Category Archives: European musical history

Vincenzo Galilei: pioneer music theorist and scientist

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Vincenzo Galilei Dialogo della musica cover

Title page of Galilei’s Dialogo . . . della musica . . . (1581)

This year marks the  500th anniversary of the birth of Vincenzo Galilei. His name is unknown to the average music lover, but his work laid the foundation both for the early Baroque style of music and modern experimental science.

He taught his much more famous son Galileo Galilei both music and an interest in carrying out experiments.

Vincenzo Galilei was apparently born in 1520 in the Tuscan village of Santa Maria a Monte. (Some scholars believe he was born later in the decade.) At a very young age, his musical talent became apparent. He became a well-respected lutenist. Sometime before 1562 he moved to Pisa and married a woman from a Pisan noble family.

The couple had seven children. Galileo was the eldest. Despite his claim to nobility, Vincenzo never acquired wealth. He made his living as a cloth merchant. Music, however, remained his passion. He published a textbook on playing and composing for the lute and two influential works on music theory. Continue reading →

Classical music that used to be popular music

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composers classical vs popular music You don’t have to be a classical music lover to recognize names of important classical composers.

  • Bach
  • Beethoven
  • Brahms
  • Wagner
  • Liszt
  • Rossini

Except that the music of Rossini and others was considered popular music when it was first heard. And people who liked classical music scorned it. One French writer divided musicians into two kinds: classicists and Rossinists.

So what else that we think of as classical music used to be considered popular? And what changed? Continue reading →

The birth of the popular music industry

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What’s the popular music industry? For that matter, what’s popular music?

Most people today seem to equate “music industry” with “recording industry,” but it’s older than that.

18th century sheet music.. popular music industry

18th century sheet music. “Rule Britannia” by Thomas Arne

There’s no point in talking about a “classical music industry.”I looked that term up and only found articles about how badly classical music leaders conduct business.

Merriam-Webster offers several definitions of “industry.” Only three seem applicable:

  • systematic labor especially for some useful purpose or the creation of something of value
  • a department or branch of a craft, art, business, or manufacture; especially:  one that employs a large personnel and capital especially in manufacturing
  • a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises <the banking industry>

An industry, in other words, seeks to create something of value, is capital and labor intensive, and intends to make a profit. Popular music is inherently commercial and industrial. The popular music industry began in the late 18th century. Continue reading →

Music Inspired by Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet, Hayez

L’ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo / Francesco Hayek (1823)

William Shakespeare has been regarded as England’s leading poet and dramatist since the latter part of the 17th century, first in England, and by the end of the 18th century all over Europe.

No single work has inspired as many adaptations as Romeo and Juliet, including parodies, prose and verse adaptations, films, television shows, paintings, and music.

In classical music alone, Romeo and Juliet has inspired a couple of dozen operas, some ballets, and considerable orchestral and choral music.

This post will examine four acknowledged masterpieces, but first, let’s look at some of the earliest of the Romeo and Juliet operas. Continue reading →

Sibelius and Nielsen: Two Scandinavian Sesquicentennials

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Scandinavia_regions_mapJean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen, two of the most important Scandinavian composers, were both born in 1865.

They met only once and had very different personalities. Nonetheless, they have more in common than being Scandinavian symphonists.

For example, both of their names have unusual stories, and the year 1926 had special significance for both.

On the other hand, their relationship to the controversy between Brahms and Wagner took opposite paths.

Continue reading →

Medieval Night Watchmen and the Modern Wind Band

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medieval wall and towers

Duke Louis II of Anjou’s entrance to Paris / Froissart chronicles, 14th century

What do a night watchman and a professional musician have in common? The first professional wind musicians were night watchmen.

Many modern wind instruments can find their ancestors being played from towers to keep the city safe at night and entertain citizens by day.

Protective walls surrounded every European town of any significance until the 18th century. Many cities had hundreds of towers. Continue reading →