There isn’t that much about him on wikipedia. Except for this really great anecdote.
Leopold Hofmann was a Kapellmeister. Mozart requested to become assistant-Kapellmeister to Hofmann. It was an unpaid position, but considering the poor health and age of Hofmann, Mozart figured that Leo would drop dead at any point, and then he would become the Kapellmeister, getting paid to work on that position.
As things played out, Leopold’s health recovered. He survived Mozart, and kept his job. He died two years after Mozart died.
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Who is this Leopold Hofmann? I must find out.
(Source: Spotify)
This is the record, “The World of the 18th Century Symphony” This has music from the other classical composers, most of whom you have never heard! Enjoy the works of Stamitz, Ignaz Beck, Cannabich, Leopold Hoffmann and others!
Bonus! A full symphony by Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach! (The one name that sounds familiar since it has “Bach” at the end of it)
(Source: Spotify)
This is a movement from Christian Cannabich that appears in a record of 18th-century classical music. I have talked about it before. Has that ever stopped me? No. I will talk about it in the future as well.
(Source: Spotify)
This is the third movement of Christian Cannabich’s 47th symphony. It may be the last one; I don’t know. This movement is very enjoyable.
(Source: Spotify)
So, I tried, a little bit against my will, to listen to other Mannheim school composers. Unfortunately there isn’t that much recorded of the other ones.
I finally found one symphony and one movement by Christian Cannabich.
Christian Cannabich was a lucky, lucky man. His father was the flute teacher to the Elector of Patine. This made it possible for Christian to go to Italy, all expenses paid, to study music.
He also got to marry a noblewoman, and gain a lot of favor from this marriage, even when it was still look down upon for a woman of noble class to marry a commoner.
He was the conductor of the Mannheim orchestra. This orchestra was super influential and famous, yet most of us have never heard of it. Yes, I know that you have, but the rest of us mortals haven’t while still knowing about Bach and Mozart.
This good luck finally ran out in the last three years of his life when the elector went on an austerity binge. Yet, until this point, he was one of the few musicians who never had to worry too much about money.
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Emma Bardac, girlfriend of Faure and eventual wife of Debussy. She sang very well, and she was a great conversationalist.
There is a documentary on her called, The Loves of Emma Bardac
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Claude and Emma’s daughter was humbly named after the two most important people in the world. Her name was Claude-Emma. But because Claude couldn’t endure hearing his name used for anyone else, he called her “Chouchou’” instead.
The wikipedia article says how Chouchou was probably the only person who Claude actually loved. She was his musical inspiration in later years. She was also responsible, according to Debussy, for why he didn’t just outright commit suicide (some habits are hard to eradicate.)
Chouchou died a year after Debbusy died after a doctor gave her the wrong prescription for an illness.
Debussy dumping sweet Lily and coldly ignoring her suicide attempt was the last straw. Debussy had been shedding friends due to his shenanigans for decades now, but the nasty behavior toward Lily and his stealing another man’s wife was too much.
It got so difficult to be in Paris, that Debussy and his new pregnant girlfriend, Emma, had to leave to England until things settled a bit.
They eventually married 3 years after their daughter was born, and they stayed unhappily married until Debussy died.
So Debussy marries Lily Texier after he threatens suicide. At first it was all great since Debussy was showing off his model girlfriend. This didn’t last though. For there is only so much bragging you can do about your wife before everyone knows what a stud you are, and then you actually have to live with her. And Lily. bless her heart, was a kind, a nice woman, but an intellectual she wasn’t.
More to the point: she was dull and had no interest in music. So Claude found Emma Bardac, a smart woman who was an excellent conversationalist and interested in music. So Debussy dumps Lily and goes away with Emma.
Lily was devastated. She threaten Claude that she would commit suicide if he didn’t come back. But Claude, just like Honey Badger, don’t a give a shit.
Claude must have thought that she wouldn’t go through it. After all, he pulled the same stunt and God knows that he wasn’t going to pull a trigger.
So Lily went to a public square, picked a gun, and shot herself. Oh…
She survived. For the rest of her life she carried a piece of bullet that was stuck to her bone. That was the last she was going to have from Claude, since he still didn’t care.
