Christoph Willibald von Gluck 1714 – 1787
Christoph Willibald von Gluck grew up in Bohemia in family of nine children. His father was a tree farmer. Not much is known about his mother. On account of his father’s job, the family had to move around quite a bit. This, as can be imagined was very diffiult. His father’s desire was for him to follow in his footsteps as a tree farmer. Yet, in Gluck’s early teens, seeing that music was quite popular, he started learning to play quite a few instruments. Music started to take over his soul and become his every passion. His parents did not support his idea of becoming a musician. At the age of 13, he ran away from home… to the golden City, Prague. He supported himself there by playing at dances and in churches. His musical talents kept getting better and better. In my own belief, as is that of many others. The best type of musical training one can have is to be a working musician.
At the age of seventeen, he studied mathematics and logic, although no one really knows if he finished his degree or not. Shortly after, he made his way to Vienna, where he worked as a musician for Prince Melzi. Prince Melzi got married and relocated to Milan, whereby he took Chistoph Gluck with him. This was a wonderful bout of luck for the young composer, who had always loved the Italian operas he had seen in Prague.
He started studying under Battista Sammartini and was able to compose his first opera after only four years! He wrote Artaserse. Its debut was in a Milan and it was a hit ! He started making a lot of money with his music and ended up moving to England in 1945 where he was commisioned bay the Italian Opera of London to creat two operas. Here he was known to be competing with Handel who had once stated that “Gluck knows no more about counterpoint than his cook.” Only a year after, he took a job conducting for Pietro Mingotti’s Italian Opera Company and traveled all thoughout Denmark and Austria.
He ended up settling down in Vienna and got married to a woman, Maria Anna Bergin, the daughter of a well-to-do merchant in 1750. She was half his his age and had lots of money, enabling him to become a bit more independent of the next few years to concentrate on his music.
It was during this time that he started developing ideas for his famous opera Orfeo ed Euridice, which was to become what he is most known for writing. Four years later, he was emplyed by the Empress Maria Theresa to be Kapellmeister, a job he kept for 15 years before moving to Paris. There, he enjoyed the patronage of his former student, Marie Antoinette. The success and the contraversy and experiences he had in Paris would take much to long to write.
Around 1780, Gluck moved back to Vienna, where his lived in luxious retirement for the rest of his life. He ended up dying due to a strok in 1787, yet dying a very wealthy and sucessful man. He still enjoys what some people call him, namely the father of the Rococo and Classical era.
To listen to music by this great composer click here.
