Classical Music
One of Switzerland's earliest composers was Ludwig Senfl (circa 1486-1554). The first music conservatory in the country was founded in Geneva in 1835. Composers like Hans George Naegeli and festivals like the Fête des Vignerons helped establish a classical music tradition, and the Swiss Musicians Association was founded in 1900.
The 20th century saw a rise in the prominence of Swiss composers, amongst them Othmar Schoeck, Ernest Bloch, Frank Martin, Rolf Liebermann, and perhaps most famously Arthur Honegger, whose portrait of a steam train, Pacific 231, has entered the core repertoire. Both Martin and Honegger spent much of their careers in other European nations: Martin in the Netherlands and Honegger in France. Prominent contemporary Swiss composers include Klaus Huber and Heinz Holliger (who is also an oboe virtuoso).
In 1918 the conductor Ernest Ansermet founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which became the focal point for musical innovation in Switzerland, and remains the country's most famous orchestra. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an ad-hoc ensemble which has been formed in several incarnations for the eponymous music festival. Its most recent formation, by the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado, has been met with critical acclaim; unlike earlier incarnations, it now draws musicians from all over the world.
Read more about this topic: Music Of Switzerland
Famous quotes related to classical music:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. ‘Material Differences,’ Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)