Compose Yourself! LbNA #56932

These were planted on the Crilly Trail at Armitage Park off Coburg Rd., going way past Shopko, the park is on the left.
There are so many accomplished, notable and talented composers that it was very hard to chose who to pick for this series. I plan on adding more at some point, but I urge anyone who wants to, to PLEASE feel free to add your own favorite composers to this series! There's lots of cool spots to plant & already some other boxes there to hunt for, including our "Oregon Bach Festival 2011: In Praise of Women". I have tried something new: to add videos of my favorite works by each, on the clues page. (Sorry about how the clues print out. Still a neat way to publish them, we think!).
I put the clues first (so you can get on with the hunt)along with the music videos for your enjoyment, and I placed the biographies at the bottom so you can read them at your leisure.
WARNING: We have been advised there are Stinging Nettles in the area. So sorry!! There were NONE there when we planted. Nettles only sting for a few weeks of the year, so plan accordingly and hunt for these boxes when the plants are benign (a larger part of the year). Purple hearts all around!

Box #1 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH:(The clues have been revised as the tree near Bach has fallen) Start at the Crilly Trail kiosk near the boat ramp. Walk down the trail and at the intersection go right, down, up (see the marker #One) & down. At the bottom of the stairs, take 5 steps. On the left is a small thicket. Reach into the slight opening & kinda leftish, behind low mossy branches, under a couple rocks, is Johann. Please rehide well, & check from all angles!
***My favorite piece by Bach is the beautiful "Air on The G String (Suite #3)"

Box #2 JOHANNES BRAHMS: Continue on trail. Climb up, then it flattens out. Walk between two trees. Look straight ahead. Walk between two more trees. Do not veer left. Follow the trail as it turns left at a large tree & goes down. Up a slight mound."#Two". Keep going. (I think I can hear beautiful music now!). Round a corner, see a house. Right away, see the small group of trees to your left? Look on the East side of the largest one, around, under debris. (Please rehide well).
***Johannes Brahms's best known compositions are, of course his "Lullaby" and his "Hungarian Dance #5", my favorite.

Box #3 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Continue on the trail. At the intersection, do not go toward the "pavement", do not go toward the muggle's "den" and do not take the hairpin left. Keep going! "#Three", down & up. "#Four". Behind "#Four", is a stump (really ferny). About five feet from the post, under the ferns & some "stuff" is Ludwig.
***My favorite Beethoven composition is the well known "Moonlight Sonata".

Box #4 JAKOB LUDWIG FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: Walking down the trail, see a huge cut log on the right. At the "T", go left. "#Seven". "#Nine" (What happened to "#Eight"?). "#Ten". Keep following the trail... standing under the bridge now. Stay on the path as it veers to the left. Do not go straight. Walk up trail. Look behind the first tree on the right, under moss, bark & rocks. Now, you know your way back. (If not, just back track).
***One of Felix's most recognizable pieces is "The Wedding March", which is one of the most heard & used to this day! However, my favorite is the rousing "Fingal's Cave".

***Happy hunting! Brief biographies to follow below:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH March 21st, 1685- July 28th, 1750
Johann (the first of the composers known as "The Three Bs") was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach in Germany, to Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt. Both his parents died within months of each other, when Johann was only 9 years old. He went to live with his older brother Johann Christoph.
Early on Johann Sebastian was heralded for his fine soprano voice and performed in many choirs. Thus at 14, he was awarded a scholarship to a choral at St. Michael's school in Luneberg, Germany. He and a friend, Georg Erdmann traveled there, mostly by foot and coach. There he also played various instuments including organ, piano and harpsichord.
Later, he composed, mostly in the Baroque style, but he was such a perfectionist that he destroyed many of his own works.

JOHANNES BRAHMS May 7, 1833-April 3, 1897
Johannes, a "Romantic" composer, was born in Hamburg, Germany to Johann Jakob Brahms and Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen. His father was the "town musician" and his mother was a seamstress.
Having been born into poverty, Johannes worked at a very young age to help add to the family's income. He played piano wherever he could find work, including dance halls and brothels. A sometimes disputed rumor was that he was sexually abused by prostitutes while he played piano and developed an unhealthy view of women because of it. However, it was also rumored that he much later had an "affair" with Clara Schumann, the widow of his mentor, the great composer Robert Schumann.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN December 17, 1770-March 26, 1827
Ludwig (the third, in these clues, of "The Three Bs") was born in Bonn, part of the "Holy Roman Empire of The German Nation" (later called Germany) and named after his grandfather, Lodewijk which is Dutch for Ludwig. His parents were Johann van Beethoven and Maria Magdalena Keverich. Only 3 of the seven Beethoven children lived past infancy, including Ludwig.
Ludwig was a mere 7 years old when he first performed in public, but his father lied saying he was only six, making him seem like even more of a child prodigy. He hoped that Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang's father, would take Ludwig into his tutelage.
Ludwig went to Vienna to study with Wolfgang Mozart, but received word of his mother's illness and returned to Bonn without even having met him.
Many of his first compositions were clouded in uncertainty as to dates and even titles because accurate documentation was often lacking.
What was well documented was his having gone almost totally deaf by 1814. Even so, he continued to compose & conduct, but by then he rarely performed in public.

JAKOB LUDWIG FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY Feb. 3, 1809- Nov. 4, 1847
Was born Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg, Germany to Abraham Mendelssohn and Lea Salomon, the sister of Jakob Salomon who took the name "Bartholdy" from property he acquired and who suggested that the Mendelssohns take the name as well, for religious reasons denouncing their Jewish heritage. In 1816 Felix also took the names Jakob & Ludwig for similar reasons.
Compared to the other composers in this series, Mendelssohn's family life & childhood were blessed with wealth, prestige and fixed in intellectual circles, as well as music. Sarah Rothenburg once said of the Mendelssohns that "Europe came to their livingroom.".
Felix studied mostly Baroque & early Classical music, but his compositions were varied. Like the other composers here, he was also considered a child prodigy. He wrote one of his most famous pieces, the Overture to Shakepeare's "A MidSummer Night's Dream" at 17 years old.
Mendelssohn's career was, in large part, cemented in Britain after making at least 10 trips there.