Great Composers and Their Lives

This great composer, Bendřich Smetana, was son of a beer brewer.  Born in Litomyšl, Bohemia, he was his father’s eleventh child and the first son to survive infancy.  His father, an amateur violinist and great admirer of music, made Bendřich Smetana’s musical education a priority. Therefore, young Smetana had started learning piano and violin at the early age of four with great aspiration. After only two years of lessons, he had his first piano recital and was already playing in a string quartet. At the age of eight, he started composing.

His love for music greatly intensified throughout the years. It was his first passion and, despite his great interest for philosophy and literature, came before anything else. His greatest wish was to one day become a truly great composer.

At the age of nineteen, he formally settled in Prague earning a living as a tutor to a family of aristocrats.  Up until this point, he clearly lacked a formal musical education.  In order to make his dream of one day becoming a composer a reality, he continued his composition and piano studies.  His eventual friendship with Franz Liszt proved to be of great importance throughout his musical career.

Two of his greatest works were The Bartered Bride and Má Vlast. After having taken part in the fighting during the nationalist uprising in 1848 and gaining a name amongst Czech nationalists, moving to Sweden to further his musical career, and then eventually returning to Prague, The Bartered Bride had been first performed in 1866, the very same year Smetana got the opportunity of a lifetime…  He was named principal conductor of the Prague Provisional Theater Orchestra, a position he held for eight years. To give you an idea of what a great orchestra this was, it must be said that Anton Dvořák was the first chair violinist.

Má Vlast, translated as “My Fatherland” was completed in 1879. Its composition took Bendřich Smetana seven years to complete. In its 6 cycles, this symphonic poem is symbolic of the Czech nationalist movement representing their political and cultural oppression.

The pieces of this great composer have been performed throughout Europe and America in the great concert halls of yesteryear and today; it goes without saying why this great composer, Bendřich Smetana, became known as “Father of Czech Classical Music”.

To listen to music by this great composer click here.

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Now, we come to composer whose name is not necessarily recognized off the bat like those of Mozart or Beethoven, yet anyone whose has graduated high school or college knows his music. – I will get to that later.

 Born on the countryside in Worcestershire, England, this composer was the son of a musician. Sir Edward Elgar’s father was a violinist, the organist at a local church and even owned a music shop. Growing up in a music shop contributed a lot to Sir Edward’s interest for music. In fact, due to the unlimited access had to sheet music in his father’s shop, it enticed him on to learn composition. To great amazement, except for taking violin lessons locally, his composition skills were completely self-taught.

After leaving school in 1872 at a very early age, he managed to find work at a lawyer’s office, but his true aspiration was to be a freelance musician.  He worked very hard to play wherever he could. This entailed learning to play several instruments. Among the instruments he learned in addition to the violin were double bass, piano, bassoon, trombone and the cello. He had working knowledge on all of these instruments and took work performing on them. Among the work he had taken on, he took up the position of violinist in an orchestra in Birmingham conducted by a man by the name of W.C. Stockley. It was during this time that Sir Edward saw a few of his compositions performed and made some experience conducting.

Three years into his musical career, he ended up taking over his father’s position as organist at the local church.  Along with performing, he was also active as a teacher. One of his most important students was an author by the name of Caroline Alice Roberts.  Another three years went by and the two of them got married in 1889. Caroline Alice Roberts was very supportive to her husband, being there during bouts of depression which he very often suffered from.   Additionally, the relationship helped his musical career immensely on account of the fact that Caroline Alice Roberts came from a very influential family. The two of them went to live in London for a while, but unfortunately, it didn’t really work out for them financially, so they came back to Worcestershire where Sir Edgar Elgar began to teach for a living once again. He hated it but it was a necessary must to continue his work and support himself as a composer.

His first true success was in 1899 when his Variations on an Original Theme (also known as Enigma) were performed in London and made him renowned throughout England as a composer. This piece is really quite interesting. Each variation was based upon one of his friends. Sir Edward claimed that he tried to write each variation as if his friends might have written them if they have been endowed with knowledge of composition. In addition to this, Sir Edward claimed that there was an ‘enigma’ or puzzle built into the piece. Along with the variations upon the original theme, there is a mystery tune upon which the entire piece is based upon, overshadowing the entire work.  Some say it was based upon “God Save the Queen”, but it is something that is still augmented for Sir Edward never revealed the answer.

This composer had written a great deal of works and he is without a shadow of doubt one of England’s greatest composers, but as mentioned before, anyone who has graduated high school or college knows his music. His most famous work, “Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1”, was written in 1904, a song which, without a doubt, rings in the minds of many on that very special graduation day.  

If you would like to hear some music by this great composer, click here.

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