2021-2022 Mystery Composer Contest
We are off and running!
Students received their first "clue" at the August Group Lessons. We discussed the list of composers I take the current year's Mystery Composer (M.C.) from, the list of former Mystery Composers and a description of the general historical periods of music. Additional clues are handed out at the October, December and January Group Lessons. The February Group Lesson is spent on the history and music of that year's Mystery Composer. As each Group Week is completed, I will post the clue in this section. See below for August's clues.
Rules of the contest are:
Prizes:
Happy Research!!
Students received their first "clue" at the August Group Lessons. We discussed the list of composers I take the current year's Mystery Composer (M.C.) from, the list of former Mystery Composers and a description of the general historical periods of music. Additional clues are handed out at the October, December and January Group Lessons. The February Group Lesson is spent on the history and music of that year's Mystery Composer. As each Group Week is completed, I will post the clue in this section. See below for August's clues.
Rules of the contest are:
- Middle School and High School Students must do their own research. They may use the internet, the library, books you have at home, or even attendance/participation in concerts.
- Early elementary students may have parental help at the computer. Parents, please do not do the work for students--let them figure out how to use the clues to search for their information needed. You may "guide" your student by asking them leading questions.
- You must email the results of your research (no telephone conversations or texts, please) for I print the correspondence and place in your Group Notebook. In order for you to receive a correct answer you must include the following:
- Name of the Mystery Composer
- Dates of birth and death (unless still living)
- Why did you pick this particular composer? Which part of my clue did you use?
- If used, list any and all websites you searched.
- Include the name of at least two compositions by M.C.
- I will answer your email as soon as possible with either a "congratulations" or a "hmm.....this part is good but I need (fill in the blank)."
- There will be ties. Group lessons are held on 2 different days in the week; each group will be allowed the same amount of time for students to research and turn in the results of that research. I will say that the competition in the High School Group has been rather cutthroat in the last 10 years. The contest now is not for which level of prize to aim for but to see who can qualify for the grand prize in the shortest amount of time. This makes for very interesting and fun emails.
Prizes:
- Grand Prize: $20.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes & Noble
- Group Prize: $15.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes & Noble
- Honorable Mention: $10.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes & Noble
Happy Research!!
M.C. Contest WinnersWinners of the various levels of prizes will be posted on this website one week after Group Week. This will allow all students in all Groups (including those who missed Group) the same amount of time for research. Good Luck!
M.C. Winners (2021-2022). M.C. CluesAugust 2021Links to two of the clues are: List of Composers; Previous Mystery Composers
Ages of Music
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German Clavichord
(replica) |
above: Flemish Harpsichord
(replica) right: Pipe Organ |
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Classical Period (1740 - 1830)
This age saw the rise of the "pianoforte" or "fortepiano" (terms intermixed) and the orchestra as we know it today. The pianoforte used strings that were struck by a hammer. For the first time a performer could produce both soft and loud sounds at the same time on a keyboard stringed instrument by changing the amount of weight used in his hand each time he struck a key. This instrument combined the new "hammer action" with the case and materials of the harpsichord producing a new type of keyboard sound. Due to the Age of Reason, the influence of the church on people's lives started slipping; instead of church music being the emphasis, music for entertainment became as important as church music. Opera became the grand form of composing with keyboard music seeing a rise in the sonata (three and four movements) and concerto forms. Dances were still composed but no longer in the five to eight movement suites of the Baroque. Theme and variations were also still composed but now geared toward a melody with chordal accompaniment. The Alberti bass became a favorite tool for the left hand in keyboard music emphasizing the homophonic and melodic structure.
A replica of a Viennese Pianoforte (Stein)
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Bartolomeo Christofori's 1720 Fortepiano (Italian)
Housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it is the oldest surviving piano. |
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The Mozart Vienna Orchestra
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Haydn's opera La Canterina
(The Diva) |
Romantic Period (1810 - 1910)
This era saw the perfection of the modern day piano. this instrument was enlarged and perfected in its action, pedals, frames, and sound boards. The piano now used large metal frames inside the wood casings. Concert grands were as large as nine feet long and able to produce a wide range of sound. Other pianos were square, thin and tall, or rectangular in order to fit into the homes of the now large middle class. Composing for, and playing, the organ came back in style with the improvements of wind supply and the ability to have huge, orchestral organs. Virtuoso playing, chromatic harmony, the um-pah-pah bass and idiomatic keyboard figures were the standard of the day. Leaving the courts (many "courts" were disappearing), music was performed in concert halls. Forms include program and character pieces, rhapsodies, fantasy sonatas and concertos, two-piano works, and etudes along with the ever evolving sonata, concertos, and variations.
Above: square piano ca 1880
right: upright grand piano ca 1900 
Above: Steinway Concert Grand
right: steel plate/soundboard |
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Victorian era "home" piano
1870 Chickering Grand Piano
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20th Century/Contemporary/Modern (1900 - present)
The last century has seen a theme and variation on the keyboard instrument. Today we use the organ, piano, celesta, harpsichord, electronic keyboards, digital keyboards, even I-pads and I-phones and can perform on an instrument while being accompanied at the same time by that very same instrument. This is the age of experiments in harmony, tonality, and sonority. Various percussive touches, a return to motivic and polyphonic writing and complex meters are also used. Taped sounds can be used as well as "prepared" instruments. Music is performed in concert halls, churches, auditoriums, stadiums, arenas and even on our smart phones or I-Pads. The musical theatre is important as are the scores of movies (think of Phantom of the Opera or the Harry Potter series). We can also hear music of any kind and age on the radio, television, recordings, computer and, once again, our smart phones. Forms used are those of the past as well as "chance" pieces and through composed.
Moog Synthesizer. Switched-On Bach anyone?
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Clavinova digital piano, circa 1990.
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Electric piano, circa 1975.
Yamaha digital Grand piano, 2017.
Left: C.24 Wireless I-Pad Piano Keyboard. |
October 2021
Nothing in M.C.'s early years or in his family history indicated that he might attain such heights of fame. He was the second son of humble parents. His father was a wheelwright*; his mother, before her marriage, was a cook for the lords of the village. The composer's grandfather and great-grandfather had also been wheelwrights. M.C.'s father harbored a love of music and developed a small talent for singing and playing the harp. Neither parent could read music; however, according to M.C.'s later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical and frequently sang tighter and with their neighbors.
M.C. was a true representative of the Enlightenment.** His optimistic approach to life; his striving for a balance between intellect and emotion; his sense of moderation, leading to the avoidance of strongly discordant moods; all these found expression in his music and were appreciated by his contemporaries. Music lovers also found irresistible the nobility and deceptive simplicity of his idiocy, sparked by delightful outbreaks of humor.
*Wheelwright: a person who makes wooden wheels for wagons, carriages, and riding chairs.
**Enlightenment: an intellectual and cultural movement that dominated Europe during the 18th century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith. It supported such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. This period is also called the Age of Reason.
M.C. was a true representative of the Enlightenment.** His optimistic approach to life; his striving for a balance between intellect and emotion; his sense of moderation, leading to the avoidance of strongly discordant moods; all these found expression in his music and were appreciated by his contemporaries. Music lovers also found irresistible the nobility and deceptive simplicity of his idiocy, sparked by delightful outbreaks of humor.
*Wheelwright: a person who makes wooden wheels for wagons, carriages, and riding chairs.
**Enlightenment: an intellectual and cultural movement that dominated Europe during the 18th century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith. It supported such ideals as liberty, progress, tolerance, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. This period is also called the Age of Reason.
December 2021
M.C.'s musical abilities developed early. When he was only six, he was sent away to the nearby town of Hainburg on the Danube to study music, principally singing. There, a few miles upstream from Bratislava, the boy lived and studied with the town schoolmaster, a distant family connection, who, according to M.C.'s later recollections, administered "more thrashings than food." Yet poor treatment did not diminish the boy's love for music. By the time he was eight, he had attracted the attention of Georg Reutter the younger, Kapellmeister of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. Reutter arranged with M.C.'s father to obtain the boy's services as a chorister. In the spring of 1740, young M.C. arrived in the imperial capital, the city which would be his home base off and on for the next seventy years.
M.C. was given extensive training as a singer, and served as one of the Cathedral's principal soloists, yet voice was not his only area of study. He also learned harpsichord, organ, violin, a little music theory, and a great deal of Latin. St. Stephen's was (and is) the principal religious institution in a strongly Catholic city, making it a superb venue in which to launch a musical career, yet a career based upon being a boy soprano is a career without much future. When his voice changed, M.C. was dismissed from the Cathedral and, at age eighteen, was left to fend for himself. He paid the rent by giving keyboard lessons, playing the organ and violin in church services, and performing with various orchestras and chamber ensembles.
M.C. was given extensive training as a singer, and served as one of the Cathedral's principal soloists, yet voice was not his only area of study. He also learned harpsichord, organ, violin, a little music theory, and a great deal of Latin. St. Stephen's was (and is) the principal religious institution in a strongly Catholic city, making it a superb venue in which to launch a musical career, yet a career based upon being a boy soprano is a career without much future. When his voice changed, M.C. was dismissed from the Cathedral and, at age eighteen, was left to fend for himself. He paid the rent by giving keyboard lessons, playing the organ and violin in church services, and performing with various orchestras and chamber ensembles.
January 2022
After several years of study and making do with organ jobs, some teaching, and performing with various orchestras and chamber ensembles, it was in an aristocratic house that he would obtain his first official appointment. In 1758 or '59, the Count Karl Joseph Franz Morzin hired M.C., by then in his late twenties, as his Kapellmeister. Responsibilities included composing, performing, and conducting music to entertain the court. It was a good position for a young man, but the term of employment would be brief. The Count was fiscally impractical, and soon could no longer afford to maintain an orchestra. Nonetheless, it was for Morzin, not for the Esterházys, that M.C. would write his First Symphony in the fall of 1759. Over one-hundred more symphonies would follow.
With the disbanding of Morzin's orchestra, M.C. was free to seek a new position. He found it with the Esterházys, one of the wealthiest and most influential families in all of Austria. The Esterházys, led by the ruling Prince Paul Anton and his successor Prince Nikolaus, were famed for their love of music and for the excellence of their musical establishment. As M.C. was still young and little known, he would have felt privileged to work there and it must have been with pleasure that he signed the contract May 1, 1761. At first, he was only Vice-Kapellmeister, serving beneath principal Kapellmeister Gregor Joseph Werner. But Werner was elderly and ill. M.C. quickly took on a greater portion of the duties, so that long before Werner's death in 1766, the younger man was already principal Kapellmeister in all but name. By the time the title was his, he had already completed several dozen symphonies, including no. 6, 7, and 8 (known as "Morning," "Noon," and "Night"), no. 22 ("The Philosopher"), no. 30 ("Alleluja"), and no. 31 ("Horn Signal”). M.C. remained in the active service of the Esterhazys for 30 years! In 1790 he moved to Vienna after the death of Prince Nicholas. The new Prince cared little for music and disbanded the orchestra. M.C. retained the title of Kappellmeister and had an adequate pension. He was able to travel twice to England, where he completed the “London” Symphonies on his second trip. After 18 months he returned to Vienna where he remained permanently. Who is this year’s M.C.?
With the disbanding of Morzin's orchestra, M.C. was free to seek a new position. He found it with the Esterházys, one of the wealthiest and most influential families in all of Austria. The Esterházys, led by the ruling Prince Paul Anton and his successor Prince Nikolaus, were famed for their love of music and for the excellence of their musical establishment. As M.C. was still young and little known, he would have felt privileged to work there and it must have been with pleasure that he signed the contract May 1, 1761. At first, he was only Vice-Kapellmeister, serving beneath principal Kapellmeister Gregor Joseph Werner. But Werner was elderly and ill. M.C. quickly took on a greater portion of the duties, so that long before Werner's death in 1766, the younger man was already principal Kapellmeister in all but name. By the time the title was his, he had already completed several dozen symphonies, including no. 6, 7, and 8 (known as "Morning," "Noon," and "Night"), no. 22 ("The Philosopher"), no. 30 ("Alleluja"), and no. 31 ("Horn Signal”). M.C. remained in the active service of the Esterhazys for 30 years! In 1790 he moved to Vienna after the death of Prince Nicholas. The new Prince cared little for music and disbanded the orchestra. M.C. retained the title of Kappellmeister and had an adequate pension. He was able to travel twice to England, where he completed the “London” Symphonies on his second trip. After 18 months he returned to Vienna where he remained permanently. Who is this year’s M.C.?
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Some Past M.C.s
2012-2013 M.C.:
Johann Sebastian Bach with student Preston Huff
May 22, 2017
Papageno [from W.A. Mozart's "Magic Flute"] with Vivian and Elsie McNeely. Mozart was the 2016-2017 Mystery Composer. |
2013-2014 Mystery Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
May 19, 2018
Clara Schumann, Mrs. P, and Robert Schumann, 2017-2018's M.C. |
Mrs. Pullin with Herr Beethoven. May, 2014
May 21, 2018
Clara Schumann singing from cycle of songs written for her by Robert Schumann. |
Above: performing his music at the harpsichord.
Right: with Miss Ella Ishii
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Francois Couperin le Grand.
(1668-1733). 2018-2019 Mystery Composer.
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