Whether you're looking for composer biographies, historical music articles or public domain sheet music, Music of Yesterday has what you are looking for. We update content daily and link the best articles on this page weekly to keep you up to date on what's new.
Our content consists of article extracts from newspapers, magazines and books written and published prior to 1923 bringing to you the flavor of early music history as it was presented by prominent people in the music industry at that time including articles written by famous composers about other famous composers as well as articles written by opera stars and the top music educators of the time.
Also included in our archive are articles concerning the teaching of various musical instruments as well as music theory and what the best methods were for teaching students of all ages.
Most of our biographies include not only birth dates and places but more personal information on the lives and times of the person being studied and in some cases the interaction between composers of their time. Learn about their struggles, successes and more.
Are you interested in information about a particular opera? Read a short description of some of the most famous operas; feel the drama.
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| David A Apell |
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David A Apell, private counsellor of the prince of Hesse, member of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, etc., was born at Cassel. In his earliest childhood he studied music alone and without a teacher, and was able to play sonatas and concertos on the piano before he began to take lessons. At eighteen years of age he commenced a course of study with the organist Muller. The more he advanced, the greater was his desire to compose. About 1780 he set himself seriously to writing, and very soon sent some of his compositions to the Academy of Bologna. The Academy of Stockholm gave him a diploma; and the pope, to whom he had sent a mass, wrote him a flattering letter, and made him Knight of the Golden Spur. He wrote many fine pieces for the church, besides operas, sonatas, and collections of airs in German, French, and Italian. |