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© 2005-7 Tonalsoft Inc. |
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© 2005-7 Tonalsoft Inc. |
A Century of New Music in Vienna
from Beethoven to Webern
and featuring Mahler and Schoenberg
© 1999-2007 by Joseph L. Monzo
Around 1900, Vienna was paradoxically both
the strongest bastion of musical conservatism and simultaneously
(along with Paris) the birthplace of the most radical new ideas
in Western music.
map of central Europe in 2005 -- the red star designates Vienna, Austria
central Vienna in 1999
At that time, with only a few exceptions,
Europe, and places colonized by European
countries, were the only cultural areas whose music
was characterized by the use of
harmony.
A clearly-defined system had been established whereby
one particular note was felt to be the central,
primary note over all the others, and a piece would
be said to be "in the key of" that note. This type
of music is referred to as "tonal".
After several centuries (c. 1500-1900) of this, a few bold composers began writing music which did not give a single note primacy. The two earliest significant examples were Charles Ives, in America (notably, his Unanswered Question, composed originally in 1906), and Arnold Schoenberg, in Vienna -- I find it interesting that Schoenberg and Ives were born within about a month of each other.
The first truly atonal pieces were Schoenberg's 2nd Quartet 4th movement, 3 Piano Pieces, and song-cycle Book of the Hanging Gardens, all written in 1908. Ives's work could really be characterized more as 'polytonal', while Schoenberg preferred the term 'pantonal' for the pieces he composed which disregarded traditional ideas about tonality.
It was Schoenberg's belated but extreme admiration for Mahler's work and ideals, not to mention Mahler's selfless support, that encouraged Schoenberg to be true to himself, stick to his radical inspirations, and not be swayed by criticism; he also learned from Mahler the importance of a polyphonic mode of composition, something that stayed with Schoenberg the rest of his life.
Apparently Schoenberg's student Webern was the one who really stimulated Schoenberg into giving full rein to his most progressive tendencies and into finally abandoning traditional concepts of tonality. From what I've been able to deduce, the pivotal period, when all this really began to emerge, was the summer of 1905 (which is when Mahler wrote the piece that opens with this page).
Here is a detailed chronology, centered mainly around Mahler's life,
with several decades of background sketched in, and the years after
World War I as an epilog. The "century" in the title refers roughly
to the period 1803-1908 (Beethoven's Eroica to Schoenberg's
first atonal pieces). Most of the events take place during the
reigns of Napoleon and the
Habsburg Emperors. This work is not strictly limited to
descriptions of musical life in Vienna -- because of the important role
it played in the arts during the Romantic period, I inevitably had to include
many of the events that occurred in Paris. In particular, Liszt had
little association with Vienna but was too important to leave out.
I've used the present tense in
an attempt to convey the sense of excitement surrounding these events.
This webpage also documents, more completely than any other source I know of, something which really surprised me as I learned more and more about it... the interest in Viennese musical circles in my other favorite musical subject (besides Mahler and Schoenberg): microtonality.
While the facts presented here have been taken from a very wide variety of sources (many of them still remaining to be cited), there is much original speculative material of mine sprinkled throughout the documentable chronology. Some examples:
* The likelihood that Mahler intended meantone tuning to be used for his symphonies, at least partly, based on the possibility of his familiarity with the teachings of Josef Petzval on 31edo during Mahler's stay at the University of Vienna, and on his later remarks to Schoenberg lamenting that "European music, in giving up Meantone tuning, had suffered a great loss".
* Mahler's possible re-use of material from his abandoned opera project Rübezahl in his Symphonic Poem [1st Symphony], and the likelihood that his original conception of the piece was as a 4-movement work without the 'Blumine' movement, and that adding 'Blumine' was an afterthought over which he changed his mind back and forth several times.
* The influence the success of Strauss's early Symphony in F minor had on Mahler just before the latter completed his Symphonic Poem [1st Symphony].
* The possibility that what later became the base layer of Mahler's 1893 "Hamburg" manuscript of Titan [1st Symphony], was originally written out in 1891 as a Stichvorlage ['engraver's model'] of what he was still calling a Symphonic Poem, now with the title From the Life of a Lonely One, in hopes of getting it published by Schott, and that in this form it was again a 4-movement work that did not include the 'Blumine' movement.
* The influence Brahms had on Mahler at several various times as their personal friendship deepened. This relates to some of Mahler's important early compositional decisions (concerning Mahler's 1st and 2nd Symphonies) as well as his habit of secluding himself in the country during the summer to compose.
* The influence Tanaka's pseudo-just-intonation (really 53-edo) "Enharmonium" may have had on Bruckner's harmonic experiments in his 9th Symphony.
* The possibility that Hanslick's death in August 1904 may have been the catalyst for Mahler to end his 6th Symphonic as a tragedy - the only one of his symphonies which does so.
* The "program" of Mahler's 7th, influenced by Mahler's fascination with the program of Strauss's Sinfonia Domestica.
* The influence Schoenberg had on Mahler before the latter composed the 3rd, 5th, and 1st movements (in that order) of his 7th Symphony during the summer of 1905, and the influence this Mahler piece in turn had on Schoenberg when he wrote his Kammersymphonie the following spring and summer.
* The influence Webern had on Schoenberg in the fall of 1905 when the latter was composing his 1st Quartet and Webern brought his single-movement String Quartet to Schoenberg for his composition lessons.
* The possibility that Mahler's comment about "being too old to have the ears for Schoenberg's music" and the argument that the two of them had about klangfarbenmelodie, were connected to Mahler's possible loss of high-frequency hearing from his listening to large orchestras every day.
* The possibility that the opening of Das Lied von der Erde was Mahler's rendering in music of the horrible wheezing he heard as his 5-year-old daughter Maria lay dying after her tracheotomy (as documented in Alma's book).
* The possible influence Scott Joplin may have had on Mahler while they both lived in New York 1907-1911 (reflected in a motive and harmonic progression very typical of a Joplin ragtime near the end of Mahler's 10th Symphony, and possibly also in the irregular meters of the 2nd movement of the same symphony).
* The possibility that Schoenberg knew of Mahler's association since childhood of the popular Viennese tune "Ach, du lieber Augustin" with tragedy, because of Schoenberg's use of this tune in his 2nd Quartet.
* The experimentation with microtones by Schoenberg and Webern in 1909 leading to the development of sprechstimme ['speech-voice'] the following year.
* The influence of Möllendorf on Hába and Vychnegradsky to adopt the use of quarter-tones.
population of Vienna, 1800-2005
1781
49-year-old Franz Joseph Haydn composes:
In March, 25-year-old composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had been a famous child prodigy, is dimissed from his position at the court in his native Salzburg [Austria], and moves to Vienna to live as a freelance composer. Mozart composes in this year:
1782
50-year-old Haydn composes:
26-year-old Mozart composes his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ['the abduction from the Seraglio'], in Singspiel style (i.e., containing only set pieces, with spoken dialog between them, and no recitative), produced on 16 July at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Previously, only imitations or translations of foreign works have been successful at this theater, and this opera fulfills the Emperor's longtime wish to produce a successful German opera. It also establishes Mozart's reputation in his new hometown.
Other major works by Mozart this year:
1783
27-year-old Mozart composes the following pieces (among others) this year in Vienna (with the exception of the 36th Symphony, composed in Linz, Austria):
During the summer, in Bonn [Germany], capital of the Electorate of Cologne (one of numerous small states of the Holy Roman Empire), 12-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, a promising young Court musician, composes the second of his acknowledged works: 3 piano sonatas (the "Electoral Sonatas", WoO 47) dedicated to the Elector of Cologne, Maximilian Friedrich, and these are published in October. In the fall, Beethoven goes with his mother on a trip to Rotterdam [Netherlands], and for his performance in a concert is paid more than any of the other participating artists, 63 florins (equivalent in 2007 buying power to about US$2,000).
1784
52-year-old Haydn composes:
28-year-old Mozart composes 6 piano concertos this year, and a few other important works:
1785
53-year-old Haydn composes:
29-year-old Mozart composes 3 piano concertos this year, among other works:
1786
54-year-old Haydn composes:
30-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composes his opera Le nozze di Figaro ['the marriage of Figaro'], K.492 (produced on 1 May), in addition to the following other works:
Mozart also gives harmony and counterpoint lessons to young English composer Thomas Atwood. Atwood's notebooks survive, and show that Mozart taught that there should be two different sizes of semitone, with the sharps lower in pitch than the flats, indicating a form of meantone tuning. Mozart's father had taught this in his own violin method, and wrote a letter to his son citing Tosi as an authority on tuning, leading to the conclusion that the variety of meantone which Mozart had in mind was approximately 55-edo or 1/6-comma.
1787
55-year-old Haydn composes:
Due primarily to constant warfare, the French government has been spending more than its annual revenue, principally by borrowing. The royal government proposes a series of major reforms to raise taxes and reduce expenses, which meet with great resistance from many French people across a variety of social classes. There is a demand for greater representation in government.
In late March, in Bonn, 16-year-old Beethoven goes to Vienna [Austria] to study with famous 31-year-old Mozart. But Beethoven has to cut his trip short to return home in April because of his mother's failing health. His mother dies from tuberculosis on 17 July at age 40, and on 25 November his 1-year-old baby sister also dies, leaving only Ludwig and his younger brothers Johann and Carl. Beethoven's father slips deeper into alcoholism, and Ludwig as the eldest surviving child eventually has to take on the responsibility of caring for the family. Beethoven remains in Bonn for 5 more years, during which time the French Revolution occurs, inspiring Beethoven to uphold the ideals of "liberty, fraternity, equality" for the rest of his life.
Important compositions completed this year by Mozart include:
Mozart gives the première of Don Giovanni in Prague on 29 October.
55-year-old Joseph Haydn composes his Symphony No. 89 in F-major.
Europe in 1788
1788
56-year-old Joseph Haydn composes:
During the summer, 32-year-old Mozart composes his great last 3 symphonies, among other works:
1789
In Paris [France] in May, the Estates-General meets for the first time since 1614 to decide how to manage the French government's fiscal responsibility. The differences between deputies of the nobles and commoners grow deeper, and leading deputies from the Third Estate decide that they have to seize power. On 17 June 1789, they declare that they alone represent the "nation", thus beginning the French Revolution. On July 14, a mob of citizens takes over the Bastille (a fortress serving as a prison holding those who displease king Louis XVI), turning the Revolution into a popular uprising.
33-year-old Mozart composes:
57-year-old Joseph Haydn composes his 92nd Symphony in G-major, the "Oxford".
On 20 November, 18-year-old Beethoven obtains a legal order by which his father's salary is continued despite the father's inability (due to his alcoholism) to carry out his job responsibilities, and half of his father's salary is paid directly to Beethoven to enable him to support the family, in addition to Beethoven's own income from his job as a violist in the court orchestra. He becomes familiar with three of Mozart's operas performed at court in this period.
1790
At the Burgtheater in Vienna on 26 January, the day before his 34th birthday, Mozart premières his opera Cosi fan tutte ['thus do all (women)' or 'women are like that'], which had been suggested to him by Emperor Joseph II. Mozart's other important works this year include:
Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, ruler of Austria (and brother of Marie Antoinette), dies on 20 February at age 48, and is succeeded by his 42-year-old brother Leopold II. Leopold secures peace negotiations and quiets the revolutions in Netherlands and Hungary, and tries to prevent war with France.
In Paris, the National Assembly passes the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which reorganizes the Catholic Church in France. This measure makes the clergy elective and makes them salaried employees of the revolutionary government, thus cancelling royal and papal powers to appoint clergy. The roughly 15 percent of French land formerly owned by the church becomes "national property," which the assembly starts selling off to pay its debts.
1791
In Paris in June, the French National Assembly finally drafts a new constitution, greatly limiting king Louis XVI's power. Louis has tried to go along with the revolution and has remained popular, but now he and his supporters turn against revolutionary factions. Louis attempts to flee France, is arrested and returned to Paris, and accepts the new consitution. In September new elections are held for a Legislative Assembly.
59-year-old Haydn composes the first four of his 12 "London" symphonies:
35-year-old Mozart composes:
La Clemenza di Tito is Mozart's last opera, composed to satisfy a commission he receives in July for an opera seria to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. On 30 September at the Theater-an-der-Wien outside Vienna, Mozart premières Die Zauberflöte, and it is a huge success.
Mozart is unable to complete his last composition, his Requiem [mass for the dead], K.626, as he becomes ill and dies suddenly in Vienna on December 5 at the age of 35, and is buried in an unmarked communal grave. Contrary to popular belief, this was not a mass grave, nor was he a pauper at his death -- his difficulties with money stemmed from his habit of spending his fortune lavishly.
1792
Leopold II of Austria dies on 1 March at age 44, and is succeeded by his 23-year-old son Francis II.
On April 20, France declares war on Austria, which lasts until 1797. With Prussia as Austria's ally, this is the War of the First Coalition, and France soon occupies the land up to the Rhine, including Bonn. From now until 1815 France is involved in a nearly continuous series of wars.
In France itself, revolutionary reforms prove to be largely unpopular, and a counter-revolution begins almost immediately. King Louis XVI is deposed on August 10, the new consitution is invalidated, and the Legislative Assembly dissolved. A National Convention is convened in September to draft a new consitution ruling France as a republic, to form a new ruling assembly, and to decide the fate of the king, who is stripped of his title and sentenced to death.
60-year-old Haydn composes the fifth and sixth of his 12 "London" symphonies:
and then returns to Vienna.
In Bonn, 21-year-old Beethoven completes the score of a concerto which will eventually become known as his Piano Concerto No. 2, op.19 in Bb-major.
With Bonn temporarily occupied by France and the war raging, on 2 November, Beethoven leaves Bonn again and returns to Vienna, planning to study with Haydn. About a month after his arrival in Vienna, Beethoven's father dies in Bonn on 18 December. Beethoven embarks upon a period of study of counterpoint and violin, and establishes a reputation as a piano virtuoso and improviser in the salons of the nobility, often playing the preludes and fugues of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini is born in Pesaro, Italy on 29 February. His father is the town trumpeter and his mother is a singer.
1793
In Paris in January, "Citizen Capet" (formerly king Louis XVI) is beheaded at the guillotine. Supporters of the Revolution view it as liberation, while detractors see it as stupid and cruel. From April until the middle of 1794, the Revolutionary ideals are twisted into the paranoid "Reign of Terror" (led primarily by Robespierre), as anyone suspected of being counterrevolutionary is sent to the guillotine.
61-year-old Haydn composes the seventh of his 12 "London" symphonies: the 99th Symphony in Eb-major.
22-year-old Beethoven rewrites the score, previously composed before he left Bonn, of a concerto which will eventually become known as his 2nd Piano Concerto, op.19 in Bb-major. Beethoven is also inspired to set Schiller's 'Ode to Joy' to music -- a project which will occupy his mind on-and-off for 30 years before finally being realized in his 9th Symphony.
1794
62-year-old Haydn leaves for his second trip to London, and composes the 8th, 9th, and 10th of his 12 "London" symphonies:
With Haydn gone from Vienna, the Elector of Bonn expects 23-year-old Beethoven to return home. Beethoven instead chooses to remain in Vienna, continuing the instruction in counterpoint with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and other teachers. His stipend from the Elector has expired, but many Viennese noblemen, among them Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowicz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten, already recognize his talent and offer him financial support. Albrechtsberger proves to be a better teacher than Haydn for Beethoven.
1795
63-year-old Haydn composes the last two of his 12 "London" symphonies, which are his last two symphonies:
At the end of March, 24-year-old Beethoven bursts onto the scene, making his public debut as composer and performer, performing his 2nd Piano Concerto, op.19 in Bb-major. His 3 Piano Trios, op.1 are his first published work, selling for 1 ducat per copy, of which 241 are printed, and at least 125 are sold. After paying his fee to the publisher of 1 gulden per copy, his profit (in 2007 buying power) is approximately US$100 per copy, earning a total somewhere between $13,000 and $24,000. Beethoven works on his next concerto, the one eventually known as 1st Piano Concerto, op.15 in C-major, and also completes his first published sets of piano sonatas:
In France there is a royalist uprising which is put down by the army under Napoleon's direction. A new constitution is adopted on October 5 which creates the Directory.
1796
25-year-old Beethoven undertakes a concert tour of Germany, performing in Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. He also first begins to realize that he is slowly losing his formerly very acute sense of hearing.
In October, 64-year-old Haydn begins composing his oratorio The Creation (in English).
1797
Franz Schubert is born in Vienna on January 31.
26-year-old Beethoven is engaged for most of the year in composition of his 3 Piano Sonatas, op.10.
The Treaty of Campo Formio, between France and Austria, is signed on October 17. It marks the collapse of the "First Coalition", the victorious conclusion to Napoleon's campaigns in Italy and the end of the first phase of the Napoleonic Wars. The treaty passes a number of Austrian territories into French hands, including the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) and certain islands in the Mediterranean and Corfu and other Venetian islands in the Adriatic. Venice and its territories (Venetia) are divided between the two states: Venice, Istria and Dalmatia are turned over to Austria. Austria recognizes the Cisalpine Republic and the newly-created Ligurian Republic (formed of Genovese territories) as independent powers. The borders of France are extended up to the Rhine, the Nette, and the Roer. Free French navigation is guaranteed on the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle.
Europe in 1797
1798
In April, 66-year-old Haydn completes his oratorio The Creation (in English), considered by many to be his greatest masterpiece. It was immediately so successful that it inspired Haydn to begin composition of another large oratorio, The Seasons.
27-year-old Beethoven completes:
and has them published in July. During the summer he begins sketching his 3rd Piano Concerto, op.37 in C-minor.
Napoleon and France occupy Egypt until 1803, which has the lasting result of an extensive European interest in Africa.
1799
28-year-old Beethoven composes:
The "Pathetique" marks many innovations in both structure and style, and is considered today to be the first really mature work by Beethoven.
Returning from his campaign in Egypt, Napoleon leads the army in an overthrow of the Directory on November 9, and establishes the Consulate, installing himself as ruler of France.
1800
In the spring, 29-year-old Beethoven travels to Hungary to perform in Budapest, and to visit the Brunsvik estate. He composes his:
While Beethoven's piano sonatas have by now become quite adventurous, his first symphony still shows the strong influence of Haydn and Mozart.
In London, James Wood patents a means of boring woodwind-instrument holes with a brass ring lining them. Putting a light coat of oil on the inside of the bare brass keys ensures a tight seal, but the metal-to-metal contact makes a loud noise.
1801
68-year-old Haydn completes his oratorio The Seasons.
30-year-old Beethoven composes four piano sonatas: the
The op.27 sonatas again display bold innovations. Beethoven also takes on Ferdinand Ries and Carl Czerny as students.
Beethoven's hearing begins to lose his hearing. He suffers a severe form of tinnitus, a "roar" in his ears that makes it hard for him to appreciate music.
1802
31-year-old Beethoven's deafness has progressed to the point where,
on October 6, he writes the Heiligenstadt Testament
to his brothers Carl and Johann, to be opened and read after
his death, in which he says
Beethoven completes his:
but Beethoven resolves to write "a new kind of music" -- a desire which explodes into fruition with his next symphony. |
Beethoven at 31 |
1803
Beethoven's summer residence in Oberdöbling, outside Vienna |
In Vienna, 32-year-old Beethoven premières his oratorio
Christus am Oelberge ['Christ on the Mount of Olives']
April 5, and his Violin Sonata ("Kreutzer"), op.47
on May 17. Beethoven begins teaching piano and composition to
Archduke Rudolf (youngest son of Emperor Leopold II), a relationship
which will last nearly all of Beethoven's life, until 1824.
Many operas of Etienne-Nicolas Méhul and Luigi Cherubini are performed in Vienna during 1802 and 1803. This post-revolutionary French music exerts a profound influence on Beethoven. He spends the summer in Oberdöbling and begins his 3rd Symphony, in E-flat, which he calls the 'Bonaparte Symphony' (later renamed 'Eroica' ['heroic']). The monumental 1st movement is inspired by his admiration of Napoleon, whose wars seem to Beethoven to be a liberation from old-fashioned tyranny, and the symphony is dedicated to him. |
1804
Beethoven completes his Bonaparte Symphony [Eroica] by the spring.
Napoleon as Emperor |
34-year-old Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of France on May 18.
In accord with his feelings, Beethoven composes a monumental funeral march for the 2nd movement of his Bonaparte Symphony, and submits the work for publication in August. When the symphony is finally published, it is listed as a "Sinfonia Eroica, composta e festeggiare il Sovvenire di un grand Uomo" ['Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man'], op.55." Note Beethoven's conspicuous use of Italian in that dedication instead of French, probably intended as an affront to Napoleon. |
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When Napoleon actually carries out his coronation as Emperor in December, a disgusted Beethoven angrily yells:
and he scratches the name "Bonaparte" out of the dedication on the title page of his new symphony so violently that he creates a hole in the paper. |
The title-page of the Eroica Symphony |
Motivated by the grandeur of his new conceptions, and by his rage at Napoleon, Beethoven also begins the sketches for a symphony in C-minor (which will eventually become his 5th Symphony), and his only opera Leonore [now known as "Fidelio"], and he composes:
1805
The 'Eroica' is premièred in Vienna on April 7. The symphony's length and highly dramatic style stun the audience, and mark a boldly innovative approach to concert music, being the first large-scale work of 'absolute' music (i.e., no text or programmatic story-line) to incorporate dramatic narrative, using purely musical means.
In November, Napoleon's armies invade and occupy Vienna.
34-year-old Beethoven composes:
Then Beethoven gets back to work on his C-minor symphony (the 5th).
On December 26, the Treaty of Pressburg is
signed between France (Napoleon) and Austria (Holy Roman Emperor Francis II).
Austria loses much territory to France: Italy and Bavaria are ceded;
certain Austrian holdings in Germany are given to French allies - the King of Bavaria,
the King of Württemberg and the Elector of Baden; and
Istria, Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor
are handed over to France as the "Illyrian provinces".
The treaty marks the effective end of the Holy Roman Empire.
Francis II declares himself Emperor Franz I of Austria, thus creating
the modern Austrian Empire.
1806
In January the French troops leave Vienna.
After just over 1000 years of existence, the Holy Roman Empire officially comes to an end, as Napoleon reorganizes it into the "Confederation of the Rhine", a loose confederation of over 30 relatively independent German states.
35-year-old Beethoven again interrupts composition of his C-minor symphony (the 5th), to revise his opera Fidelio, replacing the "Leonore Overture No. 2" with the "Leonore Overture No. 3", and produces the new version on March 29, but it is again withdrawn quickly. He composes his Violin Concerto, op.61, in D-major, which is premièred on December 23, then resumes work on the C-minor symphony.
Woodwind instrument maker Iwan Müller invents key-pads glued to the insides of the keys, the metal clarinet ligature with screws to tie the reed to the mouthpiece, and the thumb-rest to help hold up the clarinet and oboe.
14-year-old Rossini enters the Bologna Acadamy.
1807
36-year-old Beethoven once again interrupts composition of his Symphony in C-minor [the 5th] to write:
Then Beethoven resumes work on the C-minor symphony, now numbered as the 5th.
1808
Beethoven in his late 30s |
In Vienna, 37-year-old Beethoven finally completes his 5th Symphony, op.67, in C-minor (whose sketches go back to 1804), a work which introduces several formal and orchestral innovations subservient to its dramatic narrative. While finishing the last movements of the 5th, Beethoven also composes his 6th Symphony, op.68, in F-major, the "Pastoral", the first work for the concert-hall of important musical quality which has a programmatic story-line behind it. In the spring, Beethoven also writes down a theme in the "Pastoral" sketch-book which he later uses as the main section for his piano piece now known as Für Elise. On 22 December, in a massive concert lasting over four hours, Beethoven premières both his 5th and 6th Symphonies (but with their numbering reversed on this concert) along with several other works. |
Goethe writes Part 1 of Faust.
Fredrick Nolan receives British patent 3183 on November 26 for his invention of the brille, a key-ring for woodwind instruments which simultaneously depresses a key-with-pad which closes a hole at some distance from the fingered key-ring. The brille will later become the basis of the innovative flute redesign by Theobald Boehm (see below, 1830), and will then be used on all other new woodwind key-systems.
1809
On January 7, Beethoven agrees to become Kapellmeister in Kassel. His friends create an alternative contract to try to keep him in Vienna. He begins work on the 5th Piano Concerto, the Emperor. On February 26, Prince Lobkowitz, Prince Kinsky, and 22-year-old Archduke Rudolph agree to pay Beethoven an annuity of 4000 florins per year for life, the only condition being that he stays in Vienna. Beethoven agrees, and abandons his plans to go to Kassel. The Archduke is the youngest brother of Emperor Franz, and it is primarily Beethoven's friendship with Rudolph which enables him to meet many people who belong to the highest echelon of Viennese society.
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is born in Hamburg on February 3, into a well-to-do Jewish family involved in banking.
Realizing that Napoleon will not be content to have the Austrian Empire in the midst of his own European empire, Austria acts on the offensive and declares war on France on April 9. In May, Napoleon's armies bombard Vienna, which surrenders and becomes a French city.
During the seige of Vienna, Beethoven composes his 26th Piano Sonata, op.81a, in Eb-major, the "Les Adieux" or "Lebewohl", as a farewell present for his patron the Archduke Rudolph, who is forced to leave Vienna along with the rest of the royal family as the French army advances. Beethoven promises not to write the final movement, Das Wiedersehen ['the Welcome Home'] until the Archduke returns to Vienna, which he does the following year.
On May 31, Franz Joseph Haydn dies in Vienna at age 77.
1810
In April Beethoven composes:
and begins composing the Archduke Trio. E. T. A. Hoffman calls Beethoven one of the three great "Romantic" composers, and his 5th Symphony "one of the most important works of the age".
Fryderyk Chopin is born in Poland, in the town of Zelazowa Wola (near Sochaczew, Masovia region, part of the Duchy of Warsaw), probably on March 1 (his baptismal certificate lists February 22, a week earlier, but this is probably an error), to a Polish mother and French father.
Robert Schumann is born on June 8 in Zwickau, Saxony.
In October, the Chopin family moves to Warsaw.
1811
On March 15, Austria's currency is devalued to 20% of its former value.
The devaluation of Austrian currency drastically reduces the income which Beethoven receives under his annuity. He completes the 7th Piano Trio, op.97, in Bb-major, the "Archduke", this spring, and begins his 7th Symphony. Now almost completely deaf, Beethoven's failed attempt to perform his Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") ends his career as a performer.
Franz Liszt is born October 22 at Doborján [now Raiding, Austria], a village near Sopron, Hungary, in the Austrian Empire.
1812
During the French occupation of Austria, and most likely a result of Napoleon's cultural policies, the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ['Society of Friends of Music'], generally known as the Musikverein ['music association'], is created, to provide the city with a concert society, music school (Conservatory), and music library.
41-year-old Beethoven composes his:
and also writes the famous letter to his "Immortal Beloved". In November Prince Kinsky, one of Beethoven's 3 patrons, is thrown from his horse and dies. Archduke Rudolph increases his share in Beethoven's annuity to cover the loss. Around this time, Beethoven is generally regarded as the greatest of all living composers.
The Mendelssohn family converts to Lutheranism and moves to Berlin when Felix is 3 years old.
Iwan Müller invents his "13-key clarinet", which is a major improvement to the woodwind family of instruments and remains the basis of clarinet key-systems in Germany and Austria today (the "Albert" or "simple" system clarinet of the later 1800s, and the modern Oehler system, are both evolutions of Müller's).
1813
Richard Wagner is born on May 22 in Leipzig.
Giuseppe Verdi is born.
16-year-old Schubert, whose father is a teacher and who expects his son to follow in his footsteps, has lost all interest in academic studies, and is writing many substantial compositions. In October, he composes his 1st Symphony, in D-major.
| In Venice, 21-year-old Gioachino Rossini has the first of his many operatic successes with the production of Tancredi, an opera seria, and L'Italiana in Algeri ['the Italian in Algiers'], an opera buffa. This signals a shift in the public's taste away from the heavier style of Beethoven. |
Rossini as a young man |
Georg Büchner is born in Goddelau (Hesse, Germany) on October 17. Büchner will go on to write the play that inspires Berg's opera Wozzeck a century later.
After a long and difficult seige, Napoleon enters an evacuated Moscow with his army hungry and freezing. The allied European countries defeat him, and Vienna is again under Austrian rule.
Maelzel, inventor of the metronome, convinces 42-year-old Beethoven to write a symphony commemorating Napoleon's defeat, for a mechanical instrument he invented which could play all the different parts. After re-arranging it for a regular orchestra, with real guns and cannon in the percussion parts, Wellington's Victory, op.91 (the "Battle Symphony"( is wildly popular, and will be Beethoven's most financially successful piece during his lifetime.
One of Beethoven's two remaining patrons, Prince Lobkowitz, goes bankrupt and flees Vienna, leaving Archduke Rudolph as Beethoven's only remaining benefactor. Rudolph again increases his payment to cover the financial loss of Lobkowitz. In gratitude for Rudolph's generosity, Beethoven dedicates far more compositions to him than to anyone else, including some of his most important works:
For the next several years, there is a sudden decline in the number of significant works Beethoven produces, prompted most likely by his bitterness over the public's neglect of his more important work while they favored Rossini and his own 'throwaway trash' (Wellington's Victory), and also by the time and energy he will spend as guardian and teacher of his reluctant nephew Karl a few years later (see 1815).
1814
On April 6, Napoleon abdicates the throne. He is allowed to remain "Emperor" of his tiny principality on the island of Elba.
Copper engraving of Beethoven at 43, by Höfel, after pencil sketch by Létronne | 43-year-old Beethoven again rewrites Fidelio, and the production on May 23 is finally a success. He also composes his 27th Piano Sonata, op.90, in E-minor. |
22-year-old Rossini is engaged as music-director for both opera houses in Naples.
In Vienna, around his 18th birthday, Schubert composes his 2nd Symphony in Bb, D.125, between December 10 and the following March 24.
1815
On March 1, Napoleon escapes from Elba, returns to Paris, and regains control of France for the "Hundred Days". Napoleon's final defeat occurs at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18. This time he is imprisoned on the remote island of St Helena, where he remains until his death in 1821.
Europe in 1815, after Napoleon's final defeat.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 mark the breakup of the
Spanish empire in the New World. Between 1815 and 1822 the new republics
of Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela are born, seeking and expecting
recognition by the United States, and many Americans endorse that idea.
But President James Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams,
are wary of risking war for nations whose survival is unsure.
Their point of view is that the United States should just let Spain
and her rebellious colonies fight it out.
Great Britain is torn between monarchical principle and a desire for
new markets, because South America at this time is a much larger market
for English goods than the United States.
When Russia and France propose that England join in helping Spain
regain her New World colonies, Britain vetoes the idea.
The Austrian province of Venetia is combined with its western neighbor into the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, until 1859. Austria regains control of Dalmatia as the Kingdom of Illyria.
With Klemens von Metternich in control as foreign minister, the Austrian Empire enters the Vormärz period of censorship and a police state, until 1848.
In Vienna, 18-year-old Schubert composes his 3rd Symphony, in D, D.200, between May 24 and July 19.
Portrait of Beethoven at 44, by Mähler | On November 15, Beethoven's brother Carl dies of tuberculosis. Beethoven is appointed co-guardian of his nephew Karl, along with the boy's mother Johanna. Beethoven begins a long legal battle to gain full custody of Karl. |
1816
In Vienna, Schubert composes his
4th Symphony (the "Tragic") , in C-minor, D.417,
completing it by April 27.
In Naples, 24-year-old Rossini composes and produces
his most popular opera, The Barber of Seville.
In September and October, 19-year-old Schubert composes
his 5th Symphony, in B-flat, D. 485.
45-year-old Beethoven composes his:
Beethoven's patron Prince Lobkowitz dies on December 15, leaving only Archduke Rudolph to support Beethoven's annuity.
1817
46-year-old Beethoven begins sketching his 9th Symphony.
7-year-old Fryderyk Chopin composes and publishes
two polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major, and is recognized
in Warsaw as a Mozart-like prodigy.
6-year-old Franz Liszt begins taking piano lessons.
Around his 21st birthday, from August until the following February,
Schubert composes his 6th Symphony, in C-major, D.589
1818
Beethoven also begins working on the equally large-scale
Mass in D "Missa Solemnis".
Replica of Drais's original "running machine",
ridden by a man in period costume.
Named the "draisene" in English and "draisienne" in French,
honoring his name, it is also known as the "velocipede"
(from the Latin for "fast foot"), and the "hobby horse".
1819
Johnson-type hobby horse
Beethoven, 48, finishes the
29th Piano Sonata, op.106, in Bb-major, the "Hammerklavier",
in March, and continues work on Missa Solemnis and the 9th Symphony.
Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere
Suppe-Demelli born April 18 in Spalato, Dalmatia
[now Split, Croatia], of Belgian ancestry.
He later goes by the name of Franz von Suppé.
1820
Beethoven, 49, composes his
30th Piano Sonata, op.109, in E-major.
23-year-old Schubert, who has very little money and is able to survive
only thanks to the support of his friends, begins treating
them rudely and inconsiderately. In December he composes his
12th Quartet, in C-minor, D. 703, nicknamed "Quartettsatz"
because it contains only a single movement.
1821
12-year-old Mendelssohn begins composing a set of 12 Symphonies for Strings
over the next 2 years.
In August, 24-year-old Schubert composes
a full sketch of his Symphony [No. 7] in E
(numbered D. 729 after the catalog of his works by his biographer Deutsch),
but never orchestrates it.
On August 31, Hermann Helmholtz is born in Potsdam, Germany.
Beethoven, 50, finishes his
31st Piano Sonata, op.110, in Ab-major,
on Christmas Day.
1822
During most of this year, 51-year-old
Beethoven composes his 32nd Piano Sonata, op.111,
in C-minor -- his last, containing the notorious
"boogie-woogie
variation" -- and
then Die Weihe des Hauses ['the consecration of the house']
Overture in September.
During February and March, Carl Maria von Weber visits
Vienna for a production of his opera Der Freischütz,
and Schubert meets him.
Joachim Raff is born on May 27 in the town of Lachen,
on lake Zürich in Switzerland.
30-year-old Rossini comes to Vienna and visits Beethoven.
Antonio Salieri, Mozart's old rival, hears 11-year-old
Liszt play at a private house and is astonished. Salieri
offers Liszt free lessons in composition. Prince
Nicholas Esterházy, the employer of Liszt's father,
gives the family leave to stay in Vienna. Liszt at this
time also studies piano under Beethoven's pupil
Carl Czerny, but Liszt's father takes him away from
Czerny after only eighteen months.
For four years Liszt tours and gives concerts to
amazed audiences, including princes and kings.
This year marks a turning point (for the worse) for
25-year-old Schubert: his career had been starting to
develop nicely, but now he begins to live hedonistically
and has serious financial trouble.
He is diagnosed with syphilis late in the year, and as a
result the remaining 6 years of his life will be filled with illnesses.
However, it is also from around this time that his music
becomes imbued with a strong emotional intensity.
In October, he composes his "Unfinished"
Symphony in B-minor, D. 759, usually listed as the 8th,
and considered by many to be his masterpiece.
In November, Prince Galitzin commissions Beethoven
to compose some string quartets, which will turn out
to be his last set of great compositions.
The Kingdom of Illyria is dissolved, and Dalmatia
becomes a province directly under the administration
of the Austrian Empire.
1823
After 5 years of work on it, 52-year-old Beethoven finishes his grandiose
Mass in D-major, op.123,
the "Missa Solemnis" ['solemn mass'], in February.
Later this year Beethoven also finishes his monumental
9th Symphony, op.125, in D-minor, the "Choral",
on which he has also been working actively for several years, and
passively for decades. The final movement sets the words of
Schiller's 'Ode to Joy':
Beethoven's 9th Symphony is considered by legions of music-lovers
ever since then to be the supreme achievement by a composer.
13-year-old Chopin begins schooling at the Warsaw Lyceum, where his
father is a professor, and also begins getting informal instruction
in music theory, figured bass, and composition from composer Józef Elsner.
This is a significant year politically as it marks the real
emergence of America as a world power.
In James Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823,
(today called the Monroe Doctrine, but really the work of
John Quincy Adams), the United States informs the European
powers that the American continents were no longer open to
European colonization, and that any effort to extend European
political influence into the New World would be considered by
the United States "as dangerous to our peace and safety",
effectively separating American and Europe from interfering
in each other's politics.
1824
27-year-old Schubert composes his 14th Quartet, in D-minor, D. 810,
"Der Tod und das Mädchen" ['death and the maiden'] in March.
Beethoven at 53,
During the summer, Beethoven begins his great final series of string
quartets with the
12th Quartet, op.127, in Eb-major.
32-year-old Rossini moves to Paris and composes his final opera, Guillaume Tell
['William Tell'] (whose overture remains famous more than a century
later as the theme song for "The Lone Ranger" TV show). At the height of his
career, the young Rossini then inexplicably stops composing,
never to write another opera, and only composing again much
later in his long life.
13-year-old Liszt composes his only opera, Don Sanche,
produced the following year.
15-year-old Mendelssohn composes his 1st Symphony, in C-minor, op.11,
his first symphony for full orchestra.
Anton Bruckner is born in Ansfelden, near Linz, in Upper Austria, in September.
Johann Christian Woyzeck sentenced to be beheaded in Leipzig for
the slaying of his mistress.
Before his execution,
Woyzeck is assessed by Hofrat Dr. Clarus to determine
whether he could be considered responsible for his actions.
Clarus determines that Woyzeck is
"of sound mind and that any abberations were due to
his physical constitution and moral degeneration".
This becomes the basis for Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck
12 years later.
38-year-old Carl Almenraeder, assisted by physicist G. Weber,
makes major changes in the positioning of the holes on the bassoon.
His design is later (1874) updated by Heckel, to become the standard
modern bassoon.
1825
Johann Strauss, Jr. (the 'Waltz King') is born in Vienna on October 25.
16-year-old Mendelssohn composes his String Octet in E-flat Major, op.20,
the first work which really shows his genius.
Deutsch believed this "Great" Symphony to be composed in 1828, so he
gave the number D. 944 to it, and numbered the hypothetical "lost" one of 1825-26
(which he called the Gmunden-Gastein Symphony) as D. 849
-- in fact, the "lost" one possibly never existed, and both Deutsch numbers
may actually refer to the "Great" C-major Symphony.
The "Great" Symphony is dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic in hopes
of a performance; they pay Schubert a 100 florin honorarium and
read thru it in a rehearsal, but then it is not performed publicly
and is not rediscovered until 11 years after his death.
Beethoven, 54, composes his:
(The numbering reflects dates of
publication, and not of composition.)
Beethoven in his 50s
On March 21, the 13th Quartet, op.130, in B-flat major
is premièred with its original final movement, the
piece now known independently as the Grosse Fuge, op.133,
which meets with incomprehension from the audience.
In July, Beethoven's nephew Karl buys two pistols and
shoots himself in the head in an attempt to commit suicide.
The first shot misses and the second one grazes his temple,
but he lives. Beethoven takes this as the final proof of
his inability to act as a father to Karl, and probably
never recovers from his emotional upset.
Beethoven allows his publisher to convince him to publish the
Grosse Fuge as an independent piece, and to write a
new finale for the 13th Quartet. The publisher hires an
arranger to make a version of the Grosse Fuge for
piano 4-hands, but Beethoven is so displeased with the result
that he makes his own version in August.
17-year-old Mendelssohn composes his
Ein Sommernachstraum ['a mid-summer night's dream']
Overture in E major, op.21.
Liszt's father dies, leaving the 15-year-old to take care of the
family. He settles in Paris and teaches piano lessons.
In September, 16-year-old Chopin begins formal study of
music theory, figured bass, and composition with Józef Elsner
at the Warsaw Conservatory.
In October,
Beethoven finishes the much smaller and lighter
16th Quartet, op.135, in F-major,
his last completed work. At the
end of the year he composes his very last piece,
a new and much shorter and simpler finale for the
13th Quartet, and publishes
its original huge final movment
as an independent composition, the Grosse Fuge, op.133.
In December, Beethoven takes Karl to live
with Beethoven's brother Johann. By the end of the month,
the brothers have a falling out, and so Beethoven goes back
to Vienna with Karl.
Beethoven contracts a chill on the ride back to Vienna
which will lead to his final illness.
1827
On March 26, Beethoven dies in Vienna at age 56.
Beethoven's death-mask
47-year-old Beethoven receives a gift of a Broadwood piano
from London; its increased dynamic range and extended keyboard
inspire Beethoven to begin composing his monumental
"Hammerklavier Sonata".
2 portraits of Beethoven at age 48
In December, Baron Karl von Drais files a patent application
in Baden, Germany, for his 2-wheeled "running machine", the
direct forerunner and inspiration for the later bicycle.
Having been discouraged in his attempts at creating a
mechanized human-powered 4-wheel carriage, Drais decides
that the 2-wheeled vehicle should be propelled by the "natural"
method of walking or running.
In England, Denis Johnson creates an improved version of the draisine
and patents it under the name "pedestrian curricle".
There is a brief craze for the new invention all over Europe and
in America during the summer of 1819, but it fades quickly into
oblivion after that, resurfacing with pedals attached only in 1863.
"Joy, beautiful radiance of the gods, daughter of Elysium,
we set foot in your heavenly shrine dazzled by your brilliance.
Your charms re-unite what common use has harshly divided:
all men become brothers under your tender wing."
drawing by Decker.
53-year-old Beethoven premières his 9th Symphony
in Vienna on May 7. Schubert is there. The symphony
is received enthusiastically by that audience, but the
repeat performance on May 23 is poorly attended.
Probably inspired by the epic size of Beethoven's 9th Symphony,
from June to September 28-year-old Schubert composes his "Great" Symphony in C-major,
which today is variously numbered 7, 8, or 9, depending on how one considers
the status of his "Unfinished Symphony" and a hypothetical "lost" one to which
his cataloger Deutsch gave a number; the "Great" is generally known as Schubert's
9th.
Schubert in 1825
1826
In the early part of the year 55-year-old Beethoven composes
his 14th Quartet, op.131, in C-sharp-minor,
which he himself considers to be his greatest piece.
Beethoven's condition continues to worsen during the early
months of 1827, and he is confined to
bed with pneumonia and dropsy (which is now called
edema,
localized primarily in Beethoven's abdomen and chest).
Vienna in 1827. By the time of Beethoven's death, Vienna still had not yet expanded beyond its medieval walls.
map of the area between Prague and Brno -- the red star designates Kalischt | Bernhard Mahler is born in the village of Kalischt (near the town of Humpolec), in the province of Bohemia close to the border with Moravia, in the Austrian Empire (now Kalište, Czech Republic). |
In Paris, 16-year-old Liszt falls in love with one of his female students,
but her father stops the relationship. Liszt suffers such a
severe nervous breakdown that there are rumors of his death,
and he doesn't touch the piano for a year.
1828
19-year-old Mendelssohn composes his Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt ['calm sea and prosperous voyage'] Overture in D major, op.27.
In March 31-year-old Schubert makes extensive revisions to his "Great" C-major Symphony (D. 849/944) in hopes of getting it performed. He writes this date on the manuscript, thus leading to the confusion over its date of composition, as detailed above (see 1825).
In September Schubert completes a series of masterworks: his String Quintet in C-major, and his last 3 Piano Sonatas (the 19th in C-minor, D. 958, 20th in A, D. 959, and 21st in B-flat, D. 960), and also sketches a Symphony [No. 10] in D-major, D.936a.
After these last compositions, the syphilis from which Schubert has been suffering causes his health to decline rapidly. Needing medical attention, he moves in with his brother Ferdinand in Neue Wieden (a new suburb being built outside Vienna), and he dies there on November 19. He has never acheived any real recognition as a composer, and he will be totally forgotten until his last symphony is shown by his brother to Robert Schumann in 1839, and subsequently premièred by Mendelssohn.
1829
Early in the year, 20-year-old Mendelssohn directs a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Singakademie, beginning the modern cultivation of Bach's music. Mendelssohn then takes a 2-year tour around Europe, which will inspire several major works: the "Italian" and "Scottish" Symphonies, and his Les Hébrides ['Fingal's Cave'] Overture. During this year he visits England and Scotland.
19-year-old Chopin sees a performance by Paganini (on the violin), whose virtuosity leaves a lasting impression. Chopin also falls in love with singing student Konstancja Gladkowska, which inspires him to put the melody of the human voice into his piano compositions. Chopin visits Vienna for the first time, gives two piano performances and receives mixed reviews, many favourable but some others criticizing his "small tone".
16-year-old Richard Wagner writes his first compositions.
1830
Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow is born in Dresden on January 8.
21-year-old Mendelssohn completes his Symphony No. 5, in D-minor "Reformation", op.107 (his second symphony in order of composition, published posthumously, hence, the out-of-sequence numbering and large opus-number), in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation initiated by Martin Luther. The symphony concludes with Luther's chorale "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" from the Augsburg Confession. Mendelssohn travels to Italy this year.
|
In Paris, 27-year-old Hector Berlioz completes his
Symphonie Fantastique en cinq parties: Episode de la vie d'un Artiste
['fantastic symphony in 5 parts: episode in the life of an artist']
early in the year, making use of material from earlier
pieces he had composed,
and premières it on December 5 at the Paris Conservatoire.
The Symphonie Fantastique is widely hailed by progressives as an important new musical work, and widely condemned by conservatives as being an assemblage of cacophonous sounds unworthy of being referred to as 'music'. Upon examining the score, Rossini is alleged to have quipped: "What a good thing that young man has never taken up music! He would certainly be very bad at it." 19-year-old Liszt meets Berlioz the day before the première of the Fantastique and loves it when he hears it. |
Berlioz around the time of the Symphonie Fantastique |
Carl Goldmark born on May 18 in Keszthely, Hungary.
The street fighting during the July Revolution in Paris suddenly rouses Liszt as if from a coma, and he goes back to playing the piano. He begins making a transcription of the Symphonie Fantastique for solo piano. Liszt also begins composing his 1st Piano Concerto, in E-flat-major, which he will not finish until 1839.
In November, 20-year-old Chopin leaves Poland and goes to Vienna again, intending to travel on to Italy. He performs his two Piano Concertos (No. 1 in E-minor and No. 2 in F-minor) and stays in Vienna until the following summer, and because of hostilities never goes to Italy. During his stay in Vienna, the Russo-Polish war breaks out ("November Uprising") and ultimately Russia occupies Poland. While in Vienna he becomes quite well known as composer and performer, and his subsequent compositions suddenly become much more dramatic and passionate. By this time he has composed some of his Etudes, op.10.
Advances made in the hand-forging of metals in Paris and Brussels over the last decade will now make these two cities the centers of the woodwind manufacturing industry.
36-year-old instrument maker Theobald Boehm invents posts for woodwind instrument keys, and uses them with Nolan's brille key-ring idea (see above, 1808).
Backed by Russian diplomacy, ethnically homogenous Serbia becomes an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire.
1831
On March 9, Liszt hears the brilliant violinist Paganini at the Paris Opera House and vows to be the Paganini of the piano. He practices up to 14 hours a day.
In August, Chopin leaves Vienna and goes to Paris, which will be his home-base for the rest of his life. He chooses to live there as an exile, and thus is never able to return to Poland. He becomes friends with Liszt, Berlioz, and Mendelssohn.
18-year-old Wagner attends Leipzig University.
1832
19-year-old Wagner composes and performs his Symphony in C-major.
21-year-old Liszt meets Paganini and Chopin, whose talents inspire him further. The three become close friends.
23-year-old Mendelssohn completes his overture in B-minor Les Hébrides ['the Hebrides'], known in English usually as 'Fingal's Cave', op.26, inspired by his trip to Scotland.
38-year-old woodwind instrument maker Theobald Boehm invents the long-axle key, and applies it to both regular keys and Nolan's brille key-ring idea (see above, 1808) in his new flute, enabling him to place the holes at their acoustically-most-preferable position regardless of where the fingers lie. The long-axle and brille are concepts which are used by all subsequent woodwind manufacturers in their new key-system designs.
Boehm's 1832 flute, the first woodwind with brille rings
Johann Gottfried Heinrich Bellermann is born.
1833
Johannes Brahms is born on May 7 in a Hamburg slum, of German background. His father is an aspiring professional musician.
24-year-old Mendelssohn completes his Symphony No. 4, in A-major "Italian", op.90 (his third symphony in order of composition, posthumous publication results in out-of-sequence numbering), inspired by his 1829-1831 tour of Europe. Mendelssohn is unsatisfied with the work and composes alternate versions of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movements -- but later it becomes one of his most popular pieces.
Wagner becomes chorus master at the Würzburg theatre and writes the libretto and music of his 1st opera, Die Feen, which he does not produce. Wagner also composes his 2nd opera, Das Liebesverbot.
22-year-old Liszt finishes his piano transcription of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and uses it for the rest of his career in his dazzling piano recitals. Liszt also meets 28-year-old married Comtesse Marie d'Agoult (Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, known under her pen-name as "Daniel Stern") at Chopin's house and falls in love.
1834
24-year-old Schumann founds the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ['new magazine for music']; it will become the leading European journal for progressive composers.
21-year-old Büchner founds the secret Society of Human Rights, and writes a political pamphlet, The Hessian Courier, despising the aristocrats and attempting to incite the peasantry into rebellion.
12-year-old Joachim Raff shows great natural talent as a pianist, violinist and organist, and performs at the Sunday concerts in the nearby spa of Nuolen.
1835
The esteemed French music-theorist and musicologist F. J. Fétis publishes a scathing review of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Schumann, intrigued by the varying opinions he's read of the work, obtains Liszt's piano transcription of it and studies it, publishes a German translation of Fétis's review, then his own detailed analysis, mostly praising the piece.
On March 2, Emperor Franz I of Austria dies, and Metternich (who is really running the Austrian Empire by now) installs mentally handicapped Ferdinand I as Emperor. This leaves Metternich essentially in charge of Austrian foreign policy until the revolution of 1848.
A warrant is issued for the arrest of 22-year-old Büchner because of his political activities. He flees to France, then Switzerland, returns to the study of science, and begins writing plays to support himself; some time within the next two years he writes Woyzeck, which is left somewhat unfinished.
30-year-old Comtesse Marie d'Agoult leaves her husband, and she and 24-year-old Liszt elope and travel to Switzerland, settling in Geneva and causing a scandal in Paris. They eventually have 3 children, and Marie's money enables Liszt to devote time to composition. He composes several several pieces which are intended to portray his impressions of Switzerland, which end up in Années de Pèlerinage - Première Année: Suisse ['years of pilgrimage - 1st year: Switzerland'].
16-year-old Suppé's father dies in January, and in September he moves with his mother to Vienna. His father had opposed his desire to be a musician, so now he is free to follow his vocation.
26-year-old Mendelssohn is appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Wilhelm Jahn is born in Hof, Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic).
In Brussels, 21-year-old woodwind instrument maker Antoine Joseph Sax (known as Adolphe Sax) perfects the bass clarinet.
1836
23-year-old Wagner becomes an opera conductor with a small company which produces his 2nd opera, Das Liebesverbot, then goes bankrupt. He marries the singer Minna Planer and moves to Königsberg, where he becomes musical director at the theatre. But Wagner soon leaves Königsberg and takes a similar post in Riga, where he begins his 3rd opera, Rienzi, and conducts a lot of Beethoven.
22-year-old Büchner begins writing his play Woyzeck.
27-year-old Mendelssohn composes his Paulus ['St. Paul'], op.36, an oratorio for choir and orchestra.
Rossini leaves Paris and returns to Italy, hardly composing for the next 19 years.
1837
George Büchner |
Büchner contracts typhus and dies on February 19 at the young age of 23, leaving Woyzeck as an unfinished manuscript. |
In March, 28-year-old Mendelssohn marries Cécile Jeanrenau, and they have a happy marriage with 5 children.
Marie Hermann (future mother of Gustav Mahler) is born.
4-year-old Brahms is taught cello, violin, and valveless horn by his father. He progresses well on the cello, but unaccountably (as there is none in the house) demands to learn piano.
26-year-old Liszt continues to compose his Années de Pèlerinage while in Italy. He is also making the first versions of his piano transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies.
Liszt and his mistress Marie have their second child, a daughter named Cosima, born on December 25.
In Paris, woodwind instrument manufacturer Louis Auguste Buffet invents the needle spring, which is mounted parallel to the rods used in Boehm's flute key-system, and which will be used by all subsequent woodwind manufacturers in their own key designs.
1838
27-year-old Liszt feels compelled to return to the concert stage to raise money for Hungarian victims of the 1838 Danube flood. Marie argues that he should stay home and concentrate on composing, but Liszt ignores her and goes on tour.
1839
Schubert's brother Ferdinand shows the score of the "Great" C-major Symphony to 29-year-old Schumann while Schumann is staying in Vienna. Schumann immediately recognizes the greatness of the work and sends the score to Mendelssohn, who conducts the successful première in Leipzig.
Wagner and his wife, slipping away from creditors, sail from Riga to London -- a trip which inspires his next opera, Die fliegende Holländer ['the flying Dutchman'] -- and go on to Paris. There, 26-year-old Wagner does hack-work for publishers and theaters while composing Holländer, and becomes friends with Meyerbeer.
|
Liszt decides to give another concert to raise money
for the Beethoven memorial statue. During Christmas,
he returns to Hungary for the first time in 18 years,
visiting Budapest and then his birthplace, Raiding,
where he happens to hear the music of the local Roma people
[gypsies] and begins to write the Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Liszt hears of Thalberg's success in Paris and returns there for a famous piano duel, to ensure his title as King of the piano. Over the next 5 years, giving a series of spectacular recital tours all over Europe where he performs for hours from memory, he plays to hysterical audiences of thousands and creates full-blown "Lisztomania". Liszt finally finishes his 1st Piano Concerto, in E-flat, and composes his 2nd Piano Concerto, in A-minor. |
Liszt at 30 |
| In Paris, Conservatoire clarinet professor Hyacinthe Klosé and woodwind instrument maker Louis Auguste Buffet apply Boehm's flute key-system (making extensive use of his brille concept -- see above, 1830) to the clarinet d'après le système de M. Boehm (also called the clarinette a anneaux mobiles ['clarinet with moveable rings']), and present it at the Exhibition. It eventually becomes the standard clarinet system everywhere except Germany and countries in the German sphere of musical influence. |
the Buffet/Klosé "Boehm" clarinet |
In September, 17-year-old Hermann von Helmholtz begins his studies at the Royal Friedrich-Wilhelm Institute of Medicine and Surgery in Berlin.
1840
7-year-old Brahms begins piano lessons with Otto Cossel in Hamburg, seeing him nearly every day. Brahms quickly becomes the favored child in the family.
Wagner and Liszt meet and become close friends.
Mendelssohn at age 30 | 31-year-old Mendelssohn composes his Symphony No. 2, in B-flat major "Lobgesang" ['Hymn of Praise'], op.52 (his fourth symphony in order of composition - posthumous publication of the intervening two result in out-of-sequence numbering), to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing. |
In Paris, Guillaume Triébert produces his Systeme 3 oboe,
his first patented model and a mechanization of the old "simple system"
oboe which utilizes Boehm's brille idea (see above, 1830), placing
a set of rings over the finger-holes on the lower joint.
Its manufacture continues into the early 1900s.
After this model, Triébert's instrument manufacturing
company will evolve the key-system of the
modern oboe over the course of the next 35 years.
| In Brussels, Eugène Albert develops the "Albert clarinet" by applying Boehm's brille idea to the standard Müller clarinet design, placing a set of rings over the finger-holes on the lower joint (as in Triébert's System 3 oboe). It is a system which will remain popular into the early 1900s and will be the favored type of clarinet with the early jazz players in New Orleans. |
a rather early Albert-system clarinet, including the "patent C#" key on the lower joint, but without the brille on the upper joint |
Also in Brussels, 26-year-old Antoine Joseph (Adolphe) Sax develops his own clarinet design based on Müller's system, but which still requires cross-fingering. Sax also tries to produce a clarinet which will overblow at the "octave" as in the flute and oboe (and instead of the "12th" as on a regular cylindrical clarinet), by replacing the regular trumpet-like mouthpiece on a type of keyed bugle called an ophicleide with a clarinet mouthpiece, and in the process invents the saxophone.
18-year-old Joachim Raff finishes his studies at the Jesuit Seminary in Schwyz, with prizes in German, Latin and mathematics, goes to Rapperswil (near his birthplace of Lachen), to work as a teacher. Having taught himself the rudiments of music, Raff begins to compose.
1841
31-year-old Schumann marries Clara Wieck, who as a pianist was a child prodigy. In the full flush of inspiration from his new love, he writes his 1st ('Spring') and 4th Symphonies (the latter will not appear until after the next two).
Antonin Dvorák is born in Nelahozeves (a small village approximately 45 miles north of Prague, then in the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic) on September 8.
| Adolphe Sax demonstrates a C bass saxophone to Berlioz, who is amazed at its dynamic range and expressive possibilities. |
the original saxophone and its first variation |
|
1842
29-year-old Wagner premières Rienzi in Dresden and is very successful.
Johann Nepomuk Fuchs is born in Styria on May 5.
Emil Jakob Schindler is born in Vienna.
33-year-old Mendelssohn completes his Symphony No. 3, in A-minor "Scottish", op.56 (his fifth and last symphony to be completed - posthumous publication of earlier symphonies results in out-of-sequence numbering), conceived during his 1829 trip to Scotland.
|
Adolphe Sax moves to Paris, and within a few years creates
two entire families of saxophones (in Bb and Eb for band,
and in C and F for orchestra) which are all notated and fingered
exactly the same, regardless of register. (The four shown here in bold are
those still in common use today):
| 
alto, tenor, baritone, and soprano saxophones made by Adolphe Sax |
1843
Hans Richter is born on April 4 in Györ, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire).
30-year-old Wagner produces Die fliegende Holländer ['the flying Dutchman'] in Dresden, but it is not as successful as Rienzi had been the year before, despite its higher quality. In Holländer, Wagner is beginning to move away from the concept of opera as a series of separate "numbers". He is also appointed joint Kapellmeister at the Dresden court.
Brahms's piano teacher Cossel takes him to Eduard Marxsen, the best teacher in Hamburg, to discourage Brahms's parents from succumbing to an offer to take the 10-year-old boy to America as a prodigy. Marxsen tries to focus on the piano, but Brahms insists on learning composition and progresses rapidly.
Liszt ends his stormy relationship with Marie d'Agoult.
|
In Paris, Guillaume Triébert produces his Systeme 4 oboe
(which continues to be made into the 1920s).
Also in Paris, Conservatoire clarinet professor Hyacinthe Klosé publishes his Celebrated Method for the Clarinet, illustrating the superiority of fingering of the "Boehm clarinet" which he had developed with instrument-maker Buffet. |
system 4 oboes by Robert (top) and Loreé |
34-year-old Mendelssohn founds the Leipzig Conservatory.
21-year-old Joachim Raff Raff becomes friends with the young composer and Zürich kapellmeister Franz Abt, who encourages him to send some of his earliest piano pieces to Mendelssohn in Leipzig. Mendelssohn recommends them to his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, who publish several of them.
1844
24-year-old Suppé premières his incidental music to the play Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien ['Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna'] on February 26.
35-year-old Mendelssohn completes his Violin Concerto, in E-minor, op.64, on which he has been working since 1838.
|
In Paris, Buffet and Klosé patent their "Boehm system" clarinet.
Buffet also invents, this time with actual advice from Boehm himself, the "Boehm oboe", a louder and more powerful instrument which, in contrast to his clarinet, will never become very popular. |
|
22-year-old Raff, bolstered by the good review of his opp.2-6 in Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift für Musik which predicts "a future for the composer", quits his teaching job and moves to Zürich to become a full-time composer. He lives in poverty for the next year.
1845
Wagner, 32, completes and produces his opera Tannhäuser, and begins composing Lohengrin. He also jots down the first ideas for his later music-drama Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ['the master-singers of Nuremberg'], to which he will not return for 15 years.
Schumann, 35, completes his Piano Concerto in A Minor.
On June 19, 23-year-old Raff, with no money, walks 75 kilometers (46 miles, about 17 hours of walking) in the pouring rain from Zürich to Basle, to see Franz Liszt perform. The concert is sold out, but Liszt lets the soaking-wet Raff sit on the stage near him. Liszt takes Raff with him on the remainder of his tour through southern Germany and the Rhineland, with Raff making the concert arrangements. Raff never returns to Switzerland.
26-year-old Suppé becomes Kappellmeister at the Theater an der Wien for the next 17 years.
In Paris, Adolphe Sax and his band, populated with the whole family of saxophones, win a competition against the French Army Band, and the latter from then on include saxophones in their instrumentation.
1846
Schumann, 36, composes his 2nd Symphony.
12-year-old Brahms begins earning money by playing popular tunes all night on the piano in Hamburg whorehouses. He keeps a book on the music-stand and reads poetry while he plays, and his delicate girlish features subject him to torment from the prostitutes and the sailors who are their customers. The experience will leave profound scars on Brahms's psyche and sexuality. To endure it he often becomes drunk, and the alcohol and lack of sleep undermine his health.
On March 20 in Paris, Adolphe Sax is granted a patent for the family of saxophones.
When Liszt's concert tour ends, Liszt gets Raff a job in Cologne selling pianos and music scores for Eck & Lefèbre’s shop. Raff meets Mendelssohn while there and writes music criticism for the journal Caecilia, but despises his job, while he continues to compose and to correspond with Liszt, who keeps offering Raff a job as his secretary.
37-year-old Mendelssohn composes his oratoria Elijah, op.70, for chorus and orchestra.
In Vienna, 27-year-old Suppé composes music for Dichter und Bauer ['poet and peasant'], whose overture is the most famous one he ever wrote.
The failure of the Kraków Uprising results in the annexation of Kraków by Austria, and its incorporation into the province of Galicia.
Ignaz Brüll is born on November 7 in Proßnitz, Moravia.
1847
24-year-old Raff gets involved in a controversy after writing an article in the Wiener allgemeine Musik-Zeitung ['Viennese general musical times'] making fun of Cologne music-lovers, who threaten to boycott Eck & Lefèbre's shop where he works. Raff quits his job and leaves Cologne in January, going on a trip to Vienna to meet his publisher Mechetti. On the way Raff stops in Berlin, then Leipzig, where he meets the music publishers Breitkopf & Härtel, Schuberth, and Bartolf Senff, and Dresden, where he becomes friends with composer Carl Reissiger. Originally intending to stop in Weimar, Raff instead goes straight towards Vienna, but then upon learning of Mechetti's death, he stops for awhile in Stuttgart to decide whether to become Mendelssohn's student in Leipzig or Liszt's secretary in Weimar.
Robert Fuchs is born on February 15 in Styria (Austria).
Brahms's father removes the sickly 14-year-old to a friend's farm at Winsen-an-der-Luhe, where Brahms becomes strong and healthy again, and fills his mind with the literary works of German Romanticism. He styles himself 'Johannes Kreisler, Jr.', after E. T. A. Hoffmann's hero. Returning to Hamburg, with renewed health that he will retain until his final illness, he begins teaching piano and playing in more respectable establishments to earn money. He holds affection for the classical musical tradition.
Princess Carolyne Sayn von Wittgenstein | 36-year-old Liszt meets Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein in Kiev, and to the disappointment of his many fans, Liszt retires from the concert stage in September, to devote himself to composition. |
Theobald Boehm patents his cylindrical flute which now has holes which are so large that the brille rings have been replaced by covered metal plates, known as the plateau system, giving each pitch on the instrument its maximum clarity and volume. This idea will later be applied to the saxophone family and to all of the large bass and contrabass clarinets.
After suffering a series of strokes,
Mendelssohn dies in Leipzig on November 4, at age 38.
25-year-old Joachim Raff had hoped to study with Mendelssohn, and is crushed
by disappointment at Mendelssohn's death.
Also, Raff and Liszt have a falling-out at this time.
So Raff continues to eke out a living in Stuttgart and
tries to establish himself there,
becoming friends with 18-year-old Hans von Bülow.
Raff composes a 5-act opera King Alfred, and tries
desperately to get it performed, without success.
1848
map of central Europe -- the red star designates Weimar, Germany |
37-year-old Liszt settles in Weimar, where he will stay until 1861,
becoming Court Kapellmeister in February.
Carolyne joins him later in the year. Liszt gives up his lucrative
concert career to pursue the creation of new musical forms,
inventing the symphonic-poem and unusual piano pieces.
Weimar thus becomes the center of avant-garde music in Europe. For the next decade Liszt composes many radically innovative pieces which earn him both strong admirers and violent critics. |
Liszt composes his first two symphonic-poems:
|
Marx and Engels publish the Communist Manifesto, and in
March an uprising in Paris touches off a wave of revolution in
the disunified German and Italian principalities and in the
nationalist Hungarian and Czech parts of the Austrian Empire.
The Vienna Conservatory closes (until 1851) as a result of the revolution. On March 13, the revolutionary mobs force Metternich to resign, and he flees to England for 3 years. |
original title-page of the Communist Manifesto |
34-year-old Wagner completes Lohengrin on April 28
In September, 15-year-old Brahms gives his debut as a recital soloist.
35-year-old Wagner starts to formulate a project for a series of operas based on Nibelungen sagas. He completes a libretto called Siegfrieds Tod ['Siegfried's death'] during October and November -- this is the core of what will become his massive Der Ring des Niebelungen cycle of 4 separate music-dramas, to be given on successive nights.
In December, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicates in the face of approaching revolutionaries, and is replaced by his nephew Franz Joseph, who will rule until 1916 (beyond the outbreak of World War I).
1849
36-year-old Wagner, who holds an official position as Court Conductor at Dresden, stands on a roof and helps to direct fighters during an unsuccessful rebellion. Fleeing an arrest warrant for his role in this on May 9, Wagner goes first to Liszt in Wiemar, then lives in exile outside Germany for 11 years, mainly in Zurich.
The most radical members of the German Assembly flee to Stuttgart and set up a temporary government, but are dispersed by the Würtemberg troops on June 18.
27-year-old Joachim Raff is implicated in the Stuttgart disturbances, and with his debts mounting, he leaves town in secrecy. Raff writes a letter of apology to Liszt in May, and Liszt offers to try to stage Raff's opera King Alfred. Liszt helps Raff secure a job with the publisher Shuberth in Hamburg, working on arrangements of music of others. Raff's long hours of work leave him little time to compose while in Hamburg.
Bourgeois prosperity eventually damps down the revolutionary tendencies in Europe. Many German patriots flee to America, where they are called "the 48'ers".
The bloody Hungarian revolution comes to an end as rebels are defeated and the prime minister and 13 generals are executed in October; this event inspires 38-year-old Liszt to compose his Funerailles [a word with the literal meaning 'funeral ceremonies' and the figurative meaning 'death and destruction'], a new type of work for piano which he calls a 'tone-poem'.
During the same month, on October 17 in Paris, Chopin dies of pulmonary tuberculosis at age 39. He was a close friend of Liszt, and this is probably another part of the inspiration for Funerailles.
Also in Paris, 50-year-old Jacques Halevy becomes one of the earliest "modern" composers to use quarter-tones, in his incidental music to Prométhee Enchainé ['Prometheus bound']. Halevy's intention is to revive the ancient Greek "enharmonic genus", using quarter-tones between B:C and E:F, following the Romanization of the note-names in the enharmonic version of the Greek "Greater Perfect System".
One of several composers being published under the pseudonym of G. W. Marks, 16-year-old Brahms earns some money by doing hack-work, composing little salon pieces.
Living in exile in Zürich, Wagner writes an essay called Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft ['the artwork of the future'], in which he proclaims that Beethoven was the last symphonist and that the symphony is dead. He also writes the first musical sketches for the Ring, for the drama currently titled Siegfrieds Tod [later Götterdämerung].
In Paris, Guillaume Triébert produces his Systeme 5 (thumb plate system) oboe.
In November, Liszt again invites 27-year-old Joachim Raff to Weimar, this time formally offering him a job. Raff accepts and becomes Liszt's copyist and secretary, staying until 1856. Raff still lives in abject poverty, eventually claiming to have composed parts of several Liszt pieces -- modern scholarship casts doubt upon these claims, but Raff does indeed do a tremendous amount of work for Liszt, playing an important role at a crucial moment in Liszt's career. Here, Raff again comes into regular contact with Bülow, and they will remain lifelong friends.
Liszt completes two symphonic-poems, which will both be revised twice
(in 1850-1 and again in 1854):
and begins composing the symphonic-poem numbered 8th, Héroïde funèbre ['a hero's funeral'] (numbering reflects the order of publication, not of composition).
1850
Schumann, 40, moves to Düsseldorf and composes his 3rd Symphony (the 'Rhenish'), his last.
In March, the Schumanns visit Hamburg to perform, and Brahms, 17, sends Schumann a package containing several compositions. When the package is returned unopened, Brahms understandably holds resentment for Schumann.
In Weimar, 39-year-old Liszt premières the first example of
a new type of work he invented, the symphonic-poem, with forms
based on literary or visual-art subjects:
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne ['What one hears on the mountain',
the "Bergsymphonie"], which he has just subjected to its first revision.
Other Liszt projects this year:
19-year-old violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim
accepts a job as concertmaster in Liszt's orchestra.
June 18 - Richard Heuberger born in Graz, Styria [a province of Austria].
Also in Weimar under the direction of Liszt, on August 28, is the première of Wagner's Lohengrin, the last of his compositions which he refers to as an "opera".
20-year-old Bülow is present at the Lohengrin première, and this experience finally makes him determined to abandon the law career into which his parents have pushed him, and to be a conductor. He goes to Zürich to seek Wagner's help, and Wagner recognizes his talent and obtains some small conducting jobs for him in Zürich and then St. Gall.
Vienna and its suburbs in 1850.
Note the small city in the center,
still surrounded by fortifications,
which a few years later will be torn down and converted into the Ringstrasse,
and the ring of suburbs lying outside the walls.
1851
On January 10, 37-year-old Wagner publishes his theories on opera in his book Oper und Drama ['opera and drama']. He is also deeply involved in his huge Der Ring des Nibelungen project, writing the prose draft for Wieland der Schmied in March and the sketch and then the poem for Der junge Siegfried ['the young Siegfried'] during May and June.
18-year-old Brahms composes the first work he will publish under his own name, the E-flat-minor Scherzo, op.4 for piano. His training and temperament cause Brahms to value the past musical achievements of Bach, Mozart, and especially Beethoven, more highly than those composers holding to the 'New German School' ideology (chiefly, Liszt and Wagner).
21-year-old Bülow goes to Weimar to study piano seriously with Liszt.
Liszt projects for this year:
Both of these will be orchestrated by Raff, and revised by 1854.
The Vienna Conservatory reopens after having shut down
in 1848 as a result of the revolution.
22-year-old violinist Josef Hellmesberger (senior)
becomes Director, a position he holds until his death in 1893.
Metternich returns to Austria, and altho he will never hold another official office, he does become a close personal advisor to Emperor Franz Josef.
1852
In February, Wagner meets Otto Wesendonck, a wealthy merchant who becomes a generous patron, and his wife Mathilde. Wagner completes the poems of Die Walküre on July 1 and Das Rheingold on November 3, and works on the text of the drama now called simply Siegfried.
Probably feeling inspired by the patriotic fervor of the Revolution a few years before, 41-year-old Liszt composes the 1st thru 15th Hungarian Rhapsodies, which are based not on Magyar folk music, but on urban popular music of Hungary, whose cultural basis is Roma [gypsy].
In November, 19-year-old Brahms completes his 2nd Piano Sonata, in F-sharp-minor, op.2, the first written but second to be published.
During the end of this year and the beginning of the next, 41-year-old Liszt composes his radical and monumental Sonata in B-minor, finishing it on the following February 2. This work's main importance lies in Liszt's formal innovation: an attempt to fuse all 4 movements of the traditional sonata design into a 1-movement structure.
1853
In January, 19-year-old Brahms composes the song Liebestreu ['true love']; in March, he completes the 1st Piano Sonata, in C major, op.1 (i.e., the piece he considered worthy of publishing first), and composes the 2nd and 4th movements of the 3rd Piano Sonata, in F minor, op.5.
By now an accomplished pianist and composer, Brahms goes on a tour playing popular 'Hungarian' (really Gypsy) music with 23-year-old violinist Eduard Reményi, and in May meets Reményi's old classmate Joachim, 22, who will be a lifetime friend. When Reményi gets in trouble with the police, Joachim sends both he and Brahms to Liszt.
Liszt is very pleased while sight-reading Brahms's E-flat-minor Scherzo, then plays his own recently-completed Sonata in B-minor. When Liszt looks over to see what his young visitor thinks, he finds Brahms asleep: a premonition of the major split that will occur in 19th-century European music. Brahms claims that he was simply listening with his eyes closed...
Thru Joachim, Brahms visits Düsseldorf and befriends Robert and Clara Schumann. Schumann is dazzled by Brahms's three piano sonatas, and declares him to be the prophet of the musical future, in classically restrained opposition to the 'New German School' headed by Liszt and Wagner.
Liszt projects for this year:
23-year-old Bülow goes on a concert tour as pianist.
39-year-old Wagner completes the text for his four-night cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, has it printed and read to friends, and he sends a copy to Liszt. During one of these readings, on October 10 in Paris, Wagner meets Liszt's 15-year-old daughter Cosima. Wagner begins composing the music of Das Rheingold, the first of the Ring music-dramas, in November.
During this year and the next, music-theorist Simon Sechter publishes the 3 volumes of his very influential Die Grundsätze der Musikalischen Komposition ['the foundations of musical composition'].
1854
Early in the year Brahms, 20, composes his first surviving chamber piece, the 1st Piano Trio in B, op.8, which he will rewrite 35 years later.
Wagner, in a letter to Liszt, expresses his first ideas about Tristan und Isolde.
In February, Schumann, 43, is finally overtaken by his mental illness (probably bipolar disorder) and jumps into the Rhine in a suicide attempt. He is rescued, and has himself committed to an asylum in Endenich, near Bonn, where he will live out the rest of his life.
21-year-old Brahms is inspired by this tragedy to write what will eventually become his 1st Piano Concerto, in D Minor.
On June 28, 41-year-old Wagner begins composing the music for Die Walküre
In Weimar, 43-year-old Liszt finally seems to have clarified his ideas
about the symphonic-poem with the completion of Festklänge,
as he now finishes the revisions of the ones he had composed since 1848
(and will not subject the future ones to such revision),
puts in order the 7 composed so far, and composes a new one
(numbers reflect publication order):
and in 2 months composes his Faust Symphony, which has a theme using a 12-tone row made of 4 successive augmented triads.
Also in Weimar, 32-year-old Raff composes a 5-movement
Grand Symphony in e minor, WoO.18.
1855
Josef Hellmesberger Jr. is born in Vienna. His father is the Director of the Vienna Conservatory.
Guido Adler is born in Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) in November.
Wagner travels to London to conduct, and then stays in Paris alone.
Rossini returns to Paris, where he remains for the rest of his life.
In Weimar, 44-year-old Liszt expands his overture to choral settings of Herder’s "Der entfesselte Prometheus" ['Prometheus unbound'] into his 5th symphonic-poem: Prometheus, S.99/639, premières it on October 15.
Joachim Raff formally leaves Liszt's Neu-Weimar-Verein ['New-Weimar Society'],
eventually settling the following year in Weisbaden.
25-year-old Bülow begins teaching piano at the Stern and Marx conservatories in Berlin, organizing concerts and recitals which feature composers of the "New German School".
In Paris, the Triébert firm of instrument makers
produces both Charles Louis Triébert's revision of the Boehm oboe,
and the Barret's Systeme oboe.
1856
On March 23, Wagner finishes the score of Die Walküre.
On Jul
