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the story of love and jealousy among a
troupe of actors, culminating in murder.
Leoncavallo wrote several more operas,
but none had the success of Pagliacci.FREDERICK DELIUS
1862–1934The son of a German wool merchant,
Frederick Delius started studying music
in his spare time while managing an
orange plantation in Florida. Once back
in Europe, he continued his studies in
Leipzig then settled in France. His
works included six operas, only two of
which, Koanga, composed in 1895–1897,
and A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900 –
1901), were staged in his lifetime. His
most successful pieces—introduced
to British audiences by the conductor
Sir Thomas Beecham—were Sea Drift
(1904), a setting of a Walt Whitman
poem, and a series of orchestral idylls and
tone poems, including Brigg Fair (1907),
In a Summer Garden (1908), and North
Country Sketches (1914).PIETRO MASCAGNI
1863–1945Pietro Mascagni’s one-act opera
Cavalleria rusticana (“Rustic chivalry”),
premiered in 1890, was the earliest
major success of the Italian school of
verismo (“realism”). Based on a short
story by Giovanni Verga, it tells a tale of
passion and betrayal in a Sicilian village,
climaxing in a fatal duel between two
rival lovers. As with Leoncavallo’s
Pagliacci, with which it is often
performed as a double bill, it was the
Tuscan-born Mascagni’s only major hit.CARL NIELSEN
1865–1931Danish composer Carl Nielsen was one
of the great symphonic writers of the
early 20th century. He completed his
First Symphony in 1892, but it was the
Third (titled Sinfonia espansiva, 1911)
that started to establish his reputation
as a composer with an original use of
tonality and harmony. The Fourth (TheInextinguishable, 1916) and Fifth (1922)
were responses to the brutality of World
War I. The Sixth and last (Sinfonia
semplice, 1925) was the most challenging,
perhaps reflecting Nielsen’s fatal heart
condition. He also wrote operas, but his
best works, outside the symphonies, are a
Wind Quintet (1922) and two concertos,
for flute (1926) and clarinet (1928).FERRUCCIO BUSONI
1866–1924Partly Italian, partly German, Ferruccio
Busoni gave his first piano recital aged
10 in Vienna. After studying in Leipzig,
he became professor of piano in Helsinki
and later took up posts in Moscow,
Boston, and Berlin. He was renowned as
one of the great pianists of the time but
was also a teacher, musical theorist, and
composer. His book, The New Aesthetic
of Music (1907), was a key inspiration
for figures such as the avant-garde
French composer Edgard Varèse. His
compositions include operas, orchestral
pieces, and solo piano works, notably
Fantasia after J.S. Bach (1909) and
Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910 –1921).GUSTAV HOLST
1874–1934An influential teacher and composer,
Gustav Holst was one of the fathers of the
English school of the 20th century that
gave rise to figures such as Benjamin
Britten and Michael Tippett. Holst was
interested in both English folk music and
Hindu mysticism, reflected in his Choral
Hymns from the Rig-Veda (1912). His
most famous work is the orchestral suite,
The Planets (1916). His vocal works include
operas, song cycles, the choral piece The
Hymn of Jesus (1917), and Ode to Death
(1919), based on a Walt Whitman poem.ZOLTÁN KODÁLY
1882–1967Zoltán Kodály was a pioneer in the field
of ethnomusicology (the study of music
in its ethnic and cultural context) and in
modern methods for teaching music tochildren. Born in Hungary, he studied at
Budapest’s Academy of Music alongside
Béla Bartók, with whom he went on
expeditions into the countryside to
collect folk music. The techniques they
devised were influential for those who
followed in the study of indigenous music
traditions. Later, Kodály also developed
a method to teach children to sight-read
music when singing. As a composer, his
major works are Psalmus Hungaricus
(1923) for tenor, chorus, and orchestra
and a comic opera, Háry János (1926).ARTHUR HONEGGER
1892–1955Born to Swiss parents living in France,
Honegger belonged to “Les Six,” a group
of young composers who emerged in
Paris in the 1920s, including Francis
Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. He is
remembered for his five symphonies,
collectively regarded as one of the most
impressive symphonic oeuvres of the
20th century. His other works include
Pacific 231 (1923) and Rugby (1928), in
which he sought to express in music
the impressions of a locomotive and a
rugby match, respectively. Honegger’s
dramatic works included film scores,
ballets, and an oratorio Jeanne d’Arc
au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)
(1935), with a libretto by the writer
Paul Claudel.DARIUS MILHAUD
1892–1974With more than 400 works to his credit,
Darius Milhaud was one of the most
prolific 20th-century composers. From
a Jewish family living in Provence,
he studied in Paris and, in 1917–1918,
traveled to Brazil with the poet,
dramatist, and diplomat Paul Claudel.
He was a member of the group of
composers known as “Les Six,” through
whom he met the surrealist writer and
designer Jean Cocteau. His collaboration
with Cocteau produced the ballets Le
Boeuf sur le toit (1919) and Le Train bleu
(1924), while his work with Claudel
yielded musical dramas, including Les
Choéphores (1915), Christophe ColombDIRECTORY
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