Chevalier: 13 Facts About Composer Joseph Bologne That Inspired the New Movie

 Chevalier: 13 Facts About Composer Joseph Bologne That Inspired the New Movie

by Emily E. Hogstad  April 21st, 2023

Classical music movies are having a moment. Last year, Cate Blanchett played a renowned conductor in Tár, and Bradley Cooper is set to portray Leonard Bernstein in 2023’s Maestro. But the next big classical music movie due to hit our screens is Chevalier, about the life of violinist and composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges .

Here are thirteen facts about him to whet your appetite for the movie.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

1. Joseph Bologne was born in 1745 in Guadeloupe to a wealthy planter named Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges and his sixteen-year-old slave Nanon. But they didn’t stay in the Caribbean for long: at the age of seven, Bologne was taken to France to be educated. Two years later, his parents sailed together to Paris to join him.

2. He was ridiculously multi-talented. Not only was he trained as a fencer and overall sportsman, but he was also an accomplished violinist, composer, and conductor. 

3. At the age of 13, he began studying with fencing master Nicolas Texier de la Boëssière, one of the men instrumental in the development of modern fencing. A rival fencing master named Picard once insulted a young Bologne, derisively referring to him as “Boëssière’s mulatto.” After the insult, Picard and Bologne played a famous match. Whether Bologne wanted it to or not, that match was rife with symbolism about race, and pro-slavery and pro-abolitionists wagered over the outcome. The winner? Bologne! His father was so pleased, he bought his son a horse and carriage: one of the ultimate status symbols in eighteenth-century France.

4. He wasn’t just a great fencer; he was a great athlete, period. He was a fabulous runner, boxer, shot, swimmer, dancer, and even skater…and he excelled at all of those disciplines while also becoming one of the best musicians in Paris!

5. When he graduated from the Royal Polytechnique Academy in 1766, Bologne was made both a gendarme and a chevalier, resulting in his new name and title: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. 

6. Because of French law and custom at the time that forbid mixed-race marriages, it was high-nigh impossible for Bologne to ever marry anyone, especially from his aristocratic social circle. However, that didn’t stop wealthy French women from falling in love with him. His most intense relationship was with married actress Marie-Josephine de Montalembert. She bore him a son, but tragically, her husband sent the baby away after its birth, leading Bologne to lose both his lover and his child in one blow. In 1779 Bologne was assaulted in the street, and gossip theorized that the gang was paid off by the jealous husband.

7. We don’t know who taught Bologne how to play violin, but we know he was an extraordinary player. In 1769 he joined the orchestra of the Concert des Amateurs, Gossec’s orchestra. In 1772 he performed two of his own violin concertos, and in 1773 he became the orchestra’s concertmaster and conductor. Audiences raved about his leadership.

8. After the Concert des Amateurs had to be dissolved due to lack of money, it regrouped. This reconstituted ensemble was known as the Concert de la Loge Olympique. Perhaps its most famous contribution to music history is that it commissioned Joseph Haydn’s famous Paris Symphonies. Apparently, Bologne traveled to Austria to meet with Haydn before premiering the set of six symphonies back in Paris, to great acclaim.

9. Due to his work with the Concert des Amateurs and Concert de la Loge Olympique, Bologne was considered to be a natural candidate to take over the Paris Opéra. However, several singers presented a petition to Queen Marie-Antoinette, stating they could not “submit to the orders of a mulatto.” Bologne was a favorite of the queen, and although Bologne was ultimately not named to be the leader of the Paris Opéra, he was invited to her private musicales. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

10. During the summer of 1788, Bologne was living in quarters provided by the Duc d’Orléans’s wife, who had hired him to conduct in her private theater. The Duc’s personal secretary also lived in the mansion, and that summer the secretary welcomed a guest of his own: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! So for a few months, the two great musicians lived at the same address.

11. During the French Revolution, Boulogne volunteered to join the National Guard. In September 1792, a corps of one thousand “colored” soldiers was formed. That corps eventually earned the nickname of the “Légion St-Georges” after their celebrated leader. During the confusion and paranoia of the Reign of Terror, Boulogne was imprisoned for a year and a half, and somehow he – unlike many of his friends and patrons – managed to escape execution.

12. Late in his life, he traveled to Saint-Domingue, now present-day Haiti, to take part in the revolution there. He stayed for such a long time that some of his friends gave him up for dead, but he eventually returned to Paris, horrified at the brutality of the conflict.

13. He suffered from poor health in the late 1790s and died – with no one near but a few faithful friends – in 1799 of gangrene.

So now that you know more about Joseph Bologne’s extraordinary life and accomplishments, take a look at the trailer and see how they might be dramatized for the big screen! Chevalier is scheduled to be released in theaters in April 2023.

When Latin Meets Classical

The Latin Music Elements in Classical Music

What is often called Latin music consists of music made in South America, from the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico to Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and the broader continent.

© bbc.co.uk

These music — as they are all unique and different depending on the place of origin, and reducing it to one style only would be too limiting — represent a fascination for the European world. Indeed, they are often much more rhythm centered than the former, and while very complex, somehow natural and organic. Additionally, they display a treatment of harmony and melody that is quite different from the one in the old continent, at times simpler but with hidden qualities. Latin music also represents a way of thinking that is different from the one in traditional European music — more on this below — and therefore which allows — for one who wishes to take inspiration from these — for creative stunts and a door to musical explorations. Furthermore, while music from South America and Western Europe might rightfully appear as being very different — particularly with the fact that most of the former are popular in its essence, while the latter is considered academic —, history has proven that they tend to work beautifully together when they meet.

© madison365.com

One interesting element to point out with their association, as a matter of fact, is that while most Western classical music avoids putting emphasis on strong percussive instruments, Latin music does very much so! And this particular reverse in the rhythmical balance is what creates such an interesting orchestral sound. It is also what makes Latin music so attractive to listeners; as it brings the focal point back to some of its original purposes; dance. Indeed, while in Europe and through baroque music, for instance, the focus had been on rhythm, and many of its musical mediums were based on dances, it all progressively faded away as the genres developed and a form of intellectualism, both from the composers and the listeners, took over. Latin music still keeps this dance element as central. In fact, it is well-known that all music is made of a pulse; a heartbeat. In the Western world, this is often represented by a crotchet — or quarter note. In Latin music, it is represented by a rhythmic cell, rather than a single entity, the most famous of it being the clave; instead of one single unit, it is the association of rhythms which constitutes the basis of music. 

Latin music is a blend of South American traditional music and colonialism influence. If most of it is the result of traditional folk music evolving, it would not have taken the shape it has today if it was not for the influence of Western Europe’s instruments, such as the guitar for instance, imported from Spanish settlers. There are of course many South American composers, who not only have explored their native folk traditions, but have also included instruments often left out of the orchestra — the guitar, once again, takes a much more important role than on the other side of the Atlantic. Brower, Powell, Villa-Lobos, Rodrigo are some of the most famous names, and more recently Golijov and Guarnieri have stood out. Then there are the musicians and composers inspired by Latin music, through their travels and discoveries. The influence that the music has had on European and North American classical music though, is immense; from Varèse and his “Ionisation”, Reich — throughout his entire body of work, Gershwin and his “Cuban Overture”, Bernstein with West Side Story to Copland’s El Salon Mexico, or Milhaud’s “Le Bœuf sur le toit”.

This Latin influence has been so important — in Western European culture in general too —, that nowadays we barely notice that it is here; yet it is. Through jazz and popular music — genres in which the influence has been even greater, with bossa nova, reggae, funk, and soul music amongst others. Let’s not forget indeed, that in many instances, Latin music has entered the realms of Western classical music through the door of jazz; and it is thanks to Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Charlie Haden, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Gil Evans, Paul Desmond and many others that European composers such as Leonard Bernstein discovered the intricate rhythms of latin music, and a fresh approach to harmony, melody, and rhythm!

The 30 greatest classical music artists performing today

 

Maxim Vengerov, Lise Davidsen, Yo-Yo Ma: among today’s leading classical artists. Picture: Getty/Alamy

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM

 

As Classic FM turns 30, we look at some of today’s most celebrated classical artists – one for every year since Handel’s Zadok The Priest heralded our day one.

In 2022, classical music – an artform now over a millennium old, depending on your definition of the small ‘c’ – continues to sell out some of the world’s most impressive concert halls, attract billions of video views across the Internet, and capture imaginations young and old.

And a large part of its success, is owed to the artists who bring the music to life.

To mark 30 years of Classic FM, we’ve selected 30 of the greatest classical musicians who are performing and recording today. We pay tribute to their musicianship, their star appeal, critical acclaim, and the broader impact they’ve had on music, the arts, and education worldwide.

In alphabetical order, here is our top 30...

1. Marin Alsop – conductor

   American conductor Marin Alsop has been a crucial figure in progressing classical music over the past century. With a string of ‘firsts’ to her name, her historic move to the helm of the Baltimore Symphony in 2007 made her the first woman appointed director of a major US orchestra. Today, she is chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and a staunch campaigner for music and arts education.

2. Martha Argerich – pianist

   Arguably the best living pianist, Martha Argerich is revered for her interpretations of 19th and 20th-century piano music. With Deutsche Grammophon the Argentine musician has recorded the solo works of Bach and Liszt, and concertos of Chopin and Prokofiev, and continues to perform today with concert dates coming up in Europe and the Middle East. In recent years she has devoted much of her time to supporting young musicians.

3. Alison Balsom – trumpeter

   Forward-looking, genre-crossing, with a refreshingly personable style – English trumpeter Alison Balsom is one of 2022’s classical superstars. Her latest album Quiet City, a celebration of modern American music in contrast to her 2019 celebration of the era of the natural trumpet, is No.1 in the UK’s Classical Artist Album Chart as of September 2022.

4. Daniel Barenboim – pianist

   Hailed by Opera Now as “one of the most versatile cultural figures of our time”, Argentine-born pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim is among today’s most in-demand performers on the concert stage. Currently general music director of the Berlin State Opera and Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim also founded the ground-breaking West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which aims to promote mutual understanding between Israeli and Palestinian musicians. He remains a committed chamber musician, performing regularly with friends Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-Yo Ma.

5. Joshua Bell – violinist

   Raised in Indiana, American violinist Joshua Bell has been music director of one of Britain’s foremost classical ensembles, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, since 2011. As a soloist he has recorded the great violin repertoire, and can also be heard on the soundtracks of blockbuster films including Hans Zimmer’s Angels and Demons. Ever curious about the future of music, Bell has experimented with virtual experiences, and famously conducted a social experiment on the subway in 2007. 

6. Nicola Benedetti – violinist

   Winner of a Grammy Award in 2020 for her recording of Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto, Scottish-Italian violinist Nicola Benedetti is an unstoppable force for good. Her Benedetti Foundation is changing the landscape of music education for children in Scotland and beyond, providing learning opportunities not only to young players but to music educators, too. One of today’s most thrilling and engaging musicians, she was also announced as the first woman director of the Edinburgh International Festival.

7. Khatia Buniatishvili – pianist

   French-Georgian concert pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has established herself as one of today’s foremost solo artists. Her playing comes with show-stopping style and striking sensitivity, with a focus on the big Romantics – Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky. She has dipped her toe in pop music, playing for Coldplay on their album A Head Full of Dreams, and is a social rights ambassador, playing at concerts to speak out against human rights violations, and championing equality for women and girls.

8. Gautier Capuçon – cellist

   Celebrated for his masterful tone on the instrument, Gautier Capuçon is a star French cellist and talent of today. He is the founder and leader of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and ambassador for the Orchestre à l’École Association, which brings classical music to more than 40,000 school children in France.

9. Lise Davidsen – soprano

   Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is going from strength to strength, raising bars and excitement levels across Europe’s major opera houses and concert halls. Having made her debut recording of Wagner and Strauss arias as recently as 2019, Davidsen has since performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the UK’s Royal Opera House, whose music director Antonio Pappano proclaimed, after her performance in Fidelio, that she has “a one-in-a-million voice… when she opened her mouth, we were all stunned. The voice has a light in it.”  

10. Joyce DiDonato – mezzo soprano

    With a beguiling command of the stage and a voice described by The Times as “nothing less than 24-carat gold”, American mezzo Joyce DiDonato is one of today’s most celebrated opera singers. The multi–Grammy Award winner is famed for her interpretations of Handel, Mozart and Rossini, and has had residencies at Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre. Famously, after breaking her leg on the opening night of The Barber of Seville at Covent Garden, Joyce completed the series of performances in a wheelchair, much to the delight of the public. 

11. Gustavo Dudamel – conductor

    The Venezuelan maestro’s impact is felt in three continents, his roles taking him from the helm of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, to the LA Philharmonic and the Paris Opera. In 2017 he became the youngest conductor in history to lead the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day Concert, and in 2019 he conducted the soundtrack recording for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. And we’d be remiss to mention perhaps his best-loved moment – conducting penguins on Sesame Street and bringing classical music to American children, many for the first time.

12. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – conductor

    Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified audiences in her role at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, after taking the baton from Sir Simon Rattle. Gražinytė-Tyla signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2019, and became the first female conductor ever to do so.

13. Angela Gheorghiu – soprano

    Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu is famed for her stunning interpretations of Puccini and Verdi, and her extraordinary range. At one rehearsal of her highly acclaimed 1994 La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Sir Georg Solti said: “I was in tears. I had to go out. The girl is wonderful. She can do everything.” In the 2020s, over 25 years since she created a storm on the Covent Garden stage, she’s still wowing audiences and critics alike. A great diva of our time, who we’re proud to share a birthday with!

14. Benjamin Grosvenor – pianist

    British classical pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is one of the finest in the country today, celebrated for his understated brilliance. In 2011 he signed to Decca Classics, becoming the youngest British musician ever to sign to the label and the first British pianist to sign to the label in almost 60 years. When his 2020 album of Chopin Piano Concertos won a Diapason d’Or de L’année award, the critic said the recording is “a version to rank among the best, and confirmation of an extraordinary artist”.

15. Hilary Hahn – violinist

    A fan favourite wherever she goes, Hahn is one of the 21st century’s most forward-thinking classical artists, putting her audiences first and famously holding signings after pretty much every concert. A three-time Grammy Award winner and named “America’s Best Young Classical Musician” by Time magazine, Hahn plays exquisite Bach and Sibelius, but is also an advocate for new music, and regularly commissions works by diverse contemporary composers.

16. Barbara Hannigan – conductor, soprano

    Some conduct and play – Barbara Hannigan conducts and sings, with panache. The Canadian conductor-singer is the LSO’s first ever associate artist, and a firm supporter of new music and contemporary opera. Performing across Europe with the Danish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony and Munich Philharmonic, Hannigan creates excitement and inspires awe in audiences wherever she goes, and has also established brilliant mentoring initiatives and programmes for young artists.

17. Lucie Horsch – recorder

    Putting the recorder on the map, 22-year-old Dutch rising star Lucie Horsch is in high demand as a solo artist, while also playing in baroque ensembles, symphony orchestras and in recitals. In 2022, Horsch is reframing the narrative around the humble recorder. She told Canada’s Classic 107: “The good thing is a lot of people know the instrument... but the bad side is that usually it’s a bad memory, because a lot of people were forced to play it in school. Luckily, I never was. I really chose the instrument because I thought that this is something I can do for myself.”

18. Isata Kanneh-Mason – pianist

    The eldest of seven extraordinary, musically talented siblings, including her brother Sheku with whom she recorded duet album Muse in 2022, Isata Kanneh-Mason is a brilliant pianist whose recording career has seen her champion the works of Clara Schumann, alongside more widely known 19th and 20th-century repertoire. One of today’s most in-demand young classical solo artists in the UK, she is also the recipient of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award.

19. Sheku Kanneh-Mason – cellist

    Sheku shot to fame after he performed solo to an audience of two billion at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in St George’s Chapel Windsor. Two years later, it was reported that more young people were taking up the cello than ever, thanks to ‘the Sheku effect’. Inspired to take up cello by Jacqueline du Pré’s monumental recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar made him the first cellist in history to land a place in the official UK album chart Top 10, in a groundbreaking moment for classical and pop music.

20. Jonas Kaufmann – tenor

    German tenor Jonas Kaufmann has recorded the big Italian opera roles, playing Cavaradossi in Tosca to great acclaim, but his versatility makes him just as comfortable performing in Wagner’s Die Walküre or singing German lieder. Kaufmann is outspoken on the importance of the arts in our society. In June 2020, he told the FT: “What is Germany, other than language, culture, art, architecture, music and…  well, also football? This is the essence of our society. If you destroy that, what is left?”

21. Lang Lang – pianist

    Chinese-born piano superstar Lang Lang might be classical music’s greatest showman. In 2008, an audience of four billion watched him play at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, marking the beginning of the pianist’s power to reach the masses. A music education ambassador, his Lang Lang International Music Foundation brings music to children in schools across China and beyond.

22. Yo-Yo Ma – cellist

    18-time Grammy Award winner, Yo-Yo Ma is arguably the world’s most celebrated classical cellist and has recorded music from the beloved Bach Cello Suites to American bluegrass, to traditional Chinese melodies. Born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, he appeared as a boy in a televised concert with Leonard Bernstein. Today, Ma is a cultural icon and arts ambassador, known for bringing the healing power of music to world events, from the global pandemic, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and President Joe Biden’s inauguration. 

23. Klaus Mäkelä – conductor

    Aged only 26, thrilling young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä is already at the helm of two leading European orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris, is artistic director of the Turku Music Festival in Finland, and will take up a position at the Concertgebouw orchestra from next season, becoming chief conductor from 2027. The third conductor in history to be signed exclusively to Decca, Mäkelä’s recording debut this year was an ambitious cycle of Sibelius symphonies. A true star of the future of classical music.

24. Wayne Marshall – organist

    Organist Wayne Marshall heard Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue aged eight and was spellbound. “For me, your American music is just as important as any Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Brahms,” Marshall has said. The British pianist, organist and conductor is a celebrated interpreter of Gershwin and Bernstein, among other 20th-century American composers. As a conductor, he led the first concert of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, in 2015.

25. Anne-Sophie Mutter – violinist

    A soloist and visionary, Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the world’s leading violinists, famously supported in her early career by the great Herbert von Karajan. Mutter has had several works composed for her in recent years, including by the film music legend John Williams, who penned a special Violin Concerto and rewrote his Across the Stars album for the German virtuoso. In 2022 she joined forces with Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for a special recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra.

26. Emmanuel Pahud – flautist

    Swiss-French flautist Emmanuel Pahud is one of today’s busiest classical musicians and a staunch advocate for new music, performing around 160 concerts a year, many of them premieres of flute commissions he has made. Aged 22, Pahud famously became the youngest player in the Berlin Philharmonic, and when he signed with EMI Classics in 1996, he became the only flautist in the world to have a solo recording contract with a major record company.

27. Sir Simon Rattle – conductor

    A legendary conductor of our times, Sir Simon Rattle has been music director of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2015, famously conducting the orchestra three years earlier at the London Olympics Opening Ceremony in a sketch with Rowan Atkinson. Sir Simon also led Berlin Philharmonic for 16 years, and had a long-standing relationship with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. 

28. One of the greatest classical pianists of the 20th century, Mitsuko Uchida is renowned for her peerless interpretations of Mozart and Schubert. The Japanese-born British musician was made a Dame in 2009 for her contributions to music. Aged 73, Uchida continues to record and perform, and is set to give several concerts throughout the US, Europe and Asia over the next six months, playing with major orchestras including the LSO and Berlin Philharmonic.

29. Maxim Vengerov – violinist

    Hugely popular with both younger and older audiences, Maxim Vengerov is often referred to as the greatest string player in the world today. The Russian-born Israeli violinist – who is Classic FM’s first solo artist in residence – is also internationally acclaimed as a conductor, and in 1997 became the first classical musician to be made an International Goodwill Ambassador by UNICEF, taking his violin to Uganda, Thailand and Kosovo, and playing for young children. “Helping children in need and sharing classical music with young people is perhaps the greatest responsibility of my life,” Vengerov said. 

30. Yuja Wang – pianist

    One of today’s most popular pianists, Yuja Wang sells out the world’s concert halls with her virtuosic Mozart, Rachmaninov and Liszt. A formidable force at the piano, Wang has exquisite technique and dynamic control, her performances exhilarating from start to finish. Wang firmly believes in the excitement and spontaneity of live music-making telling the New York Times, “I firmly believe every program should have its own life, and be a representation of how I feel at the moment”.

Famous Music Composers New York

by Hermione Lai, Interlude

 

Lincoln Center

In 1944, Leonard Bernstein wrote music for the musical On the Town. It tells the story of three sailors on shore leave for their 24 hours of adventures and romance in New York City. The song “New York, New York,” with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green features the well-known line:

New York, New York, a helluva town
The Bronx is up but Battery’s down.

New York City

For the 1949 MGM film the word “helluva” was changed to “wonderful” to protect delicate sensibilities. I’ve been to New York a couple of times, and it is still a helluva town. There is around the clock excitement including Broadway shows, museums, historical attractions, and some of the best restaurants on the planet. And for every lover of classical music, there is no better place to visit than Lincoln Center to catch the NY Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School of Music; in all 11 resident arts organizations presenting music, theater, dance, film, opera and artists from across the globe. Did I already mention Carnegie hall? The city of New York was, and still is, home to countless famous music composers, so I decided to write a blog on celebrated composers either born in New York or famously active in that city.

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Talking about Leonard Bernstein, although he was born in Massachusetts, he made NYC his permanent home. He lived in various apartments in Manhattan, and as the first American-born conductor of a major American symphony orchestra, he led the New York Philharmonic to world fame. It is no surprise that his most popular musical for Broadway, West Side Story, is set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. 

George Frederick Bristow

George Frederick Bristow

Leonard Bernstein is considered “one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history,” but famous music composers of New York can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century. George Frederick Bristow was born in the New York borough of Brooklyn on 19 December 1825. Musically precocious, he started his professional career as a violinist at the age of 13 and played first violin with the New York Philharmonic SO from 1843 to 1879. Bristow was also active as a conductor, and he led the New York Harmonic Society (1851–63) and the Mendelssohn Society (1867–71) in performances of large choral and orchestral works. I read that Bristow attempted to establish a “native style in American art music.” As such, we frequently find American titles or textual content in his compositions, for example, “Rip Van Winkle” “The Great Republic” “Columbus” and “The Pioneer.” Nationalist titles aside, scholars write “his music was typically European in style, reminiscent of the music of Mendelssohn.” In all, Bristow appears to have written 135 compositions, and on the strength of this output alone, he should certainly be considered one of the famous music composers of New York. 

George Gershwin

George Gershwin, 1935

The best-known and most famous music composer of New York is undoubtedly George Gershwin. Born in Brooklyn, he grew up on New York’s Lower East Side, and at the age of 15, he already worked for the Tin Pan Alley music-publishing firm of Jerome H. Remick & Company as a song plugger. Basically, that means he was engaged as a salesman to promote the firm’s songs by playing and singing them for performers. In 1918 he signed a contract with Thomas B. Harms Music Publishing Company, a firm that eventually published over 90 percent of all Broadway songs. Gershwin lived the American dream, and since he composed sometimes up to 6 songs a day, he made a financial killing. “For the longest time,” as he later wrote in life “I wanted to work at big compositions” and within a couple of years, he developed from a songwriter into a composer. Gershwin “primarily synthesized and utilized elements of many styles, including the music of New York’s Yiddish theatre, vaudeville, ragtime, operetta, jazz, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs, the music of the Gullah people and the impressionist and post-Romantic music of European composers.” Intimately connected with New York City, his Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F “ brought jazz music into the concert hall.” 

John Zorn

John Zorn

The metaphor of calling New York City a melting pot dates from the beginning of the 20th century. Then as now, it is home to a unique diversity of people, and over 800 languages are spoken throughout its 5 boroughs. That kind of diversity is expressed in glorious food, areas of different religions and cultures, and music. Currently, a Manhattan-based scene that is sometimes called “New Music” has emerged. As a contemporary musical stream, its composers are strongly influenced by minimalism and the various musical styles of the community. John Zorn, born in New York City, writes about his compositions. “All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I’m an additive person—the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can’t see the connections, but they are there.” Reminiscent of Gershwin’s eclecticism, Zorn uses avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation, “inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music.” Zorn explains, “I write in moments, in disparate sound blocks, so I find it convenient to store these events on filing cards so they can be sorted and ordered with minimum effort. Pacing is essential. If you move too fast, people tend to stop hearing the individual moments as complete in themselves and more as elements of a sort of cloud effect… I worked 10 to 12 hours a day for a week, just orchestrating these file cards.” Critics have called Zorn “one of the most influential musicians of our time,” and he is certainly one of the famous contemporary music composers of New York. 

Edward MacDowell

Edward MacDowell

Although he spent the majority of his professional life in Boston, Edward MacDowell was born in New York City. Coming from a Quaker background, young Edward showed great talent for drawing and music at an early age, and he started piano and violin lessons at the age of 8. Destined for greatness, his mother took him to Paris to attend the Conservatoire, but he soon left for Germany to study composition with Joachim Raff. We also know that he played for Franz Liszt at conservatory concerts, and that the great virtuosos recommended some early MacDowell compositions for publication by Breitkopf & Härtel. Returning to the United States, MacDowell and his wife lived in Boston from 1888 to 1896, from then on in New York until his death in 1908. MacDowell described “music as a language, but a language of the intangible, a kind of soul language.” While the romantic tradition in music never lost its relevance and importance, MacDowell eventually began using elements of American folk music in his compositions, and “his two piano concertos are described as the “most important works in the genre by an American composer other than Gershwin. His first piano concerto premiered in New York in 1888, and he returned the following year to premiere his second. 

William Schuman

William Schuman

When it comes to performing arts education, the Juilliard School in New York City is considered one of the best drama, music, and dance schools in the world. Founded by Frank Damrosch, the godson of Franz Liszt in 1905, the conservatory quickly convinced American musicians that they did not need to go abroad for advanced study. In 1945, composer William Schuman expanded the school’s curriculum by establishing a Dance Division under the direction of Martha Hill and he also established the Juilliard String Quartet “alongside a groundbreaking music theory curriculum.” Schuman was born in Manhattan and later enrolled at New York University to pursue a business degree. He already dabbled in composition when on 13 April 1930 he attended a Carnegie Hall concert of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Schuman later said of that experience, “I was astounded at seeing the sea of stringed instruments, and everybody bowing together. The visual thing alone was astonishing. But the sound! I was overwhelmed. I had never heard anything like it. The very next day, I decided to become a composer.” While Schuman’s recollections of events might not have been entirely accurate, he did become one of the famous music composers of New York. Schuman won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943 for his Cantata No. 2 “A Free Song,” and conductor Leonard Slatkin wrote, “Schuman is the man who may eventually emerge as the great American symphonist.

Marion Bauer

Marion Bauer

Marion Eugénie Bauer was born in Washington, but showing an early aptitude for music, she moved to New York City to focus on a career in composition. She met the pianist Raoul Pugno, and he invited Bauer to study with him in Paris in 1906. In turn, Bauer became the first American to study with Nadia Boulanger. For the next decade Bauer moved between New York City and Europe, but in September 1926 she was hired as instructor, and later professor, at the New York University music department, becoming the first female music faculty. She taught classes in composition, form and analysis, aesthetics and criticism, and music history and appreciation. As a composer, Bauer wrote for piano, chamber ensemble, symphonic orchestra, solo voice, and vocal ensembles. Always an advocate of contemporary music, her own compositional voice is considered relatively conservative, featuring plenty of impressionistic and romantic influences in her works. Following a concert exclusively devoted to her music in New York Town Hall in 1951, a critic writes, “The music is prevailingly contrapuntal, and dissonance is not absent. Yet the fundamental concept is melodic, the thinking clear and logical, the sentiment sincere and direct.” 

John Corigliano

John Corigliano

John Corigliano was born in New York City in 1938, son of John Corigliano Sr., the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for 23 years. He studied at Columbia University, worked as a music programmer and music director for New York City radio stations, and worked as an assistant to the producer on the Leonard Bernstein “Young People’s Concert.” Corigliano achieved international recognition by winning the chamber-music competition of the Spoleto Festival in Italy with a Sonata for Violin and Piano. He soon collaborated with mainstream musicians and institutions, and “his oft-stated commitment to intelligibility and his mostly tonal early works have sometimes obscured the extent of his technical range and his often daunting progressivism.” To be sure, Corigliano is an eclectic composer who is not afraid to use many styles in his writing. “He is also a colorist,” according to a conductor, “as he is able to use whatever instruments and vocal forces he has at hand to create new sound worlds.” He has won a Pulitzer, an Oscar and five Grammys, and he explains “When I was writing my early pieces, I did it in a hyper way because for me, composing was such a nerve-racking thing to do. Now, the whole note is my friend; an adagio is what I look for.” 

Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter, born in New York City, is one of the most famous music composers of the second half of the 20th century. His compositions are performed throughout the world, as his musical language combines elements of European modernism and “American ultra-modernism in a distinctive style of surging rhythmic vitality, intense dramatic contrast, and innovative facture.” He studied at Harvard and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger, and upon his return to the United States, he settled in New York. In his Cello Sonata, Carter was looking to “re-examine all aspects of music in order to achieve an emancipated musical discourse, in which a new rhythmic texture brought with it a harmonic language, establishing a new emotional intensity and breadth, and giving his music an epic quality.” Carter held teaching positions at the Peabody Conservatory (1946–8), Columbia University (1948–50), Queens College, CUNY (1955–6), Yale University (1960–62), MIT, and Cornell University (from 1967). His one long-term teaching position was at the Juilliard School (1964–84). His numerous honors include two Pulitzer Prizes (1960, 1973), the Sibelius Medal (1961), the Gold Medal of the National Institute for Arts and Letters (1971), the Ernst von Siemens Prize (1985), the National Medal of the Arts (1985), the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1996), the Prince Rainier Foundation Music Award (1998), and induction into the Classical Music Hall of Fame (1998). 

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland, 1933

In this little blog, it is of course impossible to describe in detail the countless famous music composers of New York, but I might at least mention William Fry, Charles Griffes, Leo Ornstein, Rubin Goldmark, Rogger Sessions, Gunther Schuller, Leon Kirchner, Bernard Herrmann, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson and a whole crop of young and exciting composers either born or calling New York home. It might be fitting to close with the “Dean of American Composers” Aaron Copland, born in the borough of Brooklyn on 14 November 1900. One of America’s greatest contemporary composers, he was able to capture the American experience with works that have an immediate appeal. As he wrote, “I no longer feel the need of seeking out conscious Americanism. Because we live here and work here, we can be certain that when our music is mature it will also be American in quality.” Copland had long felt an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations between the music-loving public and the living composer. He wrote, “It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.” He quickly realized that the radio, phonographs, and film scores were actually creating contemporary music. “It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. It was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.” To me, Aaron Copland is simply a legend, and certainly one of the most famous music composers of New York.