Search Results

(b St Georg, Upper Austria, Feb 28, 1655; d Weissenfels, Aug 6, 1700). Austrian-German composer, singer, violinist, keyboard player, music theorist and novelist. At seven his father sent him to the Benedictine monastery at Lambach, a short distance north-east of St Georg, where he began his musical education. Beer pursued further general and music studies at Reichersberg, south of Passau, as well as in Passau itself. In 1670 his parents took him to Regensburg, where they had moved to preserve their Protestant faith. As a student at the Gymnasium Poeticum Beer became a friend of his fellow student Pachelbel. He continued to study music, including composition, and he wrote the score for a school play, Mauritius imperator. At the end of his studies at the gymnasium, the city of Regensburg awarded him a scholarship to enter the university at Leipzig in 1676 as a student of theology. He soon became acquainted with the musicians there, including the Thomas Kantor Sebastian Knüpfer, and Werner Fabricius, organist at the Nikolaikirche....

[Vincentio, Vincenzio]

(b S Maria a Monte, Tuscany, probably in the late 1520s; d Florence, bur. July 2, 1591). Italian theorist, composer, lutenist, singer and teacher. He was the leader of the movement to revive through monody the ancient Greek ideal of the union of music and poetry.

Galilei was probably born later than his traditionally accepted date of birth of about 1520. As a youth he studied the lute. It was probably his playing that attracted the attention of Giovanni de' Bardi, his principal patron, who facilitated his theoretical studies with Zarlino in Venice, probably about 1563. By that time he had settled in Pisa, where in 1562 he married a member of a local noble family. The scientist Galileo (who was born in 1564) was the first of his six or seven children; another was the lutenist Michelagnolo Galilei (b 18 Dec 1575; d 3 Jan 1631...

[Carolanne]

(b Nottingham, Sept 19, 1944). English folk-rock and neo-traditional singer, fiddle player, songwriter and ethnomusicologist. In the early 1960s she was a resident singer at the Nottingham folk club. From 1964 to 1969, she and her husband Bob Pegg ran the traditional club the Sovereign in Leeds, and performed together on the national folk circuit. She introduced to the folk scene the English fiddle style (comprising short choppy bow strokes, double-stopping, drones and no vibrato), learnt from traditional fiddlers, including Jinky Wells, Peter Beresford and Harry Cox.

The Peggs recorded their interpretations of Sydney Carter's songs on And Now it is So Early (Galliard), and their own songs on He Came from the Mountains (Transatlantic, 1971), by which time they had launched the experimental and controversial folk-rock band Mr Fox . Carole Pegg's singer-songwriter album Carolanne (1973) mixed traditional English influences with rock and country music, and featured the guitarist Albert Lee. She went on to form Magus with Graham Bond while continuing to perform solo....

( b Paris, Oct 4, 1772; d Laon, May 26, 1832). French music historian, composer, singer and double bass player . He sang in the parish church choir of St Jacques-de-la-Boucherie in Paris, taking music lessons from the choirmaster, the Abbé d’Haudimont. He sang in the chorus of the Opéra from 1792 until 1799, then played the double bass in the Opéra orchestra until 1816. He was appointed professor of harmony at the Conservatoire in 1813, having worked as Catel’s assistant from 1811. In 1815 he was entrusted with the administration of the Conservatoire, serving as inspector general from 1816 to 1822 and succeeding the Abbé Roze as librarian in 1819. He also played the double bass in the orchestra of the Tuileries chapel from its reopening in 1802. He retired in 1822 to the département of Aisne, where he continued private studies until his death.

Perne is best known for his writings on the history of music. He took an early interest in both Greek and medieval music and, as a tireless researcher, brought together an impressive number of documents. In an age in which composers and theorists alike tackled their problems uncritically and were indiscriminate in repeating or commenting on the opinions of others, Perne insisted on going back to the ancient and medieval texts and studying them in their original languages. He lacked the time – and perhaps the talent – needed to put them into proper form and to construct informed theories from them. He took a particular interest in the problems of the notation of Greek music and read a paper on this subject at the Institut de France in ...

(b Mexico City, Nov 11, 1932). Mexican ethnomusicologist, singer, percussionist and music administrator. She studied at the Colegio Juan de Dios Peza in San Luis Potosí (BA in philosophy and letters), the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City (singing and percussion, 1959–67) and the Idyllwild School of Music of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1965–70). Concurrently she lectured extensively on Mexican folk music in the USA and Europe and pursued a career as a performer. In 1966 she became head of the Sección de Investigaciones Musicales and in 1974 director of the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información Musical of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and of the instrument museum of the same institute, where she also inaugurated the annual courses in ethnomusicology (1967–72). As an official researcher of the institute, she has studied and published in the areas of Mexican music history, folklore, dance, and ethnomusicology....

(b Madras [now Chennai], India, Aug 13, 1927; d Hartford, CT, Sept 10, 2002). flutist, vocalist, and ethnomusicologist of Indian birth. Born into a family of musicians and dancers, he received his musical training from his mother T. Jayammal and from flutist T.N. Swaminatha Pillai, an MA in economics from Annamalai University (1951), and a PhD in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University (1975).

He first came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar at UCLA (1958–60), was reader and head of the department of Indian music at the University of Madras (1961–6), and returned to the United States, where he studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University (1967–1970), taught at the California Institute of the Arts (1970–5), and then worked in the faculty of Wesleyan University (1975–2002).

He was honored in India with the Kalaimamani Award by the government of Tamil Nadu (...