Year 1703 (MDCCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar. In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Thursday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.
Carl Heinrich Graun (7 May 1704 – 8 August 1759) was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.
Graun was born in Wahrenbrück in Brandenburg. In 1714, he followed his brother, Johann Gottlieb Graun, to the school of the Church of the Cross, Dresden, and sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the chorus of the Dresden Opera. He studied singing with Christian Petzold and composition with Johann Christoph Schmidt. In 1724, Graun moved to Braunschweig, singing at the opera house and writing six operas for the company. In 1735, Graun moved to Rheinsberg in Brandenburg, after he had written the opera Lo specchio della fedeltà for the marriage of the then crown prince Frederick (the Great) and Elisabeth Christine in Schloss Salzdahlum in 1733. He was Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Graun's death nineteen years later in Berlin.
Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera (Königliche Hofoper) in 1742. Montezuma (1755) was written to a libretto by King Frederick. His pieces are rarely played today, though his passion cantata Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755) was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. His other works include concertos and trio sonatas.
Hermann Max (born Goslar 1941) is a German choral conductor.
In 1977 he founded the Jugendkantorei Dormagen, which in 1985 became the basis of the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert. In 1992 he founded the Knechtsteden Early Music Festival.
The Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert under Max have a discography of over 100 recordings focussing on the German choral repertory, particularly the Bach family: J. S. Bach, W. F. Bach, W. F. E. Bach, J. C. F. Bach, J. C. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, the distantly related J. L. Bach, and the last of the composing Bachs J. M. Bach the Younger, as well as Telemann, Graupner, Hummel, Naumann, Andreas Romberg, Johann Heinrich Rolle and others.
Gaspard Corrette (c. 1670 – before 1733) was a French composer and organist.
He was born around 1671, probably in Rouen where he was organist for the church of St-Herbland. In approximately 1720 he moved to Paris. The exact date of his death is not known. His son, Michel Corrette, also was a musician, composer, violinist, harpsichordist and organist.
The only surviving work by Corrette is an organ mass in the eighth Church Mode, published in 1703. The mass consists of 24 pieces, all in G major, except for the Elevation which is in D minor.
Messe du 8e Ton pour l’Orgue à l’Usage des Dames Religieuses, et utile à ceux qui touchent l’orgue.
The composition is the last mass written in the great French tradition established in the 16th century and seen in works of François Couperin and Nicolas de Grigny, among others.
Lorado Zadoc Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.
After being homeschooled by his parents, Taft earned his bachelor's degree (1879) and master's degree (1880) from the University of Illinois where his father was a professor of geology. The same year he left for Paris to study sculpture, he continued to maintain his connections with the university in Urbana and his sculpture of Alma Mater at Urbana has come to symbolize something significant.
In Paris, Taft attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he studied with Augustin Dumont, Jean-Marie Bonnassieux and Jules Thomas. His record there was outstanding; he was cited as "top man" in his studio and twice exhibited at the Salon. Upon returning to the United States in 1886 he settled in Chicago. He taught at the Art Institute of Chicago, a post he was to remain at until 1929. In addition to work in clay and plaster, Taft taught his students marble carving, and had them work on group projects. He also lectured at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois.