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As a member of the first generation of African Americans who were born just after the end of slavery, Scott Joplin faced a world of unique challenges. His musical family scraped out a living by sharecropping and cleaning houses-but Scott was exceptionally gifted, and his mother made sure he got piano lessons. Classically trained, he spent several years playing in churches and saloons. While for a time he wanted to compose classical music, he was drawn...
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Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring created a near-riot when it premiered in Paris in 1913. Neither the music nor the dancing was like anything that audiences had seen before. Fistfights broke out among the spectators and their noise level was close to a modern rock concert. Three years earlier, Stravinsky was virtually unknown. He had had to overcome serious parental objections to even begin composing. Yet by the time that The Rite of Spring...
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From an early age, Frederic Chopin displayed natural musical ability. Often compared to Mozart, Chopin was invited to play for members of the aristocracy in small, private concerts. But, unlike Mozart, his parents did not take advantage of his childhood talent. Frederic Chopin left his Polish homeland behind when he was only 20 and lived most of his life in Paris, France, the cultural hub of Europe. His genius as a pianist and composer flowered there...
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Ordained as a priest, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi became one of Europe s most popular composers during the early part of the eighteenth century. He wrote hundreds of concertos, dozens of operas, and many sacred works before his music fell out of fashion during the latter part of his life. He died in obscurity and his work suffered a similar fate for almost two centuries. His music was rescued from oblivion in the 1930s. His most famous work, The Four Seasons,...
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When Leonard Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72, one of his admirers said he was actually 288 because he led four separate lives: as a conductor, a composer, a pianist, and a teacher. No other American musician has ever had such a diverse career. A sickly boy, Bernstein discovered music when he was about 10 and pursued a musical career despite his father s objections. He became literally an overnight sensation when he was 25. With only a few...
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A biography of the man who made taking pictures child's play and made way for a whole new era in photography. Like many other Americans, George Eastman enjoyed taking photographs. But in 1877, photography was a complicated process that included chemicals, glass plates, and boxes full of equipment. George Eastman decided there had to be an easier way to take pictures. Although he had a full-time job at a bank, he devoted every spare minute to experimenting...