammerl” or little mushroom.

While on his deathbed, Schubert requested to hear Beethoven’s String Quartet no. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131. His friend, Karl Holz, whose string quartet played the work for Schubert said, “The King of Harmony has sent the King of Song a friendly bidding to the crossing.”

Schubert had been a torchbearer at Beethoven’s funeral and requested that he be buried near Beethoven. In 1888, Beethoven’s and Schubert’s graves were moved to Vienna’s Stadtpark where Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss II are also buried.

The only public concert Schubert ever gave took place on March 26, 1828. It was such a success, he was finally able to buy his own piano. However, he died in October of that year.

Over the years, many people have tried to finish the Unfinished Symphony. In 1928, Columbia Records held a contest in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Schubert’s death. More recently, the Chinese electronics company Huawei used artificial intelligence to create melodies which were then orchestrated by composer Lucas Cantor.

MAHLER

Toward the end of his career, Mahler served as conductor for the New York Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Mahler conducted his final concert at Carnegie Hall.

When Mahler was having marriage trouble, he sought counseling from Sigmund Freud.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 is nicknamed the “Symphony for a Thousand.” At its premiere, it featured 150 in the orchestra and a chorus of 800. Although Mahler hated the nickname, it stuck.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is one of the longest orchestral compositions, taking approximately 95 minutes.

The Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 was used in the movie “Death in Venice.” Another producer liked the music so much that he asked if Mahler was available to write more music. He didn’t realize Mahler had been dead for sixty years.

CHOPIN

In October 2024, a researcher working at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan found a small scrap of paper. On it was a waltz with the signature “Chopin.” Scholars tested the paper and ink, analyzed the handwriting and musical style, and concluded that the piece was an unknown work by Chopin, the first discovered in more than fifty years. The work was most likely written when Chopin was in his early 20s and is short, only 48 measures with repeat, lasting around 80 seconds.

While in Majorca, Chopin needed to see a doctor. He had three visit, all of whom he found to be incompetent. Chopin wrote, “...The first said I was dead; the second said I was dying; and the third said I was about to die.” 

George Sand, Chopin’s longtime lover, wrote about his compositional process. He would begin with an idea, and elaborate on it, often with much weeping and complaining and hundreds of changes, only to return to his initial idea.

Chopin went to London in 1848 for a series of concerts. His first public performance was attended by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Chopin’s funeral was held at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris and required tickets. Over 3,000 people without tickets showed up and had to be turned away.

Chopin was baptized on April 23, 1810, with a birthdate of February 22 listed. He and his family actually used March 1 as his birthdate.

Chopin’s father was from Lorraine, France, and emigrated to Poland in 1787 at age sixteen. He was devoted to his new homeland and insisted the family speak Polish at home. 

Chopin was well-known as a gifted performer, despite rarely performing in public. Throughout his career, he performed only about thirty times in a large, public setting.

Chopin was buried in Paris, however, at his request, his sister Ludwika took his heart preserved in alcohol in a vase back home to Poland in 1850.

Tchaikovsky was able to quit his job in 1878 to devote himself to composition because he began receiving a monthly allowance from a wealthy widow. One of the stipulations of Tchaikovsky’s financial arrangement with his wealthy patron was that the two would never meet. 

Tchaikovsky was so excited about the celesta, a percussion instrument similar to a piano, that he secretly imported one from Paris so that he would be the first Russian composer to have and use the instrument.

In 1884 Tsar Alexander III presented Tchaikovsky with the Order of St. Vladimir, a hereditary noble title.

Tchaikovsky was fluent in French and German by the time he was six due to the family’s foreign governess.

Tchaikovsky described the 1812 Overture, as “loud and noisy.” It was to be premiered at the dedication of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1881. The original plan was to use the cathedrals’ bells and to have cannons fired outside the church with an electric panel. However, the plan proved too ambitious and was not carried out.

Tchaikovsky’s brother and his friend, the composer and pianist Nicolai Rubenstein had to travel to Moscow to tell Tchaikovsky’s estranged wife, Antonina Milyukova, about his nervous breakdown. She calmly served them tea while hearing the news. Milyukova never signed the divorce papers. After his breakdown and return to Moscow, Milyukova moved into the apartment above Tchaikovsky’s.

STRAVINSKY

The original production of Pulcinella featured sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso and was choreographed by Léonide Massine, who also danced the title role.

When Stravinsky and his family moved to Paris, they were having trouble finding a home. Upon hearing of their dilemma, Coco Channel offered the use of her new home until the Stravinskys found something. She also guaranteed the Ballets Russes production of Rite of Spring with a large anonymous donation. 

Stravinsky arranged the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1944, adding a dominant seventh chord. He apparently received a warning from the Boston Police that this was illegal and that he could be fined $100. The police had read the law incorrectly, but the story took on a life of its own, eventually becoming a legend that had Stravinsky spending several nights in jail.

Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso became great friends while both were in Paris. They exchanged works of art, Stravinsky gave Picasso “Sketch Music for the Clarinet,” while Picasso drew a famous sketch of the composer.

Stravinsky’s early work Fireworks, written in 1908, was a gift for Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter for her wedding.

Even though Stravinsky rarely attended his law classes, he was awarded a half diploma.

Stravinsky has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

SCHOENBERG

Schoenberg dabbled in inventing. He created a tennis notation system, a library chair, a typewriter for musical notation, and a four-player chess game.

Schoenberg was highly superstitious and he had a huge fear of the number 13. He died on July 13 when he was 76 years old (7+6=13). Although he had been ill, he spent the day in bed depressed and fearful. Some thought his fear helped hasten his death.

Schoenberg wrote several textbooks on music theory. 

Schoenberg’s opera is Moses und Aron. Because of his fear of the number thirteen, Schoenberg changed the spelling of “Aaron” so the title would have only twelve letters.

Schoenberg left Germany due to his Jewish heritage in 1933. He taught at the Malkin Conservatory in Boston for a year before settling in California where he taught first at the University of Southern California and then the University of California Los Angeles.

Schoenberg became a United States citizen in 1941.

BERLIOZ

Berlioz was a huge fan and proponent of the octobass and thought it should be included in the standard symphony orchestra. An octobass is a larger version of the string bass, currently the largest instrument in the orchestra. A standard string bass has four strings and is about 6 1/2 feet tall. The octobass has three stings and is 11 1/2 feet tall, requiring the musician to use a step ladder to play the instrument and to utilize a complex system of levers and pedals. Although Berlioz championed the instrument, the only work from the 19th century to feature the octobass was Gounod’s Messa solennelle de Sainte-Cécile, which features the octobass in two movements. 

As a young man, Berlioz fell in love with Camille Moke and the two were soon engaged. Shortly after their engagement, Berlioz won the Prix de Rome and moved to Italy for a year. While the couple was separated, Moke met a richer man and fell in love with him. Berlioz was heartbroken and enraged and made plans to murder Moke, her mother (he referred to her as the hippopotamus), and her new love, going so far as to acquire poison, a gun, and costumes. He reached Nice before rethinking his plan and returning to Rome.

Unlike most composers, Berlioz was only an average musician. He learned to play flute and guitar as a young man, but never became an accomplished player. Some historians feel that this might have made him a better composer because it gave him a different perspective on the orchestra.

Berlioz regularly used opium, which at the time was a commonly accepted practice and occasionally was prescribed by doctors. Symphonie fantastique, which features an artist’s delusions after an attempt to poison himself with opium, was based on Berlioz’s own opium use.

Most of Berlioz’s education was provided by his father, rather than in a school.

Berlioz wanted to study music, but his father wanted him to be a doctor. He enrolled in medical school and studied for two years but hated every minute. During an anatomy class one day, Berlioz had finally had enough, he jumped out of the window and never returned to medical school. He began studying music and his father, furious with Berlioz’s decision, cut him off financially.

PURCELL

Purcell was appointed Organist of Westminster Abbey in 1679 at age twenty.

Purcell was the organist for the coronation of William and Mary in 1689. Members of the audience passed money to him in the organ loft which upset Purcell’s boss, the dean of the abbey. 

Benjamin Britten based his theme for Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra on a theme from Purcell’s composition Abdelazar. 

After Purcell’s death, there wasn’t another prominent English composer until Edward Elgar, who was born 200 hundred years later. Some called England “the land without music.”

Purcell was only 36 when he died. Due to his young age, there are many theories as to his cause of death. Some speculate he ate poisoned chocolate. Others say he got sick after his wife locked him out of the house. Most likely, he died from tuberculosis, which was a common, and often incurable, disease at the time. 

PROKOFIEV

Prokofiev wrote his first composition, a piano piece called “Indian Gallop,” at age five. His mother transcribed his ideas. The piece is in F Lydian mode, which is a major scale with note 4 raised a half step. Prokofiev apparently felt “reluctance to play the black notes.”

Prokofiev was an avid chess player. He beat world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition match in 1914. 

Prokofiev’s mother was a talented pianist. When Prokofiev was young, his mother would spend two months each year in either Saint Petersburg or Moscow to take piano lessons.

Prokofiev was several years younger than his fellow classmates at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His habit of keeping statistics on their errors likely did little to help him make friends.

In his early career, Prokofiev wrote very experimental and dissonant music. At the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, one audience member remarked, “To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!”

The Saint Petersburg Conservatory held a “battle of the pianos” at the end of the year. The five best piano students were allowed to enter. The grand prize was a Schroeder grand piano. In 1914, Prokofiev won. He performed his Piano Concerto No. 1.

Prokofiev called his Symphony No. 1 the Classical. He felt that he had written music in a style that Franz Joseph Haydn would have, had he been alive at the time.

In 1922 Prokofiev and Stravinsky were both in Paris. Stravinsky thought that Prokofiev was wasting his time writing operas. The two exchanged a series of derisive remarks and almost had a fistfight. The two had a strained relationship for many years thereafter. Eventually, the two did reconcile, with Stravinsky calling Prokofiev the greatest Russian composer of the day, after himself.

Prokofiev died the same day as Joseph Stalin. Due to all the activities for Stalin’s funeral, Prokofiev’s was a very minor affair. The hearse couldn’t get to Prokofiev’s house, since it was near Red Square. The coffin had to be carried by hand through the back streets. Only thirty people attended Prokofiev’s funeral, among the most prominent attendees was Dmitri Shostakovich.

DEBUSSY

Debussy’s given first name was Achille-Claude, he later changed the order of his name going instead by Claude-Achille.

Debussy won the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious musical award in France, in 1884. Part of the award was a residency in Rome to spend time learning and composing. Debussy hated his time in Rome, he found the food, company, and accommodations awful. The only music he liked was by Palestrina and Lassus, 16th century composers known for their religious works. Debussy said their music was “The only church music I will accept.”

One of Debussy’s early piano teachers claimed to have been a student of Frédéric Chopin, Debussy always believed her story, even though it has never been verified.

Debussy spent three summers in the employ of Nadezhda von Meck, the patron of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Debussy taught her children piano lessons and performed duets with her.

Debussy died during the German Spring Offensive of World War I in 1918 so a grand funeral could not be held. As his funeral procession made its way through the streets, German artillery was bombarding Paris.

VIVALDI

After his ordination, Vivaldi was often called il Prete Rosso, “The Red Priest,” due to his bright red hair.

Vivaldi sometimes had a strained relationship with the board of directors of the orphanage where he worked. Every year his appointment had to be voted on, and often he kept his position by only a vote or two. In 1709, he was voted out. He spent the year as a freelance musician. But by the next year, the board realized how important he was and he was unanimously given his job back.

Vivaldi’s funeral took place at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. A popular legend asserts that a young Franz Joseph Haydn sang in the choir. However, the legend isn’t true since there was no music at the funeral, other than the pealing of bells.

J.S. Bach was influenced by Vivaldi’s music and transcribed many of the concerti for keyboard.

Vivaldi was commissioned to write a cantata for the marriage of Louis XV of France and subsequently wrote works for the births of the French royal princesses.

The Venetian Republic sponsored many orphanages like the one Vivaldi worked at throughout the city. The boys were expected to learn a trade beginning at age fifteen. The musical education at the orphanages, in particular at Ospedale della Pietà, was renowned throughout the region. In fact some noble families with talented daughters tried to pass their daughters off as orphans, a practice which was discouraged.

WAGNER

When he was six months old, Wagner’s father died. To support a family of nine children, Wagner’s mother moved in with a family friend, the playwright and actor Ludwig Geyer. Most likely the couple were married, however, no documentation exists in church records. Until the age of 14, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer and didn’t realize Ludwig was his stepfather, not his biological father.

Wagner and his first wife amassed huge debts while he worked in Riga, Russia (now Latvia) and the couple was forced to flee creditors. They took a ship to London and the stormy passage helped inspire The Flying Dutchman.

After his marriage to his second wife, Cosima, Wagner’s father-in-law was Franz Liszt.

The entire Ring cycle takes over 15 hours.

SIBELIUS

Sibelius was featured on Finland’s 100-mark note until the country moved to the euro in 2002.

Beginning in 2011, Finland has celebrated Sibelius’s birthday.  December 8th is known as “The Day of Finnish Music.”

Sibelius was named Johan Julius Christian at birth.  As a boy, he was known as Janne, a nickname for Johan.  However, as a student, he began to use the French form Jean, possibly inspired by his deceased uncle.

In 1897, the Finnish Senate voted to give Sibelius a small lifelong pension in recognition of his genius.

Sibelius’s first language was Swedish, however, he attended a Finnish-speaking school.

IVES

Ives never made a living as a musician or composer. He ran a successful insurance agency and developed the concept of estate planning.

Ives’ favorite piece was Holiday Symphony. In the work, you can hear the sounds of a small-town celebration including two marching bands approaching each other, fireworks, women working, and a political discussion.

Ives often borrowed music from other composers (including the theme from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony) and hymns, cowboy songs, spirituals, and Christmas carols.

Ives’ father was a bandmaster in the Civil War and supposedly developed the finest band in the Northern Army. After the war, he served as the town bandmaster and often experimented with sound. At one concert, he had two separate bands, playing pieces in different keys with different rhythms, marching toward and past each other. Charles later used this idea in his piece Holiday Symphony.

Ives’ wife, named Harmony, was a friend of author Mark Twain. She was also involved in the transcendentalism movement, which was championed by authors Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Bronson and Louisa May Alcott. Several of these writers lived near Concord, Massachusetts. Ives’ Sonata No. 2 is called “Concord, Mass., 1840-60” and has four movements with titles, “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” and “Thoreau.”

HANDEL

Handel’s father was sixty-three when he was born.

In 1704, Handel was involved in a duel with a fellow composer, Johann Mattheson. Mattheson struck Handel in the chest with his sword, fortunately, it was stopped by a button on Handel’s coat.

Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Domenico Scarlatti, three of the most important Baroque composers, were all born in 1685.

Handel was given a state funeral and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Handel lived in the Mayfair neighborhood of London from 1723 until he died in 1759. In 1968, Jimi Hendrix moved into the upstairs flat of that same building. Once he learned Handel had once lived there, Hendrix went to the local record store and purchased albums of Messiah and Water Music.

BRITTEN

Britten studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music.

Britten met Peter Pears, a tenor, in 1939. They started as friends and traveled together to North America. They fell in love and began a relationship that lasted almost forty years. Britten wrote many of his works for Pears.

Britten was commissioned to write a piece for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral which was destroyed by German bombing during World War II. Britten’s War Requiem premiered in 1962 and featured the traditional Latin Mass with settings of poems by Wilfred Owen, a British soldier killed during World War I.

Britten was the first composer ever awarded a life peerage (a noble title that cannot be passed down). In 1976, he was named Baron Britten of Aldeburgh.

MENDELSSOHN

In Mendelssohn’s London conducting debut in 1829, he was praised for his innovative use of the baton, a novelty for conductors to use at the time.

Mendelssohn is largely credited for a resurgence in interest in the music of J.S. Bach after he conducted the St. Matthew Passion in 1829.

Charles Rosen in his book The Romantic Generation calls Mendelssohn “the greatest child prodigy the history of western music has ever known.”

Mendelssohn’s older sister Fanny was an accomplished pianist and musician. Their father, Abraham, originally thought she would be the most musical of his children. However, music was not considered a proper profession for women at the time.

Although of Jewish heritage, the family converted and the children were baptized in the Reformed Church. They adopted the surname “Bartholdy” to reflect this, but as an adult, Felix was proud of his ancestry and heritage.

The tune to a secular song that Mendelssohn wrote in 1840 is the tune for “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Mendelssohn felt that the tune was unsuitable for sacred music.

SCRIABIN

Scriabin said he had synesthesia, a condition where a stimulus of one sense causes a response stimulus in another. For Scriabin, he associated notes with colors. He invented an instrument called a clavier à lumières (a keyboard with lights) for the piece Prometheus:  Poem of Fire. Some scholars now doubt that Scriabin actually had synesthesia, since his colors match up a little too perfectly.

As a child, Scriabin carved miniature pianos which he gave to friends as gifts. 

When Scriabin was 20, he was learning an extremely difficult piece by Franz Liszt. He practiced so hard that he permanently injured his right hand. Later he broke his right collarbone so he was only able to play with his left hand. Later, he wrote a Prelude and Nocturne Op. 9 for left hand alone.

Scriabin was one of the first composers to include mechanical sounds in his music, writing a piece that included an airplane propeller.

LISZT

Liszt was perhaps the first music celebrity. He invented the word “recital” and gathered a rabid fan base which the poet Heinrich Heine called “Lisztomania.” Women collected his cigarette butts and would often faint during performances. 

In his recitals, Liszt angled the piano so the audience could see his face and hands. Sometimes he played multiple pianos in the same performance with each facing a different direction so everyone in the audience would be able to see him perform.

Liszt learned a lot of Hungarian folk music growing up, even though he didn’t speak Hungarian. He used these influences in his later compositions. He also used music from the Romani people (formerly known as “Gypsies”). Liszt wrote a treatise about Romani music, which at the time was considered inferior. His work is now considered one of the first works of ethnomusicology.

Liszt’s first music teacher was his father, Adam, who worked at Esterházy, the estate where Haydn had been employed for the majority of his career. 

Liszt was an extremely powerful performer. He could play loud enough to fill the recital hall with sound and would often break piano strings while he played.

MESSIAEN

He was held as a prisoner of war in a German camp for nine months during World War II. While there, he wrote his Quartet for the End of Time utilizing the instruments that were available: piano, violin, cello, and clarinet. The piece was performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for the guards.

Messiaen was fascinated with bird songs and considered himself an ornithologist as well as a composer. He included bird calls in a lot of his music, especially in his piano pieces.

Messiaen had synesthesia. In the piano part for one section of Quartet for the End of Time, he describes the chords as “blue-orange.”

Messiaen began studying at the Paris Conservatory at age eleven.

COPLAND 

Copland’s father, Harris Morris Copland, lived and worked in Scotland for several years to earn money to travel to the United States. Most likely, while in Scotland, he anglicized his name “Kaplan” to “Copland.” For years, Aaron thought their family’s name had been changed at Ellis Island when his father arrived in America. He didn’t learn until very late in life what the original family name had been.

While in Paris Copland spent time with several famous literary and artistic figures including Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust, and Marc Chagall.

At fifteen, Copland attended a concert by the Polish composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. After the concert, Copland decided he wanted to be a composer. To become a composer, Copland first tried to learn music theory and composition through a correspondence course.

During his career, Copland was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Score for four movies (Of Mice and Men, Our Town, The North Star, and The Heiress). The Heiress won the award in 1950. He also received a Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a National Medal of Arts, and a Congressional Gold Medal.

Copland’s first opera The Second Hurricane was a short work intended for use in high schools. Its first production in 1937 was directed by Orson Wells.

Copland had a Great Dane late in life who was named Nadja in honor of his teacher Nadia Boulanger.

After his death, Copland’s ashes were spread at Tanglewood where he taught for twenty-five years. John Williams, the noted film composer, commissioned a sculpture of Copland for Tanglewood which was unveiled in 2011.

CAGE

Cage had a longtime partnership, professionally and personally, with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Together they helped develop modern dance.

Cage’s most famous piece, 4’33”, features only sound. He was inspired to write the work after visiting Harvard University’s anechoic chamber, a room that absorbs all sounds, and by a series of white paintings by a friend, Robert Rauschenberg.

There is an iPhone app for people to perform 4’33”. People can upload their performance to share with others. The app currently has over 2,500 different versions.

Cage wrote several pieces based on chance by using the I Ching a Chinese philosophy book written around 2000 BCE. Cage would ask questions, then apply the decisions based on the book to determine note duration and dynamics.

Cage’s piece Imaginary Landscape No. 4 includes twelve radios, each tuned to a different frequency.

Dvořák

Dvořák received 300 Marks as payment for the first set of Slavonic Dances, roughly $100, a tiny payment for the piece that began his international career. 

Neil Armstrong carried a tape recording of the New World Symphony on the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission. 

Dvořák’s violin concerto is dedicated to Joseph Joachim, one of the most famous violinists of the day, however, Joachim never performed the work publicly.

Johannes Brahms served as a proofreader for Dvořák’s works before they were published.

Dvořák’s father kept trying to introduce him to the family business taking him along to view livestock. However, after a cow pulled Dvořák into a pond, he swore he would never be a butcher.

Dvořák was fascinated by trains. He would spend hours at the railway station watching trains and knew the timetable by heart. He would ask students to describe any train trips they had recently taken to him in detail.

SHOSTAKOVICH

Shostakovich created a musical monogram that he utilized in many of his works. He used D-E flat-C-B to stand for his initials D-S-C-H. (In the German note-naming system, E-flat is pronounced “Es” and B natural is spelled “H”)

Shostakovich was a big soccer fan. He even qualified to be a referee. His favorite team was Zenit Leningrad.

Shostakovich travelled to London in 1972. While there, he went to see Jesus Christ, Superstar. He liked it so much he went back to see it again the following evening.

A peninsula is named for Shostakovich on Alexander Island, Antarctica.

Maxim Shostakovich, Dmitri’s son, was the dedicatee and first performer of the Piano Concerto No. 2. As a conductor, he recorded all fifteen of his father’s symphonies with the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

The score of the Seventh Symphony was put on microfilm and smuggled out of the Soviet Union during the Siege of Leningrad. It was carried by various diplomats via Tehran to London and then on to New York. The score was almost lost at one point during the trip when the diplomat left it behind at a restaurant. Even though Leningrad had been under siege by the Nazis, the symphony was premiered in Leningrad with surviving members of the orchestra and community members to fill out the orchestra.

Shostakovich was a perfectionist in both his musical and personal life. He would carefully synchronize the clocks in his apartment. He also mailed cards to himself to test the regularity and efficiency of the postal service.

Shostakovich wrote music for thirty-six films during his career. His music was widely admired, however very little of it survives.

One of Shostakovich’s first jobs was as an accompanist for silent movies. He would improvise for ninety minutes to accompany the silent film while it played. 

LIGETI

Ligeti grew up in Transylvania, Romania, although his family was Hungarian. He later moved to Austria and became a citizen.

Ligeti’s family was Jewish. He was sent to work in a labor brigade at age fourteen. His parents and brother were sent to concentration camps in Germany. His mother survived and was liberated from Auschwitz.

Ligeti served as composer-in-residence at Stanford University in 1972.

Ligeti came up with a vocal technique where singers not only sing but also use cries and nonsense noises to express specific emotions.

Ligeti supervised the writing of his authorized biography written by Richard Steinitz, a musicologist. Before it was published, Ligeti went through the entire manuscript, making changes. Steinitz said they spent eight hours a day for three days getting the book just right. 

LUTOSŁAWSKI

Lutosławski narrowly escaped German capture during World War II. He made a living during the war playing piano in Warsaw bars often performing with his friend and fellow composer Andrzej Panufnik. They often played music the Nazis had banned, risking arrest.

Lutosławski was awarded Poland’s highest honor, the Order of the White Eagle.

Lutosławski was branded a “formalist” by the Stalinist Polish government for his compositions after World War II. Lutosławski ignored the criticism and continued writing.

Under a pseudonym, Lutosławski wrote pop tunes that were popular in Poland in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

CORELLI

Corelli was known as a virtuoso violinist. He was one of the last violinists to play in the old-fashioned style where the instrument was held against the chest rather than under the chin as violinists do today.

Corelli stated that a high D was the highest note that could be played on violin. In one of his violin sonatas, Handel included a high E, one note above Corelli’s limit. While playing the piece, when Corelli got to the note, he stopped, gave Handel, who was also on stage, a hard look, then put down his instrument and walked off the stage.

Corelli was born one month after his father’s death.

Corelli’s music was very popular however he forbade his works from being published during his lifetime.

BELLINI

Bellini was known for long, flowing melodic lines and was nicknamed “the Swan of Catania. 

Bellini showed early musical talent, supposedly he sang his first aria at eighteen months and played piano by age five. He wrote his first composition at age six. His family featured many musicians and his grandfather was his first musical instructor.

Bellini was able to support himself by writing only operas. He never had to take a secondary job teaching or writing other types of music.

Bellini’s best-known opera today is Norma. The opera had a terrible premiere which Bellini wrote was a “fiasco.” The singers were exhausted and there was a group of disruptive people in the audience. A few nights later, the next performance went much better and was soon being performed worldwide.

PUCCINI

Puccini was worth around $200 million when he died in 1924. He is one of the most successful composers of all time.

Puccini had a long-term affair with Elvira Gemignani. They married in 1904 after having been together for almost twenty years. They were finally able to marry after the death of Elvira’s husband, who was killed by the husband of his mistress.

News of Puccini’s death was announced in Rome during a performance of his opera La bohème. The performance was stopped and the orchestra played the Funeral March from Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in tribute.

Puccini loved technology, especially cars, and had a regular correspondence with inventor Thomas Edison.

Puccini did before finishing his last opera, Turandot. It was finished later based on sketches Puccini left behind. Conductor Arturo Toscanini was involved in completing Turandot. He conducted the opening night performance but put down his baton where Puccini had left off.

ROSSINI

Rossini’s father was once put in jail for failing to fulfill his duties as the town trumpeter. 

After hearing Beethoven’s Eroica symphony in Vienna, Rossini was eager to meet Beethoven. Eventually the two composers met, but the conversation was difficult because Rossini didn’t speak much German and Beethoven was in advanced stages of hearing loss. However, Beethoven did get one point across, that Rossini should continue writing comic operas, especially “...more Barbers.”

Rossini said he only cried three times in his life: when his earliest opera failed, when he heard Paganini play, and when his truffled turkey lunch fell overboard while boating on Lake Como.

Rossini was afraid of Fridays and the number 13. He died on Friday, November 13.

Rossini’s opera, Guillaume Tell, was written in the French grand style and was enthusiastically received. The orchestra and singers went to Rossini’s house after the performance and serenaded him. Fellow opera composer Gaetano Donizetti said that Rossini wrote the first and third acts of the opera, but that the middle act was written by God. 

Rossini often wrote on very tight deadlines. Cinderella was written in just over three weeks.

Rossini liberally borrowed from his own music. Eduardo e Cristina features twenty-six musical numbers, nineteen of which appeared in previous works.

The original score for William Tell was found by the Paris Opéra archivist Charles Malherbe in a secondhand bookstore. The score was purchased by the Paris Conservatoire.

The Overture to William Tell is widely known due to its use in The Lone Ranger. Other parts of the piece have been used in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Dmitri Shostakovich used part of the main theme of the finale of his 15th Symphony.

Supposedly Rossini often composed in bed. A famous story says that when he dropped an unfinished aria on the floor, rather than get out of bed to retrieve it, he would simply compose a new one. 

ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI

Scarlatti was most likely born in Sicily, however, there are no records that show in which city he was born.

Scarlatti studied in Rome and married a woman named Antonia from a prominent family. The couple lived in an apartment in the palace of famed architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Scarlatti became the maestro di cappella (chapel master, the person in charge of music for a royal or noble court) in Naples. His brother Francesco was the first violinist.

Scarlatti was nicknamed the “Italian Orpheus.”

DOMENICO SCARLATTI

Scarlatti and Handel performed a concert in a trial of skill to see who was the better harpsichordist. Scarlatti won the contest.

Scarlatti became the music teacher for Princess Maria Magdalena Barbara of Portugal. She appointed him her Master of Music. She later became Queen of Spain and Scarlatti served the Spanish royal family until his death.

Most of Scarlatti’s works were published after his death because he was employed by the royal family.

Musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick catalogued Scarlatti’s music in 1953. Each piece is numbered following a letter K. Two other people have also catalogued Scarlatti’s music, Alessandro Longo who used the letter L. and Giorgio Pestelli who used the letter P. The Kirkpatrick system is the most commonly used.

A minor planet, 6480 Scarlatti is named in his honor.

BUSONI

Busoni was a virtuosi pianist who began performing at a young age. By age seventeen he was one of the most talented pianists in Europe. However, he wanted to be known as a composer, but his playing ability often overshadowed his compositions.

His father believed a child’s name would influence their future success. Therefore, he named his son after several prominent Italians, Buskin’s full name was Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni.

Busoni’s father was a virtuoso clarinet player and his mother was a gifted pianist. She served as his accompanist and also toured on her own, one of the very few women to accomplish that in the 1800s.

As a composer, Busoni had a lot of new and original ideas. He wanted to write without the traditional ideas about harmony and rhythm and explored microtones (musical tones smaller than a half step, the smallest interval in traditional scales) and electronic music.

BOCCHERINI

Boccherini was a gifted cellist and wrote a lot of music for his instrument. He completed nineteen cello sonatas and twelve cello concertos. He also wrote a string quintet with two cellos.

Boccherini spent the majority of his career in Madrid working for the Spanish royal family. Once, the prince told Boccherini he didn’t like a trio and asked Boccherini to change it. Instead of honoring the request, Boccherini doubled the length of the passage. Boccherini was fired for the insult.

Several of Boccherini’s pieces depict Madrid including La Musica Nocturna delle Strade di Madrid which features church bells, drums, tambourines, and Spanish songs and dances.

Boccherini’s family was very artistic. His father was a musician. Two of his sisters and one brother were ballet dancers. Another sister became an opera singer.

VERDI

Verdi’s baptismal record was entered on October 11 and states he was “born yesterday.” At the time, days were often considered as beginning at sunset, so he could have been born on either October 9 or 10. Verdi’s mother always celebrated his birthday on the 9th and he considered that his birthday as well.

Verdi became his parish’s official paid organist at age eight.

Verdi’s wife Margherita died at age 26. Both of their children died as well. Verdi, who had been working on his second opera, vowed never to compose again.

At the height of his career, Verdi wrote twenty operas in sixteen years.

La traviata, one of Verdi’s most famous and popular works, had a disastrous premiere. Verdi was not happy with any of the singers and the management insisted that the setting be historical, rather than contemporary. Subsequent productions proved more successful.

When Verdi finally married his longtime partner, Giuseppina Strepponi, after thirteen years together, the only witnesses to the ceremony were their coachman and the church bell ringer.

Aida was commissioned by the Egyptian government to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. He was paid 150,000 francs for the work.

The applause following the premiere performance of Falstaff lasted for an hour.

At the public funeral service for Verdi, Arturo Toscanini led a chorus of 820 singers in “Va, pensiero” from Nabucco. It is estimated that 300,000 people attended.

J.C. BACH

Johann Christian Bach was the youngest of J.S. Bach’s sons and was born when his father was fifty.

J.C. Bach spent a lot of time in London and became known as the “English Bach.” Later he used the English version of his name, John.

King George III and Queen Charlotte attended the premiere of J.C. Bach’s first opera in London, Orione.

J.C. Bach gave music lessons to Queen Charlotte. Later in life, Bach had financial troubles. When he died, he left a sizable debt for his wife. Queen Charlotte paid much of the debt so Mrs. Bach could return home to Italy.

W.F. BACH

W.F. Bach had many of the original manuscripts written by his father, J.S. Bach. However, he lost many of the manuscripts or supposedly sold them when money was tight after he lost his job. 

W.F. Bach was a gifted organist who was exceptionally talented at improvisation. Many consider him the last great German Baroque organist.

W.F. Bach was born on November 22, Saint Cecilia’s Day. Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians.

C.P.E. BACH

C.P.E. Bach’s middle name was Philipp in honor of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of J.S. Bach.

C.P.E. Bach became the harpsichordist for Frederick II of Prussia in 1740. Frederick was an accomplished flutist and Bach often accompanied him. Bach also served as the court’s composer and arranger but was the least-paid musician employed by Frederick.

To distinguish himself from his composer brothers, C.P.E. Bach was known as the “Berlin Bach” and when he took a new job as the “Hamburg Bach.” His friends and contemporaries often just called him Emanuel.

C.P.E. Bach wrote “Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments” which was studied by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

OFFENBACH

Offenbach was a talented cellist and began studying at the Paris Conservatory at age fourteen. The next year he became a cellist in the orchestra for the Opéra-Comique.

In 1855 Offenbach rented a small music hall and began putting on limited productions since the government controlled all the theaters in Paris. Offenbach’s works were one-act, with no more than three characters and no chorus. He became well-known for these small “operettas.”

For most of his career, Offenbach tried to get a serious opera performed in a major opera house. His last work, The Tales of Hoffmann was left unfinished at the time of his death. The next year, another composer, Ernest Guiraud, finished the work and it was successfully premiered.

Offenbach was accused of being a spy for Germany during the Franco-Prussian War.