Events

655 – Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.

1315 – Battle of Morgarten the Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I.

1515 – Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Cardinal

1532 – Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca leader Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging a meeting on the city plaza the following day

1533 – Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.

1791 – The first U.S Catholic college, Georgetown University, opens its doors.

1806 – Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it is later named Pikes Peak).

1859 – The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece.

1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.

1889 – Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.

1920 – First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva.

1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter Inflation in the Weimar Republic.

1926 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.

1935 – Manuel L. Quezon is inaugurated as the second president of the Philippines.

1939 – In Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

1942 – World War II: First flight of the Heinkel He 219.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.

1943 – Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". (see Porajmos)

1945 – Venezuela joins the United Nations.

1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.

1951 – Greek resistance leader Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 resistance members, is sentenced to death by the court-martial.

1959 – Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.

1966 – Gemini program: Gemini 12 splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1966 – A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.

1967 – The only fatality of the X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.

1968 – The US Air Force launches Operation Commando Hunt, a large-scale bombing campaign against the Ho Chi Minh trail.

1969 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.

1969 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".

1969 – In Columbus, Ohio, Dave Thomas opens the first Wendy's restaurant.

1971 – Intel releases world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

1976 – René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favour of independence.

1978 – A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.

1979 – A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded. Recognised only by Turkey.

1985 – A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.

1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.

1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas DC-9-14 jetliner, crashes in a snowstorm at Denver, Colorado Stapleton International Airport, killing 28 occupants, while 54 survive the crash.

1987 – In Braşov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

1988 – In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran is launched on her first and last space flight.

1988 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.

1988 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.

1990 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.

2000 – A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola killing more than 40 people.

2000 – Jharkhand state comes into existence in India.

2003 – The first day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, killing 25 people and wounding about 300. Additional bombings follow on November 20.

2005 – Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.

2007 – Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5000 people and destroyed the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans.

Births

1316 – John I of France (d. 1316)

1397 – Pope Nicholas V (d. 1455)

1498 – Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Portugal and France (d. 1558)

1511 – Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet (d. 1536)

1556 – Jacques-Davy Duperron, French cardinal (d. 1618)

1559 – Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (d. 1621)

1607 – Madeleine de Scudéry, French writer (d. 1701)

1660 – Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (d. 1746)

1661 – Christoph von Graffenried, Swiss settler in Americas (d. 1743)

1688 – Louis Bertrand Castel, French mathematician (d. 1757)

1692 – Eusebius Amort, German Catholic theologian (d. 1775)

1708 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1778)

1738 – William Herschel, German-born astronomer (d. 1822)

1741 – Johann Kaspar Lavater, German philosopher (d. 1801)

1746 – Joseph Quesnel, French Canadian composer and playwright (d. 1809)

1757 – Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon (d. 1830)

1784 – Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia (d. 1860)

1791 – Friedrich Ernst Scheller, German jurist and politician (d. 1869)

1793 – Michel Chasles, French mathematician (d. 1880)

1852 – Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (d. 1892)

1859 – Christopher Hornsrud, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1960)

1862 – Gerhart Hauptmann, German dramatist, Nobel laureate (d. 1946)

1868 – Emil Racovita, Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist and explorer of Antarctica (d. 1947)

1874 – August Krogh, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (d. 1949)

1874 – Dimitrios Golemis, Greek athlete (d. 1941)

1879 – Lewis Stone, American actor (d. 1953)

1881 – Franklin Pierce Adams, American newspaper columnist (d. 1960)

1882 – Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1965)

1886 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (d. 1951)

1887 – Marianne Moore, American poet (d. 1972)

1887 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American painter (d. 1986)

1890 – Richmal Crompton, British author (d. 1969)

1891 – Averell Harriman, American businessman (d. 1986)

1891 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal, "The Desert Fox" (d. 1944)

1895 – Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)

1895 – Antoni Słonimski, Polish writer (d. 1976)

1897 – Aneurin Bevan, British politician (d. 1960)

1897 – Sacheverell Sitwell, English writer (d. 1988)

1899 – Avdy Andresson, Estonian statesman (d. 1990)

1903 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (d. 1974)

1905 – Mantovani, Italian-born composer (d. 1980)

1906 – Curtis LeMay, U.S. Air Force general (d. 1990)

1907 – Claus von Stauffenberg, German, leader of failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler (d. 1944)

1913 – Guy Green, English film director (d. 2005)

1913 – Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (d. 2005)

1919 – Joseph Wapner, American judge

1920 – Vasilis Diamantopoulos, Greek actor (d. 1999)

1922 – Francis Brunn, German juggler (d. 2004)

1922 – David Sidney Feingold, American biochemist

1925 – Howard Baker, American political advisor

1925 – Yuli Daniel, Russian writer (d. 1988)

1927 – Gregor Mackenzie, British politician (d. 1992)

1928 – C. W. McCall, American singer

1928 – John Orchard, British actor (d. 1995)

1929 – Ed Asner, American actor

1930 – J. G. Ballard, British author (d. 2009)

1931 – Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya

1931 – Pascal Lissouba, Congo politician

1932 – Petula Clark, English singer

1932 – Clyde McPhatter, American singer (d. 1972)

1932 – Alvin Plantinga, American philosopher

1933 – Theodore Roszak, American scholar and author (d. 2011)

1936 – Wolf Biermann, German writer

1936 – H. B. Bailey, American NASCAR driver (d. 2003)

1937 – Little Willie John, American singer (d. 1968)

1937 – Yaphet Kotto, American actor

1940 – Ulf Pilgaard, Danish actor

1940 – Sam Waterston, American actor

1940 – Roberto Cavalli, Italian fashion designer

1942 – Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born conductor and pianist

1945 – Roger Donaldson, Australian producer/director

1945 – Bob Gunton, American actor

1945 – Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, Norwegian born, Swedish singer (ABBA)

1947 – Bill Richardson, American politician, 9th United States Secretary of Energy, and 30th Governor of New Mexico

1950 – Egon Vaupel, German politician

1951 – Beverly D'Angelo, American actress

1952 – Zoltán Buday, Hungarian born actor

1952 – Randy Savage, American professional wrestler (d. 2011)

1954 – Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of Poland

1955 – Georgie Born, English academic, anthropologist and musician (Henry Cow)

1955 – Henry Corra, American documentarian

1956 – Michael Hampton, American guitarist (Funkadelic)

1956 – Brian Douglas Wells, American criminal (d. 2003)

1957 – Kevin Eubanks, American jazz guitarist

1957 – Harold Marcuse, American historian

1957 – Ray McKinnon, American film actor/director

1957 – Michael Woythe, German footballer

1961 – Ian Reid, Australian educator

1962 – Mark Acres, American basketball player

1963 – Benny Elias, Australian rugby league footballer

1963 – Andrew Castle, English television presenter and former tennis professional

1964 – Stelios Aposporis, Greek footballer

1964 – Mikhail Rusyayev, Russian footballer (d. 2011)

1965 – Nigel Bond, English snooker player

1965 – Stefan Pfeiffer, German swimmer

1966 – Rachel True, American actress

1967 – Pedro Borbón, Jr., Dominican baseball player

1967 – Greg Anthony, American basketball player

1967 – E-40, American rapper

1967 – François Ozon, French film director

1967 – Gustavo Poyet, Uruguayan footballer

1968 – Jennifer Charles, American singer/songwriter

1968 – Ol' Dirty Bastard, American rapper (d. 2004)

1968 – Fausto Brizzi, Italian screenwriter and film director

1969 – Shane Mack, American politician

1970 – Ilija Aračić, Croatian footballer

1970 – Jack Ingram, American singer and songwriter

1970 – Patrick Mboma, Cameroonian footballer

1971 – Jay Harrington, American actor

1972 – Ngô Bảo Châu, Vietnamese mathematician, Fields medalist

1972 – Jonny Lee Miller, English actor

1973 – Jesse Merz, American actor

1973 – Sydney Tamiia Poitier, American actress

1974 – Chad Kroeger, Canadian singer (Nickelback)

1975 – Scott Henshall, British fashion designer

1975 – Yannick Tremblay, Canadian ice hockey player

1976 – Brandon DiCamillo, American comedian

1976 – Virginie Ledoyen, French actress

1977 – Sean Murray, American actor

1977 – Peter Phillips, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II

1977 – Robaire Smith, American football player

1977 – Logan Whitehurst, American musician (d. 2006)

1978 – Floyd Womack, American football player

1979 – Josemi, Spanish footballer

1979 – Brett Lancaster, Australian cyclist

1980 – Ace Young, American singer

1981 – Lorena Ochoa, Mexican golfer

1981 – Drew Hodgdon, American football player

1981 – Jordan Buckley, American heavy metal guitarist, Every Time I Die

1982 – D. J. Fitzpatrick, American Football League kicker

1982 – Joe Kowalewski, American football player

1982 – Lofa Tatupu, National Football League player

1983 – Sasha Pavlovic, Serbian basketball player

1983 – DJ Skee, American DJ/personality

1983 – Laura Smet, French actress

1983 – Fernando Verdasco, Spanish tennis player

1984 – Gemma Atkinson, English actress

1985 – Lily Aldridge, American fashion model

1986 – Coye Francies, American football player

1986 – Sania Mirza, Indian tennis player

1987 – Isaiah Osbourne, English footballer

1988 – Zena Grey, American actress

1988 – Bobby Ray, AKA B.o.B, American recording artist and producer

1990 – Kanata Hongō, Japanese actor

1991 – Shailene Woodley, American actress

Deaths

655 – Penda, King of Mercia

1028 – Constantine VIII Byzantine Emperor (b. 960)

1136 – Margrave Leopold III of Austria (b. 1073)

1280 – Albertus Magnus, German theologian, bishop, and philosopher

1463 – Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini, Prince of Taranto and Constable of Naples

1544 – King Jungjong of Joseon (b. 1506)

1579 – Ferenc Dávid, Hungarian religious reformer (b. 1510)

1628 – Roque Gonzales, Paraguayan missionary (b. 1576)

1630 – Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1571)

1670 – John Amos Comenius, Czech writer (b. 1592)

1691 – Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (b. 1620)

1706 – Tsangyang Gyatso, 6th Dalai Lama (b. 1683)

1712 – James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish nationalist (b. 1658)

1712 – Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, English politician (b. 1675)

1787 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (b. 1714)

1794 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)

1795 – Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (b. 1719)

1819 – Daniel Rutherford, Scottish chemist and physician (b. 1749)

1832 – Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist (b. 1767)

1853 – Queen Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819)

1908 – Empress Dowager Cixi, Chinese ruler (b. 1835)

1910 – Wilhelm Raabe, German writer (b. 1831)

1916 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author, Nobel laureate (b. 1846)

1917 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (b. 1858)

1919 – Alfred Werner, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1866)

1919 – Mohammad Farid, Egyptian politician (b. 1868)

1922 – Dimitrios Gounaris, Greek politician (b. 1866)

1922 – Georgios Hatzianestis, Greek General (b. 1863)

1922 – Petros Protopapadakis, Greek politician (b. 1854)

1922 – Nikolaos Stratos, Greek politician (b. 1872)

1945 – Frank Chapman, American ornithologist (b. 1864)

1949 – Narayan Apte, Indian assassin of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1911)

1949 – Nathuram Godse, Indian assassin of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1910)

1954 – Lionel Barrymore, American actor (b. 1878)

1958 – Tyrone Power, American actor (b. 1914)

1959 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1869)

1961 – Elsie Ferguson, American actress (b. 1883)

1963 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (b. 1888)

1965 – Dawn Powell, American poet (b. 1896)

1966 – Dimitrios Tofalos, Greek weightlifter (b. 1877)

1967 – Michael J. Adams, American test pilot (b. 1930)

1971 – Rudolf Abel, Soviet spy (b. 1903)

1976 – Jean Gabin, French actor (b. 1904)

1978 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (b. 1901)

1981 – Enid Markey, American stage and film actress (b. 1894)

1981 – Khawar Rizvi, Pakistani Poet and Scholar(b. 1938)

1981 – Steve Macko, American baseball player (b. 1954)

1982 – Martin De Alzaga, Argentine racing driver (b. 1901)

1982 – Vinoba Bhave, Indian human rights advocate (b. 1895)

1983 – Charlie Grimm, American baseball player (b. 1898)

1983 – John Le Mesurier, English actor (b. 1912)

1988 – Billo Frómeta, Dominican orchestra conductor, arranger and composer (b. 1915)

1990 – Alydar, American racehorse (b. 1975)

1994 – Elizabeth George Speare, American author (b. 1908)

1996 – Alger Hiss, American government official and alleged spy (b. 1904)

1997 – Saul Chaplin, American composer and musical director (b. 1912)

1998 – Stokely Carmichael, American civil rights activist (b. 1941)

1998 – Ludvik Danek, Czech discus thrower (b. 1937)

2002 – Myra Hindley, English murderess (b. 1942)

2003 – Speedy West, American musician (b. 1924)

2003 – Ray Lewis, Canadian athlete (b. 1910)

2003 – Dorothy Loudon, American actress (b. 1933)

2003 – Laurence Tisch, American businessman (b. 1923)

2004 – Elmer L. Andersen, American politician (b. 1909)

2004 – John Morgan, Canadian comedian (b. 1930)

2005 – Adrian Rogers, American pastor and author (b. 1931)

2005 – Arto Salminen, Finnish writer (b. 1959)

2006 – Ana Carolina Reston, Brazilian model (b. 1985)

2006 – David K. Wyatt, American historian (b. 1937)

2007 – Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1928)

2009 – Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, Serbian religious figure (b. 1914)

2010 – Ed Kirkpatrick, American baseball player (b. 1944)

2010 – Larry Evans, American chess grandmaster and journalist (b. 1932)

Holidays and observances

America Recycles Day (United States)

Christian Feast Day:

*Abibus of Edessa

*Albert the Great

*Blessed Hugh Faringdon

*Didier of Cahors

*Leopold III, a public holiday in Lower Austria and Vienna.

*Malo

*Mechell

*November 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Day of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (German-speaking Community of Belgium)

Earliest day on which Beaujolais Day can fall, while November 21 is the latest; observed on the third Thursday in November (International)

Earliest day on which Day of the Revolution can fall, while November 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in November (Mexico)

Earliest day on which Great American Smokeout can fall, while November 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Thursday in November (United States)

Independence Day, unilaterally declared in 1988. (Palestine)

King's Feast (Belgium)

Republic Proclamation Day (Brazil)

Shichi-Go-San (Japan)

The beginning of Winter Lent (Eastern Orthodox)

External links

BBC: On This Day

On This Day in Canada

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Category:Days of the year Category:November

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Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his great, virtuosic skill as a performer. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically-advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.

Life

Early life

The earliest known ancestor of Franz Liszt is his great-grandfather, Sebastian List, who as one of the thousands of German migrant serfs locally migrating within the Austrian Empire's territories (around the area nowadays constituting Lower Austria and Hungary), in the first half of the 18th century, and died in 1793 in Rajka, Moson County, Kingdom of Hungary. Liszt's grandfather was an overseer on several Esterházy estates; he could play the piano, violin and organ. The Liszt clan dispersed throughout Austria and Hungary and gradually lost touch with one another.

Franz Liszt was born to Marie Anna Lager and Adam Liszt on October 22, 1811, in the village of Doborján () in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary. His father would use only the Hungarian language when dealing, as steward, with the folk of the village in which the family settled.

Liszt's father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven personally. At age six, Franz began listening attentively to his father's piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight. He appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pozsony (; ) in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franz's musical education abroad.

In Vienna, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, who was then music director of the Viennese court. His public debut in Vienna on December 1, 1822, at a concert at the "Landständischer Saal," was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when the one year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt asked Prince Esterházy in vain for two more years. Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Prince's services. At the end of April 1823, the family returned to Hungary for the last time. At end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again.

Towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszt's first published composition appeared in print, a Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (now S. 147), which was Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. This anthology, commissioned by Diabelli, included 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers (Part II), Part I being taken up by Beethoven's 33 variations on the same theme, which are now better known as the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120.

Adolescence in Paris

After his father's death Liszt moved to Paris; for the next five years he was to live with his mother in a small apartment. He gave up touring. To earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to cover long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking and drinking—all habits he would continue throughout his life.

The following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles X's minister of commerce. However, her father insisted that the affair be broken off. Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother. He had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists. Urhan also wrote music that was anti-classical and highly subjective, with titles such as Elle et moi, La Salvation angélique and Les Regrets, and may have whetted the young Liszt's taste for musical romanticism. Equally important for Liszt was Urhan's earnest championship of Schubert, which may have stimulated his own lifelong devotion to that composer's music.

During this period Liszt read widely to overcome his lack of a general education, and he soon came into contact with many of the leading authors and artists of his day, including Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine and Heinrich Heine. He composed practically nothing in these years. Nevertheless, the July Revolution of 1830 inspired him to sketch a Revolutionary Symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days," and he took a greater interest in events surrounding him. He met Hector Berlioz on December 4, 1830, the day before the premiere of the Symphonie fantastique. Berlioz's music made a strong impression on Liszt, especially later when he was writing for orchestra. He also inherited from Berlioz the diabolic quality of many of his works.

Paganini

After attending an April 20, 1832 concert for charity, for the victims of a Parisian cholera epidemic, by Niccolò Paganini, Liszt became determined to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. Paris in the 1830s had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard. Some, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Alexander Dreyschock, focused on specific aspects of technique (e.g. the "three-hand effect" and octaves, respectively). While it was called the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights. Liszt's strength and ability to stand out in this company was in mastering all the aspects of piano technique cultivated singly and assiduously by his rivals.

In 1833 he made transcriptions of several works by Berlioz, including the Symphonie fantastique. His chief motive in doing so, especially with the Symphonie, was to help the poverty-stricken Berlioz, whose symphony remained unknown and unpublished. Liszt bore the expense of publishing the transcription himself and played it many times to help popularise the original score. He was also forming a friendship with a third composer who influenced him, Frédéric Chopin; under his influence Liszt's poetic and romantic side began to develop.

With Countess Marie d'Agoult

In 1833, Liszt began his relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult. In addition to this, at the end of April 1834 he made the acquaintance of Felicité de Lamennais. Under the influence of both, Liszt's creative output exploded. In 1834 Liszt debuted as a mature and original composer with his piano compositions Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the set of three Apparitions. These were all poetic works which contrasted strongly with the fantasies he had written earlier. In 1835 the countess left her husband and family to join Liszt in Geneva; their daughter Blandine was born there on December 18. Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory, wrote a manual of piano technique (later lost) and contributed essays for the Paris Revue et gazette musicale. In these essays, he argued for the raising of the artist from the status of a servant to a respected member of the community.

For the next four years Liszt and the countess lived together, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, where their daughter, Cosima, was born in Como, with occasional visits to Paris. On May 9, 1839 Liszt's and the countess's only son, Daniel, was born, but that autumn relations between them became strained. Liszt heard that plans for a Beethoven monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds, and pledged his support. Doing so meant returning to the life of a touring virtuoso. The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary.

Touring virtuoso

For the next eight years Liszt continued to tour Europe, spending holidays with the countess and their children on the island of Nonnenwerth on the Rhine in summers 1841 and 1843. In spring 1844 the couple finally separated. This was Liszt's most brilliant period as a concert pianist. Honours were showered on him and he was adulated everywhere he went. Since Liszt often appeared three or four times a week in concert, it could be safe to assume that he appeared in public well over a thousand times during this eight-year period. Moreover, his great fame as a pianist, which he would continue to enjoy long after he had officially retired from the concert stage, was based mainly on his accomplishments during this time.

After 1842 "Lisztomania" swept across Europe. The reception Liszt enjoyed as a result can only be described as hysterical. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. Helping fuel this atmosphere was the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence. Many witnesses later testified that Liszt's playing raised the mood of audiences to a level of mystical ecstasy.

Adding to his reputation was the fact that Liszt gave away much of his proceeds to charity and humanitarian causes. In fact, Liszt had made so much money by his mid-forties that virtually all his performing fees after 1857 went to charity. While his work for the Beethoven monument and the Hungarian National School of Music are well known, he also gave generously to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral, the establishment of a Gymnasium at Dortmund, and the construction of the Leopold Church in Pest. There were also private donations to hospitals, schools and charitable organizations such as the Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund. When he found out about the Great Fire of Hamburg, which raged for three weeks during May 1842 and destroyed much of the city, he gave concerts in aid of the thousands of homeless there.

Liszt in Weimar

In February 1847, Liszt played in Kiev. There he met the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who dominated most of the rest of his life. She persuaded him to concentrate on composition, which meant giving up his career as a travelling virtuoso. After a tour of the Balkans, Turkey and Russia that summer, Liszt gave his final concert for pay at Elisavetgrad in September. He spent the winter with the princess at her estate in Woronince. By retiring from the concert platform at 35, while still at the height of his powers, Liszt succeeded in keeping the legend of his playing untarnished.

The following year, Liszt took up a long-standing invitation of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia to settle at Weimar, where he had been appointed Kapellmeister Extraordinaire in 1842, remaining there until 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre. He gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857 (years later, she would marry Richard Wagner). He also wrote articles championing Berlioz and Wagner. Finally, Liszt had ample time to compose and during the next 12 years revised or produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly rests. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance of Lohengrin in 1850.

Princess Carolyne lived with Liszt during his years in Weimar. She eventually wished to marry Liszt, but since she had been previously married and her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nikolaus zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg (1812–1864), was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. After huge efforts and a monstrously intricate process, she was temporarily successful (September 1860). It was planned that the couple would marry in Rome, on October 22, 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt having arrived in Rome on October 21, 1861, the Princess nevertheless declined, by the late evening, to marry him. It appears that both her husband and the Tsar of Russia had managed to quash permission for the marriage at the Vatican. The Russian government also impounded her several estates in the Polish Ukraine, which made her later marriage to anybody unfeasible.

Liszt in Rome

The 1860s were a period of great sadness in Liszt's private life. On December 13, 1859, he lost his son Daniel, and on September 11, 1862, his daughter Blandine also died. In letters to friends, Liszt afterwards announced that he would retreat to a solitary living. He found it at the monastery Madonna del Rosario, just outside Rome, where on June 20, 1863, he took up quarters in a small, Spartan apartment. He had on June 23, 1857, already joined a Franciscan order.

On April 25, 1865, he received the tonsure at the hands of Cardinal Hohenlohe. Following this he was sometimes called the Abbé Liszt. On July 31, 1865 he received the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. On August 14, 1879 he was made an honorary canon of Albano. The title 'Abbé', the French equivalent of 'Father', is a courtesy title often given in the 18th Century to men in minor orders; Liszt was never a priest. (Abbé can also mean abbot, but that definition does not apply here at all.)

On some occasions, Liszt took part in Rome's musical life. On March 26, 1863, at a concert at the Palazzo Altieri, he directed a programme of sacred music. The "Seligkeiten" of his "Christus-Oratorio" and his "Cantico del Sol di Francesco d'Assisi", as well as Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" and works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Jommelli, Mendelssohn and Palestrina were performed. On January 4, 1866, Liszt directed the "Stabat mater" of his "Christus-Oratorio", and on February 26, 1866, his "Dante Symphony". There were several further occasions of similar kind, but in comparison with the duration of Liszt's stay in Rome, they were exceptions. Bódog Pichler, who visited Liszt in 1864 and asked him for his future plans, had the impression that Rome's musical life was not satisfying for Liszt.

Threefold life

Liszt was invited back to Weimar in 1869 to give master classes in piano playing. Two years later he was asked to do the same in Budapest at the Hungarian Music Academy. From then until the end of his life he made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his "vie trifurquée" or threefold existence. It is estimated that Liszt travelled at least 4000 miles a year during this period in his life—an exceptional figure given his advancing age and the rigours of road and rail in the 1870s.

Last years

On July 2, 1881, Liszt fell down the stairs of the Hotel in Weimar. Though friends and colleagues had noted swelling in Liszt's feet and legs when he had arrived in Weimar the previous month, Liszt had up to this point been in reasonably good health, and his body had retained the slimness and suppleness of earlier years. The accident, which immobilised him for eight weeks, changed this. A number of ailments manifested—dropsy, asthma, insomnia, a cataract of the left eye and chronic heart disease. The last-mentioned eventually contributed to Liszt's death. He became increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings which he expressed in his works from this period. As he told Lina Ramann, "I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."

He died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, at age 74, officially as a result of pneumonia which he may have contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his daughter Cosima. Questions have been posed as to whether medical malpractice played a direct part in Liszt's demise.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, an old friend, whom Liszt had once called "the greatest organist in the world" dedicated his Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony" to Liszt; it had premiered in London only a few weeks before his death.

Liszt as pianist

Performing style

There are few, if any, good sources that give an impression of how Liszt really sounded from the 1820s. Carl Czerny claimed Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling, and reviews of his concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength and precision in his playing. At least one also mentions his ability to keep absolute tempo, which may be due to his father's insistence that he practice with a metronome. His repertoire at this time consisted primarily of pieces in the style of the brilliant Viennese school, such as concertos by Hummel and works by his former teacher Czerny, and his concerts often included a chance for the boy to display his prowess in improvisation.

Following the death of Liszt's father in 1827 and his hiatus from the life as a touring virtuoso, it is likely Liszt's playing gradually developed a more personal style. One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from this time comes from the winter of 1831/1832, during which he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris. Among his pupils were Valerie Boissier, whose mother Caroline kept a careful diary of the lessons. From her we learn that:

"M. Liszt's playing contains abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. [...] [He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. [...] He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions. Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works."

Possibly influenced by Paganini's showmanship, once Liszt began focusing on his career as a pianist again his emotionally vivid presentations of the music were rarely limited to mere sound. His facial expression and gestures at the piano would reflect what he played, for which he was sometimes mocked in the press. Also noted was the extravagant liberties he could take with the text of a score at this time. Berlioz tells us how Liszt would add cadenzas, tremolos and trills when playing the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and created a dramatic scene by changing the tempo between Largo and Presto. In his Baccalaureus letter to George Sand from the beginning of 1837, Liszt admitted that he had done so for the purpose of gaining applause, and promised to follow both the letter and the spirit of a score from then on. It has been debated to what extent he realized his promise, however. By July 1840 the British newspaper The Times could still report

"His performance commenced with Händel's Fugue in E minor, which was played by Liszt with an avoidance of everything approaching to meretricious ornament, and indeed scarcely any additions, except a multitude of ingeniously contrived and appropriate harmonies, casting a glow of colour over the beauties of the composition, and infusing into it a spirit which from no other hand it ever received."

Repertoire

During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music throughout Europe, but his core repertoire always centered around his own compositions, paraphrases and transcriptions. Studying Liszt's German concerts between 1840 and 1845, the five most frequently played pieces were the Grand galop chromatique, Schubert's Erlkönig (in Liszt's transcription), Réminiscences de Don Juan, Réminiscences de Robert le Diable, and Réminiscences de Lucia de Lammermoor. Among the works by other composers we find compositions like Weber's Invitation to the Dance, Chopin mazurkas, études by composers like Ignaz Moscheles, Chopin and Ferdinand Hiller, but also major works by Beethoven, Weber and Hummel, and from time to time even selections from Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.

Most of the concerts at this time were shared with other artists, and as a result Liszt also often accompanied singers, participated in chamber music, or performed works with an orchestra in addition to his own solo part. Frequently played works include Weber's Konzertstück, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Choral Fantasy, and Liszt's reworking of the Hexameron for piano and orchestra. His chamber music repertoire included Hummel's Septet, Beethoven's Archduke Trio and Kreutzer Sonata, and a large selection of songs by composers like Rossini, Donizetti, Beethoven and especially Schubert. At some concerts Liszt could not find musicians to share the program with, and consequently was among the first to give solo piano recitals in the modern sense of the word. The term was coined by the publisher Frederick Beale, who suggested it for Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on June 9, 1840, even though Liszt had given concerts all by himself already by March 1839.

Musical works

Liszt was a prolific composer. His composition career has a clear arch that follows his changing professional and personal life. Liszt is best known for his piano music, but he wrote extensively for many media. Because of his background as a forefront technical piano virtuoso, Liszt's piano works are often marked by their difficulty. Liszt is very well known as a programmatic composer, or an individual who bases his compositional ideas in extra-musical things such as a poetry or painting. Liszt is credited with the creation of the Symphonic Poem which is a programmatic orchestral work that generally consists of a single movement.

Liszt's compositional style delved deeply into issues of unity both within and across movements. For this reason, in his most famous and virtuosic works, he is an archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the Leitmotif by Richard Wagner.

Piano music

The largest and best-known portion of Liszt's music is his original piano work. His thoroughly revised masterwork, "Années de pèlerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage") includes arguably his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of "Album d'un voyageur", while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as "Tre sonetti di Petrarca" ("Three sonnets of Petrarch"). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed, and the level of technical difficulty which was present in much of his composition.

Liszt's piano works are usually divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are "original works", and on the other hand "transcriptions", "paraphrases" or "fantasies" on works by other composers. Examples for the first category are works such as the piece Harmonies poétiques et religieuses of May 1833 and the Piano Sonata in B minor (1853). Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are examples from the second category. As special case, Liszt also made piano arrangements of his own instrumental and vocal works. Examples of this kind are the arrangement of the second movement "Gretchen" of his Faust Symphony and the first "Mephisto Waltz" as well as the "Liebesträume No. 3" and the two volumes of his "Buch der Lieder".

Transcriptions

When Liszt wrote transcriptions of works by other composers, he invested a lot of creativity in doing so. Instead of just overtaking original melodies and harmonies, he ameliorated them. In the case of his fantasies and transcriptions in the Italian style, composers such as Bellini and Donizetti knew that certain forms, usually periods of eight measures, were to be filled with music. Occasionally, while the first half of a period was composed with inspiration, the second half was added with mechanical routine. Liszt changed this by modifying the melody, bass and occasionally the harmonies.

Liszt's transcriptions yielded results that were often more inventive than what Liszt or the original composer could have achieved alone. Some notable examples are the Sonnambula-fantasy (Bellini), the Rigoletto-Paraphrase (Verdi), the Faust-Walzer (Gounod), and "Réminiscences de Don Juan" (Mozart). Hans von Bülow admitted that Liszt's transcription of his Dante Sonett "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed. Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are other well known examples of piano transcriptions.

Liszt was the second pianist (after Kalkbrenner) to transcribe Beethoven's symphonies for the piano. He usually performed them for audiences that would probably never have an opportunity to hear the orchestral version.

Original songs

Franz Liszt composed about six dozen original songs with piano accompaniment. In most cases the lyrics were in German or French, but there are also some songs in Italian and Hungarian and one song in English. Liszt began with the song "Angiolin dal biondo crin" in 1839, and by 1844 had composed about two dozen songs. Some of them had been published as single pieces. In addition, there was an 1843–1844 series "Buch der Lieder". The series had been projected for three volumes, consisting of six songs each, but only two volumes appeared.

Although Liszt's early songs are seldom sung, they show him in much better light than works such as the paraphrase "Gaudeamus igitur" and the Galop after Bulhakow, both composed in 1843. The transcriptions of the two volumes of the "Buch der Lieder" can be counted among Liszt's finest piano works. However, the contemporaries had much to criticise with regard to the style of the songs. Further critical remarks can be found in Peter Raabe's Liszts Schaffen.

Today, Liszt's songs are nearly entirely forgotten. As an exception, most frequently the song "Ich möchte hingehen" is cited. It is because of a single bar, most resembling the opening motif of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. While it is commonly claimed that Liszt wrote that motif ten years before Wagner started work on his masterpiece, it has turned out that this is not true: the original version of "Ich möchte hingehn" was composed in 1844 or 1845. There are four manuscripts, and only a single one, a copy by August Conradi, contains the said bar with the Tristan motif. It is on a paste-over in Liszt's hand. Since in the second half of 1858 Liszt was preparing his songs for publication, and he just at that time received the first act of Wagner's Tristan, it is most likely that the version on the paste-over was a quotation from Wagner. This is not to say, the motif was originally invented by Wagner. An earlier example can be found in bar 100 of Liszt's Ballade No. 2 in B minor for piano, composed in 1853.

Programme music

Liszt, in some of his works, supported the idea of programme music – that is, music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas. By contrast, absolute music (a radical new idea in the 19th century world of music) stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Liszt's own point of view regarding programme music can for the time of his youth be taken from the preface of the Album d'un voyageur (1837). According to this, a landscape could evoke a certain kind of mood. Since a piece of music could also evoke a mood, a mysterious resemblance with the landscape could be imagined. In this sense the music would not paint the landscape, but it would match the landscape in a third category, the mood.

In July 1854 Liszt wrote his essay about Berlioz and Harold in Italy that stated that not all music was programme music. If, in the heat of a debate, a person would go so far as to claim the contrary, it would be better to put all ideas of programme music aside. But it would be possible to take means like harmony, modulation, rhythm, instrumentation and others to let a musical motif endure a fate. In any case, a programme should only be added to a piece of music if it was necessarily needed for an adequate understanding of that piece.

Still later, in a letter to Marie d'Agoult of November 15, 1864, Liszt wrote: :"Without any reserve I completely subscribe to the rule of which you so kindly want to remind me, that those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any programme. In other words: All beautiful music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed".

Symphonic poems

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extramusical program provides a narrative or illustrative element. This program may come from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source. The term was first applied by Liszt to his 13 one-movement orchestral works in this vein. They were not pure symphonic movements in the classical sense because they dealt with descriptive subjects taken from mythology, Romantic literature, recent history or imaginative fantasy. In other words, these works were programmatic rather than abstract. The form was a direct product of Romanticism which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. It developed into an important form of program music in the second half of the 19th century.

The first 12 symphonic poems were composed in the decade 1848–58 (though some use material conceived earlier); one other, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe (From the Cradle to the Grave), followed in 1882. Liszt's intent, according to Hugh MacDonald in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980), was for these single-movement works "to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought." That logic, embodied in sonata form as musical development, was traditionally the unfolding of latent possibilities in given themes in rhythm, melody and harmony, either in part or in their entirety, as they were allowed to combine, separate and contrast with one another. To the resulting sense of struggle Beethoven had added an intensity of feeling and the involvement of his audiences in that feeling, beginning from the Eroica Symphony to use the elements of the craft of music—melody, bass, counterpoint, rhythm and harmony—in a new synthesis of elements toward this end.

Liszt attempted in the symphonic poem to extend this revitalization of the nature of musical discourse and add to it the Romantic ideal of reconciling classical formal principles to external literary concepts. To this end, he combined elements of overture and symphony with descriptive elements, approaching symphonic first movements in form and scale. While showing extremely creative amendments to sonata form, Liszt used compositional devices such as cyclic form, motifs and thematic transformation to lend these works added coherence. Their composition proved daunting, requiring a continual process of creative experimentation that included many stages of composition, rehearsal and revision to reach a version where different parts of the musical form seemed balanced.

Late works

With some works from the end of the Weimar years Liszt drifted more and more away from the musical taste of his time. An early example is the melodrama "Der traurige Mönch" ("The sad monk") after a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, composed in the beginning of October 1860. While in the 19th century harmonies were usually considered as major or minor triads to which dissonances could be added, Liszt took the augmented triad as central chord.

More examples can be found in the third volume of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage. "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" ("The Fountains of the Villa d'Este"), composed in September 1877, foreshadows the impressionism of pieces on similar subjects by Debussy and Ravel. However, other pieces such as the "Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique" ("Funeral march, In memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico") composed in 1867 are without stylistic parallel in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At a later stage Liszt experimented with "forbidden" things such as parallel 5ths in the "Csárdás macabre" and atonality in the Bagatelle sans tonalité ("Bagatelle without Tonality"). In the last part of his "2de Valse oubliée" ("2nd Forgotten waltz") Liszt composed that he could not find a lyrical melody. Pieces like the "2nd Mephisto-Waltz" are shocking with nearly endless repetitions of short motives. Also characteristic are the "Via crucis" of 1878, as well as Unstern!, Nuages gris, and the two works entitled La lugubre gondola of the 1880s.

Literary works

Besides his musical works, Liszt wrote essays about many subjects. Most important for an understanding of his development is the article series "De la situation des artistes" ("On the situation of the artists") which was published in the Parisian Gazette musicale in 1835. In winter 1835–36, during Liszt's stay in Geneva, about half a dozen further essays followed. One of them was slated to be published under the pseudonym, "Emm Prym", was about Liszt's own works. It was sent to Maurice Schlesinger, editor of the Gazette musicale. Schlesinger, however, following the advice of Berlioz, did not publish it. In the beginning of 1837, Liszt published a review of some piano works of Sigismond Thalberg. The review provoked a huge scandal. Liszt also published a series of writings titled "Baccalaureus letters", ending in 1841.

During the Weimar years, Liszt wrote a series of essays about operas, leading from Gluck to Wagner. Liszt also wrote essays about Berlioz and the symphony Harold in Italy, Robert and Clara Schumann, John Field's nocturnes, songs of Robert Franz, a planned Goethe foundation at Weimar, and other subjects. In addition to essays, Liszt wrote a book about Chopin as well as a book about the Romanis (Gypsies) and their music in Hungary.

While all of those literary works were published under Liszt's name, it is not quite clear which parts of them he had written himself. It is known from his letters that during the time of his youth there had been collaboration with Marie d'Agoult. During the Weimar years it was the Princess Wittgenstein who helped him. In most cases the manuscripts have disappeared so that it is difficult to determine which of Liszt's literary works actually were works of his own. However, until the end of his life it was Liszt's point of view that it was he who was responsible for the contents of those literary works.

Liszt also worked until at least 1885 on a treatise for modern harmony. Pianist Arthur Friedheim, who also served as Liszt's personal secretary, remembered seeing it among Liszt's papers at Weimar. Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript, titled Sketches for a Harmony of the Future. Unfortunately, this treatise has been lost.

Liszt also wrote a biography of his friend and fellow composer Frederic Chopin, "Life of Chopin".

Legacy

Although there was a period in which many considered Liszt's works "flashy" or superficial, it is now held that many of Liszt's compositions such as Nuages gris, Les jeux d'eaux a la vill d'Este, etc., which contain parallel fifths, the whole-tone scale, parallel diminished and augmented triads, and unresolved dissonances, anticipated and influenced twentieth century music like that of Debussy, Ravel and Bartok.

Liszt's students

Early students

Liszt was one of the most noted teachers of the 19th century. This part of his career commenced after his father's death in August 1827. For the purpose of earning his own and his mother's living, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. According to a letter to Monsieur de Mancy on December 23, 1829, he was so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, he had scarcely breathing time. Most of Liszt's students of this period were amateurs, but there were also some who made a professional career. An example of the first kind is Valérie Boissier, the later Comtesse de Gasparin. Examples of the second kind are Julius Eichberg, Pierre Wolff, and Hermann Cohen. During winter 1835–36 they were Liszt's colleagues at the Conservatoire at Geneva. Wolff then went to Saint Petersburg.

Cohen, who from George Sand received the nickname "Puzzi", developed into a very successful pianist. Of Jewish origin, he was baptized on August 28, 1847. On this day he experienced what he called an "apparition" of Christ, Mary and the saints in an "ecstasy of love". A year later he became novice of a Carmelite convent. When on October 7, 1850, he was professed, he took the name Père Augstin–Marie du Très Saint Sacrament ("Pater Augustin–Mary of the Holiest Sacrament"). On April 19, 1851, he was ordained as priest. In spring 1862 he met Liszt in Rome. After colloquies with Pater Augustin, Liszt decided that he would himself become ecclesiastic.

During the years of his tours Liszt gave only few lessons. Examples of students from this period are Johann Nepumuk Dunkl and Wilhelm von Lenz. Dunkl received lessons from Liszt during winter 1839–40. He had introduced himself by playing Thalberg's Fantasy Op. 6 on melodies from Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable". Liszt later called him a "Halbschüler" ("half-student"). Lenz, from St. Petersburg, had met Liszt already at the end of 1828. In summer 1842 he was in Paris again where he received further lessons from Liszt. He was merely an amateur with a repertoire of pieces such as Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9/2. In spring 1844, in Dresden, Liszt met the young Hans von Bülow, his later son in law. Bülow's repertoire included Thalberg's Fantasy "La Donna del Lago" Op. 40 and Liszt's Sonnambula-Fantasy.

Later students

Since Liszt had settled in Weimar, the number of those who received lessons from him was steadily increasing. Until his death in 1886 there would have been several hundred people who in some sense may have been regarded as his students. August Göllerich published a voluminous catalogue of them. In a note he added the remark that he had taken the connotation "student" in its widest sense. As consequence, his catalogue includes names of pianists, violinists, cellists, harpists, organists, composers, conductors, singers and even writers. Another catalogue was prepared by Carl Lachmund. In Lachmund's catalogue his own wife's name, missing in Göllerich's catalogue, is included. She had successfully persuaded Liszt to listen to her playing the harp. After she had played a single piece, without Liszt saying a word about it, she was nominated as Liszt's student by her husband.

The following catalogue by Ludwig Nohl, headed with "Die Hauptschüler Liszts" ("Liszt's main students"), was approved in September 1881 and, with regard to the order of the names, corrected, by Liszt. {|cellpadding="3" |- |Hans von Bülow||Carl Tausig||Franz Bendel|| |- |Hans von Bronsart||Karl Klindworth||Alexander Winterberger |- |Julius Reubke||Theodor Ratzenberger||Robert Pflughaupt |- |Friedrich Altschul||Nicolaus Neilissoff||Carl Baermann|| |- |Dionys Pruckner||Ferdinand Schreiber||Louis Rothfeld |- |Antal Sipos||Julius Eichberg||Josef Wieniawsk |- |Louis Jungmann||William Mason||Max Pinner |- |Juliusz Zarębski||Giovanni Sgambati||Carlo Lippi |- |Siegfried Langgaard||Karl Pohlig||Arthur Friedheim |- |Louis Marek||Eduard Reuss||Bertrand Roth |- |Berthold Kellermann||Carl Stasny||Julius Richter |- |Ingeborg Starck-Bronsart||Sophie Menter-Popper||Sophie Pflughaupt |- |Aline Hundt||Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdörfer||Ahrenda Blume |- |Anna Mehlig||Vera Timanova||Martha Remmert |- |Sara Magnus-Heinze||Dora Petersen||Ilonka Ravacz |- |Cäcilia Gaul||Marie Breidenstein||George Leitert |}

In 1886 a similar catalogue would have been much longer, including names such as Eugen d'Albert, Walter Bache, Carl Lachmund, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil Sauer, Alexander Siloti, Conrad Ansorge, William Dayas, August Göllerich, Bernhard Stavenhagen, August Stradal, István Thomán and others.

Nohl's catalogue was by far not complete, and this even when the restriction to the period since the Weimar years is neglected. Of Liszt's Hungarian students, for example, only Antal Sipos and Ilonka Ravasz were mentioned. Sipos had become Liszt's student in 1858 in Weimar, after Liszt had heard him playing at a concert and invited him. In 1861 Sipos returned to Budapest, where in 1875 he founded a music school. Ilonka Ravasz was since winter 1875–76 one of Liszt's most gifted students at the newly founded Royal Academy for Music at Budapest. Astonishingly, the names of Aladár Juhász and Károly Aggházy are missing in Nohl's catalogue, although both had been among Liszt's favourite students at the Hungarian Academy.

Also missing are the names of Agnes Street-Klindworth and Olga Janina. Agnes Street-Klindworth had in 1853 arrived in Weimar, where she received lessons in piano playing from Liszt and lessons in composition from Peter Cornelius. Until 1861 she was Liszt's secret mistress. Olga Janina had joined the circle around Liszt in 1869 in Rome. According to Liszt's impression, she had rare and admirable musical talents. In his presence, she performed his piano concertos in E-flat and A Major as well as further examples of his works.

Unfortunately, Olga Janina fell in love with Liszt. They had a short affair, until in spring 1871—on Liszt's initiative—they separated. Olga went to America, but in spring 1873 returned to Budapest. In a telegram to Liszt she had announced that she would kill him. After three adventurous days together with Liszt in an apartment in Budapest she left. Together with Liszt's student Franz Servais she first went to Belgium where she gave concerts which were brilliant successes. She then, together with Servais, went to Italy.

During the 1870s Olga Janina wrote several scandalous books about Liszt, among them the novel Souvenirs d'une Cosaque, published under the pseudonym "Robert Franz". In Göllerich's catalogue of Liszt's students she is registered as "Janina, Olga, Gräfin (Marquise Cezano) (Genf)". Thus she may have changed her name and moved to Geneva. Taking the preface of her Souvenirs d'une Cosaque literally, she had first moved from Italy to Paris where she had lived in poverty. The last paragraph of the preface can be read as a dedication to Liszt.

Besides Liszt's master students there was a crowd of those who could at best reach only moderate abilities. In such cases, Liszt's lessons changed nothing. However, also several of Liszt's master students were disappointed about him. An example is Eugen d'Albert, who in the end was on nearly hostile terms with Liszt. The same must be said of Felix Draeseke who had joined the circle around Liszt at Weimar in 1857, and who during the first half of the 1860s had been one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School. In Nohl's catalogue he is not even mentioned. Also Hans von Bülow, since the 1860s, had more and more drifted towards a direction which was not only different from Liszt's, but opposite to it

According to August Stradal, some of Liszt's master students had claimed that Anton Rubinstein was a better teacher than Liszt. It might have been meant as allusion to Emil Sauer, who had in Moscow studied with Nikolai Rubinstein. During a couple of months in summers 1884 and 1885 he studied with Liszt at Weimar. When he arrived for the first time, he already was a virtuoso of strongest calibre who shortly before had made a concert tour through Spain. The question of whether there was any change in his playing after he had studied with Liszt remains open. According to his autobiography Meine Welt, he had found it imposing when Arthur Friedheim was thundering Liszt's Lucrezia-Fantasy. Regarding Liszt's playing a Beethoven Sonata, however, he wrote, Liszt had at least given a good performance as actor. As his opinion, Sauer had told his fellow students that Anton Rubinstein was a greater composer than Liszt. In Sauer's own compositions, a piano concerto, two sonatas, about two and a half dozen Etudes and several concert pieces, no influence of Liszt as composer of the 1880s can be recognized.

Liszt's teaching approach

Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home," as he phrased it. Instead, he focused on musical interpretation with a combination of anecdote, metaphor and wit. He advised one student tapping out the opening chords of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's Gnomenreigen (usually done by playing the piece too fast in the composer's presence): "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself; rather, he believed in preserving artistic individuality.

There were some pieces which Liszt famously refused to hear at his masterclasses. Among them were Carl Tausig's transcription of J. S. Bach's organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor. Liszt also did not like to hear his own Polonaise No. 2 in E Major, as it was overplayed and frequently badly played.

Liszt did not charge for lessons. He was troubled when German newspapers published details of pedagogue Theodor Kullak's will, revealing that Kullak had generated more than one million marks from teaching. "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art," Liszt told his biographer Lina Ramann. However, Carl Czerny charged an expensive fee for lessons and even dismissed Stephen Heller when he was unable to afford to pay for his lessons. Interestingly, Liszt spoke very fondly of his former teacher, to whom he dedicated his Transcendental Etudes. He wrote the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, urging Kullak's sons to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.

In the summer of 1936, Hungarian-French music critic Emil Haraszti published a two-part essay on Liszt, entitled Liszt á Paris in the publication La Revue musicale. In 1937 he published Deux Franciscians: Adam et Franz Liszt and in December of that year published La Probleme Liszt. The essay, which is a deep exploration of the musicality of Liszt, established Haraszti as one of the foremost Liszt scholars of his generation.

Royal Academy of Music at Budapest

Since the early 1860s there were attempts of some of Liszt's Hungarian contemporaries to have him settled with a position in Hungary. In January 1862, in Rome, Liszt received a letter by Baron Gábor Prónay, since 1850 President of a Conservatory in Pest. Baron Prónay offered Liszt the position as President. When in 1867 the Conservatory became "Ungarisches National Konservatorium" ("Hungarian National Conservatory"), Baron Prónay still tried to persuade Liszt to take the leadership. Liszt, however, in letters to Baron Prónay and further ones of his Hungarian contemporaries explained that his career as virtuoso and as conductor had finally ended. If he took a position in Hungary, it would be solely for the purpose of spreading his own compositions, his Oratorios and his symphonic works. Besides, as soon as he left Rome, it was his duty to spend some months of the year in Weimar. The Grand Duc had for several times asked for it.

In 1871 the Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy made a new attempt. In a writing of June 4, 1871, to the Hungarian King he demanded an annual rent of 4,000 Gulden and the rank of a "Königlicher Rat" ("Councellor of the King") for Liszt, who in return would permanently settle in Budapest, directing the orchestra of the National Theatre as well as music schools and further musical institutions. With decision of June 13, 1871, the King agreed. By that time there were also plans of the foundation of a Royal Academy for Music at Budapest, of which the Hungarian state should be in charge. The Royal Academy is not to be confused with the National Conservatory which still existed. The National Conservatory, of which the city Budapest was in charge, was until his death in 1875 directed by Baron Prónay. His successor was Count Géza Zichy.

The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy was in 1871 refused by the Hungarian Parliament, but a year later the Parliament agreed. Liszt was ordered to take part in the foundation. In March 1875 he was nominated as President. According to his wishes, the Academy should have been opened not earlier than in late autumn 1876. However, the Academy was officially opened already on November 14, 1875. Since it was Liszt's opinion that his colleagues Franz Erkel, the director, Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann could quite well do this job without him, he was absent. He arrived on February 15, 1876, in Budapest. On March 2 he started giving lessons, and on March 30 he left. The main purpose of his coming to Budapest had been a charity concert on March 20 in favour of the victims of a flood.

In November 1875, 38 students had passed the entrance examinations. 21 of them wanted to study piano playing, the others composition. Details of the entrance examinations are known from an account by Károly Swoboda (Szabados), one of Liszt's first students at the Royal Academy. According to this, candidates for a piano class had to play a single piano piece of their own choice. It could be a sonata movement by Mozart, Clementi or Beethoven. The candidates then had to sight read an easy further piece. Candidates for a composition class had to reproduce and continue a given melody of 4, 5 or 8 bars, after Volkmann had played it for about half a dozen times to them. Besides, they had to put harmonies to a given bass which was written on a table.

After Liszt had arrived, he selected 8 students for his class for advanced piano playing. To these came Áladár Juhász as the most outstanding one. As exception, he was to study piano playing only with Liszt. The others were matriculated as students of Erkel, since it was him from whom they would receive their lessons during Liszt's absence. Erkel also gave lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music. Volkmann gave lessons in composition and instrumentation. Ábrányi gave lessons in music aesthetics and harmony theory. Liszt had wished that there should have been a class for sacral music, led by Franz Xaver Witt. He had also wished that Hans von Bülow should take a position as piano professor. However, neither Witt nor Bülow agreed.

In spite of the conditions under which Liszt had in June 1871 been appointed as "Königlicher Rat", he neither directed the orchestra of the National Theatre, nor did he permanently settle in Hungary. As usual case, he arrived in mid-winter in Budapest. After one or two concerts of his students by the beginning of spring he left. He never took part in the final examinations, which were in summer of every year. Most of his students were still matriculated as students of either Erkel or later Henrik Gobbi. Some of them joined the lessons which he gave in summer in Weimar. In winter, when he was in Budapest, some students of his Weimar circle joined him there.

Judging from the concert programs of Liszt's students at Budapest, the standard resembled that of an advanced masterclass of our days. There was a difference, however, with regard to the repertoire. Most works as played at the concerts were works of composers of the 19th century, and many of the composers are now forgotten. As rare exceptions, occasionally a piece of J. S. Bach or Händel was played. Mozart and Haydn, but also Schubert and Weber, were missing. Of Beethoven only a comparatively small selection of his works was played. In typical cases Liszt himself was merely represented with his transcriptions.

The actual abilities Liszt's students at Budapest and the standard of their playing can only be guessed. Liszt's lessons of winter 1877–78 were in letters to Lina Ramann described by Auguste Rennebaum, herself Liszt's student at the Royal Academy. According to this, there had been some great talents in Liszt's class. However, the abilities of the majority had been very poor. August Stradal, who visited Budapest in 1885 and 1886, took the same point of view. In contrast to this, Deszö Legány claimed, much in Stradal's book was nonsense, taken from Stradal's own fantasy. Legány's own reliability, however, is not beyond doubt since many of his attempts of whitewashing Liszt and—even more—the Hungarian contemporaries are too obvious. Margit Prahács shared and supported Stradal's view. Her quotations from the contemporary Hungarian press show that much of Stradal's critique had been true. Concerning Liszt's relation with his Hungarian contemporaries at the end of his life, for example, in spring 1886 the journal Zenelap wrote: :"It is solely in Budapest, where musicians are wandering on such high clouds that they hardly take notice when Liszt is among them."

In 1873, at the occasion of Liszt's 50th anniversary as performing artist, the city Budapest had installed a "Franz Liszt Stiftung" ("Franz Liszt Foundation"). The foundation was destined to provide stipends of 200 Gulden for three students of the Academy who had shown excellent abilities and especially had achieved progress with regard to Hungarian music. Every year it was Liszt alone who could decide which one of the students should receive the money. He gave the total sum of 600 Gulden either to a single student or to a group of three or more of them, not asking whether they were actually matriculated at the Academy.

It was also Liszt's habit to declare all students who took part in his lessons as his private students. As consequence, nearly none of them paid any charge at the Academy. Since the Academy needed the money, there was a ministerial order of February 13, 1884, according to which all those who took part in Liszt's lessons had to pay an annual charge of 30 Gulden. However, Liszt did not respect this, and in the end the Minister resigned. In fact, the Academy was still the winner, since Liszt gave much money from his taking part in charity concerts.

The lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music turned out as problematic enterprise, since there were different opinions, exactly what Hungarian music actually was. In 1881 a new edition of Liszt's book about the Romanis and their music in Hungary appeared. According to this, Hungarian music was identical with the music as played by the Hungarian Romanis. Liszt had also claimed, Semitic people, among them the Romanis, had no genuine creativity. For this reason, according to Liszt's book, they only adopted melodies from the country where they lived. After the book had appeared, Liszt was in Budapest accused for a presumed spreading of anti-Semitic ideas. In the following year no students at all wanted to be matriculated for lessons in Hungarian music. According to the issue of July 1, 1886, of the journal Zenelap, this subject at the Hungarian Academy had already a long time ago been dropped.

In 1886 there was still no class for sacral music, but there were classes for solo and chorus singing, piano, violin, cello, organ and composition. The number of students had grown to 91 and the number of professors to 14. Since the winter of 1879–80, the Academy had its own building. On the first floor there was an apartment where since the winter of 1880–81 Liszt lived during his stays in Budapest. His last stay was from January 30 to March 12, 1886. After Liszt's death Janós Végh, since 1881 vice-president, became president. No earlier than 40 years later the Academy was renamed to "Franz Liszt Akademie". Until then, due to world war I, Liszt's Europe and also his Hungary had died. Mainly, the only connection between Franz Liszt and the "Franz Liszt Akademie" was the name.

Liszt School of Music Weimar

On June 24, 1872, the composer and conductor Karl Müller-Hartung founded an "Orchesterschule" ("Orchestra School") at Weimar. Although Liszt and Müller-Hartung were on friendly terms, Liszt took no active part in that foundation. The "Orchesterschule" later developed to a conservatory which still exists and is now called "Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar".

See also

Compositions by Franz Liszt

War of the Romantics

Cross motif

Notes

References

Bibliography

ed. Abraham, Gerald, Music of Tchaikovsky (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1946). ISBN n/a.

* Cooper, Martin, "The Symphonies"

Bory, Robert: Une retraite romantique en Suisse, Liszt et la Comtesse d'Agoult, Lausanne 1930.

Burger, Ernst: Franz Liszt, Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, München 1986.

Ehrhardt, Damien (éd.): Franz Liszt – Musique, médiation, interculturalité (Etudes germaniques 63/3, 2008).

Franz, Robert (i. e. Janina, Olga): Souvenirs d'une Cosaque, Deuxième édition, Paris 1874.

Göllerich, August: Musikerbiographien, Achter Band, Liszt, Zweiter Theil, Reclam, Leipzig, without date (1887–88).

Gibbs, Christopher H. and Gooley, Dana. Franz Liszt and his World. (Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2006.)

Hamburger, Klara (ed.): Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren, Budapest 1978.

ed. Hamilton, Kenneth, The Cambridge Companion to Liszt (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). ISBN 0-521-64462-3 (paperback).

* Shulstad, Reeves, "Liszt's symphonic poems and symphonies"

Jerger, Wilhelm (ed.): The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt 1884–1886, Diary Notes of August Göllerich, translated by Richard Louis Zimdars, Indiana University Press 1996.

ed. Latham, Alison, The Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). ISBN 0-19-866212-2

* Spencer, Piers, "Symphonic poem [tone-poem]"

Legány, Dezső: Franz Liszt, Unbekannte Presse und Briefe aus Wien 1822–1886, Wien 1984.

Legány, Dezső: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1869–1873, Occidental Press, Budapest 1983.

Legány, Dezső: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874–1886, Occidental Press, Budapest 1992.

Liszt, Franz: Briefwechsel mit seiner Mutter, edited and annotated by Klara Hamburger, Eisenstadt 2000.

Liszt, Franz and d'Agoult, Marie: Correspondence, ed. Daniel Ollivier, Tome I: 1833–1840, Paris 1933, Tome II: 1840–1864, Paris 1934.

Motta, Cesare Simeone: Liszt Viaggiatore Europeo, Moncalieri, 2000 (ISBN 8877600586)

Nohl, Ludwig: Musikerbiographien, Vierter Band, Liszt, Erster Theil, Reclam, Leipzig, without date (1881–82).

Ollivier, Daniel: Autour de Mme d'Agoult et de Liszt, Paris 1941.

Prahács, Margit (ed.): Franz Liszt, Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835–1886, Budapest 1966.

Prahács, Margit: Franz Liszt und die Budapester Musikakademie, in: Hamburger (ed.): Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren, pp. 49ff.

Raabe, Peter: Liszts Schaffen, Cotta, Stuttgart und Berlin 1931.

Ramann, Lina: Lisztiana, Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt in Tagebuchblättern, Briefen und Dokumenten aus den Jahren 1873–1886/87, ed. Arthur Seidl, text revision by Friedrich Schnapp, Mainz 1983.

Rellstab, Ludwig: Franz Liszt, Berlin 1842.

Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995.

ed Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, First Edition (London: Macmillian, 1980). ISBN 0-333-23111-2

* MacDonald, Hugh, "Symphonic poem," "Transformation, thematic"

* Searle, Humphrey, "Liszt, Franz"

* Temperley, Nicholas, "Symphony: II. 19th century"

Saffle, Michael: Liszt in Germany, 1840–1845, Franz Liszt Studies Series No.2, Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1994.

Sauer, Emil: Meine Welt, Stuttgart 1901.

Steinbeck, Arne: Franz Liszt's approach to piano playing, PhD dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park 1971.

Stradal, August: Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt, Bern, Leipzig 1929.

Walker, Alan: Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (1811–1847), revised edition, Cornell University Press 1987.

Walker, Alan: Franz Liszt, The Final Years (1861–1886), Cornell University Press 1997.

Walker, Alan: Article Liszt, Franz, in: Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition, London 2001).

Walker, Alan et al. "Liszt, Franz." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. November 20, 2009.

Watson, Derek: Liszt, Schirmer Books, 1989, ISBN 0-02-872705-3

External links

Printable scores by Franz Liszt

Lina Ramann's classical Liszt biography (in German) at Zeno.org

The Students of Liszt on Record and Reproducing Piano Roll by Mark Arnest

Franz Liszt, written and directed by James a. Fitzpatrick; fictional 11-minute 1925 film short about Franz Liszt; Liszt's music performed by Nathaniel Shilkret's Orchestra.

Complete recordings of Studies, Années de Pelerinage, Valses oubliées on klassik-resampled

Category:Romantic composers Category:Hungarian people of Austrian descent Category:Hungarian classical organists Category:Hungarian classical pianists Category:Hungarian composers Category:Child classical musicians Category:Hungarian Germans Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Organ improvisers Category:Hungarian Roman Catholics Category:Franciscans Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:People from Oberpullendorf District Category:1811 births Category:1886 deaths Category:19th-century Hungarian people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society

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Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Leona Lewis
background	solo_singer
birth name	Leona Louise Lewis
born	April 03, 1985Islington, London, England
genre	Pop, R&B;
occupation	Singer
years active	2006–present
label	Syco, J
website	}}

Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer-songwriter. Lewis was a contestant in third series of the British television series The X Factor, which she won. Lewis is a multi-platinum selling artist and three time Grammy Award nominee. Her most successful single, "Bleeding Love", reached number one in over thirty countries around the world. She was proclaimed 'Top New Artist' by Billboard magazine in 2008. Lewis has released two albums to date, Spirit and Echo, in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Spirit became the fastest-selling debut album and the biggest seller of 2007 in both the United Kingdom and Ireland, and made Lewis the first British solo artist to top the Billboard 200 with a debut album. It has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide. Lewis has currently sold over 9 million albums worldwide. Lewis's debut single "A Moment Like This" became the fastest selling UK single after being downloaded over 50,000 times within thirty minutes of its release. In November 2008 she set a record in the UK for the fastest selling download-only release with her cover version of the Snow Patrol song "Run" which sold 69,244 copies in two days. Lewis's debut tour, The Labyrinth, took place in 2010.

Early life

Lewis was born in the London Borough of Islington, to Aural Josiah "Joe" Lewis of Afro-Guyanese descent, and Maria Lewis of Welsh, Italian and Irish descent. Her parents enrolled her at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and from there she attended the Italia Conti Academy and the BRIT School, where she learned to play instruments such as the guitar and piano, in the hope of becoming a singer-songwriter. Lewis wrote her first full-length song at the age of 12. She initially trained in opera, but went on to singing jazz and blues, eventually leading to popular music, citing Minnie Riperton, Eva Cassidy and Stevie Wonder as her main influences. After leaving the BRIT School at 17, she took a number of jobs to fund studio time, recording a demo album called Twilight. The album, almost exclusively comprising her own compositions, was recorded under Spiral Music, a production company based in Fulham. "I tried to secure a record deal by doing things my own way. I worked very hard but I never managed to land a contract", said Lewis. Other demos were recorded under licence from UEG Entertainment, later included on an album called Best Kept Secret. However, none of Lewis's demos were released and she considered taking a hiatus from her music career to attend university until her boyfriend persuaded her to enter The X Factor which subsequently severed her connections with UEG.

Music career

2006: The X Factor

Lewis auditioned for the third series of The X Factor in 2006, singing "Over the Rainbow". She was mentored by Simon Cowell and was announced the winner on 16 December 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract.

Her debut single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", was released on CD on 20 December 2006, and was available as a digital download from midnight on 17 December. It broke a world record after it was downloaded 50,000 times in thirty minutes. On 24 December, "A Moment Like This" was crowned the 2006 UK Christmas number-one single, having sold 571,253 copies, outselling the rest of the Top 40's sales combined. The single became the most downloaded song in 2006; it stayed at number one for four weeks and stayed at the top spot in the Irish Singles Chart for six weeks.

2007–2009: Spirit and international breakthrough

In February 2007, Lewis signed a £5 million ($9.7 million) five-album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records, and showcased for several American music executives. A press release was sent out revealing that Cowell and Davis would work together in a first-of-its-kind partnership on both the song and producer selection for Lewis's debut album, entitled Spirit. Lewis recorded tracks for the album in London, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta, where she worked with several songwriters and record producers including Dallas Austin, Walter Afanasieff, Salaam Remi, Steve Mac, Stargate and Ne-Yo. It was released in November 2007 and entered both the Irish Albums Chart and the UK Albums Chart at number one, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in both countries, and the United Kingdom's fourth fastest selling album of all time. It was released in several other nations in January 2008, and went to number one in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland. Two further tracks were recorded in 2008 for the US release of the album: "Forgive Me", produced by Akon, and "Misses Glass", produced by Madd Scientist. It was released in the United States in April 2008 and entered the Billboard 200 at number one, making Lewis the first British artist to reach number one with a debut album. A special edition of Spirit was re-released in November 2008 in Europe, including the songs "Forgive Me", "Misses Glass" and a cover of the Snow Patrol song "Run". The album again went to number one in the UK Albums Chart. To date the album has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide and has a 9× platinum certification in the UK.

Lewis's second single, "Bleeding Love", produced by Ryan Tedder and written by Tedder and Jesse McCartney, was released in October 2007 in the UK, where it sold 218,805 copies in its first week, giving it the biggest first-week sales of 2007 to date. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, where it stayed for seven weeks, and in the Irish Singles Chart it remained at number one for eight weeks. It reached number one in the singles charts of New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Canada and the United States. "Bleeding Love" won The Record of the Year in December 2007. In February 2008, "Bleeding Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 85 and then went on to peak at number one for four non-consecutive weeks. The song became the first track by a UK female to reach number one since Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" in 1987. Lewis's third single, a double A-side featuring "Better in Time" and "Footprints in the Sand", was released in the United Kingdom in March 2008, in aid of Sport Relief, and she visited South Africa for the charity. The single reached a peak of number two in the UK singles chart selling over 40,000 copies in its first week of physical release. "Better in Time" was released as Lewis's second single in the US, where it peaked at number 11 in the Billboard Hot 100. "Forgive Me" was released as Lewis's fifth single in November 2008; it reached number five in the UK. "Run" was released as a download-only single in the UK, reaching number one, and becoming the UK's fastest-selling download-only single with 69,244 copies sold in two days. Lewis's last single from Spirit, "I Will Be", was released in January 2009, only in North America; it peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. In August 2008, she performed "Whole Lotta Love" with guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing, representing the handover to London as the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics. In September 2008, she joined several female singers to perform a single for the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer. The single, titled "Just Stand Up!", was performed live during the one-hour telethon that aired on all major US television networks. Lewis received three nominations for the 51st Grammy Awards in December 2008. "Bleeding Love" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Spirit was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album. She was nominated for four BRIT Awards, in the categories British Female Solo Artist, British Breakthrough Act, British Album for Spirit, and British Single for "Bleeding Love", but despite being the favourite to win the most awards, she received none. She won two awards at the 2008 MOBO Awards: Best Album for Spirit and Best Video for "Bleeding Love". In December 2008 Lewis was named 'Top New Artist' by Billboard magazine.

2009–2010: Echo and The Labyrinth

Lewis's second album, Echo, was given a worldwide release in November 2009. Production took place throughout 2009, including work with Ryan Tedder, Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, Arnthor Birgisson, Kevin Rudolf, and John Shanks. It was recorded in Los Angeles and took nine months to produce. Lewis described the album as "more guitar-driven" compared to Spirit. Lewis performed her first full UK show at the Hackney Empire in London on 2 November 2009, performing songs from Spirit and Echo. Echo reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and the top ten of Austria, Ireland and Switzerland. Despite previous attempts from Lewis's lawyers to ban the release of Best Kept Secret by UEG Music, claiming that the singer had not given her consent, the album was released in January 2009 when the label insisted it owned the rights to the music and Lewis would receive a 50% share of the album's profits. However, a television advert for the album was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, who said in a statement: "We considered that the claim 'Leona Lewis's new album' misleadingly implied it was the singer's latest recording rather than a new CD of tracks recorded some years ago." The album was released to iTunes in standard and deluxe editions, and two EPs, "Private Party" and "Dip Down"/"Joy", were released in September 2009. The first single released from Echo was "Happy", which was written by Lewis, Tedder and Evan Bogart and produced by Tedder. The single was released on 15 September 2009, peaking at number two in the UK, and reaching the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland. Lewis also recorded the theme song for the 2009 science fiction film Avatar, directed by James Cameron. The song, "I See You (Theme from Avatar)", was written by James Horner and Simon Franglen. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 67th Golden Globe Awards. In January 2010, Lewis provided vocals on a cover of "Everybody Hurts", released to help raise money for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The second single from Echo, "I Got You", was released in February 2010. The song "My Hands" was used as the theme song for Final Fantasy XIII In April 2010, she featured on a duet with Italian singer Biagio Antonacci, called "Inaspettata (Unexpected)", from his album Inaspettata. They performed the song on the Italian TV show Io Canto on 22 October 2010. Lewis performed a 13-piece set list at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal, on 22 May 2010, including songs from Spirit and Echo. Her first tour, titled The Labyrinth supporting Spirit and Echo, started in May 2010, with a theme based on the film Labyrinth. Lewis was scheduled to tour North America from July to August 2010 supporting Christina Aguilera's Bionic Tour, however, Aguilera postponed the tour until 2011, leaving Lewis's plans unknown. A DVD of the tour, along with a ten-track CD, was released with the title The Labyrinth Tour Live from The O2 on 29 November 2010.

2010–present: Glass Heart

Lewis began work on her third album shortly after she had completed The Labyrinth tour. She suggested the album would be "a bit different from what people have heard" from her before, adding that she planned to "go in and create and just see what happens". Lewis later described the album as "more progressive", "more eclectic", "more uptempo" and "a bit darker". Reports suggested that the album had taken a dubstep direction, with songwriters asked to submit dance songs and no ballads. It was also reported that Simon Cowell had set a deadline for the album for a summer 2011 release. On 25 May 2011, Lewis was named as an ambassador for BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012, the BBC's biggest ever free-ticketed live music event, and one of the artists confirmed to be performing at the event, which will take place on 23 and 24 June 2012. Following the announcement, she performed a special Live Lounge at the Hackney Empire, with a reggae version of "Better in Time", which incorporated Rihanna's "Man Down", and a cover of Labrinth's "Let the Sun Shine". In June 2011, when asked about the upcoming album, Lewis described it as "energetic, deep, [and] unique". She also commented that it would have a darker tone and that she would be putting her "heart into [her] lyrics". She cited Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush and Tears for Fears as the album's primary influences.

On 14 July 2011, it was confirmed that "Collide" would be the first track to be taken from Lewis's third studio album, Glass Heart. The dance-pop anthem, written by Autumn Rowe and produced by Sandy Vee, had its first UK radio play on The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1 on 15 July 2011. It will be released in the UK on 4 September 2011 and Germany on 9 September 2011. The single courted controversy after it was claimed to have plagiarised Swedish musician Avicii's 2010 song "Penguin". Berg took the case to the British High Court.

For the album, Lewis has worked with numerous writers and producers including: Ammo, Jonas Quant, Chuck Harmony, Claude Kelly, Ryan Tedder, Fraser T. Smith, Al Shux, Steve Robson, Dallas Austin, Rico Love and Ne-Yo. In May 2011, it was reported that Lewis had recorded a track called "Trouble" written by Emeli Sandé and Naughty Boy. Lewis also recorded a track called "Mountains" written by Sandé, Naughty Boy and Blazin' Squad members Flava (James Murray) and Mus (Mustafa Omer).

It has been confirmed that the album is entitled Glass Heart and to be released in the UK on 28 November 2011.

Voice

A mezzo-soprano, Lewis is often compared with other singers such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Lewis is also known to sing opera, stating that she practises operatic scales every week. Music critic Neil McCormick, of The Daily Telegraph, has praised Lewis's technical skills, writing, "Her mezzo-soprano range allows her to take melodies from luxurious low notes to high-flying falsetto, gliding with elegant power and impressive control through all kinds of fluctuations and modulations." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic adds, "Lewis can hit [high belted] notes but make it seem easy, never straining her voice and building nicely to the climax." In the same vein, Slant describes Lewis's vocals as "technically unimpeachable".

Other activities

In October 2008, The Times reported that Lewis had turned down a $1 million deal with Mohamed Al Fayed to open a Harrods sale. Lewis commented in the press that she turned down the deal on the grounds that Harrods is the only UK department store which continues to stock clothing made from animal fur. She told The Big Issue, "I got a lot of flak for that. There were people who said I should have done it and given the money to charity, but that would have been such a contradiction." She announced in October 2008 that she was in the "bargaining period" of launching her own ethical line of accessories through Topshop, and that she was in the late stages of releasing her own perfume for Europe. Her perfume, Leona Lewis, was launched by LR in July 2009. In 2010, she set up a fashion company with her then boyfriend, Lou Al-Chamaa, called LOA Clothing Ltd.

Lewis signed a book deal in January 2009 to release an illustrated autobiography in October 2009. The book, entitled Dreams, contains mostly pictures taken by photographer Dean Freeman. In 2010, it was reported Lewis was offered a cameo role in the second series of the American television programme Glee.

Personal life

Lewis lives in Hackney. She lived with her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa until their split in June 2010. Lewis and Al-Chamaa knew each other since she was approximately ten years old. A vegetarian since she was 12, Lewis won PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian along with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis in 2008, and Europe's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2009 with actor Scott Maslen. She also was named PETA's Person Of The Year for 2008. Lewis is a supporter of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

At a book signing for Dreams on 14 October 2009 at the Piccadilly branch of Waterstone's book store in central London, Lewis received a punch to the head from Peter Kowalczyk, a 29-year-old man from south London. Kowalczyk was arrested at the scene, and Lewis suffered bruising. She later released a statement thanking fans for their support. Kowalczyk was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and was charged with common assault, which he admitted to. He was ordered to remain in hospital for an indeterminate period.

Discography

Spirit (2007)

Echo (2009)

Glass Heart (2011)

Tours

2010: The Labyrinth

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the Sylvia Young Theatre School Category:English crime victims Category:English female singers Category:English-language singers Category:English people of Guyanese descent Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English people of Italian descent Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English pop singers Category:English rhythm and blues singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English soul singers Category:English vegetarians Category:People educated at the BRIT School Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:J Records artists Category:Singers from London Category:People from Islington Category:Sony BMG artists Category:The X Factor (UK) contestants Category:World Music Awards winners Category:X Factor series winners

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Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
background	solo_singer
alias	The Boss
born	September 23, 1949Long Branch, New Jersey,United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano
genre	Rock, folk rock, heartland rock, hard rock, roots rock
occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
years active	1972–present
label	Columbia
associated acts	E Street Band, Steel Mill, Miami Horns, The Sessions Band, U2
website	www.BruceSpringsteen.net
notable instruments	Fender TelecasterFender EsquireTakamine GuitarsHohner Marine Band Harmonica }}

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949 in Long Branch, New Jersey), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.

Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the twentieth century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the 23rd greatest artist of all time in its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.

Early life

Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zirilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. Overall, his heritage is 50% Italian, 37% Irish and 13% Dutch. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected the strictures imposed upon him, even though some of his later music reflects a Catholic ethos and included a few rock-influenced, traditional Irish-Catholic hymns.

In ninth grade, he transferred to the public Freehold Regional High School, but did not fit in there, either. Old teachers have said he was a "loner, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar." He completed high school, but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped his own graduation ceremony. He briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.

Career history

1962–1972: Early years

Springsteen had been inspired to take up music at the age of seven after seeing Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. At 13, his mother bought him his first guitar for $18; later, she took out a loan to buy the 16-year-old Springsteen a $60 Kent guitar, as he later memorialized in his song "The Wish".

In 1965, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become lead guitarist and subsequently the lead singer of The Castiles. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township and played a variety of venues, including Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that she believed the young Springsteen when he promised he would make it big.

Called for induction when he was 18, Springsteen failed his physical examination and did not serve in Vietnam. In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine in 1984, he said, "When I got on the bus to go take my physical, I thought one thing: I ain't goin'." He had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, and this together with his "crazy" behaviour at induction and not taking the tests, was enough to get him a 4F.

In the late 1960s, Springsteen performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey. Springsteen acquired the nickname "The Boss" during this period as when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses, but seems to have since given it a tacit acceptance. Previously he had the nickname "Doctor". From 1969 through early 1971, Springsteen performed with Steel Mill, which also featured Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. They went on to play the mid-Atlantic college circuit, and also briefly in California. In January 1970 well-known San Francisco Examiner music critic Philip Elwood gave Springsteen credibility in his glowing assessment of Steel Mill: "I have never been so overwhelmed by totally unknown talent." Elwood went on to praise their "cohesive musicality" and, in particular, singled out Springsteen as "a most impressive composer." During this time Springsteen also performed regularly at small clubs in Canton, Massachusetts, Richmond, Virginia, Asbury Park and along the Jersey Shore, quickly gathering a cult following. Other acts followed over the next two years, as Springsteen sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style: Dr Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early–mid 1971), Sundance Blues Band (mid 1971), and The Bruce Springsteen Band (mid 1971–mid 1972). With the addition of pianist David Sancious, the core of what would later become the E Street Band was formed, with occasional temporary additions such as horn sections, "The Zoomettes" (a group of female backing vocalists for "Dr. Zoom") and Southside Johnny Lyon on harmonica. Musical genres explored included blues, R&B;, jazz, church music, early rock'n'roll, and soul. His prolific songwriting ability, with "More words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums", as his future record label would describe it in early publicity campaigns, brought his skill to the attention of several people who were about to change his life: new managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, who, under Appel's pressure, auditioned Springsteen in May 1972.

Even after Springsteen gained international acclaim, his New Jersey roots showed through in his music, and he often praised "the great state of New Jersey" in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, he routinely sold out consecutive nights in major New Jersey and Philadelphia venues. He also made many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years, becoming the foremost exponent of the Jersey Shore sound.

1972–1974: Initial struggle for success

Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972, with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey–based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named as such for several more years). His debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite, though sales were slow. Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock–rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light", (which would later be a hit for Manfred Mann and go to number one, making it the only time Springsteen had a number one single as a songwriter), and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Bob Dylan. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone,'" wrote Crawdaddy magazine editor Peter Knobler in Springsteen's first interview/profile, in March 1973. Crawdaddy discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion. (Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged by giving a private performance at the Crawdaddy 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976.) Music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem in 1975 that when Springsteen's first album was released "... many of us dismissed it: he wrote like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, sang like Van Morrison and Robbie Robertson, and led a band that sounded like Van Morrison's." The track "Spirit in the Night" especially showed Morrison's influence, while "Lost in the Flood" was the first of many portraits of Vietnam veterans and "Growin' Up", his first take on the recurring theme of adolescence.

In September 1973 his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folky, more R&B; vibe and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "Incident on 57th Street" would become fan favorites, and the long, rousing "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" continues to rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.

In the May 22, 1974, issue of Boston's The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau subsequently became Springsteen's manager and producer, helping to finish the epic new album, Born to Run. Given an enormous budget in a last-ditch effort at a commercially viable record, Springsteen became bogged down in the recording process while striving for a wall of sound production. But, fed by the release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to progressive rock radio, anticipation built toward the album's release. All in all the album took more than 14 months to record, with six months alone spent on the song "Born To Run" During this time Springsteen battled with anger and frustration over the album, saying he heard "sounds in [his] head" that he could not explain to the others in the studio. It was during these recording sessions that "Miami" Steve Van Zandt would stumble into the studio just in time to help Springsteen organize the horn section on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (it is his only written contribution to the album), and eventually led to his joining the E Street Band. Van Zandt had been a long-time friend of Springsteen, as well as a collaborator on earlier musical projects, and understood where he was coming from, which helped him to translate some of the sounds Springsteen was hearing. Still, by the end of the grueling recording sessions, Springsteen was not satisfied, and, upon first hearing the finished album, threw the record into the alley and told Jon Landau he would rather just cut the album live at The Bottom Line, a place he often played.

1975–1983: Breakthrough

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.

A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows. By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".

In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.

Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work. This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.

The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's two previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.

1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon

Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on U.S. Top 40 stations as well as reaching #1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.

During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.

The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at number 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.

During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.

After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:

The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In the fall of 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.

1992–2001: Artistic and commercial ups and downs

In 1992, after risking charges of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles (a radical move for someone so linked to the blue-collar life of the Jersey Shore) and working with session musicians, Springsteen released two albums at once. Human Touch and Lucky Town were even more introspective than any of his previous work and displayed a newly revealed confidence. As opposed to his first two albums, which dreamed of happiness, and his next four, which showed him growing to fear it, at points during the Lucky Town album, Springsteen actually claims happiness for himself.

An electric band appearance on the acoustic MTV Unplugged television program (later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged) was poorly received and further cemented fan dissatisfaction. Springsteen seemed to realize this a few years hence when he spoke humorously of his late father during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech: }}

A multiple Grammy Award winner, Springsteen also won an Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia. The song, along with the film, was applauded by many for its sympathetic portrayal of a gay man dying of AIDS. The music video for the song shows Springsteen's actual vocal performance, recorded using a hidden microphone, to a prerecorded instrumental track. This technique was developed on the "Brilliant Disguise" video.

In 1995, after temporarily re-organizing the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), he released his second (mostly) solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and by Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, a book by Pulitzer Prize-winners author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson. This was generally less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody, twangy vocals, and political nature of most of the songs, although some praised it for giving voice to immigrants and others who rarely have one in American culture. The lengthy, worldwide, small-venue solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet and not to clap during the performances.

Following the tour, Springsteen moved back to New Jersey with his family. In 1998, Springsteen released the sprawling, four-disc box set of out-takes, Tracks. Subsequently, Springsteen would acknowledge that the 1990s were a "lost period" for him: "I didn't do a lot of work. Some people would say I didn't do my best work."

Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono of U2, a favor he returned in 2005.

In 1999, Springsteen and the E Street Band officially came together again and went on the extensive Reunion Tour, lasting over a year. Highlights included a record sold-out, 15-show run at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and a ten-night, sold-out engagement at New York City's Madison Square Garden which ended the tour. The final two shows were recorded for an HBO Concert, with corresponding DVD and album releases as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City. A new song, "American Skin (41 Shots)", about the police shooting of Amadou Diallo which was played at these shows proved controversial.

In November 2000, Springsteen filed legal action against Jeff Burgar which accused him of registering the domain brucespringsteen.com (along with several other celebrity domains) in bad faith to funnel web users to his Celebrity 1000 portal site. Once the legal complaint was filed, Burgar pointed the domain to a Springsteen biography and message board. In February 2001, Springsteen lost his dispute with Burgar. A WIPO panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of Burgar.

On Labor day 2001 Bruce Springsteen played at Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright NJ surprising a local cover band named Brian Kirk and the Jerks and performed Rosalita with them showing his support and love.

2002–2007: Return to success

In 2002, Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien. The album, mostly a reflection on the September 11 attacks, was a critical and popular success. (Many of the songs were influenced by phone conversations Springsteen had with family members of victims of the attacks who in their obituaries had mentioned how his music touched their lives.) The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years. Kicked off by an early-morning Asbury Park appearance on The Today Show, The Rising Tour commenced, barnstorming through a series of single-night arena stands in the U.S. and Europe to promote the album in 2002, then returning for large-scale, multiple-night stadium shows in 2003. While Springsteen had maintained a loyal hardcore fan base everywhere (and particularly in Europe), his general popularity had dipped over the years in some southern and midwestern regions of the U.S. But it was still strong in Europe and along the U.S. coasts, and he played an unprecedented 10 nights in Giants Stadium in New Jersey, a ticket-selling feat to which no other musical act has come close. During these shows Springsteen thanked those fans who were attending multiple shows and those who were coming from long distances or another country; the advent of robust Bruce-oriented online communities had made such practices more common. The Rising Tour came to a final conclusion with three nights in Shea Stadium, highlighted by renewed controversy over "American Skin" and a guest appearance by Bob Dylan.

During the early 2000s, Springsteen became a visible advocate for the revitalization of Asbury Park, and played an annual series of winter holiday concerts there to benefit various local businesses, organizations, and causes. These shows were explicitly intended for the devoted fans, featuring numbers such as the E Street Shuffle outtake "Thundercrack", a rollicking group-participation song that would mystify casual Springsteen fans. He also frequently rehearses for tours in Asbury Park; some of his most devoted followers even go so far as to stand outside the building to hear what fragments they can of the upcoming shows. The song "My City of Ruins" was originally written about Asbury Park, in honor of the attempts to revitalize the city. Looking for an appropriate song for a post-Sept. 11 benefit concert honoring New York City, he selected "My City of Ruins", which was immediately recognized as an emotional highlight of the concert, with its gospel themes and its heartfelt exhortations to "Rise up!" The song became associated with post-9/11 New York, and he chose it to close The Rising album and as an encore on the subsequent tour.

At the Grammy Awards of 2003, Springsteen performed The Clash's "London Calling" along with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt and No Doubt's bassist, Tony Kanal, in tribute to Joe Strummer; Springsteen and the Clash had once been considered multiple-album-dueling rivals at the time of the double The River and the triple Sandinista!. In 2004, Springsteen and the E Street Band participated in the "Vote for Change" tour, along with John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Bright Eyes, the Dave Matthews Band, Jackson Browne, and other musicians. All concerts were to be held in swing states, to benefit the liberalism political organization group America Coming Together and to encourage people to register and vote. A finale was held in Washington, D.C., bringing many of the artists together. Several days later, Springsteen held one more such concert in New Jersey, when polls showed that state surprisingly close. While in past years Springsteen had played benefits for causes in which he believed – against nuclear energy, for Vietnam veterans, Amnesty International, and the Christic Institute – he had always refrained from explicitly endorsing candidates for political office (indeed he had rejected the efforts of Walter Mondale to attract an endorsement during the 1984 Reagan "Born in the U.S.A." flap). This new stance led to criticism and praise from the expected partisan sources. Springsteen's "No Surrender" became the main campaign theme song for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign; in the last days of the campaign, he performed acoustic versions of the song and some of his other old songs at Kerry rallies.

Devils & Dust was released on April 26, 2005, and was recorded without the E Street Band. It is a low-key, mostly acoustic album, in the same vein as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad although with a little more instrumentation. Some of the material was written almost 10 years earlier during, or shortly after, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, a couple of them being performed then but never released. The title track concerns an ordinary soldier's feelings and fears during the Iraq War. Starbucks rejected a co-branding deal for the album, due in part to some sexually explicit content but also because of Springsteen's anti-corporate politics. The album entered the album charts at No. 1 in 10 countries (United States, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland). Springsteen began the solo Devils & Dust Tour at the same time as the album's release, playing both small and large venues. Attendance was disappointing in a few regions, and everywhere (other than in Europe) tickets were easier to get than in the past. Unlike his mid-1990s solo tour, he performed on piano, electric piano, pump organ, autoharp, ukulele, banjo, electric guitar, and stomping board, as well as acoustic guitar and harmonica, adding variety to the solo sound. (Offstage synthesizer, guitar, and percussion were also used for some songs.) Unearthly renditions of "Reason to Believe", "The Promised Land", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" jolted audiences to attention, while rarities, frequent set list changes, and a willingness to keep trying even through audible piano mistakes kept most of his loyal audiences happy.

In November 2005, Sirius Satellite Radio started a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week radio station on Channel 10 called E Street Radio. This channel featured commercial-free Bruce Springsteen music, including rare tracks, interviews, and daily concerts of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded throughout their career.

In April 2006, Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, an American roots music project focused around a big folk sound treatment of 15 songs popularized by the radical musical activism of Pete Seeger. It was recorded with a large ensemble of musicians including only Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and The Miami Horns from past efforts. In contrast to previous albums, this was recorded in only three one-day sessions, and frequently one can hear Springsteen calling out key changes live as the band explores its way through the tracks. The Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour began the same month, featuring the 18-strong ensemble of musicians dubbed The Seeger Sessions Band (and later shortened to The Sessions Band). Seeger Sessions material was heavily featured, as well as a handful of (usually drastically rearranged) Springsteen numbers. The tour proved very popular in Europe, selling out everywhere and receiving some excellent reviews, but newspapers reported that a number of U.S. shows suffered from sparse attendance. By the end of 2006, the Seeger Sessions tour toured Europe twice and toured America for only a short span. Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin, containing selections from three nights of November 2006 shows at The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, was released the following June.

Springsteen's next album, titled Magic, was released on October 2, 2007. Recorded with the E Street Band, it featured 10 new Springsteen songs plus "Long Walk Home", performed once with the Sessions band, and a hidden track (the first included on a Springsteen studio release), "Terry's Song", a tribute to Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007. The first single, "Radio Nowhere", was made available for a free download on August 28. On October 7, Magic debuted at number 1 in Ireland and the UK. Greatest Hits reentered the Irish charts at number 57, and Live in Dublin almost cracked the top 20 in Norway again. Sirius Satellite Radio also restarted E Street Radio on Channel 10 on September 27, 2007, in anticipation of Magic. Radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications was alleged to have sent an edict to its classic rock stations to not play any songs from the new album, while continuing to play older Springsteen material. However, Clear Channel Adult Alternative (or "AAA") station KBCO did play tracks from the album, undermining the allegations of a corporate blackout. The Springsteen and E Street Band Magic Tour began at the Hartford Civic Center with the album's release and was routed through North America and Europe. Springsteen and the band performed live on NBC's Today Show in advance of the opener. Longtime E Street Band organist Danny Federici left the tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma from which he would die in 2008

2008–present: Recent events

Springsteen supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, announcing his endorsement in April 2008 and going on to appear at several Obama rallies as well as performing several solo acoustic performances in support of Obama's campaign throughout 2008, culminating with a November 2 rally where he debuted "Working On A Dream" in a duet with Scialfa. At an Ohio rally, Springsteen discussed the importance of "truth, transparency and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and a life filled with the dignity of work, the promise and the sanctity of home...But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by eight years of a thoughtless, reckless and morally-adrift administration."

Following Obama's electoral victory on November 4, Springsteen's song "The Rising" was the first song played over the loudspeakers after Obama's victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. Springsteen was the musical opener for the Obama Inaugural Celebration on January 18, 2009 which was attended by over 400,000. He performed "The Rising" with an all-female choir. Later he performed Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" with Pete Seeger.

On June 18, 2008, Springsteen appeared live from Europe at the Tim Russert tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to play one of Russert's favorite songs, "Thunder Road". Springsteen dedicated the song to Russert, who was "one of Springsteen's biggest fans."

On January 11, 2009, Springsteen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for "The Wrestler", from the Mickey Rourke film by the same name. After receiving a heartfelt letter from Mickey Rourke, Springsteen supplied the song for the film for free.

Springsteen performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, agreeing to do it after many previous offers A few days before the game, Springsteen gave a rare press conference, where he promised a "twelve-minute party." His 12:45 set, with the E Street Band and the Miami Horns, included abbreviated renditions of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"", "Born to Run", "Working on a Dream, and "Glory Days", the latter complete with football references. The set of appearances and promotional activities led Springsteen to say, "This has probably been the busiest month of my life."

Springsteen's Working on a Dream album was released in late January 2009 and the supporting Working on a Dream Tour ran from April 2009 until November 2009. The tour featured few songs from the new album, with instead set lists dominated by classics and selections reflecting the ongoing late-2000s recession. The tour also featured Springsteen playing songs requested by audience members holding up signs as on the final stages of the Magic Tour. Drummer Max Weinberg was replaced for some shows by his 18-year-old son Jay Weinberg, so that the former could serve his role as bandleader on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. During this tour, Springsteen and the band made their first real foray in the world of music festivals, headlining nights at the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, Festival des Vieilles Charrues in France, the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the United States and the Glastonbury Festival in the UK and Hard Rock Calling in the UK. Several shows on the tour featured full album presentations of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, or Born in the U.S.A. The band performed a stretch of five final shows at his homestate Giants Stadium, opening with a new song highlighting the historic stadium, and his Jersey roots, named "Wrecking Ball". The tour ended as scheduled in Buffalo, NY in November 2009 amid speculation that it was the last performance ever by the E Street Band, but during the show Springsteen said it was goodbye “for a little while.” A DVD from the Working of a Dream Tour entitled London Calling: Live in Hyde Park was released in 2010.

In addition to his own touring, Springsteen made a number of appearances at tribute and benefit concerts during 2009, including The Clearwater Concert, a celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary benefit concert, a benefit for the charity Autism Speaks at Carnegie Hall. On January 22, 2010, he joined many well-known artists to perform on Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief‎, organized by George Clooney to raise money to help the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In 2009, Springsteen performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Springsteen was among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual award to figures from the world of arts for their contribution to American culture, in December 2009. President Obama gave a speech in which he talked about how Springsteen has incorporated the life of regular Americans in his expansive pallette of songs and how his concerts are beyond the typical rock-and-roll concerts, how, apart from being high-energy concerts, they are "communions". He ended the remark "while I am the president, he is The Boss". Tributes were paid by several well-known celebrities including Jon Stewart (who described Springsteen's "unprecedented combination of lyrical eloquence, musical mastery and sheer unbridled, unadulterated joy"). A musical tribute featured John Mellencamp, Ben Harper and Jennifer Nettles, Melissa Etheridge, Eddie Vedder and Sting.

The 2000s ended with Springsteen being named one of eight Artists of the Decade by Rolling Stone magazine and with Springsteen's tours ranking him fourth among artists in total concert grosses for the decade.

In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, was included in a box set reissue of the album, entitled The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, released in November 2010. Also airing on HBO, the documentary explored Springsteen's making of the acclaimed album, and his role in the production and development of the tracks.

Springsteen is working on his next studio album with Ron Aniello, who also co-produced the 2007 album "Play It As It Lays", by Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa. Ron Aniello also produced "Children's Song" early in 2011, a duet with Bruce and Patti, which was done for a charity project.

Musical style

Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear to hear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.

He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.

Earlier in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum).

In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further. There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.

On the album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.

The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.

Lyrical themes

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Often described as cinematographic in their scope, Springsteen's lyrics frequently explore highly personal themes such as individual commitment, dissatisfaction and dismay with life in a context of every day situations.

It has been recognized that there was a shift in his lyrical approach starting with the album Darkness on the Edge of Town, in which he focused on the emotional struggles of working class life.

Politics and activism

Springsteen's music has often contained political themes, and he has publicly campaigned for several causes, including his opposition to the Iraq War and support for Democratic presidential campaigns, including Senator John Kerry and President Barack Obama. He is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11 attacks in 2001, on which his album The Rising reflects.

In 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International.

Springsteen has been associated with various local food banks, particularly with the New Jersey Food bank for many years. During concerts, he usually breaks the routine to announce his support and later matches the total collection during the concert with his own money. During his Charlotte, North Carolina concert on November 3, 2009, he started with a $10,000 donation for the local food bank to start the collections process – which he again matched later.

He has made substantial financial contributions to various workers' unions both in America and in Europe.

Personal life

Springsteen had a short marriage to Julianne Phillips (born May 6, 1960) from May 13, 1985 to May 1988, when they separated. The two were opposites in background and his traveling took its toll on their relationship. The final blow came when Bruce began an affair with Patti Scialfa (born July 29, 1953), whom he had dated briefly in 1984 shortly after she joined the band. Phillips and Springsteen separated in the spring of 1988, and on August 30, 1988, Julianne filed for divorce. The Springsteen/Phillips divorce was finalized on March 1, 1989.

After the separation in 1988 Bruce began living with Scialfa. Springsteen received press criticism for the hastiness in which he and Scialfa took up their relationship. In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, Springsteen spoke about the negative publicity the couple subsequently received. "It's a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn't. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, 'Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that's life.'" He also noted that, "I went through a divorce, and it was really difficult and painful and I was very frightened about getting married again. So part of me said, 'Hey, what does it matter?' But it does matter. It's very different than just living together. First of all, stepping up publicly- which is what you do: You get your license, you do all the social rituals- is a part of your place in society and in some way part of society's acceptance of you...Patti and I both found that it did mean something."

On July 25, 1990 Scialfa gave birth to the couple's first child, Evan James Springsteen. On June 8, 1991 Springsteen and Scialfa married at their Beverly Hills home. Their second child, Jessica Rae Springsteen, was born on December 30, 1991; and their third child, Samuel Ryan Springsteen, was born on January 5, 1994. The family owns and lives on a horse farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey. They also own homes in Wellington, Florida, a wealthy horse community near West Palm Beach, Los Angeles and Rumson, New Jersey. Their eldest son, Evan, attends Boston College. Their daughter Jessica is a nationally ranked champion equestrian, and attends Duke University.

Since 1991, Springsteen has led a relatively quiet life for a well-known popular performer and artist. He moved from Los Angeles to New Jersey in the early 1990s specifically to raise a family in a non-paparazzi environment. It has been reported that the press conference regarding the 2009 Super Bowl XLIII half-time show was his first press conference for more than 25 years. However, he has appeared in a few radio interviews, most notably on NPR and BBC. 60 minutes aired his last extensive interview on TV before his tour to support his album, Magic.

Bands

Bruce Springsteen has been a member of, or has been backed by, several bands during his career, most notably The E Street Band.

His earliest known band is The Castiles.

Prior to signing his first record deal in 1972, Springsteen was a member of several bands including Steel Mill. In October 1972 he formed a new band for the recording of his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., which became known as The E Street Band, although the name was not officially introduced until September 1974. The E Street Band performed on all of Springsteen's recorded works from his debut until 1982's Nebraska, a solo album on which Springsteen himself played all the instruments. The full band returned for the next album Born in the USA, but there then followed a period from 1988 to 1999 in which albums were recorded with session musicians. The E Street band were briefly reunited in 1995 for new contributions to the Greatest Hits compilation, and on a more permanent basis from 1999, since which time they have recorded 3 albums together (The Rising, Magic and Working on a Dream) and performed a number of high profile tours.

The 2005 album Devils & Dust was largely a solo recording, with some contribution from session musicians and the 2006 folk rock We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album was recorded and toured with another band, known as The Sessions Band.

Earlier Bands: The Castiles, Earth, Child, Steel Mill, Sundance Blues Band, Dr Zoom and the Sonic Boom, Bruce Springsteen Band.

E Street Band

Current members:

Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, harmonica, piano

Patti Scialfa – backing and duet vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion

Max Weinberg – drums, percussion

Garry Tallent – bass guitar, tuba

Roy Bittan – piano, keyboards

Steven Van Zandt – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals, mandolin

Nils Lofgren – lead and rhythm guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals

With: Soozie Tyrell – violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocals Charles Giordano – organ, accordion, glockenspiel

Former Members:

1973–2011 Clarence Clemons (deceased) – tenor, baritone and soprano saxophones, backing vocals, percussion

1973–2008 Danny Federici (deceased) – organ, accordion, backing vocals

Film

Music used in films

Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, Jerry Maguire, and The Wrestler.

1983 1983 1987 1989 1992 1992 1993 1995 1995 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 1999 2000 2000 2002 2003 2004 2007 2007 2007 2007 2008 2009

Film !! Year of film release !! Song(s) !! Notes
Dead End Street	1982	"Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland"
Risky Business	|	Hungry Heart
Baby, It's You (film)	Baby, It's You	|	"It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain"	Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love.
Light of Day	|	"(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day"	Song written for the film.
In Country	|	"I'm On Fire"	Film also contained many Springsteen references.
Thunderheart	|	"Badlands" (instrumental version)
Honeymoon in Vegas	|	Viva Las Vegas (song)>Viva Las Vegas"	A 1964 song recorded by Elvis Presley.
Philadelphia (film)	Philadelphia	|	"Streets of Philadelphia"	Song written for film. Won an Oscar.
Dead Man Walking (film)	Dead Man Walking	|	"Dead Man Walkin'"	Song written for film. Nominated for a Oscar.
The Crossing Guard	|	"Missing"	Song was later released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen.
Jerry Maguire	|	Secret Garden (Bruce Springsteen song)>Secret Garden"
Cop Land	|	Stolen Car (Bruce Springsteen song)>Stolen Car"	Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable.
The Wedding Singer	|	"Hungry Heart"
A Night at the Roxbury	|	"Secret Garden"
Big Daddy (film)	Big Daddy	|	"Growin' Up"	Played over a montage near the end of the film.
Limbo (film)	Limbo	|	"Lift Me Up"	Another John Sayles film.
High Fidelity (film)	High Fidelity	|	"The River" and Blues Guitar Riff	Blues riff played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. "The River" played from vinyl on turntable.
The Perfect Storm (film)	The Perfect Storm	|	"Hungry Heart"
25th Hour	|	"The Fuse"
Grand Theft Parsons	|	"Blood Brothers"
Jersey Girl	|	"Jersey Girl"	Cover of the Tom Waits version
Reign Over Me	|	"Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street"	The River (album)>The River was also well mentioned in the movie.
In the Land of Women	|	"Iceman"
The Heartbreak Kid (2007 film)	The Heartbreak Kid	|	"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
Lucky You (film)	Lucky You	|	"Lucky Town"
The Wrestler (2008 film)	The Wrestler	|	The Wrestler (song)>The Wrestler"	Written for the film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie".
Food, Inc.	|	"This Land Is Your Land"	Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song.

Films inspired by music

In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".

In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Kevin Smith is an admitted "big fan" of fellow New Jersey native Springsteen and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant said Springsteen's "Thunder Road" to have been a heavy influence on their 2010 film "Cemetery Junction," employing the song's themes of escape and optimism into their story of 1970s England.

In 2011, Springsteen appears in an independent film made by a local musician Chris Vaughn from New Jersey entitled "Jerseyboy Hero" where the songwriter/filmmaker documents his journey to get his music out to the world by attempting to reach one of his two local New Jersey legends, Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi.

Acting

Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.

Discography

Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):

1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)

1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)

1975: Born to Run (#3)

1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)

1980: The River (#1)

1982: Nebraska (#3)

1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)

1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)

1992: Human Touch (#2)

1992: Lucky Town (#3)

1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)

1998: Tracks (#64)

2002: The Rising (#1)

2005: Devils & Dust (#1)

2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (#3)

2007: Magic (#1)

2009: Working on a Dream (#1)

2010: The Promise (#16)

Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards

:Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"

Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"

Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad

Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising

Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"

Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"

Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome

Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"

Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"

Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"

Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"

Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.

Golden Globe Awards

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994. Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler" in 2009.

Academy Awards

Academy Award for Best Original Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.

Emmy Awards

The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.

Other recognition

October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of 'Newsweek' and 'Time'

Polar Music Prize in 1997. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999. Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007. "Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey". The minor planet 23990, discovered Sept. 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor. Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazines 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Ranked #36 on Rolling Stone magazines 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time. Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list. Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.

Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.

Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.

Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Born to Run and Thunder Road in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.

Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009

John Steinbeck Award

Influence

In addition to his noted influence on music in his native New Jersey, Springsteen is also cited as an influence by , Bon Jovi, Arcade Fire, The Gaslight Anthem, The Constantines, The Hold Steady, The National, Kings of Leon, The Killers, U2, Willy DeVille, Johnny Cash',Lady Gaga in his later recordings, and countless others. His songs have been covered by diverse artists such as David Bowie, The Pointer Sisters, John Mayer, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Melissa Etheridge, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Automatic 7, Vampire Weekend, McFly, Tegan and Sara, Damien Jurado, Free Energy, Aimee Mann, Dropkick Murphys, Social Distortion, Rage Against The Machine, Ben Harper, Eric Bachmann, Josh Ritter, Frank Turner, Hank Williams III, Roger_Meddows-Taylor (covered "Racing In The Streets" on Strange Frontier), Madrugada. For Springsteen's influence on academic writers, see "Library of Hope and Dreams":a comprehensive annotated bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English. Note, bibliography is indexed by song, album, author and subject keywords.

See also

List of best selling music artists

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

Notes

References

Sources

Alterman, Eric. It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive : The Promise of Bruce Springsteen. Little Brown, 1999. ISBN 0-316-03885-7.

Coles, Robert. Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing. Random House, 2005. ISBN 0-375-50559-8.

Cross, Charles R. Backstreets: Springsteen – the man and his music Harmony Books, New York 1989/1992. ISBN 0-517-58929-X. Contains 15+ interviews and a complete list of all Springsteen songs including unreleased compositions. Complete lising of all concerts 1965–1990 – most of them with tracklists. Hundreds of previously unreleased high quality color pictures.

Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. 1997; Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. New edition of 1997 study book places Springsteen's work in the broader context of American history and culture. ISBN 0-8195-6761-2

Eliot, Marc with Appel, Mike. Down Thunder Road. Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0-671-86898-5.

Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-151-1.

Guterman, Jimmy. Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.

Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.

Knobler, Peter with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. "Who Is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful Things About Him?", Crawdaddy, March 1973.

Marsh, Dave. Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts : The Definitive Biography, 1972–2003. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-96928-X. (Consolidation of two previous Marsh biographies, Born to Run (1981) and Glory Days (1987).)

Wolff, Daniel. July 4, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land. Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 1-58234-509-0.

Further reading

Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8118-5348-9.

Days of Hope and Dreams: An Intimate Portrait of Bruce Springsteen. Billboard Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8230-8387-X.

Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader. Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0-14-200354-9.

Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-306-81397-1.

The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink Press, 2005. ISBN 1-57859-157-0.

Bruce Springsteen: "Talking". Omnibus Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84449-403-9.

The Songs of Bruce Springsteen : 1965-2010". by Steve Rowland. printondemand.co.uk, 2011.

For You: Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Fans. LKC Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9784156-0-0.

Bruce Springsteen on Tour: 1968–2005. by Dave Marsh Bloomsbury USA, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59691-282-3.

The Gospel according to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption from Asbury Park to Magic. by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz. Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23169-9.

Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen by Rob Kirkpatrick. St. Martin's Griffin, 2009. ISBN 0-312-53380-2.

Land of Hope and Dreams: Celebrating 25 Years of Bruce Springsteen In Ireland by Greg Lewis and Moira Sharkey. Magic Rat Books. ISBN 978-0-9562722-0-1

External links

Bruce Springsteen – official website

Bruce Springsteen at Idiomag 21 12 10

in 2005

Highlights of Springsteen at Glastonbury 2009.

Bruce Springsteen at NPR Music

"Library of Hope and Dreams":bibliography of published Springsteen scholarship in English.

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Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Joan Jett
background	solo_singer
birth name	Joan Marie Larkin
alias	Joan Jett
birth date	September 22, 1958
origin	Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar
genre	Rock, hard rock, punk rock
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
years active	1975–present
label	Blackheart, Epic, Boardwalk, MCA, CBS/Sony, Warner Bros.
associated acts	The Runaways, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
website
notable instruments	Gibson Melody Maker }}

Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin; September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.

She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular recordings including "Crimson and Clover", "I Hate Myself for Loving You", "Do You Want to Touch Me", "Light of Day", "Love Is All Around", "Bad Reputation", and "Little Liar".

Her musical and songwriting approach is heavily influenced by the hard-edged, hard beat-driven rhythms common to many rock bands of her native Philadelphia, often featuring lyrics surrounding themes of lost love, criticisms of insincerity, the quest for authenticity, the struggles and resolutions of the American middle class. She has 3 albums that have been certified Platinum or Gold, and she has been referred to as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" many times during her career. In Venus Zines 2010 "Queen of Rock" feature, Jett won the Readers' Pick in an online poll ahead of Stevie Nicks and Ann Wilson.

Biography

Early life

Joan Jett was born at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She moved to Rockville, Maryland, in 1967 where she attended Randolph Junior High and Wheaton High School. In her teens, Jett would sneak out at night to go to concerts with friends. She got her first guitar for Christmas from her parents at the age of 13, and she mostly spent time after that writing songs. Joan initially took some guitar lessons, but quit soon after when the instructor kept trying to teach her folk songs. She also became involved with a bartender at a club from the town, at which point her family then re-located to West Covina, a suburb of Los Angeles, providing Jett the opportunity to pursue her musical endeavors.

In Los Angeles, Joan interacted with some of her idols, including Suzi Quatro, one of the first female rock musicians who played an instrument on stage. Quatro was vital to Joan's career, and Joan adopted many of Suzi's qualities including her shag haircut and style. Jett would quietly wait in the lobby of various hotels that Suzi was staying in during her US tours, just to catch a glimpse of her. She wore wooden platform shoes with "Suzi Quatro" carved into the side. Her favorite night spot was Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco. Joan was further introduced to the glam-rock style she so adored as this genre was explosive in the UK and Europe, but never quite took off in the US. Rodney's was the only place Jett could hear this style of music, and it certainly helped develop her image.

The Runaways

Jett is a founding member of The Runaways along with drummer Sandy West. Micki Steele (who was later replaced), Jackie Fox, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie completed the line-up. While Currie initially fronted the band, Jett shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote a lot of the band's material along with Ford, West and Currie. The band recorded five LPs, with Live In Japan becoming one of the biggest-selling imports in U.S. and U.K. history. The band toured around the world and some of their opening acts included Cheap Trick, Van Halen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They found success abroad, especially in Japan. In 2010, The Runaways, a movie about Joan Jett's band, was made, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

While The Runaways were popular in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada and South America, they could not garner the same level of success in the U.S. After Currie, the lead singer, left the band, the band released two more albums with Jett handling the lead vocals: Waitin' for the Night and And Now... The Runaways. Altogether they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in spring of 1979 due to musical differences.

Soon after, Jett produced The Germs' first and only album (GI).

Solo

In the spring of 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career. She recorded three songs there with Sex Pistols' Paul Cook and Steve Jones (one of which was an early version of The Arrows' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll").

Later that year, she returned to Los Angeles, where she began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways' to complete a film—loosely based on the band's career—called We're All Crazee Now! Three actresses required to stand in for her departed band members included the iconic cult star Rainbeaux Smith, who was also a rock drummer. While working on the project, Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who was hired by Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film. They became friends and decided to work together and she relocated to Long Beach, New York where Kenny Laguna was based. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting with Jett being ill, but in 1984, after Jett had become a major star, producers looked for a way to make use of the footage from the incomplete film. Bits of the original footage of Jett were used in a completely different project, an underground movie called DuBeat-Eo, never commercially released, produced by Alan Sacks.

Jett and Laguna entered The Who’s Ramport Studios with the latter at the helm. Jett's self-titled solo debut was released in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the US, after the album was rejected by 23 major labels, Jett and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label, which they started with Laguna's daughter's college savings. Laguna remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do, but print up records ourselves", and that's how Blackheart Records started.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

With Laguna's assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts. She placed an ad in the L.A. Weekly "looking for three good men." John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles. He mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, who had recently been crashing on his couch. Ryan was part of the L.A. punk scene and had played bass with local artists Top Jimmy and Rik L. Rik. He had been a fan of the Runaways and Jett for years. Jett recognized him at the audition and he was in. Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel, who was also at the time part of Rik L. Rik. The final addition to the original Blackhearts was drummer Danny "Furious" O'Brien, formerly of the infamous San Francisco band The Avengers. This line-up played several gigs at the Golden Bear and Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood before embarking on their first European tour which consisted of an extensive tour of the Netherlands, and a few key shows in England including the Marquee in London.

Upon returning to the States, Jett, Ryan, and Ambel moved to Long Beach, New York. O'Brien stayed behind in England to pursue other interests. Auditions were set up and Lee Crystal, formerly of The Boyfriends and Sylvain Sylvain, became the new drummer. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts then toured throughout the US and built quite a following in New York. Jett and Laguna soon used their personal savings to press up copies of the Joan Jett album and set up their own system of independent distribution, sometimes selling the albums out of the trunk of Laguna's Cadillac at the end of each concert. Laguna was unable to keep up with demand for her album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, made a joint venture with Laguna and signed Jett to his new label, Boardwalk Records and re-released the Joan Jett album as Bad Reputation. After a year of touring and recording, The Blackhearts recorded a new album entitled I Love Rock 'n Roll for the label. Ambel was replaced by local guitarist Ricky Byrd during the recording.

With Byrd on guitar, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts recorded their hit album. The new single was a re-recording of the title track, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which in the first half of 1982 was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row. It is Billboard’s #56 song of all time.

A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with The Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. Jett was the second American act of any kind to perform behind the Iron Curtain, after Blood, Sweat & Tears in Romania in 1969. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic.

After receiving her own MTV New Year's Eve special, Jett beat out a number of contenders to appear in the movie Light of Day with Michael J. Fox. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Light of Day" especially for the movie, and her performance was critically acclaimed. It was about this time that Ryan and Crystal left the Blackhearts. They were soon replaced by the powerful rhythm section of Thommy Price and Kasim Sulton. Later that year, Jett released Good Music, which featured appearances by The Beach Boys, The Sugarhill Gang and singer Darlene Love.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out. Her next release, Up Your Alley, went multi-platinum and was followed by The Hit List, which was an album consisting of cover songs. During this time, Jett co-wrote the song "House of Fire", which appeared on Alice Cooper's 1989 album Trash.

Her 1991 release Notorious, which featured The Replacements' Paul Westerberg and former Billy Idol bassist Phil Feit, was the last with Sony/CBS as Jett switched to Warner Brothers. A CD single of "Let's Do It" featuring Jett and Westerberg was also released during this time and appeared in the song credits for the movie Tank Girl. In 1993, Jett and Laguna released Flashback, a compilation of various songs on their own Blackheart Records.

Jett produced several bands prior to releasing her debut and her label Blackheart Records released recordings from varied artists such as thrash metal band Metal Church and rapper Big Daddy Kane.

The press touted Jett as the "Godmother of Punk" and the "Original Riot Grrrl." In 1994, the Blackhearts released the well-received Pure and Simple, which featured tracks written with Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland, L7's Donita Sparks and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna.

Later years

Jett returned to producing for the band Circus Lupus in 1992 and again, in 1994, for Bikini Kill. This recording was the New Radio EP for which she also played and sang back-up vocals. The Riot Grrrl movement started in the 1990s, with Bikini Kill as a representative band, and many of these women credited Jett as a role model and inspiration.

In 1997 Joan Jett was featured on the We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute record. She performed a cover of the Johnny O'Keefe song "Wild One" (or "Real Wild Child").

Near the end of the 1990s she worked with members of the punk band The Gits, whose lead singer and lyricist, Mia Zapata, had been raped and murdered in 1993. The results of their collaboration together was a live LP, Evil Stig and a single, "Bob", whose earnings were contributed to the investigation of Zapata's murder. To this end, the band and Jett appeared on the TV show America's Most Wanted, appealing to the public for information. The case was solved in 2004, when Zapata's murderer, Jesus Mezquia, was brought to trial and convicted.

Jett performed "I Love Rock 'n Roll" with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 19, 2005.

Jett is a guest artist on Marky Ramone's solo album Start of the Century on the track "Don't Blame Me".

She is a guest vocalist on Peaches' album Impeach My Bush on the tracks "Boys Want to Be Her" and "You Love It".

At an October, 2001 9/11 benefit in Red Bank, New Jersey, Jett and Springsteen appeared together on stage for the first time and played "Light Of Day". Jett, overcome with emotion, declared it one of the greatest moments in her career.

In 2004, Jett and Laguna produced "No Apologies" by Warped Tour favorite The Eyeliners, after signing them. Jett also guested on the track "Destroy" and made a cameo appearance in the music video.

In 2005, Jett discovered Cleveland punk rockers The Vacancies. She and Laguna signed the band and produced their second album, A Beat Missing or a Silence Added (reaching the top 20 in CMJ Music Charts) and their third album in 2007, Tantrum.

In 2005, she was recruited by Steven Van Zandt to host her own radio show on Van Zandt's Underground Garage radio channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. She hosted a four-hour show titled Joan Jett's Radio Revolution, broadcast every Saturday and Sunday. The program moved from Sirius 25 to Sirius 28 shortly before being canceled in June 2008.

In 2005, Jett and Laguna celebrated the 25th anniversary of Blackheart Records with a sellout show at Manhattan's Webster Hall, which featured their groups The Eyeliners and The Vacancies as openers to the headlining act, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

In June 2006, Joan Jett released her album, Sinner, on her own label, Blackheart Records. To support the album, the band appeared on the 2006 Warped Tour and on a fall 2006 tour with Eagles of Death Metal. Various other bands like Antigone Rising, Valient Thorr, The Vacancies, Throw Rag and Riverboat Gamblers were to have joined the tour for a handful of dates each.

Jett sang a duet with Chase Noles on "Tearstained Letters", a song on the Heart Attacks' 2006 album, Hellbound and Heartless.

A Joan Jett video with Paul, Paul Jr. and Mikey Teutul of the Learning Channel show American Chopper aired on January 14, 2007. The making of that video was presented in a segment of the show that aired on The Learning Channel on February 22, 2007. In late June, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performed at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, following a Florida Marlins baseball game.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts headlined the Albuquerque, New Mexico Freedom Fourth celebration on July 4, 2007, with an estimated crowd of 65,000 in attendance at the annual outdoor event.

In November 2007, Jett and the Blackhearts appeared with Motörhead and Alice Cooper in a UK arena tour, that leg constituting a "reconciliation" of sorts with Jett's former personal manager, Toby Mamis, now the co-manager of Alice Cooper, and Jett opened eight American shows on Aerosmith's 2007 World Tour.

Following The Dave Clark Five's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on March 10, 2008, Jett, as part of the ceremony, closed the program with a performance of the DC5's 1964 hit "Bits and Pieces." She was introduced by actor Tom Hanks, who said, "Ladies and gentlemen — at one time, if I had been lucky, one of the most beautiful 'Mrs. Tom Hanks' you can imagine, but I'm not complainin' — Joan Jett!"

Jett and the Blackhearts appeared on several dates of the True Colors Tour 2008. in the summer of 2008. She opened for Def Leppard in August.

On April 24, 2010, it was announced on Green Day's official website that Jett would be supporting them on their summer European tour.

In June 2010, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts opened for Green Day on their UK tour alongside acts such as Frank Turner and Paramore.

The group was the opening act for Aerosmith's September 2010 Canadian tour.

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts were part of the lineup for Australia's The Falls Music & Arts Festival, December 29 through January 1, 2010, in Australia.

Current projects

Jett was an executive producer for the film The Runaways, which chronicled the Runaways' career. Floria Sigismondi, who directed videos for Marilyn Manson, the White Stripes and David Bowie, wrote and directed. Production of the movie began filming around Twilight's Kristen Stewart's filming schedule, (i.e. of the sequels New Moon and Eclipse). Stewart played Joan Jett in the film. In order to prepare for the role, Stewart met Jett around the 08/09 New Year. In an interview, Stewart revealed that she hoped to be able to sing some of the songs in the film. The film explores the friendship between Jett and Runaways' lead singer, Cherie Currie, played by Dakota Fanning, and premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24, 2010. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts appeared at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, at Harry-O's, for The Runaways promotion, which was also attended by Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

March 2010 saw the release of a 2-CD Greatest Hits album with 4 newly re-recorded songs, 3 of which are Runaways hits, and one a track from her I Love Rock 'N' Roll album. March 2010 also saw the release of a hardcover biography and picture book, spanning her career from the Runaways to the present day. She also toured in Lewiston, Idaho's "Rockin on the River" music festival held in Clarkston, Washington.

Other work

Jett, a sports fan, has remained actively involved in the sports world. Her cover of "Love is All Around" (the theme song of The Mary Tyler Moore Show) became an anthem in women's sports and was used by the NCAA to promote the Women's Final Four, as well as the song "Unfinished Business" which was never commercially released. "Love Is All Around" went into radio play and became the number one requested song without an existing (support) CD. Jett supplied theme songs for the ESPN X-Games premiere and has contributed music to all their games since. At Cal Ripken Jr.'s request, she sang the national anthem, at the Baltimore Orioles game in which he tied Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. The melody for her song "I Hate Myself For Loving You" is used as the theme music for NBC Sunday Night Football with re-worked lyrics and retitled "Waiting All Day For Sunday Night". Jett has also been a consistent supporter of the US Armed Forces, has toured for the USO for over 20 years, and even played West Point. On May 15, 2006, Jett visited the Pentagon, and many photographs were taken with personnel.

Satire

In 1983, musical satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" entitled "I Love Rocky Road", changing the singer's passion for rock music with that for ice cream. Yankovic's parody covered Jett's version completely, save for her guitar riffs which were replaced by Yankovic's accordion.

The comic strip Bloom County included a character named Tess Turbo. Her band was The Blackheads.

Film, stage and television appearances

Jett's first appearance on film is in the 1981 live concert film Urgh! A Music War, performing "Bad Reputation" with the Blackhearts at The Ritz in New York City. She made her acting debut in 1987, co-starring with Gena Rowlands and Michael J. Fox in the Paul Schrader film Light of Day. She appeared in independent films, including The Sweet Life and Boogie Boy.

During the 1990s, she appeared on the sitcom Ellen, performing the title song. In 1992, she was the guest star on an episode of TV's Highlander: The Series, the first musician to guest star in the series.

The 1999 show Freaks and Geeks used the song "Bad Reputation" as the opening theme.

In 2000, Jett appeared in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show in the role of Columbia. That same year, Jett appeared on Walker, Texas Ranger as an ex-CIA agent turned assassin hired to kill Walker and Alex.

In 2002, Jett appeared in the film By Hook or by Crook in the role of News Interviewee.

From 2000 to 2003, to support work by first time filmmakers and the indie film business, Jett hosted a showcase of new film and video shorts, Independent Eye, for Maryland Public Television.

In 2008, Jett made a cameo appearance in Darren Lynn Bousman's rock opera/file Repo! The Genetic Opera as the guitarist in Shilo's room during the piece "Seventeen". In February 2008, she made a cameo appearance in Jimmy Kimmel's popular video skit, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck".

On July 13, 2008, she appeared in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Reunion" as a rock and roll talk show host who is murdered.

On March 9, 2010, she appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Accompanied by the Blackhearts, she performed "Cherry Bomb".

On March 24, 2010, she appeared as a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. Accompanied by the Blackhearts, she performed "Bad Reputation".

On April 14, 2011, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show with Miley Cyrus, performing a medley of Joan's biggest hits: "Bad Reputation", "Cherry Bomb" and "I Hate Myself".

Politics

Jett supported Howard Dean in the 2004 election because of his position on the War in Iraq. She has also been a vegetarian for over 20 years.

Accolades and awards

Jett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in October 2006. In 2003, Jett was named in the Rolling Stone greatest 100 guitarists of all time at number 87. She was one of only two women in this list, the other being Joni Mitchell at number 72. Jett is listed as one of Blender's "hottest women of rock" 21 years after she started The Runaways". Joan Jett is honored by Gibson with a signature model of her Melody Maker, which is a white double cutaway with one zebra humbucker and "kill" toggle switch. Jett bought her guitar from Eric Carmen, following the breakup of the Raspberries.

Discography

Studio albums as Joan Jett

Joan Jett (1980)

Bad Reputation (1981)

Studio albums (With the Blackhearts)

I Love Rock 'n' Roll (1981)

Album (1983)

Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984)

Good Music (1986)

Up Your Alley (1988)

Notorious (1991)

Pure and Simple (1994)

Sinner (2006)

Cover albums

The Hit List (1990)

Collaboration albums

Evil Stig (with The Gits) (1995)

Fan club albums

1979 (1995)

Japan-only release

Naked (2004)

References

External links

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Bad Reputation Nation

Blackheart Records

;Interviews

Interview: Joan Jett on Sinner

Joan Jett Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Joan Jett interview from PETA2

Joan Jett interview with SPIN

Joan Jett interview with The Beachcomber

Crimson and Clover – Joan Jett interview BEAT

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American mezzo-sopranos Category:American punk rock singers Category:American vegans Category:Female punk rock singers Category:Feminist musicians Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Rhythm guitarists Category:The Runaways members Category:Third-wave feminism Category:Blackheart Records artists

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