{"id":4053,"date":"2012-05-14T10:38:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T10:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=4053"},"modified":"2025-04-28T12:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T12:12:03","slug":"genealogies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/genealogies\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Genealogies"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thinking recently about tradition, I compiled genealogies for the lessons I have had in musical composition and in learning to play various instruments.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>In composition, I once had lessons on serialist composition with James (&#8220;Gentleman Jim&#8221;) Penberthy, who in turn had had lessons from Nadia Boulanger. Although every mid-western American city was said to have had a music teacher who&#8217;d once been a pupil of Boulanger, the same was not true of Australia.  As best I can determine the genealogy is thus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>James Penberthy (1917-1999)\n<ul>\n<li>Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)\n<ul>\n<li>Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)\n<ul>\n<li>Louis Niedermeyer (1802-1861)\n<ul>\n<li>Emanual Aloys Forster (1748-1823)\n<ul>\n<li>Johann Georg Pausewang (1738-1812)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)\n<ul>\n<li>Fromental Halevy (1799-1862)\n<ul>\n<li>Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am greatly pleased to find myself a composition student descendant of Cherubini, whose sublime string quartets influenced and were influenced by those of Mendelssohn.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>For piano, I was very privileged to be taught by nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, initially Sr Claver Butler RSM (ca.1930-2009), and then later Sr Clare Castle RSM (ca.1920-2000). Sr Claver enabled me, unlike all her previous students, to encounter music first through an understanding of theory rather than through practice. Together, through trial-and-error, we found that this approach suited far better my top-down mode of thinking, which was evident, apparently, even as a child. Sr Clare, with an articulate self-confidence that intimidated other students and their parents but which enlivened me, left me with the thought that nervousness in performance was to be welcomed, since <em>&#8220;placid people never achieve anything.&#8221;<\/em>  <\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>Although not taught by her, I was also given valuable advice and help by fellow-organist Miss Dot Crowe (ca.1915-1975), a pianist and organist who had led her own swing jazz band in the Northern Rivers of NSW in the 1940s, <i><a href=\"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/a-salute-to-dot-crowe-and-kewpie-harris\/\">Dot Crowe and the Arcadian Six<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>For the tuba, I was taught by my trombonist father and by trumpeter and band-master Mr Frederick Wedd (1891-1972). Wedd had been one of the trumpeters selected to play a fanfare for the arrival in Australia in May 1920 of the future King Edward VIII on his 1920 Royal Tour of Australia. For saxophone, my teacher Sig. Leopoldo Mugnai is a great-grand-pupil of Marcel Mule (1901-2001), so that makes me Mule&#8217;s great-great-grand-pupil.  For vibraphone, I am very ably taught by Mr James Taylor. <\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>In violin, I once had some lessons from Mr Leo Birsen, whose genealogy was:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Leo Birsen (1902-1992)\n<ul>\n<li>Jeno Hubay (1858-1937)\n<ul>\n<li>Joseph Joachim (1831-1907)\n<ul>\n<li>Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)\n<ul>\n<li>Eduard Rietz (1802-1832)\n<ul>\n<li>Johann Friedrich Ritz (1767-1828) (ER&#8217;s father)<\/li>\n<li>Pierre Rode (1774-1830)<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Subsequently, I have had lessons from two fine teachers whose genealogies are as follows.  My first teacher Ms Gisela Soares was taught by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Philip Heyman<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ryszard Woycicki\n<ul>\n<li>Stefan Kamasa (1930 &#8211; )\n<ul>\n<li>Jan Rakowski (1898-1962)\n<ul>\n<li>Karola Wierzuchowskiego<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tadeusz Wronski (1915-2000)<\/li>\n<li>P. Pasquier<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And my second teacher Dr Claudio Forcada was taught by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Goncal Comellas Fabrega (1945- )\n<ul>\n<li>Joan Massia i Prats (1890-1969)\n<ul>\n<li>Alfred Marchot (1861-1939)\n<ul>\n<li>Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931)\n<ul>\n<li>Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-1881)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here, parallel indents show a student of multiple teachers.  Thus, Ysaye was taught by both Wieniawksi and Vieuxtemps. As it happens, Wieniawksi was also a pupil of Vieuxtemps.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Note:<\/em>  This post has been updated several times, most recently on 2024-07-18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking recently about tradition, I compiled genealogies for the lessons I have had in musical composition and in learning to play various instruments. In composition, I once had lessons on serialist composition with James (&#8220;Gentleman Jim&#8221;) Penberthy, who in turn had had lessons from Nadia Boulanger. Although every mid-western American city was said to have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,35,56,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hands","category-history","category-music","category-violin","p1","y2012","m05","d14","h10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13849,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions\/13849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}