One of my favorite quotes about love comes from the composer Igor Stravinsky, "In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?"
Love is truly a powerful emotion capable of inspiring countless composers to create masterpieces, poets to write love sonnets and artists to paint beautiful works of art.
Like many of us, composers throughout the centuries have experienced the joys and pains of falling in love.
Some had lasting marriages, others failed and ended in divorce. Still, there are those, like Bach, Verdi and Rossini, whose wives passed away but later found love again. It just goes to show that when it comes to love, nobody is immune.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues it possesses." Let's take a look at some of these composers and the people who inspired them.
Richard Wagner's first wife was an actress named Minna Planer and his second wife was Cosima von Bülow, the daughter of Franz Liszt. Wagner and von Bulow got married in 1870. Gustav Mahler married composer Alma Schindler in 1902. The couple stayed together until Mahler's death in 1911. A little over a year after his first wife died, Johann Sebastian Bach married vocalist Anna Magdalena Wilcken in 1721. Gabriel Fauré was engaged to Marianne, daughter of Pauline Viardot. However, their relationship didn't end in marriage. Faure then married Marie, daughter of the sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet, but their marriage didn't last. He spent his remaining years with musician Marguerite Hasselmans.
Robert Schumann married Clara Wieck in 1840. Clara's father, Friedrich Wieck, was the piano teacher of Schumann. Zoltan Kodaly married Emma Sandor, a musician, in 1910. His "Missa Brevis" is said to have been dedicated to his wife. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782. Constanze was the cousin of Carl Maria von Weber. Giuseppe Verdi was married to Margherita, daughter of his teacher Antonio Barezzi. After the death of his wife, he found love again and married Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano. Cesar Franck was married to Félicité Saillot, an actress, in 1848. Alban Berg married Helene Nahowski in 1911 but is said to have had an affair with a married woman named Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. Hanna is said to have inspired Berg's "Lyric Suite." Gioachino Rossini was married to the operatic singer Isabella Colbran. After Colbran died in 1847, Rossini married Olympe Pélissier. Bela Bartok's first wife was Marta Ziegler, his student, with whom he had a son. After divorcing Marta, he married another student named Ditta Pasztory with whom he had another son. His "Third Piano Concerto" was written for Ditta. Francesca Caccini married musician Giovanni Battista Signori around 1607. After Signori died in 1626, she married musician Tommaso Raffaelli. Leos Janácek married Zdenka Schulzova in 1881; however, their marriage was mostly strained. Around 1916 he met and fell in love with Kamila Stosslova who would inspire some of his later works. Kurt Weill married Lotte Lenya, a singer/actress, in 1926. Lotte sang in "Mahagonny" and played the role of Jenny in "Die Dreigroschenoper." Fanny Mendelssohn married Wilhelm Hensel, a painter, in 1829. They had one son; Sebastian, named after Fanny's favorite composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Luciano Berio was married to Cathy Berberian, an actress and soprano, for whom "Recital 1" and "Sequenza III" was written. Carl Maria von Weber was married to Caroline Brandt, a singer, in 1817.
Love is truly a powerful emotion capable of inspiring countless composers to create masterpieces, poets to write love sonnets and artists to paint beautiful works of art.
Like many of us, composers throughout the centuries have experienced the joys and pains of falling in love.
Some had lasting marriages, others failed and ended in divorce. Still, there are those, like Bach, Verdi and Rossini, whose wives passed away but later found love again. It just goes to show that when it comes to love, nobody is immune.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues it possesses." Let's take a look at some of these composers and the people who inspired them.