February 3 - Johann Georg Albrechtsberger; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 3rd are here: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Felix Mendelssohn (2020) and Mabel Mercer (2021)

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Johann George Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Your Work In

 

His fame as a theorist attracted a large number of pupils to him, including Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles, Anton Reicha, and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. -- adapted from Wikipedia

 

Albrechtsberger has a reputation

  As something of a contrapuntal drudge,

But sometimes in ones music education

  One need some firm direction, not a nudge,

If those he taught are any indication,

  We’d best be very careful when we judge.

 

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

 

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525 – 2 February 1594) was one of the great composers of all time.  We do not, in fact, know when he was born, but 3 February turns up in some sources, so we are somewhat arbitrarily adopting that here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When in Rome

Let me take a little while

To praise the Palestrina style –

Smoothly elegant and flowing,

Once it starts, it just keeps going,

Shunning dissonance on strong beats,

Never texting on the wrong beats,

Then it reaches proper closure

With a consonant composure.

 

 

 

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