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(b 19 Aug 1858; d 27 Sept 1934). Horticulturalist, amateur musician, and collector of music. Her home, Warley Place in Great Warley, Essex, contained a large library: its contents, assembled with ‘taste and discrimination’, included printed partbooks of music by Bateson, Gibbons, Morley, Forbes, Watson, Wilbye, and Yonge, and editions of the music of Purcell, Handel, Corelli, and Zipoli. There were also some manuscripts, including autograph works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Liszt; the Willmott manuscript – owned by the Norwich grocer John Sadler, containing Latin texted motets by Byrd, Tallis, etc.; as well as the only known manuscript copy of Purcell’s Sonata in G minor z780 (today known as the Armstrong-Finch manuscript, named after its two copyists). Willmott also owned autograph letters of Wagner, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Rossini.

Willmott, a member of the Folk Song Society and a capable musician, was an important customer of the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch. A large number of invoices to her from that firm show she often had a balance owing of several hundred pounds. An invoice dated ...

(b Neosho, MO, 15 April 1889; d Kansas City, MO, 19 Jan 1975). American painter, muralist, illustrator, folklorist, harmonica player. Widely known as a Regionalist painter, Benton repeatedly captures in his art American musicians and scenes of music-making, both urban and rural. As a folklorist, he observed during his sketching trips rural vocal and instrumental traditions of black and white musicians, describing them vividly through word and image in his autobiography, An Artist in America (1937; rev. 4/1983).

Benton created portraits of musicians and composers he knew, among others Missouri Musicians (1931), The Sun Treader (Portrait of Carl Ruggles) (1934), Edgard Varèse (c. 1934), The Music Lesson (1943) [Gale Huntington (1902–93)], Portrait of David Mannes (1949), and The Hymn Singer (The Minstrel) (1950) [Burl Ives]. His Portrait of a Musician (...

[Gheerken, Gerit, Gerrit, Gerryt, Gheeraert, Geerhart, Gerard, Gerart],[die Hondt, die Hont]

(fl 1521–47). South Netherlandish composer, born in Bruges, probably around 1495. He was the son of the Bruges tegheldecker (roofer/tiler) Jacob de Hondt, who originated from a family of Bruges city roofers, living in the parish of St Jacob. We have no information on Gheerkin’s musical education, in Bruges or elsewhere. The first trace of Gheerkin de Hondt as zangmeester is found in the archives of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, where he became coraelmeester on 3 June 1521. He left the church in 1523, and returned for the period from 1 August 1530 to March 1532. On 13 July 1532 he is mentioned as zangmeester of his home church St Jacob in Bruges, where he served until the end of 1539. On 31 December 1539 he received his first payment as zangmeester of the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap (‘Confraternity of Our Illustrious Lady’) in ’s-Hertogenbosch, a joint position with the chapter of the church of St Jan, for which he had probably already applied in ...

(b Chrudim, Czechoslovakia, 24 June 1947). Czech pop singer. The daughter of musical parents, she was taught the piano and singing as a child. As a student she was successful in talent competitions in Prague, voted fourth – and two years later, first – in a poll of Czech singers. After completing high school (Gymnasium) at Chrudim (1965) she became a member of the Rokoko Theatre in Prague, and began making recordings for radio and appearing on television. In 1966, together with Marta Kubišová, a colleague at the Rokoko Theatre, she took part in the prestigious Czechoslovak Bratislavská lýra festival, and won the second prize. In 1968, together with Marta Kubišová and Václav Neckář, she set up the Golden Kids, a very successful trio, which was dissolved three years later owing to the politically motivated prohibition of further performances by Marta Kubišová. At that period she became the most successful Czech female singer abroad; she recorded albums for companies in Japan and in the German Federal Republic, and appeared regularly at international festivals and venues in Canada, Brazil, Cuba, and Turkey, achieving her highest success in winning the Grand Prix in ...

(b Bad Iburg near Osnabrück, 30 Oct 1668; d Hanover, 1 Feb 1705). Princess of Hanover, Electress of Brandenburg, and Queen in Prussia. Musical culture in and around Berlin flourished at the turn of the 18th century as a direct result of her activities as a musical patron, performer, composer, and collector.

Sophie Charlotte was the only daughter of Ernst August of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Sophie of the Palatinate. She was thrust into a lifestyle of courtly competition from an early age. The court at Osnabrück was relatively obscure, overshadowed by the wealthier and more politically prominent seat at Hanover ruled by her father’s brother, Johann Friedrich. Her mother determined to overcome this by immersing Sophie Charlotte in the arts. As a child she received instruction in singing, courtly dance, and religion, and in French, Italian, English, and Latin. During the 1670s and into the 1680s, the family visited Versailles, Venice, Brussels, and The Hague. These visits included recurring attendance at opera and ballet performances, and provided the foundation for Sophie Charlotte’s cultivation of music as a courtly and sociopolitical tool later at Hanover and Berlin....

(b Ruse, 7 Nov 1911; d Sofia, 24 Oct 1971). Bulgarian composer, acknowledged as the father of Bulgarian schlager/pop song and a contributor to the acculturation of Western urban mentality in music during the decade before World War II. In 1939 he graduated from the Law Faculty of Sofia University and, in parallel, took lessons in music theory and composition with Pavel Stefanov and Vesselin Stoyanov. Along with his prolific work as a composer in the 1930s and 40s when he wrote numerous vocal and instrumental pieces, including tangos, foxtrots, rumbas, and waltzes, as well as operettas for the Odeon Theatre in Sofia, he was among the founders of the Bulgarian Radio in 1936 and managed the gramophone label London Records (1937–40). Among the most popular of his songs created in the 1950s were Kervanut (‘Caravan’) and Spi, moya malka sinyorita (‘Sleep, My Little Señorita’). However, after World War II the genre of ...

[Antonín, Rudolf]

(b March 24, 1899, Königinhof an der Elbe [now Dvůr Králové nad Labem], Bohemia; d Aug 2, 1966, Prague). Czech bandleader, singer, composer, actor, and publisher. He was the central figure of the Czech popular music industry from 1919 to 1948. He began composing as a youth and was soon corresponding with music-hall performers in Prague, leading to his first publications (1917–18) and a formal invitation to join the Červená sedma cabaret (1919). Arriving in Prague, he adopted the pseudonym Dvorský, the adjectival form of his hometown, Dvůr [Králové].

Most of Dvorský’s compositions date from his early years in Prague, where he was a chief proponent of the Tin Pan Alley style. This body of work formed the repertoire of his performance ensembles: the five-piece Melody Makers (formed in 1925) and the ever-increasing Melody Boys (1929–44), which peaked at around 50 instrumentalists. Dvorský’s many film appearances after ...

(b Trois-Rivières, Aug 8, 1938; d Saint-Hippolyte, PQ, Feb 9, 2010). Canadian composer. In 1956 Hétu entered the School of Music of the University of Ottawa. From 1956 to 1961 he attended the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Montreal) where he studied with, among others, jean papineau-couture and clermont pépin. In 1959 he attended the summer camp, with lukas foss, at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. Finishing his studies in 1961 at the Conservatoire de musique, he received three diplomas (Prizes in composition, counterpoint, and harmony). The same year, he won the Prix d’Europe, an annual scholarship for young promising musicians granted by the Académie de musique du Québec, and an award from the Canada Council for the Arts. This award enabled him to study with henri dutilleux in Paris from 1961 to 1963 at the École Normale de Musique, where he received the Diplôme d’excellence. At the same time, he attended Olivier Messiaen’s analysis classes at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique....

(b Prague, 27 April 1916; d Prague, 20 Jan 1964). Czech composer, musician, and writer on music. Born into a middle-class industrial family – his father was a municipal building consultant – he attended a realschule, with an emphasis on the sciences, and then, from 1933, the Prague School of Commerce. From the mid-thirties, he was active in popular music, particularly jazz and swing. He sang and played the piano and drums, as well as orchestrating, arranging, and composing, with groups such as Orchestr Gramoklubu and Blue Music. After the closure of the universities by the Nazi regime in 1939, he spent a year as a full-time drummer with the newly established Karel Vlach Orchestra, and then began studying composition with Jaroslav Řídký at the Prague Conservatory (1940–45), with whom he also completed the conservatory’s Master School (1945–6).

His compositions were at first dance numbers and popular tunes; chamber pieces for the clarinet and piano, with opus numbers, date from ...

[Angi István]

(b Ojdula, 16 Oct 1933) Romanian music aesthetician and musicologist. He is considered the founder of musical aesthetics in Romania. Ştefan Angi studied at Cluj-Napoca Conservatory (1953–8) where his teachers included Márkos Albert (music theory), Jodál Gabor (harmony), Max Eisikovits (counterpoint), Jagamas János (forms), Földes László (aesthetics), Lakatos István and Benkő András (music history), Zsurka Péter (violin), Ana Voileanu-Nicoară (chamber music), Antonin Ciolan (orchestral ensemble), and Szenik Ilona (folklore). He then studied at Lomonosov Moscow State University (1963–5), with the philosopher Valentin Ferdinandovich Asmus, where he graduated with a dissertation on Music and Affectivity and took the PhD in Romania in 1966. In 1958 he joined the academic staff of Cluj-Napoca Conservatory and between 1976 and 1986 was the dean of the Theoretic Faculty. He was awarded the ‘Cultural Merit’ medal (1970) and the ‘Romanian Academy Award’ (1977). Angi is a permanent correspondent on serial radio broadcasts, has published more than 100 articles, and has attended 70 conferences – on musicology, philosophy, and aesthetics....

(b Sibiu, 4 Nov 1956) Romanian musicologist and music aesthetician. He studied at Cluj-Napoca Conservatory (1976–81) where he joined the academic staff (in 1996), earned a doctorate on music aesthetics (1999), was pro-rector (2008–12), and became president of the Senate in 2012.

Owing to his multiple interests Banciu has been recognized as a member of several professional music associations (starting in 2002), an evaluator on many national committees and music competitions (starting in 2006), a member of the board of directors at the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists (starting in 2014), the vice-president of the ‘Performing Arts Commission’ within the National Council for the Certification of University Titles, Diplomas, and Certificates (C.N.A.T.D.C.U., starting in 2016), a peer reviewer on journals (Musicology Papers, Musicology Today, Studia Musica), and an organizer of international conferences (The International Congress on Musical Signification in ...

Katy Romanou

Greeks have a history of over three millennia, during which they inhabited large and varied areas mainly in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The greatest expansion of ancient Greek civilization was achieved with Alexander the Great’s conquests and the establishment of states by his successors during the Hellenistic period. Greek language and civilization, globalized at that crucial moment of change for world history, were vehicles of the new religion that would expand to western Europe. In that same period, and in the Greek language, sciences were perfected in the new centres, such as Alexandria; mechanics, acoustics, and philology contributed to the invention and improvement of musical instruments, the scientific justification of Greek musical concepts, and the preservation in critical editions of the corpus of ancient Greek literature in all fields.

In 200–146 bce the Romans completed the conquest of Greek centres, and in 30 bce, with the conquest of Alexandria, the Roman Empire dominated all the Hellenistic states. In 330 ...

(b New York, NY, 19 March 1954). Composer. He studied at the New England Conservatory (BM 1977, MM 1979) and Princeton University (MFA 1981, PhD 1992), where his teachers included Milton Babbitt and Paul Lansky. In 1991, he joined the music department at the University of Pittsburgh, where he remains a professor and has served as department chair. Among his awards are grants from the Rockefeller Foundation (1980), the ACA (1987), and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1994), and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, Newband, the Stony Brook Contemporary Players, the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. In 1990, his microtonal work Continental Drift was performed at the ISCM World Music Days in Oslo. His multimedia chamber opera, ...

(b Minneapolis, MN, 28 March, 1941). Composer for television, conductor, arranger, and orchestrator. Clausen grew up in Jamestown, ND, where he took up French horn and piano, as well as singing in school choirs. He attended North Dakota State University studying mechanical engineering before a summer in New York City, before being exposed to first-run Broadway musicals and other professional musical settings convinced him he should pursue music instead. He took up string bass and baritone sax and graduated with a degree in music in 1963, followed by a masters degree at Berklee College of Music.

After moving to southern California, his first high-profile professional gig was as an arranger for the second season of The Donny and Marie Show, and eventually conductor and music director for the show’s third season. He moved away from variety and into scripted drama with his work on Moonlighting; during this time he also scored the comedy series ...

(b Tábor, Bohemia, March 12, 1912; d Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Aug 7, 2011). Czech-Canadian composer, lyricist, pianist, arranger, and translator. He was one of the leading Czech swing musicians of the 1940s. As a youth, he acquired knowledge of jazz from BBC broadcasts, which he emulated in his local amateur band. Emanuel Uggé, a Czech proponent of ‘hot’ jazz, invited Traxler to Prague in 1935 as composer and pianist for the Gramoklub Orchestra. Early performances and recordings attracted the attention of r.a. dvorský and jaroslav ježek; in 1938, the latter approached Traxler as a possible assistant at the Liberated Theatre (plans truncated by Ježek’s sudden prewar emigration).

In 1939 Traxler signed a five-year contract with R.A. Dvorský, whose company included recording, sheet-music publishing, and multiple touring orchestras. His arrangements for the swing band of karel vlach reveal a keen ear for the latest American trends, despite his seclusion in Nazi-occupied Bohemia. Three of his songs, including ...

[‘Il Trombone’]

(b Milan, Italy, c. 1536; d Milan, Italy 1602). Italian dance master, choreographer, and author of the dance manual Le gratie d’amore (1602). According to Negri himself, he was Milanese by birth and the father of Margherita. He described his wife Isabella de Negri (née di Nave) as a ‘townswoman . . . an excellent ballerina’. Diocesan records also identify four children – Livia (b 1573), Ottavia (b 1575), Jacobo Filippo (b 1583), and the aforementioned Margherita (b 1585). Negri’s mother, Magdalena di Marchi, apparently resided with the family. Little mention is made of his father, Jacobo Antonio, aside from a citation in a Bibliotheca scriptorum mediolanensium (1745) by Philippi Argelati Bononiensis: ‘Hujusmodi est Caesar de Nigris Jacobo Antonio patre in hac Urbe genitus, & cognomento dictus il Trombone’ (‘An example of this is Cesare Negri, born in this city to his father Jacobo Antonio, and nicknamed the Trombone’)....

(b Reedsburg, nr Madison, WI, 21 Oct 1926). Composer. At the Juilliard School she studied piano with Rosalyn Tureck and composition with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti (BS, MS 1951). As an undergraduate she had three compositions performed at a Composer's Forum series in New York. Her Sonata for Piano (1954), written for and recorded by Menahem Pressler, is one of four works commissioned by MGM Records; two commissions by the Harkness Ballet resulted in scores for Abyss (1964) and Bird of Yearning (1967–8). Inspired by two Georgia O’Keeffe paintings, her piano concerto (1968–74) makes effective use of an Indian rāga; it is the first of a series of works, entitled Landscapes of the Mind, that share thematic material and were composed between 1968 and 1979.

Evidence of the continued expansion and enrichment of her musical expression is found in such works as ...

(b Pittsburgh, 29 June 1870; d Los Angeles, 23 Jan 1926). American composer, conductor, arranger, and singer. Largely self-taught, his fondness for the theater as a teenager led him to compose an operetta and to a career composing dramatic music. Educated at Pittsburgh Catholic College, he spent two years in Leipzig studying music theory with Reinecke and vocal music with Ewald. Returning to Pittsburgh in 1891, he began teaching voice, singing at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and writing vocal music. He founded the East End Musical Club, a vocal ensemble he also conducted. By 1900 he was settled in New York writing sacred music and art songs, and from 1903 to 1909 employed as an editor and arranger at major music publishers. He gained nationwide exposure as a composer in 1909 with his incidental music for a play, The Climax, which included the expressive “Song of the Soul.” Concert performances of his vocal music ensued....