<Portal:Music

The only knownphotograph ofFrédéric Chopin, often incorrectly described as adaguerreotype. It is believed to have been taken in 1849 during the degenerative stages of histuberculosis, shortly before his death. Chopin, aPolishpianist andcomposer of theRomantic era, is widely regarded as one of the most famous, influential, admired and prolific composers for the piano. He moved toParis at the age of twenty, adopting theFrench variant of his name, "Frédéric-François", by which he is now known.

Louis Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo" or "Pops", was an Americanjazztrumpeter and singer. Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser and as ascat singer.

Abust of the Germancomposer andpianistLudwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), made from hisdeath mask. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between theClassical andRomantic eras inWestern classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time. Born inBonn, of theElectorate of Cologne and a part of theHoly Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-dayGermany, he moved toVienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying withJoseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as avirtuoso pianist. Hishearing began todeteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose,conduct, and perform, even after becomingcompletely deaf.

Vexi Salmi is a popular Finnishlyricist who has become popular through the successes of theplatinum-selling music artists for whom he writes. During his prolific career, he has written the lyrics for over 4,000 songs, more than 2,400 of which have been recorded by prominent artists such asIrwin Goodman,Jari Sillanpää, andKatri Helena. A music writer's award, the Vexi Salmi Award, is named after him.

Hera is an Icelandicsinger-songwriter who emigrated to New Zealand as a teenager. She is known for her facial art, which is "inspired bymoko and also byCeltic warrior paint" and intended to represent both her Icelandic and New Zealand heritage. In 2002 she was named Best Female Singer at the Icelandic Music Awards.

Alexz Johnson (b. 1986) is a Canadiansinger-songwriter and actress, best known for roles as Jude Harrison in theCTV seriesInstant Star (character shown here), Annie Thelan in theDisney Channel seriesSo Weird, and as Erin Ulmer in the 2006 horror filmFinal Destination 3. Her albumVoodoo was released in 2010.

Lina Rafn (b. 1976) is a Danish singer, songwriter and producer active with the bandInfernal. She had previously been aVJ on the showThe Voice TV Danmark.

Oceana (born 1982) is a German singer of German/Martiniquen descent. She is shown here performing at theRadio Hamburg Top 820.

Griselda is anopera seria in three acts by the Italian composerAlessandro Scarlatti. First performed in 1721, it is based on the story ofPatient Griselda fromGiovanni Boccaccio'sDecameron. Thelibretto is byApostolo Zeno, with revisions by an anonymous author. This manuscript copy by Scarlatti, held at theBritish Library, is of act one, scene one.

Henrik Freischlader (b. 1982) is a German blues guitarist and singer. He began his career in 1998, and established his own label, Cable Car Records, in 2009.

Ane Brun (b. 1976) is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. She has recorded eight albums, starting in 2003 withSpending Time with Morgan.

Simon Neil (b. 1979) is aScottishvocalist,guitarist, andsongwriter. Born inIrvine, he established the bandBiffy Clyro in 1995 withJames andBen Johnston. He has also played with JP Reid ofSucioperro inMarmaduke Duke, using thepseudonym "The Atmosphere", and started a solo career.

TheZürich Opera House is anopera house in theSwiss city ofZürich. Located at theSechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of theZürich Opera since the current building was completed in 1891. It also houses theBernhard-Theater Zürich.

American singerElvis Presley meeting then-presidentRichard Nixon on December 21, 1970. During the meeting, the singer expressed his patriotism and his contempt forhippies, the growingdrug culture, and thecounterculture in general. Presley then asked Nixon for aBureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon gave Presley the badge and expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important he retain his credibility.

L'éclair is anopéra comique in three acts byFromental Halévy to alibretto byJules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Premiered by the ParisOpéra-Comique at theSalle de la Bourse on 16 December 1835, the opera was well received. It follows the amours of the Englishman George and the American Lyonel for two sisters, the bachelorette Henriette and the widow Mme. Darbel.

Franz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer mainly known for hisoperettas, the most successful and best known beingThe Merry Widow. He also wrotesonatas,symphonic poems andmarches.

Nina Sublatti (b. 1995) is aGeorgian singer, songwriter, and model. Having previously won the 2013 Georgian edition ofIdol, she achieved international attention when sherepresented her country inEurovision Song Contest 2015 with her song "Warrior". She has since served as a judge onX Factor Georgia andIdols.

Mike Dirnt (b. 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and composer. He is best known as the co-founder,bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist of American punk rock bandGreen Day. He has played in several other bands, includingThe Frustrators.

Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) was a Danish musician, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Initially playing in a military band before attending theRoyal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, he premiered hisOp. 1,Suite for Strings, in 1888, at the age of 23. His early music was inspired by composers such asBrahms andGrieg, but he soon developed his own style. By the time of his death, he had produced419 known works; some of these, such as his operaMaskarade (1906), have become integral to Denmark's national heritage.

Aida is an opera in four acts byGiuseppe Verdi to an Italianlibretto byAntonio Ghislanzoni. Set in theOld Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo'sKhedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted byGiovanni Bottesini.This picture shows the set for a performance ofAida by theIsraeli Opera in 2011.

Hayley Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. She serves as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter and occasional keyboardist of therock bandParamore. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Williams moved to Franklin, Tennessee, at the age of fifteen after her parents divorced. In 2004, she formed Paramore alongsideJosh Farro,Zac Farro, andJeremy Davis. The band currently consists of Williams, Farro and Taylor York. They have released five studio albums:All We Know Is Falling (2005),Riot! (2007),Brand New Eyes (2009),Paramore (2013) andAfter Laughter (2017).

Médée is a French-language opera by the composerLuigi Cherubini. Set in the ancient city ofCorinth, Greece, it features alibretto byFrançois-Benoît Hoffman and is based onEuripides'stragic playMedea andPierre Corneille's playMédée. The opera premiered in 1797 at theThéâtre Feydeau in Paris. The long-lost finalaria, which Cherubini appears to have deleted from his original manuscript, was discovered by researchers from theUniversity of Manchester andStanford University by employing X-ray techniques to reveal areas that the composer had blackened out.This picture shows the title page for a vocal score of the 1909 hybrid version ofMédée.

Thomas Linley the elder (17 January 1733 – 19 November 1795) was an Englishbass singer and musician. He began his musical career at age 11 inBath, becoming apprentice to the organistThomas Chilcot. Linley married in 1752 and fathered eight children, supporting the family by working as a music teacher. As his children grew he developed their musical talent and was able to draw an increasing amount of income from their concerts. When theBath Assembly Rooms opened in 1771, Linley became musical director and continued to promote his children's careers. He was eventually able to move to London with the thousands of pounds which he had amassed from their concerts. In addition to his children Linley taught tenorCharles Dignum, singer and actressAnna Maria Crouch, and novelistFrances Sheridan. He collaborated with his sonThomas Linley the younger in penning the comic operaThe Duenna, withlibretto by his son-in-lawRichard Brinsley Sheridan.This picture is anoil-on-canvas painting created around 1770 byThomas Gainsborough, showing Linley holding his "Elegies for Three Voices". It hangs in theDulwich Picture Gallery, London.

Ariadne auf Naxos ('Ariadne onNaxos'),Op. 60, is an opera byRichard Strauss with a Germanlibretto byHugo von Hofmannsthal. Combining slapstick comedy and consummately beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention. The opera was originally conceived as a 30-minutedivertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation ofMolière's playLe Bourgeois gentilhomme. Besides the opera, Strauss providedincidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera was ninety minutes long, and the performance of the play and opera together totalled over six hours. It was first performed at theStaatsoper Stuttgart on 25 October 1912, directed byMax Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished. The work was revised in 1916, with the play being replaced by a prologue, and first performed at theVienna State Opera on 4 October of that year.This picture is the cover of avocal score of the revised edition ofAriadne auf Naxos, published in 1916.

Aida is agrand opera in four acts byGiuseppe Verdi to an Italianlibretto byAntonio Ghislanzoni. Set in theOld Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo'sKhedivial Opera House and had its premiere there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted byGiovanni Bottesini. Today, the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York'sMetropolitan Opera alone,Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886.This picture is the set design for Act 1, Scene 2, of the opera's 1871 premiere, depicting theportico of the Temple of Vulcan, designed byPhilippe Chaperon. The drawing is in the collection of theBibliothèque nationale de France.

William Grant Still (1895–1978) was an Americancomposer of nearly 200 works, including fivesymphonies and nineoperas. Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by theNew York City Opera. His first symphony, entitledAfro-American Symphony, was until 1950 the most widely performed symphony composed by an American. Born in Mississippi, he grew up inLittle Rock, Arkansas, attendedWilberforce University andOberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student ofGeorge Whitefield Chadwick and laterEdgard Varèse. Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphonyorchestra and the first to have an opera performed on national television. Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, he is considered to be part of theHarlem Renaissance movement.This picture of Still was taken byCarl Van Vechten in 1949; the photograph is in the collection of theLibrary of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of theRomantic era, best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death, he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, fromopéra comique to grand depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies and lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading opera composer in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the time of his death, he was regarded as old-fashioned; his works, however, began to be favourably reassessed during the mid-20th century, and many have since been staged and recorded. This photograph of Massenet was taken by French photographerEugène Pirou in 1875.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an English composer and conductor. His greatest success was hiscantataHiawatha's Wedding Feast. This set the epic poemThe Song of Hiawatha byHenry Wadsworth Longfellow to music, and was widely performed by choral groups in England and the United States. Composers were not well paid; the work sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but he had sold the music outright for the sum of 15 guineas, so did not benefit directly. He learned to retain his rights and earned royalties for other compositions after achieving wide renown, but always struggled financially. This photograph of Coleridge-Taylor was taken around 1905.

Nicholas Lanier (baptised 10 September 1588 – buried 24 February 1666) was an English composer and musician; the first to hold the title ofMaster of the King's Music, in the service ofCharles I andCharles II. He was one of the first composers to introducemonody andrecitative to England. After this oil-on-canvas portrait was painted by the Flemish painterAnthony van Dyck in Antwerp, Lanier convinced the king to bring van Dyck to England, where he became the leading court painter. The portrait displays an attitude of studied carelessness, often termedsprezzatura, defined as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". The painting now hangs in theKunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an Americanblues singer widely renowned during theJazz Age. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.Born inChattanooga, Tennessee, her parents died when Smith was young, and she and her sister survived by performing on the streets ofChattanooga, Tennessee. She began touring and performed in a group that includedMa Rainey, and then went out on her own. Her successful recording career began in the 1920s, until an automobile accident ended her life at age 43.

Thelonious Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an Americanjazz pianist and composer, and the second-most-recorded jazz composer afterDuke Ellington. He had a uniqueimprovisational style and famously remarked, "The piano ain't got no wrong notes". He made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including"'Round Midnight", anda wide range of other compositions. He was renowned for a distinctive dress style, which included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He had disappeared from the scene by the mid-1970s and made only a few appearances during the final decade of his life. This 1947 photograph of Monk was taken by the American photographerWilliam P. Gottlieb inMinton's Playhouse, a jazz club in New York.

Johann Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899) was anAustrian composer oflight music, particularlydance music andoperettas. Part of the Strauss dynasty,his father demanded that none of his sons pursue music as a career, despite their display of musical talent. It was only after his father had abandoned the family for a mistress that the younger Strauss was able to develop his skills as a composer, with the encouragement of his mother. He eventually attained greater fame than his father, and became one of the most popularwaltz composers of the era, conducting extensive tours of Austria, Poland and Germany with his orchestra.

Billy Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an Americanjazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, best remembered for his long-time collaboration with bandleader and composerDuke Ellington that lasted nearly three decades. Though classical music was Strayhorn's first love, his ambition to become a classical composer went unrealized because of the harsh reality of a black man trying to make his way in the world of classical music, which at that time was almost completely white. He was introduced to the music of pianists likeArt Tatum andTeddy Wilson at age 19, and the artistic influence of these musicians guided him into the realm of jazz, where he remained for the rest of his life. This photograph of Strayhorn was taken byWilliam P. Gottlieb in the 1940s.

Fervaal is an opera with a prologue and three acts by the French composerVincent d'Indy. Fervaal is the son of a Celtic king and is destined to be the last advocate of the old gods. His mission is to save his homeland from invasion and pillage, but in doing so he must renounce love. This illustration, by the Swiss painterCarlos Schwabe, relates to the 10 May 1898 premiere of the opera at theThéâtre de l'Opéra-Comique in Paris. Here, Fervaal is depicted ascending a mountain while carrying the body of his beloved Guilhen at the end of the opera, as the pagan gods and their worshippers fade out of existence with the dawn of Christianity.

Les Troyens (The Trojans) is a Frenchgrand opera in five acts byHector Berlioz, with alibretto written by the composer himself based onVirgil'sAeneid. The score was composed between 1856 and 1858, but Berlioz did not live long enough to see the work performed in its entirety. The first two acts were performed separately under the titleLa Prise de Troie. This picture shows the cover of the first-editionvocal score forLa Prise de Troie, published in 1863.

Le mage is anopera in five acts byJules Massenet to a Frenchlibretto byJean Richepin. First performed at theParis Opera in 1891, it has rarely been performed since its premiere run of 31 performances, and is one of Massenet's least-known operas. A rare complete concert performance took place at theMassenet Festival inSaint-Étienne in 2012. This poster byAlfredo Edel was produced for the opera's premiere on 16 March 1891.

Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an Americanjazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records. Williams wrote and arranged forDuke Ellington andBenny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor and teacher to numerous other jazz musicians. The second of eleven children, she was born inAtlanta, Georgia, and grew up in theEast Liberty neighborhood ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A young musical prodigy, she taught herself to play the piano at the age of three. This photograph of Williams at the piano was taken byWilliam P. Gottlieb around 1946.

Nelly Martyl (1884–1953) was a French opera singer. She sang in the premieres of several operas, includingLeborne'sLa Catalane (1907),Erlanger'sLa Sorcière (1912), andMassenet'sAmadis (1922). Martyl joined theRed Cross as a nurse during the First World War, and served at theBattle of Verdun in 1916, where she was known asla fée de Verdun (the Fairy of Verdun), and at theSecond Battle of the Aisne in 1917. She continued as a nurse after the war to help with the 1918 epidemic ofSpanish flu. She was awarded theCroix de Guerre with thecarte du combattant (signifying service under particular hazard) in 1920.