non-classical | Musicosity

non-classical

Conlon Nancarrow

Conlon Nancarrow (b. October 27, 1912, Texarkana - d. August 10, 1997, Mexico City) was an American-born composer who lived most of his life in Mexico. Nancarrow is remembered almost exclusively for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use musical instruments as mechanical machines, utilising their capacity to play complex polyrhythms at tempos far beyond human performance ability.

Read more about Conlon Nancarrow on Last.fm.

Artist Type: 

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi ("Green Mountain") (Cremona May 15, 1567 – November 29, 1643) was an Italian composer, violinist and singer. His work marks the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music. During his long life he produced work that can be classified in both categories, and he was one of the most significant revolutionaries that brought about the change in style. Monteverdi wrote the earliest dramatically viable opera, Orfeo, and was fortunate enough to enjoy fame during his lifetime.

Artist Type: 

Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), English composer and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods, a leading composer in the England of his day. Born in Oxford, between 1596 and 1598 he sang in the choir of King's College, Cambridge, then he entered the university in 1598 and achieved the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606. James I appointed him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist from at least 1615 until his death. In 1625 he became senior organist at the Chapel Royal, with Thomas Tomkins as junior organist.

Artist Type: 

Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born 1941, in Igualada, Catalonia, Spain) is a Spanish-Catalan viol player and composer. He is one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol (viola da gamba) back to life on the stage. His repertory ranges from to and music. Savall's musical training started in the school choir of his native town (1947-55).

Artist Type: 

Mauricio Kagel

Mauricio Kagel (born in Buenos Aires, December 24, 1931, died in Cologne, September 18, 2008) was an Argentine composer who has lived in Germany for most of his career. He was most famous for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance. Many of his pieces give specific theatrical instructions to the performers, such as to adopt certain facial expressions while playing, to make their stage entrances in a particular way, to physically interact with other performers and so on.

Read more about Mauricio Kagel on Last.fm.

Artist Type: 

Hasan Salaam

Hip-Hop isn't all about violent city life and superficial pipe dreams. But newcomer, Hasan Salaam, knows that best. As emcees are forging a coup de grace, hip-hop is destined for change. But while some retreat and plot their escapes through disillusionment, in real life and on wax, Hasan Salaam aims to be at the forefront of the revolution. His commanding presence holds no punches as he relates to today's youth with honesty and fearlessness. Consequently, misguided portrayals of urban life and a lack of hip-hop with substance on the airwaves has birthed a new emcee.

Read more about Hasan Salaam on Last.fm.

Artist Type: 

Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff (born March 8, 1934) is an American composer of experimental classical music. Wolff was born in Nice in France of German parentage. His family moved to the United States in 1941, and he became an American citizen in 1946. He studied classics at Harvard University (he is a specialist in the work of Euripides) and upon graduating took up a teaching post there which he kept until 1970 when he began to teach classics, comparative literature, and music at Dartmouth College until his retirement in 1999.

Artist Type: 

William Lawes

William Lawes (1602–1645) was an English composer and musician. Lawes was born at Salisbury in Wiltshire and was baptised on 1st May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and brother to Henry Lawes, a very successful composer in his own right. His patron, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I.

Read more about William Lawes on Last.fm.

Artist Type: 

Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono (29 January 1924 - 8 May 1990) was an Italian composer. He studied at the Venice Conservatoire where he became acquainted with . (He married Arnold Schönberg's daughter Nuria in 1955). He became a leading composer of instrumental and electronic music. In 1950, he attended the "Ferienkurse für neue Musik" in Darmstadt, where he met composers such as Edgard Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Works from this first period include: Polifonica-Monodica-Ritmica (1951), Epitaffio per Federico García Lorca (1952-1953), La victoire de Guernica (1954) and Liebeslied (1954).

Read more about Luigi Nono on Last.fm.

Artist Type: