Charles Rosen facts for kids
Charles Welles Rosen (born May 5, 1927 – died December 9, 2012) was a famous American pianist and writer about music. People remember him for his amazing piano concerts, his recordings, and his many books. One of his most famous books is called The Classical Style.
Contents
Life and Career
Early Life and Learning
Charles Rosen was born in New York City. His parents were immigrants from Russia. His father, Irwin Rosen, was an architect. His mother, Anita Rosen, loved acting and played the piano as a hobby.
Charles started learning music when he was just 4 years old. At age 6, he joined the Juilliard School, a famous music school. When he was 11, he left Juilliard to study piano with Moriz Rosenthal and his wife, Hedwig Kanner. Rosenthal was a student of the legendary composer Franz Liszt. Rosenthal shared many stories about 19th-century classical music with Charles. These stories often appeared in Rosen's later writings. For example, he learned how Brahms played piano chords by "rolling" them.
Charles's family didn't have a lot of money. His father lost his job during the Great Depression. Because money was tight, his parents made a deal with the Rosenthals. Instead of paying for lessons, they would give the Rosenthals 15% of Charles's earnings as a pianist until he turned 21. Charles didn't make his New York debut until he was 23. So, he didn't earn much money for them at first. But when he made his first recording, he gave some money to Hedwig Kanner Rosenthal, who was very surprised.
At 17, Charles went to Princeton University. He studied French, math, and philosophy. He earned his PhD in 1951. His studies focused on French poetry. He also received a special scholarship to study in Paris. There, he looked at how poetry and music were connected in 16th-century France.
Charles became a great music scholar without much formal training in musicology. He learned a lot from his family's musical background and by reading many books. He once said that he knew more about music as a college student than some of the graduate students!
Starting His Music Career
The year 1951 was very busy for Charles Rosen. He finished his PhD, gave his first piano concert, and made his first recordings. He recorded music by Martinu and Haydn. His career as a pianist grew slowly at first. In 1953, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to teach French.
He explained that he only taught to support himself. He taught French from Monday to Wednesday. But from Thursday to Sunday, he was a pianist. In 1955, he got an offer from Columbia Artists Management, a company that helps musicians. He then quit teaching French to focus on his piano career.
This offer started his successful journey as a concert pianist. Charles Rosen performed in many concerts around the world. Music expert Stanley Sadie described his piano playing. He said Rosen was "intense, serious, and intellectual." He was praised for his clear, lively, and well-structured performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue. His playing of Beethoven was known for its strong rhythms and deep thinking. He was also a great performer of modern composers like Schoenberg and Webern.
Rosen made many recordings. He even recorded works by 20th-century composers like Igor Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, and Pierre Boulez at their request. In 1955, he recorded sonatas by Scarlatti and Mozart on a special old piano called the Siena Piano. His recordings also include works by Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, and Bach.
Career as a Writer and Teacher
Charles Rosen started his career as an author and scholar after he turned 40. He began writing because he was unhappy with the notes written for his record albums. He said, "I started writing the sleeve notes myself. People liked them." This led to many books and articles.
In 1970, Rosen wrote his first article for The New York Review of Books. He wrote many essays and reviews for this magazine throughout his life.
In 1971, Rosen published his first and most famous book, The Classical Style. This book was very successful and won a National Book Award. It was the start of many more books he would write.
Rosen also taught at universities. He taught French at MIT early in his career. Later, he taught music at places like Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Stony Brook University, and the University of Oxford. Even after becoming a famous scholar, he continued to perform as a pianist for the rest of his life.
He gave his last lecture on April 18, 2012, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. Charles Rosen passed away from cancer on December 9, 2012, at age 85. He gave his collection of music scores and writings to the Music Department at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Books and Other Writings
Charles Rosen wrote many highly praised books about music. Some of them include:
- The Classical Style (1971): This is his most famous book. It looks at how the "Classical period" style of music developed. It focuses on composers like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Rosen updated the book in 1997.
- Sonata Forms (1980): This book goes into detail about "sonata form." This was a main way music was structured in the classical era.
- The Romantic Generation (1995): This book focuses on early Romantic composers. These include Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Berlioz.
- Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion (2001): This book gives background on Beethoven's famous piano sonatas. It also offers advice for people who play them.
- Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New (2001): This is a collection of essays and reviews he wrote for magazines. It covers many topics, including different composers and modern music.
- Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist (2002): This book explains the world of a concert pianist to general readers. It talks about piano playing techniques, the instrument itself, and the music written for the piano.
Rosen also wrote books about other subjects, like art and poetry.
What Made Rosen's Writing Special
Charles Rosen said his main goal in writing about music was "to increase the listener's engagement with the music." He wanted people to feel more connected to the music they heard. He didn't want them to just dream while listening. He wanted his writing and performances to make listeners pay close attention.
To do this, Rosen often talked about the technical parts of music. This included how music is put together, like its structure and sounds. Music critic Jeremy Denk described how Rosen's book The Classical Style showed how each musical idea in a piece by Mozart builds on the last one. He showed how composers created a "continuous game of symmetry and asymmetry." Rosen helped readers understand that behind the notes, there are feelings and a whole system of meaning.
Another goal of his writing was to place each composer's work in its historical and cultural setting. He described the music that influenced composers in their early years. Then, he showed how they added their own new ideas. For example, Rosen saw Beethoven mostly as part of the Classical period. He didn't just see him as someone who started the later Romantic movement. In fact, Rosen argued that the Romantic movement in music came from a rejection of Beethoven's ideas.
Rosen was not afraid to make strong statements about music. He often pointed out things that were almost always true in certain types of music. For example, he wrote that the first part of a "sonata exposition" (a section in a piece of music) always becomes more lively.
Awards and Honors
Charles Rosen received many awards and honors for his work:
- For The Classical Style: He won the U.S. National Book Award in Arts and Letters.
- He was chosen to be a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1974).
- He was chosen to be a member of the American Philosophical Society (1995).
- For The Romantic Generation: He won the Otto Kinkeldey award from the American Musicological Society (1996).
- He received special honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge and Durham University.
- For his recordings of Boulez's piano music: He won the Edison Prize in the Netherlands.
- For his recordings of Beethoven's late piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations: He was nominated for a Grammy Award.
- He received a National Humanities Medal from President Obama on February 13, 2012, at the White House.
- An opera called The Classical Style was created in his honor. It was first performed on June 13, 2014.
