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Abel, Accardo, John Adams, Alard, Albéniz, Albinoni, Albrechtsberger, Nicolo Amati, Anet, Arensky, Auer, home

A…

Carl Friedrich Abel

            1723 — 1787

            Viol Player, Composer

            Wikipedia Bio

London contemporary and associate of Johann Christian Bach.

Music for Strings:

Writings:

Violin School in 2 Parts, 1870 Cologne

Salvatore Accardo

            born 1941

            Violinist

                  Wikipedia Bio

Writings:

L'Arte Del Violino, 1987 Milan

John Adams

           born 1947

           Composer — American

           Wikipedia Bio

John Adams studied composition at Harvard, and was influenced by the 'minimalists' like Reich.  He's perhaps most famous for his opera 'Nixon in China'

Music for Strings:

Delphin Jean Alard

            1815 — 1888

            Violinist, Composer, Teacher

Remembered as an important and prominent violinist, Alard served as violin professor at the Paris Conservatoire.  His ‘Violin Method’ of 1844 still proves useful today.  Born March 8, 1815, Alard’s studies took him to Habeneck’s Paris violin classes in 1827.  Eventually, Alard succeeded Baillot at the Conservatoire.  Alard's many successful students include the Spanish virtuoso Sarasate. 

Alard married the daughter of the great French violin maker and dealer, Vuillaume.  Through his father-in-law, Alard had access to some of the greatest instruments ever made.  Alard owned some outstanding Stradivari violins, including the 'Messiah' and the instrument which is now named the 'Alard'.

Music for Strings:

Writings:

Ecole du violin: méthode complète et progressive, 1844 Paris

Maìtres classiques du violin (an anthology of older violin music), 1863 Mainz

Links:

Delphin Alard bio at:  www.MusicOfYesterday.com

Isaac Albéniz

            1860 — 1909

            Composer, Pianist

    Wikipedia Bio

Music for Strings:

Giuseppe Matteo Alberti

            1685 — 1751

            Composer, Violinist

Giuseppe Alberti became a member of the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica and played in the San Petronio orchestra.

Music for Strings:

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni

            1671 — 1751

            Composer, Violinist

        Wikipedia Bio

Albinoni was an important early violin composer.  J. S. Bach is known to have used Albinoni base lines in his teaching.  As he did with other models, Bach occasionally transcribed, recomposed, and composed based on Albinoni material.

Born wealthy, Albinoni did not seek a church or court post.  Somewhat insular to fellow musicians, Albinoni apparently was more sociable with nobility.  A major composer of opera and stage works, Albinoni had a strong melodic gift and contributed in the development of instrumental genre, and violin music particularly.

Music for Strings:

Francesco Alborea a.k.a Francischello

            1691 — 1739

            Cellist — Naples

Francischello was influential as an early cello virtuoso at a time when many still favored the Gamba.

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

            1736 — 1809

            Organist, Composer, Theorist, Teacher

            Wikipedia Bio

Albrechtsberger is remembered as one Beethoven’s teachers and for his composition treatise of 1790.  Albrechtsberger settled in Vienna where he eventually attained a post at St. Stephan’s Cathedral.  Though his compositions emphasize an older style, his mastery of counterpoint and fugue earned him the respect of Mozart and Haydn.  Albrechtsberger's composition students include Hummel, Moscheles, and Beethoven.

Music for Strings:

Writings:

Gründliche Anweisung zur Komposition…, 1790 Leipzig

            'A Manual of the Ground Principles of Composition'

Links:

Johann Albrechtsberger bio at www.Naxos.com

MIDI samples of his Preludes and Fugues at www.kunstderfuge.com

Andrea Amati

            1505 ca — 1577

            Maker

                  Wikipedia Bio

Andrea Amati is perhaps the actual originator of the violin.  Certainly he is the most prolific and successful of the first generation of violin makers.  In his lifetime, the standards for the instrument were formative.  His earliest violins may have had only three strings.  It is also suggested that violas might slightly predate the violin, with Andrea Amati establishing the violin family based on the viola.

His fame and success in making violins was great enough that Charles IX of France commissioned a collection of thirty-eight instruments: 12 large violins, 12 small violins, 6 violas, and 8 basses.  Very few of his instruments survive today.  Part of the King Charles set, an Amati violin dating to 1564, and is perhaps the oldest extant violin.  Part of the same set, Andrea Amati's cello dated 1572 is probably the oldest extant cello.

Today, Cremona and violin making are synonymous.  Andrea Amati, his descendants, and the great apprentices of the house of Amati made it so.

Links:

Amati Family info at Smithsonian

Origins of the violin (www.classicol.com)

Nicolo Amati

            1596 — 1684

            Maker

                  Wikipedia Bio

The grandson of Andrea Amati, Nicolo Amati stands at the root of Cremona’s golden age of violin making.  Nicolo’s wonderful instruments rank with the very best ever made.  Moreover, he trained a generation of great makers.  His apprentices include Antonio Stradivari, Francesco Ruggeri, Giovanni-Batista Rogeri, Andrea Guarneri, and Bartolomeo Cristofori who later invented the piano.

At the time of Nicolo’s birth in 1596, violins were gaining in importance and general use.  Nicolo's father, Geronimo and Nicolo's uncle, Antonio,  inherited the family violin business from Andrea Amati and established the Amati Brothers as the leading house in Cremona.  In 1630, plague devastated Cremona and killed Geronimo,  leaving Nicolo as the new head of the Amati house, and the only significant maker left in Cremona.  When in 1632 the Brescian master, Maggini, also died of plague, Nicolo was now the dominant Italian maker.  In a very real sense, the secrets and traditions of Italian violin making were unified and transmitted through this one pair of hands.

From 1630, Nicolo’s shop furnished an ever growing demand for violins, and trained numerous apprentices.  Nicolo appears to have put his own hand to the making until around 1670.  One of his great achievements was the development of a larger “Grand Amati” pattern for violins.

Famous violins:

The Alard, 1649

Links:

pictures of historic instruments at www.metmuseum.org

Jean-Jacques-Baptiste Anet

            1676 — 1755

            Violinist

Anet studied violin with Corelli.  In France, Anet played in the 24 Violons du Roi until he fell out of favor at the court.

Music for Strings:

George Antheil

            1900 — 1959

            Composer, Pianist

        Wikipedia Bio

George Antheil studied composition with Bloch.

Music for Strings:

Pietro degli Antonii

            1648 — 1720

            Composer — Bologna

Antonii joined as a member of Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.

Music for Strings:

Ivan Stephanovich Arensky

            1861 — 1906

            Composer, Teacher

            Wikipedia Bio

Born in Novgorod, Russia, on July 12th 1861, Arensky studied composition at St. Petersburg under Rimsky-Korsakov.  He became professor at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.  In 1895, Arensky succeeded Balakirev as director of the Imperial Choir in St. Petersburg. 

Music for Strings:

Links:

            Arensky

Jacques Aubert

            1689 — 1753

            Composer, Violinist — French

Aubert played in the 24 Violons du Roi.

Music for Strings:

Leopold Auer

            1845 — 1930

          Violinist, Teacher — Hungarian

     Wikipedia Bio

Leopold Auer taught a generation of great violinists including Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, and Jascha Heifetz.  His students were stars of the new recording age, but Auer himself had a strong  link to the Romantic age.  Alard , Joachim, and Dont  counted Auer as a student, while his friendships and acquaintances included personalities like Clara and Robert Schumann.

Born in a small Hungarian town, Auer began lessons at six years old with the local music master: violinist, pianist, conductor, and organist in one.  Leopold’s studies continued in Budapest where he attended conservatory and took private lessons with the father and first teacher of the great violinist Jenö Hubay.  The Budapest conservatory program included systematic study of Alard’s Method and work on Rovelli’s Etudes.  Later, Auer continued studies in Vienna in the home of Jacques Dont where among other things he studied the etudes of Kreutzer and Rode.  Auer also participated in Joseph Hellmesberger’s violin classes, and graduated the Vienna Conservatory in 1858.  In 1862, Auer entered Joachim’s class where, in addition to the general literature, they studied Rode, Paganini, and Ernst.

In 1868, Auer succeeded Henri Wieniawski as professor at St. Petersburg where he trained Jascha Heifetz and a generation of virtuosos.  In 1918, Auer left Russia for America, eventually settling and teaching at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

Music for Strings:

Writings:

Violin Playing As I Teach It, 1920 New York

My Long Life In Music, 1923 New York

Violin Masterworks and their Interpretation, 1925 New York

Leopold Auer Graded Course of Violin Playing in Eight Books (written with Gustav Saenger), 1926 New York

Fiddlers Two, Graded Course of Ensemble Playing (written with Gustav Saenger), 1927 New York

Links:

Auer on talent

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