Posts

Johann Simon Mayr

 I will be focusing on a German Composer who has been credited with over 600 compositions (including more than 60 operas!), but it is very disheartening to know that his works are rarely performed nowadays and have been lost in the shadows.  Johann(es) Simon Mayr was born on 14th June 1763, as the second son to Josef Mayr, the local organist of Mendorf, Bavaria. Mayr's father was his first tutor until 1769, when he enrolled in the Benedictine monastery of Weltenburg, located in the beautiful Danube gorge. ( Interestingly, this is the world's oldest monastic brewery, working since 1040 AD! ). In 1774, his parents transferred him to the Jesuit monastery of Ingolstadt to prepare him for teaching, but due to the abolishment of the Jesuit order in Bavaria, from 1777 onwards, he was prompted to study theology, law, philosophy and medicine in the University of Ingolstadt. ( Interestingly, his professor was Adam Weishaupt - the founder of Illuminati! ) It was here that he continued hi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ignaz Pleyel

                 Today, I will focus on an Austrian composer who flourished in the classical period but was overshadowed by the likes of Haydn and Mozart. He gave an exceedingly good musical output and even maintained his legacy as a successful businessman! Born in June 1757 (Sources differ on the exact date - some state the 1st and some the 18th) as the 24th child to the local schoolmaster Martin Pleyel in the small town of Ruppersthal, Ignaz Pleyel went on to become a prolific instrumental composer. He expressed his skills at a young age and studied the clavier under the renowned Bohemian composer Johann Baptist Wanhal. Soon, he found patronage from Count Ladislaus Erdödy (Interestingly, one of the closest friends and the possible muse of Beethoven - Countess Anna Maria, belonged to the same house Erdödy!) who supported him to study under the 'father of the symphony', Joseph Haydn in 1774. (Again, sources differ on whether it was 1772 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ludwig Abeille

           I want to start this series with a composer whose music is a burst of refreshment.  Born in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth (Yes, the one with the namesake festival celebrating Richard Wagner) in 1761 (records vary, but they place his birth year to be 1761 or 1765), Ludwig Abeille was a German composer of the classical era. His father was the patron of the Margraviate of Bavaria, and his mother was appointed in the town court; hence, given his family background, he was schooled in the now-destroyed Hohe Karlsschule (Karl's High School) from the age of eleven. Receiving his musical education under the renowned Italian composers Antonio Boroni (the same guy who first mentored Muzio Clementi!) and Mazzanti, he mastered his skills in the piano, organ and harpsichord. During his schooling, he was already supporting the Württemberg Court of Music in Stuttgart. In 1782, after leaving Karlsschule, he became a member of the private band as a Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is this about?

 Hello, and welcome to my blog! This post just explains what this series will be about and what you can expect as a visitor to this website.  Firstly, the title - Worldline is a concept in relativistic physics, which, simply put, is just the path traced by an object in both space and time. Surprisingly, a similar path analogy is also found in Robert Jordan's seminal high fantasy series The Wheel of Time, in which a human's lifespan is a thread weaved into a great pattern by the "wheel of time". So, by melodious worldlines, I will be focusing on the lives of people who contributed to various melodious structures in their lifetime.  Now, for the origin of this blog. A few months back, a close friend of mine suggested that I should write about my experience with Western classical music and share what I feel and interpret various compositions to be. Well, I started this blog with the same intention, but what happened was, due to my own worldline, I got a chance to attend ...
4 comments
Read more