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(b Bucharest, 2/Aug 14, 1893; d Bucharest, Feb 18, 1959). Romanian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, music critic, and director of music programmes. A leading figure of the first half of the 20th century, he laid the foundation of the Romanian school in music, concert life, and musical journalism. He studied with A. Castaldi, D. Dinicu, D.G. Kiriac, and E. Saegiu at the Bucharest Conservatory (1903–11), completing his education with two periods of study in Paris (1913–14, 1923–4), where he studied with d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum and with Paul Vidal at the Conservatoire. A remarkable accompanist, he worked with Enescu, Thibaud, Mainardi, Moodie, and others during the period 1919–45. As a conductor he always achieved a soberly balanced performance; he conducted more than 1500 performances at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest (1921–59), where he specialized in the French repertory (Bizet, Massenet, and Gounod). In his capacities as conductor of the Romanian Philharmonic Society, and as conductor and artistic manager of the Romanian RSO, he did much to encourage Romanian composers. He was also active as a music critic for Romanian and French reviews. Much of his compositional work was done during his youth, including ...

(Magnus)

(b Göteborg, Dec 12, 1887; d Stockholm, Feb 15, 1974). Swedish composer, administrator, conductor and critic. He studied the cello at school in Göteborg and then entered the Stockholm College of Technology. Having passed the examination in civil engineering in 1911, he spent his working life (1912–68) in the patent office. He was largely self-taught although he studied composition and instrumentation with Hallén at the Swedish Royal Academy of Music (1910–11), and partly used the state composer’s scholarships he received between 1911 and 1915 to study in Germany (1911 and 1913). He made his début as a conductor at Göteborg in 1912, when the programme included his First Symphony; thereafter (particularly during the 1920s) he often conducted his own music and that of contemporaries, both at home and abroad (where he promoted Swedish music). From 1916 to 1922 he was kapellmästare at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm; he also worked enthusiastically as co-founder and president (...

(b Madrid, Aug 3, 1823; d Madrid, Feb 17, 1894). Spanish composer, musicologist, conductor and critic. Barbieri’s father died in 1823 and the composer used his matronym throughout his life although, in the heated polemic wars of the period, that was sometimes held against him as an Italianate pretence.

Barbieri received his early music training from his maternal grandfather and entered the fledgling Royal Conservatory in 1837, studying the clarinet with Ramón Broca, the piano with Albéniz y Basanta, singing with Saldoni and composition with Carnicer. In 1841 his family moved to Lucena, but Barbieri remained in Madrid, eking out a living as a clarinettist, pianist, teacher and copyist. His earliest compositions were songs and dances, and a paso doble for a militia band in which he played. He also sang baritone roles in Italian operas at the Conservatory and the Teatro del Circo. He wrote the libretto for a one-act zarzuela but did not complete the music in time for its scheduled première in ...

[Cecil Valentine ]

(b Kingston, Jamaica, March 28, 1926; d Romford, England, Oct 10, 2009). Jamaican trumpeter, flugelhorn player, conductor, arranger, bandleader, journalist, and broadcaster. Self-taught on clarinet, he changed to trumpet to play with the big bands of the drummer Redver Cooke and the saxophonist Eric Deans, then formed the Beboppers with Ernest Ranglin and Dizzy Reece. He performed annually with the Jamaica All-Stars, and in 1950 he formed a septet which included Joe Harriott. From 1954 he promoted concerts and festivals, organizing the annual Big Band, which featured the island’s leading talents, notably Wilton “Bogey” Gaynair, Don Drummond, and the pianist (later politician) Seymour “Foggy” Mullings. Ranglin, Roland Alphonso, and the trombonist Emanuel “Rico” Rodriguez joined this ensemble to accompany such visiting artists as Sarah Vaughan, Donald Byrd, and Jimmy Owens. Bradshaw, who played in a raw, direct style influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, was a tireless promoter of Jamaican music. For 25 years he served as president of the Jamaican Federation of Musicians, and he arranged the island’s national anthem. Although he recorded extensively and toured throughout the Americas playing reggae, jazz was his preferred mode of expression. Among the guests who appeared with his poll-winning small group are Roy Haynes, Reece, Coleridge Goode, and Byard Lancaster. In the 1990s he travelled to England annually, playing in Birmingham with Andy Hamilton’s band....

(b Uppsala, March 25, 1902; d Lund, Oct 29, 1983). Swedish composer, conductor, violist and critic. After private studies in Lund he was accepted by Henri Marteau for the latter’s violin masterclass at the German Conservatory in Prague, where he also studied composition with Finke and conducting with Zemlinsky for two years. He then studied musicology with Norlind in Stockholm, with Peter Wagner in Fribourg, Switzerland, and with Sachs in Berlin, taking a licentiate in philosophy at Lund in 1926. He was chief critic of the Sydsvenska dagbladet of Malmö (1930–66, having contributed from Lund from 1923) and co-founder of the Swedish section of the ISCM, serving as its president (1930–62) and as second chairman of the ISCM presidium (1956–9); he was appointed to honorary membership of the ISCM in 1963. He was founder-violist of the Skånekvartetten (1937–48) and the Pianokvartetten av ...

(b Monaco, Jan 14, 1889; d Rome, Dec 8, 1969). Italian composer, conductor and critic. He studied at Turin and with Reger at the Leipzig Conservatory, gaining a diploma there in 1911. In his early 20s he made his début as a conductor in Rome. From 1918 until 1940 he was resident mainly in Paris: Debussian tendencies, already present in his previous works, were reinforced, though he did much to promote modern Italian music. He subsequently returned to Rome, where he worked for Italian radio. Davico’s very uneven output includes several large-scale compositions, some of which achieved success. Yet even in the colourful La tentation de St Antoine and the Requiem per la morte di un povero, which are notable for many refinements and personal touches in detail, there is a certain self-consciousness in overall conception. For Davico was by nature a miniaturist, at his best in his songs. Often conceived on a tiny scale, these have aptly been compared to the Japanese ...

(b Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], Nov 14, 1804; d Berlin, Jan 10, 1892). German conductor, composer and journalist. He studied the piano, singing and composition in Königsberg, made several long journeys throughout Germany, during which he met Weber in Dresden, and completed his studies with Ludwig Berger, Bernhard Klein and Zelter in Berlin, where his first opera, Rolands Knappen, was produced successfully in 1826. At the same time he became a co-editor of the Berliner allgemeine Muzikzeitung, for which he wrote a spirited defence of the beleaguered Gaspare Spontini. Over the next two decades he built a solid reputation as a conductor of opera, holding theatre posts at Königsberg (1828), Leipzig (1829–32), where he taught counterpoint to the young Schumann, Hamburg (1832), Riga (1834–43), and Cologne (1844–8). He organized the first music festival of the Russian Baltic provinces in Riga (...

(b Jackson, MS, Sept 14, 1910; d New York, NY, Aug 29, 1982). American conductor, composer, arranger, educator, and writer on music. After studying composition at the Cincinnati Conservatory, Engel moved to New York, where he had lessons in composition at the Juilliard School with rubin Goldmark and then privately with roger Sessions . During the late 1930s Engel provided incidental music for plays and dance groups and conducted his own Madrigal Singers under the auspices of the WPA. He conducted the premieres of Kurt Weill’s Johnny Johnson and Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane, and he also led the chorus in the audience at the improvised premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock.

Engel is best known for his work in commercial venues. He supplied vocal and choral arrangements and other forms of incidental music for theatrical and broadcast productions. As a conductor, his most successful shows on Broadway included Gian Carlo Menotti’s ...

(b Würzburg, May 28, 1780; d Würzburg, Jan 5, 1862). German teacher, musical organizer, critic, theorist, conductor and composer. He studied music at the student institute of the Juliusspital in Würzburg, and studied law and philosophy at the university there. In 1801 he began his career as a violinist in the prince-bishop’s court orchestra. He also founded the Akademische Bande, a student choral and orchestral group, which in 1804 became the Akademisches Musikinstitut and was made part of the university, thus becoming the basis of the first state music school in Germany. His teaching and organizational work was of the highest importance and encompassed several disciplines and activities. He became reader in aesthetics in 1812, reader in pedagogical studies in 1819 and professor in 1821. In 1820 a singing school was established as part of the institute. He also conducted important historical concerts for King Ludwig I in ...

(Dorius Johannes)

(b Potsdam, Oct 22, 1838; d Danzig, Aug 27, 1922). German critic, pianist, conductor and composer. The son of an organist, he studied music from an early age. In 1859 he enrolled at the University of Berlin, studying theology and later philosophy; during this time he took piano lessons from Hans von Bülow. For a time he was torn between his interests in philosophy and music; having decided upon the latter he studied thoroughbass with Carl Friedrich Weitzmann and composition with Friedrich Kiel. For two and a half years he taught the piano privately in Berlin before accepting a position at Kullak’s Neue Akademie der Tonkunst in 1868. With the singer Clara Werner (whom he married in 1870) he gave concerts in Berlin, Pomerania and Silesia and became organist at the Nikolaikirche in Stralsund in 1869. In his dissertation Praeliminarien zu einer Kritik der Tonkunst (University of Greifswald, ...

[Matteo]

(b Warsaw, April 6, 1892; d Welland, ON, Jan 3, 1976). Polish music journalist, conductor and composer. While a law student at Warsaw University, he studied music with Stanisław Barcewicz (violin), Roman Statkowski (composition) and Mieczysław Surzyński (theory) at the Institute of Music in Warsaw (1909–13). He continued his musical education under Max Reger (composition), Arthur Nikisch and Hans Sitt (conducting) at the Leipzig Conservatory, at the same time studying musicology at the university with Hugo Riemann and Arnold Schering (1913–14). He completed his study of conducting and composition with Nikolay Tcherepnin, Aleksandr Glazunov and Maximilian Steinberg at the Petrograd Conservatory (1914–15) and stayed in Russia (Petrograd, Kiev) as conductor and music critic until 1918, when he returned to Poland. He lived in Warsaw until 1939, dividing his time between his profession as a lawyer and his work as a music journalist and critic. In ...

(b Faenza, Sept 12, 1890; d Rome, June 14, 1965). Italian composer, conductor and critic. He studied at the Bologna Liceo Musicale with Torchi and Busoni. After teaching in Bologna (1920–24) and Parma (1925–8), he became the director of the Florence Conservatory (1928–47), the Bologna Conservatory (1947–9) and the Conservatorio di S Cecilia (1950–60). His earlier music combines high seriousness, at times somewhat academic, with luxuriant chromatic harmony reminiscent of Bax or, more significantly, Alfano. The textures and orchestration sometimes suggest Strauss, as does Guerrini’s interest, around 1920, in the symphonic poem; and there are indications, too, of Ravel's influence. The most substantial and imaginative of his early works is his second published work in the genre, L’ultimo viaggio d’Odisseo, which shows his harmony and orchestration at their most evocative. Also notable, in this early period, are the chamber compositions: the Violin Sonata is typical, combining succulent chromaticism with reiterative thematic developments. In time Guerrini’s academicism grew more pronounced, while his tendency to romantic indulgence was tempered by a new, architectonic sobriety. His best work after ...

(b Göteborg, Dec 22, 1846; d Stockholm, March 11, 1925). Swedish conductor, composer, teacher and critic. Between 1866 and 1871 he studied in Leipzig with Reinecke, in Munich with Rheinberger and in Dresden with Rietz. He then returned to Göteborg, where he became conductor of the music society (1872–8); he later taught singing in Berlin (1879–83). Back in Sweden he was conductor of the Philharmonic Society in Stockholm (1885–95) and of the Royal Opera (1892–7), as well as founder and conductor of the South Swedish Philharmonic Society (1902–7). From 1909 to 1919 he taught composition at the Stockholm Conservatory.

Hallén’s compositions show an accomplished handling of formal elements and contain stylistic reminiscences of Swedish folk music and the works of other Swedish composers like Söderman. The salient feature of his style, however, and the one which strongly affected contemporary reaction, is its close, almost derivative relationship to German music. Wagner’s works and aesthetic ideas had a particularly strong and lasting influence on Hallén; his operas, although conceived with considerable dramatic skill, are largely dependent on Wagnerian models. As an enterprising and versatile conductor, he gave sympathetic performances of the Wagner operas and brought about performances of many choral masterpieces then almost unknown in Sweden, including the first Swedish performance of Bach's ...

[Pietari](Juhani)

Member of Hannikainen family

(b Nurmes, Dec 9, 1854; d Helsinki, Sept 13, 1924). Finnish composer, conductor, educationist, and writer. The son of a cantor, he held a degree in chemistry but was almost entirely self-taught in music. In 1882 he formed and conducted the Helsinki student choir ‘YL’ to give Finnish-language performances, and from 1885 to 1887 was theatre and music critic for the newspaper Uusi suometar (now Uusi suomi). For 30 years from 1887 he pioneered musical education and taught choral singing at the training college (now university) in Jyväskylä, forming the men’s Sirkat choir there in 1899 and directing it for 16 years. He was active in national song and music festivals, made collections of folk music from Finnish and Russian Karelia, and founded the first Finnish music journal, Säveleitä (‘Melodies’), which he published for four years. Many of his school songs and other choral works became well known nationally, and he played a leading part in his country’s musical growth. As well as writing more than 70 poems, he translated literary works into Finnish (including the libretto of ...

[Josef] (Charles)

(b Croydon, England, July 5, 1878; d London, England, Aug 5, 1958). English composer, critic, conductor, and pianist. A prominent figure in British musical life in the early decades of the 20th century, he was a great publicist and advocate for the cause of the British composer and for his own works. Throughout his life he railed against public and institutional apathy towards native composition, becoming progressively disillusioned.

After studying at the RAM, Holbrooke’s career was launched with the first performance of his dramatic musical representation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven at the Crystal Palace in 1900. Commissions of large-scale choral works for provincial festivals further established him as a young composer of great promise. Henry Wood, Thomas Beecham, and Dan Godfrey conducted premières of a number of his early orchestral and choral works, although later in life he became estranged from many of his earlier supporters. It was Lord Howard de Walden (T.E. Ellis) who was the most influential figure in Holbrooke’s career. Present at the ...

(b Orense, Oct 1, 1918). Spanish pianist, composer, conductor, administrator, critic and writer on music. He studied piano and composition with José Cubiles and Conrado del Campo at the Madrid Conservatory, taking diplomas in piano (1935) and composition (1944); later he was a pupil of Marguerite Long, Lazare Lévy and Yves Nat in Paris and of Isidore Philipp in New York, and studied conducting with Luís de Freitas Branco and Louis Fourestier. He has made concert tours of Europe, North Africa and the USA. His professional activities have included the founding (1957) and directing of the Orense Conservatory of Music, giving piano masterclasses and teaching the interpretation of Spanish music at Música en Compostela (from 1958) and organizing the Manuel de Falla seminars and courses at Granada. He created (1962) the Semanas de Música Religiosa at Cuenca and as music adviser to the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica planned music festivals in Spain and the USA in collaboration with the Organization of American States; he has served as secretary-general of the Spanish section of ISCM (whose festivals he organized in ...

[Alexander]

(b Budapest, Aug 9, 1890; d Balaton Földvár, Aug 8, 1963). Hungarian composer, critic and conductor . He studied composition with Koessler at the Budapest Academy of Music (1906–8) and then went to the Leipzig Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Reger (composition), Nikisch (conducting), Straube (organ) and Sitt (violin). Between 1911 and 1913 he was active in several smaller opera companies: as répétiteur at Bremen and as conductor at Czernowitz (now Černovice), Jihlava and Scheveningen. He lived in Berlin from 1913 and there took further composition lessons from Schoenberg and began to write studies on music, publishing several articles in Die Musik in 1914–15. In 1916 he returned to Hungary. He wrote for various newspapers and periodicals before becoming regular music critic of the daily paper Népszava (1924–50), in which post he established himself as one of the most respected Hungarian critics of the period. He was a propagandist for modern music but also helped to make the Classics more widely known; at the same time he reported on Hungarian musical life for the foreign press. From ...

(Michal)

(b Prague, May 2, 1817; d Prague, July 22, 1868). Czech choirmaster, teacher, composer and critic. He was the son of the distinguished Prague choirmaster František Xaver Kolešovský (b Prague, 1781; d Prague, 12 June 1839), a pupil of J.A. Kozeluch. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory, theory, organ and singing at the Prague Organ School, and theory and composition with Tomášek and others. He was a member of the Estates Theatre Orchestra in Prague from 1835 until 1839, when he succeeded his father as choirmaster of St Štěpána; here, and later at St Ignác he continued his father's practice of presenting music by earlier Czech masters, especially F.X. Brixi. In the 1850s he was director of the Žofín Academy, an important Prague music institution with choir and school, but gave up the post to found his own school of singing and theory, where his pupils included Fibich. He also taught from ...

(b Breslau [now Wrocław, Poland], July 27, 1812; d Stettin [now Szczecin, Poland], Dec 1, 1893). German conductor, music critic and composer. Kossmaly’s writings reveal much about 19th-century German musical life and intellectual history. He studied in Berlin (1828–30) with Mendelssohn’s teachers Ludwig Berger and C.F. Zelter, and also with Bernhard Klein. From 1838 to 1849 he was music director at opera houses in Wiesbaden, Mainz, Amsterdam, Bremen, Detmold, and Stettin, where he settled and became a highly respected teacher and orchestra conductor. In 1837 Schumann invited Kossmaly to report on music in Frankfurt and Holland for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik; in 1839 he moved to Leipzig, continuing to contribute profusely to the journal. Schumann, who published some of his lieder there, commended his reviews for their practical musicianship and philosophical depth. Kossmaly’s review of Schumann’s piano works (AMZ, xlvi (1844), 1–5, 17–21, 33–7; trans. in R.L. Todd, ed.: ...

(b Brusque, Santa Catarina, March 17, 1928; d Rio de Janeiro, Dec 6, 2022). Brazilian composer, conductor, and critic. He began violin studies at an early age with his father, a composer, conductor, and founder of the local conservatory. A state scholarship took him in 1943 to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied the violin with Edith Reis at the conservatory and took lessons in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition with Koellreutter (1944–8). He became an active member of Koellreutter's Música Viva group, winning their prize in 1945 for the Woodwind Trio. In 1948 he won first prize at the Berkshire Music Center competition for Latin American composers. He then studied orchestration and composition with Copland, composition with Mennin at the Juilliard School (1948–9), and the violin with Nowinsky at the Henry Street Settlement School. While in New York he had several of his works performed, and he conducted the New York PO on ...