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a biographical dictionary of musicians

by theodore baker

Entertainment » Music

Added by: J. Flowers

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Theodore Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians is a classic work of musical biography. It presents 2400 entries of hundreds of composers, conductors, singers, and instrumental virtuosos, as well as important scholars, critics, teachers, librettists, patrons, and impresarios from every country and every period of music. Brief but substantial, it can by right be considered an encyclopedia of a world of music, due to its extensive, well-detailed review of classical and modern music luminaries.

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...impression that he published an enthusiastic article, " Neue Bahnen [New Paths], in the " Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, " hailing B. As the coming hero among com- posers. However, a number of compositions, among them the three pf. -sonatas and three books of songs, publ. At Schumann's instigation, failed of popular appre- ciation. B. Now served for a time as conductor of the Prince of Lippe-Uetmold's orchestra ; the years 185S-62 he spent in diligent study at Plam- burg. â€” Although B. , from the outset, confronted the public (to employ Schumann's dictum) " fully equipped, as Minerva sprang from the brain of Jupiter, " his earlier compositions show a prepon- derance of technical learning ; they follow classic models, and do not bear the stamp of individual- ity. But in the Serenades for orchestra (1 860-1) he already relegates theoretical science to its proper position as a means to an end. In 1862 he went to Vienna, and acted as conductor of the Singakademie in 1863-4 ; from 1864-9 ne...