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(b London, England, March 20, 1774; d London, England, Feb 17, 1856). English tenor and composer. He made his debut as a boy soprano at Covent Garden in 1787. He sang in Europe after his voice broke, returning to England at the turn of the century, where he established a reputation as one of the country’s leading tenors. He traveled to the United States in the autumn of 1840 and, at the age of 68, “surpassed all expectations” with the “pathos, sublimity, power, and wonderful execution” of his voice. He appeared first in concert, with a selection of tenor and baritone airs from opera and oratorio mixed with popular ballads. His American operatic debut, at the Park Theatre in New York, was in Stephen Storace’s The Siege of Belgrade, and he went on to re-create many of his famous roles, in Charles Horn’s The Devil’s Bridge, Thomas Dibdin’s The Cabinet, and Weber’s Der Freischütz. At one point he astonished audiences and critics by appearing in seven demanding roles in less than two weeks....

Member of Caccini family

(b Florence, Oct 6, 1591; d Florence, c1660). Italian soprano and composer, younger daughter of Giulio Caccini. According to Severo Bonini, she established ‘an immortal reputation’, having ‘mastered to perfection the art of singing’. She was taught to sing and compose by her father, and by 1600 was performing at the Florentine court. Although not mentioned by name, she and her elder sister Francesca are undoubtedly the ‘figliuole’ of Giulio Caccini who sang in Il rapimento di Cefalo in October 1600 for the marriage of Maria de’ Medici and Henri IV of France. Four years later, at the invitation of Maria de’ Medici, the Caccini family spent six months in Paris, performing at the courts of Modena and Turin en route. It was once thought that Settimia went to Mantua in 1608 to sing in Monteverdi’s L’Arianna but it is now known that the singer was another Florentine woman. In ...

Member of Coleman family (opera)

(b London, bap. April 27, 1622; d Greenwich, Aug 29, 1669). English tenor and composer, son of Charles Coleman. He taught music during the Commonwealth and wrote songs, including one for Shirley’s The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. In 1656 he sang in ...

Member of Corri family

(b Edinburgh, ?1784; d Baltimore, Feb 19, 1832). Italian composer, tenor, pianist, and teacher, son of Domenico Corri, and possibly twin brother of Montague Philip Corri. As P. Antony Corri he was well established as a composer in London from about 1802 to 1816, when many of his piano pieces and songs were published. His L’anima di musica (1810) is the most extensive piano tutor of its period, and ran to several editions. He was a founder of the London Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music in 1813, and was director of the Professional Society in 1816. He was expelled from the Philharmonic in December 1816 (due to a scandal probably involving his wife) and emigrated to the USA, where he settled in Baltimore by autumn 1817. There he was christened Arthur Clifton on 31 December 1817 and remarried the following day. He served as organist of the First Presbyterian Church (...

Member of Costa family (i)

(b Azeitão; d Lisbon, Aug 9, 1696). Portuguese composer and contralto singer. He was chamber musician to King João IV, mestre de capela during the reigns of Afonso VI and Pedro II, and a Knight of the Order of Christ. His works included several psalm settings and masses for eight voices, motets for four voices and villancicos, all of which were in João IV’s library which was destroyed in ...

(b Kuršumlija, Serbia, 1966). Bosnian and Herzegovinian composer. She graduated with a degree in composition from the Academy of Music in Sarajevo (1991), in the class of Josip Magdić, after which she gained the Master of Composition (2004) under the mentorship of composer Dejan Despić. Her first position was at the Srednja muzička škola (‘music high school’) in Valjevo, Serbia (1992–2000). She returned to Eastern Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to work as an Associate Professor of Harmony and Harmonic Analysis.

Dutina’s compositions reflect her interest in Balkan folklore, mostly of a rural-vocal type, and in the formal and harmonic devices associated with neoclassicism. She has composed solo songs, chamber music, symphonic works, vocal-instrumental music, choral music, music for children, and film music.

Dutina also cherishes folkloric vocal traditions through her engagement as founder and artistic director of the female vocal ensembles Rusalke (...

Member of Danzi family

(b Munich, 1768; d Munich, June 11, 1800). German soprano and composer. She was the daughter of the singer, actor, and theatre director Theobald Marchand, who came from Strasbourg and whose troupe was active in Mainz, Frankfurt, Mannheim, and Munich. From an early age she played children’s roles in the theatre and performed as a pianist and singer. In Munich she received tuition from the soprano Franziska Lebrun (née Danzi), who later became her sister-in-law. She and her younger brother Heinrich lived in Salzburg from 1781 to 1784 with Leopold Mozart, who taught her singing and the keyboard (she is often mentioned in his letters as ‘Gretl’). He supported her first attempts at composition (sonatas for piano or for violin and piano) and tried to have them published by the Viennese publisher Christoph Torricella, but without success. Wolfgang Mozart heard her sing on his visits to Salzburg in ...

Member of Gerl family

(b Andorf, Upper Austria, Nov 30, 1764; d Mannheim, March 9, 1827). Austrian bass and composer. The son of a village schoolmaster and organist, Gerl by 1777 was an alto chorister at Salzburg, where he must have been a pupil of Leopold Mozart. He was at the Salzburg Gymnasium from 1778 until 1782 and he then went on to study logic and physics at the university. In the autumn of 1785 he went to Erlangen as a bass, joining the theatrical company of Ludwig Schmidt, who had been at Salzburg earlier that year. In the autumn of 1786 he joined G.F.W. Grossmann’s company, performing in the Rhineland, and specialized in ‘comic roles in comedies and Singspiele’. By 1787 he was a member of Schikaneder’s company at Regensburg, making his début in Sarti’s Wenn zwei sich streiten (Fra i due litiganti) and appearing as Osmin in ...

(b London, 1785; d London, Aug 2, 1845). English music theorist, translator, and instructor in musical composition, the pianoforte, the organ, and singing. The son of a dealer in old books, his interests in linguistics and music led him to learn foreign languages and translate music theory books. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, he edited primers in sacred and secular harmony as well as the piano, the organ, singing, and choral singing. His books, issued mostly by the London music publisher Robert Cocks, were often completed, reedited, and reprinted over half a century, even after his death (his method for the pianoforte reached its 13th edition in 1849).

Hamilton was best known for his Dictionary of Two Thousand Italian, French, German, English, and Other Musical Terms (1842), which was expanded and republished several times. His translation of Czerny’s four-volume Piano Forte School Opus 500 method opened English-speaking students to German treatises on tempo and metronome markings, performance practice, and musical examples by Thalberg, Döhler, Henselt, Chopin, Taubert, Willmers, Liszt, Beethoven, and Handel. His collaboration with Czerny also resulted in the publication of ...

(Marc)

(b Cleveland, Aug 28, 1959). American composer, conductor, baritone, and editor. The child of Holocaust survivors, Hoffman studied at the Boston Conservatory, where he received the BM, magna cum laude, in 1981. He earned the MM from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1984, and he received the PhD from Brandeis University in 1993. His teachers included Arthur Berger, Martin Boykan, Hugo Norden, Chris Roze, Harold Shapero, Larry Alan Smith, and Yehudi Wyner. From 1990 to 1998, Hoffman worked as an editor at the music engraving company Scores International in Boston, and he was hired as an editor at ECS Publishing immediately thereafter.

Since the mid-1980s, Hoffman has composed a substantial body of choral music. Many of these pieces reflect his Jewish heritage, and his sacred works can be used in temple services. This music is also sung widely in churches, high schools, universities, and by professional choral ensembles. In addition, he has composed choral works using secular texts along with pieces for keyboard solo, solo voice, chamber ensembles, and full orchestra. Hoffman’s work has been commissioned by ensembles such as the Carolina Brass and ALEA III (a contemporary music ensemble). His piece ...

Member of Jochum family

(b Babenhausen, March 18, 1898; d Bad Reichenhall, Oct 24, 1969). German choirmaster and composer. He studied the organ, the piano and theory with his father, Ludwig Jochum. He entered the Augsburg Conservatory and then the Munich Akademie der Tonkunst, where he studied conducting, the piano and composition, the last with Joseph Haas. From 1922 he taught at a singing school in Augsburg and in 1933 followed his singing teacher Albert Greiner as director of the municipal singing school. In 1932 his oratorio Der jüngste Tag op.28 won a national first prize; he was also commissioned by the International Society for Catholic Music to compose an opera on the theme of Jacob and his fight with the angels. The work was scheduled to be performed in 1933 in Aachen, Cologne and Rome, but the Nazis outlawed the project since material based on the Old Testament was no longer deemed ideologically acceptable. Jochum recovered from this setback, composing patriotic works such as the cantata ...

Member of Lanier family

(d ?London, before April 5, 1650). English tenor and composer. He served as musician for the lutes and voices in the King’s Musick from 1625 until the court broke up in the 1640s, although he continued to receive occasional payments up to 1650. Almost certainly he was the John Lanier described as one of the courtier Endymion Porter’s servants in ...

German family of musicians.

Lebrun [Brün, Le], Ludwig August (b Mannheim, bap. May 2, 1752; d Berlin, Dec 12/15/16, 1790)

Lebrun [née Danzi], Franziska [Francesca] (Dorothea) (b Mannheim, March 24, 1756; d Berlin, May 14, 1791)

Lebrun [Dülken], Sophie (b London, June 20, 1781; d Munich, July 23, 1863)

Lebrun [Stentzsch], Rosine (b Munich, April 29, 1783; d Munich, June 5, 1855)

[Francesca](Dorothea)

Member of Lebrun family

(b Mannheim, March 24, 1756; d Berlin, May 14, 1791). German soprano and composer, wife of Ludwig August Lebrun. She was the daughter of Innocenz Danzi and elder sister of Franz Danzi. She made her début in 1772 at the Schwetzingen Schlosstheater in Sacchini’s La contadina in corte and sang in the court opera at Mannheim, holding the title virtuosa da camera. In 1777 she triumphed in the role of Anna in Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg, which was composed for her voice. She spent the next year in London and in 1778 married Ludwig August Lebrun. While retaining her court position (from 1778 at Munich), she visited several European countries with her husband, making guest appearances in operas and concerts. On August 3, 1778 she sang the principal role in Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta at the opening of La Scala, Milan. Early in 1779 she appeared with her husband at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where she caused a stir by fitting Italian texts to the solo parts of symphonies concertantes. For the opera seasons of ...

English family of musicians.

Linley, Thomas (i) (b Badminton, Gloucs., Jan 17, 1733; d London, Nov 19, 1795)

Linley, Elizabeth Ann (b Bath, Sept 7, 1754; d Bristol, June 28, 1792)

Linley, Thomas (ii) (b Bath, May 7, 1756; d Grimsthorpe, Lincs., Aug 5, 1778)

Linley, Mary [Polly] (b Bath, Jan 4, 1758; d Clifton, Bristol, July 27, 1787)

Linley, Ozias Thurston (b Bath, bap. Aug 22, 1765; d London, March 6, 1831)

Linley, William (b Bath, Jan 27, 1771; d London, May 6, 1835)

Member of Melani family

(b Pistoia, March 31, 1626; d Paris, 1714). Italian alto castrato and composer, brother of Jacopo Melani. At about the age of 15 he entered the service of Prince Mattias de’ Medici, who sent him to Rome in March 1644 to study with Luigi Rossi and Marc’Antonio Pasqualini. He was then sent to Paris, where he quickly won the favour of Mazarin and Queen Anne. During further visits to Paris he performed in such operas as Rossi’s Orfeo (1647) and Cavalli’s Xerse (1660). Mazarin and Mattias also used Atto, ostensibly only a singer, as a secret diplomatic courier. Thus he travelled continually from one court to another, gathering favours for himself as he did so from an astonishing number of European princes; he was rewarded by being made a gentleman of the chamber to Louis XIV and a naturalized French citizen. But the death of Mazarin in ...

(b Ostrava, 7 June 1953). Czech folk singer, poet, and composer. After completing his studies at Gymnasium (1971) and at a school of librarianship, he entered the field of popular music as a writer of lyrics (he has written song texts principally for singers from Ostrava). As a guitarist, violinist, flautist, and accordionist he is entirely self-taught. In the 1980s he began to appear at Czech festivals of folk music, singing songs of his own with their distinctive texts. Gradually he has become one of the most popular of Czech singers. He mainly sings his own songs, but also translations of songs by the Russian composers Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzha, and settings of the poems of Aleksandr Blok. He has set, and sung, poems by the Czech poets Petr Bezruč and Jiří Šotola. His songs owe their popularity largely to the fact that he sings of ordinary people living ordinary lives; they are lyrical and epic, and often ironical and extremely funny. Nohavica is fond of using the dialect of the Ostrava and Těšín region. He has also produced successful translations of opera libretti for works performed at the Ostrava Opera (for example, Mozart’s ...

Member of Parke family

(b London, Aug 26, 1772; d London, July 31, 1822). English soprano, composer, and pianist, eldest daughter of John Parke. She was taught by her father and played the harpischord at his 1781 benefit concert when she was eight years old. The following year at his benefit she made her début as a singer and played a piano concerto by J.S. Schroeter. In 1784 the Public Advertiser praised the taste and spirit of her playing and a year later wrote that she ‘certainly will be one of the best Piano Forte performers in England’. However, as an adult performer she was primarily a singer. She had sung among the trebles in the Handel Commemoration concerts in 1784 and by the age of 20 was a leading soprano soloist in concerts and oratorios in London and the provinces. Her uncle W.T. Parke remembered her singing in ...

Member of Robinson family (ii)

(b Dublin, c1799; d Dublin, Oct 21, 1872). Irish tenor, organist, and composer. His father Francis was an administrator and baritone, who in 1810 founded the Sons of Handel, a large-scale concert-giving society. Francis James Robinson was a chorister in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and assistant organist from 1816 to 1841. He was also organist at St Patrick’s Cathedral there (1828–9) and a tenor vicar-choral at Christ Church from 1833 until his death and at St Patrick’s from 1843. In June 1834 he sang an important role at the Musical Festival in Westminster Abbey. He composed church music and songs, and was given an honorary MusD at Dublin in 1852. His brother William (b Dublin, c1805) was a bass, and sang in the choirs of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church and Trinity College; another brother, John (...

Member of Robinson family (ii)

(b Dublin, Aug 20, 1815; d Dublin, Aug 23, 1898). Irish baritone, conductor, and composer, brother of Francis James Robinson. He was a chorister at St Patrick’s at the age of eight. In 1834 he founded the Antient Concerts Society, which he conducted for 29 years. In 1837 he became conductor of the University Choral Society, founded by the students; at one of its concerts Mendelssohn’s music for Antigone was given for the first time outside Germany. He conducted this Society for ten years. He conducted music for the opening of the Cork Exhibition in 1852, and the Dublin International Exhibition in 1853. In 1856 efforts were made to revive the Irish Academy of Music, founded in 1848 but languishing for want of funds and pupils. Robinson and his wife Fanny Arthur joined as professors, and when, after 20 years, Robinson resigned, the institution had become stable and important. He also taught Stanford harmony. For the Handel centenary in ...