1. Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century
Books and Pocket Books, 2005. In this book, 50
Cent recounts his journey from drug dealer to
rap artist.
See also: Blige, Mary j.; D. tvl. C.; Dr. Drei
Eminem; Jay-Z; Simmons, Joseph "Run";
Snoop Dogg.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
German classical and opera singer
Fischer-Dieskau is a consummate interpreter of
clnssicttl song, opera, and orntorio, and his record-
ings spread his fame worldwide. He is noted for his
uirtuosic interpretations of lieder and of Franz
S chub ert' s a o cal w orks.
Born: May 28,1925; Berlin, Cermany
Principalworks
opERArrc RoLES: Marquis of Posa in Giuseppe
Verdi's Don Carlos,7948;Wolfram in Richard
Wagner's T annhiius er, 79 49 ; J ohn the Bap tist in
Richard Strauss's Salome,1952; Don Giovanni
in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giouannt,
1953; Busoni in Charles Gounod's Faust,1955;
Amfortas in Wagner's Parsfal,1955; Count
Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro,1956;
Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, 957 )
Falstaff in Verdi's Henry V,1959; Mathis in
Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler,1959;
Wozzeck in Alban Berg's Wozzeck,7960;
Yevgeny Onyegin in Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's
Eugene Onegin,1967;Barak in Strauss's Dle
Frau ohne Schatten,1963; Macbeth in Verdi's
Macbeth,1963;Don Alfonso in Mozart's Cosi fan
tutte,7972; King Lear in Aribert Reimann's
Lear,1978.
Principal recordings
ALBUM s : S chub er t : D ie W int er r eis e, 79 52; The Magic
Flute-Die Zauberfldte, 1956; Arsbella, 7957 ;
Capriccio, 7958; Wagner : D ie F liegende Holliinder,
7960; Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem,196I;
S chub er t : D ie S chdn e MiiII er in, 79 67 ; Lohen gr i n :
Romantic OpEra in Three Acts,1962; Britten: War
Requiem, 1963; Don Carlos, 1965; Tosca
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich
Highlight s, 19 67 ; EI ekt r a, 79 67 ; W o zzeck, 19 62;
Doktor Faust,1969; Handel: Giulio Cesare in
E git t o, 19 69 ; S aI ome, 197 7 ; P al es tr ina, 197 2; Il
Matrimonio Segreto, 7975; Bdatrice et B€ntdict
Opdra-comique en Due Actes,7982; Hiinsel und
Gr et el, 1985 ; Iessonda, 1991.
The Life
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (DEE-trihk FEE-shur
DEE-skow) was born into a middle-class family in
Berlin. His parents, both educators, shared with
their son a love of literature and music. Fischer-
Dieskau's paternal ancestors were mostly Protestant
clergymen, and one of his maternal ancestors is me-
morialized in a Berlin monument depicting Freder-
ick the Great and Ceneral Baron von Dieskau, an
artillery expert and inventor of a light cannon de-
picted on the monument, known as Dieskaus.
Fischer-Dieskau began to sing at an early age,
starting formal voice instruction at age sixteen.
Upon completion of high school in1943, he made
his first solo appearances in Berlin. Later that year,
he was drafted into the German army, and in 1945
he was captured by Allied forces and sent to a
prisoner-of-war camp in Italy. Alhile in prison, he
presented informal lieder concerts to his fellow
German prisoners.
After World War II ended, he returned to Berlin
to resume his vocal studies and to begin his singing
career. His artistic reputation grew, and he was in
great demand in the United States and England.
Fischer-Dieskau is one of the few singers who ex-
cels at concert performance and at opera singing.
He is also a prolific recording artist, who has pro-
duced an enormous repertoire of works, ranging
from obscure Renaissance pieces to operatic roles to
contemporary songs. Throughout his career, he has
collaborated with an impressive list of accompa-
nists, conductors, and orchestras.
The Music
Fischer-Dieskau's remarkable professional suc-
cess may be attributed to his debut at an early age,
the reconstruction and subsequent economic boom
of West Germany following World War II, and the
advent and worldwide distribution of the long-
play recording.
Lieder. Fischer-Dieskau began to collaborate
with the English pianist Gerald Moore in 1951. For
443

2. Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. (AP/VVide World Photos)
the next two decades, the pair made numerous re-
cital appearances in Europe, lapan, and North
America. By 1970 Fischer-Dieskau had recorded
with Moore every Franz Schubert song appropriate
for male voice, along with most of the songs of Rob-
ert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes
Brahms, Hugo Wolf , Frantz Liszt, Felix Mendels-
sohn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These re-
cordings in the new long-playing format were sold
all over the world, and they introduced the genre of
lieder to generations of music lovers and musicians.
So impressive were his renditions that Fischer-
Dieskau became internationally known as a fore-
most interpreter of lieder.
His 1952 recording of Schubert's Die Winterreise
(1827), with Moore at the piano, continues to be the
standard against which all other versions are
judged. It rates highly with the recording of Schu-
bert'sDie Schtjne Milllerin (1824) as one of the finest
recordings of the genre. "Der Neugierige" (The Cu-
rious Boy), song number six fuom Die Schdne
Milllerin, provides a splendid example of the tre-
444
Musicians nnd Composers of the 20th Century
mendous range in pitch, dynamics, and tone color
Fischer-Dieskau gave this repertoire. His interpre-
tive approach was to start with the poem and ana-
lyze Schubert's setting, phrase by phrase, word by
word, and note by note.
Oratorio. Fischer-Dieskau's long career as an
oratorio soloist began with Ein deutsches Requiem
(1868) of Brahms. His first performance of this
work, which was also his professional debut at the
age of twenty-one, was as a last-minute substitute
for an ailing colleague in 1947. He performed the
work dozens of times throughout his career, and he
recorded it several times, under such conductors as
Rudolf Kempe and Herbert von Karajan. However,
the most popular of those recordings continues to
be the one from 1961, which includes Elisabeth
Schwartzkopf, soprano, and the New Philhar-
monia Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Otto
Klemperer.
Ein deutsches Requiemis arnasterful expression of
the gift of life triumphing over death. In the two
solo sections forbaritone, Fischer-Dieskau is able to
use a variety of vocal color and shading to express
the contrite spirit of the third movement. Then, in
the sixth-movement solo, his voluminous power
creates a contrasting prophetic sense, giving the lis-
tener a tremendous emotional impact. A work that
has occupied him for his entire career , Ein deutsches
Requiem was the singer's choice to end his career as
an oratorio soloist, inal992performance in Tokyo,
Japan.
The British composer Benjamin Britten re-
quested that Fischer-Dieskau sing the premiere
performance of Wsr Requiem (7962), given in
Coventry, England, in1962. This premiere was part
of a series of consecration ceremonies for the rebuilt
Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed in
a German air raid in 1940. Fischer-Dieskau contin-
ued to sing performances of the War Requiem
throughout his career as an oratorio soloist. Soon af-
ter the premiere, he recorded itwith soprano Calina
Vishnievskay, tenor Peter Pears, the Melos Ensem-
b1e of London, and the London Symphony Orches-
tra, with the composer conducting. As is often the
case with Fischer-Dieskau's recordings, this effort
remains unparalleled in intensity and expression.
The oratorio is an attempt at international rec-
onciliation, with soloists c-oming from Germany
(Fischer-Dieskau), the Soviet Union (Vishnievskay),

3. Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century
and England (Pears), all memorializing the great
loss of life in World War I and World War II. Al-
though Fischer-Dieskau was not a pacifist (as was
Britten), he was not attracted to the social and polit-
ical goals of the Third Reich, and he resisted his
conscription into the German army. Tall and lanky,
ill-suited for a combat role, he finally joined as re-
quired, and he was quickly captured by Allied
forces.
Fischer-Dieskau's war experience certainly col-
ored his singing of this piece, although a morl per-
sonal experience is at the heart of his relationship
with the Wnr Requiem. One of the main baritone so-
Ios draws its text from Wilfred Owen's sonnet On
Seeing a Piece of Our Artillery Brought into Action.The
segment is set in a highly dramatic musical style, in-
cluding a fusillade of kettle drums announcing the
deployment of the artillery. For Fischer-Dieskau,
who grew up in Berlin, admiring the monument
that included his ancestor, this combination of
words and music must have been shatterins. As re-
ported by M ichael Steinberg in his bookChiral Mqs-
terworks, tenor Pears recalled that he "could hardly
get his colleague (Fischer-Dieskau) to stand and
Ieave the choir stalls at the end of the Covenrrv per-
formance."
Fischer-Dieskau's ability to take the universality
of the war experience, to add his own personal ex-
perience, and to sing in English (for him a foreign
language) is indicative of the singer's singular
power of artistic achievement.
Opera. Fischer-Dieskau's legacy includes more
than one hundred operatic roles, spanning the en-
tire history of the genre. His voice, possibly best
classified as a lyric bass-baritone, is not well suited
for the majority of dramatic baritone or bass roles.
However, his overall musicianship did ensure him
great success in some roles, notably those created
byMozart, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner.
Favoring the smaller opera houses of his native
Germany, Fischer-Dieskau seldom performed op-
eras outside of Europe, and he never appeared at
the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He did fre-
quently appear at the major opera houses of Eu-
rope, such as the Vienna State Opera, the Munich
Opera, and London's Covent Garden, as well as in
theDeutsche Oper Beilin,and atmany important fes-
tivals, such as the ones at Beyreuth and at Salzburg.
These smaller houses allowed Fischer-Dieskau to
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich
use his voice in the way he was accustomed, with a
wide palette of colors, dynamics, and inflections.
Among the roles that Fischer-Dieskau sang on
stage and in the recording studio were a number of
title roles: Mozart's Don Giovanni, Verdi's Falstaff,
Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Handel's Giulio Cesare,
and Wagner's Flying Dutchman. The breadth of his
repertoire spans the history of opera.
About half of the opera roles in Fischer-Dieskau's
repertoire were never performed on stage but were
recorded only. An examination of his discography
makes it clear that Fischer-Dieskau made a consis-
tent effort to support contemporary composers, pre-
miering new works such as Heinz Werner Henze's
Elegie fi)r junge Liebende (196), Gottfried von
Einem's Dnnton'sTod (1943), and Aribert Reimann's
Lear (7978), which was composed for him.
Musical Legacy
For his pursuit of artistic excellence, Fischer-
Dieskau has been awarded honorary degrees from
the universities of Oxford, Yale, Heidelberg, and
the Sorbonne. He has won multiple Grammy
Awards and the Deutsche Schallplatten Preis (the
German Recording Ptize). He has won the Grand
Prix du Disque almost every year between 1955 and
the end of his career. He is a member of the Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Royal
Academy of Music in London, of the Accademia
Santa Cecilia in Rome, and of other interna-
tional music organizations. In 2000 Deutsche
Grammaphon issued a commemorative box set of
twenty-one compact discs devoted to the entirety
of Fischer-Dieskau's singing career. With a discog-
raphy of more than one thousand recordings, cov-
ering the works of more than two hundred compos-
ers, Fischer-Dieskau has created an impressive
permanent legacy of performances.
Richard Allen Roe
Further Reading
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. Reaerberations: The Mem-
oirs of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskaa. Translated by
Ruth Hein. Portland, Oreg.: Froom, 1990. This
personal account of the events of Fischer-
Dieskau's life and distinguished career contains
many anecdotes. Well written, it is for the gen-
eral audience and cultivated musicians alike.
Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study.
445

4. Fitzgerald, Ella
Translated by Kenneth S. Whitton. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1,978. As in-depth study of
Schubert, using the composer's songs as the pri-
mary source for assertions on Schubert's per-
sonal life and outlook. Written more for culti-
vated musicians than for general readers, it is
rich in detail and presents Fischer-Dieskau's
subjective experience of preparation and perfor-
mance of Schubert's music.
Ivry, Benjamin. "A Voice of the Century Past." New
England Reaiew 27, no. 1 (2006). An excellent, if
not enthusiastic, appraisal of Fischer-Dieskau's
singing career.
Moore, Gerald. "Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau." In Am I
Too Loud? London: Hammish Hamilton, 1961. A
testimonial to the relationship between singer
and accompanist. Moore, with whom Fischer-
Dieskau made the complete Schubert lieder for
male voice recordings, presents a singular in-
sight into the artist.
Neunzig, Ha ns A. D ietr ich F is ch er -D ieskau : A B io gr a-
phy. Translated and annotated by Kenneth S.
Whitton. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus Press, 1998.
A thorough biography of Fischer-Dieskau, with
rare photographs and examples of the singer's
painting and other artwork.
Steinberg, Michael. "Benjamin Britten: War Re'
quiem." In Chornl Masterworks: A Listener's Guide.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. This
chapter on Britten's oratorio contains accounts of
Fischer-Dieskau's contribution to the premiere.
See also: Barenboim, Daniel; Britten, Benjamin;
Karajan, Herbert von; Klemperer, Otto; Stern,
Isaac.
Ella Fitzgerald
American jazz singer
Fitzgerald began her career ns a jazz singer but be-
came known aII oaer the world by her first nnme
olone as a popular singer. Hu greatest nmbition
and realized achieuement was to entertain audi-
ences by singing songs as she felt them.
Born: April 25,7917; Newport News, Virginia
Died: june 75,1996; Beverly Hills, California
446
Musiciqns and Composers of the 20th Century
Also known as; Ella Jane Fitzgerald (full name);
First Lady of Song
Principal recordings
ALBUMS: Lullabies of Birdlnnd, 7945; Miss Ella
Fitzgernld and Mr. Nelson Riddle Inaite You to
Listen and Relax,1949; Ella, Lena, and BiIIie,1950
(with Lena Horne and Billie Holiday); EIla
Sings Gershwin, 1950 ; Souaenir Album, L950;
Sweet and H0t,1953; Songs in a Mellow Mood,
7954; Pete Kelly's Blues,7955 (with Peggy Lee);
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book,
1956; Ellq Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart
Song Book,1956; ElIa and Louis,1956 (with Louis
Armstrong) ; Ella snd Louis Again,1957 (with
Armstrong); Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke
Ellington Song Book,7957; Like Someone in Loae,
1957; One O'CIock lump,1957 (with ]oe
Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra); Porgy
and Bess,7957 (with Armstrong); Ella Fitzgerald
Sings the Iraing Berlin Song Book,7958; EIIa
Swings Lightly,7958; EUa Fitzgerald Sings Sweet
Songs for Swingers,1959; EIIa Fitzguald Sings the
George and Ira Gershwin Song Book,1959; Get
Happy!, 959; Hello Loae, L959; Elln Fitzgerald
Sings Songs from "Let No Man Write My
Epitaph," 1960; Ella Fitzgernld Sings the Harold
Arlen Song Book, VoI. 1, 7960; Ella Fitzgerald
Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book, V0L 2,1960;
EIIa Fitzgerald Wishes You a Swinging Christmas,
7960; Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!,1967; Ella
Swings Brightly with Nelson,1961 (with Nelson
Riddle); Ella Swings Gently withNelson,7962
(with Riddle); Rhythm ls My Business,1962; ElIa
and Basie!,1963 (with Count Basie's New
Testament Band); ElIa Fitzgerald Sings the lerome
Kern Song Book,7963; These Are the Blues,1963;
ElIa Fitzgerald Sings the lohnny Mercer Song Book,
1.964; Hello, DoIIy!,1964; Ella at Duke's Place,
1965 (with the Duke Ellington Orchestra);
Wisper N0t,L966 (with Marty Paich and his
Orchestra); Brighten the Corner,7967; Ella
F it zg er al d' s Chr istm ss, 79 67 ; Misty BIue, 9 68 ;
Things Ain't Whnt They Used to Be (And You
Better Belieae lt),7970; ElIa Loaes Cole,1972; Take
Loae Easy,1973 (with Joe Pass); Fine snd Mellow,
1974; ElIa and Oscar,1975 (with Oscar
Peterson); Fitzgerald and Pass . . . Again,1976
(with Pass); Dream Dancing,7978; Lady Time,