News archive – Musical anniversaries
2020: Not Just Beethoven!
Happy New Year! As in past years, we would like to take a look at musical anniversaries for the next twelve months. It goes without saying that Beethoven will play a large role at RISM in 2020 but there are also over other 1,300 people to discover: composers, librettists, performers,...
9 January 2020
From Improvisation to Composition
Guido Kraus from the RISM Central Office has written the following to mark the 170th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s death: What was Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) thinking of when he improvised and composed? He probably found new ways to creatively combine what he had just heard in his improvisations with what...
17 October 2019
The 200th Anniversary of the Death of Nicolas Roze
Today, 30 September 2019, is the 200th anniversary of the death of French music teacher and composer Nicolas Roze (17 January 1745, Bourg-Neuf – 30 September 1819, Saint-Mandé). Early on, he was on a path to become a priest and in 1752 he was a choirboy at the collegiate church...
30 September 2019
The 100th Anniversary of Adelina Patti's Death
As is revealed by the milestones of her life, Adelina Patti (1843–1919) was a genuine world star. Born the daughter of Italian parents in Madrid, Patti grew up in New York, was active mainly in London, and died 100 years ago tomorrow in Wales (Craig-y-Nos Castle). Her concert tours took...
26 September 2019
Happy Birthday, Clara Wieck-Schumann!
We have received the following from Marina Schieke-Gordienko, Division Head, Music Department, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. A longer version of this appeared in Bibliotheksmagazin (2/2019). Clara Wieck-Schumann was probably the most famous pianist of the 19th century, but she was also a composer, editor, piano teacher, and concert...
12 September 2019
Caroline Pichler at 250
Caroline von Greiner was born on 7 September 1769 in Vienna. She was an Austrian writer and poet who was born into an artistic family. In 1796 she married Andreas Pichler (1764–1837), a secretary in the government. She hosted a salon in Vienna for many years that was visited by...
5 September 2019
A Surprise Publication from 1619
Almost exactly 400 years ago in Rome, Luca Antonio Soldi (ca. 1558-1627) published the second collection of Concertini a due a tre, et a quattro voci di Gregorio Allegri con il Basso continuo. The first publication of 1618 unfortunately has not survived. The collection of motets for two to five...
19 August 2019
Théodore Gouvy at 200
After having recently celebrated the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach, today we turn to (Louis) Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898), a composer who not only shares this anniversary year with him but who also has a French/German background. Born in Goffontaine (today in Saarbrücken, Germany), Gouvy devoted himself to music after abandoning...
4 July 2019
The Jacques Offenbach Year: Clichés and Legends
The following is a guest post by Dr. Ralf-Olivier Schwarz (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main), author of the new book Jacques Offenbach – ein europäisches Porträt (Böhlau: Köln and Wien, 2018). For the full post, please see the German version of this page. The music world...
19 June 2019
Marianna von Martines (1744-1812) at 275
This Saturday marks the 275th birthday of Marianna von Martines (1744-1812). It is especially thanks to Irving Godt (and his book Marianna Martines: A Woman Composer in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn) that Martines receives the recognition today that does justice to her importance in (Viennese) musical life. The...
2 May 2019
