Claude Debussy released his String Quartet in 1894 with the designation Op. 10 and the words “1er Quatuor” (first quartet) on the cover. Both labels are misleading, since he hadn’t actually published nine previous compositions and never wrote a second quartet.
In 1922 Ives self-published 114 Songs, a collection of nearly all the vocal music he had ever written.
Stephen Foster was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the Fourth of July, 1826, and by most accounts became the first American to make a living solely by writing music. His songs are part of the foundation of both American classical and popular music, and have influenced musicians ranging from Antonín Dvořák to Bob Dylan.
1840 was Schumann’s year of song. Working from May 24 to June 1, he wrote 20 songs, setting poems from Heinrich Heine’s book of Lyrisches Intermezzo.
Weinberg’s Preludes for Solo Cello were written in 1968 for Mstislav Rostropovich, who never performed them. The cryptic 13th Prelude is set entirely in pizzicato.
Mozart said he composed this violin sonata in G major on Saturday, April 7, 1781, between 11:00pm and midnight. Even for Mozart, writing a 25-minute sonata in a single hour was an incredible feat.
Bach’s manuscript of the Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas dates from 1720, during his time as Kapellmeister in Köthen, though their inception probably goes back to 1703, during his time in Weimar.
In 1798 Beethoven thought the three trios he had just published as Op. 9 were his best works to date.
After the first rehearsal of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in Vienna, a notoriously grumpy violinist hugged him and said, “this is Beethoven’s heir!”
Beethoven was deeply indignant at the very idea of noble birth. The son of a town musician, he resented those of higher class, claiming a kind of artistic nobility for himself.