I Used to Know That_ Stuff You Forgot From School - Caroline Taggart [49]
Jackson Pollock (1912-56, American): abstract expressionist painter who believed that the act of painting was more important than the finished product. His paintings are therefore highly colorful and chaotic to the point of frenzy. And often huge.
Famous Composers
I was much more disciplined with this list—my Top 20 actually has 20 people in it.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741, Italian): composed operas and church music galore but is now mostly remembered for The Four Seasons, a suite of violin concertos.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, German): highly esteemed and vastly influential composer—without him there might have been no Haydn, no Mozart, and no Beethoven. Wrote mostly organ music, church music, and orchestral music, such as the Brandenburg Concertos, the St. Matthew Passion, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Came from a famous musical family and had many children, including the composers Carl Philip Emmanuel and Johann Christian; the latter moved to London and became known as the English Bach.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759, German, working in England): successful in Germany before moving to England when George I became king; wrote the Water Music for him. Also wrote a number of operas and developed the English oratorio, of which Messiah (which contains the Hallelujah Chorus) is the best known; composed the anthem Zadok the Priest for the coronation of George II.
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809, Austrian): “Papa Haydn,” another vastly prolific composer, credited with the development of the classical symphony (he wrote 104 of them, including the London and the Clock) and the four-movement string quartet.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91, Austrian): infant prodigy and all-around genius. Composer of 41 symphonies, including the Jupiter; operas, including Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute; innumerable concertos, sonatas, solo piano pieces, and chamber music. Not bad for someone who died at 35.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827, German): wrote nine symphonies, but the ones we all know are the Fifth (da-dada-DAH) and the Ninth (the Choral Symphony, whose last movement includes the glorious Song of Joy—amazing to think that he was already deaf by this time and never heard it performed). Also wrote Für Elise, a piano piece studied laboriously by generations of budding pianists. And lots of other stuff, including one opera, called Fidelio.
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868, Italian): known mostly for operas, including La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville, and William Tell, which boasts the world’s most famous overture.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828, Austrian): wrote about 600 songs (lieder) and The Trout piano quintet. This ambitious career seems odd, then, that he would ever leave anything unfinished. But when we talk about the Unfinished Symphony, we tend to mean Schubert’s Eighth.
Frédéric Chopin (1810-49, Polish): wrote some beautiful tear-jerking stuff for the piano, much of it influenced by Polish folk music: mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes, and short romantic pieces called nocturnes, a term he popularized.
Franz Liszt (1811-86, Hungarian): virtuoso pianist, possibly the best there has ever been, as well as a prolific composer. His best-known works are probably the Hungarian Rhapsodies. His daughter Cosima became Mrs. Richard Wagner.
Richard Wagner (1813-83, German): was once said that he had wonderful moments but bad quarters of an hour. Fans of his work use words like “a masterpiece” and “greatest achievement in the history of opera,” but given that the four “musical dramas” that comprise the Ring cycle run for a total of nearly 16 hours, I am never going to find out firsthand.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901, Italian): wrote rather shorter operas, notably