Music: Composers on Coins

[Pabitra]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756-1791) impact on Austrian culture is just as vital today as it was when the young prodigy took the Viennese opera scene by storm at the age of 16 when he composed his first opera, "Bastien und Bastienne". To celebrate his musical genius, The Austrian Mint will issue a three-coin silver coin series entitled, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Life in Three Acts."

Each coin will be struck in .900 silver and carry a 20-euro face value. The first coin in the series will be issued in September 2015. Coins two and three are scheduled for release in 2016.

[Pabitra]

Hello Alan,
Congratulations on publishing the book on this topic.
Saw the website too.

http://www.composercoins.com

Well done indeed.

[Alan Glasser]

Hello, Pabitra.

You are most kind in your complements of the book. To clarify, I am the Contributing Editor and the credit really goes to R. Kevin Paul who implemented the idea of creating a book on the topic of Composer Coins. The Full title is: "The Complete Guide to Collecting Composer Coins; Music-Related World Coins with Variations on a Composer theme". I know it has been a work of love for Kevin and it is my pleasure and honor to have been asked to contribute. Information has come from many sources, including the many kind people here on WOC, from my own collection, auction houses, E-Bay and numerous other sources and references on World Coins. With the popularity of new world issues featuring composers, keeping up is a most enjoyable challenge. I particularly get real excitement when I discover an older coin that somehow got overlooked. The work is ongoing and I look forward to working with Kevin well into the future on the second edition and others in years upcoming.
Thank you, Pabitra!!!    Alan

[Figleaf]

Thank you, Pabitra. A work of research that sees the light of day is always enjoyable, even more so when it is a collaborative effort. Well done, Alan. May it inspire readers to look at coins in a different way. Glad you could use WoC as a research platform. Even today, a new music coin was added to the site.

Peter

[Pabitra]

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov(10 August 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was also instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return.
Glazunov's most popular works nowadays are his ballets The Seasons and Raymonda, some of his later symphonies, particularly the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, the Polonaise from Les Sylphides, and his two Concert Waltzes. His Violin Concerto, which was a favorite vehicle for Jascha Heifetz, is still sometimes played and recorded. His last work, the Saxophone Concerto (1934), showed his ability to adapt to Western fashions in music at that time.
Glazunov died in Neuilly-sur-Seine (near Paris) at the age of 70 in 1936. The announcement of his death shocked many. They had long associated Glazunov with the music of the past rather than of the present, so they thought he had already been dead for many years.

In 1972 his remains were reinterred in Leningrad.

The coin is face value 2 Roubles.

[Pabitra]

Michał Kleofas Ogiński (25 September 1765 – 15 October 1833) was a Polish composer, diplomat, politician and Grand Treasurer of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

As a composer, he is best known for his polonaise Pożegnanie Ojczyzny (Farewell to the Homeland), written in 1794 on the occasion of his emigration to western Europe after the failure of the Kościuszko Uprising.This piece, with its unreservedly melancholic melodies and fantasia-like passages, can be considered one of the earliest examples of Romanticism in music, preempting Frédéric Chopin by approximately a quarter-century. His polonaises influenced an entire generation of Polish composers, including Maria Szymanowska, Franciszek Lessel, and Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński.

The coin will be issued on 11th Sept.

[Figleaf]

Nice design. Good attempt to picture the concept of music. Is the right side of the head some national (Polish?) border?

Peter

[Pabitra]

Your guess is as good as mine.

[Pabitra]

Did I forget to cover this coin on Richter by Russia?

[Pabitra]

Latvia 5 Euro 2015
Emīls Dārziņš (born November 3, 1875, died on 31 August 1910) was a Latvian composer and music critic. He wrote a number of pieces for orchestra, of which only "Melancholy Waltz" remains.

[Pabitra]

Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe. The only non-European who was successful as an opera composer in Italy, during the "golden age of opera", contemporary to Verdi and Puccini and the first composer of non-European lineage to be accepted into the Classic tradition of music.

Younger than Verdi, yet older than Puccini, Carlos Gomes achieved his first major success in a time when the Italian audiences were eager for a new name to celebrate and Puccini had not yet officially started his career. After the successful premiere of Il Guarany, Gomes was considered the most promising new composer. Verdi said his work was an expression of "true musical genius". Liszt said that "it displays dense technical maturity, full of harmonic and orchestral maturity."

 

[Pabitra]

Vassilis Tsitsanis (18 January 1915 – 18 January 1984) was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary bouzouki player.

Greece 5 Euro 2015

[Bimat]

Austria €20 (2016): Mozart Series: Amadeus: The Genius





Aditya

[chrisild]

By the way, Al's book (if I may say so) has just been featured here:

(en) http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/For-collectors-of-coins-featuring-depictions-of-composers/4?&id=4253
(de) http://www.muenzenwoche.de/de/News/Fuer-die-Sammler-von-Muenzen-mit-Komponistendarstellungen/4?&id=4253

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

Hello, Chrisild, and other readers and participants in this column.

I am pleased that the book on the subject of coins featuring composers has garnered so much interest and I appreciate your bringing the terrific article about the book to my attention. I do need to point out that while I did participate in providing listings and updating information, the credit goes to Kevin Paul for all of his hard work and research required to assemble such a well written and useful guide to the topic. I refer to my copy constantly and putting a "check" next to a new addition to my collection is always enjoyable. My goal is to put a check next to every entry in Kevin's book and I am pleased to continue to send to Kevin, updates, suggestions and new composer coin "finds". Some members of this column assist in this as well and I know I can speak for Kevin when I send sincere thanks to you all.

I started my collection of composer coins when I was about 16 and my mother made a trip to Europe. She brought home to me an example of an Austrian coin featuring Mozart (KM-2881) and that was the start of literally a lifetime passion. Numerous members of World of Coins have helped me along the way and I clearly remember "Figleaf", who does so much wonderful work on the board, located and negotiated my acquisition of Togo KM-160 honoring Richard Wagner. This piece eluded me for years and even the Bank of Tonga had no record of its issuance. So my collection is really the work of many collectors and every single one is appreciated.

If I started at 16 years of age, in October of this year, it will be 50 years that I have been working on my set of composer coins. Now with a grandson and may activities in which I am involved since retiring 10 years ago (kidney transplant), my love for this avenue of collecting remains strong and I am happy to report that just last week I located and ordered an elusive $5 coin again honoring Mozart from Nauru (no KM number as yet). I always look forward to receiving messages in my in-box that I have a note from World of Coins and someone kindly has posted a listing of another new composer coin.   

Anyway, thanks to Chrisild, Pabitra and MANY members or WOC who have been and remain so helpful in the pursuit of my hobby.

Best to you all!!!   Alan