Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Bach is considered by many to have been the greatest composer in the history of western music. Bach’s main achievement lies in his synthesis and advanced development of the primary contrapuntal idiom of the late Baroque, and in the basic tunefulness of his thematic material. He is often regarded as one of the pinnacle geniuses of western civilization. Bach spent the height of his working life in a Lutheran church position in Leipzig, as both organist and music director. Much of his music is overtly religious, while many of his secular works admit religious interpretations on some levels. His large output of organ music is considered to be the greatest legacy of compositions for the instrument, and is the measure by which all later efforts are judged. His other solo keyboard music is held in equally high esteem, especially for its exploration of the strictly contrapuntal fugue; his 48 Preludes & Fugues (The Well-Tempered Clavier) are still the primary means by which these forms are taught.

Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio.

Fernando Sor (1778-1839) Fernando Sor, one of the great figures in the history of the guitar, was an all-round musician and composer. Although he was acknowledged in his lifetime as a fine performer ("Sor ... who is known to be the most perfect guitarist in the world", wrote Ebers in London), he was not associated with that instrument as strongly as was, for example, Giuliani. He had been a chorister at the monastery of Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he received an education in church music and composition and in orchestral playing, and later in life he composed music not only for the guitar but also for voice, piano, orchestra, etc.

Until 1813 (when he was 35) he lived entirely in Spain. He composed seguidillas there for voice and guitar (some with piano), symphonies, operas, and some guitar music such as the famous sonata now known as Grand Solo, op. 14. He fought in the Spanish War of Independence when Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808.

After a brief stay in Paris in 1813, Sor settled in London where he published his marvellous and justly celebrated set of studies now known as op. 6, the Variations on a Theme of Mozart, and many other works such as Italian Arietts for voice and piano. A journey to Moscow followed and Sor then spent the rest of his life in Paris. He became a teacher of the guitar and it was there that he composed the many works for beginners on the guitar - opp. 31, 35, and 60 - which have been called the finest works ever written for beginners on the instrument.

Sor's reputation has rested on his guitar music, and my new re-engraved critical edition, the New Complete Works for guitar in eleven volumes, is now available, some of which can be also seen online at our sister company Hebe. The facsimile edition in nine volumes, the Complete Works for guitar published by Tecla (reprints of the original editions), has been a standard edition for the last twenty years. The biography of Sor can be read in my book Fernando Sor, Composer and Guitarist, and his Seguidillas and Seguidillas Book 2 are also available. A new publication November 2002: Italian songs which he composed in London, The Complete Italian Arietts etc.

Some very interesting new details about his early life in Spain have recently been discovered by Josep Maria Mangado and are published in his new book La Guitarra en Cataluña, 1769-1939 (Tecla, 1998).

LÉo Delibes (1836 - 1891) While most famous for his ballets, Delibes is also the composer of Lakmé, a staple in the French operatic repertory. He attended the Paris Conservatory and in 1855 wrote an operetta, Deux sous de charbon, introduced in Paris. Between 1862 and 1871 he was organist at the church of St. Jean St Francois. In 1865 he became second chorus master at the Opéra.

His first ballet, La source, was a major success when introduced at the Opéra in 1866. His second ballet Coppélia, performed in 1870, was an even greater triumph.

In 1873, he wrote his first opera, Le Roi l'a dit , given at the Opéra - Comique. Lakmé came a decade later, bringing its composer to the front rank of French composers for the stage.

In 1881, Delibes was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory and, in 1884, member of the Institut de France. Besides the operas mentioned above, Delibes wrote Jean de Nivelle in 1880, and Kassya, which was finished by Massenet after the composer's death.

Tarrega/ Skanson
Born in Villarreal, Spain, Francisco Tarrega fell into an irrigation channel when he was young, which rendered him nearly blind. Partially due to this accident, the family moved to Castellon and enrolled him in music classes. He entered the Madrid Conservatory in 1874, under the sponsorship of a wealthy merchant named Antonio Canesa, where he studied composition under Emilio Arrieta. By the end of the 1870s, he was teaching the guitar and giving regular concerts. A virtuoso on his instrument, he was known as the "Sarasate of the guitar". He later settled in Barcelona, and died there in 1909.

Darren Curtis Skanson was born in 1967 to a farm/ teaching family in Minnesota. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson sang and played instruments throughout his grade scool years. At 13 he took his first guitar lessson and began a partnership with the instrument that has produced a wide variety of music. Most known for his claasical guitar compositions and arrangements, Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discograhpy currently includes 10 compact discs of arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit.

Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Born Vienna, 31 January 1797; died there, 19 November 1828 The son of a schoolmaster, he showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music, studying the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony and, while a chorister in the imperial court chapel, composition with Salieri (1808-13).

By 1814 he had produced piano pieces settings of Schiller and Metastasio, string quartets, his first symphony and a three-act opera. Although family pressure dictated that he teach in his father's school, he continued to compose prolifically; his huge output of 1814-15 includes Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig (both famous for their text-painting) among numerous songs, besides two more symphonies, three masses and four stage works. From this time he enjoyed the companionship of several friends, especially Josef von Spaun, the poet Johann Mayrhofer and the law student Franz von Schober. Frequently gathering for domestic evenings of Schubert's music (later called 'Schubertiads'), this group more than represented the new phenomenon of an educated, musically aware middle class: it gave him an appreciative audience and influential contacts (notably the Sonnleithners and the baritone J.M.Vogl), as well as the confidence, in 1818, to break with schoolteaching. More songs poured out, including Der Wanderer and Die Forelle, and instrumental pieces - inventive piano sonatas, some tuneful, Rossinian overtures, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies began to show increased harmonic subtlety. He worked briefly as music master to the Esterházy family, finding greater satisfaction writing songs, chamber music (especially the 'Trout' Quintet) and dramatic music. Die Zwillingsbrüder (for Vogl) was only a small success, but brought some recognition and led to the greater challenge of Die Zauberharfe.

In 1820-21 aristocratic patronage, further introductions and new friendships augured well. Schubert's admirers issued 20 of his songs by private subscription, and he and Schober collaborated on Alfonso und Estrella (later said to be his favourite opera). Though full of outstanding music, it was rejected. Strained friendships, pressing financial need and serious illness - Schubert almost certainly contracted syphilis in late 1822 - made this a dark period, which however encompassed some remarkable creative work: the epic 'Wanderer' Fantasy for piano, the passionate, two movement Eighth Symphony ('Unfinished'), the exquisite Schöne Müllerin song cycle, Die Verschworenen and the opera Fierabras (full of haunting music if dramatically ineffective). In 1824 he tumed to instrumental forms, producing the a Minor and d Minor ('Death and the Maiden') string quartets and the lyrically expansive Octet for wind and strings; around this time he at least sketched, probably at Gmunden in summer 1825, the 'Great' C Major Symphony. With his reputation in Vienna steadily growing (his concerts with Vogl were renowned, and by 1825 he was negotiating with four publishers), Schubert now entered a more assured phase. He wrote mature piano sonatas, notably the one in a Minor, some magnificent songs and his last, highly characteristic String Quartet, in G Major. 1827-8 saw not only the production of Winterreise and two piano trios but a marked increase in press coverage of his music; and he was elected to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. But though he gave a full-scale public concert in March 1828 and worked diligently to satisfy publishers - composing some of his greatest music in his last year, despite failing health - appreciation remained limited. At his death, aged 31, he was mourned not only for his achievement but for 'still fairer hopes'.

Schubert's fame was long limited to that of a songwriter, since the bulk of his large output was not even published, and some not even performed, until the late 19th century. Yet, beginning with the Fifth Symphony and the 'Trout' Quintet, he produced major instrumental masterpieces. These are marked by an intense lyricism (often suggesting a mood of near-pathos), a spontaneous chromatic modulation that is surprising to the ear yet clearly purposeful and often beguilingly expressive, and, not least, an imagination that creates its own formal structures. His way with sonata form, whether in an unorthodox choice of key for secondary material (Symphony in b Minor, 'Trout' Quintet) or of subsidiary ideas for the development, makes clear his maturity and individuality. The virtuoso 'Wanderer' Fantasy is equally impressive in its structure and use of cyclic form, while the String Quartet in G Major explores striking new sononties and by extension an emotional range of a violence new to the medium. The greatest of his chamber works however is acknowledged to be the String Quintet in C Major, with its rich sonorities, its intensity and its lyricism, and in the slow movement depth of feeling engendered by the sustained outer sections (with their insistent yet varied and suggestive accompanying ngures) embracing a central impassioned section in F minor. Among the piano sonatas, the last three, particularly the noble and spacious one in B-flat, represent another summit of achievement. His greatest orchestral masterpiece is the 'Great' C Major Symphony, with its remarkable formal synthesis, striking rhythmic vitality, felicitous orchestration and sheer lyric beauty.

Schubert never abandoned his ambition to write a successful opera. Much of the music is of high quality (especially in Alfonso und Estrella, Fierabras and the attractive Easter oratorio Lazarus, closely related to the operas), showing individuality of style in both accompanied recitative and orchestral colour if little sense of dramatic progress. Among the choral works, the partsongs and the masses rely on homophonic texture and bold harmonic shifts for their effect; the masses in A-flat and E-flat are particularly successful.

Schubert effectively established the German lied as a new art form in the 19th century. He was helped by the late 18th-century outburst of lyric poetry and the new possibilities for picturesque accompaniment offered by the piano, but his own genius is by far the most important factor. The songs fall info four main structural groups - simple strophic, modified strophic, through-composed (e.g. Die junge Nonne) and the 'scena' type (Der Wanderer); the poets range from Goethe, Schiller and Heine to Schubert's own versifying friends. Reasons for their abiding popularity rest not only in the direct appeal of Schubert's melody and the general attractiveness of his idiom but also in his unfailing ability to capture musically both the spirit of a poem and much of its external detail. He uses harmony to represent emotional change (passing from minor to major, magically shifting to a 3rd-related key, tenuously resolving a diminished 7th, inflecting a final strophe to press home its climax) and accompaniment figuration to illustrate poetic images (moving water, shimmering stars, a church bell). With such resources he found innumerable ways to illuminate a text, from the opening depiction of morning in Ganymed to the leaps of anguish in Der Doppelgänger.

Schubert's discovery of Wilhelm Müller's narrative lyrics gave rise to his further development of the lied by means of the song cycle. Again, his two masterpieces were practically without precedent and have never been surpassed. Both identify nature with human suffering, Die schöne Müllerin evoking a pastoral sound-language of walking, flowing and flowering, and Winterreise a more intensely Romantic, universal, profoundly tragic quality.

Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Bach is considered by many to have been the greatest composer in the history of western music. Bach’s main achievement lies in his synthesis and advanced development of the primary contrapuntal idiom of the late Baroque, and in the basic tunefulness of his thematic material. He is often regarded as one of the pinnacle geniuses of western civilization. Bach spent the height of his working life in a Lutheran church position in Leipzig, as both organist and music director. Much of his music is overtly religious, while many of his secular works admit religious interpretations on some levels. His large output of organ music is considered to be the greatest legacy of compositions for the instrument, and is the measure by which all later efforts are judged. His other solo keyboard music is held in equally high esteem, especially for its exploration of the strictly contrapuntal fugue; his 48 Preludes & Fugues (The Well-Tempered Clavier) are still the primary means by which these forms are taught.

Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer

Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Bach is considered by many to have been the greatest composer in the history of western music. Bach’s main achievement lies in his synthesis and advanced development of the primary contrapuntal idiom of the late Baroque, and in the basic tunefulness of his thematic material. He is often regarded as one of the pinnacle geniuses of western civilization. Bach spent the height of his working life in a Lutheran church position in Leipzig, as both organist and music director. Much of his music is overtly religious, while many of his secular works admit religious interpretations on some levels. His large output of organ music is considered to be the greatest legacy of compositions for the instrument, and is the measure by which all later efforts are judged. His other solo keyboard music is held in equally high esteem, especially for its exploration of the strictly contrapuntal fugue; his 48 Preludes & Fugues (The Well-Tempered Clavier) are still the primary means by which these forms are taught.

Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio.

Johann Pachelbel (baptized September 1, 1653 – March 3, 1706) was an acclaimed Baroque composer, organist and teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque.

Pachelbel's work enjoyed massive popularity during his lifetime; he had a large number of pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. However, he did not have much influence on the most important composers of the late Baroque such as Johann Sebastian Bach. Today Pachelbel is best known for his Canon in D; it is the only canon he wrote, and is somewhat unrepresentative of the rest of his oeuvre. In addition to the canon, his most well-known works include the Chaconne in F minor and the Toccata in C minor for organ, and a set of keyboard variations called Hexachordum Apollinis.

Pachelbel's music was influenced by south German composers such as Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Kaspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French composers and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition. Pachelbel preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasizes melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude, although like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features exceptionally rich instrumentation. Pachelbel explored variation forms and associated techniques, which manifest themselves in many diverse pieces, from sacred concertos to harpsichord suites.

Lennon/McCartney

The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations of all time. In an agreement reached early in their partnership, the pair agreed to use the shared credit Lennon-McCartney on all songs written by the duo, alone or in tandem, for The Beatles.

The working partnership

A common misconception is that Lennon and McCartney each wrote their own songs alone and simply credited them to the partnership. While each musician often wrote independently and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other, it was only rarely that a song would be completed without some input from each of the duo. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and bring it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus.

The approach of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team included elements of competitiveness and mutual inspiration as well as straightforward collaboration. The collaborative and creative merging of musical ideas between the pair is often cited as a key reason for the Beatles' innovativeness and popular success.

The pair wrote songs together from 1958 through 1969. As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternate chord. "A Day in the Life" is a notable and well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song by McCartney was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition. "Hey Jude" is an example of a later McCartney song that was improved by relatively minor input from Lennon. While auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder," McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line — which McCartney felt was nonsensical — as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.

A joint credit

Even before they formed the Beatles, McCartney and Lennon began writing songs together at their childhood homes in Liverpool. Lennon suggested that all songs written by either one of the pair (whether written individually or in a collaborative effort) should be credited to both of them, in an effort to emulate the familiarity of the Leiber–Stoller partnership. Between 1962 and 1970 all songs either of them published (including most Beatles songs) were jointly credited. On the Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, the credit appeared as "McCartney−Lennon"; on all later albums Lennon's name appeared first.

As a result of this mutual agreement, songwriting royalties for the bulk of the Beatles' catalog were shared equally between the two.

Controversy

The nature and billing order of the dual credit was an occasional source of controversy. When McCartney released his solo live album Wings Over America in 1976 the songwriting credits for five included Beatles songs were reversed to place McCartney's name first; Lennon's wife Yoko Ono publicly objected to the change, though Lennon himself made no public statement. When John Lennon's 1997 compilation of solo hits, Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon, was released, "Give Peace a Chance", a song that had previously been credited to Lennon-McCartney, was listed as being composed solely by John Lennon. In the 1990s and early 2000s, McCartney attempted to have the official credit reversed to "McCartney-Lennon" on a number of songs which he wrote independently, most notably "Yesterday," but this change was opposed by Lennon's estate. In a February 2005 statement, however, McCartney stated that "…it's something that I don't have a problem with any more."[1]

Other credits

A number of songs primarily written by the duo and recorded by The Beatles were credited to persons in addition to Lennon and McCartney. "What Goes On" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey, while "Flying" and "Dig It", as well as the newer "Free as a Bird", were credited to Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey. The German-language versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" were also credited to additional songwriters for assisting with the translation: "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Heller and "Sie Liebt Dich" was credited to Lennon-McCartney-Nicholas-Montague.